new guy with 85 GTS coupe

adrian86
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new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby adrian86 » Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:13 pm

Hey my names Adrian finally got my GTS and love it to no end wouldn't ever consider getting rid of it but i recently learned the hard way about the factory temp gauge being a liar and it melted the dizzy cap and oil cap and threw all the oil out of the valve cover and was very messy but oh well i have a 75,000 mile 4ag from a fx that i got for 50 bucks from a friend but what im wanting to do is find the original zenki GTS decals i know Tor makes them but does anyone else make them without wanting 200 or are they the only option? not trying to skimp or just be cheap by any means but 200 for decals is a little crazy if you ask me also has anyone done a quarter skin before? and also i need to know where the stupid plug for the timing is? i either am just not understanding where or what plug everything is talking about the car is 100 percent stock and has no mods for under the hood everything done is some suspension work other than that a emissions/power steering/ac delete just trying to get ready for the next week or two for when i can get the other engine in i miss driving it so much! sorry for the babbling. thanks!

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby FrankP » Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:23 pm

Hey I saw you were looking for some original decals I have the factory ones from Toyota when they last made them, I am fairly aslo new with my kouki 86 and it came with all the factory decals ready to slapp on. :P

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby FrankP » Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:37 pm

I just joined so I can't pm yet but I have a couple of years I can check them cause I even have the apex twincam decal as well still in the envelope from Toyota

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby adrian86 » Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:31 am

hey thanks for the replies the only decals i want are the original zenki ones im not trying to restore my car i just like the factory black/silver Usdm panda like my car was to start with. have quite a bit of 86 stuff for sale or trade also mostly little stupid stuff but some gts stuff that i dont need

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Red » Sat Jun 15, 2013 3:06 pm

"... the factory temp gauge being a liar and it melted the dizzy cap and oil cap and threw all the oil out of the valve cover and was very messy but..."
Adrian, you want to rethink that. There's nothing wrong with a stock engine and stock parts that can or will melt the distributor cap or oil cap. Even if the temp gauge is wrong, you'd slag down the engine and boil out the radiator before you could melt those parts.
But you say, they melted...YES. That means either you got the red replacement (not OEM) caps that are known to melt. Or very likely, some PO removed the distriubutor cap's rubber heat shield and removed the metal heat shield from the exhaust manifold, or screwed up the airflow that normally cools the engine by removing the fan shroud, the air intake snorkel, the road pan, or some other mod to the hood.
Any of that sound familiar?

Not that mods can't improve these cars, but the last time you could just "assume" something would make a car work better was probably the early 70's. There's a lot of invisible technology and design in them now, and it pays to start with bone stock and then make sure any "improvements" really will improve things--or else get rid of them. For instance, our air intakes. The snorkel and box can't possibly be good...except, years ago a forum member hooked up a flow meter to test stock against the "mushroom" kind. Guess what? Stock was just as good! And even B&K, the big name in mushrooms who promises guaranteed hp gain, will quietly tell you they've never tested their equipment on our cars, and they can't guarantee any gain for us.

Airflow?? Can be way more complicated than it looks. And a very easy way to melt stuff under the hood. What you can do is take a kitchen thermometer, open the radiator cap, stick it in, and see just how hot the a/f gets at idle speed, and compare that to the temp gauge, which offhand sits on the "E" in TEMP when normal, around 180?F. Assuming the PO didn't stick in the wrong thermostat, and that the one you have is working correctly. Of course, you did a full major tuneup and fluid changes and replaced that after you got the car, right? (Don't ask me how old my thermostat is, I'm feeling guilty about it.<G>)

Stupid plug for the timing: Really, although you can download a bootleg factory service manual for these cars, the dealers still can sell you a paper one for about $75, and it is a damn good resource for finding stuff like that. As to the decals, shop around carefully. The original '85 stickers (sorry, to me a "decal" is a water-slip decal you put on plastic models) were silk-screened on clear vinyl, not just cut from a sheet, so reproducing them properly won't be cheap. Even if the styling is done properly, which is again hard because Toyota seems to have used a custom font for them. I'm not sure what TOR offers, he has said white screend on clear for the '85 but I can't find pix on his web site.

