When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Here is restoration of my 1984 Toyota Tercel SR5 4x4 Station Wagon
So I didn't know where to put this due to this being one of the more obscure Toyotas out there so I decided on the pre 83 truck section because it is 4x4 and the car was released in 1982 and remained largely unchanged until it was discontinued in 1986.
I bought this beautiful machine off of my neighbor for only 400 dollars. I had my 82 4x4 truck for a while and learned all about the 4x4 Toyota history, at least I thought I did until I saw this awkward and spunky little oriental. (82 truck restoration. https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f197...estore-294447/) From the multiple shades of beige, the factory installed clinometer, to the 6 speed manual gear box with "low range" I knew I had to have this. When I got it, it had 219,000 miles on it and ran really well. Car was on non op so no back fees. I paid the registraion, transfer fees, and uhhh "tipped" my smog guy an extra 120 bucks for being able to miraculously get the car to pass California emissions with a failing cat. At the end of the day this beauty was legal and in my driveway for just shy of 600 bucks.
A little tech jargon about the car. The 4X4 variant of the tercel was only produced for a short time from 1983 till 1987. Toyota only made 45,000 of these 4x4 tercels wich was only a fraction of the over 300000 tercels made during the same period and while these cars were built touph and lasted a long time, they were used as work vehicles in the us being beaten and abused, and because of this there aren’t many left. The engine and drive train in this car are the same as the standard front wheel drive tercel. It has the same 1.5 liter 62hp inline 4, however the 4wd models have a transfer case of sorts mounted underneath the engine so when in 4wd it sends power to the rear axle taken from a corolla. Also the transmission has a 6th, extra low gear. Think of it as a transmission with .5 gear then the standard 1st through 5th gears. It also has a pair of clinometers to let you know how extreme your off-roading your tercel.
Ive done a lot work prior to posting about this car but its all documented on video in the link below. I will continue to post updates about the car as I do more so stay tuned cus this will be a fun one.
These 4WD Tercel wagons are quite interesting and pretty funky.
They always put a smile on my face when they drive by.
This car has been on my car "want" list for a while.
People always think it is weird when I talk about cars that I would love to own. Tesla? Cool, but nah. Bugatti Veyron? Nope. Ferrari 458? Meh. But a beat up 1980s Toyota Tercel? You bet!
Wild. Any plans to lift it or put different wheels and tires on it?
I don’t have any wild plans other then restoration and some mods for better drivability. It already has 14” rims and lower profile tires compared to the stock 13” rim, it’s not wise to go much further then what I have on it. It’s gonna get a Weber carb in the next few days, and that’s about it. Other wise it’s gonna be painted and just fixed up a bit In general all around
These 4WD Tercel wagons are quite interesting and pretty funky.
They always put a smile on my face when they drive by.
This car has been on my car "want" list for a while.
People always think it is weird when I talk about cars that I would love to own. Tesla? Cool, but nah. Bugatti Veyron? Nope. Ferrari 458? Meh. But a beat up 1980s Toyota Tercel? You bet!
I will be following along.
absolutely. My friends make fun of me for liking the cars I do
These are very cool vehicles! I have an '89 Corolla All Trac 4WD Sedan that is also relatively rare at only around 800 ever built worldwide. It's not much to look at and right now serves as my wife's long distance commuter.
However, once the 4AFE finally gives up the ghost (if it ever will give up) I'm transplanting a 4AGE into it that I pulled out of an MR2.
Really a fun car to drive and having only paid a few hundred to acquire it, it's already paid for itself a few times over in sheer fuel economy alone.
It'll get fresh paint this summer.
These are very cool vehicles! I have an '89 Corolla All Trac 4WD Sedan that is also relatively rare at only around 800 ever built worldwide. It's not much to look at and right now serves as my wife's long distance commuter.
However, once the 4AFE finally gives up the ghost (if it ever will give up) I'm transplanting a 4AGE into it that I pulled out of an MR2.
Really a fun car to drive and having only paid a few hundred to acquire it, it's already paid for itself a few times over in sheer fuel economy alone.
It'll get fresh paint this summer.
I just went on craigslist to see if I could find one of these in LA Its a keeper for sure. Awesome find man. Don't skimp on the paint job. If there is any rust on the body I recommend taking care of that yourself before taking it in for paint. Don't want a shop saying they took care of it and 5 years later you find out they didn't and it got worse. Also take photos of all the old logos and decals so you can have them remade if you want a full restoration after paint.
