any slammed, stanced, or lowered Tercel Wagons?

[OLLIE86WAGON]

This is my 1986 Tercel 2WD Wagon. I bought it from a local car repair shop that has owned it the last 18years. It was a shop car and maintained by them. Everything in the car works. I did the following to it:
New windshield, steering wheel, shift knob, passenger side window reg, 13x7 wheels with 175/50/13 tires.
I drive this car daily 40 miles to work. Haven't seen too many on the road here (I'm in Tacoma Wa area). Cheers!
..oh I also lowered it

[irowiki]

Please make one post, instead of 9 posts for each picture! Just click the edit button on your post.

Anyway, I've never seen the point of lowering cars.

[OLLIE86WAGON]

Sorry for the overpost. I'm new here and it's took me awhile to figure out the process. I joined this site to look for information and find possible other persons with the same interest. BOOM, right off the back you hit me with a smart ass comment. Not knowing who I am, what I do, what I've driven before. If you're a MOD, please feel free to boot me and delete my multiple posts. I'm sorry that we have a difference of tastes in styles of cars.

[irowiki]

I already fixed the multi post, and that is no big deal.

That was no smart ass comment, I, myself, really see no point in lowering cars, hence none of my cars are lowered and will never be, in answer to your question. Almost everyone who has a Tercel Wagon wants MORE clearance. If you lower yours that's cool, there's been others too but they aren't active anymore.

[OLLIE86WAGON]

Thank you for that clarification.

[dlb]

weclome to the forum, ollie. not many have lowered their tercs but there have been a few. here are a few threads that mention it. the first one is really long but i think the lowering starts around page 6.

viewtopic.php?t=9536

here's another

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7784&p=56963

[Sparkey]

Nice looking Tercel. I Like the deep dish Wheels. Keep posting your up grades and improvements.
Keep doing what you do don't follow the masses.

[splatterdog]

Aw come on, you had to expect a little negativity on a forum with 4wd in the website name. I'm with irowiki on the lowering. When I service a stanced car, I'm not afraid to let the owner know how against it I am. All get an automatic hoist set up fee. They all seem to take it in stride though and neither of us takes it personal. I would think you would be at least a little used to smart ass comments by now.

Being a 2wd, it's of little concern to me anyways, as is any 2wd vehicle. Nice clean Terc though. Even the front wheel alignment doesn't look completely clown like. It could always be a parts car for a T4.

There's a compliment in there somewhere..

Welcome and enjoy the wealth of info that largely applies to your car too.

[drege]

Lol at irowiki and splatter dog.
Ollie how'd you do it? cut springs and spacers? or did you get a pro kit. Gonna do any engine mods?
if you did a bore/stroke cold air intake that'd be pretty cool.
Me personaly I'd install a body kit before lowering the chassis, there's godda something something like this

But not to a 4WD of course.
Taken from http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/134-6 ... -kits.html FYI

[OLLIE86WAGON]

The photos are of when the car had a test fit. I'm in the process of modifying ae86 suspension to use coilovers. I've done 2 FX16 GTS'S and an 89 Camry wagon. All lowered but still daily driven with no camber issues. This stock motor still runs great and the gas mileage is awesome. Maybe in the future a 20v swap...

[OLLIE86WAGON]

Functional.

[Petros]

welcome to the forum Ollie,

The members with 2wd Tercels are just as welcome as the 4wd ones. Never mind those ignorant statements by some on the forum (I do not think they intended any offense), I have owned a number of cars that I have lowered to improve their ride and handling. That was when I lived in a place that never got snow and had good roads, neither it true now.

