1973 TA22 Toyota Celica - Patchwork quilt

Now despite the aforementioned need for patience and restraint I was determined to see if there was life in the old girl. After leaving the oil in the bores for a few days and removing the starter for testing and cleaning at home, a mate and I went over one Saturday to see what could be achieved.

After refitting the starter we methodically worked round the engine bay checking wiring, fuel and cooling systems, replacing hose clips and cleaning up points and connections where corroded. Put a drop of oil in the top of the engine again before churning over by hand, then again on the starter to see if there was life in the plugs. With a healthy spark showing, a little petrol was put into the bores, the plugs were refitted and a little easy start was squirted into the carb intakes... the key was then turned...

The engine fired briefly on the second turn of the key so ascertaining that it might actually run, the carb float chambers were primed with some of Shells' finest and it was given another go, after a couple of turns and a spot of choke it fired into life, no nasty noises, no real drama, instead the engine ran pretty smoothly and idled well. After 26 years - it was alive!

After managing to bring the engine back to life, further inspection around the car revealed a few issues: the most pressing was that the gaskets on the rocker needed to be changed as there were oil leaks into the spark plug bores and around the edges (not surprising after being left for so long!). So I ordered all the parts I could and while it was off I gave the rocker cover a quick lick of paint.




No more oil leaking onto the plugs! Yes I realise it's a bit like arranging deckchairs on the Titanic, but figured I may as well make it look half decent while it was off and it gave me something to do in the eves.

Another finding was that seemingly the car was stored with the clutch pedal depressed, meaning the clutch is now permanently stuck in the 'away' position. I suspect this is down to the spring plate failing, the slave cylinder was also seized. The latter was thankfully salvageable however with some compressed air, WD40 and some emery paper.

An initial shopping list was compiled:

- Full engine gasket set
- Carb gasket set
- 3 piece clutch
- Brake calipers
- Cooling hoses
- Water pump
- Clutch pipe
- Distributor cap and rotor arm

Yet more patience needed as I waited for parts to appear from around the globe... so what did I do in the meantime... yup started the tear down and took the front wings off...

Just a black high temp paint I had lying about from when I did my MG B engine. It's a bit hard to see from the picture but it's a crinkle finish too.

I do like how these look.
Very nice.
Bookmarked!

Nice little present/project - looking forward to seeing how it turns out.....

How the beggar did you get into that toyota dealer you lucky man, I thought it was in the disputed zone ?

I've heard of these left Toyota in the past.. some serious value there in body panels alone. Thanks for the pictures of unmolested cars though - gives me some nice reference points.

So to keep the thread ticking along and back to present day, some more of my musings....

After some brief success with getting the engine started and while waiting for the clutch I thought I'd make some investigations on the bodywork front so took the front wings off... as to be expected there's good news and not so good news as a result - I'll let the pics do the talking:






The worst of it being the N/S front corner - not pretty!



Not completely unexpected from a car that's been sat for well over 20 years! Could have been a lot worse though!

As the Christmas break finally supplied a bit of spare time, I managed to snatch a few hours here and there to get down to the garage to tinker with a few bits while I waited for parts to arrive. It also meant I could assess a few other bits ahead of getting the car a little closer to home for its mechanical and minor cosmetic surgery.

The new wings were offered up and look much better than what came off, I also plumbed up all the remaining hoses from when I took the rocker cover off - all looks much better... for now...



Next on the job list was to cycle the old fuel as although there wasn't a lot left in the tank it was bound to be pretty rough - hence the poor initial starting without any form of Easy Start intervention. I think the picture below clearly demonstrates the differences in fuel quality... even more so with the water bottle label! (casting no aspersions about the quality of Scottish mineral water of course!!). Some of the difference could be down to the assumption that it was probably leaded fuel left in the tank. Bottled varnish anyone?



Asides the above and tidying a few other things, the only other bit work was removing the decidedly worse for wear clutch pipe, hoping to get that made up over a few eves so it can be refitted along with the reconditioned slave cylinder.

Finally Santa, (ok UPS) turned up with a (very) belated xmas present - something I ordered back in October (my how time flies!)



At last we might finally move under our own power!

I do like these, nearly imported one from Japan! Looks like a great little project and a great present!

If only there was scatch and sniff computer screens... it smelt errr interesting!

Was indeed - I'm a very lucky boy.

Ahhh of course, looking at the radio I hadn't even thought of that but on the dash there is a location for an underslung player of some description so that'd be it.

Thanks for link, I had already seen that as subscribe to the updates, very interesting though - the guy from Toyota is like a walking Toyota encyclopaedia!

Thanks. Will try and keep the thread updated as best as I can, hopefully when I get the car back home I can really start to make some progress.