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Restore or start over? Advice please :)


Ibeef

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Hi All,

I'm looking for some advice about what to do with my car situation. I bought my celica around three and a half years ago, its a lagoon blue Vvti and had 29,000 miles on the clock and was immaculate. I was so chuffed because I had wanted one of these cars for such a long time.

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Any way for the past three years I've been a bit too busy to give my car the care and attention it needs. I've been studying for a part-time degree, working all hours and in my spare time trying to sort my house out. Mechanically my car is sound and I have always kept it serviced and replaced anything that needs doing.

Here's where I hope you all go easy on me, aesthetically my car is in a poor state. Over the past three years I have bumped my rear bumper, the lacquer on my spoiler peeled off, which resulted in it being removed (I've heard this is quite common), my rims are corroded to hell and a few are buckled (not sure if this was me or the previous owner, but they've always balanced out), my paint work is looking tired and has horrible swirl marks from a failed t-cut restore effort as you can see:

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The state of my car really saddens me as I know it's my fault and I love my car. It's been so reliable and tbh for the prices these cars go for, I don't think you can go wrong with them, they look smart and handle like a dream. My question is basically, is it worth putting money into this car to bring it back to its former glory? As I know that its got no issues mechanically and only done 56,000 miles! Or do I cut my losses and buy a lowish mileage T-sport (I wanted a 190 but couldn't afford to insure one at the time), start from scratch and make that into how I want my celica to be?

I've been tempted to buy a rotary polisher and some expensive compound and cloths to rejuvenate the paint work and hopefully make it better which is my biggest worry. My main plans would be:

- Restore the paint

-New rims, I've always been a huge fan of the 17" 6-spoke alloys that came with some celicas or maybe T-sport alloys. - This was always a plan as I hate the 16" standard alloys that come with most vvti's

- Eibach lowering springs

- Second hand rear bumper (They tend to be cheaper than the cost of a respray)

- A new spoiler (Again I've been quoted around £200 for a respray and they go cheaper on Ebay.)

- T-sport leather seats

- A nice double din head unit

- A nice sounding exhaust system (Not too loud)

So basically do you think the paint work is re storable or is it too far gone? Should I get a t-sport or should I keep this my current Vvti and make her great again? There is no question that I want to keep driving a Toyota Celica. I think keeping mine would be cheaper but I'm not sure.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading, any advice is welcomed.

Edited by Ibeef
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If you are still looking for a 190 mate, mine is like brand new with only 32k on the clock. The GT is up for sale. I didn't really want a part ex but can do a deal as I will soon need an every day car :-)

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If you are still looking for a 190 mate, mine is like brand new with only 32k on the clock. The GT is up for sale. I didn't really want a part ex but can do a deal as I will soon need an every day car :-)

I've seen your GT mate, very nice indeed! I'm not sure if I could afford it though tbh, if I was going to get a 190 I wasn't looking to take out a huge loan. It depends ultimately what kind of deal we could strike.

I'd get rid and get a 190, miles more fun and cheap.

That is the way I'm swaying, the main thing that makes me want to restore this is that it doesn't owe me a penny any more.

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If mechanically it's good, I would stick with it, a few years ago now, I tried to get a good one for my cousin, and it took 6 months to find a genuine descent low mileage one. The situation has got worse, unless your willing to spend £4500 upwards

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If mechanically it's good, I would stick with it, a few years ago now, I tried to get a good one for my cousin, and it took 6 months to find a genuine descent low mileage one. The situation has got worse, unless your willing to spend £4500 upwards

Its never let me down, it has a full service history and tbh runs really well. That's why part of me wants to keep it. Sometimes its better to stick with what you know than what you don't. I've seen some nice T-sports for 4-5k and some GTs for more, depending on how much I could get for this I might be tempted. If I do decide to keep it, then I'll probably be heading your way with a bit of a shopping list.

Mate, the car may not owe you nothing, but you owe the car. Sort it out!

I know its terrible, I really want to! Do you think the paint can be restored to its former glory? That's the biggest hesitation I have about it.

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Yes you can restore the paint I did mine you need a buffer and a good compound paste like G3 or Meguiars Ultimate compound if you need a buffer I have a full kit with pads etc

Edited by brig
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If you are still looking for a 190 mate, mine is like brand new with only 32k on the clock. The GT is up for sale. I didn't really want a part ex but can do a deal as I will soon need an every day car :-)

cleanest and most pampered GT ive even had the pleasure of seeing B) Desy kept it to a very very high standard and Darren has done the same. worth every penny

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As above mate, the 140 is a great car. And if it owes you no money then show her some love, im into my 6th yr ownership of mine and love it to bits, paint can be sorted, and if not a good respray would be much cheeper tgan shelling out 4k on something else that u dont know, wheels are easy to replace aswell.

Look after her and you will reep the benefits, genuine low miles are rare.

Keep the faith buddy.

I am, for more than ways than one.

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Yes you can restore the paint I did mine you need a buffer and a good compound paste like G3 or Meguiars Ultimate compound if you need a buffer I have a full kit with pads etc

What have you got and how much do you want for them?

cleanest and most pampered GT ive even had the pleasure of seeing B) Desy kept it to a very very high standard and Darren has done the same. worth every penny

I don't doubt it, I've seen it in the for sale section and it is a beaut! Like I said I don't know if I want to take loan out atm.

