Sungai's 1985 Toyota Celica GTR (AA63)

[Sungai Sungai]

Heyo oldschoolers its been a while!

After a long ol time living o'erseas (6 years in Malaysia) im back in nz, and what is one of the most important things someone needs when they get back to New Zealand? 


Buy a rusty old toyota of course. 



So here is my 1985 Celica AA63 its glory, and on the day i picked it up!



 

 

[Sungai Sungai]

and whats the first thing a silly young man does with his rusty old toyota! (aside from reassemble all the bits the previous owner hadnt gotten around to)



He buys some meshies for it. in this case i got a pretty good deal on some Hayashi 504's which to me are a bit ugly but will serve as great wheels for some track tyres in the future (if i dont manage to swap them for something better before then)



The monster truck level guard gap leaves a lot to be desired right now but priorities are gonna be reregistration first (shouldnt be too hard, most of the way through my checklist already)

[Sungai Sungai]

ok ok ok i admit it, it only took me 72 hours of having the car home before i had three sets of wheels for it,

 

i have a problem clearly 

 

and the problem is guard gap (and a slow leak on one of these tyres)
 

[Sungai Sungai]

oh and dont worry im not driving on those factory shank and washer nuts, it was just a clearance test for the brakes and all.

more updates to come! lots of details about the motor thats in it that i need to document somewhere

[Sungai Sungai]

So aside from relatively small things like some valvetrain noise that needs sorting this cars major downfall was the fact that the plates lapsed in 2017.
so compliance...
but to add to the process some more its been fitted with a w55 and a custom crossmember...
So Lvv certification....
and the nightmare begins!



after a lot of reading online and through the cert thread on here, and because the car was first registered in nz prior to 1990, i decided it was best to take it to a cert guy before i even go to see the compliance officer. But before that i needed a driveshaft hoop made by someone legit, as i already knew it was going to be an issue. So i took a hoon out to DKM Fabrication in Riverhead through the windies and they sorted it for me within the space of a day.

(Edit: I totally had a brain fart and didnt realise Cletus was a cert guy based in auckland) So next up went to see Scott at Fraser cars.  Dropped the car off to Beachhaven and took the ferry home.


Not long after i get home Scott gives me a call to say its done! so i go back to the ferry (i like being on the water what can i say?) and go to collect the car along with my brand spanking new rectification sheet (oh the joy).

But honestly he wasn't too harsh on me and had good reasons for all the things he wrote, most of which we cleared up with a quick chat/sending some emails of photos and receipts.


So the next day i took a quick trip to Pipeline and then to The Bolt Shop to get the bits i needed to reconnect the PCV, replace the brake booster pipe, replace the engine mount bolts and secure the hub adapter with a locnut.

then for item 11....


honestly it was way too loud for my taste before, i wanna hear those trumpets! that symphony! no need for too much growl and rasp.

Off to Woolf Mufflers cause id been told he was a good dude and figured it would be best if someone with a DB meter on hand was there. Got him to remake the tail section of the exhaust so i can keep that fart can for when i want it loud again at some point, if i ever do, and ended up replacing the mid section resonator with a coby about three times the size to help calm the rasp on decel.



ok so now the nightmare begins to unravel.
after some reading, and talking to the few people i know who have been through the process, i decided to take it to Seatbelt Specialists for compliance, under the impression that they were more reliable and open to discussion than VTNZ or VINZ.


a day later i get a call that "there are a few things that need to be done", my stomach turns. Not the dreaded repair certifier please god no.




i read down the list.
oh rack end, thats easy, headlight adjust easy, steering boot, easy, power-steering not working is just cause i have it turned down because its electric and i can do that so... easy....

REFER TO REPAIR CERT......

All because at some point in the cars life someone has applied some non factory black paint to some of the crossmember components. The last thing on the list "rust treatment" turned out to be cavity wax, the compliance officer couldn't even tell the difference. The evidence of repair around the latch is extremely minor and in a completely non structural part of the hatch.

So here i sit, just a man with a dwindling amount of money left to burn on this project and the looming beast that is the repair certifier. The only guy I've gotten through to so far berated me for referring to a Toyota Celica as a "classic car". "Thats not a classic car mate hahahah are you kidding me" he said. "yeah yeah i've been doing heaps of jappas like that lately i just did a 1989 nissan laurel thizmornin" he said. These statements don't inspire hope that he wont be as tough as he possibly can with me.

