Newb Here...My Little Girl's New Toy - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Scott.ID · 02-27-2009, 06:14 PM

Howdy all,

Newb to the forum, and wanted to say howdy!

I got my 17 year old daughter her first car, and wanted to share a few pics. I don't know much about it, and I figgered you guys could answer a couple of questions.

I decoded the VIN with help from the archives here, and know it's a '88 Corolla GT-S, 121K miles, pretty much stock as far as I can tell. It's been setting in a guys shop for 3 years, and I gave 2 grand for it. Had it buffed, detailed, LOF, changed all fluids, everything else I could think of before I gave it to her.

Now for the questions~
1) The 4th digit of the vin tells me it's a 4AFE, 4AGE, 7AFE, 1.6L w/ 5 speed. What exactly does this (4***) info give me?

2) I assume it's a AE92. Am I correct?

3) is this thing relatively rare? I'm having a HECK of a time finding the right front clear marker lens, the one below the headlight. Any options on finding parts?

4) I like things to at least look original. What type of rims are supposed to be on this thing?

5) Did I do good? It looks a heck of a lot better in person, and I haven't been able to find any rust or bondo in it anywhere. The only thing I can locate that isn't stock is the pos battery cable. It does have new brakes, rotors, exhaust, pressure plate w/ bearing, jack shafts, etc.

Thanks for lookin', and any info (opinions?) would be great!

Scott

eage8 · 02-27-2009, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott.ID

Howdy all,

Newb to the forum, and wanted to say howdy!

I got my 17 year old daughter her first car, and wanted to share a few pics. I don't know much about it, and I figgered you guys could answer a couple of questions.
I decoded the VIN with help from the archives here, and know it's a '88 Corolla GT-S, 121K miles, pretty much stock as far as I can tell. It's been setting in a guys shop for 3 years, and I gave 2 grand for it. Had it buffed, detailed, LOF, changed all fluids, everything else I could think of before I gave it to her.

Now for the questions~
1) The 4th digit of the vin tells me it's a 4AFE, 4AGE, 7AFE, 1.6L w/ 5 speed. What exactly does this (4***) info give me?

2) I assume it's a AE92. Am I correct?

3) is this thing relatively rare? I'm having a HECK of a time finding the right front clear marker lens, the one below the headlight. Any options on finding parts?

4) I like things to at least look original. What type of rims are supposed to be on this thing?

5) Did I do good? It looks a heck of a lot better in person, and I haven't been able to find any rust or bondo in it anywhere. The only thing I can locate that isn't stock is the pos battery cable. It does have new brakes, rotors, exhaust, pressure plate w/ bearing, jack shafts, etc.

Thanks for lookin', and any info (opinions?) would be great!

Scott

1) it has a 4AGE, that's engine code.

2) yes

3) yeah, there pretty rare. I usually go look for parts like that at a junkyard. A lense for a Corolla SR5 will also work.

4) 14" normal looking ones

the ones that has don't look stock. Look in the pictures thread at the top of this forum for a bunch of pictures, a lot of those have stockish rims.

5) yeah, it looks great. I wish I could of found a GT-S around here when I was looking for a car

kesando · 02-27-2009, 11:20 PM

That Is a very nice Corolla! I hope you daugter can appreciate what she has!

freakinbox · 02-28-2009, 07:47 AM

yeah that body is in really good shape!

You will want to watch for rust where the rear bumper tabs go in to the rear fender flare, the bottom of the front fenders and also the pockets on either side of the trunk. Those spots once is starts you want to avoid letting it get really bad.

Also water tends to get into the trunks on them through the tail lights. Just pull them and reseal them if you find water in the trunk.

RED91SR5 · 02-28-2009, 10:53 AM

Nice Find! We don't find rust free corollas up here. I probably easily spend $2K or more doing panel and paint replacement and that's doing the work myself!

Looks like someone has already changed out the GTS seats for the SR5 ones, to bad, the GTS are more comfortable but they wear out quickly for some reason.

freakinbox · 02-28-2009, 10:58 AM

hmmm take a picture of the engine... Might be someone made an sr5 to look like a gts. Also a pic of the dash with the gauges... a gts has an oil gauge and volt meter stock. Then again they are easily put into the sr5 as well.

idrum2loud · 02-28-2009, 12:37 PM

Super clean, she should be toastin civics with that thing!

Scott.ID · 02-28-2009, 05:25 PM

Thanks for the opinions, guys!

EAGE8 ~ Thanks for the info, and the lens cross-reference. I'll start calling around to the yards tomorrow.

Kesado & Idrum2loud ~ Yeppers on her appreciating it. As far as she knows, it's the econo model and she needs to go slow. I'm sure someone will tell her different, it's amazing the number of guys from her school that have called and asked for a date. I know I used to go out with certain chicks just so I could drive their cars.....

Freakinbox ~ Thx for the info on leaks. I pulled the mat and couldn't find any evidence of moisture, but I'll probably re-seal them anyways. I added pics of the Engine, Trunk, and Dash. The 7th digit in the VIN is an 8, which should make it a GT-S, unless someone changed everything including the VIN plate....

Red91SR5 ~ Here is a pic of the seats. I don't know if they were changed out, but I don't think so....

Thanks again for the info. Now to lower it a little, change out the rims, etc.! I'm thinkin' a little moddin can't hurt...

Scott

RED91SR5 · 02-28-2009, 06:23 PM

Ya those are SR5 seats and not GTS ones. No biggy, still nice car.

kesando · 03-01-2009, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RED91SR5

Ya those are SR5 seats and not GTS ones. No biggy, still nice car.

Perhaps the previous owner sold the seats to someone wanting to swap out their old ones.

FirstXrs · 03-01-2009, 12:50 AM

Epic first car!

Wish I could have had a first car like that.

Congratulations on the find!

toyotaspeed90 · 03-01-2009, 12:28 PM

I'm not sure the first early ae92 GTS's had the same seats as the later GTS cars. Those might be stock.

It does look like someone has been under the hood -- the valve covers and strut bar have been painted and obviously the intake hose isn't stock.

When looking for engine parts if the guys behind the counter can't get you what you need, tell them it's an MR2.... in fact, from the photo it looks like you have an MR2 cap on it as it is (ae92 caps have all wires pointing upwards). This won't affect anything negatively. Looking for engine parts for an MR2 just makes it easier as they are the identical engine (87-89 are identical, 84-86 would only be different if you're rebuilding the engine). The engine is an early model 4age bigport.

I see you're in Idaho -- they do pretty darn well in the snow. However, if you use salt on the roads there I wouldn't recommend it as they are prone to rusting in the rear quarter panels.

Looks to be in good shape, well taken care of, and I personally like the wheels -- gives it a bit of an oldschool feel to it. I'm sure you're not interested, but these cars look a ton better just a tad lower than stock.

freakinbox · 03-01-2009, 01:21 PM

maybe the orginal owner was really really heavy and the gts seats were uncomfortable for them

***REN69*** · 03-01-2009, 07:58 PM

Or they ripped... GTS seats are known for ripping.

Nice ride, don't really like those wheels that much though... and that steering wheel doesn't look like the GTS wheel either, could be OEM for US cars but who knows... could be from an MR2.

freakinbox · 03-01-2009, 10:19 PM

yeah different wheel in the states I think. Seen that in other gts pictures from the states