Bye bye Bitsy. Hello hardtop.

This was my second Corolla miracle, finding a replacement car for less than I knew I could sell Bitsy (see the first post, about my 1981 Corolla sedan) for. On January 30th 2009, I went out and picked up the first TE72 Corolla Hardtop I'd ever seen. It was a rust and dent free 1982 SR-5, which meant better "sport seats", a tach (invaluable with the automatic tranny), SR5 steelies, and that's about it The car had done 122k miles (made all the more gentle by being automatic), had some great service records, all in all the best use of $500 I'd ever found.

But the previous Greek owners had put some serious wear on the flimsy seats, and had recovered them using t-shirts in the back and some tropical seat covers up front. I've got some better photos of the front seat covers, hope to find those soon. Vacuumed the car up, removed the rear seats (the easiest solution to the heavy wear, plus saving weight and increasing space), installed my Mitsubishi wheels (RUINING THE HANDLING by putting awful stress on the 30 year old suspension bushings), a bike rack, a K&N air filter and my trusty MSD ignition system. Drove the car trouble free through August, needing no repairs, then sold it for $800, which went straight to buying red Corolla wagon #1! Post coming soon. Well maybe not soon, but next.


Trying not to look smug while keeping my bike out of the rain.





















Bitsy's beautiful backside on the left.
Telling Atika I'm ready to buy.

1/17/11 Corolla hiatus starts today...

Today was a great day, as I finally let someone come and take a look at my 1981 Corolla wagon. This is the wagon I bought for Atika in Summer 2009 for a $850 bucks, 70k miles and it match my red 81 wagon perfectly. Posted the car up on CL a few weeks ago, responded to the first person but then quickly got buried in dozens and dozens of very genuine and thoughtful emails.

Between family visits, helping with my 6 month old son Gustav on the weekends, and work, the car was slipping to the back burner pile of projects again. But luckily the first emailer continued to check in with me, asking when she could come by with cash. The car left my apartment with just over 99k original miles on her, so I expect the car to change this young lady's life.

As we test drove it around, started getting mad nostalgic and looked up some of my photos on forums to show her some of my other Corollas. So definitely time to post up some memories soon.

Exhaust finished!

The exhaust system went on today. Combined, it took basically 2 good days, 3 trips to Shuck's, 1 trip to Hankins Hardware and 1 trip to Baxter Auto Parts. Lucky for me, Eli was down with my cost cutting complex and I was able to return the most expensive parts and custom some stuff together.

The first day I drove home with half an exhaust system and it was pretty funny. The second day I drove home with half of my new exhaust system installed, and it was miserable. Doubling the size of the exhaust pipe more than doubled the volume, my ears hurt just remembering the trip blasting down I-205 to catch "Avatar". I'm sorry to everyone I passed.

The following day I got a message from Eli that he'd finished up all the welds and the rest of the exhaust was ready to bolt on. It was a short and sweet day, and I love the new car's new voice.

First work begins on the SR5.

My friend Eli from the 3TC forum has been pretty psyched to help me get some work done on my Corolla. I drove over on Tuesday with a project list and a car full of parts, most of which won't happen till 2010. The day was dry but cold, and we started mapping out my new exhaust system.

There were a few reasons this upgrade was high on my list of things to do. First, 1974 saw the big increases in safety and emissions requirements. For the Corollas, this meant bigger bumpers (ugly), a complex system connecting the seatbelts to the ignition, and a very restricted exhaust system. The emissions changes resulted in a loss of more than 10hp and significantly slower track times. Also, I find the exhaust note of a car to be one of the best ways to give a car some personality. It's one of the easiest ways to free up 5-10hp, improve mpg, and unleash the beautiful and unique sound of a cars soul. Well, it's not always such an experience (YouTube search "Dinan m5 exhaust" or "Porsche carrera gt exhaust").

The stock exhaust system with 1" piping will be replaced by an unknown model of exhaust header, 2.25" piping, a high flow cat (to quiet the sound a bit), and a Dynomax Super Turbo muffler.

We got about half way done mocking up the new exhaust. And rather than putting the old one back on, I drove home with half an exhaust system and no muffler. LOUD : )

I expect the system to be completed Sunday.








Posted from my iPhone

Off to east Vancouver for old Toyota parts.

I arrived a little early and while waiting for my new friend Chris to get home, a man came out to ask what I was doing. He was suspicious until I mentioned I was meeting someone about Toyota parts. Then Kenny offered to show me around while I waited. It turned out to be a great trip with tons of parts I needed.

