D-RoK's 1988 GT Build "Eri"

My 1988 Celica GT Coupe Build "Eri"When I am done, I hope to have a very clean better than new condition Celica that is just as reliable as my first car...an 89 GT with 289,000 miles on it.First off much thanks to Stig for the plethora of ideas and suggestions from his post.I am open to any and all ideas for inexpensive modifications so feel free to throw me some ideas.Currently the car is stripped down to almost nothing. I will be performing the bodywork at my leisure. My main concern at this time is to address the suspension, engine, and brake rebuild. After all of that is better than new, I will paint the engine compartment and get her running. I figure the body I am OK with finishing while I am driving her.For now I am going to rebuild the 3S-FE with possible future plans to do an SW20 3S-GTE swap.Add a Pace Setter exhaust.New hoses ans lines for the engine.I frequent the local parts yard and plan on upgrading as many parts as I can without purchasing aftermarket.

--5 Lug Rotor and disk brake conversion/master cylinder/proportioning valve from an 89 GTS​

--Modify an ST182 rear sway bar to get a little more torsional rigidity. If that fails I will go with a whiteline unit.​

--Modify an ST182 shifter for a cheap short throw.​

--Pull a set of black sport buckets from a GTS​

--I also have plans to replace all bushings with polyurethane ones.​

--Upgrade to KYB AGX Struts.​

--Install B&G S2 springs.​

--Recover every cheap plastic piece I can with faux suede. If not then fiberglass and paint.​

--Fiberglass and paint dash.​

--And of course new carpet.​

1st Day​

Got this baby in running condition for $500. Chassis and engine have 150,000 Miles on them.​

BODY​

Luck find at the parts yard. cost me $20.​

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Driver door body line smashed. Stud welder, about 80 dent pulls, and a skim coat of bondo and she is rebilt.​

Someones horrid idea of "body work". An hour of grinding later I have clean sheet metal. Plug welded all those amazingly useless holes. Used a combo of dent puller and body hammers to get the body back where it belongs. Shouldn't take but a skim coat of bondo to finish it up. Not like the previous owners 1 inch thick layer.​

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This one was fun. I first made a feeble attempt to move the crease with a dent puller, even though I knew it would do no good. I gave in and just cut out the bad metal and hand formed an new piece of sheet metal over my leg trimming it to fit. I stitch welded it in and ground it smooth. It is not perfect yet. I still need to go around the edges with a shrinking file to pull the metal back in. All in due time.​

INTERIOR​

Horrible blue interior waiting for me to re-upholster.​

ENGINE​

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Got the engine out recently and tore it apart. Cylinder 1 has deep grooves in it so I guess its off to the local machine shop for a .20 over bore. Think I will have the crank polished too. All bearings in great condition, nothing spun and no marring.​

More to come.D-RoK

 

CelicaSteve- Tidy...for the most part. Every bolt labeled in a Ziploc bag and as organized as possible. That just comes from working in my step dads hot rod shop as a kid.
Invinciblejets- I am upgrading most everything to GT-S except the 3S-FE. I am building it for reliability and lonjevity for now. Possibly 1 or 2 years later I will do a 3S-GTE or possibly a BEAMS 3S-GE. No turbo lag sounds awesome. Plus my Cummins already has a turbo and the lag is annoying.
Lonewolf- Thank you, so far this is the combination of mine and my 4 year old daughters efforts for the last 5 months. You heard that right, she is definitely her fathers daughter.

D-RoK

 

• Interior pulled out.Only thing left inside is the dash and steering column.
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D-RoK

 

• Pulled the dash out.
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• Pulled Wiring harness through firewall.
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• Took all suspension components out.
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• Took out brake and steering components.
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(Sprayed everything with degreaser. Everything left on the firewall I will just tape over.)​

 

• Pressure washed and scotch brited.
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• Handled some rust.
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I plan on sanding the rust then using a rust converter like the stuff eastwood sells. After that I am gonna go over any exposed metal with epoxy primer, then high build 2k, smooth out, seal again, then color.

 

Little bit of paint.

Been waiting for it to warm up so I can paint the engine compartment.

Sealed any bare metal areas.

A few coats of 2K.

A few more coats of 2K.

I skipped ahead and painted the inner fenders so I can put the suspension back in.

One shelf of my suspension desperately waiting to be re-installed, as soon as I can take care of all the bushings. I am molding my own out of polyurethane.
Slow progress....but at least I am still progressing.
D-RoK

 

Bushings/Motor Mounts

Sorry guys I am too cheap to buy bushings. For the record i am using plaster of paris for the molds, cause its what I had. If I ever do this again I will use latex rubber. That and I will use proper mold release instead of vaseline. Like I said...I'm cheap. This all cost me $35 and some time and energy.

Splitting the mold for my control arm bushing.


Putting the mold back together sealing it with clay.



Final Molds

Mixing the polyurethane. I went with 70 durometer cause this ain't a race car.

Tinted orange cause I wanna.

Ignore the control arm, IO had to place something heavy on the motor mount.

Little cleaning up to do.

Ain't gonna win no beauty contest, but the'll sure as heck work.

Also cleaned up the control arms and painted the front sway bar.


-D-RoK

 

Nice racerb!