hey guys. been on here for awhile now just didnt post much. i use this sight mainly to research and answer my questions. well i finally decided to make a project log. i own a 1988 corolla sr-5. i got the car for free, it was my friends but he had it sitting around for 3 years doing nothing but wasting space and rotting. so i asked him what was wrong with it and he said he wasn't he just couldn't afford to keep it on the road due to losing his job. so he was gonna junk it and i told him to wait that i might be interested. so i did my research online and saw some of the cars on here and i guess got bit buy the ae92 bug. cuz i became obsessed. i took the car home and decided that i didnt want to poor money into a motor that was only gonna give me 90 hp. so i decided on a swap. after some research i found a nice silvertop in my price range and bought it. so i swapped in the silvertop and replaced both axles and replaced the motor mounts with new gts ones. after the car was sitting for awhile since i needed a new gas tank and fuel pump and together they cost over 300 bucks. so i started saving again and got really lucky and found a gts for sale on craigslist for $175. so naturally i checked it out and picked it up. the car was sitting for a year but before it was parked it had a new radiator and shocks put in with less then 500 miles on them. and of course i got all the extras of owning a parts car. so it went from a sr5 with a silvertop swap to a full blown gts conversion. well i just started stripping the gts today here are some pics to fill your appetite.
my sr5
my gts parts car this thing is rotted to hell
the silvertop
me removing the gas tank
gutted the interior thinking of keeping the gts seats.......
but there in horrible condition...so the question is get them repaired with brand new fabric or get aftermarket buckets. idk i like the idea of keeping it original.
plan on swapping over the gauges
some random pics of the cars and garage
me
Last edited by sirpedraza; 10-12-2009 at 07:06 PM.
so a little update. (sorry no pics yet). i finished removing the gas tank and just finished puting it in the sr5. i started taking apart the rear brakes since im doing the rear disc brake conversion. also started looking at the wiring think im gonna go with dr tweak i heard alot of good things about his work. started some removing the rust of the sr5. there isnt much just a little on the quarter panel. not sure what color i should paint the car. i was thinking keeping it red with the black bumper covers and painting the gts skirts black or painting the whole car black, or paintint the car a really dark hunter green (never seen it on a ae92 coupe before) just to be a little different. also i decided on keeping the original gts seats and getting them repaired but getting TRD stitched into them. thats about it didn't get to much done this weekend since it rained all weekend. but i will be working on her wednsday so hopefully i can get some real progress done. =]
thanks for the complements
I love how red and black looks on these cars, but 2 tone blue or a blue and grey also can look really good.
As for the seats, it depends what you plan to do with the car because getting the gts ones redone can get expensive if you take them somewhere to do it. But for long trips I find them really comfortable (especially compared to the sr5 seats which after a long drive your back hurts, although they make for comfortable furniture to play video games and watch tv with lol). If you plan to take the car to a track a lot then maybe a bucket for the driver is in order.
Also with redoing the gts seats. Get the side parts that hold you done in a stronger material, as the spot you see the hole in that seat is really common with the gts seats because you brush up against it fairly hard getting in and out. Usually the leg part towards the door shows wear too. I find the 90 gts fabric was more rugged than the 88 and 89 stuff.
Good to see someone putting in the work to do a proper restoration.
I really feel for you guys in most of the country (and all of Canada) -- those cars are rusted to hell and back compared to what we have in Cali. I just bought a beat-up '73 Dodge van that has less rust than most of the cars I see on here. Non-salted roads and no snow FTW, I suppose.
freakinbox: i plan on taking her to the track but not much. i guess im just building a nice summer car for now. although i do plan on autoxing. just not yet. plus i might get an ae86 or a mr2 for that. but thats probably not for another year or 2. i just need to make up my mind first on what vehicle i want to autoX with.
ghostyman: yeah the gts has a sunroof panel but it is insanely rotted. this is why the car was so cheap. the rest of the rust was underneath the car and behind the sideskirts.
Last edited by sirpedraza; 11-24-2009 at 05:34 PM.
He isn't doing a "proper" restoration. Since he isn't using orginal factory spec equipment lol. The 20v kind of instantly kills that. Besides you don't restore a corolla, you BUILD THEM!! WOOT!
For what you are looking to do with it the gts seats will be fine, they hold you pretty well in spot. How much is it going to cost to get them redone?
Yes the sunroofs on these cars always rot out so it seems. Found one here at a wrecker but he wants $80 because he wants to charge for the whole sunroof assembly because apparently the electric motor is useless without the panel... yeah ok because if my panel was fine and the motor was shot I'D ONLY WANT THE MOTOR lol.
that is actually decent. Guess it depends where you go, a lot of cases I know of the bucket seat was the same price or less than the reupholstered seats.
yeah. they just gave me an estimate. they said it all depends on materials. but im not sure how much it will cost if i tell them to do the trd logo stitched into the headrest.
i will. thanks for the advice. i would have ended learnin the hard way that the sides were weak. lol.thanks again. sorry no udates but its been raining and cold as @#$! up here.
ok finally an update with pics. so i put the gas tank in and hosed it up with new fuel hoses. also swapped out the whole rear wire harness from the gts into the sr5 just so i can plug in the gas tank. it was a pain in the ass but i really didnt want no hack jobs with the wiring. my friend had a eclipse gst and lost it do to bad radio wiring. so i had to plug the harness from under the dash, to the gas tank, rear defroster, rear speakers, rear taillights, rear turn signals, license plate light ect. also swapped in gts gauges.
now there is one thing that i would of never thought i needed and in all my research never read about it either. the throttle cable to the sr5 is to short to reach the throttle bodies of the silvertop. luckily i had the gts parts car and the gts cable was the perfect length. one reminder when doing a swap no matter how good you think you've prepared for a swap chances are you forgot or didnt know something. so you will always need more things then you thought and having a parts car is probably the best way to avoid alot of issues. ( well if you are doing a swap like mine making a carbed car Fuel injected) well here are some pics for yall
see the sr5 throttle cable does not reach
top sr5 cable, bottom gts cable
rear wire harness. i tried to install as best i could so it would resemble how it looked out the factory.
the gas tank and gts harness in the sr5
new fuel hoses
installed gts gauges
installed gts strut tower bar (just to see how it looks since im swapping the struts to aftermarket ones with lowering spring)
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i took the car home and decided that i didnt want to poor money into a motor that was only gonna give me 90 hp. so i decided on a swap. after some research i found a nice silvertop in my price range and bought it. so i swapped in the silvertop and replaced both axles and replaced the motor mounts with new gts ones. after the car was sitting for awhile since i needed a new gas tank and fuel pump and together they cost over 300 bucks. so i started saving again and got really lucky and found a gts for sale on craigslist for $175. so naturally i checked it out and picked it up. the car was sitting for a year but before it was parked it had a new radiator and shocks put in with less then 500 miles on them. and of course i got all the extras of owning a parts car. so it went from a sr5 with a silvertop swap to a full blown gts conversion. well i just started stripping the gts today here are some pics to fill your appetite. 
Carina E GTi Liftback
Corolla AE92 GT-S Coupé
Corolla AE92 GTSi Hatchback
. so i put the gas tank in and hosed it up with new fuel hoses. also swapped out the whole rear wire harness from the gts into the sr5 just so i can plug in the gas tank. it was a pain in the ass but i really didnt want no hack jobs with the wiring. my friend had a eclipse gst and lost it do to bad radio wiring. so i had to plug the harness from under the dash, to the gas tank, rear defroster, rear speakers, rear taillights, rear turn signals, license plate light ect. also swapped in gts gauges.
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