Diamond in the Rough - my 1985 Toyota Tercel build

good to see you still working on it man!

 

Cool project…..a friend still has one of these. It’s got just over 400k on it, runs good but body and interior are ROUGH

 

Thanks @Calamity_taco & @faawrenchbndr , I've got some work left to get road-worthy again, but I hope to run this one well into the 500k mile range!

Only time will tell of course, but we shall see.
I have a track record of taking meticulous care of my vehicles, yet HORRIBLE luck with random & sometimes catastrophic mechanical failures.

 

Making some progress on the engine tear down and inspection. Valve train is looking pretty good!

 

I just read all this, awesome work and thanks for sharing, it’s nice to see some projects that aren’t just bolt on.

 

I’ve been digging this project back out of the grave. Progress has been stagnant, but slow and steady will win the race. I’m getting back to work on my manual surgery, slowly but surely.

To recap a bit, I’ve got to rebuild/refresh my engine before I get the manual transmission into the wagon, and begin test driving.

Got the cylinder head removed! That’s where the good news stopped…


Found this seal stuffed into a coolant passage when removing the head gasket. Not really what I wanted to see, but didn’t seem like it caused any harm. Not sure where it came from yet.


Had a cylinder head bolt snap while removing the cyl head. Fun in store for sure getting this removed.

 

13 tries later….


Got the bugger out!!


HF flux core welder saved the day once again.

 

Block was about .0005” out of spec, was able to clean it up easily with a bit more razor blade and some 320 grit sandpaper.

Block mounting surface is good to go now. Still have some things on the block to inspect, but the cylinders and pistons look good. Can see crosshatching in all the cylinders.