'96 Celica GT Four - ST205 - Awake for 2023

Bust few weekends

Last week Ruby and I went on an adventure to collect a cabinet for the garage, eBay bargain at £20 and in perfect condition. It was being removed from some council offices and was the last one left, I would have had five if they had them!

She had great fun in the front of the car, first time she has ever ridden shot gun!



It is a big old beast, but not too bad to handle, this is not 12 gauge stuff
I moved a few things about, shifted the shelves and restacked them, the put the cupboard in.





It is unusual in that it has one large rolling drawer, that contains five BIG shelves. You pull the handle and it rolls out on a wheel hidden at the front!



Next up, my work bench arrived it was in pieces and topless, but looked ace all the same.



I formulated a plan for the work top, after pricing up MDF, ply, kitchen laminate etc, they all came to around £70-£80. I found a supplier of SOLID wood worktops for pretty cheap, a 3m section of beech block top 720mm deep was £115 delivered! With 2m for the bench and 1m for my roll cab, it meant that it was about the same price as all the composite boards.

I was a little dubious of the quality until they arrived, turns out I could not be more wrong, beautiful finish and top quality

It arrived in the week and today I sorted myself out and prepared to get cutting on the driveway (keep the dust out of the garage!)



Measure, measure, measure, go to cut, measure again, then ZIIIING, to bits of board!



I then turned the now assembled table frame upside down on the board and marked out the holes. Drilled them to 5mm then opened out to 8mm.
I practiced putting a chamfer on the edge using my planer and also rounded the corners off.
Finally it was flipped over, the holes counter sunk and the edges chamfered.





The top was then popped back on the frame once the holes had been opened out.

I won't lie, I am MEGA proud of this, it looks top! I will be putting on a dark stain / varnish to protect it from all the oil and grime it will be seeing, but that will only enhance the stainless counter sunk bolts







All in all, the bench cost £200, I think that is very good value considering the construction and that it will last a lifetime.

So next time, we will be putting stain on the work top and putting the bench into it home. Then some more engine build and cabinet making

Speak soon

Life is a bit up and down, I guess I can talk reasonably freely on here becuase you guys are strangers and being honest will make no odds.
My wife and I have struggled ever since Ruby got ill, it pushed our relationship to the very edge, we very nearly split on a few occasions but kept it in check for Ruby. She needed us.
This is one of the legacy items that still affects us waaay after Ruby has been given remission, our communication is not great and at times this causes problems.

This is why the reports have been thin on the ground, a bit of conflict in the house and not much time for the garage oh well, I do have some news, so enough moaning and some more fabrication.

Starting from the oldest I put some stain on the bench, although I loathed to do it because the wood was stunning, it would have lasted about 5 minutes in the garage! So a dark stain in red mahogany has done the trick





Lovely

I also hung up the amplifier and put up the towel dispenser, simple things to do but made a good difference by freeing up some space.



A bit of a tidy and the bench in place, it looks like this, I love it!



We were having a bit of a change around with daily drivers too, for the last couple of years I have been driving an ST220 Mondeo estate, great car but the build quality was shocking. A few big items on the horizon prompted it's sale and a replacement sought.
I have had lots of BMW's and the build quality has always astounded me, great to drive, great to work on and not too expensive. My weekly mileage has dropped significantly too now, so I can have another big engine.
After a bit of hunting my uncle contacted me and told me he was selling is 7 series....mmmmmm
Not just any 7, it is a 760li



It has EVERYTHING, 440hp, heated massage seats front and rear, and a ride that is incomparable, I love it

Back to the Celica, the gear change has been troubling me since I moved the seats back, how would be best to move the linkage back by 12" and up by 10"??
Eventually I decided to keep the stock tower and modify, rather than build a new one or make up a second linkage to the old one.
I started cutting! Split the stock tower into two, the front holds the cables in the original place, and the back holds the lever and linkage.



To raise it up I started to make up a frame from 3mm ally sheet.







After a bit of love, a lot of drilling, bending and rivets we have this





I then moved onto the cables, cutting them in two and threading the ends to M6x1, it took some creative clamping at times





I had ordered some 4mm bore seamless tube that was drilled and tapped to size, and here is the finished product



Lovely

Finally I also dug out the cylinder head from it's packing box and got the last of the valves out ready to clean, it won't be long until this can start going back together.



This is two valves from the same cylinder, one cleaned one not, it takes AGES in the ultrasonic cleaner to get the hard combustion deposits off, but worth it, they are like new under all that carbon.





