Phattyduck's SV25/ST205 hybrid

phattyduck

New member
I just remembered that I do have a picture of the JDM front bumper and lights... just had to pull it off the cell phone:

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-Charlie
 

darthripley

Moderator
looks nice! :)
i like the headlights a lot ... reminds me of the older LS400 headlights.
does the inside part towards the grille light up amber?
it's very close to an ES250 - i like the look a lot, different but not ostentatious.
IIRC as far as 4 door models go (excluding wagons) 2nd gen Camry's were badged Vista, 3rd gens badged Scepter & 4th gens badged Gracia.

yes, finding 16" rims to clear the ST205 brakes is a bit of a problem.
i lucked out that the 16" Speedlines we have clear the caliper with room to spare.
i suppose you could go with the stock ST205 3 spoke rims but those are not the prettiest stock rims :(

there aren't many rims that are 16" & 5x100 that can clear the calipers.
there were some really nice 5 spoke Advan dirt & trial competition rims that are 16 x 8 with a +38mm offset that i like a lot, but i have no idea if they would clear or not.
for your Camry the width & offset might be too large since your trac is now wider.

Subaru rims have a more favorable offset for your Camry, but i don't know if there are any 16" rims that would work with the ST205 brakes. :shrug:

having the larger brakes is great until you try to stuff them under a set of rims.
 

phattyduck

New member
darthripley":1gjd4pka said:
looks nice! :)
i like the headlights a lot ... reminds me of the older LS400 headlights.
does the inside part towards the grille light up amber?
it's very close to an ES250 - i like the look a lot, different but not ostentatious.
The inside part lights up clear right now. They are actually driving spot lights instead of fog lights (I was expecting fogs). I will re-wire them to only come on with the high beams and run an extra set of fog lights at some point. For now, the headlights alone are better than the stock crappy 9004 lights. I also wired in the corner lights to have turn signals along with the marker lights. I think it works out quite well around the LA freeways.

I'm trying to figure out what I should get for a customized plate... I'd appreciate feedback from anybody.

A few options:
CMRY GT4
SV25
SV205
ST205
SLPR CAM
anything else?

Most of the obvious ones are already taken here in California, of course... And "not your mom's Camry" doesn't fit. :shrug:

-Charlie
 

darthripley

Moderator
that's cool on the headlights - they look really nice :)

as far as a personalized plate i like SV205 the best of what you have there listed.
there's also AWD SV25 if that would fit.
we're only allowed 6 letters here in TX.
i don't care for SLPR CAM just b/c it's more fun to blow someone away without any hints :wink:

Joe had NO VTEC on his Integra & everyone was convinced it had something big going on under the hood when in reality it had the NO VTEC version B18 motor.
I can't tell you how many times idiots would slide up wanting to race .. it got pretty old pretty fast.

i've contemplated getting SLO CAM for my Camry b/c it truly is lol!
but i think people would think the opposite & want to mess with me all the time :doh:
 

phattyduck

New member
California get 7 letters plus a half-space of your choice.

I have a similar story from a buddy of mine that used to have an xB on airbags... his license plate was "108HP" - everyone wanted to race him for some reason! His motor was stock the whole time... :doh:

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
A few little updates...

I had a chance to test fit some more wheels. Surprisingly, the WRX fitment works well with the setup I have now. I put on a set of 18x7.5 +48 offset wheels which were very nice in the rear (not quite flush, enough room for daily driving) and cleared the front struts still. All this means I will be going for the 17x7.5" 48 offset RPF1s. I will probably be putting a small spacer on the front to bring it out a bit. After I get the wheels I will see if 5mm or 15mm will work better there - this will also be dependant on the ST205 brakes.

I also swapped out the four spherical bearings / bushings in the rear suspension. They were slightly more difficult that I thought they'd be, mostly due to the brake dust shield getting in the way of the puller. While I was under the car, I noticed my oil leaks have gotten worse - as far as I can tell it is leaking out the back of the block from the head gasket... and I have a new coolant leak. Luckily, this motor is going away soon - I just doing want nasty oil down the bottom of the chassis...

After all the suspension work, I finally got an aligntment on my way to work this morning, and had it set to the whiteline "touring" settings - -1* F/R camber and 0 toe. I wasn't able to get more camber in the front without bolts or adjusting the camber plates from 0. Once it stops raining, I can see what it feels like... :doh:

And, because nobody likes an update without pictures:

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Those are 19x8.5" Volks... :twisted:

They are normally on my buddy's Legacy GT, but funny things happen when you start drinking... They were resting against the strut, and still stick out that far!

