Hey everyone,

So, we happened upon this Corona and it was so clean for the price that we could not pass it up. Here it is the night we picked it up:




The car runs like a top and does not have any problems that we can see. I guess we will find out if there are any soon as I will be using it as my Daily for a while. I have to say I am starting to like this car more than Cressida Drift car... Maybe that is because the mx83 isn't done it though.

I spent some time out in the cold giving her a bath, not bad for 1980 paint.



Today I ordered my wheels, I went with 15x9 -10 Shakotans instead of the BBS RS. I went with those due to price, and I wanted to stay with a period correct styling. I have my coilovers for the car and I am ordering my panhard bar Monday.

I installed my wheel today.


I will post here as updates come along.

Thanks for reading! - Vance

Shakotan's very nice choice, once u dump it the corona should look sick.

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Shakotan_culture@instagram

Beautiful car, great find! I look forward to following this one. And nice choice on the wheels, I'm stuck between the shakotan's or a set of RB's. What suspension setup are you going to be running?

Yea, It is a 1 owner car with 95,000 original miles! For my suspension, I will be running a set of coilovers off a ae86. They are the megan coils. To have them fit, I have to buy a modified top hat for the front which t3 is making and also I am purchasing a panhard bar from them. I can't wait to have it slammed with the exhaust and wheels!

Hey welcome! What part of NC? I just picked up my first Nostalgic Toyota and would like to meet up with others who appreciate the cars as well sometime.

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1979 Toyota Corolla

Hey man! Our shop is in Belews Creek, NC. We hang out in greensboro , Winston, kernersville. Shoot me a text, we are trying a little cruise together one weekend soon! 615-788-6281

Vance

Btw, we also gave a 81 corolla!

Nice... I have a 79 that wasn't so clean when I got it. I did a color change, and a lot of mods.

Here's a short video when I was at Willow Springs here in California: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mif5fmF7ivs

I put a 78-81 Celica lowering spring/sway bar/shock/strut on it, 83-85 Celica Rotors/84 Cressida calipers up front and a Supra LSD in the rear. I made some custom gauges, as well as 85 GTS Sport seats and a few other things here and there.


It's a different car, but it's basically a Celica in the engine compt and suspension. have fun....

That car looks great! what are the specs on your wheels?

They're older Enkei's, 17x7, 215/40 17 front and 235/40 17 rear, with adapters.

I want to update this with awesome... but I can't

I HATE waiting on parts, I have my coilovers, however I do not have the top hats or panhard bar yet. The wheels and tires are both on their way...

I love driving this car however, and it has me contemplating parting out my Cressida drift car project to build this.. But I'm not going to sell out on the Cressida lol.

For a long time, my Corona was my only transportation. That means, every modification was started Friday evening, and the car was ready to roll on Sunday evening. I spent many nights in the carport swapping parts from my wrecked Celica, testing what would fit and what needed to be modified, and then finally sent it to paint while I was on vacation. The first modification was done in October, 1997 when I got it and put my Celica engine parts on it, and the latest was just a couple months ago when the new gauges were installed.

Hopefully, yours won't take the same 15 years that mine has been progressing... and I'm still not done!
The day I bought it:


...and not too many days ago:


By the way, the Supra diff was a direct bolt in, no modifications were necessary. Even the Supra rear parking brake cables mated up to my Corona front parking brake cable. I had found an LSD for pretty cheap and put that in with the diff.

Dude, I love your car! What front bumper is that? I am keeping with the stock front bumper and adding a chin lip to it. Right now I am most curious about a 5 speed swap as I want to improve on the gas mileage hah..

Do you know what 5 speed parts swap directly into the car and onto the 20r motor?

I modified 93 Accord bumpers to fit... the front is a little bit too round, so I'm trying to find a cheap 91-93 Integra to try another look to it. I had done something similar to my 78 Celica with plastic bumper covers, and the idea stuck with me! lol

Since you have an 80, stick with 79-81 Celica transmissions if you can't find a Corona 5 spd at the wrecking yards. If you use 79 to 81 the shifter will be in the right spot. I have a 78 Celica trans in mine, but had to change out the tail housing on the trans and shifter mechanism to fit in this car, it sits back a little further. You should be able to swap everything in since I'm pretty sure that the hole for the Clutch Master is there already... I might be wrong though. My engine block is an '83 22R and I had no problem mating up the 78 Bell Housing. The Passenger side Engine Mount Bracket was different, but other than that, everything else was a direct bolt in.



