1979 Toyota Celica

[jamesC.]

More updates! Bumpers and flares are now off. Untitled by James C, on Flickr

I slightly regret taking the flares off as it revealed this. Someone has cut out quite a lot of the arches. Filler aswell, fuck tons of filler.

Untitled by James C, on Flickr

On a side note the car has a wierd history. It was made in 1979 but the reg is EPO 796W and the dvla says first registered 1981. However the service booklet says it was delivered to its owner on 14/9/79 . It was serviced on 21/9/79 in Portsmouth but it’s next service was in Germany! It’s next 4 services are all in the Portsmouth area. The last service in the book is 8/10/85 in Newton Abbot. DVLA says last taxed 2003 and it was registered in Ireland in 2009. does anyone know how to find out some of the history and previous owners?

[Snipes]

Can those arches be repaired, same as you would if they had simply gone rotten?

[Dan_ZTT]

First owner Army/Navy maybe? Might explain taking delivery and doing first service in Portsmouth, going straight to be stationed in Germany for a year or two and not registering with dvla until they got back?

 

After that my guesswork runs out...

[jamesC.]

Well I was wrong about no rust

This is what I pulled out of the back. All filler. now this wouldn’t bother me that much if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t buy this because it was rusty

*Sighs*

[Tadhg Tiogar]

....DVLA says last taxed 2003 and it was registered in Ireland in 2009. ...

I wonder if it was running round Ireland on British plates before 2009?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

See bottom of this post for comparison

[jamesC.]

I wonder if it was running round Ireland on British plates before 2009?

your probably right. Here's a photo I found of it in Ireland with an English reg.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

your probably right. Here's a photo I found of it in Ireland with an English reg.

image.jpeg

I used to see all manner of British-registered cars running around in Ireland, mainly because their drivers didn't want to pay Irish taxes and insurance, or British VED and insurance. Or do the MoT (the NCT equivalent didn't come in 'til late in the day).

[jamesC.]

It’s been a while but I thought I’d give a few updates.

The Celica has gone off to have the welding done. Haven’t really done much to it as I have very limited mechanical knowledge. Obhiously parts are hard to find, especially interior bits.

In the meantime I was given this for nothing. 

. The rear arch needs welding which I can’t do and it’s a bit tired but it’s running well.

And then there’s this.

 

The drivers side is bashed in and obhiously its way beyond my skills. But hey it was only €200.

 

[sporty-shite]

24 minutes ago, jamesC. said:

 

 

That is FIT. 

[jamesC.]

So this is the Sapporo

It was a Welsh car originally. Old reg was in the boot.

not much history with it. It was last on the road in 1997 and was on eBay in 2016. It was then bought by a film company, who painted it white and then used it in an action scene, which is why both sides are damaged. Here’s how it looked before they did anything to it

Not running at the moment as it needs an ignition coil, which is ordered and hopefully coming in the next few days.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

That Sapporo looks surprisingly solid. Intrigued to see what happens next.  Great collection!

[Austat]

Lovely Sapporo, very much worth saving. What film was it used in?

[jamesC.]

On 5/6/2020 at 12:53 AM, Austat said:

Lovely Sapporo, very much worth saving. What film was it used in?

It was actually a tv series called into the badlands. 

[Uncle Jimmy]

C pillar will be the difficult bastard to fix, need some serious kit to pull that about. The rest I could see to. 

[Skizzer]

 

On 5/5/2020 at 11:18 PM, jamesC. said:

It was a Welsh car originally. Old reg was in the boot.

 

Love the Sapporo.

That’s a Swansea number, which probably means it was originally sold by Norman Hopkins Motors, a long defunct Colt dealer in Blackpill, a few minutes’ walk from my house.

There’s still a petrol station on the site - now Texaco, then Gulf.

[Spottedlaurel]

A shame about the damage. For some reason those Sapporos never seemed to look particularly rusty, even when most old Japanese cars were treated as disposable transport and looked rough as anything.

[jamesC.]

5 hours ago, Skizzer said:

 

Love the Sapporo.

That’s a Swansea number, which probably means it was originally sold by Norman Hopkins Motors, a long defunct Colt dealer in Blackpill, a few minutes’ walk from my house.

 

I actually have the original service booklet with it. It was sold by Elphins Garage in Pontyates, which funnily enough is also now a Texaco.

[jamesC.]

5 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

A shame about the damage. For some reason those Sapporos never seemed to look particularly rusty, even when most old Japanese cars were treated as disposable transport and looked rough as anything.

I suppose it’s because they were quite expensive when new. In 1981 they were around the same price as a Datsun 240k. There actually seems to be quite a few left (for a Japanese car of the 70s).