My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
Ron B.
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My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5
Location: Lake George, NY
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My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Ron B. »

I recently acquired a 1984 Tercel 4WD Wagon and along with it came some interesting history and records.

The car was purchased new in 1984 by David Chethlahe Paladin, a half-breed Navajo artist who lived in New Mexico. One of his experiences was at the age of 15 when he was a POW at Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. This is a link to a nutshell of his life:

http://www.kathleens5.com.cn/ms-My-Superman.asp

David Paladin used the car to carry his paintings and art work for exhibitions and sales. For the larger pieces that wouldn't fit in the car he used a small trailer. The hitch is still mounted on the car. This is a link to his artwork:

http://davidpaladin.olicentral.com/index.html

Paladin died shortly after buying the car and his widow, Lynda, used the car until she traded it in on a 2009 RAV4. The car was sold by the Toyota dealer to an auction company. The car was then purchased by the owner of a wholesale used car business. He was planning to give it to his daughter for transportation while she attended college in Colorado. She decided instead to attend a college in New York City and had no need for a car. He advertised it on Craigslist. After many conversations with the owner I decided to buy the car even though it had 256,000 miles on it. I had it transported using the company that he uses and it was delivered to me five days later.

After restoring a number of older vehicles I can safely state that the most important concern is the body. Mechanical problems are much easier to repair/restore than rusty bodies.

That transportation in itself was amazing because of the short time that it took between booking and delivery. I have had quite a few cars and trucks shipped for me and this is the first one that took less than two weeks. I once had an experience that took a month from California to New York. Believe me, five days from New Mexico to New York is quick.

Along with the car came a book of Paladin's story and artworks and receipts for every service and repair performed on the car since 1989. The history of repairs is so detailed that I know when every axle and light bulb was replaced. Lynda must have been a pretty good driver because her clutches lasted over 100,000 miles each. If she heard an unusual noise she wasted no time getting it diagnosed and repaired.

Because the car spent its entire life in the desert in New Mexico it is totally rust free. The car was repainted in 1993 in the original white color and that paint looks pretty good in most places except on the hood where the clearcoat is peeling.

The engine starts right up and idles quietly and smoothly. There is a problem with the transmission however. I think it needs input shaft bearings but I haven't gotten to it yet because I am working on the interior first.

With the car on jackstands in my garage I removed every interior component except for the dashboard. I found a half inch deposit of sand at the bottoms of the doors. Sand was everywhere. The window regulators were very unhappy with the sand and factory grease that had petrified in the desert heat. The windows were hard to move.

Under the seats was the typical collection of coins, pens and a single gold earring. My wife wrote a letter to Lynda and sent the found items back to her. She was very appreciative and said that she was happy that knew the car was in good hands.

I then took the car sans interior components out of the garage for a good cleaning. I sprayed the entire interior including the insides of the doors with Zep Pressure Washer Detergent from the Home Depot, $9 for a five quart jug. Using it straight out of the jug in a spray container it makes a very inexpensive strong degreaser. It will remove dried latex paint so it has to be used with respect.

I used a soft brush to clean the interior including the carpet padding that remained stuck to the noise insulation on the floor pans. I followed the cleaning with a blast of hot water from the hose and allowed the car to dry in the sun for the rest of the day. I rolled the car back into the garage and put it on jackstands again.

The carpeting was vacuumed to remove as much sand as possible and then washed using the same detergent, a brush and a hot water blast. The amount of sand that came out of the carpeting was amazing. The carpets were allowed to dry in the sun for two days. Look at the photos and you can see how good they look now. They look and smell like new.

This is the link to a set of photos at my flicker site: http://tinyurl.com/84TercelWagon

I then lubed the window regulators and door latch/lock components with spray lithium/Teflon lube. I sprayed the window tracks with dry Teflon lube. The windows and door locks/latches work effortlessly now.

I then sprayed the door seams and bottoms with rustproofing from Eastwood and sprayed the door skins with Eastwood undercoating to deaden sound. Even without the door panels reinstalled the doors sound very solid when closed now.

I made new moisture barriers from 6 mil clear plastic and installed them using 3M strip caulk (Dum-Dum) and metal tape. See those photos also in that set on flickr.

The headliner was removed and cleaned using Capture brand carpet cleaner. Capture is an interesting product in that is uses micro encapsulation to carry a wet cleaner in a powder form which is brushed onto the fabric or carpet. The powder then is allowed to dry and is vacuumed away. I posted a couple photos of the headliner showing the results of tests that I conducted before I did the entire headliner. See the photos at flickr.

I removed the upholstery from all of the seats, front and back. The upholstery was put through two gentle cycles using warm water, detergent and OxiClean in our washer. The upholstery was dried using low heat in the dryer.

I've reinstalled the upholstery on the rear seats and just started on the fronts. The foam for driver side seat bottom is damaged and I am getting a replacement before I reinstall the upholstery. See those photos also at flickr.

A member of this group is providing a lot of help with the project. He is supplying me with many components that have been damaged by the desert heat and sun. The mirrors inside and out are turning to dust as are the rear quarter window trim pieces. The steering wheel is worn smooth and has many cracks. The sun has not been kind to the plastics at all.

I am now at the reinstall phase. The washed seatbelts have been reinstalled as were the drain plugs. The remainder of interior components will be reinstalled as time permits. Then I will turn my attention the the transmission problem. Also on my list of things to do are to flush the braking system, change the coolant and rear axle lube and have it rustproofed by Ziebart.

The clutch and brakes were replaced about 5,000 miles ago and at the same time the plugs, oil and filters were also changed. Michelin tires with 80,000 miles warranty were purchased from Costco around the same time. So once the transmission is repaired, the car will be on the road. And because it will be as clean as new I won't be skeeved!

