Vintage Grumbles SR5 from New Zealand.

[VINTAGE GRUMBLE]

Hello, thought I would share with you, a few pics of my Tercel. I've only had it a few weeks, but have wanted one for years. The pre 89 ones are fairly rare here in New Zealand, hence i've been soaking up a lot of info from this site. Mine is an 88, SR5 spec, and has been used as a farm vehicle for many years. I'm not going to try and flash it up much, just try make it better off road and keep it road legal.

The day I picked it up.




The interior was full of farm spec scum, so ripped out the carpets and back end plastics, and chucked them away, then scrubbed and water blasted it inside.








After I had waterblasted the whole car, I had a good look all over it, and realised there was a lot more wrong with it than I had hoped/the seller had made out, but lucky for me, a friend noticed another one in a paddock only 30km from my house. So I will be buying this one for spare parts.



Then another bit of good luck, I managed to find a set of 195R14 mud grips, that had been fitted to a van, then removed after only a few hundred kilometers,so as new, but much, much cheaper.







Very happy with the fitment of the tyres.

I have a fair bit of work to do, then I will sart on lifting it up a bit.

Cheers, Thomas.

[dlb]

wow, that's a very thorough cleaning you gave it. one member here, synth design, removed all the plastic trim from the interior of one of his tercels that i rode in once. i actually really liked it because it gave the car a real bare bones/utilitarian feel, almost military and 'tough', or as tough as a 62-hp station wagon can be anyway.

those tires have some extreme tread on them, looks like you got lucky finding them.

what are the issues with the car that you noticed after giving it a good inspection? for a farm vehicle, it looks like it's in pretty good shape. less rust than a lot of tercs here, and very little body damage i can see. maybe NZ farmers are an exceptionally careful breed with their implements.

[VINTAGE GRUMBLE]

Hello, yeh I guess it could be in a lot worse condition, there was just more rust in it than the seller made out, but nothing that cant be fixed. Just a pity the new windscreen was glued in over fairly decent rust.

Turns out the CV's in it are OK, so I will just need to clean/pack/reboot them. Apart from the rust and exhaust which need work, the other small problem I noticed today is the rear shocks are too short. They are topped out even when the car is sitting, so will get longer ones when I raise it up a bit.

Here are a few pics and vid's from the last few days. Drove it for the first time yesterday, then took it out today to see what mud grips are like on sand. They were better than I thought, but sure dig holes quickly when you get stuck. Really enjoyed driving it, and was really impressed with its off road ability, very happy with my purchase.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMMEV4FHlO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNme3shjf0c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcZjTQnERl0

Cheers, Thomas.

[Mattel]

Take the tyres down to 15 psi. makes a world of difference in sand!

[VINTAGE GRUMBLE]

Hello, yeh I will give that a go next time, was just getting a feel for what the tyres were like. Was pleasantly surprised how well they did.

A few new parts showed up this morning, so have new rear shocks, CV boots, brake pads and control arm/sway bar bushes to fit, should make the wagon a bit less crappy feeling, haha.

Cheers, Thomas.

[VINTAGE GRUMBLE]

Hello, i've done a lot of work on this lately, and fitted a mess of new parts, but still have quite a lot to do before it will be road legal again. I did take it out for a bit of 4WDing last weekend tho, and it did a lot better than I expected it to do. I am really loving this wagon, such cool little cars and so fun to blast around in. Below are a couple of quick vid's. Sorry about the cussing, my mate likes to pretend hes mates with/is Jesse Pinkman, haha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doqyf93r2ko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53aU_LJ2VOA

Cheers, Thomas.