Designing the actual website...

[icE]

Trying to think of a color scheme for the site. I might use the same colors as the forum (bluish and white) since it looks pretty nice. Dark background probably. And the .com name comes with some meta tags and a description to use incase we submit to some search engines (google, yahoo, etc) which i may do shortly. So gimme some keywords to use, like 4wd, tercel, tercel repair, etc. And a short 1-2 sentence description of the site. I dunno why but i'm having writers and designers block today lol.

I did come up with a really good idea today though. You know how gaming clans have a roster, with a profile on each member....i might add a section like that to the site, where you have your name, some photos of your tercel, some info on what you've done to it etc, even video if you have some (i can host it on here no prob, as long as it isnt super huge lol). So, something like a mini-site on your own personal tercel. We'll have more details on that as the site progresses, gotta have the basic sections on there first.

Here's a basic layout of the site which was emailed to me a few days ago. These would be the menu items:

1. Detailed specs and information about the car, including the differences
between the 83-84's, 85-86's and 87-88's, different trim levels, and US,
European and JDM versions.

2. Technical information. Information about repair and maintenance
procedures and other resources to help people with working on their cars.
Also information about parts interchangeability with other Toyotas.

3. Articles. The collection of sales brochures, magazine articles, owners
manuals, repair manuals and such will go here. I have tons of this stuff
and the collection is growing.

4. Driving. This focuses on actually driving the Tercel, like how to
handle it in the snow and off road. Also things like towing and hauling
which the Tercel 4wd is good at. The Tercel can do amazing things on
slippery surfaces, and there is a real technique to it that I have learned.
Some videos would be nice here.

5. Members: Pictures and stuff about members cars, as well as the members
themselves. Each member would be able to share how they got to like the
Tercel wagon and the ways they use it.

6. Pictures - all miscellaneous Tercel pictures, I have tons.

7. Board
---------------------
So the menu would probably look something like this....

Home
Forums
Member Profiles (or something like that)
History of the Tercel 4WD
Technical Information (repairs, part info, etc)
Archive (photos, videos, articles, catalogs, manuals, etc)
Contact Webmaster (which would be a link to my email address)

Wow i didn't know i could type so much

[GTSSportCoupe]

Sounds like a perfect layout to me.

Let me know if you'd like me to scan in and pdf the entire factory repair manual (for the 86 tercel). I'll probably do it in pdf sections as per the repair manual sections.

Nick

[icE]

ahhh that might take up too much space but thanks tho

[GTSSportCoupe]

OK, no prob. We can always provide sections from it, such as maintenance schedule, torque specs, and wiring diagram or something.

[Thereminator]

Hey Ice and Nick it looks like things are going pretty well for a new-born web site and Im glad Ice is thinking "Down the road".I hope he has thick-skin and his head isnt spining to much.I have one suggestion and one observation.My sugguestion is that wile I think the 4 forum catagories are "just right",we should drive-home the point that three of the catagories are fairly specific;newparts/clasified,Repair,and events.It seems that the diference between a specific forum and the Gen. is that the Gen. is a "Free-flowing" exchange while the specifics are suplied by a single source,acting more as a referance(Examp:When I talked about Clutches,I should have used Gen.).Im worried that if we dont reconize the diference,the'll lose there individual significance and Jon's Orwellian nightmare may unfold! My observation is that the managment will soon have to become more of a Republic and less of a Democracy as the Websites form solidifies.So that you are not constantly torn-apart by conflicting opinion,The moderaters will have to step-up and make operational decisions.Anyway thats my two cents,Thanks and I Hope the wind is at your back. Alan

[icE]

We'll do our best

[tercel4wdrules]

Hi,

As you guys heard from 3A-C power, him and I (Carlos) had been working on a Tercel 4WD website. I want to offer you my logo that I had done for our website. Where do I send it? I think the logo of our website should be the "TOYOTA 4WD" on the grille which I made, and if your have a menu, put the trunk emblem "TERCEL 4WD." I was using the original emblem 83-84 style, because I personally think it's easier to draw, as I know a lot about the logo designs. I was thinking about the color scheme as the original colors the Tercel 4WD was available with, but seems like it can get complicated. If you need good pictures of Tercel 4WDs to tell the differences between the 83-84s, the 85-86s, and the 87-88s then I have some. I think I might even have enough pictures to describe the deferences between the SR5 trim models with the deluxe ones. The only pictures I lack are the interior ones. Maybe someone who owns multiple Tercel 4WDs that have a good original interior can share pictures.

