I've been wondering this for awhile. Did all '71-'74 Celicas (in the US market at least) come with the side stripes that go from the front bumper to the middle of the door from the factory or no?

Every original paint car I've seen has had them, and the only ones I've seen without were obvious repaints or ones with questionable paintjobs that could go either way.

Does anyone know?

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Really, nobody has an answer for this?

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I have seen one OG paint car without it. But only one. All the others I've seen had it.

Hey, did you see this? http://bringatrailer.com/2012/08/15/ori ... celica-gt/

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-Cam
1988 Mazda RX7
1980 Toyota Celica
a bunch of cool other cars I'm not allowed to list

The simple answer is no.

Not ALL had it, however I do not know if it was done at the factory or the dealer. It is not incorrect to leave them off, however it was a VERY popular and inexpensive aesthetic addition that made the car look vastly more sporty at the time. This is why there are so many with this option. I have an original brochure that shows cars with and without the stripes.

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Roads?....Where we're going, we don't need Roads.

Cam- Thank you, I forgot, I have seen a variety of '74 GTs with that rocker stripe in the past too. Good call.

I did bid on that car, but it's past my price range and not at reserve yet. :/ Another day... lol

But I've been wondering if non-stripe could be used to gauge original paint or not. If they did come from the factory sans stripe, it would make sense- but everything in my Celica book has the stripe, and all the original paint cars I was aware of had them as well.

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Just simply using the presence of, or lack of a stripe is not a good indicator of original paint. Unless you see where the paint is visibly different where the stripe would have been indicating it had a stripe but was removed it wont tell you anything. There are other ways to tell but the stripe is not the end all final word on the subject, meaning the lack of a stripe might prompt you to look for signs of a repaint. I assume you are are in the market for an "as close to original" example of a GT as you can find? Why so worried about original paint? The main thing if originality is your thing is just that it is the original color and the paint is good quality, otherwise everything else is just conversation. When looking for a minty showroom Celica certainly in the GT variety they are really beginning to climb up there in price. It's had to say what that brown Celica will sell for Should be a $7k+ Celica...but I have mixed feelings on that...

It is a manual wich is good, but a 4spd wich is not so good but better than the auto....obviously. Not a good color, if this car was any other "sporty" color it would already be past $6.5-7k on the bidding. Vinyl top is not desireable and will turn away some buyers wich doesn't help the price for the seller. 108kmi, low miles for a Toyota, certainly for a 40 year old one, but high miles to a collector. Has meticulous service records and hand written logs wich is waaaay cool, nobody does that anymore!

lots of cool factors on this car, but some downers too. And as is usually the case I'm sure it looks better in pictures than in person, you just don't put 100k+ miles on a car without a scratch,ding and chip occasionaly. That's not to say that this car is not a great buy. At the price this car is going to sell for it is a prime candidate for a mild resto-mod with maybe a nice 18RG swap....possibly a color updating, not necessarily a color CHANGE...

Not sure if any of you saw it but there was nearly showroom mint 74 ST, metalic green, with auto that went for around the $13k mark on eBay a couple months ago... so you just never know. A nice decent red one with 18RG swap sold for $9.5k a few weeks ago also. Prices are going up... wich is good for me. lol1

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Roads?....Where we're going, we don't need Roads.

Mine has a belly stripe too, small gold band over 3inch white band.