Newest Corolla Dream Car. 1974 SR-5.

One day in early October, Nick Morris and I were out riding and filming near Glenhaven skatepark. From there we headed to downtown Portland, but construction at the highway forced us to take a long detour down side streets. As we turned off 82nd ave, I naturally scanned the lot on my right. What! That can't be a Corolla?! Apologized to Nick about having to stop and look at the car. "Sorry, I didn't think there were any of these in town, just have to take a quick peek."



As I get closer, my jaw drops farther.

I see the fender flares sticking out, the new paint job and I think to myself "this must be the owner's car, I wonder if he'd sell it?" I walk up to a possibly Cambodian or Vietnamese mechanic (this is a repair shop, not a car dealership) and he's on the phone but I ask anyway.

"Yeah it's for sale."
"How much you askin'?"
"Um... ... $****.**, it 1974 car." (You don't need to know how good of a price he said.)
"Eh, ok. Is it open?"
"Yeah."

I'm doing a good job of looking not impressed or overly interested. Discreetly snap a few more pictures of the car, start checking the body for rust. Wait, could this be a real SR-5? My mind immediately drifts to the cover of Japanese Nostalgic Car issue 2.


This magazine tells the story of the rarest and most sought after nostalgic Corolla. What made it unique, how to tell if one is original and not a replica, what they're worth on the east and west coast. The SR-5 was the closest thing the USA got to a Japanese hot rod. It had stouter suspension, swaybars and rear end, along with shorter gearing and fender flares to accommodate the wider wheels and tires. Like all Japanese nostalgic cars, they are rare because of their age and susceptibility to rust. This car more-so because it was the cream of the crop, only made in 1973 and 1974.

I didn't remember all the unique details, but I did know that even a poor condition car shell with no engine was known to be worth more than the man's asking price. The wheeler dealer instinct told me to go home and do some more research. As I walk back to my car, the mechanic comes by and says

"So what you think?"
"Eh, it's a little out of my price range."
"Well. Make a offer."
"Ok. I'll ask my wife about it and talk to you later."

As Nick and I drove off, I was very excited about the possibilities.

Later that day I read over the magazine and started kicking myself for not taking more pictures of the car or looking closely at it. How could I have not checked it the transmission had 5 speeds? I can't make another trip up there tomorrow, the guy will think I'm interested and there goes my chance at haggling. I also called my best friend from the Toyota3tc forum who lives in southern Cali and is pretty much my authority on the Corolla markets. He was immediately very excited for me.
"OK here's what you look for bro, it's real easy. First of all if it's a 5 speed, that narrows it down to 2 rare cars and you've gotta buy it. Also the SR-5 interior had red piping on the seats, all other models had black. I bet you've got a real SR-5 there bro. I just don't think that in that area someone would go through the trouble of bolting on fender flares and trying to make a replica. Man either way, at that asking price you're stealing that car bro..."

He told me some other details to look for, but they were more mechanical and sounded harder to verify discreetly. In talking to him and reading the magazine, my selling instincts were waning, and my collector instincts started digging in. I told Atika, if there's one car that would ever be worth collecting and hanging onto, it's this model. The more I learned, the greater the opportunity seemed, and I couldn't wait to find my answers. I called the repair shop and asked if I could stop by tomorrow and take the car for a drive. The guy adamantly said yes.

I drove back the next day to do my research. I walked up to the car and started looking around. 5 speed transmission, check. Red piping, I think check? I guess that's not black.

Next I walked up to the mechanic's bay, where there was one guy busy in the bowels of an engine. Sweet! It wasn't the same guy I talked to yesterday!
"Hey can I take that thing for a test drive."
"No, that car don't run. It sold as is."
"Well what's wrong with it?"
"I don't know, ask the boss."
"Well is he here?"
"I donno."
"Well can I try and start it?"
"No, the battery dead."

I didn't see him around, so I went home with my spirits high.
"Advantage, Piff."

I really wanted the car to not run, it would mean infinite haggling power. This car uses the same engine as my other 2 Corollas, and I've got these engines comin outta my ears (I had a $50 complete low mileage engine ready to put in, and friends who could help me do it.)

