Year: 2000
Make: Toyota
Model: Celica SX ZZT231

Future Mods:
- Tien Lowered Springs
- Get some new wheels for it (maybe even my 17" ones from the Caldina)
- Cat Back Exhaust
- Blitz Supercharger Kit Or PowerFC for NA Tune
(Knowing my luck I may get the Forced Induction Bug)


 
 

 
 

 
THE STORY SO FAR
The car has been a dream of mine, I was originally going to buy a 2000 model zzt231 in May 2010, the car that I test drove was great, lift came in perfectly and I had a ball driving it. It was suprisingly cheap too, on further inspection with Vicroads the vehicle was a Repairable Writeoff and mentioned there was substantial structural damage and repairs done. For a car that looked this straight it was very discerning to know that work had been done but no proof of it, nor did the owner know about it being a repairable writeoff. I decided to let it go and ended up finding a SW20 MR2 shortly after, long story short I converted to turbo and the motor went within a week, I then spent an absolute fortune having someone rebuild it and sold it off. I then bought the caldina thinking I could have the best of both worlds, turbo and a cruisy auto and that would settle me down with car purchases. Very wrong indeed.

So I went to go have a look at a car in Strathfieldaye about 1.5 weeks ago and it was love at first sight. It took 2.5 hours to get there (on a 40 degree day). I knew it was the one though, I was driving my dads Fiesta there and it was disaster after disaster, first we had a huge pebble hit the windscreen on the freeway, I thought I chipped the windscreen but after speaking with Dad it was already there (thank gosh for that). We then hit a massive pothole in the road and thought I bent or cracked one of the wheels (not the best thing when your borrowing someones car).

Update: 13th January 2012
Car has now been picked up. Well what an awesome day we had. Apart from some "interesting" moments at the Dandenong station we made it to the train, not only were we early to Southern Cross, but there was a Red Rooster not far so Dinner was definitely on the list of things to do while we wait for the vLine.
I decided to upgrade me and a mate of mine to First Class on our voyage, I was expecting Chandeliers and waiters serving chilled wine in crystal glasses but I think my expectations were slightly overdone considering first class was only $6 each person more.
There was a kid running up and down the isles, sooo frustrating, I knew I should have got the window seat lol. Never the less we arrived at 8:35pm
Also to our misfortune, the train had a problem with the backup generator so we were not able to leave till it was resolved. Not to worry we still had time, we left at 6:35pm from southern cross and arrived at Kangaroo Flat at 8:30pm, from which we got picked up and drove to Strathfieldaye to sign the papers and pickup the ride.
Didn't help that we came upto a situation that required us to do a U-Turn and initiate the dreaded Reverse gear haha. We actually had to stop half way on the road, grab the manual out and have a look how to do it. I'm glad there is a buzzer to tell me when i'm in reverse or i'd be crapping myself (as reverse and first gear require nearly the same motion to engage).
On our way back we were told to go towards a road called Sedwick road, which could save us 20-25 mins on our journey so we decided to take it.......
We ended up getting lost 30-40 minutes later in Harcourt which was in the wrong direction, so I believe we had actually gone further away than when we first started. Not to worry good old Garmin GPS out, it told us the whole way back to Melbourne.
On the way back I had a photo taken of me :)
We left Dandenong station on the bus (towards dandy station) at 4:05pm and we returned back in Melbourne at 12 haha
Strangely though as the clock was wrong in the car, I thought it was 11:00 when we returned, it ended up being 12am.

This could be a long term keeper for you, hmm 12 to 18 months I reckon!!

