I'm back B%$#@s!

I just couldn't help myself, I needed to be able row through gears again; needed a project, something to do, something to cruise with w/ friends in the summer.

Somebody had posted a car on here it was a clean southern car that sale didn't happen & it just got me hooked, I needed to get back in another Celica.

I had been searching the car sales sites & found this on Jan. 18 on Craigslist in Denver, CO (had only been on there for a few days). Contacted the seller, blah, blah, blah. Flew out Feb. 3rd to pick it up. It's mine. BIG thanks to richee3 (a.k.a. Daniel) otherwise I would still be without a 6th gen.

Had an absolute blast. Beat the crap out of the car the first few hours of ownership, drove to Colorado Springs, up Pikes Peak (it's a must for any automotive enthusiast). Car rides well, even a 100mph (Denver area Colorado drivers are the worst).

So the cooling issue... Bought the car on Saturday no problems at all, really nice outside about 57degrees. Drove down to Colorado Springs then up & down Pikes Peak no issues. You can hear the fans come on when the car is at operating temp. I mean NO issues at all, we beat the piss out of the car (is smooth at 100mph). I leave Sunday morning, about 30min outside of Denver the car overheats! WTF! I pull over & check, see that the only place coolant is coming out of is the overflow tank, but the fans aren't running, weird. Check fuses, good, swap some relays, nothing. Eventually Daniel tells me unplug the radiator temp sensor, all is good, fans work, so relays are ok. Put some coolant in (not very much was lost) & on my way. I notice that the car is running a little warm but I keep going. Fill up w/ gas at Julesburg, CO get back on the road & the car seems to run a little warmer even than before, WTF. So I'm messing w/ the heater trying different things to get the temp down, I notice that when heat is turned to full cold that the temp gauge spikes, it didn't do that before. I suspect the thermostat. I get to North Platte, NE. Pull into an O'Reillys, pop over the hood and look, no leaks, but the lower radiator hose is cold! Put a new thermostat in bleed the system. Plug the fans back in & they turn on correctly, lower radiator hose gets hot. Ok cool, I get on my way temp gauge is good going down there the road. A while down the road I pull into a rest stop to check... no leaks, temp is good, but the lower radiator hose is still cold! WTF! I'm like well car hasn't blow up yet, I continue with my journey. I get home park in the garage, pop the hood lower hose still cold. I let the car run for a few minutes & the hose gets warm & the fans kick on. [Copied from our PM cheela, lol]

The car hasn't overheated yet so I'm believing the thermostat was the fix but...

Now the clutch is toasted, go figure. I've been baby-ing it when driving cause especially after 3k rpms you could feel it. But I was driving it to work 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday morning in lovely traffic, go to give it some throttle (maybe a 1/2, I dunno) in 5th & she shoots to 5k rpms & really goes no where, lol, sorry traffic. That smell is really nasty, haha.

Here is the Flickr album ... I'll try and embed photos w/ captions and/ or details later.

This post has been edited by navseal345: May 24, 2020 - 10:54 AM

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It’s no problem! Glad to have you back in a 6gc! And raiding the junk yard is always a good time.


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Truer words have never been spoken. They like to blame the “transplants” but it’s not our fault that they have no clue how to drive.

Took this long to tell everyone? GAH.

Welcome back!!! Not having a 6gc should be a crime.

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Yeah, sorry. I'm a very good procrastinator.

I realized soon after I sold my first one I made a huge mistake. It's been 6-ish years. Feels good to be back.

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LOL I was reading through and was thinking hey, that's pretty much what he wrote to.... ah yup. it is.

looking through your album, and those 7th gen seats in red are perfect for your celi. you're gonna miss the extra cushion of the 6th gen seats but they just look so good.

Woot! Excited to see where this goes!!!

welcome to the "RED'' CLUB. I KNOw you dont like it ,cheela . but we are to many.

haha! yeah I don't like red, but yet TWO of the FOUR cars I own are red...lol.
but hopefully my RA29 will be white at some point and my RA24, matte black.

It's all good. Not gonna hate on a clean red celi though. Just that it's not my first choice for color.

I'll hate on red, WORST COLOUR EVA.

thats the reason i like mine because is not that factory red. is allot more brighter . i call it ferrari red. Lets see how it will be looking when it comes out the body shop.

Would like to see where this goes too. Good luck!

It's going no where very, very fast. Mostly have no motivation after work during the week & weekends have been to cold to go & work in the garage.

I want to get the interior apart & cleaned, seats swapped over & such and the clutch.

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you just have to choose a day. and as soon as you start ,you will get motivated when you start seeing the results ,you will not want to stop. Plus you got us waiting!

a link, is not a pic

Ok... (sorry it took a long ass time)

Here are the photos from the sellers Craigslist ad...








































And here is/ was the ad

Here was my Facebook reveal, lol...



And how can you not take a car you just bought up Pikes Peak...
Thanks richee3 for some of these photos (taken just after the halfway point)













From my potato cam...



Top of Pikes Peak (looking manly east), Elevation 14,115ft. Wait for it... wait for it...

wait for it... wait for it... There it is! (looking manly south)

Fixed the battery hold down...

Better than a rubber hold down


Made a junkyard run... Got a full set of floor mats, black carpet, interior trunk plastics & a few other misc. pieces. And it only cost me $42!

Took the carpet & mats to the car wash & gave them good cleaning!


Like a week later went back & got some 7th gen seats & some other interior carpet bits for only like $50!


Not the biggest fan of the feel/ design of the 7th gen seats butt they sure are better then the faded/dry/ torn tan leather ones. They will do for now.



I still need to really get going on this project
Clutch is toasted,
I have parts sitting in the living room just need a free weekend/ rack at work to do it.
It will get done! (I hope. lol, jk)

It is a great car for a first driver, they speak troofs.

I like where this is headed!

Nice!!! But damn those photos are huge, had to reduce my screen size to like 33% to get a good view haha.

Knew someone would say that, lol.
I did that so that all could get the full experience, lol.

It auto adjusts size for me, so meh.

Did some work on Sunday. Started taking the interior apart. Had ordered new speakers & when taking the speaker panels out on the right side found some previous damage. Looks like it was repaired well?



Started putting the speakers in at work because that's where all my tools are. I was really hoping that it would be easier, like bolt in easy but stuff like that never happens.



Tried to take the least amount of material off, speakers don't seem to be to much heavier than the stockers. Still need to finish them up.



This is the progress...

Woot! Progress!

should put your black interior in while you're at it.

That's the plan. Just got to clean/ scrub stuff down before I put it all back together.

So I finally got the factory alarm key fob programmed. Thanks to cheela / richee3.

The little "piezo chirper" sounds like a dying rabbit but the alarm/ keyless entry works now. And now I can put the horn fuse back in & I can have a horn & not worry about that going off w/ the alarm.

Clutch is going in this weekend, hell or high water, it'll happen.

So the alarm works perfectly fine now?

Yep! Turned off the "Passive" mode or whatever it is called. I can leave the door open & it doesn't go bat **** crazy.