.
So, this is something I didn't expect to be doing... a second Starlet page. This area is dedicated to the little blue purchase I made recently - a cracking little car equipped with the power pack. As articulated previously, the power pack was an option on the Starlets that included:
* Sports instrument cluster, including tachometer.
* Central locking.
* Power adjustable exterior mirrors.
* Power steering.
Although most cars, large and small have these options as standard equipment, it's important to remember that Starlets were marketed as an economy car and were priced accordingly. So, to include this level of equipment, meant nudging the price ever closer to that of the Corolla. Needless to say, most punters on the market for a Starlet were more interested in the base model "$13,990 - drive away, no more to pay" which in most cases, included free air conditioning... Toyota's attempt at clawing back sales from the Korean car makers; in particular Hyundai with their brilliantly marketed Excel.
Anyway, back to this car... I saw it on eBay for $220.00 with no bids. There were two things I liked about it... the power pack option and oddly enough, the colour. I had arranged with the seller to view the car and bought it on the spot. The car belonged to his mother and he wanted to see her receive $300.00 for it, which I agreed to. Unfortunately my tow truck driver Steve, had gear box issues with his truck, so I needed to wait almost a fortnight to get the car home, as the Starlets clutch had disintegrated and had absolutely no drive. Here are a few pictures and a video of the car as it arrived...
So, this is something I didn't expect to be doing... a second Starlet page. This area is dedicated to the little blue purchase I made recently - a cracking little car equipped with the power pack. As articulated previously, the power pack was an option on the Starlets that included:
* Sports instrument cluster, including tachometer.
* Central locking.
* Power adjustable exterior mirrors.
* Power steering.
Although most cars, large and small have these options as standard equipment, it's important to remember that Starlets were marketed as an economy car and were priced accordingly. So, to include this level of equipment, meant nudging the price ever closer to that of the Corolla. Needless to say, most punters on the market for a Starlet were more interested in the base model "$13,990 - drive away, no more to pay" which in most cases, included free air conditioning... Toyota's attempt at clawing back sales from the Korean car makers; in particular Hyundai with their brilliantly marketed Excel.
Anyway, back to this car... I saw it on eBay for $220.00 with no bids. There were two things I liked about it... the power pack option and oddly enough, the colour. I had arranged with the seller to view the car and bought it on the spot. The car belonged to his mother and he wanted to see her receive $300.00 for it, which I agreed to. Unfortunately my tow truck driver Steve, had gear box issues with his truck, so I needed to wait almost a fortnight to get the car home, as the Starlets clutch had disintegrated and had absolutely no drive. Here are a few pictures and a video of the car as it arrived...
So a list of defects was written as was a check of Starlet stock I've kept from the little red one that was written off and the silver one I had to cull when the Plymouth came to live with us. Unfortunately there was some haste involved when the silver car was carted away, so some of the parts that would have been useful, were discarded a year or so ago. Still, as frustrating as that is, there's still a raft of goodies here from which to choose. The engine that came with this car had virtually no service history, a blown clutch, the driveshafts were worn out and there was also the mandatory service items to be carried out when one assumes ownership of an old car. I thought it was silly not to use the engine and transmission from the old red car for the following reasons:
* I owned the red car (PGY) form brand new.
* Where the Toyota dealership performed the first service at 1,200km, I carried out absolutely every scheduled
one since - this engine had never missed a service!
* The clutch was known to be in good serviceable condition and was the original unit.
* There was some sentimentality involved, which is me being a bit stupid.
I wasn't at all ready to do any reconditioning work on the car, I have loads of other stuff do. But a friend and Toyota Specialist Dave Raaymakers and I made a deal... He offered to swap over the engine/transmission and repair all of the Starlet gremlins if I supplied the parts. In exchange, I would restore his semi-disassembled old Honda XL250 if he supplied the parts.
Now this video series includes work on both the Starlet and the XL250, so if you're only interested in viewing one subject, it may mean sifting through them on either page, to view the content you're after. Sorry about this, it's just the way it unfolded. Whatever the case, take a look at the following videos...
* I owned the red car (PGY) form brand new.
* Where the Toyota dealership performed the first service at 1,200km, I carried out absolutely every scheduled
one since - this engine had never missed a service!
* The clutch was known to be in good serviceable condition and was the original unit.
* There was some sentimentality involved, which is me being a bit stupid.
I wasn't at all ready to do any reconditioning work on the car, I have loads of other stuff do. But a friend and Toyota Specialist Dave Raaymakers and I made a deal... He offered to swap over the engine/transmission and repair all of the Starlet gremlins if I supplied the parts. In exchange, I would restore his semi-disassembled old Honda XL250 if he supplied the parts.
Now this video series includes work on both the Starlet and the XL250, so if you're only interested in viewing one subject, it may mean sifting through them on either page, to view the content you're after. Sorry about this, it's just the way it unfolded. Whatever the case, take a look at the following videos...
Introduction to our $300 Toyota Starlet.
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In this chapter, Dave and Mike pull the old Starlets engine.
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As much as I love these little cars, the previous owner had run it into the ground so it was understandably shabby. The upholstery, dash centre fascia, carpets and doortrim had numerous cigarette burns, so I decided to give it a makeover. There are two videos in the series, see below...
Restoring the Car Interior for $80.00
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Restoring the Car Interior for $80.00 FINAL
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So this is where the lines get blurred. At the time of making these videos, I was performing much work on an XC Fairmont and MGB (both cars elsewhere on this site) and the videos kind of intertwine with each other. David had offered to remove the engine on my MGB as well, which I accepted as it needed one or two items attending to (see videos in the MGB tab). Further, I was about to begin painting the tank, side covers and guards on the bike. Although they are bike related, I decided to put details of that work on a separate page on this site under the 'More" tab. The page is titled 'Painting the fuel tank - DIY Painting in Acrylic.'