[Andrewinoc]

Hi all, new to the forum and ran across this ad here in SoCal. Curious what everyone thinks about it. I am in no way affiliated, I'm actually somewhat interested to buy it. As soon as I finish my Alfa Spider that is...

Cheers

1983 Toyota Celica Supra - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle...

 

[SupraFiend]

Hey welcome to the board!

Looks pretty good! I mean you will want to look it over really well in the usual rust places for sure, and it definitely needs new leather seats skins for the front. 83 isn't the best year for power and underhood revisions, but a lot better then 82 at least. And the only way to get that 2 tone color combo. 5spd to start in an Lytpe is sweet too!

 

[pdupler]

I'd be more scared of what's hiding under that carpet over the dash. That car has obviously baked under the Southern California sun for decades. Did they put a carpet over the dash when it was new to protect it or did they put that in after it had already dried up to hide the grand canyon? At least rust has a chance it can be repaired, its just sheet metal, but dash pads as well as many other interior and exterior trim parts are made from the rare earth element "unobtainium". The only way I'd buy one today is if every piece was at least intact and could be refinished. I would not buy it if it were going to require an intensive decades-long search for non-existent parts.

 

[Andrewinoc]

Dealing with a cracked dash currently with the Alfa and think I'm gonna just cap it. Is a dash cap a sacrilege?

 

[pdupler]

I suppose its better than the grand canyon modeled in foam rubber but consider that our Supra dashes are actually quite special, very different from the base Celica dash which is a simpler form. While its not leather, it was designed to look like a hand-sewn leather dash cover in a much more expensive car. Its got hard angles, the faux stitching along the edges and even different grain patterns on the adjacent faces just like you'd see in a Maserati or Ferrari of the era.

 

[SupraFiend]

It seems every south California mk2 has a dash cap whether the dash is cracked or not. Its pretty much preventive maintenance there.