TA22 Toyota Celica - the a hedge find...
Discussion
I had one of these many moons ago. That looks like a 2TG twin cam in it in which case its a great thing :-) but is unlikely to be the original motor . The Twincam was in the GT version (5 speed box, LSD & honeycomb grill) & those came in Bronze or White only as far as I know. Parts are indeed going to be the issue - Australia & Germany are good places to look.
(ETA - looking at the motor picture again, it looks as though it has a honeycombe grill but confused by the colour. Might be it was "upgraded" at some point, I know a number of ST shells had GT bits bolted to them).
(ETA - looking at the motor picture again, it looks as though it has a honeycombe grill but confused by the colour. Might be it was "upgraded" at some point, I know a number of ST shells had GT bits bolted to them).
Edited by Wombat3 on Monday 21st September 23:51
Wow, no pressure on this build then! 
Thanks for all the wishes of good luck chaps.. and the congrats on marriage. I'm incredibly lucky that she's just as mad on cars as I am and so we have rather a few toys (perhaps too many!) between us... come to think about it she currently has more than me...
We're also serial savers/restorers with a few projects completed and several in the pipeline, one of her previous projects (including rebuilding the engine) was actually our wedding car:
However although there are a few other projects ongoing, this one won't get left to fester for long as when parts come up I need to jump on them. Fingers crossed I've already managed to secure some front wings from an incredibly nice guy in Yorkshire - Adam if you're reading this - you're a gent. Thank you
So to answer a couple of questions about the car, it is an early generation 1 ST not a GT, bit of a shame as the latter would've been even more desirable. Seemingly in its early days it was tweaked and upgraded in quite a few areas but spent most of it's time off the road judging by the 41k on the clock. As Wombat has correctly spotted the car was at some point fitted with the 2TG 1600 twincam engine - not a bad thing by any means. It also had the honeycomb grill and a whole host of GT badges added. The good news is that most of the changed trim parts were in the boot and on the back seat, including some rather tricky to find bits.
Pretty obviously from the pics you'll see it was also painted red, I believe from yellow originally but I still need to confirm this. Whether it goes back to looking similar to this one I'm undecided on still:
In the meantime some more pics of when I first saw it.
Interesting size comparison with 205 GTI
More to come...
Thanks for all the wishes of good luck chaps.. and the congrats on marriage. I'm incredibly lucky that she's just as mad on cars as I am and so we have rather a few toys (perhaps too many!) between us... come to think about it she currently has more than me...
We're also serial savers/restorers with a few projects completed and several in the pipeline, one of her previous projects (including rebuilding the engine) was actually our wedding car:
However although there are a few other projects ongoing, this one won't get left to fester for long as when parts come up I need to jump on them. Fingers crossed I've already managed to secure some front wings from an incredibly nice guy in Yorkshire - Adam if you're reading this - you're a gent. Thank you
So to answer a couple of questions about the car, it is an early generation 1 ST not a GT, bit of a shame as the latter would've been even more desirable. Seemingly in its early days it was tweaked and upgraded in quite a few areas but spent most of it's time off the road judging by the 41k on the clock. As Wombat has correctly spotted the car was at some point fitted with the 2TG 1600 twincam engine - not a bad thing by any means. It also had the honeycomb grill and a whole host of GT badges added. The good news is that most of the changed trim parts were in the boot and on the back seat, including some rather tricky to find bits.
Pretty obviously from the pics you'll see it was also painted red, I believe from yellow originally but I still need to confirm this. Whether it goes back to looking similar to this one I'm undecided on still:
In the meantime some more pics of when I first saw it.
Interesting size comparison with 205 GTI
More to come...
