Dparo's 1997 Collectors Edition Build/Refresh (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Sep 15, 2016
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Location
NWI
I'm probably doing this more as a personal resource thread instead of a full build but we know how that usually turns out so maybe, or maybe not, I can add something new at some point.

My path to this point began back in mid 2016 looking for an 80, living in the midwest left a lot to be desired as most were so rusted it wasn't worth the hassle. I probably looked at nearly a dozen, all were not what I wanted to deal with and I was actually in Madison Wi when my phone pinged a new listing on autotrader for a 2001 in Cincinnati. A 100? Why not. Drove there that day and bought it. Started refreshing and baselining and realized that the "grey" exterior was actually green and yeah not for me. I did a bit more research, sold that one, bought a mint 07 with 105k miles in Florida and drove it home. Still have it. The stock vehicle is now heavily modified for adventure travel in my pursuit of ghost towns out west, and the occasional BDR as we did the Idaho BDR in 2020 and will do the Wyoming next August. I've driven it out to CA to get my Trekboxx full system installed, Colorado to Slee, and down to Kentucky for the DT headers to get installed. Most everything else I did myself. It currently is sitting at 144k miles.

August of 2021 I picked up a nice 2017 200 with 32k miles, it has remained stock for now as it is my wife's Daily driver.

The 80 bug never went away especially since a lot of the guys in the KYTLCA have 80's and I have gone down there for a few events around the DBBB. It somewhat made sense that my 100 wasn't exactly made for some of that plus since that was really almost done I needed something new to go after. My one sticking point was finding one with gray interior, not tan. I also wanted either a black or gray exterior. Randomly I found one on here, flew to Oregon to check it out, and had it shipped back.

Here is the 80 and then the other two...I still own all three.

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So back to the 80...

It just turned 300k miles, and I knew an engine rebuild was going to be a sooner than later thing so I have started to ask around about that. Surprisingly I am not having a lot of luck in getting a response from some vendors, I guess I'll revisit that later then.

In the meantime before I decide the final direction it makes sense to get things baselined and refreshed. I've spent many hours at the dealership trying to source out the moldings around the doors, the window runs, the tune up parts, hoses, etc. One thing I quickly learned is 25 year old plastic shatters into a hundred pieces so replacing for example the four garnish trims around the sunroof was quite a bit more difficult than was expected.

I usually have two stipulations when it comes to parts, buy Toyota and if the option still exists buy new. I just got a used trim piece for my map light sunroof switch area and it wasn't much better than what I had. So nothing more than a reinforcement and quick lesson learned.

I'll keep up with this thread as best I can but this is where I will leave it for today.

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So...I'm working a ton of OT right now and have little time, but I can order parts.

I was going to replace the front O2 sensor that was throwing a code and well, there is no convertor. There is a bung welded in but I knew I was going to replace the gibson muffler at some point, looks like it is going to be sooner than later. I live in a no test county.

Should I re-introduce a cat and get the magnaflow? I'm looking for options.

This is definitely on me for not verifying the cat, but given that it was in Oregon I made the assumption they were testing. I should have had the spidey sense tingling when the seller asked me if meth was a problem where I live.... :confused:
 
Not too much going on with this...it might be a longer term project. I expected to swap the motor at some point. I'm hesitating on swapping out other engine bay components until after.

So most everything is cosmetic, swapped all of the door rubber parts and the windows are a little faster now. Did all mouldings and pulled the Auto Climate Control and rebuild it as much as possible, more of a refresh. Found that it should have been on Auto but was in Manual. Did all of the broken vents and other dash pieces. Will be sending the steering wheel off for a refresh soon too. Ordered up King Brown Pacemaker complete exhaust, and yesterday swapped in Gentex mirror using the Wits End mirror arm. Nice piece but a little more attention could have been used when drilling out the actual mirror mount block as the holes were off. No huge deal. It's a nice improvement.

Swapped in a new grille as well. Swapped in a lot of new gray plastic. Sure would be nice to be able to buy the CE badging again.

The base for the switch unit was a discolored brown and I ordered a used one from someone on here expecting to get a nicer and complete unit. It was actually worse so I just sprayed mine with a gray that I had used on my 100 interior. Looks a lot better than smoke brown.
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Nice cruiser man. Love the 202 cruisers; they’re my favorite. What do you mean above when you said you were having difficulty with vendors regarding your engine rebuild plans?
 
Locally there doesn't seem to be much interest of doing a rebuild, at least as far as I looked. I'll probably just build one with as many new parts as I still can. Initially I thought I'd speed through this a bit quicker but as of now I'm probably going to accumulate parts and do this down the road and just hit some basics along the way. I'm not likely going to return it to original condition and will probably end up building for light trail duty / weekend warrior somewhat near home.
 
Does anyone know a source where the cardboard can be replaced on the door cards so that the lights will stay in? The cardboard is ripped out where the tabs try to retain it.




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Search forum there are some Aussie's that have a sourced ABS replacements cards. You just swap your finish parts.
 
Locally there doesn't seem to be much interest of doing a rebuild, at least as far as I looked. I'll probably just build one with as many new parts as I still can. Initially I thought I'd speed through this a bit quicker but as of now I'm probably going to accumulate parts and do this down the road and just hit some basics along the way. I'm not likely going to return it to original condition and will probably end up building for light trail duty / weekend warrior somewhat near home.
I got you on a rebuilt engine Pm me for any interest! Not a lot of reputable 1fz rebuilders out there.
 

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