Barto's Ultimate Adventure Wagon Build-up (Update may 18)

[scotisha]

Homeskool: I knew of a few years ago and I will see if I can track down his number. He just does the outsides (ie not the insides of the doors) so it might be what you are looking for.

Barto: I am in Vic too and if you are making bumpers i would be down for a set too!!! With so many tercels here you could probably start up a weekend business of pimping out tercels

[Barto]

With so many tercels here you could probably start up a weekend business of pimping out tercels

I already Spotted you...... Your Tercel was parked across from the walmart there when I went into subway last weekend. I blew my Fiances mind when I came home and showed here pictures of your car from this site and said "see I told you I knew that car....." LOL We should meet up sometime and go out for a little 4x4in..... I also love the roof rack, would like to get some measurements off of it so I can kind of copy it.

And another update.

I got my '88 Parts car home about 2 weeks ago Realized that it was in way better shape then my '87. So I started off by doing the paint and fender replacement, also the interior was pretty gross so it got a good cleaning. Here are the pictures of the '88 when I first got it home.












Then it was time for paint prep





the new fender



Anyone from canada will get a kick out of this I figured i had enough in me that car could use some too........





And the Final Product! Color Is Ultra Flat Drab Olive and Ultra Flat Khaki, all done with spray bombs from canadian tire for a mere $22.46
I have left the bumpers off because I will just be swapping them over with the suspension from the '87 when the changover happens hopefully in the next couple of days.









Also picked up some more tires when I was out at the Wreckers they only had three and I only need Two so Now I have 3 Full size spares.
GoodYear Ultra Grip 195/70/14






.

[terceldude]

@Barto, you should send all the pics of your 87 to FOUR WHEELER magazine and have the whole thing listed in it! I'd love to see your car in that magazine, a current issue of it, that is! I asked the question: "I know someone that has a lifted Toyota car that you should feature in your magazine! How can I get his car featured in the Reader's Rides section of your magazine even though he doesn't really read your magazine, but I do which is why I became a fan of it on FB! " The response I got was "Send some good quality pics to Readers Rides with a description. They have the technical requirements if you want to email a .jpg or send a cd in the magazine. They usually have a backlog, so be patient. I have seen rides featured that sat in the pile for years...but then, I've subscribed for most of the last 20 years myself." and the fan page for the magazine is: http://www.facebook.com/KBizness?ref=pr ... 345?ref=ts. I can't wait to see it featured! ))) I am also starting to love not only your progress with the 87 but with the 88 and painting it! I'd also be down for some bumpers.. Quote us all on a price if possible!


Whatever happened to the 86 parts car, green one with blown transaxle and brown one? Did you get those as well or what happened to them?

[HomeSkool]

Barto I'd love to see your car in person, I love the military olive drab paint. That is seriously cool. Will be awesome to see you throw your bumper onto it ect. You gota post pictures forsure.

We should try to do a Victoria Meet. Get all the Victoria guys together sometime. Meet up in a parking lot somewhere or go out for some beers or somthing. I think there are enough of us in the area that it would be worth getting together.

Barto How long did it take to strip your car down and paint it? My girls friends 2WD tercel needs new paint and I've always wanted to just buy some spray cans and go at her. Did it work well? No empty spray can hickups that globbed on paint? I've love to see it in Person,

[SynthDesign]

Alright! Now I'm not the only olive tercel owner on this forum.
Nice paint job.

[scotisha]

Ha! That's awesome that you recognized the car. The girlfriend met me at work and we headed to Van to see the Olympics in my car and left the Tercel there. It is pretty recognizable with that roof rack (not quite as recognizable as Homeskools over on Burnside thou, I have a friend who told me that there was a yellow tercel in Vic and like with Barto, I said that I know who he is and he was amazed).

That roof rack is just the Rola roof top carrier with the extension, it the perfect length as the hatch washer nozzle rests against it when the door is up .

