Moots Tercels

MootsMan · Post by **MootsMan** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:55 pm

Here's some pics of my wagons, guys. The dk. blue 86 is my daily driver now, I bought it from the original owner a couple years ago, and it sat in the yard waiting on transmission repair for most of that time....it's been on the road now for about 3mos....currently has 178K miles on it, has a solid body with no rust, but it does need a paint job. I'm hoping to do this one in olive drab when I get enough time to tackle a project of that magnitude, but changing the color will entail taking everything out from the interior, including the glass, weatherstrip, etc. I installed the sunroof and map lights, just like I had done in the gold '85. I also put in a Pioneer CD player, and the SR5 instrument cluster and a new shifter boot. Needless to say, there's a lot more that needs to be done, but it's a good driveable car for now. It's just developed some kind of exhaust leak, but will wait 'til the weather warms up to fix that.

The bike on the roof rack is my Colnago CT-2....it increases the value of the car by a factor of 5 or 6

Here's the collection.......wife is beginning to complain whenever I say anything about another one...

Post by **ARCHINSTL** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:30 pm

When you drive the Blue with the Colnago on top - do you have a separate rider (heh) on the insurance policy to cover it? Otherwise...
Tom M.
PS: Love that huge garage!

dcn · Post by **dcn** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:41 pm

VERY nice Tercels Moots! Is the blue one the same colour as mine? Im on my PSP so I can't be sure. Kinda looks darker to me. Ether way, great collection!

MootsMan · Post by **MootsMan** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:08 pm

Your's looks like a different shade of blue, DCN, maybe a little lighter. Mine is fairly dark, what I'd call navy blue. I wish it was an SR5, but I've been slowly trying to make the upgrades that will make it more user-friendly.

Arch, I've found out the hard way that homeowners ins. will cover the bikes when on top or inside of the car. I've had to make a claim on a friend's bike that was on my roof ( I was going to do him a favor and tune-up his bike for him, ran it into that big steel I-beam you can see supporting my deck, he ended up getting full retail out of his bike and replacing it with a much nicer one), and on a Serotta that was stolen from the back of my gold Tercel while parked behind the bike store where I work part-time ( I replaced it with the Colnago)

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:58 pm

(grumbles in jealousy) Now just add a metallic flake to it and some artistic neon green undertone pinstriping of electrical fire....
Nice. Your garage looks nicer than mine... But I have more stuff

lol

My "garage" has a...
96 Geo Metro (dead tranny)
86 Tercel 4wd (we all know what happened

)
87 Tercel 4wd (needs a tranny swap and some other work)
99.5 F-250 (we're trying to see if its the Injector Control Module or the HPOP....)
81 Yamaha Virago 750 V-twin (carbs need rebuilding and the ignition module needs replacing)

So those are the deadies.
96 VW Passat TDI (WHOOSH!)
02 Ford Excursion (Sootster Leviathan)
81 Corolla Tercel (I have no idea how its still alive)
01 Honda Magna V-4 750cc quad-carbed street bike (I swear Honda stuffed V-Tech in this engine and never told anyone... The power surge at 7k RPM is AMAZING! Pulls hard to 9700 RPM red...)

And of course.... 84 Tercel 4wd. Shes fighting her way through it all.

I should get pics. Lol.

BTW, my dad would have a fit. His road bike is a Trek 520. Its probably as old if not older than me. It likely has over 20k miles on its clock. No joke. He used to ride cross-country, now he just rides to work (20+ miles each way, over Horsetooth... AKA Hilled Hell) when he feels like it.

MootsMan · Post by **MootsMan** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:11 pm

It's the running joke among all of us that work at the bike store that our bicycles are way more valuable than our vehicles......that's the beauty of driving an "economical" car, it frees up more capital for the really important things...

Good for your dad for commuting on his bike, Typrus !! 5yrs ago, I was riding a LOT of miles every week (as in 200-250), and I would try to ride in to the store one day a week.....28-30 miles each way, depending on my route. The ride in the morning wasn't so bad, but coming back home, after working 10am-7pm, on my feet most all day, was a real bear !! Several of those nights I rolled in at the house under cover of darkness !

