Corolla Virus - Paddy my 1998 Toyota Corolla E11

[St.Jude]

As I write this, I should've been waking up with a hangover given to me from attending a Damien Dempsey gig in London for St.Patrick's Day weekend. But because people are getting the lurgy, everything's been cancelled. So this weekend has been spent fixing lights in the house, changing bulbs, and trying to scan in a load of developed film that the wife wants printing off so we can hang them up in the house. Me being the rebellious type, and bored out of my tree, I thought I haven't spoken about my Toyota Corolla E11 called "Paddy". I've mentioned it in the thread when you introduce yourself, but other than that any car talk has been focused on the Lada.

This is also in tribute to @tooSavvy, as he's already seen this car progress on the Toyota Owner's Club forum.

So the story with this car goes back to April 2016. I was looking to get rid of the hateful Peugeot 3008 I had, and decided I'd park it up until I could get rid of it. In the mean time I'd buy a banger, something reliable and cheap. A friend of the mother-in-law was scrapping her Toyota Corolla. I went to speak to her about it first, took it for a drive, and thought it'll do. I gave her £250 and it ended up on my driveway. It was meant to be a "stop gap" in order to save up to buy a Toyota Land Cruiser. I was also going to use it as a learning experience. Other than changing brake pads, at this point, I'd never really done any mechanical work on a car.

The timing belt hadn't been changed in God knows how long, so that would've been the first job to be done to it. That was a faff and took a week to do. Bolts broke, the alternator wouldn't come off, I didn't have the tools to do the job so had to get them ordered etc. But once that was done I took it on a drive to Ireland where a few things were shown to me. The shock absorbers were completely gone. If you've driven in Ireland, especially in the west, the roads are bad. And the arse of this thing was bouncing up and down over every bump like a randy prostitute on a warship. It was funny though, the ferry ticket cost more than the car!

Through a chap on the Toyota Owners Forum, I got a set of alloys from the E12 Corolla complete with fancy racing tyres. In this time too the speedometer broke. So I had no idea how fast I was going etc, which was fantastic because around this time Birmingham City Council introduced average speed cameras on my commute to work. 

In May 2017 the fun finally started to happen. This Corolla had a blow on the exhaust for ages, and I was about a mile away from home one evening when all of a sudden I managed to get a sound upgrade! The exhaust pipe leading to the back box had come away. Not bad going for an original exhaust system! Yep, it was 19 years old, the same as the car. I took this as an opportunity to completely refresh the underneath of this car. New exhaust, new bushes (poly bushes on the front), new brake lines, new brakes, new water pump, new thermostat, fix the speedometer, new shock absorbers. The works.

What followed though was a slog of work which lasted 2 years. There was a year where I did no work on it for one reason or another, but much like the timing belt change it was continual in terms of breaking bolts, not having the tools, ordering tools, ordering parts etc. But the first job I had to do on the car was fix the speedometer. I reasoned if this couldn't be fixed then the car itself would be toast. Turned out it was just the speedometer cable that was broken. Changed that, took it for a quick drive, and it was back to telling me how slow I was going!

In the two years I did a lot of things to do. Such highlights were changing the clutch on the car with nothing more than two ratchet straps, a block of wood, and a length of scaffolding pole. I even changed the colour of the bumper from black to white on my own. It's probably the job I'm most proud of on the car. You wouldn't even be able to tell that it was done by some clueless halfwit fuelled on nothing but stubbornness and optimism outside his house. 

Even with the 12 months where I didn't even touch the car, come the 14th June 2019 it went for it's MOT. And it failed on emissions. Took it to a friend the next day, and in between failing the test and the run it got, it flew through the MOT! Here's the most "arty" photo I took of the car the weekend after I got the MOT done. I was on my way to London for it's first proper drive.

I have had too much fun with this car. I've learnt everything I know today about cars from it, and it's the reason I have/had the confidence to buy a Lada and do what I'm doing to it. It's also spawned my website, because the wife really does hate this car. It even says so on the number plate...

This is the daily driver for me now. I drive it every day to work and back. Since the beginning of the year I've swapped jobs, so I'm no longer in a load of traffic every day, instead I make the most of the country roads my commute blesses me with every day. I remember how it drove in Ireland all those years ago, and how it drives now, and the handling is phenomenal. It's square and flat going in to corners, I can feel the rear roll a bit but that's on rubber bushes. The front is great. And the Falken All Season tyres I stuck on it the other month have been a revelation.

There are no real plans for this car at the moment, other than machine polish, remove the crap left behind the black side strips and touch up the paint on the rear bumper to match what I did on the front. But ultimately, when the Lada is finished, this will go in the garage for a 4WD conversion and a more powerful engine. I want this as a WRC tribute/replica to the Corolla that Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol drove in 1997/1998. So that means complete Castrol livery. Sure, you talk about the JSP Lotus' all you want, but there is nothing more beautiful than a Castrol livery on a car. Fact.

So that's the story with Paddy the Corolla. So if you're in self isolation, through choice or whatever, I hope this has killed a few minutes. 

Oh, before I forget. He's called Paddy because, according to the records, he was registered on 17th March 1998. And we all know that's the greatest day of the year, St.Patrick's Day! And he'll be 22 next week.

[artdjones]

These are great.I worked in a garage where they were the staple diet,sales and repairs.I even sold a few on my own account.They are the ultimate car for not coming back under guarantee.I prefer the styling on the facelift model,but these are the really durable ones.

Parts are cheap too, except Toyota never did the rubber bushes that go on the rear arms,and the complete arms are pricey.