Please reach out if you know a repair certifier in Auckland or Hamilton that isn't booked out for the next two months and wont throw the book at me.

 

[Sungai Sungai]

Ok so i have a rack end on the way from Shartmaster and its booked in for a wheel alignment+repair cert inspection while its on the hoist at a spot recommended by Jason Smith (the only available repair cert guy in Auckland it seems). He definitely didn't come across as as ghoulish as other repair certifiers i called.

also forgot to mention that i sourced some wider A3A's for the back for cheaper than widening a pair of mine was going to cost. they juuuuust sneak the tread under the rear guards.

I cant wait for all this re-compliance nonsense to be over so i can drive this car though mostly.

Ive also tidied up the engine bay a little and deleted the old negative crankcase breather system that the previous owner was trying to run, back to a trusty MRP catch can. 

Theres a bit of a tap in the valvetrain somewhere, in the past this engine has been quite extensively rebuilt but it was some time ago and its done a lot of sitting in a garage since then. The previous owner spun some story about how the tapping was due to the vvt delete and the aftermarket cam gears or something but i never believed it. It hasnt really gotten worse since ive owned it. Its quieter when cold and kind of comes and goes a bit. Need to get some feeler gauges today and check the valve lash later on to see if the issue is there.

[Sungai Sungai]

Update!

So finally got complied and drove it for about four days until it dropped a valve. Fortunately it happened in my driveway under very little load and i shut it off immediately, so aside from the valvestem being a bit chewed up and the shim being rounded but im really hopeful the head is ok as its had some cnc porting work done in the past according to the receipts i have. Id checked the valve lash prior to this and not found anything particularly out of tolerance but it turned out the tapping must have been the collet having been improperly installed by the previous owner? or its just parts failure. ohwel! Head is coming off in the next few days and will have all the valves checked and replacements lapped in where needed. Need to source oversized shims too for the reground cams. 

Vintage momo and new shift knob to celebrate successful compliance!

 

 

Bonus pics of my AW11 and CM36 Liteace which is the new home of the painted barrel Advan A3A's that were previously on the celica.

 

 

[Sungai Sungai]

Wheel collection has grown. 

SSR MKIII 14x6.5 +22 B type, Riverside R101 14x7 +11, Advan A3A 14x6.5 +6 and you can see one more MKIII 14x6.5 +9 A type hiding in the back there.
and there are 3 more mkIII's in the post, 2x 14x7 a type and 1x 14x9 -25 a type.

am on the hunt for a some barrels to make a second 9" -25 mkIII to match one i have on the way.

 

more bonus picks of a cressida i couldnt help but buy. plan is to use it to dabble in some sideways action as the shell is very very rusty. Once its too far gone ill pinch the manual conversion and w57 and part it out.

First port of call was fitting the worn through nardi 350mm and the big ol cock shifter to provide a bit of leverage for the cube short shift kits.

delicious 5mge straight pipe noises await. Just needs a plethora of wiring issues fixed.

 

half the reason i bought this car actually was because it included an unfitted set of x7/a6 coilovers. These will of course be destined for the celica in the coming weeks.

[Sungai Sungai]

Yay another arrival today, and got my 14x9" A3A's back from a friend who was borrowing them.

 

so i only got one of the 14x9 -25 (a type) MKIII, but i have another 14x6.5 a type so as i suspected its just a case of ordering a single outer barrel to make a matched pair. woohoo!

 

[Sungai Sungai]

Long time no update!

so got frustrated by my own indecision about where to take my head to be looked at, and how extensively i want it gone over, so i popped it off a month or so ago and swapped a factory silvertop head onto it that i got for cheap off a mate

 

a small amount of swirly scoring from where the valve impacted the piston but not enough to be much of a worry

cleaned up this unknown condition factory head with a razor blade, from memory i went a but longer after this photo and checked it with a straight edge i use for my job to find it seemed to be entirely unwarped as far as myself and my feeler gauges could tell

stock head on, ririririrVROOOM into life without a single worry in the world. 

did a quick oil change then drove it all the way to whangarei to collect some wheels and to shake it down for a big trip i had planned down to Manfield for the anniversary weekend.

