No longer a lurker

Post about yourself, your Tercel, or your Tercel projects in here, share pictures of your Tercel, or post trip threads!
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Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

Hi marlinh nice to see you here! Thanks so much for the rim's it to bad we couldn't meet that day. I'll start from the beginning, Years ago a friend of mine asked me to fix up his sons 84 wagon, It was in bad shape but not the worst I have seen, The car was rusted badly leaked fuel and the only good thing was it ran, My friend gave me $700 and asked me to do my best and so I got to work making aluminum body part's and scrounging what I could from auto wreckers, I don't have any before photo's but I have some of when I painted it. Image
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It came out not half bad and surprisingly didn't rust away for another 5 years but that's probably due to it being almost 100% aluminium and bondo lol, He even sold it for $400. After I was done the car I was in love with it, It had 400,000 plus km never had any work done to it in it's life that I could see before I touched it and was abused daily for years yet never let the driver down once, the body, the simplicity of the car and it's reliability I liked everything about this car and I had to have one but I knew it had to be a good one, I had seen the cars at the wreckers and they all met the same fate, RUST! So for the next 4 or so years I hunted almost daily and saw many for sale but all of them had rust so I fought the instinct to buy them, The years went buy and there where less and less up for sale and they where in worse shape and the price only seemed to go up, Then one Friday night after consuming to much coffee I couldn't sleep so I went on my computer and started looking for cars online, I started on Castanet then looked at craigslist and at about 12 at night I was on Kijiji and was done looking I had gone about 6 days back when I refreshed page 1 and there it was 12 minutes old 4 views already I saw the photo's and it looked amazing $1200 was the asking price so I emailed him and texted him right away then went to bed. The next day after talking with Dave the seller he told me a fellow in Edmonton was offering $2000 if he would hold it until he could fly down but wouldn't wire the money so I was next in line, I asked what his bottom dollar was and said $700 if I could be there with cash the same day and I accepted the deal. I arrived in penticton that evening and was fully prepared for the car to look worse in person but was shocked to find it looked better than I could have ever dreamed it was spotless apart from some paint, Dave told me that it had been his late uncle's car since 1989 and that he simply didn't have the money to fix it and give it to his daughter like he had planned to do, he had taken it in to a mechanic who gave him a almost $2000 quote, I looked at the paper he was given and it was almost all labor cost $120 a shop hour! I knew I could do it for a fraction of the cost so I gave him the $700 and my gf drove it home as I couldn't drive stick yet lol. On the way home I drove behind it as the sun set over Okanogan lake and I'm not embarrassed to say almost cried it was a dream come true. Lot's of people dream of having a Lamborghini or super car but I dreamed of having a Tercel wagon and my dream had come true, it was honestly one of the happiest moment's of my life, I fully intend to have this car until I die even if I have to spend crazy money in order to make that happen.
There is no such thing as a "little rust"
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Jonymoto
Top Notch Member
Posts: 296
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 9:39 pm
My tercel:: 1983, DLX 4wd wagon with 4.1 manual gearbox, tow bar). Manual steering. 313,000 kms. Tercel 4WD SR5, 1987, 500,000kms. Other car - 2003 Rav4, AWD, 2l manual, Peugeot 407 Diesel (93,000 miles) in Ireland for use when on holiday there.
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Jonymoto »

Well done Togashi. Like you, my Tercel is worth more to me than a Ferrari. I fully intend on having mine still running till I die too. Buy as many parts as you can because they are getting very rare and lack of parts availability is probably the only thing that will keep them off the roads.
When you lose, don't lose the lesson - The Dalai Lama
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Petros
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 11930
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Petros »

so what did it need? where are the pictures? where are you at with its repair and up grades now?
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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marlinh
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 1584
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:15 am
My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
Location: Kootenays

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by marlinh »

Great story. Thanks for sharing. What kind of aluminum parts did you make? How did you paint that car? Rattle can or paint sprayer?
timothygodden
Top Notch Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:45 am
My tercel:: 84 tercel 4wd sr5 lifted, modified head, delta cam, 2" exhaust
Location: seattle wa

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by timothygodden »

Love your story nothing like following a tercel to it's new home, I've gotten choked up over it couple times myself. Keeping mine alive is very important to me I have spent too much to count and I'll keep spending on it at least until my lady threatens to leave me.
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Jonymoto
Top Notch Member
Posts: 296
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 9:39 pm
My tercel:: 1983, DLX 4wd wagon with 4.1 manual gearbox, tow bar). Manual steering. 313,000 kms. Tercel 4WD SR5, 1987, 500,000kms. Other car - 2003 Rav4, AWD, 2l manual, Peugeot 407 Diesel (93,000 miles) in Ireland for use when on holiday there.
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Jonymoto »

Timothy, my wife says I can spend as much as I want on the Tercel, as long as it keeps me off getting a motor bike. A lot of men here get noisy 1200cc plus motor bikes for their mid life crisis and they only ride them on Sundays. Others buy imported American cars (mostly old Mustang, yes they are LHD). I think the missus will divorce me if I go that way. So she doesn't care if I spend the money on improving the Tercel instead. For my mid life crisis, I bought myself an expensive bicycle. Maybe this should be another thread for another day.
When you lose, don't lose the lesson - The Dalai Lama
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Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