[tooSavvy]

Hiyya M8

Seems the laddo with the CarinaE is the 'go to..' for Castrol decals!

https://youtu.be/LUNWa8__13E

Keep on Truckkin on.....

[Sir Snipes]

Any self respecting Carina E perv wouldn't be plastering Castrol livery over their car - that was Toyota's worst BTCC season. They were trying their best not to get in the way of the privateers that year!

Get some Securicour colours on there if you must. Better yet, don't plaster your car with stickers at all. 

I don't know if that applies to Corollas. The Castrol Celica WRC were decent (even the naughty ST205), and the Castrol Supra JGTC are GranTurimso legends, but I don't know how the Corolla performed. 

[Skizzer]

1 minute ago, Sir Snipes said:

self respecting Carina E perv

Struggling with this concept slightly.

Enjoying the story though. And surely celebrating Toyota’s worst season is the stuff of AS heroes?

[St.Jude]

2 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

I don't know if that applies to Corollas. The Castrol Celica WRC were decent (even the naughty ST205), and the Castrol Supra JGTC are GranTurimso legends, but I don't know how the Corolla performed. 

They won the Monte Carlo rally with the Corolla. So if it's good enough for Mini it's good enough for me!

[The Vicar]

Well done for saving it in the first place. They really are excellent cars.

Here is my much missed 97 example:

[Sir Snipes]

3 hours ago, Skizzer said:

Struggling with this concept slightly.

That's ok. Greatness isn't bestowed upon everybody.

[St.Jude]

49 minutes ago, The Vicar said:

Well done for saving it in the first place. They really are excellent cars.

Here is my much missed 97 example:

A friend of mine is on his second one of those. The first one was completely destroyed by a neighbour of his. Long story, but his Corolla took two 30mph hits to the front and to the rear. Wasn't a write off, but he didn't have the money to put it right. I think they're brilliant. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

10 hours ago, sgtberbatov said:

.....If you've driven in Ireland, especially in the west, the roads are bad. .....

I once did 1500 miles in a Fiat Punto, with most of that mileage in Clare and Mayo. By the time I got back to Dublin, the rear suspension was wrecked!

[St.Jude]

22 years ago today Paddy was first registered on UK roads!

[Cord Fourteener]

On 3/15/2020 at 7:21 PM, The Vicar said:

Well done for saving it in the first place. They really are excellent cars.

Here is my much missed 97 example:

I think that was the same as my mum's one, hers was on a weird purply colour though. I think hers has slightly different headlight abs an anaemic three spread auto transmission.

[Cord Fourteener]

1 hour ago, sgtberbatov said:

22 years ago today Paddy was first registered on UK roads!

Totally awesome! Love it, even if your wife doesn't.

[hairnet]

can yis all get away ta feck now

 

[St.Jude]

10 hours ago, hairnet said:

can yis all get away ta feck now

Only when I get the Corolla Virus. AHHHHH!!!!!

 

17 hours ago, Tim_E said:

Totally awesome! Love it, even if your wife doesn't.

She's annoying me today. We're both working from home, I've got Athletico Mince on and she's upstairs demanding I turn it down. It's not normal for people to work in total silence like she does. 

[St.Jude]

Here's a bit of an update on Paddy. I'm working from home during the week, so decided to spend the lunchtimes doing the bodywork on Paddy. This is the first video documenting the process. I used an obscene amount of body filler and fibre glass for the first time to help shape and fill a hole my slipped exhaust caused, and I'm painting the rear spoiler. Both of these have textured plastic which I want to turn smooth. So if you want to know how it's done, the steps are shown in the video.

Also, during the weekend while I worked on Nikita the Lada and edited this video, we lost our family dog Belle. So this video is dedicated to her.

[St.Jude]

Here's the second part to the previous video. More filling, more sanding, more wiping, more spraying. 

I did stumble across a weird rust spot on the sill of the rear valance, hidden away under the rubber boot seat. Which meant it gave me the exact reason I needed to purchase a power file!

I've wanted one for ages, so I was glad to see this so I could buy one easy enough.  It's a great tool, I've used it first on Paddy and I've used it a fair bit on the Lada. All that's happened now is that I really want a bigger belt sander for my woodworking. But that's a long way off now. 

The video is about 2/3 weeks ago, as the bumper is on the car and it's looking good. The end product and the finished steps will be in the next video. Then we move on to machine polishing turds!

 

[St.Jude]

Forgot I had this thread.

So for those who don't know, it's been in the sales block for a while. Last week, and without knowing of a term I can use for the chap that won't get me banned, knocked on and enquired about it. Thing is the car has been at my mom's for this length of time, and she got a bit paranoid over it. 

Anyway, a friend of mine lost his mom suddenly a week or two ago. It's rocked his world, undoubtedly, and knowing what he's going through I've been helping him anyway I can. He had a lease Fiesta from Ford and was due to give it back but buying a new car isn't a priority. I offered him Paddy for the short term, well for as long as he wants it, and he said yeah.

He's driven it tonight, it was right mucky so I got him to go to a petrol station and gave it a wash for him.

Also filled it with 20 litres of BP Ultimate to give it a bit of a clean as it hasn't really moved for 6 months. 

Already he's said it's far more comfortable than his Fiesta was, sounds better, and has a bit more poke.

How long he has it I don't know, but I fixed the squeal from the belt before he drove it and it reminded me why I like the car. So who knows from now what happens.

He did though remind me that he has a video of when I worked on it, and was trying to diagnose why the speedometer wasn't working. I remember at the time that I thought a VSS was hard to purchase and/or expensive. So I bought a second hand cable to see if that fixed it, and it did! So it meant I could actually do all the suspension work on the car.