[Speedrye]

I've had half a dozen 84-85 Celica GT-S hatchbacks over the years, but finally picked up a manual 85 Supra P-type. Clean, one-owner, just under 80k miles, bone stock. White over burgandy leather.

Originally, I was planning on building this thing for some auto-x and track use, but it's too clean. Might have to keep it stock. I can't bring myself to cut it up, haha.

 

[Vincenzo]

It looks good.

 

[pdupler]

Absolutely DO NOT start doing a bunch of modifications on a clean example. We have way too few of these cars that have survived to be in collectible condition today. We're just on the cusp of some serious value as my generation will be the ones to be nostalgic over these cars and we mostly still have adult kids living at home. We're financially about ten years behind where the baby boomers were at our age as far as saving for retirement, paying off mortgages, etc. so the Supra has a few more years to go, but given the rarity, I think people are going to be shocked what they will ultimately bring once Gen X reaches executive management career levels. We've already seen a couple of museum quality examples in the mid to high $20s and the driver quality ones like yours will be soon to follow. And unlike muscle cars for which parts are reproduced in China, Supras are NOT restoreable so the current survivors are all there will ever be. Nobody is going to start hauling old rusty Supras in from the farmer's pasture and putting them back on the road again.

If you really wanted to autocross a mk2, and you'd have to really want to do a Supra specifically for emotional reasons because they're seriously old technology and not that competitive anymore, but there's still plenty of "marginal" mk2s that can be had for cheap and bunches of them that are already modified beyond return. Too many Supra owners were like me. I modified the heck out of mine throughout the 1990s to do autocross, and because I was young and really too poor to have a car hobby at the time, I sold off my original wheels and even the original engine and transmission to help finance my addiction. I know very well if I'd left mine all original, it'd be worth way more today and the about $12,000 I spent on the mods would have been worth over $60,000 today if I'd put it in the stock market instead. I don't know what you paid, but I believe values for examples worthy of a local parking lot car show are set to double in the next five to ten years. If you modify it, then I think you cap the value potential and probably spend more on the mods than you'll get back.

If you absolutely can't resist the urge to modify, don't cut, drill, weld, glue or paint anything and keep all the original parts, organized, labeled and in properly safe storage so that it can be returned to stock easily. If its only a matter of a three-day weekend worth of work to put it back to original, then you lose only what you spent on the modifications. However, if you modify it beyond that amount of work, then future buyers start deducting for the labor and some "risk" factor in case some of those original parts are missing out of your box, break during installation (they are crispy) or just don't work anymore.

 

[Speedrye]

Absolutely DO NOT start doing a bunch of modifications on a clean example. We have way too few of these cars that have survived to be in collectible condition today. We're just on the cusp of some serious value as my generation will be the ones to be nostalgic over these cars and we mostly still have adult kids living at home. We're financially about ten years behind where the baby boomers were at our age as far as saving for retirement, paying off mortgages, etc. so the Supra has a few more years to go, but given the rarity, I think people are going to be shocked what they will ultimately bring once Gen X reaches executive management career levels. We've already seen a couple of museum quality examples in the mid to high $20s and the driver quality ones like yours will be soon to follow. And unlike muscle cars for which parts are reproduced in China, Supras are NOT restoreable so the current survivors are all there will ever be. Nobody is going to start hauling old rusty Supras in from the farmer's pasture and putting them back on the road again.

If you really wanted to autocross a mk2, and you'd have to really want to do a Supra specifically for emotional reasons because they're seriously old technology and not that competitive anymore, but there's still plenty of "marginal" mk2s that can be had for cheap and bunches of them that are already modified beyond return. Too many Supra owners were like me. I modified the heck out of mine throughout the 1990s to do autocross, and because I was young and really too poor to have a car hobby at the time, I sold off my original wheels and even the original engine and transmission to help finance my addiction. I know very well if I'd left mine all original, it'd be worth way more today and the about $12,000 I spent on the mods would have been worth over $60,000 today if I'd put it in the stock market instead. I don't know what you paid, but I believe values for examples worthy of a local parking lot car show are set to double in the next five to ten years. If you modify it, then I think you cap the value potential and probably spend more on the mods than you'll get back.