Meet in Vic would be great, since summer is basically here I guess the time is now. Just have to get around to putting in the new thermostat that I have had for a month so I can go more than a few k's at a time. (All work and no play make Scotty something something...).

Nice paint job Barto! How long did the stripping take? My Tercel is in need of a paint job (and some fenders) and I like the smell of spraypaint . Oh and do you have a shop? I want to do the susp but I don't have a place or the tools to do it. Willing to trade beer for tool and tech time

[HomeSkool]

You must have seen my car parked outside of my work! Thats where I have to park almost everyday.

Also this is for anyone in the Victoria area for that matter. I'm always happy to lend a hand if anyone is doing a big job. I know there has been many times I've been working for days on my car without a soul around and knowing if I only had one more person helping me it would'nt take anytime to complete the job. So yah, We could always do a work party sometime if someone has a big job.

But yah, as for meeting up sometimes I'm eager. I've met up a few times with the Corolla guys from http://www.dorikaze.net and there a bunch of cool guys. But I don't have much in common with them besides the mid 80's Toyotas. But they are of course still happy to talk with any Toyota enthusiast. But it would be great to talk just Tercel Wagons. Saturday evenings and anytime sundays work best for me. I don't work mondays ither but I'm sure I'm the odd ball out on that one. I've recently finished my Car Computer / GPS /music center touch screen in my car and I hav'nt really shown anyone since the last Import car show here in Victoria. But I did'nt have my software setup at that point anyways.

But yes Barto, I'm also interested in how long prep time took for your car before paint. I want to power threw it one weekend on my other Tercel and get new paint on it for the summer.

[Barto]

I honestly prepped and painted in about 5 hours, And that was the two tone as well. The paint I was using dries to the touch in about 20 min. and can be taped over within an hour. This speeds up the process alot

Having painted over 10 cars this way I do kinda have a leg up. People used to ask who I paid to paint my old datsun 510, when I would reply with "me in my garage with cans of tremclad and a wicked buzzz"...LOL they would be taken back. I have learned to not get too picky about masking either. I mask the important parts and things that can't be unbolted easily, I run one strip of tape over any rubber window mouldings but leave the flat glass expossed because it is just faster to razor all the glass when done. As you can see I use what ever paper is around this time it was christmas wrapping paper.

Some of them like this one have not been perfect, but it is head and shoulders above what it used to be with the most minimal amount of effort.

I am uploading more pictures right now of all of the progress the red 87 is back to completely stock and everything is ready to go in the olive 88. also put some toyota 80 series landcruiser springs into my front struts gave just more then 4" of lift I will post up picks later tonight hopefully, GTG to work right now.

[HomeSkool]

I never thought about razoring the glass. Thats a good idea, I was actually woundering about that when I only saw the window rubber taped. Thats awesome that you have done so many cars this way. You don't still happen to have your 510 do you? My brother has one and It has been a project car for us for some time. So I have a large passion for 510's. They are slick classy little cars.

Did you have to do any Body work at all? Any dents or rust you had to grind out? I have the classic rust happening in the back doors (not my yellow car) where the water falls threw just above the rear wheel. It's not much but I was going to use a Dremel to grind the rust out and I had'nt decided what to use to fill it. I have a bad feeling about useing Bondo. Has anyone ever heard of some type of metal filler thats worth useing?

Barto I'm assuming you painted the car right where you took the pictures? in your little garage? I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to errect a little paint booth out of tarps. Late last year I talked to a few body shops about renting their shop to spray it quickly and they want insane figures to even roll my into the booth. And most of course told me I could do the prep work, but they would still spray it. And they wanted $500 even if I provided the paint. Not out of my price range but I still don't need to spend that kind of money when I know I can do it for free. Anyways. Still congrads, I hope I can get as good as you at spray bombing cars. I'm going to start sanding it soon with all this good weather we've been having

[takza]

The best rust hole method other than welding...is probably fiberglass (mat and resin) and then bondo....then body putty to finish.

