Greetings all. My name is Pierce Ford, I live in Richmond VA, and I look like this:



Great. Now that we have that over with...

Last Wednesday, this little gem was traded into my dealership for a new Elantra:



I jumped on it with a diseased quickness, and had the keys for it before the poor girl had even signed the title, Lol. Bottom line, this car is FANTASTIC. I love everything about it, except that the PO was a smoker...






I've been driving it ~140 miles a day since then, and it hasn't given me a bit of trouble. It leaks oil rather quickly, I top it up every other day, both front axle boots are broken, and it's due for a timing belt, but all in all, its an AMAZING car, and I'm pretty sure it's getting better fuel mileage than my Civic right now... It's also the only car I've ever had that has A/C, which is a MAJOR plus. It has 174,xxx miles on it, but feels like it'll run forever... I picked it up for 800$ out the door.

No real plans right now, I still am not quite sure what I'm going to do with it, as it was a bit of an unexpected blessing. I've been trying to build up this other Civic I have for daily driving duties, but that may be out the window now... Who knows. It definitely needs a paint job, I'm gonna do a dark matte green and maybe two tone it with everything above the window-line being matte black. I've been toying with the idea of slamming the piss out of it, making it all "Hellaflush" or whatever, as I've never seen one of these cars like that before, with some super stanced gold wheels. Wheels is definitely a priority, I HATE how sunk the stock wheels are, especially in the back. And seriously, WTH is up with this 5x100 BS?? I have a TON of 5x114.3 wheels, but I've never even HEARD of 5x100 wheels... Does anyone know if you can swap over SW20 hubs? Like, use their back ones for our front ones, etc?

So anyways, I can promise you this, this build will crawl along at an amazingly slow rate, trust me. But I would certainly appreciate any help and information you wonderful people can give me along the way, I know I'm looking forward to it!

Welcome. Silver Celi, so already good to go in my book.

Good luck.

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That'd be "Shelly, the silver Celi." Made that up myself, lol. Thanks! Although it's hardly silver anymore...

looking good. for $800. that's quite a deal. look around on the forums for ideas and help.

Welcome yet another VA 6gc owner.
good luck with it, they are fun cars.


However, I currently hold the title of slowest build evar....running at 5.5 years!

Nice pickup! These cars are easy to work with. Not always the cheapest to work with, but easy enough.

The leaks are probably in the front end. When you change the timing belt, make sure you replace everything in there. Cam seal, Crank seal, oil pump seal (and pump if you choose... might as well), water pump and seal, and get a timing component kit. You won't regret doing all of that and I can bet you that it'll slow that leak. Next, valve cover gasket. After that, inspect the oil pan... if it's leaking, drop it, clean it and black RTV the hell out of it and put it back up. I currently leak no oil and I did everything I just stated. I started off with the same loss of oil you're describing.

Have fun with her! They're probably the best handling car I've ever driven. Stiffen the chassis with the ST205 rear bar, over engine bar in the front (in addition to the strutbars that go to the firewall) and she'll stick like glue. When I drive my friends around, they can't believe the grip this thing has on the road.

Drop her! I'd say get some hubcentric spacers that convert to the bolt offset you're looking for and slam her. They look great lowered.

nice intro keep us updated on the updates!

nice pick up

Thanks for the welcome's everybody!

RabidTRD, thanks for the info, I didn't realize there was so much under the timing cover. This will be my first FWD Toyota I've ever dealt with, I've had two 3rd gen Supra's (and worked on like 12 others), and I'm working on a 69 Corolla Sprinter in my spare time.

As far as handling, I don't think it'll handle any better than my FC RX-7. But I was pleasantly surprised with how well it does handle, that's a nice change in a Daily Driver.

This post has been edited by Saavedro88: Aug 18, 2011 - 12:38 PM

pics of the 69 sprinter!

Lolz, it's still in Project mode.







And when I first found it:



Towing it home:

Nice pick up those silver celi looks sooo nice just think in a couple of months or years lol it could look like this.

man! and I thought my RA24 was gonna be hard to work with. good luck with that as well as the celi.

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ya hurry up. we wont to see your finished product!!

