1993 Toyota Celica ST

The Story

take it back to 2019 when I was 4 yrs strong with a 99 Honda civic sedan non vtec w/the trans going out to where I had to manualy shift the gears to make it shift better. non the less a great a to b car w/ a beautiful body. everything about her was stock but this wasn't the platform i wanted. i always grew up wanting a rare 90s jdm but never knew what was a good platform. i wanted something i could daily considering i only had 1 car i needed to be able to mod the vehicle on the fly and have it ready to take me where i needed to the next day. i learned everything there is to learn about rebuilding a front end suspension from replacing everything on the civic from upper stut mounts, to pressing in new hub bearings. i was on the fb market well before covid and knew the prices of most jdm cars when listed and would go check out vehicles for potental trades for the civic. 2020 4th of july; i see the post of a 91 Toyota Celica auto, body looks amazing, clean no rust, just a fender accident that needed the fender to be replaced as well as the radiator core support. other then that the car drove beautiful after daily maintenance was taken care of. the car belonged to the grandmother who passed it down, to her mother, whoe never drove it, then to he son witch listed the car bc he already owned a truck, and didn't want to give to his son bc the condition of his sons car speaks for itself. he didnt want the celica to fall into his sons hands so we worked out a trade. my 99 civic +$200 for his 91 celica. the only thing that held me back when i was first presented w/the offer was at the time i was a pizza delivery driver for well over 3yrs and had to go straight to work for the next 6 hrs after checking out the vehicle. i ask everyone close to me what i should do but knew the ultimate decision would be mine. that day i drove my only working reliable vehicle an hr out to trade w/a 91 Toyota, filled up the gas tank and drove her like an old Cadillac for the rest of the day till i got off work and made it home. she survived. 2 yrs later i found a listing for a manual 93 st for $1.5k ; i jumped and bought the car on sight. owner said he just recently rebuilt the engine and taught his son how to drive manual. the cars been in his family many yrs so the owner says. within 2 weeks the worst happens, head gasket blew. upon the over hull 1 of the head bolts was loose and of course that's were it leaked. so after many months of letting my manual sit in my garage and daily driving the auto again i got fed up. i was halfway to the dream. i already bought a racing sim for the pc but i wanted the real thing. after months of holding back i tore apart and rebuilt the engine in less then 48hrs. of course she smoked like crazy and the timing was off, witch i redid like 6 times, but she finally ran. time to drive manual for the first time. current: 5/18/2024 im still driving on the same clutch. ive learned so mutch like what sensors do when their bad, ive wanted to start a beuild chl. on restoring and keeping a 30yr car alive as many modern cars are looking into this in thier near future. overall i have what i want. i daily a rare 90s jdm thats easy to maintian and work on. now when more funds slowly becoming avalible im looking intio vip build. or i could go with either a carrado, starion, or hopfully a talon.