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Moonlight Racing TA22 Celica (Aus)


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Oh how things changed! Sep 2021 I was definitely feeling a bit low after all the Covid shit and endless lockdowns over here; amazing considering now I'm the opposite. As some of you would've seen I now have my own shop to tinker and work on projects of my own (but mostly mates at the moment it seems). This is separate to Moonlight Racing which is in another shop aaages away; and this shop is called Karaage Garage. Anyway, I digress. 

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Today I didn't really have much of a plan aside from get the crusty mirrors/mirror mounts off (I reversed into the side of a shed so broke one of them off already). It seems like one side (which I also reversed into the shed but didn't hit the mirror) had the captive nuts still in the back but the other side (which I hit the shed with the mirror) didn't. This meant I had to take the inner door liner off which isn't really hard when most of the clips are broken and and use a bendy ring spanner to hold the rusted af nuts while trying to get out the bolts (which for some fucking reason the previous owners like to use Allen head bolts on everything).

Got that shit off and now looking for some new, not crusty plastic mirrors. I'm not too worried about drilling new holes in the door, it's fucked anyway but it would be nice if I didn't have to. 

 

20220528_132422small.jpgWith that task done I set on "fixing" the driver door hitting the guard when it opened. This is the side I hit the shed but not the mirror, so where the fender winker is got banged up and it pushed the fender back. Anyway I just used some guard rolling/magazine/cardboard technique on it and now it doesn't contact, success. 

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After that I thought I'd Barry it up and get some of the panels lined properly (hahaha) and the doors closing a bit better; so I did some arts and crafts. Painted these black, not sure why? Had some black paint around. Cool to see the old Toyopet logo stamped on them though. 

Passenger door is closing real nice now, driver door is actually sagging a bit so not super good but a little better. I think the door rubbers are kind of cactus so if I got new rubbers it should make a difference as well. It seems like there are door pin repair kits available so will look into it. 

Otherwise just vacuumed the dust and wood chips out of it from when it sat at the wood factory. 

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Oh, and found the spare tyre (can't believe I never actually checked it before) and it miiight be original for Australian models. Not sure exactly but these tyres stopped production in early 80s from what I can tell so could be, or at least it's super old. Still holds air. Never actually seen a tyre that was made in Aus before.

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Also struggled for about an hour trying to get the clock out where I'll re-use that hole for an A/F meter as I have a spot for a probe in the headers I believe. 

 

Talk shit here 

 

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Just a quick job over the weekend. I got a replacement mirror (will get one for other side, just wanted to see how it looked first) and you can see compared to the one that was on there this is much more sleek design. Still equally useless as the actual mirror size is tiny but looks better. Also I learnt the reason for the passenger side mounting being janky is it never had one from the factory! One mirror only, but seeing as I have holes in there might as well use them so I'll get another.

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Something I'd been meaning to do for ages was replace the shitty Supercheap spec wheel on the Celica. I had this Nardi for years and it was on my Accord before so just needed the boss kit, easy done.

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I also need to find a new dash so I can replace it as this one had the headunit bit cut out, will give me an excuse to pull the whole thing out eventually and check the hvac stuff as I can't really move any of the sliders

Put the other mirror on as well, not photo worthy.. still useless but the holes are covered now.

 

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Today I started dismantling the front a bit more to do some refreshing on the headlight surrounds as the black is fading and also try to refresh the panel under the lights whatever that's called. As you can see those bits are crusty so will refresh that. Not quite sure if I'll keep it the grey or do something else. I also decided I want to paint the area behind the lights etc in black or some dark to hide the poo red. Sat the rear wing on just for looks too, nice.

I also want to work out putting a wideband sensor in the headers for tuning the carbs as there is a provision for O2 sensor in there which as you can see has been used simply to block off the hole. Most wideband sensors don't seem to look like this though so hopefully I can find a threaded flange to put in it's place. 

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A bunch of bits from Thailand arrived for the Celica. Various rubber seals as well as some sway bar bushes. How good is brand new OEM Toyota rubber bits for your 1974 car. Rest of them aren't OEM but made well. Fresh window seals mm.. only problem is the windows don't line up properly so I suspect there is a bunch of things bent. Not super surprised. These really helped with the door shutting nice on both sides now though which is awesome but I do still need some of the little rubber bits that go on the doors themselves to really get it minty. 

Baby steps.

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Today I dub thee Bog the Builder, and I've been doing my "restore" on the SSRs posted previously. I'm not very happy with the finish on the lips yet so have ordered some finer grit sandpaper and a different metal polish as the autosol has left it kind of grey. If it doesn't work I'll just tell everyone I'm going for a grey brushed look. Rustoleum black centres because that's what I've got and this is the result. Front two are basically done except for the extra polish and clean up the paint lines around the edges because I didn't mask it very well.
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Another job I started on while waiting for paint dry is removing this awful undercoat around the edges. Now to be fair I don't hate the people who put it on as this car has seen some shit and the undercoat probably saved it from all sorts but it looks nasty and the only thing it needs saving from is me now. Wire wheel on a drill took care of it for the most part. As you can see a few times went too hard on it and burnt through down into the bog (hence the nickname earlier) but even with the scratches and scrapes there I think it looks much better already. I'll get a caramel wheel during the week and finish it off with that hopefully to make it more tidy. Still need to do the sides under the trim. 

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A bit of a slow weekend but got a little bit done. Wheels are finished enough for me, solid 10 footers. I'll get tyres mounted up to them probably after Xmas. Will the hold air? No idea, are they straight? Probably not, but at least the faces aren't rusty anymore so that's something. 
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Sometime in the past I reversed into the side of my garage and caused this decent dent so today I tried to remove a bit of it. The guard is super wavy (like the rest of the car) but maybe it's better? Doesn't have the huge dent anymore just a bunch of small ones, good enough. The problem is the car is bent so the join down where the bottom of the door is on the sill is actually pushed in and needs to be pulled out which causes the bottom of the guard to touch the bottom of the sill panel if that makes sense. To remedy this I can probably slot the mount holes down the bottom and squiz it along, hopefully. Just a couple mm will do so the door doesn't hit it every time opening. 
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I also found out the side trims were riveted in when they're meant to have clips and screws.. so have got some correct hardware on order but need to do the old drill brush trick on the black stuff underneath again. 
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Waiting on new headlights and corner lights then back on the front end assembly next week I reckon.

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