It begins...
2017 EDIT: Photobucket has decided to disable all 3rd party image linking unless you pay an outrageous annual fee. I don't have the time to move all of my images to another program (as many on this board don't). However there is a Chrome extension that will get all images working inline again for you. Please use it, works like a charm...
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-hotlink-fix/kegnjbncdcliihbemealioapbifiaedg
Ok, time to get the ball rolling here. If you’ve seen my other restorations you might have some idea as to what to expect (see
DeanFuns here, and my
86 SDRs here). But then again, this one is a totaly different ball game.
Unfortunately I didn’t get an opportunity to take some good before pics before this car got stripped down. Here’s a couple from when Dean (DeanFun aka Slip) owned this car. Are any of you noticing a trend here with cars I restore? Hmmmm….
Sadly this is the best before shot I have of this car. It sat in front of my shop for some time including during the 2010 PacNW Nationals Party…
From Left to Right, that’s Cam’s 82L, Dean’s mostly restored 85Ptype (hmmm its front end looks a little heavier in that pic for some reason…), my ol’ faithful 85 DD Stepchild (yes, Dean has owned this car too) and Terry’s 82 PType now with 607,000kms (I own it but it will always be referred to as Terry’s 82) which will be back on the road in about a week.
Alright, lets get this sucker stripped down and in the shop…
This is what happens when you pressure wash cars at night in sub zero tempertures. My neighbhors love me
Well, it doesn’t look too bad right? Let’s look a little closer and see what we’re really up against…
uh oh
Yeah those wells are screwed.
This car has been repainted, this rust spot was here back then even.
Why do they always rust around this one impact strip hole? Bizarre.
I hate it when they rust here, I haven’t had to fix one of these spots yet.
That lower valence is toast.
From what we’ve seen so far that spare tire well isn’t actually that bad lol.
Lets check out the underside…
This is why you pull the diff and subframes out.
Just once it would be nice to have a car without squashed rocker edges from some jackass jacking the car one a hoist or floor jack at the spare tire jack points.
This is actually just from a leaky clutch slave and is just light surface corrosion so far.
This is not. This is what happens when your battery starts puking acid. Plastic battery trays are good.
This means the windshield is coming out. It’s a shame to remove it, its original and in perfect shape.
Both doors are screwed. I’ve yet to fix a set of doors like this, and I probably won’t be anytime soon as we’ve found some replacements.
The original hatch was toast of course, this is the best from Cam’s collection of Supras. Totally fixable.
Ok, we know. Really, we know. This car is too far gone. Considering we’re just 15 minutes north of Washington State, we really should be starting with a better car. In fact if I was reading this thread, I’d be the first one to point that out. But life isn’t always that simple. First off Cam has a field full of early Celica Supras, 3 of them being Ls even. We picked this one from the bunch because it was the best, and I stand by that (ok, that doesn’t say much about the other cars lol). From what we saw from the outside (pre stripped) it didn’t look too bad (it didn’t help it was sitting in an overgrown field of thorny vines). Fast forward several months, many weekends of work put in to strip it down to this level (motor was pulled too) and it’s a little late in the game to be switching chassis. That and Cam really likes this particular car. Its extremely early production, 3902 to be exact for the vin. It's very hard to find any Ls these days never mind a hard top one. Its also straight as an arrow, no signs of accidents, reasonable mileage, and the front end is fairly clean. That and there’s some financial elements that make it better to stick with this car. But at the end of the day, Cam likes this one, is aware of the time its going to take to fix it and there’s nothing on it I can’t make perfect, so onward ho!
As for what’s going to be done beyond rust repair and paint, well I’ll let Cam talk about that since he’s seriously underplayed the collection of parts he’s accumulated to stuff in this thing when the body is done. Let’s just say there will be a few improvements made on my end.
I will keep a current Table of Contents going at the bottom of this post for each chapter as I post them. This car is going to transform before your eyes in the next few months. Stay tuned, this one is gonna get crazy!
Table of Contents
LS Inner Quater and Hatch Floor Pan Part 1
LS Quarter Removal
LS Quarter Wheel Well Repair Pt1 & Hatch Well Corner
LS Quarter Wheel Well Repair Pt2
Donor Metal Harvesting
LS Quater Skin Repair
Floor Bracing & Windshield Cowl Area Disassembly
Rocker Removal & Footwell Repair
Rear LS Rocker, Floorpan & Subframe Rail Repair
Rocker Skin Repair and Shaving
MA6X Celica Supra Chassis Strength Analysis
Chassis Reinforcement Pt 1: Giving the Mk2 a Backbone
Chassis Reinforcement Pt 2: Rear Quarters
Rocker and Quarter Skin Installation
Door Hinge\Lower Cowl Area & A Pillar Repair & Reinforcement
Hatch Hinge Mount Panel
Rear Floorpan Repair and Reinforcement
Lower Rad Support Repair and Front End Reinforcement
Final Build Update