silverra23

6th August 2009 I went and visited the body shop to see progress I really need to start carrying my camera with me instead of depending on crapola phone cam. Poor lighting didnt help. Any way I dropped in to give the panel beater some starter money, and he has already got some of the paint stripped. Bonnet was pretty good, with a little bit of bog (bondo) from a front ender - I thought this might be the case as there is some evidence of parts with toyota parts stickers on them around the front left. Nothing major, but enough to know it has had a small repair at some time. Rear quarter looks really clean. Bootlid is really clean too. I thought it had some bog in it, but nope! This car is actually a good testament to getting rust prevention treatment - it still has the sticker for it on the back window, and in this case anyways, seems to have worked pretty damned well.

30th July 2009 - Off she goes!!

End of July 2009, I finally got my finger out and got things happening! Project Celica was rolled out of the shed! It was going to the panel beaters in the next day or three so I pushed her out to do the last few things I have been putting off. And joy of joys it was one of those evening where things all went right for a change. The badges I was worried about breaking all slid off no problems. Pulled the mudflaps off and found nothing scary behind them. Made me really look forward to getting on with getting this all back together. While it was away I got on to the engine builder friend and got him started on putting my 18RG back together, and send the carbs to Rodger the solex guru for a rebuild. Though I keep thinking that EFI would be a better choice long term. Seats and dash had to be sent away for retrimming. Bumpers were due to get reconditioned too, as I want them to be perfect when I put the car back together. They are great now, but there is some surface rust where the number plate was on the front one, so that is excuse enough I think. Progress finally!!

June 2009 now!!! Still nothing had happened as I played with cars other than this one. Anyways... below is the true motivation for the project. This was my car when I was 19-21 (only 16 years ago!!). She was my pride and joy. Body was neat, though the paint had got a cheapie respray before i bought it and it all bubbled up on the first humid day of the summer. Had a magic interior and even had air-con (one of the big boxes in the passenger footwell). Always loved the grille with the chrome rectangles - I think it was an after market replacement from when it had a front end bingle. Bought it as an auto, eventually converted it to manual. Spent months looking for the perfect wheels. Dreamed of putting an injected 18rg into it but as a uni student/pizza delivery driver could never afford it. Put a massive double din stereo/cd unit in it which sounded magic. Lovely leather steering wheel. Spent hundreds and hundreds at Castle Hill Toyota buying NOS parts - new lenses, new manual console surround, brand new leather gear boot, brand new ashtray for between the seats and more that I can't remember now. The guy behind the counter was a bit of an enthusiast and helped a lot going through the microfiche. I suspect it's the same bloke there now helping out Toymodders today. Then some bastard stole it. Never thought I would see it again but it popped up a week later in a few suburbs away dumped. It was found stripped of its interior and scrathed all over and I lost the love. Surprisingly a few weeks later my brother discovered my stolen interior in another Celica not far from home. Got the coppers involved and eventually got the interior back minus the stereo and steering wheel. Fortunately I had taken the wheels off the week before as the tyres were bald and the coppers had suggested it was time for new ones. I couldn't bear to restore her so my Dad bought it off me for bugger all and I bought a brand new Daihatsu Charade. That was fun in its own way. Dad got the Celica painted and fitted a whiteline sway bar and eventually sold it for about $5k - lot of money for one of these back in the early 90's. I always wondered what happened to it. Anyways the current "Project Celica" has its roots in this - the original silver RA23. It will be everything I wanted in my first one (perhaps with solexes rather than efi). One day!

2008 I bought a KE35 Corolla club racer.. and that then took up all my time as I got that ready for racing, and did some racing. It also meant plans for the Celica changed a little. Now it was simply going to be a good clean classic resto. So standard interior, the suspension and brake mods, 18rg on carbs, konig rewinds and a gt grille. At the end of 2008, not much had changed really from last photos. Still needed door handles removed, chrome removed, engine pulled out and then the car sent to the painters. I planned on doing it in the Christmas break between 2008/09. Sound familiar?? :P

So there was a bit of rust.. this is under the rear window on the parcel shelf. Not that bad given some of the ones I have seen, but better I get to it now! My plans at this stage were to have it completely stripped ready for a cage and paint and panel by end of January.... man I was dreaming!! As that was getting completed, I had some colleagues who were keen to pull down the 18RG I bought and see just how "rebuilt" it really is. While we have it apart we will renew anything that looks less than ideal, and baffle the sump so that she doesn't starve for oil when I am having a go on the track. Engine will also get a repaint from the current urine yellow it is to something more traditional.

December 2007 I had got to here That has to be bog in the boot right? Weird that I can't feel anything from the inside though.

Couple more...