I have those small rust spots each side right at the seam above the rear wheels...got the rust stopped more or less...using Zero Rust paint...but they don't exactly look all that great. Might be stopped due to using roof tar inside the wheel well.

Major issues I still deal with are the "lips" on the front fender and around the rubber seal on the rear hatch window.

[Barto]

So it has been a long time since an update Life has become more and more busy. Work on the The Tercel has continued, however........

First on the list was to come up with a solution for the weak front spring rate that these cars have. I drive my car HARD and the constant bottoming out of the front suspension was becoming more and more annoying bye the bump, let alone when Off-roading which is 90% of what this car see's. This problem had to be addressed.

I initially had a set of landcruiser coil springs from an 80 series. Knowing that these springs are very stiff I began cutting them down to achieve the right length.
The main reason for trying these were because of the identicle diameter to the stock tercel front spring.

Side by side


Factory rubber on cruiser spring


Factory Spring Hat on cruiser spring


These thing are a perfect fit everything bolted together with ease

Land cruiser spring vs. Tercel spring


So after all of this I put them back in, fingers crossed that I had eliminated enough of the spring rate to make them work in such a light vehicle.I put the car on it's own weight and sure enough there was no down travel and they rode like they were solid mounted, and lifted the front end 4" over stock needless to say I gave up that day and went back at it a couple of days later.

After yet another trip to the junkyard ( I have a great re-pore with the owner) I started checking every single import 80-90's era front wheel drive and realized that spring hats are interchangeable between almost similar weight vehicles. I came across a 1986 toyota Camry started measuring and I hit the nail on the head.
I purchased the pair of struts for 40$ and went home. So what you need to do is use the spring and spring hat from the camry strut and assemble it into the tercel strut. I did not have my camera with me when I Assembled these (sorry). But They went together very easily and worked out perfectly

Here is a pic of hybrid Strut in car with mud from first test run.


After the first road test these springs are AWSOME all of the issues were eliminated and the car handles amazingly. No more nose diving or bottoming out.........
And Off-Road WOW!!!! Hitting wash board @ 50mph with No loss of control and a very nice ride.
I will never drive another tercel without doing this upgrade, they should have done this from the factory.......
When I put these hybrid struts back in I also used my old strut spacers that are 1 3/4" with this I gained 4" over stock, exactly what I wanted but it left the CV angle to be less them desirable. I decided to do a 5/8" Drive train Drop with solid aluminum Spacers. I only dropped the engine end not the transmission end. This put my CV angle back to within a few degrees of stock. but keeps my driveshaft out-put higher.

The rear suspension is the pathfinder spring set up from the 87' which gives 4" of lift over stock so the car is sitting nice and level
also finished up the winch mount for the front bumper with bull bar





The front bumper with winch


A Scenic Shot








.Thats All for now Fingers Sore from typing

[blade]

hey barto i have been fallowing you for a bit i have got the springs in and the rear bumper off and the metal for a new one but i need some measerments can you give me the dimentions from the bends so i can start???

Thanks Blade

[takza]

Best offroad build yet?

I'd still watch those swaybar ends though....

[HomeSkool]

Thanks for all the pics Barto.
I'm still insanly interested in talking to you about fabing up a new rear bumper for my Yellow Wagon.
We should talk costs sometime so you'll know it's worth your while. But I understand how life gets in the way.

For 4x4 upgrades Barto's build has my vote for best offroad build

[SynthDesign]

Another Vote for best Off-Roader and a wonderful write up.

Can I get a level picture of ride height? Also any chance you may have check the mileage on the 86 Camry when you pulled em?
Just curious if they have sagged from the original height.

How many inches would you say you are lifted from the original suspension front and rear?
How much stiffer of a ride?
Any problems with the drive-line, brake lines or E-bake cables?
How is the steering alignment?


Keep up the good work.