Be careful using G3 - if you don't know what your doing you could make it a lot worse

Thanks for the pointer, I'll try and get a bit of practice first before I let loose on my celica.

As above mate, the 140 is a great car. And if it owes you no money then show her some love, im into my 6th yr ownership of mine and love it to bits, paint can be sorted, and if not a good respray would be much cheeper tgan shelling out 4k on something else that u dont know, wheels are easy to replace aswell.

Look after her and you will reep the benefits, genuine low miles are rare.

Keep the faith buddy.

I am, for more than ways than one.

I do like my 140 and tbh it is quick enough for me, I've never found myself wishing it was quicker. I know what you mean, in reality I was hoping I could run it well over 100k which is why I splashed out on a low mileage one when I got it. I thought something like T-sport would be easier because it comes with a lot of what I want already. That being said, as you mentioned getting those upgrades won't cost me 4k and I won't get much for mine as it stands. Stuff like the alloys etc don't bother me, I'm pretty mechanically minded and can fix or fit most things and have experience with working on cars. The paint was my biggest worry as I didn't want to put a lot of money into it for it to still look faded and flat. I've watched a few youtube videos on swirl and oxidisation removal and I'm tempted to give it a go. If I can get the paint sorted out it will motivate me to put some real time into this car, especially now that I have a bit more time too.

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Sounds good mate

Ive recently been upgrading mine.

Tsport leather seats

Tsport back box, nicr sound

Some nice bits flocked inside

And a nice set of dials of mooks ltd edition of mondo.

Other bits on old at moment but thats a different story. And i dont want to bring this into your thread

But u can do a lot to your 140 to personalise it and modenise without spending huge amounts

Keep the faith mate.

They are worth it

By the way mines on106000 at moment

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Sounds good mate

Ive recently been upgrading mine.

Tsport leather seats

Tsport back box, nicr sound

Some nice bits flocked inside

And a nice set of dials of mooks ltd edition of mondo.

Other bits on old at moment but thats a different story. And i dont want to bring this into your thread

But u can do a lot to your 140 to personalise it and modenise without spending huge amounts

Keep the faith mate.

They are worth it

By the way mines on106000 at moment

Yeah 100%, I did put the dynamic side skirts on myself which made a huge difference. T-sport seats are deffo on the list (As rare as they are) and some nice 17's I love these ones:

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But they seem to go for alot or they're cash on collection and 300 something miles away! I also like the T-sport alloys too and they seem to be a little more common.

If I can bring the paintwork back to life then I think new shoes, spoiler and Eibachs will be on the shopping list to start off with. I'm sorry to hear that yours is on hold at the minute, it sounds like you've already made some good improvements to it though :). My last exam ever is next Friday!! Cannot wait, so I think I will get a polisher, pads, compounds etc. and some chipex and just spend the whole weekend bringing her back to life and take it from there.

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I'd definitely go for sorting the paint, if the cars been nothing but good to you it'd be bad karma (boom boom) to get rid. I've heard that the fondmetal t sport alloys buckle very easily so I'd go for the 6 spoke ones. I had them on my car with no dramas.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

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Sounds like a plan mate.

It does indeed! We'll see how it goes, I'll get the gear ordered this week.

I'd definitely go for sorting the paint, if the cars been nothing but good to you it'd be bad karma (boom boom) to get rid. I've heard that the fondmetal t sport alloys buckle very easily so I'd go for the 6 spoke ones. I had them on my car with no dramas.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

I've decided to do just that, you hit the nail right on the head plus I know roughly what it's had done to it. I prefer the 6 spoke alloys anyway, just going to keep an eye out for a nice pair, I want to spray them (I'm thinking white) before I fit them. I ultimately would love a set of the Wolfrace Asia Tec JDMs, but tbh I can't justify splashing that kind of money out when I need to do other things with the car too.

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my trusted bodyshop guys use these three 3m products

50417 3M Perfect-It™ III Fast Cut Plus Compound - 1 bottle, 1 kg

80349 3M Perfect-It™ III Extra Fine - 1 bottle, 1 litre

80345 3M Perfect-It™ III Polish Rosa - 1 bottle, 1 litre

They are expensive though (price range of £27 -£37/each)

They are designed for machine polisher use (but this doesn't exclude using them by hand).

As said before be careful with any cutting compounds and machine polishers,read the instructions (yeah, i know!), it's easy to cut through the paint or "burn" the paint if you concentrate in just one area

With the 3m stuff I would start with the polish, see what that leaves you with, then work backwards to the "Fast Cut" where required.

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my trusted bodyshop guys use these three 3m products

50417 3M Perfect-It™ III Fast Cut Plus Compound - 1 bottle, 1 kg

80349 3M Perfect-It™ III Extra Fine - 1 bottle, 1 litre

80345 3M Perfect-It™ III Polish Rosa - 1 bottle, 1 litre

They are expensive though (price range of £27 -£37/each)

They are designed for machine polisher use (but this doesn't exclude using them by hand).

As said before be careful with any cutting compounds and machine polishers,read the instructions (yeah, i know!), it's easy to cut through the paint or "burn" the paint if you concentrate in just one area

With the 3m stuff I would start with the polish, see what that leaves you with, then work backwards to the "Fast Cut" where required.

Thanks man, I'll have a look at them. This whole detailing thing is quite new to me but I think it will be really rewarding in the end.

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