For those that want to know, lower the car lowers the CG, and greatly improves handling, particularly if changes were made to the suspension to maintain good geometry. Lower body roll, more firm ride, more precise steering inputs, better more postitive feed back feel through the steering wheel. better dampening, bigger wheels with low profile tires, etc. all also improve these issues. It is lots of fun to drive windy mountain roads with a car like that. FYI, years ago I used to work for fully sponsored factory racing team, and as an engineer, helped develop racing cars from production chassis for Nissan. I designed the heads and throttle linkage for example, that went on the original 300zx turbo IMSA GTO racing car. Which was undefeated during its racing career (at the time, early '80's, the drive had the record for the most wins in the history of the series). I also assisted with the testing and development of other parts of the engine, and the suspension. So I know a bit about the topic.

one of the problems the Tercel suffers if that no one makes performance Tercel suspension parts, so you have to adapt and modify other suspension parts to work on it. The wagon also suffers from somewhat high cg because of the body style and engine installation, it can be greatly improved of course, but it will never be as good as a Honda wagon for example. The FX16's I can see, the GT-S is a hot version of an otherwise unremarkable car, nice work with those. I do not see the point in doing to a heavy Camry wagon, but perhaps a better handling family car? (I doubt the wife and kids would be keen on that!).

The usefulness of the 4wd is getting around in low traction environments, which usually means slower speeds, and more clearance is necessary. So dry road handling is a secondary consideration for most. I realized I drive 80 to 90 or more of my time on good paved roads, but need 4wd to get home every night on steep gravel roads, sometimes with snow and ice. So I would like improved handling for most of my driving, but really need the improved clearance at times. I am thinking to improve the handling as much as possible but keep the same ride height. So I do not loose any clearance, even so, occationally with deep snow or crossing swollen rivers, a lot for height is very desirable. I even contemplated a system that will raise it up to the limit of travel for those short crossings, or trouble spots, but allow it to settle down to slightly below stock height for normal daily driving. A lot of work, not even sure I want to do that to a daily driver.

What kind of struts and springs did you install on that Tercel? did you eliminate that big squishy rubber donut that holds the lower arm in place at the end of the anti-sway bar? If so, how? I want to eliminate in mine, even if I do not change the ride height. Pictures of your suspension would be nice.

BTW, have you seen my tread on the Tercel brake up grade? should work on your car.

[irowiki]

Peter, my comments were hardly ignorant. I am very well aware that a lowered center of gravity makes for better handling, my dad had a Dodge Charger for several years that was very low by default, and it was amazing in the mountains by where we lived, it just zipped through the curves. but he had a hard time driving it many places because it was scraping bottom all the time.

That is all well and good for a performance car but I think such efforts are wasted on cars such as our 4WD wagons, and that is hardly an ignorant statement either. My Dodge Neon's I have owned were also lower than a Tercel, and handled nicely around curves, but still had enough ground clearance to get over things as needed. I think there's a balance here.

Around where we live, the roads are terrible, many are rutted and potholed (even the paved ones) there's a lot of snow, a lot of culverts and dips for water flow when it rains, lowered or "slammed" cars just don't work, and the ones you do see are missing bumpers and mufflers and other underside parts

[splatterdog]

Many can not be aligned either. The ones I see on the road obviously ride poorly and can't keep a straight line. Never mind tire wear. Even if they can be aligned, everything is so far out of whack any positive or negative change in ride height quickly changes that. That can happen hundreds of times per mile. Parts wear is accelerated at extreme angles and can greatly increase the risk of breakage. Reduced travel is dangerous as well.

Ignorant? I disagree.

[The Professor]

I have to admit, I like the lowered look and have a couple lowered cars in my fleet right now.

That said, there is no place for slammed/stanced cars except for on the show floor. It is a dangerous way to modify a car and anyone caught doing it should be ready for the fallout.

Lowerd is cool looking and fun to drive, but what is fun about scraping over bumps in the road, driveways and curbs? Who wants to crawl over speed bumps? And the wheel/tire fitments, don't get me started on those!

Look at the pictures in the first post and focus on the wheel and tire package. Since I currently own two cars that run 13" wheels, I can tell you first hand that the only 7" wide tire you can find in a 13" diameter is a racing tire. Because of this, Stance Nation has adopted the "stretched fitment" look. It is dangerous. Look at the tires! They look about ready to debead the moment they meet a decent pot hole! If you can't find a tire that safely fits your wheels, you need to find a new wheel.

This article will give you a quick rundown of all the evils that are "stance": http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ ... -Fail.aspx