saga of the MkI restoration/build

[wingman]

so if any of you saw my thread on getting an old beater MkI, you could say this my restoration thread.

for those of you that didn't, CLICK HERE


ok, now that that's out of the way...

TO DO LIST:

get rid of the rust
paint (white, blue, black, suggestions?)
engine swap
suspension upgrade (tokico)
rims (suggestions?)
differential ring gear change, probably 3.73 to keep the highway RPM's down
reupholster most of the interior (burgandy cloth of course...i HATE leather)
HID's if I can find 'em


since the 5M-E is blown like a cheap male prostitute, were swapping in a 7M-GE. Keyword here is reliablity, sorry folks that means no turbo for this daily driver. Not to mention the trouble I'll have keeping the thing under control. Here is the donor motor:

We'll be using the 7M ecu and wiring harness, just got to find a way to mate the MA45 components into it. I guess there's a guy running a 7M-GTE in one over at celicasupra.com, so I'm seeking his advice right now. I'll get some more pictures tomorrow of how the dash comes together since I have it torn all apart. By the time were done all of you will have known a MkI in and out haha.

Questions, comments? I know Allan has a MkI, anybody else have one too?

 

[da89soup]

Good deal I was waiting for this build post. Good luck Wingman and keep us posted..........................................................

Soup

 

[johnathan1]

I :love: MK1's!! I want one.

For the rims...I would just keep the stock ones, and paint/powdercoat them creatively (possibly match to body, with black spokes or something)...then get some beefy tires (white lettering optional :biglaugh, and with a slightly lowered stance, it will look awesome!

 

[wingman]

...hopefully made some progress on the wiring, but still a bit in the dark as to the other stuff NOT attatched to the 5M ECU.

here's the diagrams I've made. Red represents things that will be left untouched, black represents things that I am unsure of, and blue represents things that I am 99.9999% sure I will have to cut and join to another wire.

big difference, huh?

...anyone here who knows ANYTHING about doing this is welcome to give me some input. I have yet to dig up the diagrams for the MkI defroster/AC/etc... so if someone happens to have those I would appreciate the hosting...I'm going to need all the help I can get to do this the right way and have it work, I'm still unsure if I'm going to run into voltage/resistance issues with the ECU swap as well.

 

[supra90turbo]

wheels should be riken mesh. no substitutes.

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

Since this car is basically a classic. You can pull some badass stuff off. Wooden Nardi steering wheel. Some classic 15 inch wheels. Riken mesh as supra90turbo says is a great idea.

But keep em small. Keep the era intact. nothing bigger than 16's =]

I love this project

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

BTW what color was it orignally? Blue? I think a blue white two tone would look stunning.

Keep the same paint sections as it is now. Blue top, white center and black under

 

[GotToyota?]

Since this car is basically a classic. You can pull some badass stuff off. Wooden Nardi steering wheel. Some classic 15 inch wheels. Riken mesh as supra90turbo says is a great idea.

But keep em small. Keep the era intact. nothing bigger than 16's =]

I love this project

Word to this. I also think if you paint the car white then white-wall tires on in order, I really think that would look awesome, the MK1 could definently pull off that look.

-Matt

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

Not an IDEAL picture. But this is the wooden nardi wheel Matt(bosomkII) has in his 77 Corona... Its totally legit

 

[wingman]

i've seen the wheel, but never have I seen that shift knob.....that's badass!

far as the rims, looked up the Riken mesh ones and wow! those do look nice, but a quick google search tells me that there rare as hell. hm gotta keep my eye out for a set when I have some money.

what do you guys think as far as dressing up the engine? I don't want to go total bling but something to make it stand out a bit would be nice.

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

Stock. Give it nice colors. Stock wise. Unless you wanna polish up the manifolds and such.

Deffinately give it a good cleaning. And get an intake pipe. Cleans it up so nicely

 

[wingman]

I was thinking of the intake pipe as well...probably ceramic coat it black along with the Y pipe and manifolds. I was always a fan of ninja engine bays. I'll be keeping the EGR and all that other stuff as well, the car's most likely going to end up in AZ as a daily driver so I want to be sure I can pass emissions.

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

What year is the MK1? Should be smog exempt in anothr like 10 years =P

Im really looking forward to this. Ive got some celica supra emblems off a mk2 if your needing some.

This thread is FTW

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

+1 and thread 5 stared! woot

 

[MA70Supra88]

Awesome project! My cousin has a MKI sitting at his house with a BHG, I doubt the rest of the car is in decent enough shape to justify a swap like this though.

 

[ValgeKotkas]

Reallly cool car, would like to see sumthing like this iin person once.

 

[hardcharger]

just posted in the other thread, but I'lll post here anyway, Way to go with saving a classic. definately keep this thread updated

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

Annnnyyyyything neww?

 

[wingman]

oh snap...forgot all about it. LOL

i finally figured out where the ECU is...after tearing apart half the car. Never occured to me that it was in the driver side kick panel.

I've got half the dash torn apart though...i'll snap some pics for you guys tomorrow. The windshield got busted too, sucks because the antenna is built right into it, but I'm sure I can source one from somewhere...if not I'll just find a way to put an antenna in and make it look like it's from 1981.

and depending on how things go in the near future (as in whether or not my buddy with the donor motor does his 1J swap anytime soon) , I may be in the market for a 7M-GE, short or longblock...I've got a ton of spare parts lying around. So all I really need is a full head, block, and ex. manifold.

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

I was hoping you just forgot about it!

Driver side kick panel? Thats odd.