Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - XJR Collected!

[Schaefft]

I'll see if I can get a set of decent OEM cat sections, even if I have to get them from Germany. But aftermarket options are out there, most of them dont last longer than just a few years though.

We had a proper look underneath yesterday. And to my surprise, ignoring the missing cats, things looked very good! Corrosion is at an absolute minimum, with non of the rot you'd expect to see on a BMW of this age. The suspension was tight, too, aside from a few new brake hoses it all looks great. There is however a clunk from the front corner under hard breaking we couldn't quite nail down so more investigations will be needed.

With that being said, look at the exhaust where you'd expect to see a pair of cats and you get to witness the horrors of complete, pure, no fucks given bodge:

They didn't even bother welding the pipes in, this was as much of a half arsed fix and flip as it could possibly be. A real shame as this really ruins an otherwise decent car that just needs some TLC.

Which it received today as this car really is supposed to become the GF's daily rather soon. I investigated the non functioning driver side window which turned out to be the switch pack, good thing I had a spare laying around. The indicator and bulb warnings are coming from the fact that somebody messed around with the bulb holders and never bothered installing the correct ones. I also investigated the PDC not working, all fuses are good so the relay for it might be faulty, Im still confirming where the location is.

I've also checked the usual power steering leaks which are all identical to my 60k ULEZ refugee, so I get to replace everything twice. Gave the engine bay and car a good wash, things look much better now! It also shows that it needs a polish BADLY, the door dings and scratches are really bad.

The blue 728i received some attention as well. It actually just passed its MOT with flying colors the other day. Only a single advisory, I couldn't quite believe it. In fact I struggled to find it on the MOT paper the list was so short.

As mentioned I need to replace the power steering lines on this one as well. I gave the engine bay another clean, it's weird to have two near identical cars with pretty much identical engines bays that need similar work.

I finally got to replace the missing C-pillar chrome trim as well. I ordered all clips from BMW and got the missing trim from a breaker (it actually worked out this time, can you believe it).

Properly cleaned them up, removed all the left over glue and glued the rubbers back on.

These mini G clamps continue to come in handy, definitely a great tool to have around.

Before:

After:

I'll see if I get a set of bulb holders next, I will need to get the cluster out to get the ribbon cable sorted as well.

[mitsisigma01]

These BMW barges are too easy for you ...

What you really need is a my Sigma estate to fixerate ....

[Schaefft]

12 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

These BMW barges are too easy for you ...

What you really need is a Sigma estate to fixerate ....

I still regularly think about that Sigma saloon that was parked in a bush for years I could have had on Ebay years ago...

[GingerNuttz]

That's grim 😂

[dome]

10 minutes ago, GingerNuttz said:

That's grim 😂

Bet it's sealed better than if I'd tried to weld it though 🙈

[GingerNuttz]

2 minutes ago, dome said:

Bet it's sealed better than if I'd tried to weld it though 🙈

Nout wrong with your welds on that jig, least you didn't try and stick it together with bloody gun gum 😂

[Schaefft]

Long overdue update! Let's try to keep it short:

Stripped the sport bumpers that are supposed to go on the E39. I bought the rear bumper years ago (done bit of work on it already), the front bumper in 2021. I really want these to be on the car soonish, they still need a little more work before they are ready for paint.

On the Oxford green 7-Series front:

Replaced the plastic clips that hold the bonnet air intake trim in place. I'm still surprised it didn't fly off on the motorway on my way back from London. Cleaned it all up before it was reassambled, much better now:

I've also replaced the driver's seat. I don't know what happned to these seats but the dye got ruined on them (looked worse than in the photo below), probably from using the wrong cleaning products.

I got a set of E39 5-Series seats on Ebay for 40 quid, I replaced the cushions of the driver seat with those of the replacement passenger seat which made a big improvement. The backseat that was included goes into my silver E39 eventually as its a little nicer.

Replacement left, old one right:

Filth:

No filth:

I've also finally found a pre-fl exhaust section including catalytic converters somewhat locally (2h away...) that I just collected today. Funnily enough it came from the same blue E38 that I viewed before I decided to go for the 60k ULEZ refugee. Shame the car gets broken now (rust) but as you can see I made the most out of it:

All this stuff will replace the remaining broken bits in the green E38's interior, it should look pretty decent in the end. Headliner still needs doing though, I might get the one from the breaker if it gets crushed otherwise.

