Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

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MrWrench
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My tercel:: 1985 Tercel SR5. aka Spud
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Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by MrWrench »

Hello all, I would love to share with you the craziness that is the past few weeks for me.

My friend Alex, who has a 1984 Tercel4wd and lives relatively close to me. Sent me this photo he had received from a mutual friend.
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After a bit of talking, he got an approximate location of where they were. To our surprise, it was rouugly 10 miles away from the town mentioned. After several (and I mean SEVERAL) hours of searching through Google Satellite view, we finally found what appears to match the image above.
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So, we talked back and forth and agreed that it was most likely the location. It was a hair over an hour from where we are. But we absolutely had to check out the location and see if they were there, and if the owner was interested in selling them.

So we planned a road trip, met up with each other and headed out!
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About an hour later, we pulled in a driveway to see two Tercel4wds sitting in a yard. We knocked on the door hoping we wouldn't be greeted by 12 gauge double barrel. To our surprise, the owner who is in his mid 70s, answered the door. So we explained who we are and how we noticed there was two wagons in his yard and wondered what his plans were.
The guy got a big smile on his face and was very excited to see two Tercel4wds still on the road. He said he had owned 6 or 8 (I can't remember off hand)

The story of these wagons goes, the 1983 was a daily driver in Michigan untill one day he went to jack the car up and the jack went through the floorboards. So after that he parked it and went to driving other things. The 86 he said he purchased in 2009 with a bad transmission and never got it on the road. So it has been sitting a long while.

After a bit of tinkering with the 83 (which he claimed had only been sitting for two years) it fired up with a few squirts of ether and a jumper pack (to my amazement) and it idled like new! I absolutely couldn't believe it.

So, after this part. We got down to business and asked what he wanted for the pair of them. He sat there for a few moments and decided $500 for the pair. We were very excited and quickly agreed on the deal.

That weekend we showed up with trucks and trailers ready to load them up! The 1983 fired up on a jumper pack with no effort and idled beautifully. It drove almost to the trailer before completely falling apart rustwise. Which is unfortunate. But there's a lot of salvageable parts on the car. It has a very clean interior, a good transmissions, good glass, lenses, bumpers and several other parts.

The 86 has a pretty rough interior and a bad transmission, but has a pretty solid body with very minimal rust. (especially for a Michigan car)

I am hoping to get the 86 back on the road this fall, but I'm desperately searching for a transmission and need to remove the engine and go through that as well. Hopefully if you guys are interested, I'll upload some more photos of the restoration of the 86 and the dismantling of the 83.

Here is a few photos of us picking the cars up!
Thanks for reading!

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1984 SR5. Lifted offroader with a snorkel. Aka "Thunderbucket"
1985 SR5. Daily driver. Aka "Spud"
1986 SR5. Dakar Rally clone build.
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Mattel
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My tercel:: 1988 Corolla 4wd Wagon (AKA Corolla All-trac) 5speed, AC, Power Sunroof, Windows, Mirrors, Steering, Locking, Diff Lock, 14" Corolla SX Alloys with Silica Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, 210,000kms
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by Mattel »

Great work guys, nice sleuthing! If you use the 83 transmission on the 86 you will have to make sure you use the same diffs on the front and back (best to change over the whole rear end as the ratios changed in '85. I would be replacing the transmission oil on both first though to see if you could get them working better.
Previous: 83 Tercel SR5 4wd, 84 Tercel SR5 4wd
88 Corolla 4wd Wagon 5speed, All power options, Fact Sunroof, Diff Lock, 14" SX Alloys, Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, Tow Bar, 210,000kms
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MrWrench
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Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 9:10 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel SR5. aka Spud
Location: Michigan
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by MrWrench »

Haha yes! We were excited to finally track them down.
We ended up splitting the cars up since my 85 would use the same components as the 86, I got that one.
He wanted the 83 (rusty car) anyway because of his transmission fitting that one. He unfortunately said he didn't want to sell the transmission out of it. (I don't blame him) but I am buying the interior off of it since the seats are actually pretty clean and haven't been covered in cat poop. Which is a huge bonus!

Here is the picture from yesterday of us getting ready to remove the engine and transmission.
IMG_20200429_190657.jpg
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1984 SR5. Lifted offroader with a snorkel. Aka "Thunderbucket"
1985 SR5. Daily driver. Aka "Spud"
1986 SR5. Dakar Rally clone build.
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splatterdog
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Location: Minnesota, USA

Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by splatterdog »

Nice work! Hope I live long enough to be that old guy with T4 yard ornaments.
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MrWrench
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My tercel:: 1985 Tercel SR5. aka Spud
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by MrWrench »

splatterdog wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:42 am Nice work! Hope I live long enough to be that old guy with T4 yard ornaments.
Same here. I also hope if I make it to that point, two more people show up and ask to buy them. The story that car could tell if it survives to that point! 8)
1984 SR5. Lifted offroader with a snorkel. Aka "Thunderbucket"
1985 SR5. Daily driver. Aka "Spud"
1986 SR5. Dakar Rally clone build.
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dlb
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My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by dlb »

