1stGenCelica.com

After selling my last car early this summer I have been searching for a Celica non stop. They are not exactly plentiful in Vancouver Canada but I finally found one that ticked pretty much ever box. Meet Cecilia





Better pictures to follow...

She has been sitting in an old guys garage not moving or running since 1990. A friend and I managed to rescue her this week for only 1500. It wasnt too much work to get here running and driving again. Shes still not a perfect daily driver but its a start.

If anyone has any advice for a very new to this Celica owner I would love to hear some suggestions on what to do.

Welcome to the Celica club! Lots of good advice here.

There are only 15 registered Celica's in Vancouver...no wonder it took you so long to find one!

CelicaJerrie wrote:Welcome to the Celica club! Lots of good advice here.

There are only 15 registered Celica's in Vancouver...no wonder it took you so long to find one!

Oh man I had no idea! That makes really excited on one end but kind of bummed on the other... Any way to know how many of those are liftbacks? Is that all of the greater Vancouver area or just Vancouver?

Welcome!

My advice will depend on your plans for the car

What were the boxes this one ticked?

andrewzuku wrote:Welcome!

My advice will depend on your plans for the car

What were the boxes this one ticked?

My plan is to get it where I can daily drive it and add on to it as i go along. I was mainly asking if there was any advice of what I should watch out for on a car that has been sitting for as long as this one

Obviously rust was a big part, this one is basically rust free except a couple quarter sized spots here and there. The whole hatch/spare wheel well area which i have been warned is usualy a problem is totally spotless.

Original paint. When you paint a car right it can look awesome but man when you are looking for cars this cheap respray jobs can just look awful

stock and unmolested. The car has not been customized or had anything done to it that I know of, so to me that means it is a great starting point to do exactly that.

Its a liftback. I prefer the liftback look and it also means I can fit my bike in the back

Black interior. Might seem unimportant but if I had gotten one with a white or tan interior one of my main focuses would be to replace it all... I just dont dig them

Knowing that it would not be the biggest deal to get it driving. I was mostly looking for cheap Celicas and that usually meant that they were not running and/or in pieces. Some I knew were huge projects that would take a huge amount of my time, this one only ended up taking me two days

Cheap. At 1500 I think I did pretty well for myself... although the original deal was too include a parts car, slot mags and an extra engine but sadly I missed the boat on that one... oh well

I don't have any experience with cars sitting for years, so I can't help there. I'd be replacing the brake fluid, anti-freeze, oil, filters, and just going over everything to see what needs attention.

It rains a lot in Vancouver doesn't it? Hopefully you can keep it garaged. Being a daily, it's not practical to avoid bad weather altogether, but if it were my car that would be my biggest worry. Rust is heartbreaking!

It sounds like we had similar priorities when looking for a Celica. Please be careful of your interior with the bike

You got an awesome deal, even without the stuff you missed out on.

If it sat for more than 3 or 4 years you are going to need to clean out the fuel tank, if it sat for more than 10 you might need to look at other fuel tank options. Best of luck on the build, and try to get those pics re-sized

Gerka wrote:

CelicaJerrie wrote:Welcome to the Celica club! Lots of good advice here.

There are only 15 registered Celica's in Vancouver...no wonder it took you so long to find one!

Oh man I had no idea! That makes really excited on one end but kind of bummed on the other... Any way to know how many of those are liftbacks? Is that all of the greater Vancouver area or just Vancouver?

I was only looking at Make/Year/Model info, which where 9 of the 15 were 1976-77 which are the only 2 years the liftback was made, but they also made coupes during those years too. I'll see if I can find out more later.

kitfoxrider wrote:If it sat for more than 3 or 4 years you are going to need to clean out the fuel tank, if it sat for more than 10 you might need to look at other fuel tank options. Best of luck on the build, and try to get those pics re-sized

Luckily the tank was emptied while it was sitting