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?
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.