If you absolutely can't resist the urge to modify, don't cut, drill, weld, glue or paint anything and keep all the original parts, organized, labeled and in properly safe storage so that it can be returned to stock easily. If its only a matter of a three-day weekend worth of work to put it back to original, then you lose only what you spent on the modifications. However, if you modify it beyond that amount of work, then future buyers start deducting for the labor and some "risk" factor in case some of those original parts are missing out of your box, break during installation (they are crispy) or just don't work anymore.

That pretty much sums up the conclusion I came to. It needs a few minor things, so I'll be looking for those. Otherwise, I'm going through basic maintenance and clean-up in the short term, and then looking for hidden rust that I'm sure is lurking somewhere. I'll be reading Suprafiend's build threads to know more of where I need to be looking.

 

[RedP85]

you have been lucky coming across it.
i am wondering how many are still hiding, and would really like to find one myself.

Welcome to the home of celica supra!

 

[gamble]

Careful with those out of date tires, those things are a time bomb. Super clean car, enjoy that thing.

 

[Speedrye]

No doubt, they're dry-rotted pretty horribly and not leaving the garage until replacements show up. Figuring out replacements will be fun though since I don't care for the BFGs. I'll do some searching on this, but any recommendations are welcome.

First steps at this point are tires and a battery (7 years old, but still functional for now). Fresh fluids in all systems for peace of mind, and since I don't see a timing belt in the service history, it'll get replaced even though it looks pretty new. While that is apart, might as well do all the cam tower seals that are leaking.

Once the basic mechanicals are taken care of, I'll be working on a deep cleaning and start looking for hidden rust as mentioned earlier. Thankfully, there's very little visible anywhere, including the hatch, fender wells, spare tire well, etc. Having had enough old Celicas in the past, I know it's lurking somewhere though, so I've got to find it. Car has always been garaged, so that helps a lot.

Regarding trim pieces mentioned earlier- almost every piece inside and out is in good shape. The only flaws I've found so far are:
The passenger side window defrost vent has a crack
The wire to the driver's side visor light is frayed
The hood blanket has a few scratched up areas

Otherwise, the leather on the driver's side bolster is a little worn. There's a single door ding and two small dings in the roof. Really clean car overall that just needs a little love ($$) to bring it back to full glory. I'll be driving it regularly (non-rainy days) though since the miles are already high enough that it shouldn't lower future value too much.

I'll try to get more pictures in the next few days.

 

[SupraGuy31]

Welcome to the home of not too many supras. Glad to see another one finally coming to NC. Most if not all the great cars are either south of here or everywhere west of the Mississippi. Im dying to get my hands on another one but my luck isn't so great as I live on the eastern side of NC. Either way welcome and congrats on a very nice ride and also as the Master (Phil Dupler my Idol) has spoken don't molest a perfect car. You will regret it.

 

[BillyM]

Wow - NC is getting some action these days.

Nice find and as all others said, a good example of one to keep close to stock.

--billyM

 

[tomitoyo]

Pretty Dragon, congratulations. I can not agree more with pdupler, and I'm happy to see that in America there are more and more fans who value cars in their original state. Well-designed cars like the Celica Supra are works of art, and I think no one would think that it could improve a "Picasso" by making modifications ...

 

[pdupler]

Pretty Well-designed cars like the Celica Supra are works of art, and I think no one would think that it could improve a "Picasso" by making modifications ...

Of course like Picasso, the 80s wedges styling is somewhat polarizing. People either love them or they hate them. We're all here because we love them and Toyota just got it right. For a while it was popular to add fiberglass body kits, but I never liked any.

Performance modifications have always been popular and granted, the mk2 is ancient technology. Of course the mk2 came out during a time when emissions rules far, far exceeded the available technology. By the 90s, technology was advancing so rapidly that the Supra was already outclassed in most all racing forms. Age of the car didn't matter, in autocross we were up against brand new cars of recent design and somewhat embarrassing to be so much slower than brand new economy cars. Of course it was much easier to add power and improve handling than it was to actually learn how to drive so most of us did that. However, I didn't originally buy a Supra because of its performance (I only started autocross after I'd already put 100K miles on it). I bought one because they were the sexiest non-exotic car on the road when I was 16 years old and promised myself that I was going to get one as soon as I could afford it. In 1982 I would ride my bicycle to the Toyota dealer and drool on them till the salesmen ran me off. Performance wouldn't have made any difference to me at that age because it was all about looking cool. Very few people ever raced or cared anything about racing, but everybody cared about impressing their friends. When my generation starts getting close to 60 years old in a couple of years, we aren't going to buy a collector car to take to the track. At this point its just about fulfilling that teenage dream of owning a mk2 Supra and for some maybe taking it to a car show to impress our friends.

