1988 Celica GTI 16

Hi Steve

Yeah its been a rough time recently but no one died and I get to keep the car so all is well overall.

Thanks for the compliments.

Oh yes, congrads on the Practical Classics photo shoot! (doffs cap in your direction)

 

Had another fiddle with the stereo system. I got myself a bashed up spare so set to work dismantling them to see if I could swap over components to make a good one out of the two.
For whatever reason the cassette mechanism had jammed up before Christmas...seemingly the motor that accepts and ejects the cassette had given up. I ended up swapping over the entire cassette assembly as it was a simple unplug job (sometimes you get lucky). Cleaned up the heads and gave all the moving parts a good clean and a light oil. Plugged it in and result! The cassette worked smoothly and it sounded fine.



With the radio fixed and my cd player to be connected up I gave the centre console a bit of a spruce up as it was looking a bit tatty.
Lightly sanded the middle part and gave it a prime and good coat of gloss black.






Installed..







Quite allot going on there but I like it.

 

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yeah, that last unit is an EQ. Not really getting any benefit from it with my crappy speakers but it certainly looks cool in an 80’s kinda way. I've promised myself to get those speakers upgraded but haven't as yet got round to it.
Next jobs are a little less exciting like painting under the car and maybe a little work in the engine bay to tidy things up...

@Steve – Not too sure if I’ll be around in August but should that be the case, I’d love to join the meet. Where abouts is it held?

 

Thanks for the comments guys.

I took a look beneath the front wings as I was stripping the car down. It wasn’t too bad...luckily most of the rust was on the surface which was easily dealt with by rubbing it down to shiny mental, drop of rust treatment and applied fresh paint but there were a couple of real scabby bits which will need looking at in the future. I’ll put that on the “to do” list.




Can’t afford to make a huge improvements to the paint work which it needs at the front in particular (looks better in the pics) so the bumper got a bit of a tidy up.
I’d always missed the centre section being matt against the black paint so decided to rub it down and paint it in. Also took the opportunity to paint in some other bits of trim.








All put back together. Overall I’m happy with how it turned out as it adds a little detail to the masses of black at the front.

 

Cheers Steve. I'm sure one day we'll manage to meet up

I've not really done an awful lot to the car other than just drive it..which has suited me. I did clean up the engine bay a little as below when I had a few moments.











Thanks for looking

 

Thank you Moused! The camera on my phone is a little forgiving so the car is not quite as clean as it looks "on film". When I'm working properly again and able to shout "champagne for everyone" with my huge earnings (wishful thinking here) I'll be able to do a little more than point rattle cans

I'm not back in the UK until October at the earliest so i'll update again when I have something to show.
Thanks for looking.

 

Hey Guys.

Been a while since an update.

I've been buying some odds and sods from time to time to fit when i had a moment so on this visit I fished out a pair of the larger side skirts. I'd had these a while and had already made a start repairing some split areas around the screw holes with an epoxy glue and I'd given them a blast of paint but I'd always felt the finish wasn't to a good standard.



So I rubbed them back back down and started to knock down some of the high spots and fill dents/dings along the sides. Took a little while to tidy but eventually they were ready for a coat of primer. Aside from a couple of bits that need a little attention they are ready for some paint.



I'd been painting the underside of the car on my last visit but only managed one side. I started on the drivers side in view of getting it sorted before I put the skirts on. Sadly, I found a few holes that really do need some proper professional attention.

I'll get it done but in the meantime I sanded allot of the grott off and filled in the holes with liquid mental just to keep any wet off the carpets. Gave everything a liberal coating of rust treatment followed by a few coats of stone chip paint. I hate not being able to do the car properly but I'm not exactly flushed with cash so it will have to wait until better times. Hopefully not long.

Fancied a quick job and replaced the rubbers on the brake and clutch pedals. Small job but it makes all the difference