[Bitter]

Working on repairing a small water leak that's been annoying me for a few years, found it's a cracked seam sealer bead that seals between some sheet metal layers where the rear 1/4, roof, and hatch area all meet up. I found the crack, pulled out the drip channel trim kind of ruining it in the process, got the new channel trim here and a fresh tube of 3M Windo-Weld to caulk the cracked sealer and channel. Other side isn't leaking yet but I think I'll do the same over there for peace of mind.

Luckily some other Celica owners did all the hard work, I guess their water leak was MUCH worse than mine. Mine only leaked in the car wash, just a few drips over the R/R 1/4 glass but that kept me from using the touch-less wash to dust the car off on road trips. Channel trim is $65 so not too expensive, I could probably save the other side and reuse it. New trim looks way way better than the old stuff, 20 years of baking in the sun I guess...if I can scuff it up and match the matte finish I may try to reuse the other side but $65 isn't gonna kill me. At least it's not the other door trims...the top trim that overhangs the window glass on the roof is $140 each and the little outside trim that wipes the glass as it goes up and down as also $140 each. Yikes. Both those are in so-so shape on either side of the car, it would look so much nicer with fresh parts. Maybe next year, starting to get worries about parts like these being discontinued since the car is 20 years old and these are unique to the vehicle, but I can't buy a spare for every part on the car.

 

[Bitter]

The hunt for the perfect washer nozzle continues. The original two jet were meh, got some Mazda 4 jet but they're super hard to get aimed right and either spray low at speed or shoot over the roof when parked, not thrilled with them. Ordered up some fan spray Mazda 3 nozzles, they're cowl mounted on the 3, the CX7, and CX9 so they'll hopefully have the right height and coverage for the Celica.

 

[Bitter]

So turns out those Mazda nozzles have a left and a right side but NOT ONE seller anywhere differentiates with the long part number, thankfully it looks like I got two right side nozzles so they both spray a little more left than they do right. I haven't gotten around to installing them just yet, been busy with the passenger seat.

Let me tell you, Alcantara or whatever this generic version of it I got is awesome to sit on. It's super comfy and super grippy, it doesn't feel like it but it's like being stuck in place when you're sitting on it. I finally got the seat bottom on and I think I got it on right, it was a bit crooked to start with but I got it shoved around and working now. I need to see how the cushion is sitting under it tomorrow evening but I'm not taking it off unless I have to since it was such a bitch to get on there. The seat back was super easy, I could do that one with the seat installed in the car! I bent the lower spring on the passenger seat just a tiny bit to give it a little bit more lumbar down low, I'm either going to do the same thing to the driver seat or add a little foam between the seat spring and back of the cushion to give some lumbar. Adding a little foam would let me spread out and shape the curve on the lower back if I use harder foam or maybe even a semi-rigid material to bow the foam forward a little bit. Whatever I do, I like this material to sit on. The old leather was like raw-hide after 20 years and the stitches were pulled so tight they were starting to pop out of the leather if I put pressure in one spot.

 

[Bitter]

Couple in progress seat shots, before I fixed the bottom cushion crooked. Seat back might need a little more fluff which means lifting it off and slipping some soft foam to fill it out a little more if it doesn't shrink up a little more to fit better. They're not 100% made the same as the original covers, so they don't fit 100% the same.

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[buddd]

Where did you get the covers?

 

[Bitter]

A website called lseat.com they're well known in the landcruiser community for making good seat covers to replace the worn out stuff in those trucks, generally well liked but some issues have cropped up over the years. Their communication is terrible.

Overall for the cost I'm happy since getting these made somewhere else would have been about $600-700 from what I was seeing but they're not perfect. The seat back isn't super tight fitting across the back and below the head rest hoop, likely owing to the fact that the panels are put together differently with the new covers having one less panel on the back. I'm not sure how to pull them tighter there but everyone says the stuff shrinks after some hot days so I'm hopeful. If not I'll have to add some light padding to fill it out a little or live with the fabric being a little loose between the leather panels. These were $420 shipped for the 4 parts, 2 backs and 2 bottoms.

Seat is all together for the passenger side, I'll get a picture up in a minute.

 

[Bitter]

Driver seat is almost done, minimal work to finish it tomorrow. It went MUCH better since I know what and how I'm doing with it. Also found a very excellent condition steering wheel to replace my less than excellent condition steering wheel so I'll be sitting on new leather and grabbing new to me leather.

 

[Bitter]

I washed both front floor mats, though they're covered by heavy rubber door mats all the time they get a little dirty around the edges. Not as bad as I was expecting this time so it kind of felt like a waste of time. I de-fuzzed the edges with a lighter so they look neater because you know everyone checks out the edges of your floor mats, used the same lighter trick on the embroidery that's always hidden under the door mats. Anyway, the driver mat is permanently discolored where the heel rests, kind of a bummer but whatever it's 20 years old. Cleaned the interior floors with the seats out with shop vac and Lilly Brush, this little rubber blade on handle thing. It looks stupid, probably costs more than it's worth but it works amazing for pulling out all of the loose fuzz and pet hair that ends up in the car.

On a purchases note, I found an excellent condition steering wheel to replace my fair to poor condition steering wheel, no wear on the leather at all in the pictures and there were lots of pictures. Cheaper than getting mine wrapped and a better result I think. Re-wrapped ones look like they have fat bulky bumps were the seams of the leather are pulled together where as the OEM stuff is super thin leather that's shrunk into place via some kind of Japanese voodoo magic. It's an easy wheel to swap, don't even need a puller. That'll alleviate one of my biggest annoyances about the interior, the leather is rashed up and raw on the left side of the steering wheel and it bleeds black dye onto my hands when they get a little sweaty driving because the finish is worn off/ruined on the steering wheel there and in some other places as wel.

