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Location:
Forster NSW
Registered:
September 2004
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Dale's ta22 - 56k be warned...
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Sat, 17 September 2005 13:19
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I've wanted to do one of these threads for a while, so here it is...
Well it all started about june 2004 when I saw this celica advertised in a small local paper in newcastle, the next day I agreed to buy the car
and picked it up about a week later.
It had a 3sp auto in it at this time and a 2t which seemed to be running very rich on the drive home, otherwise it seemed ok. The passenger door
was smashed in, but it came with a spare door which just needed to be painted, perfect!
Here's how it looked at that time;
After that planning was done on deciding just what to do with it, there was different shades of red all over the car and clearly it needed work.
So I decided a respray was in order, I settled on GM Sting Red (also called Red hot, F143 is the colour code). The first step was getting rid of evil rust,
and tidying up a few dents and such things that a car naturally has after 30 years. Also removing the metal strips that go along the side skirts
for a cleaner look, removing the arial, and some of the badging. Once into it, things seemed to look more horrific than I had thought...
Luckily that was by far the worst of it, and I had a helpful neighbour who welded it up for me for nothing!
Doors, bonnet, boot, guards etc were removed from the car at this stage to be painted seperate, and all lights, badging, chrome and trim were
removed from the car to get it ready to be painted.
At this stage the primer spots were just where spot repairs had been done and primered to check they were straight and give smooth edges to blend
in properly.
It looked a little like this...
Some primer going on the doors and guards in my "spray booth"
Before long I had it primered and guide coated almost ready to be painted, one last sand and the end was near!
And after the paint had gone on...
Well that was nice to be over, though it was a shame to have to stop getting high on thinners! Then it all started to go back together slowly, there were
some hickups as you'd expect. All new rubber seals were fitted, panels were re-hung and aligned, remote central locking was installed just for a bit
of fun, windows and door lock mechanisms went in and slowly the car looked like a car again, albeit in dire need of a cut and polish.
So it was all together again and back on the road, while I was sourcing a new wiper mechanism I came across another ta22 at a wreckers and saw some
gold in it, it had all the manual gear I wanted to do a manual conversion, an unhacked instrument cluster, and older style
vents (which I think look much nicer), italic badging, and a few other little parts which were swapped over.
A couple of weekends later I had my mate give me a hand to do the manual conversion, by the sunday afternoon we had everything bolted up and ready to go,
a drive around the block and everything seemed dandy.
Since I now had the uncut instrument cluster, the stereo was moved so it was mounted under the glove box, since it was a small car the controls were
actually relatively easy to lean across and reach while driving.
Also during this time I rubbed the car back with 1200 grit wet and dry and buffed the paintwork up.
Unfortunately due to some unforseen circumstances I ended up selling the car in january 2005 for much less than it was worth, of course wishing now that I hadn't. Last I saw of it
was actually on here for sale with 17inch wheels on it and the new owner claiming 27000 original kms on it 
Any comments welcome!
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