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He's got you beat, 8 years.
http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=75515

The rolla needs a 4age. Blacktop with velocity stacks and she'll be so sexy. Leave the body the way it is, thats a sick rat rod look.

This post has been edited by jmeyer: Aug 22, 2011 - 10:29 AM

Now that's farm fresh! You've even got the proper old car air conditioning in the floor! Woot! Haha. I can't wait to see that sprinter take shape. I love the old Corolla's.

Speaking of which, I found a 1985 AE86 on Cars.com! It has 143k miles and is from MS. NO rust. Clean as hell. I want it so bad. It even has the GT-S Twin Cam vinal on the side! *Drool* Dream car #2.

In my life time, I want to own the following:
1985 Celica Supra
1974 Celica
1985 - 86 AE86 Trueno or Levin
1980 Corolla SR5
1992 MR2 Turbo

I will own half that list at least. :X

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I had an 83. That car was KICK. ASS.

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Pic of the RX =D; nice pick up BTW and that sucks how the PO was a smoker =X

It's always a pleasure to whore out my heart-throb.

This is Jessica. She's a 1990 RX-7 GTU, and she's come a LOOOONnnnggg way.








I also race her as much as possible. Usually just Autocrosses, but I'm doing an HPDE in November.

This post has been edited by Saavedro88: Aug 24, 2011 - 9:54 PM

looks non turbo unless you swapped? uncle had an 89 turboII loved that thing. also one of the last issues of one of the tuner mags had a bunch of rotary write-ups and how to's to make the car more reliable and add huge power; might want to give it a look

This post has been edited by NYp8tBaller07: Aug 24, 2011 - 11:14 PM

Non-turbo. GTU is pretty much the basic sport model, so you get basic up-options like 5-lug and the sunroof, but no power windows, and of course, no turbo.

I'd love to give it a look, do you have any idea which magazine it was? Adding power is no different from any piston engine, add a turbo, BPU's, etc. One of the biggest misunderstandings people have about rotary engines is that they are unreliable. While most examples have BECOME unreliable, the problem lies solely with the driver. Rotary engines MUST be thrashed, REGULARLY, or carbon will build up at a rapid pace, as rotary engines are designed to inject oil into the combustion chamber. They say "A redline a day keeps the carbon away!" and that's a mantra I can live with. So far my FC has been the most reliable car I've ever owned, getting me through 2 snowstorms when my HONDA broke down, and daily drove me 140 miles a day when my Astro's engine went bad.

So yeah, that's my soapbox, lol. Sorry, I have a great affection for the rotary engine, and I just like to explain why people are often mistaken about it. Have a nice day!

I'll check what mag it was but its was amazing. It does suck how people think they are unreliable, rotaries have been proven at 24hr races for a long time, the key is to keep the oil topped and super cool as well as the water cool. another is to open the exhaust.

Sorry, I can talk rotary for days and I don't want to get too off topic on the forum lol

So what are your next plans for the celi

Same here, lol. I love them to death.

I don't really have any plans for it right now, I need to do the timing belt and the axles, but I'm not gonna do a whole lot right now. I'm gonna try to get my 86 VW GTI ready for H2O next month.

Welcome!
im not sure if its already been addressed but since you are missing the gas lid, you should check ►These ones out◄
Im not sure if he has any left, but you may be able to find someone who already bought one but could use half the money back. i just always kinda thought they were cool
keep us updated

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WOAH!! THOSE ARE SICK!! I'm totally gonna get one of those, thanks for the hookup!!

They are really nice. I've got one on mine. I even modified the OE bracket to work with it (feels sturdier).




Mine doesn't fit too well. Didn't fit that well from the get go either, but it works.

Disaster!!



There are these dumb intersections in Charlottesville (Which is the city I work in) that are almost like merging onto a highway. I thought the guy in front of me had gone, so I accelerated to match traffic, and slammed right into the back of him. Airbags went off, steam and smoke everywhere... it was quite a spectacle.

Gonna try to asses the damage tomorrow, I was too exhausted today after everything was said and done. If it's worth saving... I'm thinking, Curren front end??

WAH?!?

ouch!!! let us know the damage. hopefully you don't have to junk it.