The State of the Fleet!

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irowiki
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Location: Farmington, NM

The State of the Fleet!

Post by irowiki »

Here's the status of my fleet since a few have asked, with some backstory and pictures :D Presented roughly in the order we bought them. Check the end of the post for a link to full sized pictures.




1981 Tercel Sedan Sassy 219K:

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My first Tercel, a first gen sedan, bought on ebay when I was looking for a second car for commuting sake (only had one car at the time and the wife was moving here soon), at the time I knew nothing about Tercels. Heck, didn't know much about fixing cars in general! The first gen shares the engine and part of the driveline with the second generation tercels. After finding an online forum, I dove in and started fixing things myself, and building up my tool repository! The same forum also introduced us to the Tercel Wagons, which then jump started the bigger journey.

Sassy was so named because in her early days, her previous owners left her engine a mess (chopped off all vacuum stuff off the carb and sealed them with epoxy), she was finicky to run sometimes, hence we decided to call her Sassy.

After fixing a massive oil leak (every seal at the front of the engine was bad), installing an actual working first gen carb, fixing rotted fuel lines, bad drive axles, flushing the transmission, replacing the radiator, replacing almost all the inside plastic trim (most of it was missing), abating body rust, and finding many other missing things from junkyard cars, she's much more complete than she was!



1984 Tercel Wagon 4WD (Auto) Pokey 230K:

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Our first wagon! An automatic, 4WD Wagon,  Pokey hails from California (cali emissions equipped) but spent a lot of time in Montana (engine block heater). We flew to Washington state and drove Pokey back to New Mexico.

So named because down near sea level she had lots of power and was very responsive. As we got above 5,000 feet after we hit Colorado, we could definitely tell she was getting pokey, and the name stuck. This was our battle wagon, and earned many stars in the line of duty. Over the next 12,000 miles she  hauled an engine for Party back from phoenix, towed Snap several miles back to home, and was loaded to the gunnels with various things many times.

The only problem was she burned oil. A lot of oil, one quart every 100 miles, to be exact. No amount of magic solutions worked. It was clear the engine needed rebuilding.

Meanwhile, my dad was looking for another car, for zipping around town and such. So I sold him Pokey, and helped him rebuild the motor. The oil burning is gone and she lives on today. She'll be upgraded to 14 inch wheels and probably receive a weber soon.



1987 Tercel Wagon FWD (Auto) Party 62K:

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You read that right, 62K miles! The pride and joy of our fleet! Almost perfect inside and out. How did we find such a car?

Well, an old lady was the original owner of the car. She took it to Jiffy Lube one fine day in Summer 2011. Jiffy Lube, in the time honored tradition of of drunk people changing the oil, forgot to put oil back in. She made it another five miles before KABLAM. Fist sized hole in the block and oil pan.

The name Party came from a play on "Parts Car" and having a Party Wagon sounded like a good idea!

So we picked up an engine from an 82 Tercel that had been rebuilt recently, and swapped it into Party. That was fun. For example, you have to rotate the engine to spin the drive plate to get the torque converter bolts off...except the engine was seized. Ended up needed a three foot pipe wrench on the end of the crankshaft to break that sucker loose. The engine swap was the most complex thing I ever did on the car and left us quite proud of ourselves at the end.

Took the alloy wheels from Snap and put them on Party, I think the resulting look is very sporty:

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She's nearly done now, just needs some carb work, and we have everything we need for a full suspension swap including one of the last set of FWD Wagon rear springs! (will do the swap this spring).



1987 Tercel Wagon 4WD SR5 Snap 300K:


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We couldn't pass this one up. A rust free wagon with a blown transmission for $200? Sign me up! Of course, there was a catch (or a few). The rear window had been shot out 2 years into the 10 years it sat, and the driver window and sunroof were left partially open, as a result the inside smells like cats used it as a litterbox and it's filthy.

The name came about as we were towing her home. The tow strap, on a downhill left turn, got wrapped around the front tire and snapped.

We bought a new hatch, a used transmission out of a tboned tercel wagon, will probably take out the carpet, clean everything top to bottom, swap in a set of DLX vinyl seats, then decide if we want to keep her as a beater lifted off-road wagon or sell her and profit! Alternatively we have considered just keeping her as a spare body.

