Got lots of work done on the car over the last few weeks, between bad weather and giging!
Hope your all up for lots of photos haha.
First of all, i replaced the front crash bar because it was badly dented and rusted to shit!! so i got one from the scrap yard, cleaned it up and swapped it over.
Old bar
Badly rusted especially in the corners
Took it off very carefully to avoid breaking any rusted bolts in two!!
New bar on
Covered it up to protect from rusting!
Next i started changing over the Corolla gear linkages to Celica ones and i also installed the new short shifter. This needed a bit of head scratching and modification to work
Corolla linkages
Detached the Corolla linkages from the gear stick first. Removed cotter pin and unbolted the gear stick from the chassi.
Removed second cotter pin from the linkage under the gear stick.
Removed 2 brackets holding the linkages in place
Laid both Corolla linkages and Celica linkages side by side to see the length difference. Gave the gear stick area a clean and then fed the Celica linkages through the holes on the firewall, using the Corolla linkage bracket and rubber to hold them in.
I left it to go and start on the short shifter then fit the whole lot together.
Tapped out the pin first, then the lever arm and washer.
Top plastic piece comes off, followed by the round plastic piece that acts as a kind of washer.
Old gear stick and new shortshifter. The small round plastic pieces on the corolla gear stick had to be modified a bit to fit the short shifter, as the rounded metal parts on the shortshifter were slightly bigger, so i heated the plastic parts and forced them onto the shortshifter, then sanded and rounded the plastic pieces with sandpaper to make them thinner so they would fit back into the metal lever arm in the plastic gearstick housing. The photos will speak for themselves haha.
Thats the side one done!
Second plastic piece (fits the bottom of the shortshifter)
Sanded down…
Re-fitted gear stick housing with new shortshifter and Celica gear linkages.
As the bottom of the new shortshifter is a bit longer than the standard Corolla gear stick, i had to raise the gear stick housing a bit with washers to both raise it to give the bottom some clearance and to level the housing too. I put about 4 washers at the back bolts and about 2 at the front.
All thats left with this is to modify the linkage brackets as the Corolla ones don't hold the Celica linkages in place too well. Different size.
I had two spare brackets left over, so i cut them both in half and forced them in behind the existing ones to wedge them in place and hold the linkages in place. they just need a bit of weld and they are good to go.
There is a noticeable difference in the shortshifter, even tho i haven't driven it yet, from playing about with it, there is a quick change in moving from 2nd to 3rd and 4th to 5th!
Next, i replaced the Corolla accelerator cable with the longer Celica one. This was simple to do, after sticking my nose right up to the pedal to see how it fits through!
Corolla cable
Clips out easy enough
Again, placed the Corolla cable along with the Celica cable for size difference. Its a good bit longer.
I swapped over some of the Corolla bits on the cable to the Celica cable, and had to do a little bit of modifications to the plastic bracket that bolts in behind the pedal.
In she goes.
Done
Easy enough job, just feeding the newer cable in through the firewall
New accelerator cable.
Got my hands on a power hose and gave the engine bay a good blast and scrub
Before…
After…
Next, i did some small mod work on the Celica charcoal filter bracket to make it fit the existing bolt holes on the chassi. Just drilled a hole in it
Gave one of the other brackets a paint job with high temperature paint.
Installed
Used an old Corolla fuel hose to connect the Celica charcoal filter to the Corolla fuel lines.
Before…
After…
Next job, i gave the heater box a clean, and installed it, along with the Beams ECU, that i previously mounted to the Corolla ECU bracket, and i installed the crash bar behind the dash and bolted the steering column back onto it
I also took the front and rear Corolla gearbox mount brackets off the Corolla gearbox, for use on the beams engine later. I had trouble with one of the bolts on the rear gearbox mount bracket. It was worn down pretty bad, so i got the other two bolts off, and hit the mount bracket with a hammer, intending to twist it around so it would loosen the bolt! That didn't work. I broke a large metal piece clean off the gearbox!! Anyone want a corolla gearbox?? haha
Front Corolla gearbox bracket
Rear Corolla gearbox mount
Woops!!
Next job, I did some work on the Rav 4 mount im using for the timing belt side. Just needed to widen the bolt holes slightly so they line up with the chassi. Then i cut off the top bracket form the Corolla mount and fit it to the Rav 4 mount so it will be good and strong to support the heavier engine (thats smart think'n that is!!
) il get it welded on properly later. (Thats gonna be a fun day!! Come see a musician playing with a welder haha ) For now im just doing the cutting and fitting parts!
Holes widened slightly
Used this handy drill bit i picked up in Aldi ages ago for grinding away metal for holes!
Holes line up perfectly
Temporarily bolted in
Old Corolla timing belt side mount
Cut off bracket
Then cut off Rav 4 bracket as its not needed
Grinded metal down flat and smooth
Re-fitted and mocked up Corolla mount bracket, then drew a semi circle with a marker on the Corolla bracket to fit it to the shape of the Rav 4 mount
Cut out the shape and refit it. Ready for welding
Then the last thing i did for today was mock fit the Celica rad and cut off the Corolla rad mounts to make way for new ones. The Celica rad will have to be dropped a few inches as the top interferes with the bonnet!
Mock fitted Celica rad
inside the engine bay with the bonnet closed. You can see how close the top of the rad is to the bonnet. Just about cleared!! That'l do. The neighbors were shocked to see two legs sticking out from under the car while i took this pic haha
Here is the state of the rubbers and brackets from the Corolla when i pulled them off. Only one of the brackets was bolted on, the other was welded, so i had to cut it off and do some grinding too. (Any excuse really to use the grinder haha)
this is inside the engine bay looking out front. I took off the right side rad mount, cut two slots in the metal, and flattened it down with a hammer to give a flat surface for new fabricated mounts im going to get some unsuspecting friend to make!
Now to do the left side
Cut off bracket
Wrestled with the welded metal bits for ages with the grinder. Eventually cut them off and grinded down the metal, with strange smells of singed hair in the air!
Left overs!
Well thats it for today. I did promise lots of photos so hope this helps people. Starting to get into it now. The rear brakes arrive next week. Once the master cylinder is in, and a few small jobs in the engine bay are done, then in goes the engine, wiring and… hopefully, fingers crossed, she starts
more updates soon!!
Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:39 am by jorpakko
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