Speaking of the ULEZ refugee, it received a set of new kidney grilles, the clips on these are always broken and I didn't wanna settle for cheap chinese replacements so I bought a set of facelift V12 ones from the dealer that suit the blue very well.

Old:

New. The corner trim will need to get replaced eventually as well.

[Schaefft]

But wait, theres more!

The S8 that was originally supposed to be my winter car received some love as well (which it quickly rejected by leaking power steering fluid on my drive). The so called "Botang's hole" (a hole in the firewall covered by a strip of tape from factory) was resealed, which required some special tools...

While doing this I noticed that my ECU box had water standing an inch high inside of it... Fortunately it was just shallow enough to not damage anything. Looking at the color it can only be windscreen washer fluid leaking in there. It boggles my mind that Audi didn't think about having a drain in that thing, something I rectified by taking a drill to it... Its things like this (and the hole) that really make me think about Audi engineers and their ability to design a decent car. I had a few similar moments with the A6, just really dumb predictable stuff that shouldn't happen.

After having confirmed that the firewall was now leak free I finally was able to reassemble both front footwells again, a huge improvement inside. I still need to sort out the O2 sensor, abs pump error and headlight calibration (plus the leaking powersteering pipe) but we hopefully are a little closer to an MOT soon.

Looking good!

In even more news, my ivory 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII is back from the dead! It's pretty much been off the road for the last 3 years, with  serious transmission leak halting any progress on it. That leak has been sorted now (hopefully) after replacing the transmission pan and gasket (filter obviously as well) and retorquing everything to the right spec. That is including the transmission tail to center case bolt that backed itself out without anyone apparently noticing before, most likely causing the actual leak.

I really don't know how that could happen in the first place, nobody ever had to touch these bolts for any work underneath. The offending bolt was finger tight and the leak wasn't really noticeable until having had the car running for half an hour while on the lift. I pray that this is the end of my gearbox woes, I will need to keep an eye on it. The powersteering pipes will need replacing on this one as well as they are now leaking, too. Fun times...

However, have a very rare image of both pre-facelift and facelift Mark VIII LSCs next to each other. It's not like anyone else in the UK will take one...

And yes, there is yet more news...

I finally dug into the Celsior's starter problem. Which is a real problem if you consider that Toyota's engineers decided to place the starter underneath the intake manifold. 5 hours later and I was greeted with this:

This is after removing the nest and mountain of snail shells that I found in there last year. Which are now replaced by dried up coolant that leaked in there and must have killed the starter or solenoid. I'll order a new one and 2 new knock sensors while I'm in there. I think at this point I might have dealt with every single LS400/Celsior trouble spot that these can potentially have. Not too surprising after seeing this photo of it from 2016:

I was told the car was parked on a drive when I bought it...

[hairnet]

so much nerd

good nerd tho

 

[Asimo]

The Lincolns do look lovely.

[catsinthewelder]

Top stuff, well done on spotting that puddle before it caused electrical chaos.  Really good news on fixing the beige Lincoln.  Such a nice car to drive.

[GingerNuttz]

There's the same Lexus parked in a garden around the corner from me, been in the garden about 7 years now.

[Back_For_More]

I still have the fears of Lexus starter motor replacement horrors - honestly the one job I kept thinking to myself - 'What the fuck were they thinking' every single second of the sodding job.

I do love the S8 - I'm feeling the want REAL bad.

Great work on the barges.......

[Schaefft]

5 hours ago, GingerNuttz said:

There's the same Lexus parked in a garden around the corner from me, been in the garden about 7 years now.

Do you have a photo of it? Would be shame to see it rot away. I actually would need a bonnet if its the same blue in decent shape...

5 hours ago, Back_For_More said:

I still have the fears of Lexus starter motor replacement horrors - honestly the one job I kept thinking to myself - 'What the fuck were they thinking' every single second of the sodding job.

I do love the S8 - I'm feeling the want REAL bad.

Great work on the barges.......

The S8 really is a special one. I know there are many cars out there that are significantly faster nowadays. Compared to anything I've driven it feels like a rocketship though. At least on the long straight at the bottom of the estate...

Finally found the time to clean up the engine in the Celsior a little today. And because I realized that it doesn't really need any further disassembly to do the valve cover gaskets so those are now on the list as well:

Took them off the car to have a look underneath, and fortunately there's only good things to report here! The valve train looks lovely and clean, pretty much the opposite of the Corona then.