"USDM Panda" never existed, by the way. Folks have repainted their cars that way, but for reasons only Toyota knows, they never shipped to the US market.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby yoshimitsuspeed » Sat Jun 15, 2013 3:43 pm

Red covered things pretty well. The only other thing I could add is the possibility that the motor was running lean for some reason or the timing was too retarded, or a combination of the two. This would increase your EGTs and would increase the likelihood of melting your dizzy. You say your oil cap melted too which is just too hard for me to believe. I agree there is no way your motor overheating would have caused that to happen before blowing your cooling system, headgasket and likely seizing the motor or doing other significant damage. I can say that in 10 years around 4AGEs and on the boards I have never heard of the OEM gauges not being trustable. They definitely aren't as accurate as an aftermarket gauge but unless it was broken it would have warned you of a problem long before the symptoms you described.

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby adrian86 » Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:53 pm

ok thanks guys and as soon as i get a camera i will take pics and as soon as i get a gasket kit and get the engine in the car i will be fixing alot of things with this such as red covered (thanks by the way i will be watching for a few parts that should be there) this is my first 4ag and corolla and it has been a dedicated beater drift car most of its life i know because i know the second owner through to me who is i think number 10? anyways so its a huge learning experience and yes no heat shields and a crappy red cap but it did melt the oil cap mainly the threads it still runs fine but gets really hot very fast and it goes through coolant fast and i think the gauge is broke because it doesnt move past the half way mark. and red im not going to argue but this car was a black and silver panda car i have somewhere a picture from the original owner from when he first brought it home just since being a beater drift car its been rattle canned and sanded and whatever else so its definently not even slightly noticeable what it was from the outside

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Red » Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:48 pm

Adrian, I don't argue the color combos, I just note that in ten years on this forum, no one has ever shown, confirmed, or found any indication that any panda paint jobs ever were shipped into the US market. And it was only last week that one post showed that ONE two-tone silver GT-S went into the Chicago market in 1985. *ONE* car with paperwork to confirm one two-tone, zero paperwork or original owners to confirm panda. If the paint code on that panda's door plate isn't something special--it was (re)painted.

A lot of us have tried to actually confirm what did or didn't get shipped into the US, and actually confirming that something was factory isn't easy. I'd welcome any proof that everyone has been wrong all these years. A truly original car in a rare variation would be very valuable, but as any car collector can tell you, counterfeits are easily made and very common once cars get "collectible". Now that riceburners have been invited into a concourse for the first time in Cali (whoppee!) we can expect eveyrthing to pop out of the woodwork as well.

No argument, just skeptical that no one has ever spoken up about one of them before, and the folks who are way more senior than I, say none were ever brought in.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby hachigo87 » Sat Jun 15, 2013 11:59 pm

Red wrote:Adrian, I don't argue the color combos, I just note that in ten years on this forum, no one has ever shown, confirmed, or found any indication that any panda paint jobs ever were shipped into the US market. And it was only last week that one post showed that ONE two-tone silver GT-S went into the Chicago market in 1985. *ONE* car with paperwork to confirm one two-tone, zero paperwork or original owners to confirm panda. If the paint code on that panda's door plate isn't something special--it was (re)painted.

A lot of us have tried to actually confirm what did or didn't get shipped into the US, and actually confirming that something was factory isn't easy. I'd welcome any proof that everyone has been wrong all these years. A truly original car in a rare variation would be very valuable, but as any car collector can tell you, counterfeits are easily made and very common once cars get "collectible". Now that riceburners have been invited into a concourse for the first time in Cali (whoppee!) we can expect eveyrthing to pop out of the woodwork as well.

No argument, just skeptical that no one has ever spoken up about one of them before, and the folks who are way more senior than I, say none were ever brought in.


http://www.toyotareference.com/corollasport

If you click on the color names you can see examples of Corollas in just about every color, including 2 tones. Also, if you click on the brochure for the 1985 there's an SR5 on some of the last pages sporting a gray and black factory 2 tone paintjob.

Also if you check the 1984 TV Ad there's a red and black 2 tone in there as well.
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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Red » Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:54 pm

Privately run web sites like that often just add to the confusion.