Here's the Brake set up for the front, 84 Cressida Caliper bolted right to the Corona Spindle (some modification, but easily done) and the 81-85 Celica Hub/Rotor was a direct fit.

brosgarage, I live in Charlotte and own a 79 corona wagon. I have a couple of parts you can have. I need them out of my garage, including a w50 tranny w/ a 6 month old transmission. I did an engine swap and need a lot of my parts gone. You should come down to Z-max dragway this weekend for the ccr-scca solo event. I will be bringing "Sakura" my corona out tho race for the first time. PM me for more contact info and what parts you might need.

Here is a pic of Sakura in my garage, where she was refined and resides:

CoronaGTR, What supra diff did you use? And do you have a full write up of your vehicle? I have a 1jz in my car and need to catch my suspension, brakes, and rearend up to the power.

I'd like to check out this weekend at Zmax, sounds pretty cool!

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1979 Toyota Corolla

PM sent

In other news, I snapped a picture at the pump last night, and when I got home My antique tag came in!

I don't have a full write up, but I can give you the specs here:
I had a diff from a 79 Supra, and got a 7.5 LSD off Craigslist for pretty cheap. The 7.5 is in the trucks and Previa, so they are available in all sorts of ratios.

Suspension: 78-81 Celica lowering springs and sway bars, from Suspension Techniques (probably not available anymore). Corona Spindles/Struts with 78-81 Celica Tokico Illumina's. A spacer needed because Celica cartridge is shorter than Corona cartridge, and they don't have the Illumina for the Corona. 78-81 Celica spindles/brakes will fit in the Corona, but I used the Corona strut for the Cressida brake upgrade.

Front Brakes: 83-84 Cressida Calipers - the bolt pattern to bolt the Caliper is same as stock Corona Caliper. I Drilled the threads out of the Corona Spindle for the Cressida Caliper (Cressida Caliper & Corona Spindle are both threaded). I made 3/16" spacers to put between Cressida Caliper and Corona Spindle. I basically fabricated thick 'washers' - I used Aluminum stock from Lowes, started with approx. a 1.5" hole saw to start outer diameter, then drilled the center for bolt, then finished drilling with the hole saw. 82-85 Celica Vented Rotors are a must with this, they use the same hub as the Corona, but the Celica Rotors are a larger diameter than the Cressida Rotors and fit perfectly. This is an inexpensive alternative to a $700+ big brake upgrade, and are also bigger brakes than an AE86 setup. I also used the Cressida dust shield, redrilled 3 of the holes to mate it to the Corona Spindle.


Rear Brakes: 79 Supra discs, the 79 Supra rear parking brake cable (attached to the calipers) works with the Corona front Parking brake cable (attached to the parking brake lever). I was even able to mount the Brake Cables into the Corona's brake cable clips without any modifications. The rear brake hose to the center is in the same spot, so I didn't have to modify that, either. I found a kit on the internet that was designed for a 78-81 Celica with the Supra Diff - a 7 piece kit with teflon/braided hoses. Also: I have a 79 Supra Master Cylinder, but kept the stock Corona Proportioning Valve, very heavy braking you'll get some rear wheel lock up, but not during normal driving so it's a non-issue thus far with the proportioning valve.


Rear Differential: 79-81 Supra, bolted directly into the Corona with no modifications necessary. I didn't have to cut off the factory swaybar perches, either, I just mounted the Celica Sway Bar inside of the Supra perches, and it worked fine. It was so easy I kept thinking I was missing something, but it was a perfect fit... and a little beefier looking than that stock Corona diff. I had a one-piece driveshaft made for my 78 Celica, and put that in, no changes there either and it was the same length as the two-piece Corona driveshaft.


Hope this helps... again, lots of people keep telling me that a "big brake kit is an easy swap from a 3rd gen" but I have yet to see one that didn't require redrilling rotors, custom made adapters, and a $700+ price tag. This upgrade that I did was on a shoestring budget; 3rd gen Celica rotors are cheap at most parts stores, as are the MX Calipers. I spent less than $200, and used a little ingenuity and trial fitting first, but I've raced the car for two days, and drive it regularly with no issues other than forgetting that my brakes are incredible now, as opposed to the stock, wafer thin rotors! lol

CoronaGTR, Damn I love you Cali j-tin guys! Thanks for the info. I've already priced out the brake setup you have and will be doing that next week.
As for the Rear Diff, I'm just going to go for the Ford 8.8 and 4link it down the road. Unless I come across those supra parts locally. But I have a 1jz putting 15psi worth of torque and hp to my poor little pumpkin and I doubt even a mk1 rearend can keep up for long. Thanks again for the write-up.