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[mrm76gt]

Hey everyone my name is Mathew. I'm new to this forum, and I believe it will be a valubale tool for me in my restoration project. And hopefully I'll be able to help some others as well.
I used to own a '77 GT. It was my first car when I was sixteen. I bought this car from my father who was the original owner. To make a long story short I was young and naieve, and I drove this car into the ground. When I bought another car I practically discarded the celica. Stupid me!!!
I've recently (yesterday) purchased a '76 Celica GT. I drove over two hundred miles to get it. On the way back the carb pretty much sprung a leak after 30 or so miles. Guess I shouldn't have been doing 80 when I knew the carb had problems. (have I learned?) Not Good! We towed the car almost 40 miles with a tow strap to the nearest truck stop. That's where it sits right now. I'm leaving in an hour with a truck and U-haul flatbed to pick it up. (What I should have done in the first place)
But for the short time I did get to drive it. I loved it. I had a lot of really good times in that '77.

The car isn't perfect but it's all pretty tight. I'll put some pics up when I get it home.

[75CelicaGT]

Welcome Mathew,

Like you my first car at 16 was a 1st Gen Celica, a 75 GT like the one I have now.

Can't wait to see the pics.


Pete

[mrm76gt]

Well.. I got it home. What a joke. I could have drove it the whole way if the carb would have stayed alive. As it is I couldn't even get enough rpms to drive it up the ramp.
I had to have a couple of truckers help get it on the flatbed trailer that I rented from U-Haul. I've got a rebuild kit for the carb. That's step one.



It's got a fair amount of body damage. More dents than the 77 I had, but less rust. Utah sucks! Let me rephrase that. Northern Utah sucks!
Gonna need both front fenders replaced, the rear quarter panels welded back together, and maybe a new hood. That's the worst of it from what I can tell at the moment.



And I WILL go to Japan if I have to, to get some JDM bumpers. These ugly rubber truck bumpers have got to go!



Suprisingly the trunk pan is in pretty good shape. The gas tank looks brand new. All new hoses as well.

[mrm76gt]

Am I wasting my time with this one? Is that why there's no replies to the pics?
Come on guys you can be honest. I can handle it.
My major concern with the body is the strut towers on the front end.

[Michael Murphy Sr.]

Welcome Mathew, Don't worry, you will get responses , , any one getting into the Celica world will allways find good info and feed back from this site, body rust and bumpers can be changed and altered, shes still a thing of beauty it just depends on how much time and money you want to invest. Go thru the board index and you will see valuable info. Its amazing what some of these guys are able to do, they are willing to share there knowledge in words and also pictures... It will all be worth it once you have it how you want it. Take your time, do it right and the car will last a long time, its amazing how strong and durable these Celicas are. I'v done a few changes on mine but nothing to what some of thee guys have done, I purchased mine right off the show room floor and have driven it for almost 420,000 miles, best buy I ever made . I'v had a few cars in my life time but this is the only one I have wanted to keep.. It will be interesting to see how you feel about yours after youve had it for a few years. Good luck with the restoration Mike

[75CelicaGT]

It looks to be in pretty fair shape.

I've seen a lot worse than that brought back to glory. It is now a matter of time and money.

GL with your restoration, keep us updated with a posting in the Project section.


Pete

[mrm76gt]

So... I've rebuilt the carburetor and the car fired right up and ran on the first shot.
I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to carburetors so I'm not really even sure why it was spitting out fuel in the first place.

Point is, I replaced all the available parts and gaskets from the repair kit, cleaned the thing up, and threw it back on.
Give me a break, it works.

This is a picture I took right after removing it.


This picture was taken during disassembly.


Something I noticed right away was that this thing had been repaired before. And not very well, at all.
If you look closely at the above photo you can see gouge marks and all the screws were striped just a little from the previous repair.



Gasoline was leaking from this hole even after I made the pepair. It looks like something broke off. I don't have any clue as to what that may be though.
It's right below the float reservoir so I figured why not just seal it?
It hasn't blown up yet.

[slowmo]

Good job. I rebuilt a stock carb once too...never again...

[mrm76gt]

I'm thinking I'll call her "Rust on Wheels" for now.
Rust has got to be the worst part to any restoration, but check out what I'm dealing with here.

This is the Driver side shock tower.



This is the passenger side.


It's not a great picture, but this is the bottom of the shock tower where it meets the frame rails.


And all of this could have been prevented if the dumb @$$ who ripped these seals off would have just replaced them.

[StingrayGT]

hello there

by looking at the pictures, doesnt look that bad for the rust parts

yeah one more thing, welcome back! what took you so long to get back the 1st gen celica

[mrm76gt]

What took me so long? Mostly money, and finding a coupe for a reasonable price.

I was actually looking around for a project car for my college courses, and I figured it was perfect.
I'd learn to fix cars on the same car I learned to drive with.

I love these Celicas! Got a lot of great memories driving the last one I had.

[cheela]

Thanks for replying on mine. Just reading through yours and yeah, we're pretty much in the same boat.
So how hard was it to rebuilt the carb? I've done a little research in the past but watch how to videos and reading
FAQs on them is one, actually taking one apart is another. but most likely I won't be doing anything to my car for a while.
as it keeps snowing here in Wisconsin. hahhah good luck wiht your build.

[mrm76gt]

It really wasn't too hard at all. Seemed to be a pretty simple carburetor.
The worst part is making sure you label everything right including all the damn vaccum lines.
And remember there's a lot of little pieces. Make sure you have a clean table to work on.
I did all the work on a kitchen table in my garage. Put a big thick rag over the whole top so that if any little pieces fell out they wouldn't roll off the table.

With a little patience and a decent rebuild kit, I'm pretty sure anyone could handle one of these stock carbs.