Vehicle Description
This will be a very cool project car for someone with the time, energy and desire to restore and drive a 1st Gen Celica.
History: We found this 1973 Toyota Celica nearby a few years ago. The previous (second) owner of the car purchased it in 1981 in Colorado. She drove it to Western Massachusetts in 1986 and drove it until she parked it and covered it with a tarp in her yard a number of years ago (maybe 5-6 years before we bought it).
We thought it would be a fun project, bought it from her and got it running, braking, and moving around.
The interior is in pretty good shape for a 43 year old car other than the driver's seat which has several tears. The rest of the vinyl and the headliner are intact. Door cards are in very nice shape.
In order for the rockers to be welded the interior has been removed as can be seen in the photos. The car is complete. All interior parts are being stored inside and dry. We have 2 manuals that will be included; a Haynes and a Chilton.
Title is clear and in hand.
Here is what has been done so far:
had welded in full rockers on both sides (sourced from a 1972 California Celica)
had welded in a cowl/upper firewall
had carburetor rebuilt
installed a new fuel pump
installed new ignition parts (cap, rotor, points, coil)
had the gas tank refurbished (it is better than brand new)
purchased and installed new brakes and lines, front and rear
Parts included but not yet installed
lower rear quarter panels
passenger side fender
rear drivers side window as it has the chrome part on it
Notes on the sheet metal, etc
the rear quarters have a lot of bondo; we bought lower rear quarters from a CA car; additionally, there is a Canadian sheet metal manufacturer (Wolf Steel, Frelighsburg, QC) that manufactures new sheet metal for older car restorations and has full rear quarter panels available as far as I know
the trunk lid has some bondo
the hood has a couple of holes rusted through as seen in one of the pictures. It does not appear to have ever been damaged/bent in any way
driver and passenger floor boards have rust holes that will need repair.
all nuts and bolts have been saved
the car had air conditioning; the compressor was removed in order to install the fuel pump
The 18R-C motor will start right up and idle
It does smoke a bit so the motor will need some work if it will be re-installed
the manual transmission seemed to work fine; we only moved the Celica around the driveway after we got it running and braking