The gaskets are pretty brittle so probably still the original ones. Something worth noting here: Toyota was smart enough to design their spark plug tubes and gaskets in a way that makes it impossible for oil to leak in there at age. Something a lot of car manufacturers could really learn from...

Not sure why the inside of one valve cover is darker than the other, things are looking much better than in the Corona fortunately. I put them back on and will order everything I need today so hopefully this car is back together soon enough.

[GingerNuttz]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

Do you have a photo of it? Would be shame to see it rot away. I actually would need a bonnet if its the same blue in decent shape...

The S8 really is a special one. I know there are many cars out there that are significantly faster nowadays. Compared to anything I've driven it feels like a rocketship though. At least on the long straight at the bottom of the estate...

Finally found the time to clean up the engine in the Celsior a little today. And because I realized that it doesn't really need any further disassembly to do the valve cover gaskets so those are now on the list as well:

Took them off the car to have a look underneath, and fortunately there's only good things to report here! The valve train looks lovely and clean, pretty much the opposite of the Corona then.

The gaskets are pretty brittle so probably still the original ones. Something worth noting here: Toyota was smart enough to design their spark plug tubes and gaskets in a way that makes it impossible for oil to leak in there at age. Something a lot of car manufacturers could really learn from...

Not sure why the inside of one valve cover is darker than the other, things are looking much better than in the Corona fortunately. I put them back on and will order everything I need today so hopefully this car is back together soon enough.

Next time I walk round that way I'll grab a pic, it's silver I think. 

[Schaefft]

On 5/2/2022 at 9:01 PM, GingerNuttz said:

Next time I walk round that way I'll grab a pic, it's silver I think. 

I'd love to see it, even though theres no chance I'd be the one to rescue it.

I've started replacing bits in the green 7-Series as a lot of this stuff is just taking up space in my house right now. I started in the back, the vents were smashed to bits and since it was impossible to figure out how to remove the cigarette lighter that one quickly suffered as well. Think I'll use a large C-Clamp to press the plastic on the sides back into shape.

By now I noticed that the E38 really was a transitional model in the way the interior has been assembled. Very similar to the later E39 5-Series, however still with a few pieces that are more complicated than they needed to be, something that was not the case with the E39 anymore. That cigarette lighter was one of them. C-pillar light replaced as well, someone cracked the old one, including a mount:

Next up was the dash, I really do believe that this car has spent much more time in the sun than many other E38 I have seen. All the wood trim is faded (and cracked) and the vent on top of the dash was quite brittle as the mounting points just pulled out the plastic, with the screws still being in place. The wood trim on the right of the steering wheel needs a new clip. I had a set for the dash of my E39 but for whatever reason its not quite the right size to fit into this one, I almost smashed the dash to pieces trying to get it in there...

These two above are the same type of wood. And while differences between pieces are normal the flap covering the casette player actually still looks like the bottom one. Not sure what happened to these buttons either, replaced both of them as well.

Door panel replaced. Needs a clean but everything is perfect now:

I started removing the backseat as well but noticed that similar to the headliner the parcel shelf fabric glue is on its last legs. I'll probably ask the guy I bought all bits from to save the shelf and the C-pillar trims before the car gets scrapped so I can install them before the backseat goes back in. As you can imagine plenty of filth that needed cleaning up underneath that cushion.

In other news, I found the reason why the starter in the Celsior went bad. Believe it or not, the hole you see there was caused by corrosion eating through the thing. I have no clue how thats even possible. I know something lived in there and mouse pee probably does its part but this badly? New one is already on its way from Rockauto, guess I can forget about my core refund...

[vulgalour]

Rodent wee is brutal on anything metal, it's astonishing what it'll just dissolve so it's entirely believable that's what caused your hole there.  Nice to see all the cosmetic improvements on the green one.

[Schaefft]

On 5/6/2022 at 12:54 AM, vulgalour said:

Rodent wee is brutal on anything metal, it's astonishing what it'll just dissolve so it's entirely believable that's what caused your hole there.  Nice to see all the cosmetic improvements on the green one.

Yeah, it's incredible what a few years of practically abondoning a car can do to it.

To quickly finish the green E38 interior mission: Backseat went back in, better condition and no broken center armrest lid. Sold the backrest pieces for 10 quid. Believe it or not, the cupholder in the old bottom cushion is worth 60 quid on its own, so basically a free repair.

