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.
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:
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.