I just took my wife's car out of the paper, since no one would give anything for it. When I married 21 years ago she came with an 1981 Toyota Corolla 2dr Deluxe Sedan,
3TC5speed with air with 10K miles and a payment book.We both have a few more miles on ourselves and the car has 275, 000.
My choices are to give it to charity or put it in the garage and strip it down for a complete rebuild, and as a teaching device for our thirteen year old son ( My similar teaching device many years ago was a similar looking Ford Cortina GT, but that's another story.
First question: Any suggestions on mods, including parts upgrades from newer models (what bigger brakes, better struts, engine parts etc) fit? One thing I am most interested in, before it fails again is the alternator and separate voltage regulator. The car was built in late 1980, and is VIN'ed an 1981, but the Alternator has a plug that fits the loom but shows up as a 1980 truck part. If I ask for the 1981 I get a
2-prong plug part that won't fit the 3-prong loom plug.Is there a later Toyota Alternator, with internal VR that can be grafted to the loom.
Next is the rear axle. The center section spun the pinion bearing and had to be replaced, and was a couple of months locating one. Does any later solid axel fit up, from a truck or something, that may have a LSD available?
My goal is a Rally Beater and weekend autocross car, my son is kind of gravitating to a "drift car" with a chain-saw sounding exhaust system with a giant-sized exhaust spout.
I have pretty considerable shop facilities and welding capability so can fabricate some stuff. Another step will be to transition to EFI from a carburetor if a system can be grafted from a later vehicle into this one. I hope to use as much salvage equipment as possible to hold cost down and so parts are always available from the Toyota dealer. This may not be possible itself, as once the cars pass 15 years old, the local dealers Here in Birmingham Alabama stop stocking parts for it and it takes an order from the warehouse in Mobile or Atlanta to get anything,
Anyway, a guy at work just completely restored his 1976 Honda Accord hatchback, and after seeing that, I knew the Corolla was at least as deserving.
Anyway, any suggestions and advice will be appreciated. I don't have a digicamera yet, but am thinking of buying one when the after Christmas sales start, and I will try to post "before" pictures.
Also, if there are particular websites or news groups catering to this kind of stuff, let me know.
And Thanks to All in advance for any help offered.
Big Al Brown Birmingham AL, (USA)