I've also replaced the center console trim as the old one was cracked. It comes apart fairly easily if you know how:

#

Plenty of filrth inside that I had to clean out...

Major improvement, the cracked shifter was replaced at the same time. Once again I can sell the old ashtray, armrest and cubby hole to make my money back.

The passenger side dash trim was replaced to have a fully matching set as well (see the difference in the first pic). 

That only leaves the door trim and cupholder left to replace for now. I paid 200 quid for all interior pieces, I should be able to get most of that back by selling what can be reused.

On the Toyota Celsior side: It runs again!🎉

After reinstalling the valve covers with new gaskets and sealant I've installed the starter and tested it just to make sure that I wouldn't spent hours reassembling things without actually working. Fortunately the car now started to crank over, thank god, anything else would have meant complete misery really. I've replaced the knock sensors while in there, each of which was obscenely priced despite being aftermarket and coming from Rockauto...

I've used this gasket kit specifically provided to dealers for a starter repair on an LS400, I got lucky and somehow found it on Ebay after reading the dealer instructions for doing the job in a random pdf I've dug up online, it had the part number in it, a part number that I don't think was ever made available to the public. To anyone finding this thread via google in 10 years time: 04007-06350 . You are welcome.

It came with everything I needed, plus a few extra gaskets for the EGR tube that (as it turns out) was not a thing on early Japanese market Celsiors. Which is a blessing as the EGR tubes are an absolute pain to replace, running down the back of the engine. I still have all the holes for the port drilled into the intake manifold but all of them are sealed off internally, pretty interesting.

Slowly putting it all back together, it's certainly an unusual intake manifold design.

And done (minus all the beauty covers). I refilled the coolant, checked for coolant and fuel leaks, couldn't find any so I thought it was safe to start the car.

Unfortunately I didn't take a video but the car started up almost instantly.🥳 Huge relief there as it meant that I can finally move it out of the way. However, since things went too well oil started pouring out from underneath the passenger side valve cover. Turns out one of the half moon shaped blanking caps Toyota also liked to use on their V8s (instead of a second camshaft coming out of the head) somehow got misaligned, causing the mating surface of the gasket to be slightly uneven. It's pretty interesting how much oil can pour out of a non-pressurized part of the engine...

Removed the valve cover again, spent an hour cleaning the sealant off everything, reinstalled it, hoping that it will all be sorted tomorrow when dry and I can move the car. Photo above was from the first try, it looks perfectly even there... On a side note, the replacement sparkplug tube seals were so tight that it shaved the rubber off of them while pressing them in:

At this point I replaced almost every component that would ever realistically break on this engine, minus the waterpump and timing belt. I sure hope that this means that this is the end of my engine woes and the car will behave from now on... I'll probably get it on my multi-car policy and book it in for an MOT soon then...

New arrival from Glasgow next week! It will only stay for a short time as I think it really is too far gone this time...

[Schaefft]

Once again its new car time! Only that its already f*cked.

As seen in the Glasgow Shiter needed thread last week a vehicle came up for sale in the Ebay tat thread that was hard to resist and required IMMEDIATE action. The main reason for that was that the asking price for the car was about as much as you'd pay for the set of wheels the car was standing on.  As you can imagine, the interest in the car was high and the seller not particular interested in anything but you showing up with cash, ideally straight away. The car in question was.......

Another BMW E38 7-Series! And its another 728i! This time however its the facelift, in Sport trim, with a few goodies that made the impromptu trip up to the South of Glasgow worth the journey. Thanks again to @cort16 for providing backup as its always fun* to show up in a somewhat rough neighborhood, with a stack of cash, not knowing what to expect. Fortunately the seller turned out to be a nice chap who for whatever reason negotiated the price down despite me saying that I'm perfectly fine with all the issues the car has considering the money he wanted for it.

And oh boy how many issues it has. The ABS light came on during a short test drive, accompanied with a pretty serious sounding metal grinding noise from the passenger front corner. I initially thought the sensor wire might be the problem. I had a look today. Turns out the dustshield is just losely hanging behind the brake rotor, and with the wheel bolts removed, there is nothing but the caliper keeping the rotor in place...