Petros wrote:so what did it need? where are the pictures? where are you at with its repair and up grades now?
The mechanic recommended a whole new front end and a new clutch "Due to it's age" plus dye added to the oil to help find some oil leaks. After I got the car home and started working on it I found it only really needed new pad's, rotors, rubber lines and cv's, all of that has been fixed apart from the cv's due to me being busy. The clutch is perfect I have mo idea what he was talking about but I'm guessing a cash grab. The oil leaks where obvious to anyone who has ever worked on a car. The plan bolts where a little loose, cam and crank oil seals where old and hard and the valve cover gasket was leaking all that has been fixed and a new timing belt plus hardware where installed now no leaks. unfortunately I didn't take many photos of that stuff but all future work will be photo documented and shared on here. I have not done any upgrades yet apart from swapping the radio for the stock high end tape deck with cup holders and put in some good speakers, I only want to use stock part's so I can get the collector status once the new paint is on.
There is no such thing as a "little rust"
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Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

marlinh wrote:Great story. Thanks for sharing. What kind of aluminum parts did you make? How did you paint that car? Rattle can or paint sprayer?
I made new rocker panels and rear wheel wells inner and outer plus a few other odd's and ends, I also found a new back hatch and and 4 new doors that where mint and wasted on that car. I didn't do a proper job by any means all pop rivets and bondo. I first cut off all the cancer then flanged the metal on the car, after that I would make the parts from cardboard first then trace then onto aluminum from there I would form them with a little hammer work then rivet them onto the car. I used bondo to do all the filling and fine detail. It looked good but it was not a lasting repair. I used a proper paint gun and had the car color matched, unfortunately during the painting I had problems with my air pressure and the paint didn't atomize properly and the car ended up with an orange peel like finish. here are some closer photos of some of the part's I fixed pre paint.
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This last one was a botch but given what I was working on I didn't think it would matter.
There is no such thing as a "little rust"
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Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

Petros wrote:so what did it need? where are the pictures? where are you at with its repair and up grades now?
I found 2 photo's of when I was doing the front seals and timing.
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There is no such thing as a "little rust"
User avatar
Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

I have some news! I recently went to PicknPull for there %50 off sale and was thrilled to find not 1 but 3 cars in the yard! I got 2 carburetors, some SR5 decals, 2 stock floor mats, some lens's and tail light's, new hatch hydraulic cylinders for the back hatch, a washer reservoir cap that isn't cracked, stock rear speaker cover's and mounts plus wire's, a full set of center caps, a bunch of stock lugs with the little plastic caps on them that always seem to fall off :roll: , a bunch of stock mag lugs and some other non Tercel junk for my other 7 cars. While I was there I saw this poor thing
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I knew this car I went and saw it months before in Kamloops a very nice lady wanted $500 for it after she kissed a big rig with it :lol: I did't get it and so here it is, apart from it being ugly it ran like a champ when I saw, I took the carb but could find little else on it I could use. Next was this SR5
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Last was this guy a sorry looking heap with an auto quite rare to see now.
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Surprisingly low km's for the shape of the body, I can only assume it died and was parked for a long long time.
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Nice body work, car almost snaped in half :lol:

I will have more news to come. I am going out to Kamloops this weekend to get a part's car with a good drive train but it sound's like the rest is trash, pic's to follow!

If there is anyone looking for part's you better rush to the Kelowna picknpull I'm sure the part's won't be there long.
There is no such thing as a "little rust"
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dlb
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 7305
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:03 pm
My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by dlb »

that first one, the gold sr5 with white doors, looks like an 83-84. did it have an inclinometer on the dash?
User avatar
Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

dlb wrote:that first one, the gold sr5 with white doors, looks like an 83-84. did it have an inclinometer on the dash?
It was an 84 I believe but no sadly it didn't have one, I have been looking for one but there very hard to come across it seem's.
There is no such thing as a "little rust"
User avatar
Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

More new's!
Today I drove out to kamloops and picked up a 83 Tercel part's car that has seen better days, it's not a runner or a driver but I will strip it of all the good part's and what I can't use I will sell and hopefully make my money back, The gas to go get the car was more than the cost of the car lol.

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There is no such thing as a "little rust"
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marlinh
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 1584
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:15 am
My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
Location: Kootenays

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by marlinh »

Pretty soon you'll end up with 6, like me...That front fender looks like it was replaced. It is all bondo?
User avatar
Togashi
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:53 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel Wagon Basic
Location: Armstrong B.C.

Re: No longer a lurker

Post by Togashi »

marlinh wrote:Pretty soon you'll end up with 6, like me...That front fender looks like it was replaced. It is all bondo?
Well I already have an 86 Chevette with 3 engines 4 fenders 3 hoods 2 hatches 2 rear ends and a bunch of other stuff, plus a 1994 and 1997 Escort wagon a 1968 Camaro (My other current project) a 83 85 and 97 Tercel plus a 92 Chevy truck, I'm sure I forgot one lol. The fender's are off another car and are in good shape I'll be selling them as I have 2 factory new fenders I got for $75 each ins summer land.
There is no such thing as a "little rust"
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