My 1984 Celica GT RA64, Daily driver (summer, stored winter)

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:31 pm

Here's my baby. I bought this car back in April 2006 for 1100$ after fighting over it with someone else haha, but I ended up getting it. Was in drivable condition but needed a lot of attention.

Here it was the day I brought it home, stock steelies, corner lights off an 82 Celica. Looked quite sad honestly. I can barely picture it like this anymore, but I certainly remember how syked I was when I got the papers!!!

After some Celica Supra wheels I picked up for it, blackwall tires.

This was the original motor which let go due to internal coolant leakage.

My new motor, from a '86 2wd truck, was carbureted but I modded a few things to fit my original EFI, and also modded some bolt holes to accommodate the motor mounts in the Celica, and had to swap oil pan. I got it for 350$ with 199,000 KM. Runs like a new engine. Made a custom Ractive cone setup, which works and sounds very good, and installed some Taylor steel core plug wires which also work very well. While I had the motor out I took time to clean and paint the engine bay, it was still the original beige paint.

July 2007, home on brand new 195/60/14 Hercules XR6000's. I am still running on these tires, but they are worn. New BF Goodrich Radial T/A's 215/60/14 coming this week.

My rims after heavy polishing, and painting the inner parts black to accent the lines. Also I installed my original center caps from the steel rims, which I find look much better on the Celica then the square flat 'Toyota' center caps that came original on the aluminum rims.

Here are a few shots of how the car looks now, I only had a 2.2 MP Kodak at the time, I did as well with the photography as I could so bear with lol.

Interior / dash. Nothing special but is in excellent condition, a few minor cracks and couple small rips on driver's seat, and a 2005 Mustang carpet because the original was missing. 2005 Mustang? yeah, all the seat bolt holes lined up, and the cross-member under the seats was molded perfectly. Go figure.

As she looks in April 2011, still looking good. (Looks good from far, but is far from good lol) My '88 Ford F-250 4x4 beside her. Spent over a year building that truck, a very nice machine as well.

I hope you enjoy my car, I sure do. In my town it is the only one around, a true rarity and a head-turner despite being very imperfect. I love driving it so much, never gets boring.

88miles · **Posted:** Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:51 pm

Great looking car man. Your pride in in it really shows!! :tu:

80Celica · **Posted:** Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:31 am

WOW!!!! Speechless!!

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:29 pm

Thanks guys, glad you like her!
BTW!
Look what I found! Back cover Ad on the March 1984 issue of National Geographic I found amongst 100's of copies in boxes in my dad's junk..... COOOOOOOL!!!

yella81celica · **Posted:** Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:38 pm

sweet

sethmeister4 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:15 pm

I see you are from Nova Scotia? Is that the Yarmouth Lighthouse in the background? I was born in Yarmouth and lived there(on Lakeside Road) until I was 12 (1998), now I live in the US. I have only been back once and I am dying to get back! Sweet car!

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:19 am

sethmeister4 wrote:

I see you are from Nova Scotia? Is that the Yarmouth Lighthouse in the background? I was born in Yarmouth and lived there(on Lakeside Road) until I was 12 (1998), now I live in the US. I have only been back once and I am dying to get back! Sweet car!

Yup that's the lighthouse alright. Coincidence: I just got back from my friend's house on Lakeside road. Also I see you are from Virginia. My car is from Virginia. Very random lol.

sethmeister4 · **Posted:** Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:30 am

Wow, what a small world! Yeah, I lived at 669 Lakeside Rd. in the beige house up on the hill. My parents started Shoreline Bible Church on Argyle Street back in the day and we moved to Georgia in 1998 for my dad to work at the headquarters for the mission that they are with. I moved here to VB in 2007. Where is your car from in VA? I have the beginning of a build thread(viewtopic.php?t=11653&highlight=) going for my 280z, hopefully I will be adding more to it soon.

Freddie0288 · **Posted:** Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:45 am

That RA looks cherry..ive got a '85 ST myself..LOVE IT!

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Mon May 02, 2011 11:41 am

Little update. Rear end started making bad bearing noises, so I went on a search for parts. Picked up this '85 GT for 250$. Had my eye on it hidden away in a small village for years, tried several times to find the owner and finally found him. Missing the engine but has tons of good stuff. All the glass is good, front lights and grille, rear diff and housing, and gas tank parts, plus more. Also I got my 215/60/14 BFG Radial T/A's

Here's a few pics of the work I'm doing, completely gutted the rear suspension, changing all bushings and a few bad spots on the body, and a thorough cleaning and undercoating. Probably will be laid up for a month

80Celica · **Posted:** Tue May 03, 2011 10:02 am

WOW!!!