The car also has an check engine light. Apparently the previous-previous owner installed an M50 intake manifold, a popular mod for the M52 to gain a little more peak HP. That must be triggering a code. The car also runs a little rough on and off, it seems to happen at random times so Im not 100% sure what it could be without reading the codes. Aside from that the cats are missing (naturally) and every single panel has rust, excluding both front wings which got replaced with ones in the wrong color. The interior has the typical few broken bits as well.

None of that matters though as the car was bought as a parts donor. I need quite a few myself bits, and many of the Sport trim specific parts are easy to sell for decent money. I initially just wanted to take the wheels and Chrome Line related trim pieces and put the rest up for sale for cheap (if anyone still is interested after reading this, let me know...) but I honestly think that this car really only has its value in its parts. As you can see I've dug into things quite a bit already:

I'll continue to strip the easy bits and put them up for sale in the usual FB groups, if anyone needs anything thats available please let me know. The rest of the car will be sold as one (driving) piece, ideally its gone in two weeks as I need the space back.

In other news, I cleared the Airbag light on the Celsior. Turns out the procedure to do so with a bunch of wires is well documented. Who needs diagnostics tools?!

I almost forgot how the engine bay looked with all the beauty covers back on...

[cort16]

I think the wings are maybe 1 shade out 😀

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, cort16 said:

I think the wings are maybe 1 shade out 😀

Turn the brightness down on your monitor... then close your eyes. Perfect match after that.

[Schaefft]

Quite a bit of interest so far, I'm glad that I seem to be able to sell most larger parts relatively quickly although I'm waiting for payment for most of them. Ideally the car would be gone by beginning of June, let's see how much is left until then.

[Schaefft]

The Celsior received a new battery, fresh oil change and is now insured and at Scaryoldcortina's garage to hopefully get an MOT soon. I popped by the Toyota dealership to order a few bits for it, unfortunately a bolt was the only reasonably priced/available part on my list, not too surprised so Amayama it is again. It was also the first actual drive in the car to find out what might still be needed.

There is some suspension clunking coming from the front which will most likely be front strut bar bushes that are tired (everything else looked surprisingly solid while I was underneath the car), the cheapo ebay special Maxpeedingrods (without an "s") coilovers do surprisingly well although I wouldn't be surprised if they are actually contributing to the suspension knocks I hear... The car rides fairly comfortably but has a certain bounciness to it that most likely is the result of less than ideal spring/damper tuning. I'll hold on to them for a little while though, the BC coilovers I got need a bit of tidying up anyway.

Also ordered a replacement door lock assembly for the passenger rear door on ebay, the motor on mine is dead causing the central locking to go crazy at a certain speeds trying to lock the car over and over. Cost me a whopping 13 quid posted.

 

[Schaefft]

Something I forgot to post before, and something I am unreasonably proud of: all plastics of the battery cover are back in place! I kinda see this as final confirmation that things are at a point where the car is truly usable again. Quite a big deal if you consider that this Celsior has been off the road for almost a decade (last MOT passed was September 2012) and that it was pretty much certain that it would have ended up in the scrapyard, hadn't I commited to saving it. Not something that happens too often with cars like these in the UK.

With the Celsior out of the drive the next blue barge from the 90s quickly took its place.

One of the reasons I bought the silver 728i was to get the chromeline interior trim which is rather rare and pricey. There's nothing wrong the the E38s interior but a few subtle chrome accents can go a long way in adding a little bit more flair to the inside. I've replaced the center console trim and shifter yesterday. I cleaned and polished the hell out of the center console to get it to look as nice as I can without redoing the clearcoat. Before:

After:

THE BUTTONS HAVE A CHROME BEZEL NOW WOW. The shifter actually needed a bit of trimming at the bottom to fit over the lever, the Dremel once again was the perfect tool for the job.

I've spent too much time cleaning that ashtry to not post a photo of it...

Today I've also started cleaning up the chrome kick plates from the donor car. I think they turned out quite nicely consider they had 179k miles on them!

Top after steel wool, bottom untouched. The difference isn't as obvious in the photo. I'll probably ceramic coat them to see if I can stop some of the corrosion and get a few more scratches out.

Screwfix didn't have any double sided tape in stock despite saying so on their website (apparently thats how BMW fitted them from the factory...) so I'll just wait until my online order arrives.

The recycling has no limits as the BMW badges of the donor made its way onto mine as well. These are actually over 30 quideach  new when you buy genuine ones.

Quality content.

I've also replaced the power steering hoses which were the only advisory at the last MOT. Very typical BMW issue, fairly easy job as well so hopefully this is sorted now.

