'83 Starlet-Avoid the Noid! content

I am finally getting my feet under me on this one, so here we go.

I bought this thing in late July 2012. Golly, 3 years ago! It is a former Dominoes pizza delivery car, only with a twist. This was the boss' car, so it wasn't beaten all to heck- or at least, that's the story I got when I parted with $450 of my hard earned cash.

I was so thrilled to find what appeared to be a good, affordable example of my dream car, that I missed the poorly repaired collision damage. I had it driving, and was chasing a random stalling problem, when I noticed the driver's inner fender was black, while the passenger's was white.Then I started looking at the poor fit of bumpers, hood, and body panels forward of the firewall. There went my plans of turbocharging the stock engine, and coming down to the Challenge to claim the Most Spectacular Failure Trophy I have coveted since I knew there was such a thing. So, I ripped the engine and transmission out, and built a tow bar.Oh, and put the Supra wheels I had lying around on it, because, well, I wanted to see how awesome they would look.And stripped the stripes, filled in the side marker holes, fitted Swift GTi buckets,treated some rust, threw out the old, HUGE bumpers, and proceeded to waffle on drivetrains. Meanwhile, the house and garage both got paint, and many improvements.

All I needed was a truck...

Go on......

This could get interesting.

Listening intently...

Looks good! Excited to see how this goes...

I'm sad to see the stripes go.

Yes. Those reproduction stripes on kp61.net are expensive. I had a near twin of your Starlet and it was a lot of fun.

In reply to Powar:

Yeah, sucks to see them go. The Dominoes Blue and red under that would be kind of cool, too, but nothing can get in the way of progress. More current Pics: This thing has way worse problems than loosing the stripes. The poorly repaired crash damage, aside from not being straight, also rusted vigorously. I found lots of surprises lurking.

This is back from the frame shop, home for soundproofing and glass removal, then back out to get blasted. Oh yeah, somewhere in there, I got a truck to haul this thing around with. So much for the suspense.

Holy crap that truck is so ugly it's funny. How many colors is it?

The United Colors of Bene-Truck.

amg_rx7 wrote: Holy crap that truck is so ugly it's funny. How many colors is it?

If you include rust, we're in the high single digits/ low double digits. Ain't she a beaut?

That truck looks familiar - did you post a build on The Car Lounge?

Love the Starlet - I'll be keeping tabs on this one!

These are fantastic vehicles. You're getting off to a great start here.

Truck looks like one of those episodes of House where the patient had absorbed their identical twin in the womb.

In reply to thewheelman:

Build thread is here on the board.

Found it.

Watching this one

Pulled the seats and wheels and hauled them up to the loft on my patented "Dumbwaiter",

Wrapped the headliner and roof in saran wrap,

Added some lightness to the hood-Yes, a 200 lb. American male put an anorexic on a diet. In truth, the hood was never painted properly after the wreck, and had started to rust, but speed holes look cool, and will let the media in. The previous owner had used the poor car as a sawhorse, and cut through the hood with a circular saw. Evidence of ??? Did the wreck occur while carrying paint? Dunno, but the headliner is splattered pretty good. Some of the Dominoes Racing livery still visible, also, that little rusted bit demanded the whole rear window come out. Same for one rear side, and the windshield weatherstripping was toast. Hence all windows out. Luckily, the doors are rust free, and the trim is somewhat marginal. Probably good for now. Anybody know where I can score weatherstripping? I'm told its getting rare. Loaded up and ready to go. But first a quick stop by work. Next up, some before and after pictures of the sandblasting extravaganza. The guy is cool. old Chevys everywhere. I'll see if he will allow pictures when I return.

This picture is so full of win.

This thread delivers! See, 'cause pizza.

Nice project, watching with interest.

Getting weatherstripping seems hard. There's some generic weatherstrip kits (e.g. "Soffseal") that I've seen in the past, but I've only ever seen guys in really old domestic cars use them.

See if anything matches close enough:

http://www.soffseal.com/store/main.aspx?p=PictureListBody&c=UNEX

In reply to ssswitch:

Thanks for that. I also hear, somewhat startligly, JC Whitney. It was either the glass, or the weatherstripping. Gonna figure something out.

Also check out metrosoft and steele rubber.

Gotta be something close.

This is pretty awesome!

I bought two windshield gaskets from Toyota a few years back. I installed one and sold the other when I sold the car. They are supposed to be discontinued. Try Toyota anyway. If they don't sell them, look at some auto glass ships in your area. They should have aftermarket versions.

Thanks for the feedback on trim, everyone, that gives me hope that I haven't screwed the pooch here. Right now, the glass is in the loft in a wooden box I hope protects it all from idiocy until it is ready to go back in. I'm thinking I'll research all this during the winter. Any leads are more than than welcome.

Awesome build thread, I've always wanted one of these and now they are getting quite rare, glad someone is giving it the resto it deserves.