 

[tomitoyo]

In 1982 I was 18 years old and the first supra I saw was the mk3, which was the first one sold in Spain, but when in 2013 I saw an advertisement for a mk2 of the 84 for sale I knew I had to buy it, after buying it I discovered little by little what is a supra mk2, and now I have clear that I will preserve it and enjoy it while I can.

 

[Speedrye]

Obviously, I'm a fan of the styling. The MK2 has the right balance of chiseled lines and elegant curves to me. More importantly, I've missed the "analog" feeling of a car compared to all the newer stuff feeling so fake or "digital".
I started autocrossing an 85 GT-S hatchback in 1995 or so and always loved the feel of the car. It was never going to be the fastest out there, but it did what I wanted. I've run a number of different cars since then, but still haven't found anything with that feeling of light nimbleness, though my FR-S was the closest.

I've got a fast car otherwise, so I'll clean this one up and use it as Toyota intended- an awesome grand touring car.

Upon a bit more looking, I'm missing the battery tie down, so gotta order a few parts there.

Also, anyone have a source for burgandy leather that matches the original closely? The usual bolster wear is the only flaw in the seats, otherwise they look excellent. Even that is just worn, no splits or tears. No reason to redo the whole seat if I can get a single bolster wrapped to match. I saw mention of someone using two headrests for their material, but yeah, good luck finding those, haha.

 

[discoelk]

Nice car. I'd have no problem modifying it. Just keep it period correct and don't go nuts. We don't need anymore v8 swaps.

 

[Speedrye]

Finally got a few minutes to start looking over the car in a bit more detail, though I haven't taken anything apart yet. Having some experience with this gen Celica and having read the three Seamus builds gave me a starting place to begin looking for rust. Good news is that there's minimal visible anywhere. Looks like someone sprayed the heck out of this thing early or at the beginning of its life with loads of wax: Inner panels in front of and behind the rear wheels show no signs of rust on either side:

I did find that the power antenna was aftermarket, but it works at least.

Spare tire well is pretty clean, but the main drain plug might have a touch of rust around it, I'll have to examine more.

Looks like a little surface rust on the bottom of the panel between the rear bumper and gas tank.

Hatch is pretty clean with no rust on the bottom or inside any holes visible from the inside. There is some rust at the edge of the weatherstripping between the hatch and the right side bottom edge of the spoiler. I'll have to remove that to see how bad it really is.

At the hatch hinges, there's a tinge of discoloration at the seam between the hatch area and roof skin. Definitely something to look into.

Popped the rear shock caps and didn't see a speck of anything inside either side.

Both doors look clean without a speck on them.

Underneath and undercoated wheel wells all look really clean. Stupid factory jack points/pinch welds are all bent up, but no rust at least.

Sunroof has one spot on the leading edge that'd been touched up at some point. I'll have to look deeper into the sunroof at some point.

The hood is clean except for one small spot near the latch.

Windshield cowling area looks spotless

Under the battery tray looks clean from what I can see, and much of the underside of the hood and inner fenders were also sprayed in wax. I haven't gotten to review the lower radiator support yet.

The worst rust I've found so far is at the leading of the PS fender, just aft of the parking light. Looks like contact occurred at some point, and even this is minor.

So far, all of these areas were only examined where easily visible without much disassembly, but it's encouraging. Since the car is surprisingly clean, I'll likely be following Seamus instructions and sealing up any and all seams as possible to minimize future issues. As time allows, I'll dig deeper, but in the meantime, I'm making parts and to-do lists for the car. Most are generic for a car that's been sitting for a bit. Fluid changes, top end gaskets/seals, timing belt, hoses, belts, tires, battery, etc. This thing leaks some serious oil from the cam towers, but the timing belt/covers are dry, even though the timing belt seems to have too much play to me.

More pictures to come over the weekend.