Juular's Jap Sigh - problem solved

[tapir]

On 4/16/2020 at 7:35 AM, vaughant said:

I have a 2005 Avensis and my son a 2004 and I can honestly say that's not a spot of rust underneath on either of them,in fact I've never seen a Toyota rot,

The early yaris's seem to rot pretty well? Not sure if there's a correlation on where built and amount of grot

[Out Run]

8 hours ago, Nibblet said:

Incidentally, I owned a '94 Toyota Levin a few years ago, no rot in it whatsoever, it was a fantastic car from the time when Toyota were the best car maker in the world.  Put it up on here at a bargain price, naturally no bugger took any interest.

I had a 1997 MR2 GTi, with the decent version of the  3S-GTE. I acquired it to swap some parts onto my turbo, then advertised it for what I managed to pay for it - £400. It was taxed and tested and no one on here was vaguely interested, either.

My ‘92 Turbo has no rot at all. I also agree that Toyota used to be the best car maker in the world. It’s a shame to see this generation of Celica rots so badly.

[Sir Snipes]

From my experience anything imported will be in much better shape than an equivalent UK car, even if it were imported about the same time as being built.

[N Dentressangle]

On 4/17/2020 at 2:37 PM, Nibblet said:

I recognise a little of you in the me of 15 or 20 years ago; no loss in admitting you've bitten off a little more than you can chew.

Call it a day, take what you've learnt and invest your time and effort in a car that will repay you. Do you deserve that millstone around your neck?

I agree.

Sell the parts and weigh the shell or the entire thing in.

Don't underestimate the hours of work to sort all that out, or what it'll do to your levels of enthusiasm. Find that 1100 thread of SiC and others and see how eventually everyone apart from Mr Bollox seems to get sick of endless welding. Especially when you won't even have a nice* ex-horsebox or 1100 at the end of it.

[bigfella2]

9 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

From my experience anything imported will be in much better shape than an equivalent UK car, even if it were imported about the same time as being built.

Yes but is it possible it's an import that was imported early on in its life. Do imports use as much rust proofing underneath as UK cars?

[vaughant]

"Many people did not understand why I always kept old worthless cars going, but if you like the car and do not intend selling it then keep at it, you will learn new skills, have a great sense of achievement at the end and a car that you can enjoy owning and driving with confidence because you will know it inside out."

 

Whilst I 100% agree with this having spent much of my free time from work (I work away so only play about with my cars then) welding up a merc Vito (that was pretty bad but not like that celica) it does get to a point where you say" why am I bothering " and I hit that point about a month before lockdown when I realised I really could get a better example versus my time and effort. 

Now, had I just put a new engine etc in it or had some major sentimental connection to it, I'd have maybe thought more about it but in truth changing an engine over would take a few days max but the welding more like a few weeks/months, then painting, it just wasn't for me. 

Have a crack at it to practice and see the pitfalls, buy millions of flapper discs and wire wheels as you'll need that metal as clean as you can to get it to work properly. 

You've already got a great welding set up which helps massively but know when you're in too far and be prepared to bail out or it will start to piss you off, believe me!!!! 

 

[vaughant]

"Many people did not understand why I always kept old worthless cars going, but if you like the car and do not intend selling it then keep at it, you will learn new skills, have a great sense of achievement at the end and a car that you can enjoy owning and driving with confidence because you will know it inside out."

 

Whilst I 100% agree with this having spent much of my free time from work (I work away so only play about with my cars then) welding up a merc Vito (that was pretty bad but not like that celica) it does get to a point where you say" why am I bothering " and I hit that point about a month before lockdown when I realised I really could get a better example versus my time and effort. 

Now, had I just put a new engine etc in it or had some major sentimental connection to it, I'd have maybe thought more about it but in truth changing an engine over would take a few days max but the welding more like a few weeks/months, then painting, it just wasn't for me. 

Have a crack at it to practice and see the pitfalls, buy millions of flapper discs and wire wheels as you'll need that metal as clean as you can to get it to work properly. 

You've already got a great welding set up which helps massively but know when you're in too far and be prepared to bail out or it will start to piss you off, believe me!!!! 

 

[juular]

Well I fixed my Celica problem.

 

The final straw was painstakingly removing the control arm mounting points to find out that the surrounding box sections were basically cornflakes. I didn't even bother taking photos as I was pretty hacked off.

Compounded by the beginning of lockdown and parts and materials being difficult to get, and the fact I had a campervan conversion to finish off, meant I'd had enough of it.

So I built this instead. 

I put the R-Tech to pretty good use as well, and used up the steel I bought, pretty much to the last millimetre, to make water tanks, a roll out bed, bed hinges, a gas box and an underfloor battery mount.

 

 

 

Knocked up the retro rides "Making Panels" metal bending clamp, which is about everything you need for bashing metal into chod friendly shapes. 

 

So nothing really went to waste in the end.

I still had a Celica shaped gap in my life, but pretty much every one I've seen since has been a complete mess underneath. I may have to venture further sarf for a clean one, but I do intend to have another at some point.

So, I filled my gap with @SRi05's heaving chunk of Swedish love. Pictured here invading the local Corsa ned's haunt of choice, Robroyston Asda, just after pickup. Aforementioned camper, and my daily, is the modern French brick behind it 

I'll give that its own fettlage thread. But thanks to all who replied for the help and encouragement* as I made a fool of myself with that Jap rotbox.