This'll be a slow build up, I'm just about to turn twenty-one and I've been living on my own paycheck to paycheck since I was seventeen.
But I'll do what I can as fast as I can, and hopefully there will be very few problems in between!
Some Context(You can skip it if you want):
I lost my father when I was very young, but almost every memory I have of him, and every photo I have of us, he was trying to teach four year old me stuff about his cars.
He had three Celicas, his '77 he drove and two 77ish ones he used for parts when he needed them but his ultimate goal was to fix them up.
To keep his memory with me at all times, and because I honestly like them, I got an '80 Celica as my first car.
It was in dire need of repair to say the least, but I loved it none-the-less.
I hit an oil-slick (with tires that desperately needed replaced) and hit a guard-rail, denting the front of the car too badly for me to fix it (Being a unibody and all)
So I quicksold it for 500$ (I bought it for 800 and put about 300 into it) and bought an '89
Purchasing her:
So, I had an '89 Toyota Celica I had been working on for a few months, got it for 500$ and put about 300-400$ into it and it was fully functional and my Daily Driver.
I was searching on Craigslist for another Celica for my sister (Just turned 18, getting her license soon) and I would occassionally search for Supras just for the fun of it to see if anyone in Southern Oregon honestly owned (and wanted to sell) an MK4 Supra
I noticed a posting for an '87 Supra and he only wanted 2500 for it, assuming it was probably thrashed and a good mechanics special I opened it and saw this:
I thought "Well damn, it actually looks pretty nice. I guess it's missing a hood but I could probably find one of those if I hunted hard enough"
Read through the ad and he said it only needed a new o2sensor and something was wrong with the power steering
My '80 Celica didn't have power steering, so I could live with it till I could get it fixed or replace the power steering pump, especially if it meant having the closest thing to my dream car that I could get.
I called him up and scheduled to meet up with him, asked him a few questions and had my uncle come with to check it out (He's been a mechanic for about 25-30 years)
The owner was seventeen and his mom was the person I talked to at first, it was his daily driver and they had got it a month ago from a guy in Springfield, Oregon.
The guy had kept a detailed novel on this cars life, from purchasing it in '87 (He was the first owner) till selling it, everything, there's even a few gas receipts from times he filled it from nearly empty.
New clutch(es), tires, paint job, all that stuff.
So, obviously, I had to ask why he didn't want it? This car is beautiful, and the answer I got literally made me laugh.
This seventeen year old is passing up on an '87 Toyota Supra, 7M-GTE Turbo mind you, because his first car was a Nissan 240SX and he felt the Supra was too heavy to drift and he wanted another 240SX.
I was speechless, but to cut that story short, I borrowed about 1,500$ from a few family members, they were all for the reason, and I got it.
Taking her home:
Pulling up to my grandparents house, my cheeks literally hurt from smiling so wide.
I couldn't believe I finally owned a Supra.
As you can see in the hatch, the previous owner even still had the stock rims (with tires) that the car came with, before he put the Voxx rims on.
I checked the oil and dropped the stock rims off at my house and decided I wanted to take her on a test drive, reset the travel meter and drove until I felt I should turn around, 55 miles later I was turning around and took this
Building her Up and Life after Purchase:
The oil was about a quart low, so I called up the kid to ask what oil he had been using
"Mototech" he said, I had never heard of it, but I had also never owned a high-end sports car and assumed it was just a high-end oil.
Called my grandpa up and he had never heard of it
Googled it, it's Fred Meyer's brand of oil
What...
Scratched the last 100$ out of my account and literally walked (It's not THAT long of a walk) to the Napa auto parts near my grandparents and bought four quarts of Castrol GTX and a Gold filter and walked back to my grandparents about 30$ more poor to do an oil change
Jump forward four months, spoiled rich girl doesn't know how to drive.
Has her blinker on to take a right turn in the opposite lane of me, we're turning onto a one way road.
She commits to her right in her daddies 120,000$ M6 BMW, I commit to me left, she swerves to go straight instead of turning, into my dream car.
