Horrible luck with my 83 tercel wagon

tooldudetool · Post by **tooldudetool** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:55 pm

I've been looking for an old Tercel 4WD wagon for awhile, and I finally found one three days ago. It's a 1983 6-speed manual 4WD wagon. It drove fine, was pretty clean and had many newer parts. There was some rust around the rear of the car because it originally came from the midwest where the roads were salted. It didn't seem that bad to me so I went ahead and bought it for $850. One hour later I was getting onto the freeway and I heard a clunk and a scraping sound. One of the lower trailing arms had fallen off from the rust. That caused my rear axle to shift into an incorrect angle, causing it to pull the driveshaft part way out of the tranny and make a god awful metal grinding noise emit from the driveshaft.

Long story short, the mechanic at the body shop told me the entire rear end is rust and there's not even enough metal to weld the trailing arms back up (the other one was just barely attached). Basically to repair it, the entire rear of the vehicle would have to be fabricated, costing "thousands of dollars".

Now what?

The guy who sold it to me was willing to refund me $200, but that's just enough to cover the tow truck charges.

What should I do? Should I look for another Tercel wagon with a decent body and no engine and try to swap the good parts from the rusted out car? Are the engines and trannys compatible through all the model years, or do I need to find an '83-'84 body? Should I just try to rig something up that I can attach the trailing arms back to? Maybe just a thick piece of metal in the trunk that I could attach to several areas of the body and then drill through and attach the trailing arms? I don't know what that would do for the stability of the frame.

I was so excited to have this car, and it was fun to drive for the one hour I had to drive it, and now I'm out $700 with a useless car parked in my driveway...

any ideas?...

jetswim · Post by **jetswim** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:58 pm

First off: Where are you located so that members who are nearby might be able to assist?
It sounds to me like your options are: 1. There is more rust than you realized hence, finding another one with a better body is a must! Try and get the $200 back and store the car until next time. Can't store the car? Strip it and store the parts.
or 2. LIVE AND LEARN! You should've been over that baby like flies on sh#*t and noticed that rust man! When I go look at a used vehicle I always carry different strength magnets in my tool box for my inspection. I love mirrors on extensions too! It's your fault, buyer beware, blah-blah but that's what IT'S about. Get the refund and start saving/looking for an even better Beauty. And remember SMILE...

Eatpants · Post by **Eatpants** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 7:13 am

get a lawyer, you live in america for christs sake

tooldudetool · Post by **tooldudetool** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:27 am

I live in Bellingham, WA, and yes I know I messed up by not examining the car thoroughly enough. I found someone with an '86 Tercel with a bad tranny for sale cheap, but it's an automatic, and I assume that is a pain to convert (installing the clutch especially), so I'll keep looking for a stick shift. Does anyone know if any year ('83-'88) tercel wagon will work to swap my engine into? Should I only be looking for the '83-'84 wagons? I would appreciate any advice from anyone who knows anything about this...

as far as getting a lawyer, I don't think its worth all the trouble for $650...

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:01 pm

I personally swapped a 86 engine into an 84 body. Just had to get the carb rebuilt.

Post by **Mattel** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:05 pm

Although we never got the auto box in australia (thank god) It should be able to be done

There are plenty of threads in the forums about replacing the transmissions but it's probably easier to replace the whole engine transmission unit as one peice from the rusty car into the auto.

Basically the hardest thing is finding a good shell (unless you are in australia where we have a lot less corrosion problems)

Good luck mate

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:53 pm

Come to Colorado. There can be found some good bodies. Hell, I have 3 myself. At least at this point, none are for sale. But they can be found. For the most part, Colorado uses Magnesium Chloride, not salt. Of course, there IS some rust that happens, and I have seen a few Tercs that are rusty beasties. The worst rusting I've seen is around the window, but our 96 Passat has that in the same place and just as bad as my 84.

tooldudetool · Post by **tooldudetool** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:40 pm

Well I went ahead and bought the '86 automatic last week for $110! I think I got a great deal considering that the body is absolutely rust free. The engine has even compression in all the cylinders, and everything else seems to work fine too (there's a torn cv boot, but I'll probably have to pull the half shafts when I switch the tranny anyway, so I'll fix it then). I've already swapped all of the carpet and seats from the tan '83, as well as the inclinometer, instrument panel, brake pedal, and both front windows. I'm planning on doing the tranny swap soon (I've been getting some good advice from 3A-C Power)... I'll let you all know how it goes.

jetswim · Post by **jetswim** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:28 am

Good on you and good luck!