1991 White All-Trac

Fhawman · Jan 24, 2020

Hey all,

Now that it is running (see my other threads on getting it running after sitting for years), thought I’d start a restoration thread to pick your brains!

In-laws gifted me a 1991 White All-Trac they purchased new and drove back and forth to work for 25 years in New Mexico. It was extremely well maintained up until it was parked. I would love to get it back to showroom condition as most of the major things are in great shape.

The good:

Runs great now (after 2 months of chasing fuel system issues from it setting so long and blowing a pound of flaming acorns out of the exhaust, damn Pack Rats!)
No dents, not even a door ding
No rust (Thanks New Mexico!)
Paint polished up great, one small scratch on the front bumper, thats it!
Most of the interior is in great shape
All electrical except the stock system 10 stereo works.

Exterior Needs:

-Rain gutters above doors are sun damaged and brittle with many chips off the top edge. These are discontinued so I guess my only hope is salvage but not sure they would be any better
-Seal around the back glass is really brittle and looks bad all the way around, also discontinued, hopefully a glass shop has some sort of universal seal they can cut to length
-Stock wheel center plastic caps lost their paint, I think this will be an easy fix
-All emblems lost their chrome. Front TOYOTA and back CELICA can barely be seen and the All-Trac, Turbo, TOYOTA on the back are now black (which looks ok on a white car just not stock looking)

Interior issues:

-Most leather is in great shape except the tops of the back seats, badly sun damaged, and the typical steering wheel color coming off issue. I may try re-wraping the steering wheel as I’ve seen on YouTube. Hopefully I can find someone that can just put new top caps on the back seats, or I might just totally redo the backs.
-Dome light and trunk light lenses disintegrated, I've seen them on ebay, except one of the red door lights is broke, haven't seen them anywhere.
-Speaker covers right at the top of the back seats are faded pretty bad, might be able to paint them to match again.
-Stock System 10 stereo is caput I think, fuse is good. Ill pull it and make sure it has power going to it, if it is bad I may do aftermarket or find a used stock replacement. Not sure how the anti-theft works into all that.
-Rest of the interior is pretty good.

Mechanically it seems pretty sound for a car with 192K miles on it. All cylinders had great compression and the turbo seems strong. No oil leaks of odd sounds. I’ll wait for a while to do a rebuild, it should have some good miles left I think. Suspension seems fine also.

Any and all comments, suggestions, ridicule is welcome!

93celicaconv · Jan 24, 2020

Rain gutters? I don't think ST185 has rain gutters. Are you talking about the roof side finish moldings? See pic below.

Also, seal around back glass, are you talking about the back window outside trim molding? See pic below.

What is your goal? Showroom to me means doing what it takes to get it to look and run as the day it was originally driven out of the dealership lot. That also means 100% authentic OEM as well. We have one such ST185 in the family, and I can tell you that it will tax your budget. We have another that is a very good original which may stay just as it is for a long time. Have a GT-S similar to the second ST185 I mentioned. So I can help you regarding what to do - how to get your car looking and running as 100% stock. But if you are looking to put aftermarket stuff in it, you should seek advice of some others in this forum who have done that. I also have lot of very good parts that you might need, but with a 5th Gen convertible in the fleet also (making 4 5th Gen Celicas), I'm a little reluctant to part with those now hard to find spares/backups.

Sounds like you have a great car for a showroom restoration project. Share some pictures if you can.

Fhawman · Jan 24, 2020

Thanks for the reply, yes in the long run I would like to get to showroom.
You are correct on the trim parts, those are the ones I’m talking about. I’ll put up some pics today.
I don’t mind putting in the funds, although I will probably spread it out.
I’d like to focus on all non-mechanical first since it’s running well, then I will look into restoring the engine back to spec.
No, I don’t want to do any mods, the only one I may consider is the Stereo since you can get some of the modern convinces and it can be easily converted back to stock when desired. I’ll probably get a stock unit for the shelf even if I put in a new one.

Those trim parts and emblems would be a good start since they are kind of glaring issues when you approach the car, and getting the rear seats back in shape.

Fhawman · Jan 25, 2020

Ok, getting the hang of posting photos to this forum. You can see the sun damaged trim in the photos above and the seats in this post.

93celicaconv · Jan 25, 2020

I now I have several of those passenger light assemblies with the red lens. It may take me awhile to dig one up, but I can look for one if you are interested.

Yeah, those rear seat release knobs and retainers do take a beating from direct sunlight - my son's maroon ST185 from Arizona had a similar deterioration. I can take a look if I have a set of those or not. I know I have a set in blue (and they are faded a bit to look more like a slightly darker shade of gray). Those would be harder to find, but I can take a look when I get some time, if you are interested.

I'm surprised your leather rear seat tops haven't dry-rotted from the direct sunlight and cracked, given what happened to your seat back releases. We found a good reupholster shop and had all new skins made up from the old patterns to correct the original leather being dried out.

