I opened up the hole I had cut in the tunnel and got the cover all buttoned up. Need a suitable CV boot or something for it yet.

A little bit more room behind the engine. You can see in the first pic where the heater hose outlet had scraped the firewall. I bought a slimline aftermarket piece from Sam at SQ which probably would have solved the issue, but now it's REALLY solved.

Thanks Peter, it's nice to be able to put some time into it again.

This looks more dramatic than it is. The last bit of rust is the boot floor lip where it joins the rear panel. This photo is from a while back, the panel itself has been patched, will start replacing the lip soon then put the rear panel back on. The boot floor/spare wheel well is clean, though the bit under the jack bracket was rooted so I cut it out and patched it some time ago.

Good old boat primer.

I'm thinking about tie-down strap eyes for the spare and somewhere to put a jack. Battery will probably be in the boot.

9 days later

This is the same car under a previous owner in 2005 http://forums.toymods.org.au/index.php?t=msg&th=79947&&pl_view=&start=0#msg_832769 Strange to see it as a whole car.

I don't think the Corolla throttles had ever been cleaned.

a month later

Painted the block and gave her a new timing belt this break. Amazing how much shit comes off a fairly clean engine.

2 months later

Vinegar dipped, acid etched, primed, painted and baked the exhaust headers.

Alternator from an Echo plus fancy bracket.

This is the last rusty bit. It'll be nice to have rust repairs completed.

Stripped the spare wheel well and filled a pointless drain hole. The boot will be stripped and painted with KBS to stop any rust occurring, then topcoated. I'm considering 3x corolla door strikers welded around the well as tie-down points for the spare. Thoughts?

Rust repairs feel like a never ending trudge

Corolla door strikers aren’t too clunky?

What about adapting a centre bolt hold down like a lot of older Mazdas use?

It did have a centre bolt bracket which had rusted-out spot welds (same as the jack bracket) so it was removed. The door strikers aren’t huge, and probably stronger than anything I could make. Stolen from GFs car to see how they might look.

24 days later

Behold, the first and last engine bay I will ever strip.

9 days later

I wheeled it out and power-washed the shell inside and out using the degreaser then acid/rust killer. I’ll give it a couple of days drying in the shed under sheets before I hit the engine bay and boot with Rustseal.

Seam sealed and primed.

It's always wonderful to see a classic given a really thorough, quality overhaul.

Be that as it may, thank you for reminding me in this time of lockdown that I don't really want to start another project!

(I really understand the sentiment of your post "Behold, the first and last engine bay I will ever strip.")

Is it quality? I hope so, but I’m just winging this shit. It’s hard to know how far to take it, I want it to be a nice ride but I also want to drive it before I’m ancient. In any case, the Celica is cleaner and more rust-free than it has been since birth, so that can only be a good thing. If I bought another project I would be tempted to just fill it with fish oil, drive it and enjoy the ‘patina’!

Engine bay and boot in 2 coats of 2k grey. I left the rear panel off to paint the boot, bit easier to get at it. Will continue painting the interior when I score some more brushes.

a year later

Sheet metal surgery almost complete. She is now 0% rust.

Lights and bumper test fit went well, then primed and seam sealed. Pretty excited to put stuff back on, even if only to test fit.

2 years later

As someone who put 400+ hours into rust repairs on an RA28 - I feel your pain. It's nice when you get past the metalwork though :) - good job. The KBS stuff is great, and coincidentally I built a 240 diff for the one I was working on too ?

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