Next up is more cleaning of the cylinder head, some home soda blasting, and engine assembly and maybe some wiring

Thanks for reading, J

I just popped in at the last page- Nice bench, nice cars and nice work. I'll go back and read the whole thing

I've always found that my manspace was a great escape from life's challenges, tho am sorry to hear of yours, James. As always, tho, you continue to amaze with how much you manage to get done in so little time; so well done for that! Keep the faith and try to imagine that first drive ;-)

Hang in there Buddy

So, I realise that updates on this thread have been lacking of late, this is a conscious decision based around time pressure and trying to reduce stress. Considering my mental state, anxiety about time available and getting things done and balancing that with family time and work was getting to a critical stage. I wanted to work on the Car / garage but time was so thin on the ground. I was not willing to sacrifice any family time, in fact I actually wanted to make more time for them, so something needed to change.
The change has been to get out in the garage every evening possible, after the kids are in bed and my wife and I have eaten together. We have virtually finished her craft room now, and so she has a hobby space too, freeing me of the anxiety of leaving her in the house while I go play in the garage.
This means that I get between three and five hours a week out there, not including weekends. The family get more of my time at the weekend and when i get home from work, I still get my garage fix and my wife gets some time alone to enjoy her hobby, everyone wins...... except RetroRides.
This is where I have sacrificed something that I enjoy, I was taking about 20% of my garage time or time with my wife, to take and upload photos and write updates for you guys. It was causing stress in the real world, and it was just not worth that pressure.

So.... updates are just going to be a little thinner, picture quality reduced (quick phone photos), and more spread out.
What it does mean is that progress on the actual car is going faster! So you will get bigger bites and leaps in the things that matter

I have started to do little video updates on facebook too, I may just start uploading to YouTube and putting links on here, as they are much easier to pack information into, in a short time span. I am also quite enjoying talking to camera

So, what has been happening? Well the engine is built, as usual this was not as simple as it should have been, obstacles like realising the the combination of sump and block means there is no dipstick hole slowing progress.
This was solved (hopefully) by adding a 1/8npt boss on the sump and having a clear pipe, this will be marked up on the first dry fill, as will a dipstick that fits the tube.
The head was built up and all of the sensors added, one valve needed replacing due to some damage in storage, apart from that, all good

The head only had five exhaust studs as OEM, but the bosses for three more were present but not drilled. I mounted the head up on my £70 bench drill and got to it! All of the bosses were drilled oversize and the helicoiled back to M10x1.25.
One of those new studs resides under a web that holds a water outlet and engine mount on the Lexus, for me it is just a water outlet so some strength could be lost to fit the manifold. It was cut and ground to fit



The injectors and coils also arrived, 900cc denso direct replacements and OEM spec coils.



Some time ago I purchased a second hand add on for my TIG inverter. It turned the TIG box into a power supply and took control, giving me pre and post gas control, up and down slope of amps, and HF start. All for £130!



So this has been put to use extensively, I made up a flange for my wastegate out of 5mm Ti plate, took ages and I am questioning if it is really worth it!



Then had a practice welding on the offcuts, strange stuff, the weld pool is sticky, slow to move, and the surface is like glass after a pass.



The exhaust manifold has also come on leaps and bounds, the flange was marked up, drilled, cut and shaped to fit the head. The old manifold runners 1-3 re-used and number four fabricated. A large aluminium billet was drilled and tapped in an attempt to keep the flange flat during welding. Then new TIG was then wheeled out again and flattered my skills!



Long tip for reaching into some of the tighter spaces around the flange.











Fitted up well to the engine!



Then the wastegate pipe was shaped to fit the collected, cut in, and welded on. As was the V-Band flange was modified to fit these weird old racing wastegates I have in my stock of parts!





I have also done loads of work on the braking system, mentally designing, fabricating and testing a solution to the OEM servo / wilwood pedal box issue. We have ended up with titanium bellcranks, two chromoly rodends and some machined steel / aluminium. And it works!

The fuel pump is fitted in the correct OEM fashion, and ready to supply 340lph.
The clutch release bearing is found and sorted, the one supplied with the refurbishment was 1. worn out after 3000 miles and 2. totally the wrong size! Replaced with an NOS Borg and Beck item for a Nissan Bluebird!
I have found a throttle plate and pedal for a BMW E46 will fit and work perfectly with my intake manifold / ECU, so they have been purchased and stored ready for use.

So, we are getting closer to having an engine ready to fit, I need to make up a loom and then it can all go in!

Stay tuned for some video progress reports.

J

Nice to see some progress nice to see you are reducing stress

Looking forward to videos.

Thanks chaps

RobinJI, the 924 work is stunning, proper OEM+ fit and finish, something to be proud of. I am enjoying progress over reports of progress. It is always easy to talk a good game, and feels like you are doing something useful (I guess some might get motivation from it?). But to actually make physical progress is soooo much better

Tonight I should get some garage time, ill do a little video if there is good progress

Thanks

J

Great read and awesome project, jealous of your skills. Would have loved to see you go to town on the Charade GTti like this!!