Out with the old shit:

In with the new (Halfords ATF III because I didn't have any Dexron III at hand). The o-rings for the power steering cooler connections were replaced as well.

I

It all needed to go in there, right under the air filter box and alternator:

No image of it all being reassembled but everything went smoothly. I made an attempt at cleaning up the belly pan but with the amount of gunk in there it was just hopeless.

The car continues to improve at a good pace I'd say. The Style 37 M-Parallels that came with the donor (main reason for buying the car) will get new tires and go on this one as soon as I found a replacement 9.5J rim that isn't as curbed as mine. Really looking forward to it as the tires I have on this right now couldn't be more imbalanced if they tried.

Bonus car spotter's dream photo:

The Corona is in regular use and my main grocery getter at the moment. The Senator might be the next car to receive an MOT. Hopefully it won't need much to pass, there wasn't any particular issue that made me park it up. It idles pretty poorly at the moment though, hopefully thats just related to the scrap battery in it...

[Schaefft]

Im on holidays now which means I finally got time to update the thread.

More improvements have happened to both bimmers. The blue 7 received the chromeline sill covers which really make the car feel that little bit more special and expensive when opening the door. I've also replaced one of the front bumper corner trims, still have to find a good one for the driver's side.

My other half's 7 received new bumper trim in the back, I also replaced the faulty PDC sensor while in there which means this car will hopefully not receive any further scuffs after its hard life in London. I will send of the cluster for the typical pixel repair when I'm back, get a new tire ordered to replace the spare currently on the car and replace the radio which suffers from the same pixel errors. It's pretty much in use now, if you want to buy the 2015 Fiat 500 Lounge that it replaced, let me know.

The ivory Mark VIII has finally received some love again. It's been stashed away for the last 2 or 3 years which really hasn't helped it cosmetically (nor electrically, the replacement air suspension relay died while in storage...). I've given it its first good clean inside and out in years and god what a difference it makes. I still have to stick the badges back on but the Ivory pearlescent paint looks brilliant in the sun and underneath lights. Realistically it would benefit from a respray as the clearcoat is going in places, I think its still a few years before that really needs to happen though.

The engine is a bit cleaner as well again, and the chrome 10-spokes polished up nicely with a bit of steel wool and elbow grease.

The A6 Avant finally received its set of OEM 5-spoke alloys (which I bought after Christmas for a crate of lemonade, see above). Not before getting two punctures on one side of the car though. I'm not sure if someone was mad about me parking in a particular spot for a couple of weeks or what but that really doesn't seem normal. Good thing these winter tires were close to the end of their life anyway...

The black Lincoln got out of storage as well (the E39 that needs it's sills welded will go into it's place instead until I have figured out who can do a 100% decent job) and will stay in Germany for its upcoming TÜV inspection. It's only insured from March to October so I'll probably use it for a week here, leave it at my parents, get it inspected/oil changed and then collect it again sometime next year.

 

[Schaefft]

Not much has happened recently. Been away for my brother's wedding in Germany, which was immediately followed by a work trip, at the end of which I immediately caugh Covid. I'm again gone for 2 weeks from the end of this week for actual holidays as none of the things before were planned when we booked them...

Nevertheless, FOTU is approaching fast so I need a set of wheels for the Corona EXiV, the tires are ancient and the journey far. The plan was to go for a set of period correct Japanese 2-piece alloys. However, as these are few and far between as most of them were 4-lug, and VERY expensive.

So with that being said, does anybody happen to know of a set of 5-lug Carina E or 1994ish Celica alloys that could suit the car? I'd like to stick with factory Toyota alloys of the period so all suggestions are welcome, even if you don't own a set yourself.

Bolt pattern is 5 x 100 54.1 center bore

For reference, these are the ones you could get originally:

[Ghosty]

You need something like this or this.

[Schaefft]

These are definitely going in the right direction.

[Spottedlaurel]

Sadly all my Toyota/Lexus spares are 5x114.3mm, and I don't think I could get away with pinching those off the Avensis SR......

Very pleased to know that we'll get to see it at FOTU.

[Schaefft]

I found a set of original Celica alloys for a reasonable price in Doncaster but the seller only wants to be paid via cash on collection 😬 In what year are people living where a simple bank transfer in advance is seen as a risk on their side?! Dealing with people on the internet is becoming worse by each year.