 

then on the way back after bolting the wheels on the car, gotta say the continental tyres that they came on are really nice in terms of road noise and economy vs my DZ101's on the advans.

Wheel reveal! Crimson Zed Comp 4, 14x7 front and rear with a slightly staggered offset. Im really in love with these wheels but after running them for a month ish im not sold that they suit this car as well as they would suit something else... we will see. soooon.

oh and forgot to mention i installed a cool old double din ADZEST minidisc player i scored off marketplace before the trip too. The car hadnt come with any bracketry at all and i figured id try bend some thin steel up myself before i started scouring the few parts MA61's and SA60's around for something im probably not going to find. I think it sits fairly straight, its not like the rest of the interior is mint at this stage so it gets the ol  good enough for now from me. Mind the bluetooth receiver but the stock speakers are so tinny without the factory fitted "Zender" box (sub woofer) that it doesnt sound audibly different over rca anyway.

[Sungai Sungai]

So after the successful shakedown to Whangarei and back in one evening it was time to set off!

the only challenge i faced along the way

I forgot to take all that many photos of the lineup for the toyota show n shine (rain) but snapped a couple of photos nearer the end of the day. 

Then stopped by at a mates place for a few more photos of the two together.

featuring a blurry glen, unsure if he's on here or id tag him. Make yaself known glen! 

PFL vs FL 

15" vs 14" 

etc etc

 

 

 

So that was all a few weeks ago now, since then ive mostly been enjoying driving the car and working on unfattening the wildly fat tune it had in it. Will have some more updates about that soon, its been a great journey of learning how a fuel table works and how to setup logging for street tuning among other things.

bonus photo:

ef civic on 15" wire wheels

This car belongs to @deez; i actually brought him the wires for his birthday earlier in the year. Im personally a big fan of the Californian and Japanese "Euro Lowrider" style cars especially this generation of hondas so im quietly hoping this becomes quite a serious project at some point in the future. The first thing this car will get before anything else is bodywork. Its a cool 25XT S Limited model so it has a dual sidedraft carb setup on the d15b and quite a lovely interior with similar fabrics to an Si. Its just been treated very poorly by a series of teenagers before he got his hands on it.

[Sungai Sungai]

Same mate @deez surprised me this week with this absolutely out of this world Tom's Racing Sport Competition steering wheel for my birthday. Heck buy your friends cool presents and you never know whats gonna happen! It came from the store that is @Jeffs_Emporium and many thanks to him too for letting it out of his hands in the first place 

 

And my birthday present to myself was a pair of 3.5" front barrels for my advan A3A's, which when bolted onto my other centers and rears should make a pretty wee pair of 14x7.75" to match my pair of (what i believe now to be) 14x8.75" 

Im way too excited to get these on the car but will be taking a little bit of time to do a few other things before i put them together. Also very very hopeful that these widths and offsets will allow me to run the car relatively low without having to do much guard work, in my ideal world i want to keep the wheel arch trim for now and not dump it quite yet.

well that was until a few days ago when i caught a break in the rain and fitted the mx73 BC rear springs and platforms

the rake settled a bit once i drove it and i do have fronts waiting to go in. There's probably an inch of downward adjustment on the platforms and the option to remove the adjustable platforms altogether. The rear shocks i removed were far less new than i had been lead to believe by the previous owner (they were pretty much flogged completely) so the ride improved dramatically in pretty much every way (as long as firm as fuck is your preference). 

[Sungai Sungai]

Interior looking outrageous thanks to @deez for the steering wheel again. Horn button care of @Jeffs_Emporium

Gettin down to business

woops sorry no i was sidetracked by this thats right haha

 

ok now. down to business, time for some shakatanzzz

Local tyre shop doing the lords work

Gad damn

 

 

 

 

 

[Sungai Sungai]

 

sheeeeeeesh. 

[Sungai Sungai]

 

[Sungai Sungai]

16.4's (ish) allll day baby 

not my best r/t but this thread is about the car not me 

Oh and credit to my partner Rasa for the video above 

[Sungai Sungai]

Merry Christmas Oldschoolers! Sadly i got covid 3 days before christmas so im spending it on my lonesome. But on a positive note me and a friend filmed this music video for another friend! Featuring Celica!