1980 Celica, 1988 Tercel and some old scooters

I was told the engine in this is seized, turns out it's not. It comes with the standard 20R truck engine, not very refined but it'll be handy to have the car driving around before I start doing custom work. Otherwise it'll become a jackstand ornament.

I also have a spare 22R to go in worst case.

Speaking of rats nests:





There is a bunch of wiring straight up missing along with some "custom" wiring for janky starter buttons and the like. I felt a little disheartened at first but with some encouragement from friends I worked it out. It only took me about half an hour to trace out the important things. Some mysteries remain but it'll go.



Next, compression test and bolt on some manifolds and accessories to see if it'll run.

I picked up a couple of ex-rental scooters last year as a side project while I was working out logistics of the Celica. The idea was to make a light Gentsuki build to pootle around in the summer



Interesting point is that the Razz was super budget and didn't even come with CVT. It just has a fixed gear and slips the clutch always.


I decided to do the old favourite of RR - Montana Black. It's not something that people really consider here but the paint was half the price of automotive.


I find the light blue is a nice finish but the yellow is very chalky and picks up dirty fingerprints too easily and is challenging to clean







Yamaha Razz's are notoriously slow, but this example is particularly tired and needs an engine swap ideally. In my search of a vertical jog engine (direct swap) I found a later horizontal jog which won't be a direct swap but it was cheap and a better bike overall.



The guy selling the black Jog was super sketchy. There's a chance the bike may be stolen from a long time ago, I guess I'll find out when I try and register it. One thing he kept saying over and over is that the bike is STOCK and NOT MODIFIED. Spoiler: It's very modified. It's fast. It feels faster than some 150cc scooters I've ridden. Seems like a weird thing to lie about, but the ride home was uneventful other than the wheelies.

I ordered a JDM taillight from yahoo auctions and removed the suspension and it looks a lot cooler now. Graphics and paint coming in spring but it's ready for the first ride!

Head or block is cracked, so I ripped it out


22R is in. The heads don't flow as well as the 20R so a favourite mod is to put the 20R head on the 22R block which unlocks 20 or 30HP. Once I determine the status of the 20R head I'll consider it.


There's two parts to this. I'm also swapping subframes so I can have a steering rack. Steering boxes are no good for drifting. Top one is new, bottom one is old:



The new one is from a RA64 Celica and mine is a RA42. With this installed it should in theory turn my Celica into an AE86 with a longer wheelbase. You'll notice there are some differences, especially where the engine and chassis mounts line up

Old


New


The 22R clearly sits 2 inches further back in the RA64.

I didn't get a picture of it installed yet, but I've lined up the subframe with the hole for the front chassis rail hole. Here is the experiment: In comparison, this will give me around 1 inch of extra caster. GR9 for drifting and I have room to adjust it back if it ends up being too much/too snappy.

The RA64 subframe is slightly wider too and I should have a 2 inch wider track which is good for angle mods and drifting stability. I'm also happy that Toyotas of this era have adjustable caster arms and the LCAs are made of pressed steel, so super easy to modify.

I didn't measure any of this because I'm lazy but it all worked out fine by accident.

To accept the new subframe I had to install a forward oriented sump.









Also, a friend messaged me and said he'd found a louvre in a liquidation sale for my car:


Pwoar, etc.

Awesome stuff dude. The scoot looks wicked.

Subframe is in with the new engine. I don't really have any pictures yet so take this one from half way:


Subframe is much wider and I've mounted it further forward for ease of install. I didn't plan any of this because I'm lazy, but it accidently turned out fine. So more camber and caster.



I could have ordered some custom coilovers I guess? It would have been at least $1200. And I'd STILL have to weld them. Or I could make my own. I did a bunch of research about what I could do. Some local friends used E46 coilovers which fit inside their KE70 wagon front hubs. I knew Celica would be different and I knew I wouldn't know until I had it in my hands so I went ahead and bought some ebay specials:



I got brave and went past the point of no return.


It turns out that the bottom of the coilovers is exactly the same diameter as the factory damper housing. However, some test fitting showed that I NEEDED to have at least 1 inch protrusion above the knuckle to be the correct height. Meaning if I did as per the KE70 mentioned earlier, it would be too short.

I wanted to be as safe as I could be with the tools and materials I have. I figured that the car is sketchy anyway and isn't going to spend much time on the road so I'll try not to feel too guilty.

I butt the coilover against the damper housing tube and then found a pipe to sleave the two. First time welding to forged steel and I had no idea what was going to happen. So I did a bunch of pre-heating and I was surprised - it welded really nicely! It's all in the prep I guess. It was nice watching a weld pool chase the torch in one continuous line rather than the spot weld overlay that I normally do for bodywork.



It's hard to describe this so here's a diagram:



Being that this is the internet and I uploaded a picture of welding that isn't stacking dimes: remember the context. Drift car. Not a daily. I live on an island where the speed limit is 30mph. Did I mention it's a drift car?

To answer the question - what coilovers do I use on my 1980 Celica? E46. Infact, I'm willing to say that's the cost effective answer for all 70s/80s Toyotas these days.

Cut and sleeved and not part of the car after coming off the road at lots of mph,jumping 40ft through the air and landing in a plowed field. Everything broke/bent apart from the welded area.

Following with interest. Are you on Vancouver Island?
I have had a similar path of; UK, NZ and now in Whistler.

Every time I've been on the Island there seems to be a cool car scene, far less of a rust hot spot as well.

Suspension in, all angles look good.


I was able to dig out some slightly shorter LCAs which has switched the camber from slightly ridiculous to useful. I tentatively put it on the ground for the first time and I had a nice mojo boost:


I'm entering into the actual fun areas now, so I have to start thinking about parts for the intermediate shaft between the column and the steering rack

Is this a Buick Electra? My dad had one, very rare car in the UK. We managed an impressive 12mpg if I remember right.