Just joined the gang !

[yodasrus]

Saw this site today and also know Brian, the guy who found his old family Tercel.
I met him because he was interested in buying my mom's Audi 50 GLS which I still have since she bought it new,
We mentioned our love for the Tercels and the first one was given to me by a friend who ran the engine out of oil and threw a rod.
After years parked in the back yard I decided to get it going again for my other significant who was tired of big cars.
The first junkyard engine was a failure but the second worked quite well for some time and on the maiden voyage it got around 40 mpg with a leak on the fuel pump. We feel in love with the car, eventually repainted if the original color but shaved the rear marker lights and painted the grill matching blue metallic after removing the 4WD badge. The second junkyard engine got tired so we rebuilt and engine, completely balanced and blueprinted. Runs great and is now pushing 400K on the clock.
This one is a 1984 SR5 4WD in Blue, stick shift and no power steering.
Not one bit of rust and runs very strong but the paint is now faded after 10 years so I will re finish this year and never ever use base coat /clear coat crap again.

Fast forward now:
The first one was in 1995, the second, a 1983 was bought for 900 and sold for 1200 to a good friend in 2001.
Rear end went out and she had to get a new car (Now she wants one again and is seriously looking).
The third, a 1984 SR5 4WD Wagon again was an e-bay purchase as a parts car from Sierra Vista, AZ for $ 350. Still got that one, no rust anywhere but a bit beat. The engine is the one we rebuilt for the first car and we switched drivers doors because the
first one got sideswiped slightly. Insurance job.
Then, when the paint was starting to fade on the Yoda 1, I told her that it would take me some time to do a very nice paint job on it so we decided to look for another one she could drive while I work on # 1.
Found a great deal down in Congress, AZ and the owner was asking $ 1000 for it.
Paint faded, idle at 2500rpm and sounded like a demolition derby car.
Bought it for $ 750 cash and drove it home.
Next day I went back again with the trailer to pick up the free parts Tercel which came with it.
The runner is a 85 model, but 86 on the papers, 4WD in silver with "4WD" logos on the side.
Stick shift and working AC, tilt steering column and just a few dents along with heavily faded paint.
Has a roof rack and made it all the way home OK.
The parts car was a 2WD wagon with stick shift but had been heavily abused and even jumped. It is actually sort of bent...
This was in 2010 and of course after putting a lot of effort into the silver 4WD it turns out to be super dependable and great to drive. This is now MINE.
Needless to say after some time I got sort of a reputation in town for liking these little guys and also sort of figured out how to
manage those complicated, stock carburetors.
Last year we had 10 wheels powdercoated silver with clear coat and put them on hers and mine with all new tires.
Powdercoating is the way to go!
For some time I had noticed another silver one which was in for service at my neighbors Toyota place and I always likes the
clean looking grill of what turned out to be a 1987.
Well, last year this exact car comes driving up in front of my shop and the owner told me that folks said that I might be interested in buying it. He just got clipped on the front during a hit and run incident and the passenger front door would not even open or simply destroy the fender and door.
I told him that it can be done but this little car needed too much work and that was above the value of the car for him.
He was the second owner and always loved and garaged it.
The paint was starting to flake off, another silver base coat clear coat victim and this one is a 2 WD with automatic trans.
The transmission slips in third, the front coild are totally weak so it sits real low in the front but the interior is like new so I bought it just for that reason and paid $ 500 but did not tell her that I had another Tercel....
For weeks I drove my silver 4WD and then also the automatic but it was hard for her to tell the difference because I drive so many different vehicles. One day she asked me if I had worked on the interior of my Tercel and I asked if she noticed that I was not shifting...
Initially she was not very happy but now I like driving the automatic so much that I will not part it out just for the seats.
Did I mention that this one is also totally rust free? I fixed the fender a bit and the door opens very good now without touching.
So right now we have five of them and three are being driven all the time.

Funny event was when I filled up the 2 WD for the first time. Used to the filler neck on the right I pulled up, paid and then came out to realize that I had to turn the car around. Initially they thought I was just driving off without using the gas I had paid for.

Many events have made these cars special to us. She will drive hers on the Navaho reservation and just drive away after a rain has turned everything to mud while the 4 WD trucks are spinning tires.
Snow is never really a problem and it will simply push it even if it is up to the top of the front bumper.
I work on many vehicles and have realized that these cars are extremely well thought out and well built.
They were quite expensive when new and more people keep asking us if we want to sell our car.

Well, we are actually looking for more because many friends asked us to keep our eyes open.
So if you know of any in AZ please let me know via e-mail mogsrus@gmail.com.

My moms Audi is for sale because I do not feel comfortable taking it to the places I can reach with the Tercel.