Edited by SPT28 on Tuesday 29th September 09:18
Edited by SPT28 on Tuesday 29th September 09:18
SPT28 said:
However although there are a few other projects ongoing, this one won't get left to fester for long as when parts come up I need to jump on them. Fingers crossed I've already managed to secure some front wings from an incredibly nice guy in Yorkshire - Adam if you're reading this - you're a gent. Thank you
So to answer a couple of questions about the car, it is an early generation 1 ST not a GT, bit of a shame as the latter would've been even more desirable. Seemingly in its early days it was tweaked and upgraded in quite a few areas but spent most of it's time off the road judging by the 41k on the clock. As Wombat has correctly spotted the car was at some point fitted with the 2TG 1600 twincam engine - not a bad thing by any means. It also had the honeycomb grill and a whole host of GT badges added. The good news is that most of the changed trim parts were in the boot and on the back seat, including some rather tricky to find bits.
Pretty obviously from the pics you'll see it was also painted red, I believe from yellow originally but I still need to confirm this. Whether it goes back to looking similar to this one I'm undecided on still:
2TG is a MUCH better engine than the 2T/2TB So to answer a couple of questions about the car, it is an early generation 1 ST not a GT, bit of a shame as the latter would've been even more desirable. Seemingly in its early days it was tweaked and upgraded in quite a few areas but spent most of it's time off the road judging by the 41k on the clock. As Wombat has correctly spotted the car was at some point fitted with the 2TG 1600 twincam engine - not a bad thing by any means. It also had the honeycomb grill and a whole host of GT badges added. The good news is that most of the changed trim parts were in the boot and on the back seat, including some rather tricky to find bits.
Pretty obviously from the pics you'll see it was also painted red, I believe from yellow originally but I still need to confirm this. Whether it goes back to looking similar to this one I'm undecided on still:
120hp out of a 1600 in 1973/4 was no mean feat. It was nt too difficult to get it up towards 140+ either. It will go much better with some electronic ignition & a pair of webers on it though . Janspeed made a pretty good exhaust for these (inc tubular manifold) - but whether they would still have the patterns I don't knowIf it was an ST it probably doesn't have the LSD in it but that's not to say you couldn't find one somewhere. Has it got a 5 speed box? If you found a genuine pair of front wings you are a lucky man indeed. Those were as rare as hens teeth 15 years ago!
The absolute worst thing about these cars was the steering box - hateful, sloppy thing, but you'll get used to it :-)
Thanks Nick, some great photos.
You'll not be surprised to hear I've had a few offers along those lines already and it's not even close to started let alone finished
You've reminded me though, there are some great photo's from the PO from back in the 80's when they were messing about with the car so will try and get them scanned and added - they make for some interesting viewing from a health and safety perspective!
You'll not be surprised to hear I've had a few offers along those lines already and it's not even close to started let alone finished
You've reminded me though, there are some great photo's from the PO from back in the 80's when they were messing about with the car so will try and get them scanned and added - they make for some interesting viewing from a health and safety perspective!
Nice little project. If the end result looks like the blue car you'll be onto a winner.
I assume you saw the recent Jay Leno Garage video of one of these?
Link -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqzhfjbnXg0
I assume you saw the recent Jay Leno Garage video of one of these?
Link -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqzhfjbnXg0
So on with the first major update from this weekends investigations. You may want to get a cup of tea at this point as there are quite a few pics! 
Needless to say I was rather looking forward to having a proper nosey around the car to see exactly what I had on my hands. First things first - got the call to say these had been collected
Just need to find some time to venture north and collect them myself.
So onto the car itself... as to be expected there are good bits.. and there are definitely bad bits... Lets start with the positives! Interior is pretty much complete, asides the two things that slip into the centre console (any ideas what they are? - coin holder/tray perhaps?). Those of you who are eagled eyed will also notice the one missing radio button... this was found in the glove box. Also in the pic which answers an earlier question - it has a 5 speed box.
I've also previously mentioned that the car came with a whole host of stuff just chucked in it, both on the back seat and in the boot - time to see what was contained within. Firstly the bag missing from a post office somewhere...