She hands the cop a fake insurance card or something like that, the information I was given was for State Farm and they had no knowledge of who she was and the car was not in their systems.
She also cried her way out of her ticket, and the cop instead tickets me for "Dangerous Left Turn"
Call her and tell her I need to take her to court.
Get a call from her dad a few days later with him telling me if I drag his daughter through the court system he will drag out the process until I have to file bankruptcy.
Give up on the court route, sell all my worldly possessions, N64, NES, All my musical instruments, Computer.
Buy new shell
Shell has a targa top (Roof pops off)
Shell is the stock white pearl color that I love
Shell has blue interior instead of burgundy
Shell is in a beautiful condition
Shell is to a T my dream '87-88 Supra, not one that I'm settling for.
Pull the motor from the old one
12/5/2013 - Update
Sold the last of my N64 games as well as my Clarinet and ordered parts on the 30th of Novemeber, or sometime around there
The Radiator, which is the important one, should be arriving later today, maybe tomorrow (Should have got here on the 3rd or 4th but because of storms in the middle of the US the package deliveries for the west coast are delayed, logic?)
New Headlights getting put in
New full aluminum radiator put in (DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CXRACING, EVERYTHING THEY SELL IS "BOLT IN" WHEN ALL OF IT NEEDS TO BE ALTERED IN SOME WAY, we've decided this after I got my radiator for my supra, a friend got an intercooler for his miata, and two other friends got things and none of it fit)
First start-up, timing was shit but we fixed that after this.
[video=youtube;NURd9O65Mow]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NURd9O65Mow[/video]
Took this for the friend who's helping me diagnose as much stuff as we can figure out, might as well put it in here for you guys.
Can't take it to 6k because if I floor it I hit fuel cut (I think? Basically the whole car jerks hard, and the check engine light turns on for three seconds)
and driving a stickshift with one hand is pretty difficult! Never did it before this
[video=youtube;o5SI4qww3-U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5SI4qww3-U[/video]
My car may not be expensive with some hyped up brand name,
But my car is rare,
and my car is a product of my blood, sweat, time and effort,
I love my car, and I loved my dad.
But I'll do what I can as fast as I can, and hopefully there will be very few problems in between!
Some Context(You can skip it if you want):
I lost my father when I was very young, but almost every memory I have of him, and every photo I have of us, he was trying to teach four year old me stuff about his cars.
He had three Celicas, his '77 he drove and two 77ish ones he used for parts when he needed them but his ultimate goal was to fix them up.
To keep his memory with me at all times, and because I honestly like them, I got an '80 Celica as my first car.
It was in dire need of repair to say the least, but I loved it none-the-less.
I hit an oil-slick (with tires that desperately needed replaced) and hit a guard-rail, denting the front of the car too badly for me to fix it (Being a unibody and all)
So I quicksold it for 500$ (I bought it for 800 and put about 300 into it) and bought an '89
Purchasing her:
So, I had an '89 Toyota Celica I had been working on for a few months, got it for 500$ and put about 300-400$ into it and it was fully functional and my Daily Driver.
I was searching on Craigslist for another Celica for my sister (Just turned 18, getting her license soon) and I would occassionally search for Supras just for the fun of it to see if anyone in Southern Oregon honestly owned (and wanted to sell) an MK4 Supra
I noticed a posting for an '87 Supra and he only wanted 2500 for it, assuming it was probably thrashed and a good mechanics special I opened it and saw this:
I thought "Well damn, it actually looks pretty nice. I guess it's missing a hood but I could probably find one of those if I hunted hard enough"
Read through the ad and he said it only needed a new o2sensor and something was wrong with the power steering
My '80 Celica didn't have power steering, so I could live with it till I could get it fixed or replace the power steering pump, especially if it meant having the closest thing to my dream car that I could get.
I called him up and scheduled to meet up with him, asked him a few questions and had my uncle come with to check it out (He's been a mechanic for about 25-30 years)
The owner was seventeen and his mom was the person I talked to at first, it was his daily driver and they had got it a month ago from a guy in Springfield, Oregon.
