Barto's Ultimate Adventure Wagon Build-up (Update may 18)

[Barto]

Well since last year when my best friend bought GTSspotcoupes old tercel I have wanted one. Actually I have owned 6 cars since then only one of which was a tercel wagon, and it was a 2 door auto picked it up for 150$ Cleaned it up and sold it for 1000$ that financed my newest purchase.
1987 tercel sr5, 336,000 kms, 6speed. It was bone stock three days ago I bought it from Gearhead99 on this board. paid 600$ and off to the races I went.

the 2 wheel drive i just sold



Got the new one home and started work immediately I hate the rear and front bumpers on these cars so the rear porch had to go. I cut off all of the stock bumper and just used the mounts that slide in the uni-body. got some 1/8th channel at the recycler for 17$ and started hacking. a couple of hours later and I had this.



I am Very Happy with how the bumper turned out still not totally finished but close


After the bumper was done it was the lift that was next on the list
First I bought from the Auto wrecker for 10$ a coil 1992 4 door pathfinder coils, bought monroe shocks for 1980 ford t-bird rear shocks for 45$ and headed home.
The rear is plug and play jack up the car like you would to remove the rear coils, take off stock shocks, unbolt ebrake cables from uni-body, get a fat kid to stand on drum and insert new coil.
The shocks however need the bottom bushing changed out for the stock tercel bushing, either press it out with a vice or such or drill out bushing allowing easy removal.
And unbolt and throw away stock rear sway bar.

stock shock vs new



Stock spring vs new



drilling bushing out



punching steel insert out



greasing for old tercel bushing to be installed



finished shock



Springs and shocks in



Lift all in flex test in Drive way you can see new bumper aswell



And the new goods working great


For the front I used some plastic cutting boards from Walmart for 21.16$
Sorry no pics Camera died. I Cut them out to match the strut top bought some grade 8 hard ware and bolted them in. Used 6 Stacked to achieve 2" over stock drives great cruises at 120km/h with no issues.
took it out for a shake down or really a beat down cruise today. Everything worked flawless I out 4x4ed both other tercels that were there and came home with no new issues to speak of.













Gearhead99's Brother




And Gearhead99's






thats all for now i will post up some great videos tomarow after they upload these cars are unreal.

[Neu]

I'm jealous of the tercel terrain. Nice tercel.

[takza]

You guys might consider modifying the ends for the front swaybars? Find some way to keep them snug, but allow for more movement? Dude in France had his break after a big lift? Maybe 2 heavy and short springs instead of the rubber?

[Barto]

Funny that you say that because, that is one of my greatest fears. I have put large washers on the back of the rubber bushing to help keep them from pulling through. Also the previous owner managed to find very good used bushing and had already installed them.

I kind of like the spring idea though. But this is only my fourth day of ownership, so i have not really had too much time to dig into the turd and get some more ideas flowing.

I am also looking at a 3000lbs superwinch later today to incorporate into the new front bumper. Found some 14" tires 195/70/14 Snow tires but still on the hunt for some stylish 14" alloys.

[splatterdog]

I like that rear bumper! I've had something like that bouncing around my head for a while. Most of my rear bumpers are swiss cheese under the cover. I might hide the receiver tube a bit more to keep shin damage down. If/when I get around to it.....

[Barto]

the reciever basically had to be that long in order to not hack the uni-body apart. I plan to run two pieces of tube from the bumper to the receiver at a 45* angle to add strength and avoid shin damage

I also am in the middle of finishing the dirt bike carrier that will fit on the back. So i can pull my truck off the road for some much needed tlc. I just can't go without some way to get my bike to the woods.

[Gearhead99]

Ahh that was a good day. The small water hole at the end of the day was a bit of a damper, lol. The old goldmother made it again. Cant wait to really make mine fun

[Barto]

and the videos are done

[neddflanderz]

great videos! I love the one when you got stuck on top of that hill.

[Tercel Marseille]

Excellent vidéos !!!
I remember when I was doing like you every saturdays !

[takza]

Funny that you say that because, that is one of my greatest fears. I have put large washers on the back of the rubber bushing to help keep them from pulling through. Also the previous owner managed to find very good used bushing and had already installed them.

I kind of like the spring idea though. But this is only my fourth day of ownership, so i have not really had too much time to dig into the turd and get some more ideas flowing.

I added some extra rubber to mine when I put in a used bar and half decent rubber ends.

But what you need to consider is the ANGLE that the bar ends will be at vs the control arm when you have it jacked up...you DON'T want the ends of the bar getting stressed when you are at the limit of travel. Snugging them up like that and adding steel washers will tend to stress them even more.

I'd say a couple of alum half spheres with holes and a stiff spring would work to keep the control arm in place and allow extra flexibility.

[Petros]

I would like slightly stiffer springs for the back of mine, not so much to raise it but to eliminate the heavy understeer. How much did putting in the Pathfinder spring raise the rear? Are they stiffer than the stock springs?

Did removing the rear anti-sway bar result is heavy understeer?

[Barto]

I got more then 3" of lift from the pathfinder springs. That being said it would be very easy to cut the pathfinder spring to reduce the lift but still achieve a much firmer spring rate, the inner dimension of the springs does not taper on the top end so any height could easily be achieved by removing some of the coil. The ride these springs give you is so much better then stock. The only way I can compare would be a stock leaf srung samurai on washboard vs. A cadillac on the freeway . It is that much of an improvement.

You could leave the factory rear sway bar in by either spaceing down the mounts from the body to compensate for lift or cut springs until desired ride height is achieved and remount to factory locations.

Because of the strange sway bar on the front of these vehicles I am convinced that the rear sway bar makes it worse, Fighting the front when it does not need to Resulting in heavy understeer. With it gone and a stiffer rear spring it has been flawless. So much nicer to drive and the understeer that used to be an issue is to a point that is more then bearable now , and all that for measly 65$ and an hour or so of time.

Worth every penny if you ask me.

[Gearhead99]

Did the rear of the blue tercel today and made a rear bumper too. Took about an hour give or take

[Barto]

Found some decent looking escort alloys so I got my snow tires mounted. Painted the rims black as with the bottom of the doors, waiting to fix some rust before I Paint the rest of the car. But looking better all time. I Also towed home my new project so Build time for the tercel might be dwindling.

Heres a pic of the tercel now and a few of the new buggy It is all Suzuki LJ running gear right now, but I have toyota Axles So all new links,coils,Tires will be going at it very soon. Also stretching the wheel base to 96" so it will climb.




I love it towing with my Little 2wd. No Problems Either it was great.