I do Backcountry Tours in this area with my 6 wheel drive Pinzgauer truck but when I see a trail from the highway and want to check it out I just put the Tercel in 4WD and go as far as I can to explore.
It is very impressive what these cars can do and I have photos to prove it. A back wheel 12" in the air is not really a problem.

Actually there is another local Tercel which really caught my attention:
It has the front fenders cut out very far, plastic covers taken off the bumpers, taller springs and bigger tires installed along with bucket seat for driver with harness. This guy is pretty serious and takes this car many places.
Forgot to mention that the stock carb has been replaced with four motorcycle carbs....

I got a bunch of photos of all the above mentioned vehicles and welcome any comments and ideas.
The first photo is the view out of our kitchen window one morning.

Looking forward to some comments from folks.

Regards


Thilo

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the Club - we have lots of good folks with lots of knowledge - although it looks like you have lots of that already.
Tom M.

[Petros]

welcome to the list!

Sounds like you already have the Tercel4wd infection pretty bad! Pictures, we want to see more pictures of Tercels in action! It is just great you rescue so many Tercels, many people just sell to wrecking yards when all they need are some repairs (too high repair quotes from rip-off repair shops). I have rescued 7 Tercels from that fate, and would like to do more but can only have one extra project car in the yard at a time (wife's rules, just as well or our yard will look like a TErcel wrecking yard).

You might consider my Brake Upgrade over in the repair guilds section, installs much more powerful MR4 master and booster, and front rotors and calipers. Another list member makes the shims if you do not want to. If you rebuild any more engines you might want to check out my thread on replacing the head gasket, with suggested modifications to improve cooling to the head.

As for the other TErcel in your town, do mean this one?



He is already a list member, and all of the details about this Tercel, including the carb conversion is on several threads on this forum.

[dlb]

welcome, yoda!

[copenhagenfiend]

Welcome! Bring on the pics!!

[SynthDesign]

Great pictures! Welcome!

[yodasrus]

Thanks !

Great advice and I am always interested in custom work as long as it is true improvement and does not go too far away
from the original purpose of the vehicle.

I do Unimogs and Pinzgauers for a living (shop and also local tours with the 6x6) but the Tercel has been the greatest thing
to explore unknown trails right off the highways whenever I see them and get curious.

Need to figure out how to post more pics because I do have lots of them including some "offroad: shots.

And yes, that is the other local Tercel I was speaking about. Would like to get in touch with him.
I like the car but the one thing I could see going offroad is that wheels are a bit too large and while creating more ground clearance
it decreases the low gear crawling effect which is something I really depend on. I heard that his Toyota is meant to go faster over rough terrain so that might work.

I love that there are people out there saving the Yodas and I just saved another one last week so now the count is 6.
Two full time 4WD runners, 2 parts cars (2WD, stick and 4WD stick) and two more 2 WD Automatics, one as a driver and the other
just in for parts but could be a builder.
It broke down on the side of the highway and I saw it parked there so I left a note.
Then it got towed and I know the guy who did it so I told him to let me know if it becomes available.
It belonged to an interesting young woman who re designed the interior with checkered and fluorescent green and pink duct tape
as well as taping four flashlights onto the hood. It took lots of adhesive remover to make the interior not stick to your butt anymore.
Sadly she put all her money and effort into the tape job instead of just adding some coolant.
Even the muffler was held up with pink tape.
It runs pretty good but has a blown head gasket so I just cleaned it up and parked it for now.

There is a 1984 Tercel on Phoenix Craigslist with only 10K documented miles on it but the owner does not respond to
phone calls or e-mails and has not posted any photos so I do not know if it is 4WD, stick, wagon or what.
They want $ 7500 for it.

More later and thanks for the input.

Thilo

welcome to the list!

Sounds like you already have the Tercel4wd infection pretty bad! Pictures, we want to see more pictures of Tercels in action! It is just great you rescue so many Tercels, many people just sell to wrecking yards when all they need are some repairs (too high repair quotes from rip-off repair shops). I have rescued 7 Tercels from that fate, and would like to do more but can only have one extra project car in the yard at a time (wife's rules, just as well or our yard will look like a TErcel wrecking yard).

You might consider my Brake Upgrade over in the repair guilds section, installs much more powerful MR4 master and booster, and front rotors and calipers. Another list member makes the shims if you do not want to. If you rebuild any more engines you might want to check out my thread on replacing the head gasket, with suggested modifications to improve cooling to the head.

As for the other TErcel in your town, do mean this one?



He is already a list member, and all of the details about this Tercel, including the carb conversion is on several threads on this forum.

[dlb]

she did an awesome job on the seat!

[larry mcgrath]

Great looking seat,to each his own I guess. By chance would happen to have a spare tilt steering collum? Welcome to the forum lots of good folks here,and lots of info.