The guy had kept a detailed novel on this cars life, from purchasing it in '87 (He was the first owner) till selling it, everything, there's even a few gas receipts from times he filled it from nearly empty.
New clutch(es), tires, paint job, all that stuff.
So, obviously, I had to ask why he didn't want it? This car is beautiful, and the answer I got literally made me laugh.
This seventeen year old is passing up on an '87 Toyota Supra, 7M-GTE Turbo mind you, because his first car was a Nissan 240SX and he felt the Supra was too heavy to drift and he wanted another 240SX.
I was speechless, but to cut that story short, I borrowed about 1,500$ from a few family members, they were all for the reason, and I got it.
Taking her home:
Pulling up to my grandparents house, my cheeks literally hurt from smiling so wide.
I couldn't believe I finally owned a Supra.
As you can see in the hatch, the previous owner even still had the stock rims (with tires) that the car came with, before he put the Voxx rims on.
I checked the oil and dropped the stock rims off at my house and decided I wanted to take her on a test drive, reset the travel meter and drove until I felt I should turn around, 55 miles later I was turning around and took this
Building her Up and Life after Purchase:
The oil was about a quart low, so I called up the kid to ask what oil he had been using
"Mototech" he said, I had never heard of it, but I had also never owned a high-end sports car and assumed it was just a high-end oil.
Called my grandpa up and he had never heard of it
Googled it, it's Fred Meyer's brand of oil
What...
Scratched the last 100$ out of my account and literally walked (It's not THAT long of a walk) to the Napa auto parts near my grandparents and bought four quarts of Castrol GTX and a Gold filter and walked back to my grandparents about 30$ more poor to do an oil change
Jump forward four months, spoiled rich girl doesn't know how to drive.
Has her blinker on to take a right turn in the opposite lane of me, we're turning onto a one way road.
She commits to her right in her daddies 120,000$ M6 BMW, I commit to me left, she swerves to go straight instead of turning, into my dream car.
She hands the cop a fake insurance card or something like that, the information I was given was for State Farm and they had no knowledge of who she was and the car was not in their systems.
She also cried her way out of her ticket, and the cop instead tickets me for "Dangerous Left Turn"
Call her and tell her I need to take her to court.
Get a call from her dad a few days later with him telling me if I drag his daughter through the court system he will drag out the process until I have to file bankruptcy.
Give up on the court route, sell all my worldly possessions, N64, NES, All my musical instruments, Computer.
Buy new shell
Shell has a targa top (Roof pops off)
Shell is the stock white pearl color that I love
Shell has blue interior instead of burgundy
Shell is in a beautiful condition
Shell is to a T my dream '87-88 Supra, not one that I'm settling for.
Pull the motor from the old one
12/5/2013 - Update
Sold the last of my N64 games as well as my Clarinet and ordered parts on the 30th of Novemeber, or sometime around there
The Radiator, which is the important one, should be arriving later today, maybe tomorrow (Should have got here on the 3rd or 4th but because of storms in the middle of the US the package deliveries for the west coast are delayed, logic?)
New Headlights getting put in
New full aluminum radiator put in (DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CXRACING, EVERYTHING THEY SELL IS "BOLT IN" WHEN ALL OF IT NEEDS TO BE ALTERED IN SOME WAY, we've decided this after I got my radiator for my supra, a friend got an intercooler for his miata, and two other friends got things and none of it fit)
First start-up, timing was shit but we fixed that after this.
[video=youtube;NURd9O65Mow]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NURd9O65Mow[/video]
Took this for the friend who's helping me diagnose as much stuff as we can figure out, might as well put it in here for you guys.
Can't take it to 6k because if I floor it I hit fuel cut (I think? Basically the whole car jerks hard, and the check engine light turns on for three seconds)
and driving a stickshift with one hand is pretty difficult! Never did it before this
[video=youtube;o5SI4qww3-U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5SI4qww3-U[/video]
My car may not be expensive with some hyped up brand name,
But my car is rare,
and my car is a product of my blood, sweat, time and effort,
I love my car, and I loved my dad.
Last edited:
Thank you