So, that's the update.

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
So, I finally got the 17x7.5" 48 offset Enkei RPF1's - They are only 15.2 lbs each! I had to use the high offset to fit the rears with the Celica GT4 (ST205) arms and a 10mm spacer in the front to clear the strut and planned ST205 brakes. Tires are 215/40/17 Nitto NeoGen's - I wanted something M+S rated so I can still take the car up to the snow, but they should still handle well.

And here they are:

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Oh, and I got a new steering wheel too... 350mm Momo Competition, to replace my old Momo Race steering wheel that was scratched and worn out.

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Let me know what you think!

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
Also, a little teaser for my plans with the ST205 brakes:

6kN5aol.jpg

Stock Camry / Stock ST205 / Chrysler 300C R/T

I'll be using larger diameter disks with a relocation bracket instead of machining the stock disks down... The 300C R/T disks have the right back-spacing to clear Celica ball joints and they are 345mm diameter x 28mm thick (oh, and a pair of disks was $107 at Kragen!). Once I have it all figured out, I'll do a write-up on it. I already have the disks re-drilled and a centering spacer fit-up to the disk. I will have to machine the disk diameter down too - I don't know how much yet though.

-Charlie
 

darthripley

Moderator
the rims fit really nice Charlie :)

being silver, the rims are a little monochromatic w/the car in the pics, but lately I've been hung up on bronze/gold rims so that may just be me :oops:

the Momo wheel looks very nice, fits well with the interior.

looking forward to seeing your brake project, looks to be interesting with the Chrysler blanks.
 

phattyduck

New member
A short, non-picture update...

I just got the car smogged - it passed with flying colors! I had a heck of a time convincing the smog guy that it really was AWD, and no, it wasn't defeatable. He wanted to be sure, so he put it on the rollers anyway - and yes, it drove right off them. :twisted:

So, I've now put on over 30k miles on the car since I bought it less than two years ago. Hopefully I can keep putting those kind of miles on it with the 3s-gte in there. :)

All that's left at this point is finishing the front brakes (and installing the rears) then the motor swap starts. I guess its been that way for a while now. Funny how life gets in the way?

-Charlie
 

darthripley

Moderator
Are you swapping in a ST205 motor & tranny?
Sounds like a lot of fun :)

I totally understand life getting in the way ... I feel triumphant getting anything completed on any of the cars with so little time to work on them these days.

looking forward to seeing pics & updates once the swap starts :D
 

phattyduck

New member
darthripley":1e09o2xh said:
Are you swapping in a ST205 motor & tranny?
Sounds like a lot of fun :)

I totally understand life getting in the way ... I feel triumphant getting anything completed on any of the cars with so little time to work on them these days.

looking forward to seeing pics & updates once the swap starts :D
Yeah, its getting the rest of the ST205 drivetrain from my FWD ST205 swapped Camry. Once the brakes go on, the swap should happen fairly fast. I've been building up parts for so long now! (ST205 trans, axles, ST215 intake manifold for a front mount, wideband, etc. etc. ...)

After the swap is up and running - water/meth injection and nitrous! :shock:

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
Minor update.... New license plate!

xJpvVvJ.jpg


Thanks to the CA gov. budget crisis, it was a nearly 2 hour wait to pick up the plate, but otherwise, its all good!

I also had to replace my brake master cylinder recently because it was leaking both internally and externally... its nice to have a solid brake pedal again!

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
I finally found some time this weekend to work with my buddy who has a welder... The Celica GTS seats are in!

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I still need to clean up the brackets and paint them black, but they went in pretty much without a hitch. Most of the time was spent fixing the bad brackets done by the previous owner of the seats... Two of the four roller bearings on the passenger side seats were also missing, so hopefully I can find a way to get those for reasonably cheap without buying a half seat bracket from Toyota for $166...

I enjoy sitting lower in the car, and the drivers seat also rolls back much further than the factory seat! Much more comfortable for me. :D

I'm contemplating getting new black leather covers with navy suede centers (front/rear) to get everything to match up. I think that would be after the motor swap gets done though.

-Charlie
 

darthripley

Moderator
nice license plate 8)

the 7th gen Celi seats fit in nicely, great upgrade from the old stock seats i bet.
they would look really sharp with navy suede inserts. :)
 
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