It is not often that I see a All-Trac sedan. I think the All-Trac wagons were more common.
I don't want to derail this thread too much, but here is my brother's Corolla Wagon that I am partly daily driving while he is away at college. It is an awesome little wagon, if I do say so myself!
It is not often that I see a All-Trac sedan. I think the All-Trac wagons were more common.
I don't want to derail this thread too much, but here is my brother's Corolla Wagon that I am partly daily driving while he is away at college. It is an awesome little wagon, if I do say so myself!
Y'all know what its time for, its weber time! The old carb and emissions crap is broken, gummed up, and just needs to be thrown in the bin. This 1.5 liter 50hp engine should not be getting a measly 19mpg. Looks like a bad hair day
I had to grind the underside of the top flange on the adapter. The studs provided in the kit are just a tad too long. I like the adapter though. its just one piece of aluminum unlike the crappy 2 piece adapters they give you for the 22R that leak after 5 min.
Im gonna get this finished up in the morning and post again tomorrow when this is all done.
I have the weber installed and actually just drove it again from LA to denver. Wow is all I can say about that weber. With most other cars, when you swap over to a weber it doesn't do that much for increasing seat of the pants power. It gives it it a little bit more torque on hills but the main thing is it cleans up the engine bay, makes the car just run better, and gives better fuel economy. With the tercel, that was not the case. The car use to only have usable power from 3-4k RPM, it never idled consistently and only got 19 MPG. Now I can feel this thing pulling right away at about 1800 RPM and it keeps pulling to well past 5 grand. Every hill I can pull a gear taller, it runs smooth and consistent and gets 27 MPG. Heres the finished install. When I get my drill back I'm gonna drill two holes in the lower chrome piece of the air filter and drill two different holes in the holly pressure regulators mounting bracket and rivet the regulator to the air filter to look something like this. I used the plug and wire from the old carb for the electric choke. Just take off the unnecessary wires und use a spade connector on the end of the wire that went to old choke and plug it in to the weber. No more rats nest of vacuum hoses and vsv, lcd, mma, all those valve things.
Very cool.
the way it was struggling on the hills makes me wonder if the secondary side of the carb was working at all. My sister had a 1983 Tercel and it did fine on the highway and hills. Probably not as peppy as a Rabbit, but it kept up with traffic. We did not live in Colorado though.
Very cool.
the way it was struggling on the hills makes me wonder if the secondary side of the carb was working at all. My sister had a 1983 Tercel and it did fine on the highway and hills. Probably not as peppy as a Rabbit, but it kept up with traffic. We did not live in Colorado though.
For Colorado I did have to rejet the carb. Denver is at 5,000 ft and the Weber was jetted stock for sea level. I went a tad lean for Denver but because I will be taking this car into the mountains and going over vail pass at 10,500 ft on a frequent basis I figured it was a good middle ground
I’m finally starting some body work on this, um, gem?
The plan is to try and bring back the paint as much as I can. The clear coat is completely gone on the top of the car but the paint underneath is still ok, just really faded. It also has a couple of really bad rust spots and a couple areas where the rust went clean through. I’m gonna get those areas plus the dents sand blasted to give a good surface for body filler. For the larger dents/holes I’ll use fiber glass reinforced bondo. Follow up the bondo with filler primer and more sanding then paint those areas with a can of 2k color matched paint. Also I will sand down the transition from clear coat to no clear coat and paint that to help hold it together and feather in the slightly different colors. Final step is to cut and buff the whole car. I know this is the least ideal way to get the car looking good but it will work. Also I’m in college and can barley afford ramen much less a paint job Big rust spot Sand blasted Fiber glass filler The rest of the dents out The rust hole patched up Rust hole with paint Car with paint
While the paint is curing I have a few days to take all the trim pieces and bumper and whatnot off to clean those up. Last step is to cut and buff the whole car to blend the paints together and make it nice and shiny 🤙. I’ll post more as I go through that.
01-06-2019, 04:22 PM
Its a keeper for sure. Awesome find man. Don't skimp on the paint job. If there is any rust on the body I recommend taking care of that yourself before taking it in for paint. Don't want a shop saying they took care of it and 5 years later you find out they didn't and it got worse. Also take photos of all the old logos and decals so you can have them remade if you want a full restoration after paint.
