Rally is sounding like the way to go.

 

SPK your pics remind me of a 1985 honda civic I drove in Oregon. On the weekends there was typically 4 of us and our backpacking gear crammed into it, driving the logging roads on the way to the trail head.

It died when the water pump froze, the timing belt stripped its teeth, the overhead cam stopped moving, the vavles stayed put, and the pistons kissed the vavles.

 

C'mon man,

I'm not talking about raising the centre of gravity on a POS carthief's dream.

Any move I make wil include widening Betsy's stance. I might be a n00b, but I'm not stupid.

 

No doubt. That's why I want to do this in a way that when the engine dies, the rest of the vehicle is ready to have a new one swapped in. I figure I can get her operational and even get the bodywork and interior finished before I have to sweat the engine at all. She's only got 228,000 KMs on her. She's got plenty of kick left. The engine won't be an ongoing project. I'll spend the money on that when I'm ready and have it done right.

As far as exterior goes, I've done bodywork in the past so that's the least of my concerns.

Steering and suspension are my biggest concerns. The wheel is kinda loose and her ass is sagging.

 

Thanks for the link. I will read the whole thread when the wife turns in.

 

you should also maybe check out hatchpatrol.com they're subaru guys, but they probably know a little more about modifying cars for offroad use than us! but i think the all trec celica is also a very good idea, just go pick one up with tons of body damage!

 

I've seen some of those Scooby hatches around. Crazy looking buggers.

And, do what Bagger said: get the Swamper TSL's in 235 R14 (I can't believe they make them that small ) do what you need to make them fit. The grip on those suckers will keep you going probably better than a 4WD with street tires. And they're tough tires too.

If you can lift it at all, do it. Maybe 2 inches to something. And don't worry about raising the center of gravity, which you seem to be very worried about. All of us with any kind of lift on our rigs have raised the center of gravity. It's inevitable, and not a big deal, within reasonable limits.

 

They're assholes. You guys are making them look like morons. Thank you so much.

 

Thank you. That looks like a Subaru Justy!

 

Can you tell me some reason why I wouldn't be able to lift it? I really want to lift it, and I'm not really concerned about center of gravity. The was just in reference to the Previa.

 

You should be able to lift it somehow, but it just won't be easy. With a truck or SUV ( a real SUV at least ) the body is separate from the frame. The body frame basically sits on top of a much stronger ladder frame. An easy way to lift a truck like this is to put some bigger body mounts between the two frames. Unfortunately your car ( I assume, I can't say I'm an expert on Toyota Tercel's ), doesn't have a ladder frame. I just described a body lift, and the other type of lift is a suspension lift. You should be able to do a suspension lift. Your problem is that whatever you do will be a custom job because there won't be any lift kits available for the Tercel.

I personally look forward to seeing anything you do with it. Could be the best buildup thread yet!

 

Too Cool- Love the Subie. I have visions of a Killer Subie some day myself...I will enjoy reading the build. Dare to be Different!

 

Thank you. Like I said earlier, stuff that may seem obvious to you guys is groundbreaking to me. I didn't know that stuff about frames. So it sounds like I will need a custom suspension. That's probably where I will start.

I wonder how much meat the drivetrain can handle. I have visions of carving out the wheel wells and adding some flares, but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself....

 

Yup that they definately are...but the're not morons when it comes to fabbing/wheeling they know their stuff, problem is you have to sift through way too much bs to get to it...stick around here i want to see this thing grow, and i third the swampers!

 

He Did :pat:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=399434

 

Yeah, well what did you expect? This guy came here honestly looking for info and you thought it'd be funny to throw him to the dogs! Give him a break.

If this is how we treat every newbie when they come here asking for info that we are somewhat dubious about then we are worse than Pirate. At least they don't make any false pretense about who they are. I'm glad to see that most of us Yotatechers were nice to this guy.

EWAY, I'm not trying to slam you btw, just point out that we ought to receive newbies better than that. I hope I don't raise anyone's ire by saying so.

 

This is going to be fun. I will visit NSO this weekend and let you guys know what I learn. I'm probably about 6 weeks away from having the cash to get started on the build, but that's plenty of time to get my research, planning and budgeting done.

Thanks for everything.

 

Hey, I just thought of something else. I haven't really looked under a Tercel (or a unibody for that matter) in a while, but aren't the A-arms (or whatever those cars have) mounted to the subframe that hold up the engine and transmission? Would it be possible to do a "bodylift" by putting spacers where the subframe bolts to the body? Then you may be able to get longer Mcpherson Struts and more travel. Might work on the front. Maybe.

 

wasn't trying to throw him to the dogs at all. we have.....1 guy thats doing a off the wall build (trekker), and everyone else is keeping everything pretty basic as far as suspension goes. we have 1 guy running a 3-link i believe.
Pirate is not the friendliest place in the world, but its another place to try and get ideas for suspension set-ups and off the wall ideas. The guys over there are hard-core, most of them have some crazy ass ideas that work and know what they're doing.
If i wanted to not help him, then i would have fed him some stupid, non-logical idea for his car, or tell him that his idea is completly moronic. what he's trying to do will require a bit of imagination and fabrication to pull off. This is a good site for information, but for some of the more extreme parts of the build, pirate would come in useful.
if he can pull this off, it will be a awesome thing to see, but it will require some serious fab work.

 

Well first, enlightene us to the suspension on this vehichle. rear wheel drive, front wheel drive? I am imagining that it is struts and coils all around.

If this is the case, here is what I would do:

Get air struts, I think Gabriel makes them. Then you can get an air compressor to pump the struts full fo air for lift when needed, then you can let the air out to return to your lower ride height for better street driving. By pumping them full of air you could probably get 1-3" of lift, but it will effectively limit travel when aired up.

Then you could do what the suzuki sidekick guys do. Make struts spacers to space the struts away from the strut mounts. You could probably get away with 1-2" of lift with this mod.

The easiest way for maximum lift is really just to get a truck frame. Since it doesn't sound like you plan on taking this think through crazy rock crawling trails, might I suggest looking into an 86-95 Toyota IFS frame? They will probably be cheaper and easier to find than a solid axle frame and will be a great improvement over what you have now. 4wd and the strnength of a solid frame.

Personally I think it would be cool to see you work with the stock suspension of the car. Either try the strut tricks or get bigger coils or coil spacers.

One last option. If money is not an object, you can build an internal tube frame and build shocks hoops and and custom arms to incorporate coilover suspension. To do this you would have to go wider, which is a good thing.