So my kid is super into cars as I am. My mom wants to give him her old 2004 Celica GTS for his birthday in a few months as kind of something for him to work on, and save up to fix up. I’m for the idea, as he doesn’t have much drive despite him being a hard working kid. So far, he does work hard to make money but he wastes it on candy. He has the drive but not any goal. He loves cars and is into fixing them up. Granted, he’s not old enough to drive yet, but that’s the idea. Giving him a car that he can care for and fixing it up, while he has time to do work, and learn will give him something that will give him an idea of the value of money and work. He has the work ethic, he just needs the goals and value understanding.
My question is what should be the important things to work on first? I understand rust is an issue, it’s sat for maybe 6 years or so and has some body rust above the rear wheels. Beyond rust, is there something that’s a quick and easy upgrade? This will be something that will be presents for his birthday/Christmas for several years getting upgraded as he won’t be able to drive it for a few years. He has been asking about it for a few years and will want it to be comparative to my MX-5 that’s about to get supercharged. Hes such a hard working kid that loves cars enough that he might manage to make it faster than mine but I don’t know enough about Toyotas to know what should be done in what order so that he’s got a good ride when he’s able to drive it.
Any experienced Toyota people able to help?
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If it sat for 6 years then:
- Brake lines
- fuel injectors
- fuel hose
- fuel tank
- fuel pump
- vaccum lines
- soak combustion chamber with penetration oil, spin the engine until it’s primed, pray that the rings aren’t stuck.
- tires
The tires are fine, my mother got them and the wheels updated, but thanks for the rest. I’ll have to get it moving so that he can make it his own. His dream car is a 57chevy but we just don’t have the money for that yet.
In smaller light cars a teenager can have way more than enough fun without any power add.
Have him go through all the basic maintenance to start with- all fluid changes, brakes, filters. Get him to drive it a bit. Then do mild performance for handling and stability without adding power. Upgrade shocks, wider tires and decent wheels (make him do the calcs to figure out what wheels will work too), swaybars, chassis stiffening. He’ll discover the thrill of being able to send a corner harder (under your eye ofc) without additional power. Also better handling cars are safer and react faster to emergencies anyway.
I agree. He appreciates handling over power from his experience with my mx-5. He’s been there for corvettes, and WRXs. But hasn’t had the maintenance and driving work to really get the experience. I worry about it going further on his own.
The GTS is the one to have, with a high revving 180hp 2ZZ-GE engine. They are a joy to drive, I had a Civic with a similar B16 engine, but the downside is that era doesn’t have a lot of power gains available. Forced induction is not very safe unless you change the pistons to lower compression, while NA mods don’t usually net more than a dozen or two HP if I remember right
I mean, I drove that car back in the day and stock, it’s a fun car. But that was 20 years ago and I was driving a GTO at the time. I just want to make sure he gets it reliable and functional before anything else. Like, let’s get it like new before putting additional power to it. But yeah it’s got the action package with the ridiculous wing and all that.
Not specific to the Celica, but besides body work good places to start would be new fluids and filters, brake pads, headlight refresh, led upgrades, and then maybe tracking down any codes from his new OBD2 reader?
It does have an electrical drain somewhere.
Oh yeah that’ll keep him entertained for ages hah
That’s not a birthday present,
that’s a cursed ah present.That’s ignorant or at best privileged. My first car was a Pontiac firebird that needed constant work. The idea is that he can work on it to make it his own.
Not sure what you’re asking. Does the car have anything wrong with it?
If it’s been sitting for 6 years, the first thing to do would be to start swapping all the fluids and then drive it for a few months and see what shakes out.
It’s got an electrical drain on it. But otherwise it’s a good runner. Ive got a few years to get it running right for him, so I’m wondering what I’d need to look for to just make it reliable as a first car so that he could use his hard earned money to make it his.
I had a GTS of that generation. Without repeating what others listed already: Everything attached to the belt loop likes to start squeaking at some point. Tensioner especially, it’s been a long time but I recall the advice then was to buy after market tensioners because OEM was bad in this one case. You have to take the front bumper cover off to change headlight bulbs if you don’t have small hands. Not much room at all under the hood in general actually. Parts are cheap, they kept re-using that engine in Scion for years and years.
They’re also gutless engines with very little torque, easy to stall for a 1st timer if it’s a manual. Best to get some practice in on a quiet back road if that’s the case.
Get him some headlight case replacements if someone hasn’t already done that to the car… They got mega foggy from UV damage and this was in upper Canada with weak sunlight most often. So it’s a nice safety/looks combo.
Have an auto electrician trace the power drain then put a new battery in it.
Check the tyres haven’t expired, replace if needed.
Buy a workshop manual and replace the fluids. Put a bottle of at-205 in with the new oil.
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wastes it on candy
Man he must buy some expensive candy to compare it to the price of a maintaining a car.
Fixing up a over 20 year old car that has sat for years? Yeah that’s a fun project. If it’s his first project, expect it to take years. So you’ll have a broken down car in pieces and parts all over the place. If you (and your HOA) are ready for that to be the case, go for it.
But given the scope and duration of such a project, I wouldn’t think a young person would have the persistence to keep with it. It will be a major time and money sink for years, without any benefit if he can’t drive it even if it’s fixed to a drivable state.
Also check your local laws, where I live you can’t keep wrecks on public roads or within view of public roads. That means it would need a license plate (plus the associated taxes/fee if applicable) and insurance. And where I live you can’t get that until it passes inspection, which can be rather hard with such an old car if it’s in the state of being fixed up.
If you have a large indoor garage/workshop where you can keep the car and all the parts, it does sound like a dream project for a young person interested in cars. It would really be helpful if you know someone who has experience fixing up cars, they can guide your son and tell him what to work on next. Then your son can work on it by himself for a week or two and then the person with experience can give him some guidance again.
If its sat for a few years, I’d look into changing some of the fluids. Fresh oil and filter, as well as at least check the condition of the brake fluid.
If it hasn’t been started at all in 6 years, i probably wouldn’t trust the gas thats in it not to gum up the fuel system if you run it for too long. Probably wanna change the fuel filter too.
If you’ve got jack stands or know someone with a lift, you’d probably at least wanna inspect the rubber bushings on the suspension components and see if they’re worn or brittle.
Never owned a Celica, and idk the mileage of yours, but when you do get it started, check if there’s any blueish smoke coming out the tailpipe on startup. I had a high mileage Camry and at least with those, the valve seals were known to go bad, causing the engine to burn oil.