Uhhhh next up is to just drive it some more I guess. I need to install the trans cooler, but first I need to clean up the mess I've made in the garage so I can park it back in it's spot and get the car cover over it when it's not being driven. At some point that intake manifold goes on, but I'm in no hurry and frankly a little worried I'll be dissapointed by it or run into some kind of problems that'll make me miss out on driving it this late summer/fall.
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[Bitter]

 

[Bitter]

Short drive last night, held my breath at start when the airbag light lit and then went off lol, occupancy sensor on the pass side lol had me worried.

Ran some light rust off the brakes and got them a little warm to bed pads slightly. I feel like I'm sitting on soft cool Velcro, it's really nice feeling!

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[Bitter]

I've driven it a little more, found a minor issue where the drivers belt squeaks on the edge of the seat sometimes. Not 100% sure what to do about that but I'll figure something out because it's pretty annoying.

Got the front of my car taken apart to install the trans cooler, the 3/8ths aluminum line is very nice to work with. It bends and rebends easily, takes a partial bubble flare (to retain clamped hose) nicely, and overall is a pleasant material. It's a little cheaper than copper but bends better since it doesn't work harden like copper does and takes the flare much nicer as well. I've got one line bent to cut and made sure it fits the original hose, going to pick up some 3/8th cooler hose, have the nice fuel line clamps already to go. The Redline D4 trans fluid took forever to come in but it's here finally, I'll do that suck n fill at work I guess. I mean I've been needing to buy a fluid sucker...maybe I'll just do it myself?

 

[Bitter]

Need moar trans cooler...and horn...

Before the bumper cover goes on I need to make a couple braces or one center brace to hold the lip still so I can mount a go-pro down there for cool chin view videos with less wobble and shake. Not quite sure how I'll do that just yet. I've got some thin aluminum that I could use but it'll eyesore something bad. I'll figure it out...

 

[Bitter]

Heck. Thought I'd only get 4qt of fluid out of the pan so I only bought 4qt well guess what? I need more. Just ordered a gallon jug to go with my 4 1qt bottles. I need to get a clean empty pair of gallon jugs so I can measure what I take out when it's done sucking. Gonna be a bit.

 

[Bitter]

Couple updates.
Firstly, I am an idiot. I read the parts diagram wrong and need to re-make the hard lines because I had it setup trans to rad to cooler to trans...or so I thought. Instead it was trans to cooler to rad to trans. So I was going to be cooling the fluid then heating it back up in the radiator heat exchanger. See I saw a line labeled outlet and inlet and I assumed they were the trans outlet and inlet. No, they were the radiator outlet and inlet for the heat exchanger. So I got one line re-made very nicely tonight and tomorrow I'll make my 'line from hell'.

Secondly I sucked out way more fluid that I anticipated. Drain and fill spec is 4.3qt, I bought 4qt Redline D4 fluid assuming I'd get about 4qt out and just top it up with some of our fluid at work. Nope. Ended up getting just over 6qts out of a trans that's an 8qt dry fill, just from sucking through the dip tube into the trans pan. How? How did I beat the drain and fill spec and get 75% of the fluid out? I started it for about 5 seconds a couple times and then let it sit overnight. That slung fluid out of the torque converter and let it all drain down out of the valve body to the pan. So I'll have almost all new fluid in it, the good stuff too. D4 most closely meets the T4 fluid viscosities but it's high temp stable synthetic with a good additive package. My usual go-to syn trans fluid is Valvoline Max-life but they've thinned it down to meet spec on newer fluids, it's no longer an ideal Toyota T4 replacement. Between synth fluid and the cooler I think I'll be doing just great. Once I can get this line from hell made tomorrow.

 

[Bitter]

Oh yeah, a picture would be good yeah?

Hoping to get this shit done tonight and tomorrow and drive around Sunday. Still have no idea how I'll brace the lip so the GoPro doesn't shake. Scratch that, I have an idea.

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[Bitter]

Fluid filled, that fresh D4 smells nothing like what I took out that's for sure! It's way nastier smelling but that's probably a good thing, meant I had 'used up' the old fluid.
Ran it, no leaks in the garage. I can't rev it up really high or hard because I'm not a jerk to my neighbors, but I think it'll be fine. At full temp on the gauge in park the fluid goes in at 125F and comes out at 85F according to my harbor freight temp gun, who knows what actual temps are. It's cooling fluid and that's a decent temp drop for something sitting parked, I imagine with some air flowing past it would be even more.
I'll get things more bolted together tomorrow, burned my hand doing something stupid not car related so I quit once I had it filled and no leaks.

 

[Bri01Spyder]

I enjoy reading your adventures with your super Toyota

 

[Bitter]

Thanks! Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself but I'm pretty used to that. Broke something but I had a spare anyway, I'll get pictures up in a few minutes.

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Fffffffffffffffffudge!

Whew, all fixed. Had a spare fog light bracket from an aborted project a while back. Wiped it down and sprayed it a quick coat of satin black paint to make it look OEM and I'm back in business!

 

[buddd]

Agreed with the comment above. I like these little updates. Definitely appreciate keeping a stock car (mostly) stock and looking good.

 

[Bitter]

Thanks. I'll keep posting as long as the site exists pretty much. AEM air filter cleaner gets here today so I'll wash the filter tonight and put it back on once it's dry tomorrow, but this time not forget the K&N filter sock to keep it a little cleaner.

Been looking at GoPro knock off cameras, I want something with an external mic so I can stick it by the air filter for all the good sucky sucky engine sounds. Pretty sure my intake is as loud it louder than my exhaust and that'll only get worse when I finally install that intake manifold. Really thinking about doing that this fall before I completely can't drive it but I know I probably won't.

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