Hello Everyone. I am about to start my mini project of getting my "RatMobile" mobile again so I can save some money on gas my Jeep is too expensive to drive all year round).
This tercel was left for dead as my parts car about 3 years ago (parts car for my yellow Tercel). It was left in a field above my house with a few other old wrecks and (of course) rats and mice got into it. They made nests everywhere. Even in the roof between the outer metal roof and the head liner. So much mice waste I was concerned I would get the hantavirus. Long story short I pulled out all carpets and the roof liner. Burnt it all. Then sprayed bed liner everywhere. I even removed the vents behind the dash due to the fact they had a very large amount of mouse waste. I didn't want my air supply to pass over mice waste. This was 4 years ago. I drove it for a winter then parked it for the rest of it's life. 3 years later I am trying to give it another go. Fingers Crossed
Well. It managed to start. Popped it into 4 wheel drive and drove it out of the snowy grave it was left to die in. Minus a few parts I have already stolen over the years.
So before I get going I wanted to share a few photos. The first two photos are of my Yellow Tercel and my old 2WD Tercel I sold to my brothers girl friend (even though it was 2WD it was still hard for me to part with). Her and my brother did a ton of body work and gave it new paint. I wanted to share photos of the two cars together because I have not posted anything in awhile.
I'll post pictures of the RatMobile Project really quick here.
Hey irowiki! I rolled up one of my other alloy rims next to the blue tercel just after the paint had been sprayed. We wanted to see what it would look like with proper rims and tires. Here is the shot we took. They need wheel spacers to actually fit on the car otherwise they rub. I sold the car to my brothers girl friend but if I ever own it again I'll get the spacers and do this combo.
If you don't have a wide screen monitor or if your resolutions is set to low you might have to "save the picture to your computer to see far enough to the right to see the rim and tire combo.
dlb! Good guess but it's not actually the RatMobile in the upper level of the property. If you look really close you can notice the rear window is too large compared to the surrounding body for a rear window of a Tercel. That's actually a canopy on my Mazda B2200 Parts truck. That is a different low rider project I am working on. That said when this photo was taken the RatMobile was just to the right of the truck just barely out of sight.
Pull all the parts you want to save...then replace with awesome home built rat rod ish parts. Like hospital bed rails for doors....( I made tube doors out of them).
Tube doors for a Tercel? Do you have any photos? I am concerned if I do any crazy mods like that I'd get pulled over and on closer inspection they might deem the car un-road worthy.
I forgot you were in canada. Id check with the ratrod guys in your area for ideas. Find out whats legal and whatnot. Virginia has some stupid crazy laws and Id like to run doorless up there, but its illegal? So Tube doors it is. Technically....its a door. And Im not from there their state, just occasionally go there.
That looks fantastic... lol. Good job man. I'm in British Columbia and I've looked into tube doors for my jeep. Doorless is out of the question unless the vehicle came without doors. Which was only an option of some pre 80's jeeps. There is a huge grey area here with Tube doors. I see people running around with tube doors on their jeeps but I've also heard of people being pulled over. So it's a bit of a gamble. On a Tercel? They'd pull you over forsure just because they have not seen it before. If I had tube doors like yours I'd risk it for fun factor.
The only way Its seams to be legal around here (NC) is if you have a lip at the bottom like a jeep. A pickup truck without doors is SOL cause you can drop stuff and it can fall out of the vehicle. I make sure I have my fender mirror when I run doorless and nobody has ever bothered me negatively. The only time Ive ever had a cop say anything was along the lines of; "Hey there, see you got your A/C on today. Drive safe!". 'course it was roughly 110 degrees outside. They love it. I love it. And I think the tube doors will give a semblance of at least Im trying to be safe. It really is part of a hospital bed rail, welded to a piece of angle, with hinges welded on. Hinge pins are modified too as well to allow you to just lift off the doors.
I would try...if I were you, to make a set of tube doors that look as factory as possible. Claim it as a rare JDM option. Just cut the skin and guts away and replace with finely expanded steel. That way, you still have a door, Its just kinda ventilated. Like this, but instead of tube, you use the original door.
What about Half doors? That might be a viable solution.
there are two issues I suspect: one is the safety in an accident as far as passenger protection. all cares since I think the seventies have federal regs for guard rails built into the doors, and you would have to put something in that appropriates that function. In the Tercel you can see a length of correlated metal at about mid height running from the hinge line to the about where the door latch is located against the outside skin.
The other function is that you keep arms and legs, as well as cargo, inside the passenger compartment in an accident. I knew someone that that crushed his leg when he rolled his CJ style jeep. He had a roll bar and was belted in, the only injury was when his leg went outside the foot well and was caught between the side of the jeep the the ground as it rolled over. Most racing now not just requires several heavy side bars in the roll cage, but also a tough nylon mesh over the window area to keep the drivers arms in the car.
So far we are not required to have some kind of protection for the window area, but in that jeep tube door above, it would pretty well contain your legs and small loose items. You might look up state law in your state on required equipment for passenger vehicles, all states have those regs on-line. You just have to burrow down though the layers of regs to find what you need. It is usually a section of "Safety" or "health and safety", which includes everything from sewer regulations to food handler licensing, but there will be a section on motor vehicles.
Wow good job tercel_jon on those doors! I made some half doors for my jeep awhile back and I can't wait to find matching doors for the Tercel so I can make some again.
.......flex shots lol. Only pic I have at 3:20 am. Later I removed the rub strip and then painted the welded edges black.
I need to finish my half doors. I have a set that I started, but never finished since I didnt have a mig. Been on the hunt for some cheap expanded steel mesh to add in between the tubes on the tube doors, no luck yet.
Having been flipped in a tercel before, its eerie. Id also like to point out, that rat rod type vehicles generally arent all that safe to begin with. The tercels might have that crash bar in the door, but that might only help at a <20mph accident. I was T-boned in my first one (a hatch) right on the front fender by a minivan doing a good 60+. Moved the whole front end over an entire foot. If any of us were to get hit in the side like that, I strongly believe we'll be dead anyway, crash bar or no crash bar. Take a look at the hood latch, compare it to the midpoint between the seats, and the antenna.
but instead of tube, you use the original door. 