BruceAlmighty · **Posted:** Wed May 04, 2011 7:28 pm

very nice! :mrgreen:

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Mon May 09, 2011 4:39 pm

Another little update of the rear end work. I Cleaned and painted all my control arms and beefed up the uppers with 5/8" steel (originals were rusted thin) and built a custom lateral control rod, adjustable, with original ends. I have the rear end housing all done. I am now patching the fuel tank with silver solder, about 3/4 done that, it's going well. I just started the body / floor work, which is the worst part, altough it is really only minor patching.

Gas tank after cleaning previous repairs. Dozens of pin holes, but unfortunately I can't get a new tank anywhere, or find any better used.

Some of the mess covered up.

Filler pipe from donor car.

Rear uppers before.

Beefed up

Primed

Uppers should be twice as tough now.

Custom lateral control rod, inner tie rod off a 2000 Taurus and some steel pipe. 5$ it cost me for steel for my uppers and this. Toyota wanted 235$ for a lateral rod, OEM. Frig that.

Rear axle housing done, not painted but coated with asphalt undercoat. It's only a temporary.

All the stuff I've painted so far. Yes, black. I am not fussy for too much color under there, but there will be some, just wait. I am using original springs for now because aftermarket are non-existent. I have some Supra/GTS springs which are the same height but much stiffer, but I need to weld bigger spring buckets tot he rear end to fit them, which I will do to my other housing eventually.

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:02 pm

It's been a gruelling 2 months since I put my Celica in the shop for a "rear diff swap". I only have a few pics here but I will post some more as I take some. But the car is finally on the road again and working well so far despite a fuel problem in town where it died lol. All fixed now. All the suspensiogn bushings save the front control arms (which are still tight) have been upgraded to Energy Suspension poly-urethane. And of course the tires which you have already seen. And fuel tank resto, which is also perfect no leaks. The only major problem I ran into was the differential from the parts car. First test drive had some horrible noises coming from an otherwise smooth feeling (by hand) and perfect looking assembly. Turns out 1 carrier bearing was in very bad shape. So after some digging I was able to get all the bearings and seal from my favorite local parts store for about 135$, and me and my friend rebuilt it. So anyway, the differential swap turned into a complete suspension upgrade, and I still havent got my sway bars, shocks and struts! And the car already handles so insane that I broke my windshield taking crazy S-turns at high speed

I may also need a strut tower bar.....Damn that Japanese metal fatiuge!!!

Camshaft · **Posted:** Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:41 am

It looks really good! I like the white-letter tires, never seen them on an RA64 before. I'm definitely a fan of these cars, and yours in particular!

OkieRA29 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 04, 2011 8:23 am

Buddy has an 85 GT that looks just like yours, but worse paint. Nice job with the car and the upgrades!!

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Sun Jul 10, 2011 2:45 pm

Thanks guys.

Cam- as for the white letters, as a kid I always remembered the Supras having them and always liked the look. I see many on the net as well and I cannot live without them lol. Unfortunately they are nearly impossible to find, I found these BFGs on ebay in the US somewhere, size discontinued.

OkieRA29- you haven't seen my horrible paint close up yet

OkieRA29 · **Posted:** Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:07 pm

Oh no, in order to even get close to yours, it would require the services of Macco at the least. His 85 is closer to panda than black.

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:34 pm

Put about 800 miles on her since the upgrades. Works awesome. Here's a couple more updates.

New projectors with Eurolite Xenon super plasma bulbs, and my old fog lights with new Streetglow 100W Xenons. No more yellow and I can see 10X better, and it's not ricey, because they are normally hidden. Well maybe a hint of rice. And I am loving the tires.

New exhaust, 2" all the way with a 3" tailpipe and a VW 1.8T resonator hidden under the car.... Yes... I know. I hate VW too but what an awesome sound. Let my friend drive it up and down the road so I could hear it, I think it has the best growl from a stock 4 cyl I have ever heard. Ordering a Pace Setter header for it next week, should sound even better! And if all goes as planned some engine goodies before summer's end.

Ford_Boi · **Posted:** Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:37 pm

Long time no update. I got my header almost 2 months ago, it works well and sounds awesome. Soon time to put the girl away for winter though, very sad time :cry:

But will be a good time for more upgrades!

My 1984 Celica GT RA64, Daily driver (summer, stored winter)

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