1995 Camry Coupe Restomod

barefootcyborg5000 said:

I don't think I've ever seen a tape deck with a removable faceplate. Very cool. 

My '90 Miata was a base model.  As such it came from the factory with no radio.  The original owner installed some high end equipment Eclipse Brand cassette head unit (single din) and an Eclipse Brand 12 disk changer in the trunk.  My '90 was VIN 8869 so an early model.  Therefore for '89 this was what was available and my single din did not have a removable face plate but rather a full width handle emerged from the bottom of the unit and the entire head unit could be slid out on a track and you placed the entire radio in the trunk.  Yes, the precursor to removing the face was to remove the entire radio.  

I will add that from '84-'88 I had about 3 radios stolen from my '83 VW Rabbit. no of which were removable in any way because that "advancement" had not been created yet.  This Camry is a '95 so the creation must have come between '89 and '95.  

Further crazy, when was the last time you heard of a car stereo being stolen?  

PS: loving the Camry build

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

Incoming nerdery- 

Pre-1992 toyota Camrys (at least as a sedan) WERE available AWD. And swappable with a 3sgte. I know of at least one confirmed GT4 swapped Camry. I would assume...depending on the floorpan it would translate to the wagon but I don't know for sure. 

A COROLLA Wagon Alltrac was available in the US prior to 1992, but that was the A-series engines (think 4ag) so if you wanna get freaky, a 4ag 20v AWD is a thing you can do. There are weird supercharged variants and all sorts of other shenanigans out there (and believe it or not there was a 4ag Geo Prism, of all things) but most of those were only available in Japan. 

Oh man. Taking me back. My mom had one of these unicorns. SE coupe in the forest green and the V6. It was a great car. She drove it for a decade and a half. 

Watching for the memories of that car. 

TIL a 2 door camry exists... Carry on! 

IIRC this gen (92-96) was often termed Peak Camry — which might have also been Peak Toyota, were it not for Lexus. I've long wondered how well a 2GR would slip into one, so am very much looking forward to the evolution of this one.

This is an excellent project.

I fixed the only flaw with the 350k+ mile interior. $4 on rockauto. 

One of the wheels is dented. 

First I tried heating with MAP gas and beating it with a mallet. All I did was add dents.

Then I just sanded it smooth. I was mostly worried about the inner lip creating a pinch point on the bead, possibly causing a vibration or bad seal. I think it will be fine now.

I think I'll just have the local tire shop move the current tires to these wheels. 

Also a whoooole bunch of parts from rockauto arrived 

One step closer to daily-driver status. Also fixed the valve cover gasket, so no more massive oil leak. I had re-used the old gasket after the valve shim job, and that wasn't working out, plus I had to RTV the corners for the camshaft humps. It drives pretty good now! 

Then I took a step backward and started doing the struts. Might as well help that stance while I'm at it...

I also go a deal on some Lexus GS300 16x7.5 wheels. These would be perfect for 225/50R16, which is the same O.D. as stock but with all the good competitive tire options. Plus I think they'll look awesome. I am still planning on the 15" basket weaves as daily-driver wheels but I like having options, and my shed is big.

So stinkin cool! Someone in my small hometown bought one spec'd just like this(except burgandy) a few years back and I'm sadly watching it die the life of a 30yo beater. This should  be super fun with the 2GR

The Lexus wheels got me thinking of de-badging the Toyota implying Lexus.  From there I thought further to a Camry/ES300 mash up.  I wondered if the ES300 front clip lines up with the Camry.  

Then, look what I found!  

All I found was this Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cartalk/comments/159tvhx/1995_toyota_carry_v6_wagon_with_a_1994_lexus_es/

In reply to John Welsh :

Nice. 

Uh oh, the original engine may be dead :(

Idle was dropping at stoplights and eventually began to stall out. It took significant throttle to keep the engine alive as it developed a knocking noise from the engine. Luckily I wasn't far from home and I just barely made it up the driveway. It still starts and moves under its own power, so I will keep it that way until the swap is ready. Which means I need to sell some cars pronto. Not really sure why it did this, maybe I added some debris with the angle-grinder valve job? Maybe I should have changed the oil before starting to drive it? Still has plenty of oil, albeit nasty thin black oil, and oil pressure. Maybe it's not even a rod bearing? Regardless, it's staying parked for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sirKBATBwXk

At least I was able to "re-Coupe" $0.95 in change from behind the back seat. So there's that.

well that's a bummer

Sweet car!  Like others, I also had no idea a 2 door Camry existing and with a MT to boot.  Following along to see how the engine swap goes.

regardless, love this 'build'!

I still see the 4 door and 2 doors around occasionally

I have a good 5SFE you can have. I also have some 5sfe parts new water pump probably 2 new distributors and a factory tubular "header" (ok, exhaust manifold). A good bottle of sugar cane spirits and it ALL yours.

I'm in Nashville,TN. it might be too far.  

clutchmaster said:

I have a good 5SFE you can have. I also have some 5sfe parts new water pump probably 2 new distributors and a factory tubular "header" (ok, exhaust manifold). A good bottle of sugar cane spirits and it ALL yours.

I'm in Nashville,TN. it might be too far.  

That is a heck of a nice offer!

maschinenbau said:

Uh oh, the original engine may be dead :(

Viking funeral via excessively large shot of nitrous?

For science.

In reply to clutchmaster :

Thanks, that's really generous! I think I will just push forward with the V6 engine swap though, no need to waste the effort swapping for another 4-cylinder that I will only discard again. I was planning to build a shop before starting any new projects, but turns out I need a variance, so that adds another 2 months of waiting until the hearing date. 

So I'm thinking one last max-effort driveway engine swap for old time's sake...and I think I can do it under Challenge budget. 

No worries. I've got a 1mz sitting on a trailer but it's not really worth it. The 2GR is so much better. What transmission does the car have now?

In reply to clutchmaster :

I think it's the S51 5-speed. I have a E153 in the shed as backup in case it dies, but that requires different axles and hubs. Keeping the S51 trans makes the engine swap much simpler. 

If you have a 1MZ flywheel, I'm interested. 

I'm so happy that you may make 3 separate trips to the Challenge with the motor I sold you in 3 separate cars!

Watching with interest!

In reply to SV reX :

It's looking like the Europa will sell as-is, so I will need to obtain another 2GR engine for this build. 

In reply to maschinenbau :

There's a 2000 solara v6 manual in a u-pull near me, just hit the yard today. I can get out there Friday if you need any small parts.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

what where?????!