These are the sections that 3A-C power emailed me:

Tercel 4WD history
This would explain the history of the Tercel 4WD beginning in 1980 when
the Tercel was Toyota's first front wheel drive car, and the engine /
transmission placement made it very easy to convert to 4WD, and when the
next generation Tercel came out in 1983, they made a 4WD version. It would
then describe the basic design and features of the car and the difference
between model years. Then it would talk about how the Corolla wagon
replaced it in 1988, having the same name (sprinter carib) as the Tercel
wagon but being based on the Corolla. Then it would explain how the later
Corolla based Sprinter Carib continued for two more generations in Japan and
elsewhere, retaining the basic style of the Tercel and Corolla wagons, but
unfortunately they were never shipped to North America.

Technical Information
Similar to the "Tech Reference" section on Club 4AG, this section would
have everything we know technically about the Tercel 4WD, like gear ratios,
final drive ratios, parts interchangeability with other Toyotas, maintenance
and repair procedures, and wiring information. The service manual would go
here as well. There would be some overlap with the history section as we
get into what parts were different between 83-84, 85-86 and 87-88 models,
and how they can be changed with each other. We would also have information
about different engines that fit, and how to change your engine.

Tercel 4WD articles and publications
This would contain a collection of things like car magazine articles,
Toyota sales brochures, instruction manuals and the like. I have a growing
collection of this stuff, it's all on the Files part of the Yahoo board.
For our own page, I would like to retype the articles wherever I can without
ruining their presentation. For example the road test article is just text
and pictures independently, so I can type the text and insert the pictures,
then convert it to HTML, and it will look fine. The sales brochures are
different because the text and photos are all integrated so we will have to
keep those as jpeg images.

Photos
This would be dedicated to photos of real people's Tercel 4WDs. Each
member would have their own photo section, and there would also be a section
for miscellaneous sightings like the ones on ebay for example. We would try
to take interesting photos that shows every detail of the Tercel. We would
also try to make our cars look good by taking pictures of them in
interesting settings, like on the beach in the moonlight, or whatever. Good
action shots of them climbing really steep hills or skidding in the snow
would also be good. Actually, we need videos of our Tercels doing cool
stuff.

Driving Technique
Using descriptions, diagrams and possibly video, we would explain how to
get the most of the Tercel 4WD's handling in snow and off-road situations.
I have enough experience doing skids and negotiating climbs that I could
write a fair amount here. I'm no expert in skid control however, and we
should probably include some basic information from a trusted source. A 4WD
car can do a lot of interesting and fun things on a slippery surface, which a
lot of people don't know about. Most people think you need a rear wheel
drive car to have good skid control, but I've learned how to control the
Tercel 4WD in snow to make it do things like spin around continuously in
circles without moving forward or backward at all, and make it go almost
completely sideways without turning. This stuff will be instrumental in
attracting people to the Tercel 4WD.

Title Page
I thought about how important this needs to be. It needs to look
professional, show how fun the Tercel 4WD is, and it should give the reader
the impression that the Tercel 4WD already has a dedicated following. If we
can give this impression, then people who come across the site that aren't
already owners will be more likely to get interested in the car, start
reading more of the web site, and start to want a Tercel 4WD for themselves.
My objective in having a web site is not only to help those who own one of
these cars but to spread the message of how good a car it is, and have more
people buy them and take care of them while there are still a lot of these
cars running and in good condition. That will help ensure that the cars
stay on the road in the hands of good owners rather than being abused, going
to the junkyard and getting crushed.

Forum
We should start off with just one forum because it will be very small.
If it ever gets to the point where there are a lot of messages being posted,
we could make different sections for it, but lets not even worry about that
now.

Members
I want to have a member profile section that encourages all members to
share about where they live, what they do, what their other interests are
and so on. It would have pictures of them and their car if they have one.

Updates
I would like to have some way to keep the site somewhat dynamic to give
the feeling that there are things going on. We could have a photo of the
week on our title page, links to a featured article, for example.

So as you guys can see we were really thinking about the layout one the web page. Great, I just can't wait to see how this page is going to come up. If you need help I have Studio MX 2003 for Mac OS X and have Dreamweaver 3 and Fireworks 3. I also have some other handy apps around too so I can help too ya know.

[icE]

Very nice Every lil bit of info helps! I already have a top header, but you can send the pics to my email: DigitalFusionX@earthlink.net I'm sure i can find a way to use everything