85 Tercel 4wd (Topanga)

[T4WDOR]

Haven't posted pics of Topanga yet, she's in pretty good shape. 6 speed with 192,000 miles and going strong. Tinted windows and a custom fly rod carrier on the roof rack.

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[ARCHINSTL]

Boy - clean-looking body!
Tom M.

[MR2Di4]

Nice looking car there, I think some Bumper Black on the door trim and a nice set of wheels would make that thing absolutely cherry!

MR2Di4

[dlb]

ditto mr2di4's comment. i've grown really fond of the stock sr5 'block' alloys, if you could find a set for your t4 it would look siiiiick. car looks great overall though. nice tint job.

[rer233]

an easy (read cheap) wheel upgrade is to paint the stock steelies silver, ditch the stock center caps, and install 2wd centers. makes a world of differnce IMO. i absolutely HATE the looks of the white steel wheels- reminds me of the old "wagon wheels" used on yank trucks back in the day (cheapest wheels you could buy.) just my .02.

[dlb]

rer233, are the 2wd center caps silver? i can't think offhand of what they look like.

[rer233]

nope, black with "toyota" on them (approx 3" in diameter- kinda fits inside the wheel lugs.)

[timsamp]

How did you come upon the roof rack, is it factory, or did you order it and from where? Im looking to get one and a carrier to put on that!

[Petros]

the older Yakma, thule and other quality racks all fit and you can buy them cheap. the older ones are designed to clamp onto the rain gutters, none of the newer cars have rain gutters so all those high quality and expensive racks are sitting around in peoples garages and they can not use them on the newer cars. So they sell them cheap, or even give them away.

Look on craig's list, second hand stores and garage sales. I have bought a number of them all our older cars, and the attachements for next to nothing (like $20 or less, one I bought for $5). Just look around.

[deejay1272]

Looks great! Keep us posted on any upgrades that you implement.

I'd love to see a shot of the engine compartment if you have the time to post...

[tercel4wdrules]

an easy (read cheap) wheel upgrade is to paint the stock steelies silver, ditch the stock center caps, and install 2wd centers. makes a world of differnce IMO. i absolutely HATE the looks of the white steel wheels- reminds me of the old "wagon wheels" used on yank trucks back in the day (cheapest wheels you could buy.) just my .02.

Are you thinking about these?

[dlb]

an easy (read cheap) wheel upgrade is to paint the stock steelies silver, ditch the stock center caps, and install 2wd centers. makes a world of differnce IMO. i absolutely HATE the looks of the white steel wheels- reminds me of the old "wagon wheels" used on yank trucks back in the day (cheapest wheels you could buy.) just my .02.

Are you thinking about these?

i think i inadvertently went halfway with rer233's wheel idea. i spray bombed the stock steelies 'aluminum' (ie, silver) but put the stock center caps back on. the tremclad aluminum looked really good on the stock SR5 terc and MR2 alloys i had painted before so i thought it would also work for the steelies. i think it looked kind of dumb in the end, too flashy for such a plain wheel. something a little duller or more utilitarian would have worked better, but i didn't think they were bad enough to repaint.

[rer233]

an easy (read cheap) wheel upgrade is to paint the stock steelies silver, ditch the stock center caps, and install 2wd centers. makes a world of differnce IMO. i absolutely HATE the looks of the white steel wheels- reminds me of the old "wagon wheels" used on yank trucks back in the day (cheapest wheels you could buy.) just my .02.

Are you thinking about these?

Yep- they're the center caps, but on the 2wd wheels (pretty sure they're 1/2" narrower than 4wd wheels- made for 155/80 tires.)

dlb- if you want to "tone down " the silver wheel color, hit 'em with some clear coat after the silver- makes 'em much less bright.

[tercel4wdrules]

an easy (read cheap) wheel upgrade is to paint the stock steelies silver, ditch the stock center caps, and install 2wd centers. makes a world of differnce IMO. i absolutely HATE the looks of the white steel wheels- reminds me of the old "wagon wheels" used on yank trucks back in the day (cheapest wheels you could buy.) just my .02.

Are you thinking about these?

Yep- they're the center caps, but on the 2wd wheels (pretty sure they're 1/2" narrower than 4wd wheels- made for 155/80 tires.)

dlb- if you want to "tone down " the silver wheel color, hit 'em with some clear coat after the silver- makes 'em much less bright.

These are the wheels on my '83 hatchback, apparently these cars came originally with either 145R13 or 165R13 tires. I wonder if the 145R13 tires would yield mpg in the 40s coupled with a 5 spd manual. These tires would be hard to get now, even 155/80 tires are sometimes more than 175/70 tires.

How about these?

[Petros]

I would not put stock little skinny tires on this car, the brakes are marginal enough as it is. Unless you are trying to a "factory" type restoration to satisfy some strange obsession to own a "like new" old Toyota economy-box, I would go with the wider wheels, and lower profile tires, and preferably with 14" allow wheels to improve safety, handling and comfort. If you put the skinny 2wd wheels and tires on the 4wd Tercel, you could also be overloading the tires since the 4wd is much heavier.