I'll keep you posted. Thanks for the bandwidth.

Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
'84 SR5 Wagon with 257k miles under partial restoration
'88 Fiero GT with 22k miles and driven daily
'65 Ford Econoline 5-window pickup under full restoration
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Neu
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My tercel:: 1985 SR5 No Mods
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Neu »

Congrats on the great little tercel. tranny problems are the least of your worries.

Also, great post. It's really nice to be able to easily read through a long post like yours, and not have to figure things out.



On the side, you said thanks for the bandwidth. I'll give any member an FTP account with 500mb of space, so you can host all your stuff on tercel4wd.com/yourname. I also offer @tercel4wd.com email addresses.
takza
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by takza »

That car has some karma.....like the art.
Give a boy a gun-give a biatch a cell phone-and pretty soon you almost got yourself a police state.

Orwell said: War is peace! Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength...

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Barossa Tercel
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My tercel:: 86 SR5

Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Barossa Tercel »

Nice one, a little work makes a big difference!
Ron B.
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My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5
Location: Lake George, NY
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Ron B. »

Neu wrote:Congrats on the great little tercel. tranny problems are the least of your worries. Also, great post. It's really nice to be able to easily read through a long post like yours, and not have to figure things out....
Thanks for the kind words. If the tranny is the least of my worries, what can be worse?

Cheers!

Ron B.
Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
'84 SR5 Wagon with 257k miles under partial restoration
'88 Fiero GT with 22k miles and driven daily
'65 Ford Econoline 5-window pickup under full restoration
Ron B.
Advanced Member
Posts: 82
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:01 pm
My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5
Location: Lake George, NY
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Ron B. »

takza wrote:That car has some karma.....like the art.
It is interesting that you should say that because the previous owners spoke frequently about "spirituality" regarding the car. David Paladin definitely lived a very interesting life. The first third of his book talks about his life, spiritual growth and philosophies. The remainder of the book has full color plates of his works with their spiritual meanings.

Wowahwa, ("Peace" - Lakota Sioux)

Ron B.
Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
'84 SR5 Wagon with 257k miles under partial restoration
'88 Fiero GT with 22k miles and driven daily
'65 Ford Econoline 5-window pickup under full restoration
Ron B.
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Posts: 82
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:01 pm
My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5
Location: Lake George, NY
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Ron B. »

Barossa Tercel wrote:Nice one, a little work makes a big difference!
Thanks. Actually, a LOT of work. ;)

Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
'84 SR5 Wagon with 257k miles under partial restoration
'88 Fiero GT with 22k miles and driven daily
'65 Ford Econoline 5-window pickup under full restoration
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Neu
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My tercel:: 1985 SR5 No Mods
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Neu »

Well the tranny's in these cars are really the weakest point in the entire car. They make it to about 200,000 and then love to die. If you can get to 300k with an original tranny, congrats.
Ron B.
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My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5
Location: Lake George, NY
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Ron B. »

Neu wrote:Well the tranny's in these cars are really the weakest point in the entire car. They make it to about 200,000 and then love to die. If you can get to 300k with an original tranny, congrats.
You still didn't answer the question. If transmission problems are the least of my problems, what are the worse?

Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
'84 SR5 Wagon with 257k miles under partial restoration
'88 Fiero GT with 22k miles and driven daily
'65 Ford Econoline 5-window pickup under full restoration
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ARCHINSTL
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My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by ARCHINSTL »

Ron - looking at what you have done to the Econoline and others (let alone the T4WD thus far...) the transmission, while "awkward" and difficult to source.....I don't really think you have much to worry about, particularly given your abilities, tools and that to-die-for garage.
Tom M. (AKA "I'm-lying-on-my-back-in-a-gravel-driveway-Tom")
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
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Neu
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Neu »

Sorry, I was just saying that the tranny's love to grenade after 200k. I doubt you'd have any problem putting another in there. As far as rebuilding them goes, i dont think they're any more complicated then a regular toyota 5 speed.
Ron B.
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Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:01 pm
My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5
Location: Lake George, NY
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Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Ron B. »

Neu wrote:Sorry, I was just saying that the tranny's love to grenade after 200k. I doubt you'd have any problem putting another in there. As far as rebuilding them goes, i dont think they're any more complicated then a regular toyota 5 speed.
Oh, good! Don't scare me like that. I thought there might be a hidden surprise waiting for me.

Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
'84 SR5 Wagon with 257k miles under partial restoration
'88 Fiero GT with 22k miles and driven daily
'65 Ford Econoline 5-window pickup under full restoration
Ron B.
Advanced Member
Posts: 82
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:01 pm
My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5
Location: Lake George, NY
Contact:

Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Ron B. »

Tom,

Regarding my tools and garage...."The only difference between men and boys is the amount spent on toys!"

Cheers!

Ron B. in Lake George, NY
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dcn
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My tercel:: 1987 4WD SR5 Wagon
Location: Halifax, NS, Canada

Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by dcn »

Awesome stuff Ron, thanks for taking such care, it looks great!
Metallic Blue '87 4WD SR5
Jonesy
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My tercel:: '84 Toyota Tercel SR5

Re: My '84's Storied Past.....and Present!

Post by Jonesy »

Very impressive Ron. Looks like a thorough cleaning job makes a tremendous difference. I'm just replacing the transmission on my recently purchased '84 Tercel to get it back on the road, but haven't touched the interior yet. The carpets are in awful shape, the seats are marginally better. After seeing your successes I may try some of the Capture and ZEP Pressure Washer Concentrate to see if I can get them back in order.

Thanks for sharing, and good luck with the transmission!
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