1stGenCelica.com

Hi There,

Names nathan and i live In california. I am joining this forum community because i had a question before I buy this 77' GT Liftback. It is in great condition, but I am NOT a fan of the bumpers. I will link pics below. My question is: Can I possibly EVER swap bumpers to and earlier 1975 model (The Small Smiley Metal ones)? And is it ever possible for this car to ever look like This one:http://blog.togethia.tv/2012/12/20/video-beams/ - and i mean physical exterior, not interior or engine. My goal is to take this 77' and make it look like this 75'.

Please forgive how noob questions these are, but i have only recently fell in love with these beauty's, and i fear I am a bit Ignorant when it comes to these.

http://www.caranddriver.com/photos-10q2 ... oto-348748 - The car basically is this exact same thing.

Hey Nathan! Welcome to the forum! I'm pretty new to the 1st Gen Celica's too. I trolled the forums for a bit before I pulled the trigger and finally found one for myself (they are quite scarce here on the east coast)

That '75 from the Togethia video is a flat nose, exactly like the '77 you're looking at. Outside the US the liftbacks were offered earlier that '76. I'm not familiar enough with the cars to know whether a flat nose also means long nose. Again, the car in the video is not a USDM model so there may be subtle changes.

Here in the states though, you had the slant nose and flat nose. Here's some pics from google as a reference.

Slant Nose:



Flat Nose:



A bit more history, in the USDM, the slant nose stopped in about '75, and the flat nose was introduced in '76 along with the liftback at the same time.

So on your quest for smiley bumpers, you need to be looking for FLAT NOSE bumpers. For the rear though, you HAVE to get a LIFTBACK bumper. The liftback has a flatter, wider bumper than the coupes had.

Next you have to decide on whether you want actual metal chromes bumpers, or if you'd be happy with fiberglass reproductions. Since I had only just gotten the car and was no where near finishing my resto-mod (or had even started for that matter) I kept hunting for a good price on a set of smilies. I found a guy here on the forums in Australia selling a set and had them shipped. I paid $800 for the pair shipped. I think this was fair, others might not. With the prices guys overseas are charging today, I feel I won out.

There are a few different vendors that offer fiberglass bumpers.
Groupb: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5755
Foxau2: http://www.storenvy.com/stores/15063-foxau2-fiberglass

I've written a few How-To's on removing and mounting bumpers. They're not great, and I'm not even sure if I wrote the one for mounting the rear. I'ts pretty simple, but I also used original chrome bumpers. Here's a link to my build thread that also has posts linking to the How-To's. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13549

And here's my ride, very similar to the one you're looking at, already rocking the good looking bumpers.









So it's DEFINITELY possible to get a '77 RA29 to look as good as the one from the video....I plan on getting there!

--Chris