Nothing too exciting on first inspection:
But there was more, the 90's bag design giving away when things were last touched,
Which also revealed a whole manner of trinkets as well as some spare vinyl and tape:
There was also a piece of trim and front grill:
The really interesting bit however appeared at the bottom:
Which contained a couple of rallying articles, some cards of garages previously involved with the car and ....a four page diary of the PO
. This explained how the car was bought (speculative enquiry) and his belief that it was one of the 200 GTs imported in early 1974 to support Toyota's rallying efforts (if anyone can enlighten me on this bit it'd be appreciated). More on that in a bit though...
So what about the boot? Well suffice to say another mess awaited me:
Never a bad thing to find ( think...):
Along with this little lot (yes more mirrors) 3 centre caps (always the way!) a couple of spare headlights, car aerial and a load of old seat belts.
All in good condition protected by the liberal application of aforementioned waxoyl... it's everywhere!
So what about the outside? this is possibly the not so positive aspect... I'll let the pics do the talking but it's definitely had work done in the past and suffice to say it needs some love again:
Sills already been done
Underneath looks ok
Front splitter has definitely seen better days
as has the bootlid:
So did it start?! Well in a word no. A simple 'click' could be heard and nothing else, that would've been far too easy. My suspicion is that the solenoid has seen better days and needs attention, more to follow when I break out the sockets.
However while I had the battery hooked up I thought I'd see how may bulbs were in working order - surprisingly quite a few it turns out, all hazards working, front and rear lights, interior lights, dash lights and the clock also sprang to life with a very confident ticking
So there we are... well almost. I mentioned above about the previous owner thinking that the car was an early imported GT, he subsequently wrote to the Toyota Enthusiasts Club to clarify this with chassis number etc. They kindly replied as the below pic shows in 1996, listing a whole host of ways to identify whether the car was a GT and not an ST... you can just see the highlights and ticks where the car matches up to certain characteristics.
Subsequently I think that only added to the confusion... if an ST as suspected then somebody obviously went through a lot of effort at some point. More head scratching to follow I'm sure.
If you've made it this far - congratulations! Feel free to post any queries and observations, I'm learning on this car as I go so thoughts very much welcome.
Cheers, Sam
PS. I've now started photographing some of the old pictures that came with the car will add them up shortly for posterity.
Needless to say I was rather looking forward to having a proper nosey around the car to see exactly what I had on my hands. First things first - got the call to say these had been collected
Just need to find some time to venture north and collect them myself.
So onto the car itself... as to be expected there are good bits.. and there are definitely bad bits... Lets start with the positives! Interior is pretty much complete, asides the two things that slip into the centre console (any ideas what they are? - coin holder/tray perhaps?). Those of you who are eagled eyed will also notice the one missing radio button... this was found in the glove box. Also in the pic which answers an earlier question - it has a 5 speed box.
I've also previously mentioned that the car came with a whole host of stuff just chucked in it, both on the back seat and in the boot - time to see what was contained within. Firstly the bag missing from a post office somewhere...
Nothing too exciting on first inspection:
But there was more, the 90's bag design giving away when things were last touched,
Which also revealed a whole manner of trinkets as well as some spare vinyl and tape:
There was also a piece of trim and front grill:
The really interesting bit however appeared at the bottom:
Which contained a couple of rallying articles, some cards of garages previously involved with the car and ....a four page diary of the PO
. This explained how the car was bought (speculative enquiry) and his belief that it was one of the 200 GTs imported in early 1974 to support Toyota's rallying efforts (if anyone can enlighten me on this bit it'd be appreciated). More on that in a bit though...So what about the boot? Well suffice to say another mess awaited me:
Never a bad thing to find ( think...):
Along with this little lot (yes more mirrors) 3 centre caps (always the way!) a couple of spare headlights, car aerial and a load of old seat belts.
All in good condition protected by the liberal application of aforementioned waxoyl... it's everywhere!
