Hi from New Mexico

[irowiki]

I figured since I'm getting involved in the board more I might as well post here.

My name's Paul and I live in Farmington, NM with my wife and two year old son. I fix computers for a living and have never been too car mechanically inclined. In most cases I know enough (or not enough) to be dangerous, but I'm improving!

I've owned the following cars:

Late 80's Nissan Pickup (hated this thing, my first ride, no power anything, the engine was a lame duck, manual trans, no AC, etc)
1981 Chevy Suburban 6.2 (family car hand me down, served me well, sold at 310k+ miles)
1995 Dodge Neon (bought at 68k, car was not very well taken care of, sold by 110k due to issues)
2005 Dodge Neon (first ebay car, bought at 23k in 2008, lives on as my youngest sister's car)
2001 Toyota Camry (second ebay car, 127k miles, sold to family for sister's car)
2000 Dodge Neon (miles was somewhere in the 100k's, totaled by someone running a stop sign a week after I bought it)
2003 Buick Regal (third ebay car, bought at 88k, at 116k now, the "wife" car)
1981 Toyota Tercel (fourth ebay car, bought as a cheap commuting car, manual, no AC, pretty much bare bones)

As you can see, I am a fan of ebay



The Tercel came about when we were looking for a cheap car I could use to commute to work. At the time I didn't really know much about Tercels, this one popped up on ebay and was within driving range, so I snapped it up. Of course, after that, I found out about 4WD Tercels and wish I had waited! I went back to toyotanation and the first thing I found about tercels was "yeah for your 1980 you should go over to tercel4wd.com since the engine is the same, they're pretty good over there" so here I am!

Eventually I hope to "upgrade" to a 4WD wagon, but finances need to catch up first. In the meantime I'm giving the current Tercel lots of love, it seems like it has been neglected for years! We call it either the "little tercel that could", "chugga chugga boom", or "Frankencel" because by the time we're done it'll have parts from like ten different Tercels (and wagons!)

My Tercel will get a post in the gallery when I am ready so I won't go into much detail other than that.

[rer233]

If you like your gen 1 tercel- you're gonna LOVE a tercel wagon (2 or 4wd.) Years ago i bought an '82 loaded 4 door (air, p/s, and a/c.) PO had run it with no engine oil and put a rod thru the side of the block. Engine still ran (leaked oil tho.) I rebuilt a junkyard motor , installed it and re-sold the car -never planned on keeping it- at the time i was into Renault LeCars (i know, POS!) Any way the gen 2 wagons are MUCH better cars- have you ever had the pleasure of changing the brake rotors on your gen 1? They bolt onto the hubs from the BACK side- you have to pull the bearings apart to change 'em! Not on the gen 2- you just remove the caliper and frame and they slide right off- gotta love simple!
Then there's the utility of the wagons- you wouldn't believe the amount of stuff you can load in 'em- kinda like a mini suburban (yeah- got one of them too- '84 K10 with a 350.) One time when i stripped a small roof at my house,i managed to put 3 32 gallon trash cans full of roof debris in my '83 SR5 standing up and closed the tailgate (course the cans were plastic so they flexed a little.) On another occasion, i had an 80 gallon boat fuel tank in it and again closed the tailgate.

Anyway, i prefer the 4WD wagons (seems like toyota made more of 'em or at least more have survived.) Also, all the early FWD wagons had vinyl seats which don't hold up nearly as well as the cloth SR5 seats. 'Corse one plus of the 2WD wagon is the transmission interchangeability with the sedans.

Seems like you're well on the way to becoming a full-fledged Tercel-Maniac. Welcome to the club-Enjoy!

[Jarf]

When we were renovating our last house, the turtle made several trips to the dump.
I regularly had 300Kilos (660lbs) inside with the hatch closed, couldn't see out the back window mind you but it never complained.
Most I ever had (on the weigh scale that is) was 330K (~720 lbs) and the steering was decidedly light, especially at highway speed.
This year I bought a new ice fishing sled, 60x24 inches long, fits inside with room to spare!
As a volume vs overall size, the T4 cannot be beat.

[dlb]

here's a pic of emmahumpfritter and the load of cow manure he hauled in his terc.

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9& ... 802#p56725

[irowiki]

Teaser shots while I work on a trip report!

Rich, we had the Tercel loaded to the gunnels on our trip back.

I forgot to take a picture though, it was raining too much!

Rest stop!



Gas stop!



When the speed limit went up to 80 I tried this briefly.

[irowiki]

Bonus shot, forgot I had the side view.

Had it filled up from the front seat to the back hatch and to the ceiling with second gen and 1st gen stuff! (Including a full set of SR5 seats, two axles)




Even with all that, she was still fairly peppy, but you could tell the brakes were working harder.

[irowiki]

The rain washed look.

[irowiki]

New speakers in the front, thanks dlb for the thread I searched that had the right sizes! Speakers for the rear will follow later.



Installed a radio out of a 2001 Camry as well!

[irowiki]

He's already figured out what car is his, and I think he wants to drive it!

[ARCHINSTL]

Great pix of your boy - you're creating memories for him!
If you've not seen it already, check out this thread: https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4865
Tom M.

[irowiki]

That is a neat thread!

I love the cargo space in this wagon!

[irowiki]

Removed the RV towing bar! This was a bear of a job, the towing bar was incredibly overdesigned. Three large bolts into the frame, with loctite. Three nuts into the frame, with locktite. Bolts welded on, and the tow bar welded onto the frame.

It was at least 75 pounds!





Front of the car looks much, much better:




This bolt fell out from under it when we were done, look familiar to anyone?

[Petros]

Good job in getting that off. I would have done it but it looked like too much work and I did not have the time to take a grinder to all the welds. I do not know what goes through the minds of the guys that installs these things, if they are going to make it so massive at least it should be able to be removed! No reason to have massive bolts with locktight, AND weld the bolts heads.

That bolt looks like the ones they use to hold on the air clearner (that goes into the valve cover). Could also be used to hold the A/C condenser in place perhaps. there are a few other places that use something similar, usually where they bolt in plastic parts, or on hose clamps like for the power steering so they do not put too much pressure on the hose. Likely had fallen into an inaccessible place and rather than retrieving it they replaced the bolt.

that clip is used to hold on the grill and the lower part of the head light trim. If it is good save it, they are hard to come by.

[irowiki]

New horn for the wagon:



Sedan fun time! Antenna from the 82 Tercel junker in Lynwood installed and hooked up. It figures Toyota changed the screw spacing from 81 to 82. I had to drill new holes in the antenna piece.



The wife attacked the rust while I was fiddling with the antenna.



More pictures to come of all the trim pieces we installed.

To wrap it up, attached is the primer we mad maxed on to keep it rust free!

[ARCHINSTL]

If one horn is insufficient, see https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... hilit=horn
Tom M.