I got my hands on a 1981 Celica to have a second car that got good fuel mileage. My automatic '90 Z32 2+2 gets crap for mileage on high-test. So to save some money, I got this.

I've had the car for a few months but school and a lack of tools/money up at college has kept me from doing anything with it. It had a cracked windshield, ran like crap, no passenger seat, was full of trash, and had no dampening. But it was fun screwing around with it, rallying it in my friends field a couple times. I plan on setting it up to drift, and be a few height adjustments from being rally ready, and autocrossing it about once a month.

I've put a new idler arm in it and done an oil change. I also fiddled with the carb and it's running a lot smoother and steering is a lot better.

...Oh yeah, and the driver's side door wouldn't open.


took the door panels out and got the driver's door working-ish. The lower hinge is still broken, but I can get the door open.


Got some shocks for it in an attempt to improve the handling.

this explains a lot:


My mom asked me how we were supposed to get the new oil into the shocks. Well about that haha.

Love the new KYB's:


The interior is white and black, so why they thought a wood-grain dash would look good is beyond me. Some sticker bombing should help.


Happy with the result, only took a few hours and really looked cool in place.


It's 102F in the shade, hence the setup.


Had to drop the tank, I'm getting a lot of gunk in the fuel filter causing some problems.


It should be back in about 2 weeks cleaned and lined. While that's gone, I'm going to weld the diff, get a new windshield, and run new lines. More later.