The next morning, before calling the boss I called my bank to get info on a small loan. Luckily I had some sales coming together and a car that was worth a large part of that asking price. I only needed $500-1000 dollars, and expected to have that paid off in about 2 weeks. I found out that banks don't really do small loans any more, they told me that my best option was to get a new credit card with 6.9% interest to buy the car. In the mail that day, guess what came. An offer from my other credit card (with a zero balance), it said that I could make three purchases and pay 2.9% interest for a year. I called them to make sure it wasn't a scam or anything, and found out it was just what I was looking for. I called the boss and asked him what was wrong with the car, since it was being sold as is.

"Oh nothing wrong with that car."
"Really?"
"Yes it fine, good car. Come drive."

So I drove to the shop and proceeded to wait for the bosses friend or brother to deliver a small part that was necessary for starting the car. The boss told me he took the distributor apart so the car couldn't be stolen. After they brought out a new battery, they worked to get the car running. Dry carburetor+mechanical fuel pump+hasn't been started in a while=patience with starting.



“This car not been started in long time.”
“Oh yeah, how long?”
“Bout, 2 years?”

Finally the engine kicks over and sounds good, groggy but good.
“This engine totally rebuilt.”
Took the car out for a drive, and basically just wanted to know if the steering was shot or if there were any other major problems. Apart from the new tires being too big for the car and rubbing, the car had no problems driving. The only bummer was that I found typical rust under the battery, and it's going to need some surgery there.

“I like the car, but that rust is pretty serious. So what can you do about the price?”
“I think for you, since you serious about the car...I can do $****.**” ($500 less than original price).

I took his offer and showed him the check from my credit card. Luckily it was through US Bank and that was the bank he used.

“Can you come to my bank?”
“Sure, when?”
“Now.”
“Yeah let's go.”

After that he told me the title was at his house in Happy Valley, a good 30 minutes from where we were (without traffic) and we were just approaching rush hour.

“OK how about you follow me in the blue car and we park it at my house, and then I take you to pick up the title and drop you off at the shop?”
“OK, I follow you? Which car you drive.”
Ben points at red Corolla wagon.
Boss chuckles.

The next hour and a half was spent with him showing me awesome shortcuts on back roads from Happy Valley to his shop, certainly saving us another 30 minutes of sitting in traffic. We chatted a little about cars, jobs, housing.
“So do you like the work? (Being a mechanic)
“Nobody like the work!”
“Haha! Really?”
“Really, everyone always ask if I'm happy, NO I'm not happy but I'm making money.”

He handed me the title and it had a sale date of 1/23/2007. Rather than me paying $50 for registering the car late, he changed the date with a pen to 10/23/2009. So the car has sat in my driveway apart from a couple small errands, waiting till I can take it to be registered and get current tabs.

Making deals and new friends.

On September 15th I decided to put my super rare Toyota dual carburetor package up for sale. I found this gear on Craigslist earlier in the year, but pretty quickly realized that like most of the things I own, other people wanted them more than I did. I figured my time with this engine or this wagon was limited (just not worth sinking money into), and that selling the carbs could be the way to raise a chunk of money to pay for a new engine (4age high compression fuel injected twin cam or a higher performance rebuilt version of the original 3tc).

The day I posted the ad on 3tcgarage forums, a newer member sent me a message.
"Ben, I am very interested in your carb/manifold setup. Since I am in Portland, it seems like it might be easiest to talk on the phone. Bill"

I called bill that night, and after finding out that he lived only a few blocks from me invited him over the following morning to check out the carbs. He really wanted them, and made me a cash offer with the option to keep the carbs on the car as long as I needed. When I said I'd like to wait and see what other offers come, he asked for right of first refusal and also said he might be able to work out a trade with some cars and parts at his shop. I perked up at that idea and said I wanted to see his shop right away.

The next day I met Bill at his place, where he showed me the stuff he no longer wanted to deal with. He offered to trade me a complete running 1980 Toyota Corolla Liftback and a 1982 Toyota Corolla Sedan complete except for the engine. There was also going to be a lot of scrap metal, blown engine, broken parts, whatever didn't sell. It was a big pile of stuff, and it was obvious that Bill usually deals with nicer toys than these. The two cars had been purchased for use in a 500 mile rally race where you could only put $500 into a car. Bill loved the white car so much, he pulled the 3tc engine to rebuild for use in his 1977 Corolla station wagon. Bill hated the blue car so much, it had been sitting at the shop for a year.

Behind Bill you can see one of his fully restored vintage Alfa Romeo convertibles, a fully restored Volkswagen Thing, and a super vintage Alfa Romeo team race car in the rafters.

