Tercel Needed (the end of my 86DLX)

[ARCHINSTL]

Lucky us - the Michael Fay character, the one in the Wikipedia article who was (partially) caned in Singapore, was from St. Louis. Naturally, I remember the case; it was quite a cause célèbre here, as one might imagine.
Of course, he was "not responsible for his actions because of his ADHD," his father claimed. Young Michael (now 35 or so) has been in more than a few scrapes since then. Wonder if that excuse still works for him? Wonder what he's doing now... ?
Tom M.
P.S. The feeling here at the time was that he was simply a spoiled brat who should have gotten the caning; he knew what they did in Singapore.

[Petros]

I remember all the weepy liberal lawyers who were fighting to get on TV and say how "barbaric" (you have to say that with contempt and a slight lisp to get the picture) the country was to allow such in humane treatment. My thought was it was more barbaric to allow criminals and vandals to have their way with the innocent, they do not have a crime problem in Singapore.

[Mattel]

Thread Jack in progress.. Singapore - No crime problem but it's an awfully hot, sterile place full of shopping centres and commercialism run basically run as a semi authoritarian state by the same political party and family since 1959 who control all the press, airlines and courts http://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_I ... 10_web.pdf with a democracy compared to Iraq or Haiti so I would suggest that the true crime is a little further up the spectrum. There is little freedom no Juries in court and no allownce for dissent or demonstration. My inlaws on one side are from Singapore so have been a couple of times. It's pretty boring as well - the population has basically been bullied and bought out by the economic riches of the financial nous of the presidents. That said I have no problem with the punishment and it is important to respect local customs.

[ARCHINSTL]

I remember all the weepy liberal lawyers who were fighting to get on TV

Well, the lawyers weren't all 'liberal' by any means. They simply recognized a golden opportunity for free publicity.
Remember - more graduate each year than die...and they gotta find work.
Some of the biggest trial lawyer businesses in STL are many of the biggest contributors to conservative causes - I'd imagine that is not peculiar to STL.
Tom M.

[dlb]

yeah, total thread jack. apologies to mad marx. on the flip side though, it's rad that this forum is so down with discussions about all this different stuff: corporal punishment, politics, cult movies, hobbies... i think it shows the strength of our little community's character.

i agree with you, mattel, that there is all sorts of other crime in singapore and i would certainly not want to live there myself. i think that if our relatively free society would adopt some of their harsh punishments, though, we would really improve our current justice system. and sh*t, cane the business and political criminals as well! i don't know about the US but up here we have so many members of parliament who have been caught charging all sorts of flights, vacations, parties, and private purchases to their government accounts so that we taxpayers foot the bill for their frivolous bullsh*t. i think this blatant exploitation of their trusted position is just as intolerable as any violent crime and they would benefit from stern punishments as much as any thug.

all that being said, i don't think singapore is for me. canada is pretty great so i don't plan on going anywhere.

[Petros]

They used to tar and feather crooked polititions, now they just get re-elected.

Anyway, back to the Tercel issue. I noticed that Max Mark listed his Tercel has having an aluminum radiator. Where did you get an AL radiator for the Tercel? Did you find something from another car that fits? If so, what was it? How much did it cost you? did you have to do any alterations to make it fit.

I had to change the aluminum radiator on my daughter's Suzuki Esteem and notice how really light weight they are. And I remembered your post. It could be a way to save weight on the Tercel, and improve the cooling.

I want to try and find ways to save weight on the Tercel, between the bumpers and a lot of other stuff that is really heavy (like the radiator fan, there are all plastic ones on the newer cars that must weight less than half of the steel frame ones we have). Less weight means better economy, and better power to weight ratio, just like getter more hp.

[Mad_Marx]

I ordered a radiator as a replacement from my Local NAPA, the Lifetime Warranty replacement radiator they sell is Aluminum core with plastic tanks and fit nearly perfect (on one side I had to bend the hold down clamp about 1/4" to make good contact with the top tank). Unfortunately it was destroyed in the accident, but NAPA does still carry the same part. I'm sure it's lighter than the old copper core radiator, not sure how much, but every little bit helps right?

[Mad_Marx]

I scored my replacement Terc this weekend, found an 86 SR5 (6-speed) fully optioned w/sun roof. She's got 210,000 miles on her and needs pretty much everything, but I have plenty of new/good/lifetime warranty parts on my DLX that will transplant Working on getting it road worthy this week, pics soon to come.

[dlb]

excellent, congrats!

[Mad_Marx]

Just got film developed from the accident... yeah 35mm sitting in my camera for a year... anyhoo, here are some clearer pictures of the damage. She hit me mostly center rear, pushed me into the Honda Element in front of me and contacted it's left rear to my right front. The entire chassis has a bit of a corkscrew twist to it, the rear buckled enough tou put creases in the roof and frame underneath, remarkably the glass stayed in tact. Now that I'm in the process of using it as a parts car it makes me appreciate a good low miles rust free T4WD that much more.

[Petros]

almost all cars will eventually meet their end in some ignominious way. Unless it sits in a museum, that is the fate of all daily drivers. Just a select few are lucky enough to make it into old age.

[ARCHINSTL]

Wow - these photos are even more dramatic than the first one! The LR looks pushed down even more than the RR did.
I made reference some time ago to someone in another blog describing the tendency of the rear end to fold down as a major weak point of our cars. After looking at your car, maybe it's not a weak point but actually a "crushability" safety factor, whether incidental or designed-in.
Sure wish we could attract some Toyota designer from long ago to weigh in on our little guys!
Tom M.

[North of 64]

Very glad that you are mostly alright. Sorry about your Tercel

[Petros]

I could use the trans out of that car if it is good. and i need the steering column trim (top and bottom), that goes behind the steering wheel and the dash.

[Mad_Marx]

@Tom, I think it is engineered that way to absorb energy, the front and rear crumbled up good, but the passenger compartment stayed mostly in tact. The rear passenger doors were bent, but still open and close (with lots of force).

@Petros, I'm in the process of swapping that trans into the Terc II SR5 project. The trans that came out of the SR5 worked perfectly, but has 215,000 on it. PM me if you're interested, it's out of the car and ready to go.