Great story. The rust on the two-tone one is incredible. Working on this kind of stuff is a great way to spend time right now.
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splatterdog
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by splatterdog »

dlb wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:42 pm Great story. The rust on the two-tone one is incredible. Working on this kind of stuff is a great way to spend time right now.
You aint seen nuthin! The Icehawk already had some fishing holes before the project started. This got treated with a sheet of 304 stainless that I might cut out for reuse.
20191207_165717.jpg
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dlb
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by dlb »

splatterdog wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:19 pm You aint seen nuthin! The Icehawk already had some fishing holes before the project started. This got treated with a sheet of 304 stainless that I might cut out for reuse. 20191207_165717.jpg
:O!!!
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MrWrench
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My tercel:: 1985 Tercel SR5. aka Spud
Location: Michigan
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by MrWrench »

dlb wrote: Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:42 pm Great story. The rust on the two-tone one is incredible. Working on this kind of stuff is a great way to spend time right now.
I completely agree! It's been a great experience over these past few weeks. Unfortunately I'm going back to working 5 days on Monday. So the free time for this project will be cut down slightly, but it's not the end of the world. I am hoping to get the engine removed tomorrow from my 86. I'm going to go through it and make sure it's healthy inside and give it some new seals, rings and bearings (as needed)
1984 SR5. Lifted offroader with a snorkel. Aka "Thunderbucket"
1985 SR5. Daily driver. Aka "Spud"
1986 SR5. Dakar Rally clone build.
User avatar
MrWrench
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Posts: 252
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 9:10 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel SR5. aka Spud
Location: Michigan
Contact:

Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by MrWrench »

You aint seen nuthin! The Icehawk already had some fishing holes before the project started. This got treated with a sheet of 304 stainless that I might cut out for reuse. 20191207_165717.jpg
[/quote]

Oof! That's pretty crusty! Unfortunately this cars control arms completely broke off during the unloading/loading on the trailer. That and the subframe is a little bit messed up.
It's sad it's unable to be saved. But at least we're getting salvageable parts off it!
IMG_20200429_181940.jpg
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1984 SR5. Lifted offroader with a snorkel. Aka "Thunderbucket"
1985 SR5. Daily driver. Aka "Spud"
1986 SR5. Dakar Rally clone build.
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by Petros »

MrWrench wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 7:59 pm It's sad it's unable to be saved. But at least we're getting salvageable parts off it!
Ha! anything can be saved, the real question is all the effort worth it. considering you can still find good one out west, a trip to bring one home from another state is far less costly and time consuming than rebuilding a rusted out under-body.
'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)
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MrWrench
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Posts: 252
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 9:10 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel SR5. aka Spud
Location: Michigan
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Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by MrWrench »

Petros wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 9:24 pm
MrWrench wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 7:59 pm It's sad it's unable to be saved. But at least we're getting salvageable parts off it!
Ha! anything can be saved, the real question is all the effort worth it. considering you can still find good one out west, a trip to bring one home from another state is far less costly and time consuming than rebuilding a rusted out under-body.
This is true. It is unable to be saved with our skills and finances. But we're going to remove everything of value and use those parts to keep other Tercel4wd cars on the road!
1984 SR5. Lifted offroader with a snorkel. Aka "Thunderbucket"
1985 SR5. Daily driver. Aka "Spud"
1986 SR5. Dakar Rally clone build.
User avatar
MrWrench
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Posts: 252
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 9:10 pm
My tercel:: 1985 Tercel SR5. aka Spud
Location: Michigan
Contact:

Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by MrWrench »

All the glass and almost everything salvageable has been removed. Some of the seatbelts have been chewed up by mice or the brackets are very very rusty so those were left behind. Along with the hatch latch but that's about it.
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1984 SR5. Lifted offroader with a snorkel. Aka "Thunderbucket"
1985 SR5. Daily driver. Aka "Spud"
1986 SR5. Dakar Rally clone build.
User avatar
Mattel
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Posts: 1788
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 12:11 am
My tercel:: 1988 Corolla 4wd Wagon (AKA Corolla All-trac) 5speed, AC, Power Sunroof, Windows, Mirrors, Steering, Locking, Diff Lock, 14" Corolla SX Alloys with Silica Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, 210,000kms
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by Mattel »

side running strips!.. seriously though. good work.
Previous: 83 Tercel SR5 4wd, 84 Tercel SR5 4wd
88 Corolla 4wd Wagon 5speed, All power options, Fact Sunroof, Diff Lock, 14" SX Alloys, Hankook Tyres, 4afe, King Springs, Upgraded Headlights, Full Synth oils, Tow Bar, 210,000kms
User avatar
Petros
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Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Two recently rescued Tercel4wd cars.

Post by Petros »

wait!

the steering rack and front suspension appears to be still in place. get the steering rack, and that link between it and the steering column with the mini-u-joint on it. upper strut mounts, if good, are worth keeping (they sometimes give up), and I would keep the front steering knuckles with the front wheel bearings in them. if your car needs front wheel bearings it is much easier to just swap out the whole steering knuckle assembly in an hour.
'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)
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