Looks like your antennae is also not retracting all the way. Does it extend at all? Those are easy to fix, as the mast whip likely broke. A new mast comes with a new whip. Hard part is getting the remnant of the old whip out of the recoil box. But if you are comfortable removing and can get yourself a new antennae whip, that is easily fixable.

I'm thinking a good auto glass place can easily replace your rear window outside trim molding. That is a normal item for them to put new if the rear glass requires replacement. Might want to check a few out near you.

The roof side finish moldings are a different story. Those an auto glass shop wouldn't have (I don't think), but you can ask to ensure. The passenger (RH) side is Toyota P/N 75551-20400, and the driver (LH) side is Toyota P/N 75552-20400. They are specific only to 5th Gen Celica's. The good news is that all 5th Gen Celica's used the same moldings here. So if you have access to a local salvage yard near you that has 5th Gen Celica's, you might find a good set of replacements. I know I don't have any, but if you want, I can look in our local salvage yard when I find some time. I know there are 5th Gen Celica's out there, and here is Wisconsin, those moldings are typically is good shape.

Are these similar molding surrounding your quarter panel glass in good shape? Given your other moldings, I would think those are not in great shape.

Lastly, your center caps can easily be reconditioned/repainted to match the original wheels. Just take it to a local good body shop in your area and have them give you a cost to recondition & color match paint them to match your OEM wheels. The paint used is somewhat special to work well with this kind of cap.

Nice car. You have a solid foundation to work with. Is very presentable!

Fhawman · Jan 26, 2020

93celicaconv":x65ct21c said:
I know I have several of those passenger light assemblies with the red lens. It may take me awhile to dig one up, but I can look for one if you are interested. That would be awesome

Yeah, those rear seat release knobs and retainers do take a beating from direct sunlight - my son's maroon ST185 from Arizona had a similar deterioration. I can take a look if I have a set of those or not. I know I have a set in blue (and they are faded a bit to look more like a slightly darker shade of gray). Those would be harder to find, but I can take a look when I get some time, if you are interested. The release knobs aren't too bad

I'm surprised your leather rear seat tops haven't dry-rotted from the direct sunlight and cracked, given what happened to your seat back releases. We found a good reupholster shop and had all new skins made up from the old patterns to correct the original leather being dried out. I guess its not clear in the pic, this is the main issue, the whole top of the seats are dry rotted and cracked. Sad as soon as you get to the vertical leather its like new...

Looks like your antennae is also not retracting all the way. Does it extend at all? Those are easy to fix, as the mast whip likely broke. A new mast comes with a new whip. Hard part is getting the remnant of the old whip out of the recoil box. But if you are comfortable removing and can get yourself a new antennae whip, that is easily fixable. I haven't dug into this yet, it wont move up or down, I actually see on a dealer service receipt that was in the glove compartment that it was replaced right before it was parked, so hopefully its a simple issue (do you think it could be tied to the stereo not working?)

I'm thinking a good auto glass place can easily replace your rear window outside trim molding. That is a normal item for them to put new if the rear glass requires replacement. Might want to check a few out near you. Good call, I had this done this weekend, looks soooooo much better

The roof side finish moldings are a different story. Those an auto glass shop wouldn't have (I don't think), but you can ask to ensure. The passenger (RH) side is Toyota P/N 75551-20400, and the driver (LH) side is Toyota P/N 75552-20400. They are specific only to 5th Gen Celica's. The good news is that all 5th Gen Celica's used the same moldings here. So if you have access to a local salvage yard near you that has 5th Gen Celica's, you might find a good set of replacements. I know I don't have any, but if you want, I can look in our local salvage yard when I find some time. I know there are 5th Gen Celica's out there, and here is Wisconsin, those moldings are typically is good shape. If you run across some time that would be great, I'm not finding any 5th gens in salvage here, and like you said they would likely have the same issue.

Are these similar molding surrounding your quarter panel glass in good shape? Given your other moldings, I would think those are not in great shape. These aren't bad, LH is good, RH has some abrasion (maybe from a polishing wheel, but not sun damaged).

Lastly, your center caps can easily be reconditioned/repainted to match the original wheels. Just take it to a local good body shop in your area and have them give you a cost to recondition & color match paint them to match your OEM wheels. The paint used is somewhat special to work well with this kind of cap. I may try this myslef, or there is a place here called Hub Cap Annie's that can take the whole wheel back to new, curb rash and all, so I may just take it to them.

Nice car. You have a solid foundation to work with. Is very presentable! Thanks, I feel pretty lucky especially when I read some of the other restoration posts where they are dealing with major rust, engine change-outs, and getting rid of poorly done modifications. This car made me feel like I was 85% done at the start.

underscore · Jan 27, 2020

The stereo tells the antenna when to go up and down, so if the stereo is acting up at all I'd start with that before doing anything to the antenna itself.

alltracman78 · Jan 27, 2020

The antenna is stuck partway.
That's not the radio; it just sends the antenna completely up or down.

Billythebest · Jan 28, 2020

So which one is forsale

1991 White All-Trac

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