1972 Toyota Celica ST with MX5 motor

Not much of an update, really. I've been cleaning out my garage and organizing stuff as I find it distracting working in a messy garage. I've also had to do some stuff around the house, fixing this and that and preparing for the (soon to be) new missus moving in. Life happens, yeh?

I did order some wheels and tyres. I'll use them on my Miata for a while and see how they do on the Celica. The wheels are Konig ReTrack in 15x7.5 and the tyres are Hankook Ventus R-S3 in 225/45ZR15. Here's a pic of the wheels:



I think they'll look pretty good on the Celica. The wheels are the maximum width (7.5") allowed for the autocross street tyre class I race in (STS) and the Hankook tyres are supposed to be the hot ticket for the street tyre class.

Update! Dang, they arrived already and look even better than the photos!

-Steve

Finally I girded my loins after a few weeks of using everything as an excuse to avoid making the first cut. It's cut now so it'll be easier to get after it without worrying ...

Here's some more parts arrived. A glass chin spoiler and glass bumpers. My stinking glass fender flares are not here yet!


First job was to get the car set at build ride height and level front to back and side to side. Build ride height is 5" at the front and about 7.5" at the rear from the ground to the underside of the frame rails. This levels the sills/rocker panels.


Looks ok, but doesn't sound particularly radical (it's not) but I will be able to lower it more later using coil overs and if I set the car too low during build I might not be able to dial in enough camber without scraping. When I did that and set the cross member under the car the front just sat on the cross member.


So I marked out for cuts to get the body over the cross member and sitting at ride height and then cut them out. Here's the weapons of choice.


And the damage.


If you look to the rear of the cross member you'll see the rear lower control arm mount right below the bloody frame horn under the floor pan. The cross member has to come up 4.5" at the front for correct geometry and the control arm pivot will be embedded in the frame rail. Obviously that has to come out as well.


I stopped the cut forward of the transmission cross member mounting point, which you can see on the other side, because I want to use that later.


This pic is pretty important:


It shows, to me at least, that the new frame rail will align, approximately, with the water drain hole in the floor and miss the clutch pedal! Result! The new frame rail will be inside the car rather than outside and incorporate the transmission cross member and the rear mounting for the front cross member.

I have an idea to use a local engineering company to bend up some square 2" steel thick wall tube with the outside of the bends to match the curve of the floor so when I get it ready I'll make up a cardboard pattern and pay them a visit.

Next job is to finish the other side, get the car leveled again and offer up the cross member to see what else needs cutting out and then make a plan and pattern for how to bend/cut/weld square tube to mount the front cross member.

Oh wait, the next job is to go to Vegas and get married on Friday. Wish me well when I hang up my balls ...

-Steve

cool celica. definitely one of my favourite toyotas of all time. have you seen the one built in oz with the 1uz twin turbo and full 4wd gtr running gear? i tried to find it again but the links seem to be broken
good luck with the project, looks like lots of work ahead!

Make sure that's a heavy duty peg you hang those balls on,because by the look of those cuts you have some pretty big one! Good luck with the wedding.

Talking of wide arch gen1's with big v8s

hey just a tip, before you buy a car to grab a 1uz from it, make sure it has the right sump you need. they come out in front, middle, and rear sump versions. theres also quite a few differences like compression ratio and strength of factory parts like rods. example, my 1uz is an early model, front sump (ls400 i think), with lower compression but stronger rods and non-interferance heads! will be good when i add some boost

on the 1uz in celica front, there is also a twin turbo version in oz too. you might be able to find a link on lextreme.com/forum if you have a hunt.

nice car dude, i hope to have a celica sumday