The collection begins?

[irowiki]

So I just bought this 1987 Tercel Wagon FWD, 61,000 miles. Blown engine (connecting rod). Guess how much I paid for her?

[Petros]

I wonder how they blew the engine with that few miles on it. see if you can make those seat fit in your first gen Terc, it might take some drilling and hammering, even making a bracket or two, but I bet they can be made to work.

Got yourself a parts car at least. Lots of good stuff to save for your 4x4 Tercel which you will be buying soon. I would not recommend spending any money on getting this one running, even with the low miles an '80s econo-box car is not worth much.

[ARCHINSTL]

Obviously the $ will be a surprise, judging from your not-so-subtle Cheshire Cat grin!
WOW - so clean and the body looks just gorgeous - and the low-low mileage! Was it a tow-behind? Older person who took care of it and only drove it to church on Sundays (but never put oil in it)?
This would be a perfect commuter car in a heavy traffic environment, and with AC to boot.
Is the color sort of a chocolate? Looks pretty good.
Tom M.

[rer233]

Congrats on your full-fledged terc addiction! That car looks WAY too nice to be relegated to parts car duty- stuff an engine in it and drive her (dare i say it would make a perfect replacement for your gen 1?) Here's a thought- put the gen 1 engine in the fwd wagon, then look for a beater 4wd m/t wagon donor vehicle to make Pokey a stick-shift (course then you'll have to re-name her.) Just a thought.
BTW i'm headed to the shop today to resume stripping operations on Old Gold and will check on the stuff requested.

Rich.

[dlb]

i like rich's idea of taking the engine from the 1st gen for this. just keep the carb from this one with it and you'd be good to go.

those seats looks identical to the 87/88 4wd dlx seats, which i really like. they're such a huge improvement over the vinyl. the mounting points might be different though since the floors differed between the 2wd and 4wd.

[irowiki]

The answer is, $350! Plus $50 for him to help deliver it (and he threw in some spare parts, a bike baby trailer, and some other stuff), and $75 for a uhaul dolly to go 60 miles. Needs engine, and battery (so far).

Was owned by an old lady who garaged it. Funny thing is there was a sticker for a recent oil change, maybe they flubbed something up? A/T and other stuff was regularly serviced in town.

Peter: This is the first FWD Wagon I've seen, and everything on the car has the same or better build quality than our 4WD Wagon! Hardly a "econo-box" car in my opinion. Now my first gen tercel, THAT is an econo-box.

I did try sticking the SR5 seats into my 1st gen, the front brackets lined up but the rear brackets were 2" offset (wider). How would one make a bracket for that?

Tom, according to Toyota Reference it is Brown Metallic, only available in 87-88?
http://www.toyotareference.com/tercel/1983-1988

Rich/David: I considered that but seeing we're restoring the 1st Gen, and the fact I still like it, I'm not sure I want to gut her yet! There's a 3AC down at the local junkyard for $350, six month warranty, "good" compression they claim, and only 120k miles. Came out of an 87 4WD. Or wait, find a 4AC for Pokey, then put Pokey's into the new 87. Or put the 4AC into the FWD, more power plus lighter car = win?

The plan is to fix her, and use her as our normal car, better MPG than a 4WD wagon, I heard the seats fold flat, so better to "camp" (walmart style) in the back, and more cargo area in the back! We'll save pokey for camping, snow, off roading, etc. Depending how the 1st Gen's mileage does after I replace the carb (getting ~29 MPG now) I may just use the 87 FWD for commuting to work.

[Petros]

if you go to the trouble of replacing the engine and get it running, even in nice condition, these old early fwd cars are just not worth that much. Maybe $800, hardly worth the effort. If you want it to keep and drive as vintage Toyota, than it is resonantly good 2wd little wagon, but they just are not worth that much. As you can see however, the 4wd version, at least in some parts of the country (Like around here) will get pretty good money if it is clean, decent body and in good mechanical condition.

[Vienna]

It's not the value we're worried about the value much as we plan to use her. But like you say, the area dictates value and in nm the value for a clean, working, low miles car is pretty high. A crap junky car here 900-1200. A decent, somewhat banged up car is easily 1500-2000 and a good condition car with minimal damage and good working, low miles, mechanics can go for 2k easily. Nm is the land of the junk cars where people beat them into the ground and seeing blue smoke is a common occurrence and smashed and dented bodies is easily 70% of the car population.

[irowiki]

On the way home:



Only ding on the whole body:



He already likes the car:



Too big to embed: https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 4025_o.jpg

Cargo cover and rear speakers!







Aftermarket radio, stock cup holders:



An actual "spare" tire, as opposed to having a fifth actual tire like I'm used to:

[ARCHINSTL]

You will have a lot more carrying capacity than in the 4WD version. Plus, I think the whole rear seat squab is hinged and flips up to permit the backs to lie flat, unlike in the 4WDs.
And it came with an apparently pristine luggage cover!
It's a keeper!
Tom M.

[irowiki]

Oh so that is how that works with the seats folding flat, will get a picture later. The entire back area is flat too!

We're looking forward to using it when "camping" in parking lots.

[irowiki]

Hole in engine:



For Tom, the amazing flat folding rear seats:

[ARCHINSTL]

Add emoticons for SMILE!
☺ ☻
Tom M.

[Petros]

this is a typical place the connecting rod fails when it is run without or low on oil. the number 4 rod bearings are furthest from the oil pump, so when it is low on oil, the pressure drops and the number 4 rod bearings get starved of oil first, and it is the first to fail. there was likely some knocking first, which at that point it could have been fixed, but they kept driving it until it stopped running when the connecting rod bolt failed and the crank slammed the rod through the side of the block. Now there are almost no internal parts that are worth saving, even the head could have been damaged when the piston slammed into it as the bearing ground away and allowed too much play so the piston was hitting the head, possiblly the valves too. The crank will be wasted, the oil pump likely sucked metal particle up while the engine was grinding metal away from all the moving parts. It is almost all scrap metal now. All the extra parts can be saved, maybe the head if not too badly damaged (must have it checked for cracks, resurfaced, hot tank cleaned out, etc)

[irowiki]

There's a sticker in the car, she had her oil changed at Jiffy Lube at 61,901 miles. She has 61,940 miles on her now, and that includes a 20 mile flat tow after the engine went! I'm wondering what the heck Jiffy Lube did, would it be possible that this happened because the old lady never changed the oil, and when she did, all the sludge and crap clogged the oil pump? Or maybe they forgot to put oil in.