ta22 body modifications (voice your opinion please)

[dreadedta22]

Hello everyone, now i know many will not agree with my plans and to you i welcome your input good or bad please justify your criticism.

I love the shape of the ta22 however i believe there is room for improvement.

The plan:
I intend on pumping the front and rear guards of the car to give it that coke bottle look (think xa,b,c falcon coupe, chevelle or vh valiant coupe not charger coupe). I thought about flares but I've taken the dare to be different approach. I am a panel beater by trade and have no intention of cutting corners.

I will first be drawing a grid over the panels to be modified to provide a series of reference points once i am happy with the panel i will then be removing it and moving it outwards on the car probably only between 25-50mm. Is out there obviously filler panels will need to be made to piece the guard back together then a small amount of body filler will be required before primer and paint. I do not intend on widening the doors at all. I believe it is not needed to achieve the result i am seeking.

I have noticed there are not many threads on this site dedicated to body work or paint (if there are i cant find them in not very computer orientated) and come on guys this stuff is easy give it a go yourself. Or pay someone like me to do it im cool with that.

Like i said at the start if you think im right or wrong i just want you to explain your side of the argument. I will be posting pictures through out the process for anyone interested.

["Z" UTE]

Well mate the first point is, don't mess with perfection!

There have been a few attempts over the years to build wide body Celica's. A couple here in Canberra and they were abysmal failures due mainly to excess use of polyfiller.

When you start the planning on the graph paper, you really will have to get the proportions correct. Any designer will refer you to the golden numbers.

Given a metalworking workshop with a decent budget, I would love to increase the overall size of the TA22 Celica by about 15-18%,

There are not any threads on bodywork advice, but there is a vast array of what people have done in the Tech and Conversion threads.

There is a painting thread here on Toymods, it has been dormant for quite some time now, so most questions must have been answered. I suck at searching but you can try the little white box on the far right of the screen above the label advanced search.

good luck mate and keep us informed of how you go,

cheers Chuck.

[mynameisrodney]

It's hard to tell based on the description alone. In my opinion though, if you are going to do it, then make sure it looks period. I'm not a fan of old cars with more modern aero bits and other bodywork on them.

Cheers,
Chris

[CheeseBiscuits]

Big Mats RA28 comes to mind..



http://www.toymods.org.au/forums/sho...=big+mats+ra28

and this blue ra2x(?)


but you can't beat old school flares imo!







anyways... look forward to seeing your progress

[Pagie84a]

Could you do it like bigmats but bring the bottom of the doors and sill outwards aswell keeping you sill line straight

[king-szeitszam]

It sounds like you've already decided to do it, so I'm not sure what purpose there is in having us voice our opinions beyond validating your choice. Having said that, I think that most people on here would welcome anything innovative or creative when it comes to these cars- but whether that's due to them actually liking your idea or simple morbid curiosity is something else.

With that in mind I will say that I am firmly of the opinion that if "wide-body" conversions for first generation Celica's were; A) Cost effective; B) 'Aesthetically pleasing' and C) Practical... then they would be done a lot more than they are.
Personally I think the proof is in the pudding; TA22's that have been hideously brutalized in some edgy body-mod attempt are a dime-a-dozen, but good examples are as rare as unicorn shit.

I'm not saying that your attempt would be as ill-fated as nearly all others before it- I'm sure it'd be different..however I feel it's also prudent to note that everyone else who has attempted such mods probably said that same thing to themselves when they started too.


As with any car club you will get conservative and progressive opinions (mostly the former)- everyone has their own idea of what looks good. At the end of the day you're building the car for yourself and it's up to you what you like the look of- whether or not everyone else agrees with you is a different matter! Either way- people will be interested in what you're doing because they aren't brave enough to do that sort of thing to their own car themselves (i.e. me)..so you can expect to have a lot of people living vicariously through your build thread, but not necessarily agreeing with anything that you're doing.

If you want to take a risk with your car and spend your hard earned money on something zany and out of the ordinary- I say go for it. There will be plenty of us Toymodders gawking through the proverbial window waiting to see if a beautiful or Frankenstein-esque Celica rolls out the door.


Good luck with whatever you choose to do.
Frank

[dreadedta22]

Paige i wasn't planning on moving the sill or doors at all i think it will give a more bulbous look having the guards roll back into the standard door. But yes i can see there are a hell of alot of similarities as big mats car im really glad its not only me with this idea and its great to see another interpretation on essentially the same idea. Are they a fibreglass item or modified steel.

Can some body tell me what is the widest tire and rim you can fit under an unmodified ta22 rear guard??

And king i started this thread because from what i have been able to find which is very little on the subject hasn't been all that helpful and would hope that the members of toymods would provide some useful info or inspiration. I can tell you my plan but once the guards are removed i can assure you any plan will mean very little and on the fly measurements will become common practice. So if anyone can point out a future problem before it is a problem this thread has served its purpose for me.

[SHEPPO3930]

with a stock diff (1370mm face to face) a 15x7" zero offset wheel and 205 semi slicks will clear rolled guards. There's room on the inside so you can go wider but you can't go outward, only inward... if that makes sense?

i have a ta22 that is wider than stock, it has flares that have been glassed on and blended. the car has a volvo diff (1410mm face to face) and 15x8 zero offset wheels with 225 semi slicks there's some clearance.

be careful what you do to a ta22 as IMO they are a beautiful shape and anything more than a bob-tail spoiler and a chin spoiler, some flares and some nice dish wheels... they can be ruined. i think my car has been ruined slightly by the racing front splitter however it's there for a reason (track car).

good luck with it.

[dreadedta22]

Thanks alot mate out of curiosity, volvo diff that is an interesting choice any particular benefit over say a shortened r31 or hilux

[SHEPPO3930]

have a look at the thread about volvo diffs in classic celicas, there's tonnes of info regarding why they are a good choice.

back on topic, the picture of the blue celica above is pretty much what mine looks like, but it has a racing front splitter.

[dreadedta22]

Thanks again for the info.

Don't get me wrong i love the shape of the car but have notice looking down the car front to back or vice versa they are a very flat car and im not really chasing the flared look I've spent about 25 hours so far measuring levelling and marking the car. before i even consider pulling the grinder out have a group of mates (trusted) to look over double and triple check my work. Its not that i don't trust myself it just cant hurt to have many opinions, hence this thread.

["Z" UTE]

The British/Russian built TVR is a car that you might want to look at. The front guards are way wider than the body at the door width, and they have managed to pull that off!


If you are after ideas or just a consensus opinion of your plans, try posting up some pics of where you are with the lines on the car and where you wish to be.
Cheers Chuck.

[Stolic]

heres my 2c... Probably the best attempt I've seen, tho it really just looks like moulded flares?? might look wrong without the wing and splitter..



(holden sill skirts??)

[patrickleslie]

Well here's my input



The only info I have on this is a file name "Celica_Macao_1981.jpg", but it is more likely to be from years '77 or '78 when a Celica won (these dates are AFTER the introduction of that TRD logo. Celicas also won in '73, '74 & '75). It might be the TOM's entry, possibly Nobuhide Tachi. Failing that it could be a Dan Gurney AAR Celica

Whatever it is, dat widebody....

[dreadedta22]

Thanks Patrick and stolic both those cars are very cool and yours looks like a bloody weapon there stolic, nice work. Its not really the look im after but thanks for the look at some other ways of doing it. If i were to flare the car i would try to replicate this look.

Off topic my computer has crashed and i cant figure out how to upload pics off my phone can any one pm me with some info