Time has come to create a thread on my baby, affectionately known as "Project Celica". Figured I better show I still have a Toyota in the garage since I will be still floating around rollaclub! I will try and distill the thread from toymods that I have been running on it since July 2007 into something that will make sense here. Hopefully its not too much of a mishmash! I acquired this couple of owner silver ra23 from a fellow Toymodder back in October 2005 in Sydney Australia. After a good service I drove her home the 1000km to Melbourne - the alternator failed in the last 100km and we only just made it in to the drive way, but we did make it. I bought her to restore (and relive my youth - when i was at uni i used to have a silver ra23 which was the love of my life!) - and do a little tarmac rally competition in perhaps - the body was very straight with almost zero rust. Interior is also immaculate for a car this old. Drivers seat is tearing apart on the squab and that is about it. So the plan was something along the lines of: Strip Repaint in factory silver, with a bit more metallic thrown in the mix Insert quality suspension - koni/kings/whiteline sway bars/whiteline strut brace and panhard rod/t3 top hats and RCA's Corona brake upgrade Roll cage Good racing seats and harnesses 18rg and manual conversion Konig rewinds in charcoal with the polished lip (just for something different hehe) Ultimate goal was to have something that will be equally at home cruising and going for a blast in a hill climb or what ever...classic performance i like to think of it as. Its took nearly two years to start the strip, but it did finally get started. My work in motorsport dominated my time and I never got many free weekends to play. Photos from when I bought it: Photos when she made it to Melbourne:

Just like this: Purchase price - $950 Rear King springs - $50 Rear spring freight - $8.80 Steering wheel - $120 Steering wheel freight - $12.76 RWC for rego - $110 Tyres - $320 Rego costs - $682 Temp Reg permit 1 - $71.60 Temp Reg permit 2 - $55 Steam Cleaner Hire - $40 Wheels - $250 Tail lights - $140 Vacuum lines and door lock - $10 Steering Rack Boot - $8 Lock recoding - $38.60 Windscreen and fitting - $170 Gearbox cross member - $10 RWC for sale - $110 Wiper rubbers and pedal rubbers - $10 I believe the sun and the moon aligned on the sale of this car - the girl wanted a brown square car with a brown interior. Mr Hanky fitted the bill perfectly. All the other enquiries would have haggled it down. But a car with 11 months rego, very straight, new tyres, etc, is going to be worth a little more than what the AE86DC boys want to pay!

Yes it went with the wheels. They suited it really well and I will probably regret selling them when something else lands in the driveway lol. Just like I regret selling each of my toys hahaha. If any one wants to ask a "ambitious" price for a car, I can highly recommend carsales. Sold it at the $3200 I wanted for it just like that - partly helped by the fact that she wanted a brown square old car (weird!!). I made $40 profit on Mr Hanky.. not quite what I was hoping but oh well.. makes my labour rate about $0.30 an hour :P

The toymods boys wanted a photo of the new owner for some reason... so being the good bloke I am I try to deliver.... shame the sun hadn't come up when she came to collect Mr Hanky this morning! If you live out Rowville way you might see Mr Hanky on the streets! Farewell Mr Hanky, you were awesomely brown.

although these things can be cool when restomodded.. they go for bugger all in average condition... $500 is about the best you can expect unless its overrated.

Love it!!

Cool car you have there :) hehe I was the previous owner As Cuzzo said, www.Toymods.net.au is where you will find a group of guys who run their cars at Wakefield Park pretty regularly. Cuzzo was indeed one of these blokes, until he turned his rolla upside down :)

Hi Damien I am the old owner of your Corolla. Glad to see you found rollaclub. If you do a search in here you will find a few people who have put 3sge toyota beams engines in them, i reckon that would be the ultimate upgrade. Nissan motor will be cheaper though, but spoils the Toyota-ness! Doing a hybrid 3T-g (using the 3T block with the 2t-g head) would also make it much more interesting.. or even a 3tgte - though they are getting hard to find.

The problem with the trend colours... eg. the current Holden green, atomic green, the bronzes/golds from the 90's... is that they are colours of that moment in time, and look sh*t house in 5 years time when fashions change. The simple whites, creams, and other solids from the era of those car suit them well and still look good 40 years on. I would rather paint it one of those so that in 5 years I am still happy with the colour I painted my car!

Any one after a ae71 wagon? there is one for $1000 listed on gumtree at the moment.

I have axle stands if you need to make it more secure. Yell if you need a hand.

Here are some photos from last weeks event just so you can see what you all missed out on :jamie: http://picasaweb.google.com/adamlaws1974/T...gsDayMarch2010#

Interesting idea... subscribing to see where it goes. Hopefully I am in!

hehe you are dreaming erik!! Just taken a deposit on Mr Hanky.. pending mechanics inspection.. sold to a young lady who told her Dad she wanted a brown square car with brown interior. Perfecto!!!

And some cheap monroe shocks or boge from ajps.. or kyb You arent going to get anything cheaper. and they proabably wont be short stroke.

Good choice. Looking great.

that should do it.. sadly no ke35 for me any more.. have something else that will turn into a club racer as time and funds permit... but i don't think i will be doing the phillip island 6 hour.