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I never thought of putting together a build thread for the project car my son acquired last summer. User Nervo19 asked if i had a thread for it . we were out cruising in my project vehicle, 1967 Jeepster commando to a local cruise night and he spotted this little brown car for sale on the side of road. I initially thought it was a Datsun. I haven't seen this generation Corolla in a long time here in New England. So we got the number off the sign but read it wrong and decided to go in person and try rereading it and got ahold of the guy selling it to take a look at it. How fitting to go see it in person with the 4runner 😉
[size=16px] We really didn't do a whole lot to get his car going. It had this "guy who welds " type of header system so I planted it in the garden and put the original manifold with stock down pipe back on. it was in the trunk when we got it. We changed all fluids which all looked new. It was last on the road just a couple years ago. We went through the brakes. Installed a new brake booster. I thought it had a problem with oil pressure and decided to replace the oil pump. It turns out that it had the sender unit for a pressure gauge. Something I learned from the 4runner. I put in the correct sender and the light stays off when the engine is running. We fixed a few minor electrical things. The wiring is very similar to the 4runner. I was able make the reverse lights work with the different wiring. It has a 82 engine and transmission. The biggest challenge was someone took the speedometer drive gear out and plugged the hole with a vintage radio knob. I found a new drive but it wasn't exactly the same but works. It was slightly smaller so I wrapped it with electrical tape to seal it. Then hooked up a speedometer cable I got for the 4runner to see if it works and it did. And a quick rattle can paint job.[/size]
Lots of room in that engine compartment!
what’s on the upgrade list? Oh, and I’m guessing it will be off the road for winter, right?
upgrades, here is one of the first. It had no radio when he got it and a friend of mine had been holding on to this stereo for a long time.
Ha ha the future upgrades for real will be new hoses water pump and while I'm there a new OEM timing chain. I don't know how okd tge timing chain is currently. I figured the water pump bolts may break off so I would take the timing cover off. I ran into the same problem with the Comando but maybe it will come apart. We'll see. Eventually we may do an engine rebuild but nothing to lead me to think it's needed yet. I was going to wait till we get around to the water pump to do the hoses but that upper hose is about to blow. Also sometime in the near future the rear differential is going to need some work the Pinon bearings are in bad shape. A carb rebuild is in order too. The choke is semi stuck. It's going to need some body work. Most of it was started before we got it. The floors have some patches that need to be done a little bit better.
as for winter driving , only on dry days. My son is still learning to drive and this is the only automatic at our house so I'd like for him to get a few more miles under his belt yet. Learning on a standard will have to wait until he's been driving for a while. My speed o drive fix Radio knob/ transmission plug New wheel bearings Making spare keys with a dremel The excess positive cable I cut out It even has 22RE Performance parts!
Funny you should mention them seats, we are looking into it now. The passenger seat we got from you is already apart. The shape of the bottom looks to be the same but on the Corrolla it's bolted up from the bottom to the seat track. The 4runner bottom is through the side but looks like we just need to drill a hole in the bottom. It looks like it has spots for the bolts to go through if we drill.
It turns out that the seat frame is a little bit different than I expected so I took the seat cover off and padding then switched it with the seat cover and padding from a 4runner seat. There is a broken spring so I added some padding from rock auto 🤣
The seat belt bolts to the seat frame not the floor and the recliner is a little different.
oh and the seat track wasn't moving back and forth much I cleaned and greased it up. Now it moves forward enough for short people.
While my son and I were out grocery shopping we spotted this old Echo today.
then when out Christmas shopping we started out at an antique store, we picked up a screw driver so I could adjust the idle. I didn't have any tools with us. Kinda reminds me of vise grip garage. Ha ha.
One of the things my son really wanted to do with the Corrolla was get to drive it through Bright Nights at Forrest Park in Springfield MA. I think he got the idea from the from the key chain lanyard that came with this car.
Then photos from Bright Nights.
old meets new. My son has been wanting to get this photo since the day my mother said she was going to buy a new Corrolla. We met up when out and about with the Brown Hornet.
11-13-2023, 03:39 AM
