Tanner’s Space

My time working on the celi has been an extremely helpful learning experience in many ways, and it continues to evolve as I get older. It’s surprising to think back to what was important for me to modify in my early days. Sidemarker lights, headlamp bulbs, all exterior stuff pretty much. Not many good performance parts were available besides the common intake, header, exhaust combos.

I used to enjoy wild and agressive looking cars, even went as far as to buy the first Veilside kit for the celica (it was a replica, BIG mistake!!). I put on a set of flashy tuner rims, an exhaust, an intake, and called it a day.

Then, one day the fitment problems on that kit started to bother me. Whichever day this was is definitely the beginning of me turning into a perfectionist about my mods. All of the sudden things were not just about “get it in there and working” it was about “get it installed PERFECTLY”.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was still being very picky about the fitment and finish of things on the car. I sold the veilside kit and bought a JP Co. Vizage kit. It was a lip kit, attached to the factory bumpers and therefore was almost guaranteed to fit 1000% better than the current setup. Things were better. Still was making small shortcuts here and there on the car but most importantly I was doing extra amounts of research before attempting anything.

Sometime in 2008 I decided that I was unhappy again with the car. I decided that, and this is important, “nothing should be messed with unless it has definitive benefits” and “I should not mess with anything unless I am taking the time to do it properly, even if that means waiting for more expensive parts”. I sourced a TRD kit and installed it. It fit SO nicely. What else should I expect from a factory part though?

So, keeping with that spirit, my two newest additions for my celica parts are a full factory interior from a 2004 celi and a set of OEM GT-S wheels. I keep damaging and flat-spotting my cheap rims so I am going back to what worked before. I keep repainting my interior so I am swapping it out and shouldn’t ever have to touch that crap again.

While the interior is halfway disassembled any extra wiring from my modding over the years is being taken out. Also, now that I know a bit more about running stereo wiring I am doing some cable rerouting to avoid cable crosstalk. I am also pulling any wiring associated with “neons” or interior lighting that was not factory.

I hope to have the car back to a more stock’ish look and feel quite soon. Once I get there then I will begin installing my new DD Manifold and making some power out of this PFC tune.

Maybe some others have had a change of taste and attitude towards modding as the years have passed with your celica. I feel that if I had prior experience modding a car I might know what to do and not to do. I would probably have taken a different path. If you had it all to do over again would you do your mods differently? Or would you never even begin modding? Would you even buy the celica?

Uncategorized Celica, maturing, maturity, modding, mods, upgrades

This weekend I drove down to S. Atlanta to pick parts from a junkyard celica. I grabbed a full interior and stopped in for a set of factory wheels on my way home somewhere in N. Atlanta.

I have started to slowly change over the interior parts. The dash will take a while to complete, I anticipate. I will post pics after I have swapped it all over.

The tires will not be going onto the car for a while, I must save for a new set of tires for them. Also, one of them is curbed badly so I would like to grab one replacement.

So, you might be wondering why I bought this stuff that I have already “messed with” on my car. A long time ago I painted my purple/grey factory interior with some black paint and it looked good for quite some time but eventually as paint chipped away and collected dirt/dust on the clear coat it looked bad. The only way to darken my interior was to pick up the darker shade of interior that was introduced in the 2003 Celica model year.
Plus, if I ever sell the car, I can’t sell it with a paint chipping interior. It would give the immediate impression to the future buyer that a lot of shortcuts were taken when modding the car and would probably make them walk away. So, no matter how I look at it I see a win/win.

Ok, so why the FACTORY rims? Don’t you have 17″s?
.. Yeah I do, but what I have learned over the years is no matter how “cool” a set of rims looks unless they are FORGED wheels then they will not be strong enough to handle daily road conditions. Also, most times aftermarket wheels are heavier.
I really do want myself a set of some WORK, PIAA, 5Zigen, etc wheels one day since they are FORGED and lightweight, but they are $2000 a set roughly. I can’t afford that anytime soon.

Uncategorized 03 interior, Celica, gt-s wheels, upgrades

I can’t help but want to drastically change the outside of my car. Here’s how I see it.. why not? I’ve done everything to my car in the sake of learning. My next topic on the list is paint and prep-work. I know how to do minor body work, I’m sure I could still use a lot of help in that department too.  And i’m not saying i’m going to paint my car myself. But I hate having a barrier in my way of my curiousity.  I know I should just be happy with my authentic TRD kit. Especially now that I know how to fix the minor damage it has. But recent stirrings in the celica community have sparked my interest.

The beautiful and extremely rare Molly Designs bodykit has been gone from the market for years and the resell value of the remaining few are through the roof.  Kaminari USA bought the rights to reproduce the front bumper lip and they can’t keep up with demand.  Here soon there will be another release from that kit (another company though), the sideskirts.  The only remaining piece to be found or made would be the rear lip.  I always wanted this kit and even passed up the pre-painted last inventory they had. $850 dollars shipped for a pre-painted kit that would snap right into the factory clips on the bumpers.  I’m a damn fool for not buying into that, even when the red ones ran out.  Because I spent twice that much on the fiberglass nightmare of a replica kit from VIS and the JP Co. Vizage Lip Kit over the course of time.  And in the end I still sold both those for the TRD kit.

Here lately I have really wanted the Trial bodykit but I never wanted to wait 3 months for it and pay $2200 dollars shipped for it.  Now that there is a replica kit on the market I have reconsidered this venture, it’s much cheaper this time around. It makes the car look really aggressive though, and these days I tend to enjoy blending in. I also got a semi bad review from a owner of the replica kit and I worry I might be throwing away my money.

Whether I get a new kit, or fix and repaint my old one. I need to do something. I’ve been really lazy lately and if I get my new intake manifold in I don’t want to have my car looking like crap.  I still have lots of dents to work out though :(, oh well. I’ll perfect my skill in the process.

I’ve gotta come back and add pics

Celica Celica, confused, exterior, molly, trial

I’m happy to report that I was lucky enough to get in on the first batch of custom intake manifolds for the 2zz engine from DD Performance Research. This is no normal manifold, on the factory engine control unit it made 30whp all over and 50 on the top end.

Here’s dyno’s to back that up: http://www.controlledinertia.com/Portals/0/396/Stock%20ECU-%20DD%20prototype%20vs%20stock%20intake%20manifold.jpg

That test car has many of the mods I already have for my car waiting for install. The ones that I do not have, I will be buying.

I’m trying to pick up a Injen CAI locally so I hope it does not fall through because they are expensive retail. I have a Q45 Throttle body for the new manifold in the mail. I have the ported OEM exhaust manifold awaiting install. Now all I need is the manifold to arrive :). 45-90 days away though.

30/50hp on the factory ECU is a ridiculous increase, and that’s not crank horsepower. I have the option of pulling even more out of it because I have the PowerFC engine controller. I finally got all the accessories for the PowerFC I just now need to buy a wideband o2 sensor and gauge, and a set of 440cc Lotus Exige S injectors. I don’t even have to get the injectors, I can stick with the 330cc ones.

But what sucks is that the 440cc injectors won’t work on the factory ECU with out major problems, so I won’t be able to keep those in when it comes time for the safety check and emissions test each year.

Celica Celica, DD Performance Research, Newcelica