So what about the outside? this is possibly the not so positive aspect... I'll let the pics do the talking but it's definitely had work done in the past and suffice to say it needs some love again:
Sills already been done
Underneath looks ok
Front splitter has definitely seen better days
as has the bootlid:
So did it start?! Well in a word no. A simple 'click' could be heard and nothing else, that would've been far too easy
. My suspicion is that the solenoid has seen better days and needs attention, more to follow when I break out the sockets. However while I had the battery hooked up I thought I'd see how may bulbs were in working order - surprisingly quite a few it turns out, all hazards working, front and rear lights, interior lights, dash lights and the clock also sprang to life with a very confident ticking
So there we are... well almost. I mentioned above about the previous owner thinking that the car was an early imported GT, he subsequently wrote to the Toyota Enthusiasts Club to clarify this with chassis number etc. They kindly replied as the below pic shows in 1996, listing a whole host of ways to identify whether the car was a GT and not an ST... you can just see the highlights and ticks where the car matches up to certain characteristics.
Subsequently I think that only added to the confusion... if an ST as suspected then somebody obviously went through a lot of effort at some point. More head scratching to follow I'm sure.
If you've made it this far - congratulations! Feel free to post any queries and observations, I'm learning on this car as I go so thoughts very much welcome.
Cheers, Sam
PS. I've now started photographing some of the old pictures that came with the car will add them up shortly for posterity.
If it hasn't got a limited slip diff its very unlikely to be an original GT IMO.
AFAIK you can tell fairly quickly if you jack the thing up under the diff & then spin a rear wheel. If the other wheel spins in the same direction its an LSD, if it turns in the opposite direction its not.
You can jack the rear of these cars up under the diff but don't jack the front by the front X-member - not a good idea.
Also I don't think the dash & steering wheel in your car are GT parts. The GT wheel was leather & as far as I recall the GT dash was kind of silver grey rather than the veneer look.
That piece of "trim" you have pictured below the radiator grill picture (sitting on the bonnet) goes n the boot floor behind the LH rear heel arch.
As far as I know GT's were only white or bronze coloured so it might be worth taking some sandpaper to somewhere on the body & seeing if there is anything underneath the red.
I did see a red ST-GT conversion once at a garage in Huddersfield run by a bloke called Peter Ripley (dead now
) He did a load of work on my car & one of the lads that worked for him had a Red ST that had GT bits on it. I think the engine in it was quite well sorted. I seem to recall the bonnet vents on that were pained black too.
AFAIK you can tell fairly quickly if you jack the thing up under the diff & then spin a rear wheel. If the other wheel spins in the same direction its an LSD, if it turns in the opposite direction its not.
You can jack the rear of these cars up under the diff but don't jack the front by the front X-member - not a good idea.
Also I don't think the dash & steering wheel in your car are GT parts. The GT wheel was leather & as far as I recall the GT dash was kind of silver grey rather than the veneer look.
That piece of "trim" you have pictured below the radiator grill picture (sitting on the bonnet) goes n the boot floor behind the LH rear heel arch.
As far as I know GT's were only white or bronze coloured so it might be worth taking some sandpaper to somewhere on the body & seeing if there is anything underneath the red.
I did see a red ST-GT conversion once at a garage in Huddersfield run by a bloke called Peter Ripley (dead now
) He did a load of work on my car & one of the lads that worked for him had a Red ST that had GT bits on it. I think the engine in it was quite well sorted. I seem to recall the bonnet vents on that were pained black too. Edited by Wombat3 on Monday 28th September 15:07
Thanks Wombat.
Like you I'm certain it's an ST that's been upgraded, just thought it'd be good to include the PO's musings as he sought to find out the same. Another clue are the pockets on the seat backs Which the GT came without.
Ahhh excellent bit of info on the piece of trim. I know exactly where you mean. Sadly there didn't seem to be any tools in there when I looked but considering everything else I found it's not the end of the world.
Like you I'm certain it's an ST that's been upgraded, just thought it'd be good to include the PO's musings as he sought to find out the same. Another clue are the pockets on the seat backs Which the GT came without.
Ahhh excellent bit of info on the piece of trim. I know exactly where you mean. Sadly there didn't seem to be any tools in there when I looked but considering everything else I found it's not the end of the world.
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