"waits till he gets sick of Front-wheel-drive"

^Haha judging by the amount of cars you've changed within the last 1-2 years maybe but I agree with Dudeman this one might be a keeper since it's newer, simple and has a lot of bang for buck, especially considering how much you've spent in the past!
But yeh always an adventure when you do something mate lol. I can relate to the "dreaded reverse" gear after I dropped my mate no.1 off work. We carpooled in the Celica so me and another mate no.2 drove his Celica (belonged to mate no.1) back to mate no.2's house and we got stuck trying to reverse park. After about 5 mins my friend got lucky and worked it out somehow trying several different gear shift positions lol
We haven't raced yet but I'll bet the MR2 N/A would have a hard time keeping up as the Celicas are lighter and more powerful. Probably the only advantage I have over him is braking and maybe mid corner balance. 
Anyways congrats on your new baby!

Well I was just in Melb over new years, staying in Glen Waverley and yep was like almost 40 deg on the burn up to Canberra on the Hume :P
 
Nice Celica though, its always fun revving the **** out of them, I should convince the gf to get one of these too! :D 

I haven't updated the thread in a while so I was going to paste over some updates.
 
08-02-2012
Well I had an exciting afternoon. I finished work and rushed to the powder coaters to pick up the wheels. I think they look fantastic. The photos actually came up a bit lighter than the actual colour.
 
As I was putting the wheels in the back seats I managed to get my shin caught in the door as the car was on a slight incline. I had to hold a straight face as there was others around and didn't want to make a scene lol.
 
I may have forgot to get one of the wheel balancing weights off before taking them to get done so that one is going to stay on for good lol.
 
It was done for a fantastic price and its a huge difference from what they looked like previously (black with pieces of white paint showing up that had become visible due to chips)
 
 
I'm off to get the tyres put on tomorrow and I should have them on the car by the weekend.
 

 

 
 

 
I also got a 1:24 scale model in the mail that I am super eager to get started on too :)

 
 
This is my new workshop. Space enough for 4 cars, mind you it fits 3 comfortably.

 
My girl in the garage :)

 
Her Sexy back, and me in the reflection doing the traditional camera/poop squat hahaa

09-02-2012
Well they are finally on yay:
I like the colour personally. they look great.
Apart from the 4wd style ride height i'm very happy. (hoping to resolve it over the weekend haha)

11-02-2012
I got around to Tinting the car, I did it in the new workshop and the finish came out much better than the first time I did it.
I been meaning to do this for a while, but I wanted to make sure I had more than enough time to get it done and not rush.
I must remember not to roll up the windows for 48 hours from now.

I hope its not hot tomorrow haha.
I bought the tint online and its legal 35%. Not too shabby for $35 to do the whole car. The rear passenger windows were very difficult to do but turned out great. Cutting out the stencil is the hardest part.

13-02-2012
I love tinting, its a very hard thing to master and if the window isn't clean or if there is any dust it will show up in the tint.
 
The edge of the tint around the window needs to be cut with a new blade as it can get a bit blunt quite easily after a few window tints.
Here I am at a mates place as we prepare to lower the "Highlica" lol. The wheel arches had so much room above the wheel that I could easily store my gum boots on those not so muddy days :(


Here we have a multitude of trims and carpets that have to be removed to gain access to the rear struts. Whats interesting about this car is that the struts tops are actually the same level as the boot floor, and the shock strut itself is actually on the inside of floor wheel well and not in the wheel arch as per other Celica models in the past.

Here is my race spec interior.... Its amazing how much space there is once all the trims and spare wheel is removed. You can see the strut top on the right hand side (in that little pocket running along the rear support rail).


My car thought it was no better time than now to lift up a leg and urinate on my Workshop floor. I wasn't impressed... My wheel was put under just for a bit of extra safety (now that I think of it I should have used my stockie instead).

 
This was after the spring was all changed over. I am very glad to have the job complete. It was a headache and a half, The front struts took about 25 minutes each side just taking our time with winding out wheel nuts to not damage the new finish.

We were somewhat concerned about the wheel balance weight that we found on the floor lol. I can't figure out which wheel or in which position on the wheel it came from, so we decided to pretend we never saw it and to dispose of it accordingly hahaha.
Just a comparision between the stockie wheels and the new ones.