The coolest part about checking out Bill's stuff, was that he wasn't looking for a verbal agreement that day. He's retired, relaxed and doesn't stress about time or money. He made it clear that it was up to me if I wanted to explore this deal and decide whether this stuff was worth trading for. Bill also sounded more excited about trading because it meant that I'd be clearing valuable space and making some of his more valuable assets accessible. He told me if I could sell the VW Thing for him next I'd get 10%, and there were a lot more things to sell after that.







Over the next 2 days I dove into the 1980 Corolla, pulling the garbage seats, spare parts and tires out. I simultaneously removed the seats, carpets and trim pieces from the 1982 parts car. I picked up some industrial carpet cleaner, and with the help of Bill's industrial upholstery cleaning machine went over every inch of the two carpet pieces and all the seats. I could have spent multiple hours getting the seats back to show room condition, but I knew that this car was only going to be worth so much money. It was amazing finding out that the whole interior bolted right in. Especially the carpets, they matched every contour of this very differently shaped car. From the holes for the seat bolts, to the curves that were secured by the door trim pieces, the installation was easier than the removal (and much less grimy). After a full day's work, Bill was impressed and the car was ready.

Bill had only used a few words to describe the blue car. It might sound whiny or crabby, but Bill is hilarious when he's being blunt. "It runs and drives, but inside it is a terrible, terrible place to be. That car was so miserable inside, I just couldn't stand it." After our most annoying shopper left Bill said, "God I was getting so mad listening to that women, I wanted to just hit her in the face. I was so glad when she left in that terrible car (a 1981 Corolla with a clearly blown head gasket) so she could go blow herself up somewhere else."

A couple days later, I sold the car to a young and enthusiastic woman. She hadn't owned a car in a few years, and was only planning to drive this car for a few months before moving cross country. Within 30 minutes of leaving, she called and had broken down halfway to Beaverton in rush hour. Unngngggghhhhh. I dropped everything I was doing, stopped mid-trip to the bank and went to get the car running.

Ben: "Hi, I just came across the bridge and will be there in a couple minutes."
Girl: "Hi. Oh I just got rear ended."
Ben: "What. Is the car messed up?"
Girl: "I got the lady's phone number, just the rear bumper a bit."
Ben: "You only got her phone number?!
Girl: "Oh I guess I should have gotten some more info, I'm new at this. She's an old lady, hopefully she'll pick up."
Ben: "... ... ..." hangs up.

I checked out the car, decided it might have run out of gas so I went and bought a gas can. When I got back, her crabby mechanic friend had showed up and we decided to push the car onto a side street. Car has gas. Car is cranking, but making no spark. Shortly after, car won't crank at all. Ignition coil might be bad, starter is probably bad, might have blown some fuses. Mr. Mechanic doesn't want to try anything, because he clearly has no respect for older cars that aren't Fords, or maybe he just couldn't handle how us oldschool Corolla owners enjoy success from random attempts at repair. Even though the car wasn't my problem any more, I could tell it could easily ruin this girl's weekend and possibly more if I bailed. It was obvious that this car needed more work than the two of us were ready to do that night, and I didn't want to pay for any work or towing. So luckily an idea popped into my head to call my new friend in Seattle who had expressed interest in buying the car later in the week.

Ben: "Hey Dan."
Dan: "Hey Ben, what's up man?"
Ben: "Well, I just sold the liftback to this girl, and within 30 minutes I think she's killed the starter and the coil. So I don't want to have to deal with getting it towed somewhere to pay for repairs, and I wondered if you'd still be interested in it how it sits."
Dan: "Oh sure, those things don't change the value at all for me. I've got those parts already."
Ben: "Oh yeah? How soon could you come down and pick it up, if I was flexible on payment?"
Dan: "Hmm, probably Sunday. I could move some stuff around, bring you down $100 and paypal you the rest in a few days."

So I knocked the price down for him, took back the title and sent the girl on her way with her money. She was really happy I hadn't been a creep, and I was really happy I didn't have to put any more time or money into the car!

This morning, Sunday the 27th, Dan came down around 10am. I met up with him and brought my tools, we poked around and got really tired pushing it up a hill so it could be push started. We decided to take a break, and drive over to Bill's to get some parts off the white car. I went to run some errands, and met up with them a few hours later. I had the idea to hot wire the car from the battery to the newly replaced coil. After the third push up the hill, we got the car running. Everyone psyched, especially me. Now just need to ship a few interior and body pieces, and get the white car picked up for scrap value.