ThunderBucket, my 84 SR5 project.

[MrWrench]

Hey all, I am a regular lurker on the forum but I don't often post.
I figured I'd finally change that with my 2nd favorite Toyota Tercel I've ever owned.
This is ThunderBucket, the 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5 I purchased in the very far north of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
I was visiting the upper peninsula for our yearly Labor Day weekend trip to the "U.P" with Spud, just before the 2021 M&G. During the adventures I made a stop to a village not far from Copper Harbor and in the backyard I first laid eyes on a crusty 84 SR5.

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I knocked on the door but unfortunately nobody answered. I decided to leave my phone number with high hopes of them either needing parts or with an offer to sell it.

A few weeks went by and I got a text message from the owner and a little while later, we agreed on a price and I purchased it!

This car is a little over 600 miles from my house and has been off the road since 2019, so it wasn't sitting very long, but long enough for lots of potential issues to arise. My friend Alex and I loaded up some tools, fluids, parts and supplies and we hammered our way up north over the 2021 new year weekend.
After 9+ hours of driving, we finally arrived to see this beautiful old girl sitting in the snow, ready and waiting to be revived and brought back to life!

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I'll come back in a few days with a bit more photos and updates!

[dlb]

This is what I prefer about the forum to the fb page. The fb page is great for lots of stuff but the forum is better suited for this kind of long format stuff, and chronological conversations, which I like. So I'm very happy to see this here.

I've seen your posts about ThunderBucket on the fb page and am interested to know more about why you love this particular car so much. I'm the same way, I've had 9 of these cars over the years and certain ones (usually the ugliest, crappiest ones) have been my faves even though they're all basically the same. It's funny the bonds we develop and affection we have for cars.

[NWMO]

The “bucket” took some abuse last fall, you were constantly “sending” it at the M & G! 5 weeks from the Colorado M & G, it’s about time to swap my broken rear axle housing (upper link broke in MI last year) out for the “new” one . I’ll get rear brakes back as well, look out!

[Hines11b3x]

It’s a great car! I grew up in SE Michigan and my dad worked for Chrysler so it took 40 years to get into Toyotas and VW’s.
I’m in Oregon now and got a mostly rust free Wagon to take back to Michigan. I plan on moving to the Marquette area next year.
I enjoy your YouTube content and I’m learning a lot!

[MrWrench]

I definitely agree dlb. It's harder to maintain a long form discussion or keep things organized and sorted. It seems like that might be the point of social media these days...
It's really hard to say, something about this car just connected with me. It might be the fact that no matter how hard I abuse it or break it. It always comes springing back to life and takes me on even more adventures or the fact that it has never let me down?
I'm honestly not to sure. Haha.

NWMO: she definitely has been through a lot of abuse! Between swamping it in the trails to bending the whole rear axle tube at the dunes and many other things in between. I can't wait to get a few pictures at the '23 M&G!

hines11b3x: that is awesome! Once you are moved in, you'll have to send me a PM and I'll get a few of us together to come hit some trails up there if you're interested!
I appreciate the support! I'm hoping to get myself a laptop soon for editing and take a few cinematography classes or videos online to learn a bit more about making videos. I tend to be in a hurry and mess up filming and editing. I should really learn to slow down soon...

[MrWrench]

Alright everyone, here's the 2nd of ???? posts related to ThunderBucket.
We arrived in the very small town in the upper peninsula of Michigan, not too far from Hancock, MI.
We did an oil change on ThunderBucket, checked the transmission fluid level and replaced the front brake pads and rotors before slowly getting her back on the road!
Once those were completed, we began the 600+ mile journey home.

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We made it about 40 miles down the road before getting pulled over. I had completely forgotten to remove the previous owners licence plate which had not been valid in over 3 years.
Thankfully the police officer was understanding and just condensated the old plate and sent us on our way. I unfortunately didn't really get any good pictures of that situation but perhaps that's for the best.

After another 2 ish hours of driving we arrived at our air BnB we were staying at. It was a really cool place that was fully off the grid. It was a great little cozy cabin.

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The following morning we began the longest part of the journey and one of the longest trips ThunderBucket had been on in several years.
I was told the car has been to California and back on trips in the years past, but it had been many years since it was on any sort of long distance adventure.
Overall the drive went very well. The car didn't need any oil or anything besides gasoline and air in one slowly leaking tire.
She made it home effortlessly and I was instantly in love!

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I'll be back with some more updates soon.
Thanks everyone for reading! This adventure was pretty poorly filmed and edited together in a very long video, if anyone is interested in watching.

https://youtu.be/8x6hKL71bR4

[Mattel]

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the vid and what you bring to the community.

[Nordical25]

I like also this story and your Youtube vid on winter rescue. The good story makes the half of reasoning why to keep this Tercel roadworthy.

Hopefully we will hear what you will do with this Tercel in the future. There is some rust present but I think that you can still keep it roadworthy with some fixes in the future.

[Petros]

that seems like a brave thing to do, trave cross county in an unknow 40 years old tercel in the winter! I would have waited until the snow mostly melted. if you had to do some major repiars along the way, it would have been rather challenging working conditions.

I have rescued many non-running Tercels from across the country, and mostly I have made it home without major problems (after repairs and a good check out before getting on the road), but I have also has to do major repairs on the road as well: head gaskets, transmission replacements, strut/cv axle replacements, brakes, clutch, etc. on the different cars. many times on cars that have sat for a long time the tires will de laminate once back on the road after a 100 miles or so, not always, but I am also prepared to have to buy new tires to get it home. sometimes some really old crack tires will make it 3000 miles to get back home, other times tires that do not look bad de-laminate after only a 100 miles down the road.