GTSSportCoupe · Post by **GTSSportCoupe** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:30 pm

Nice cars Moots! I'm jealous of your rust free cars! Well, I guess at least my MR2 is rust free... My poor tercel is pretty bad though.

tercel4wdrules · Post by **tercel4wdrules** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:50 pm

Very nice cars, Mootsman!! Thanks for posting the pictures. Your '86 daily driver looks much better than mine does. Is that other Tercel 4WD in the far left corner of the last picture the "spare" '84 Tercel? That's quite a collection of cars you have there. I hope I'll be joining your club with 3+ Tercels in a few years. I guess I'll need a house with a big garage or a spacious backyard to keep them, maybe even have the garage "shop equipped" to keep them running. I sure have some plans...

Post by **Mattel** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:47 am

If I have to leave my GT in my car unattended I lock it up to the hoops that those rear seats click into when folded up.. so far.. so good I make it really obvious so that no one has to break into see it's secured. Also leave all my crap strewen around so they can see that I'm not hiding anything

dcn · Post by **dcn** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:46 am

MootsMan wrote:Your's looks like a different shade of blue, DCN, maybe a little lighter. Mine is fairly dark, what I'd call navy blue.

Oh yeah, now that I'm on my regular monitor I can see it's a lot darker. PSPs have a funny screen that can change the colours slightly depending on viewing angle. It was hard to tell that last night, but mine's a lot lighter. Is yours an original paint job or colour?

My bro also has a job at a bike shop, he's got a *spits* (j/k) Nissan Sentra that would be worth less than some of the bikes there. He just bought a light that costs $700 MSRP. I would have thought that a crazy expensive light was worth maybe 200, but apparently there are some that are even more!

BTW, sorry for not posting a pic of my car to compare yours to, like I said I had a little limited internet. PSPs are good in a jam for just browsing the net, but they're not as good as a PC.

scotisha · Post by **scotisha** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 1:28 pm

Nice tercels too. I am envious of all the sunroofs (sunrooves?, what is the plural anyways?).

What is that black light by your rearview mirror. I am going to put some map lights and that looks like it would do nicely. Where did you get it?

MootsMan · Post by **MootsMan** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:49 pm

Thanks ! The light unit is one I picked up at the local Pull-A-Part....I think it came out of a Mitsubishi of some kind, or maybe a Mazda. It's not the most solid installation, as it's mostly just forced up into the headliner. I tried industrial strength double stick tape on the back, but it doesn't hold. The map light unit from an early-to-mid 80's Cressida works great , too, as I've installed one of those in the gold car. I like this one because it has the dome lamp integrated, which is nice. I posted a write-up on an earlier installation somewhere on here.....a couple of years back !

Most of the sunroofs I've snagged at the junkyard have come out of Mitsubishi's as well. They're all aftermarket-type, so they're real easy to "de-install" and then "re-install". My yard charges around $25-30 for one, which isn't too bad, as long as you pick out one that looks pretty decent. I always try to check the weatherstrip to make sure it isn't dry-rotted, and check to see how the seal is when it's closed. Takes about 2-3 hours to install one. I'm planning on installing a second one above the rear seats when the weather improves.

Tercel4wdrules, that is the '84 spare parts car in the background.....but I've about decided not to part it out, as it runs great and starts without a glitch every time, even in the coldest weather. I should be able to get enough suspension parts to fix the front-end clunking for not too much money, then as I get time, I'm planning on making it my "classroom" for body repair and modification.....since it has major rust in the rockerpanel area. It appears to have a solid undercarriage, but the body definitely needs some help.

If I made pictures up close of the '86, you guys could see how bad the paint really is.....the hood is faded and splotched all over, and there are numerous scratches down both sides, and you can see how the clear coat has disintegrated on the roof. It's on the "to-do" list, just not at the highest priority right now.