The nice rare 87 alloy wheels were swapped to Party, which pretty much paid for the car anyway.



1983 Tercel Wagon 4WD SR5 Buck 175K:

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Our keeper wagon, Buck is our winter warrior and best runner. Saved from the California Crushers, Buck is an Arizona car and it shows. Her once gold/brown two tone paint has faded to a more....light brown.

The car was posted "First $500 gets her", she had failed California emissions due to .. high idle. New windshield, new cat converter, new tires, and some other stuff. So we flew out to California to pick the car up and drive her back. In a sad plot twist, the guy selling us the car died three weeks before we were going to pick her up. Thankfully he left us enough notes, and his daughter was able to contact us and complete the sale.

The drive home was not without problems though. She'd randomly cut out while at speed, and start bucking and heaving and all sorts of crazy things. We decided right then and there to name her Buck. The first problem was the fuel filter had been installed backwards and was plugged. Then we found out the PCV valve was dry rotted causing the mother of all vacuum leaks. Then the carb plugged up and was swapped, the fuel pump went bad, the starter croaked, and multiple fuel filters were swapped out. The fuel sender also went bad, and I'm in the process of fixing that.

When all is well, not completely loaded down, and using summer gas, she gets 30-35 MPG cruising down the highway and we're tickled pink by that. We think this just might be our keeper. Next up is a timing belt / seals / water pump / thermostat / cooling flush / belt job.


Buck even does camping. Hiding out in her natural habitat:
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Turning 175!
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Did I say Winter Warrior? Oh and it was cold. (yes, the rear end is sagging. We had seven 14" alloy rims, a transmission, and a bunch of other stuff in there.
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1985 Tercel Hatchback Paddle 148K:


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We bought Paddle for cheap, thinking she'd replace Sassy as my commuter car (AC and a rear defroster being a big plus). The name came from the wife commenting that "She looks like she was taken out back and beat with a paddle"

Previous owner "rebuilt" the carburetor and as a result she doesn't like to start, or idle... so I need to fix that. Unfortunately with baby #2 on the way, this car will probably end up being flipped, as I would just use Party for commuting in the long run.


1992 Camry Wagon, 274k:

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With baby #2 on the way, we needed a bigger car. We still wanted a wagon, and wanted to stick with a Toyota. The Camry was the answer! Bought with a bad head gasket, we're rebuilding the engine and hope to have her back on the road by Valentines day.






Full sized pictures can be found here: http://goo.gl/4Nr0Fn
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
snephi11
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Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Sep 21, 2014 11:31 am
My tercel:: 1986 Tercel SR5 manual(duh)

Re: The State of the Fleet!

Post by snephi11 »

Nice! I've never driven an auto. I bet they are more comfortable for long trips! I hope to have as many, if not more someday!
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Petros
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Posts: 11930
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: The State of the Fleet!

Post by Petros »

quite a collection there paul, might be time for an intervention soon if you keep this up.
'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)
Vienna
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Posts: 99
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:49 am

Re: The State of the Fleet!

Post by Vienna »

We're actually planning to thin them down but we've been busy with so many other things (mostly the camry eating all our "free" weekend time). We need to do some final things to both sassy and paddle before we post them up for sale.
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irowiki
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:02 am
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: The State of the Fleet!

Post by irowiki »

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Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
natehack5
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Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:08 pm
My tercel:: 1985 SR5 4x4
Location: Saint Cloud MN

Re: The State of the Fleet!

Post by natehack5 »

What a great stable filled with stories!

Nice to know there are some others out there who get attached to their cars and remember adventures with them.
1985 Tercel Wagon SR5 4x4, manual, 275k miles maybe? local adventure wagon, learning tool
2010 VW Sportwagen TDI, DSG, 51k miles, long adventure wagon, so very efficient/smooth/quiet
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irowiki
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Posts: 3463
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:02 am
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: The State of the Fleet!

Post by irowiki »

Paddle now runs like a champ! Or at least idles like a champ. Swapped carbs with Pokey's old rich running carb (but it at least ran) and Paddle started right up, warmed up, and idled fine. Shut down, and started up again just fine. Finally!
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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