For instance, they show the 1985 GT-S in three paint codes. They do not indicate that the ordinary red and gray had black trim, but they show a silver/gray with black as a two-tone option. OK, fine, that would appear to confirm the 2C5 color code got built and shipped at least once. Except, their 1985 brochure shows Corollas with fixed headlights, which also proves they have confused the world market with the US market.

Obviously there is a story behind the 2C5 code, it would be nice to find out what it is or isn't.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby yoshimitsuspeed » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:21 pm

I remember when this thread came along on the OC and dispelled a number myths that had been in the MR2 community longer than I had. Especially a bunch of myths on the special edition and color options.
http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=432406
I'm sure there's a few still in there but at least it came with quite a lot of references to back up many of the claims.
Before that it was just information and rumors that had been passed down and likely changed over time.

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby hachigo87 » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:24 pm

Red wrote:Privately run web sites like that often just add to the confusion.

For instance, they show the 1985 GT-S in three paint codes. They do not indicate that the ordinary red and gray had black trim, but they show a silver/gray with black as a two-tone option. OK, fine, that would appear to confirm the 2C5 color code got built and shipped at least once. Except, their 1985 brochure shows Corollas with fixed headlights, which also proves they have confused the world market with the US market.

Obviously there is a story behind the 2C5 code, it would be nice to find out what it is or isn't.


What do you mean by the fixed headlights, in the brochure or on the website itself?
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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Red » Sun Jun 16, 2013 6:01 pm

The site lists some Toyota brochures, when I selected the 1985 brochure and looked at it, the car I saw had fixed headlights, not pop-ups. Which means either the car was JDM or other non-US market, or it was an earlier year, when they had fixed headlights.

I would note that Toyota has used the wrong cars in their ads as recently as this year, when they ran a lot of TV ads showing four RAV4's "playing" in a field. All clearly did not have the spare tire bolted onto the back, making them 2013 models, but the 2013 models were not available for sale when the commercial aired, so anyone who went out to buy one--couldn't buy what Toyota was advertising.

Dunno if the link was wrong, the browser hiccupped, or if the car shown was wrong, but I did select "1985" twice to make sure, and the car I saw had conventional headlights. (Which I REALLY would have preferred on my car.)

Of cours ehtey also told me my car, or rather, a car with the equipment I wanted, might come in red, WHITE, or gray, and we all know how many white GTSes shipped into the US.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby hachigo87 » Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:07 am

Not mine, just found it while doing a little google searching.

Image
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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Red » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:30 am

Yes, that is the same first and only window sticker showing a two-tone, that was posted in another thread here about two weeks ago.

"FIrst, one and only." For what appears to be a very early 1985, from the VIN and engine number. To the Chicagoland district. Now, if we could find any original owners, any provenance for any other cars, that would mean a lot more than unsubstantiated one digital image. Again, with offense to none but simply being objective about exactly what is there. And the many years it took for that one to surface at just the right time.
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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby hachigo87 » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:39 am

Not sure if Cameltow has made it over to the new forums or not, but he's one of the other original owners I remember from the old boards..

http://1985ae86hatchback.blogspot.com/2 ... hback.html
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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Red » Mon Jun 17, 2013 11:06 am

Very interesting. That does show a two tone, plus a black panda stripe. Front seats were replaced, wheels replaced, and the May 1984 build plate makes it one of the very early cars. SO now there' reason to think at least two of the 2C5 color codes made it to America.<G> Very early on.
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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby chevignons » Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:38 pm

FrankP wrote:Hey I saw you were looking for some original decals I have the factory ones from Toyota when they last made them, I am fairly aslo new with my kouki 86 and it came with all the factory decals ready to slapp on. :P


Hi:

Do you still have the trunk Decal ?
I have a red 86 Corolla GTS, and looking for the truck decal ( both side ) if you do, please let me know, thanks !

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Deuce Cam » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:54 am

......

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Re: new guy with 85 GTS coupe

Postby Red » Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:30 pm

I wonder if part of this confusion is that MAY 1984 build plate.

Unless Toyota released the 1985 model awfully early, a May 1984 build should actually be a 1984 model. Normal production for the model year change starts in September. So a 2C5 built in May 1984...unless Toyota did one of those early year shifts, would be a 1984 model car? While officially we didn't get the GT-S in the US until the 1985 model year?
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S