TA60 (1983 Toyota Carina) 2TGEU Swap - A complete story!

[xgrapher]

It all started when I came across this advert saying "Selling my 1983 Carina" on a local website. These cars are almost in the ranks of the long gone dinosaurs lately at this part of the world. But I was very much aware of what a 20V 4A-GE Blacktop can transform this piece of junk into. I started imagining and calculating in my mind and the outcome was very feasible. Moreover, I could complete this project with a VERY LOW BUDGET (the primary agenda of this project). Without thinking twice picked up the phone and set an appointment with the buyer and met him with my buddy (who is my soul mate in this project). The car looked very funny but what the hell - it's a toyota RWD and that's all that we care about!















The seller was firm on not letting it go for below a thousand bucks but we persuaded him to settle for USD 550/- You know it's not worth more than that if not worth anything at all. Since the seller was in another state it took him a couple of days to get us the export plates (due to his preoccupation or laziness I suppose). We also agreed to pay for the export fees which was USD 110/-







Our next stop was to the traffic department. Obviously we had devilish plans with the ride and didn't want to be let down during registration. Of course, we were expecting terrible results at the technical testing but to our surprise it failed only due to some real minor reasons:

1. Reverse and indicator lights not working
2. Rear right brake not balanced
3. Smog above limit
4. Seat belts not locking

Since we were excited and somewhat rushy we drove down to the nearest workshop to have all the 4 brake pads replaced and rotors/drums machined. The rear right drum was flooded with oil (not sure whether axle or brake oil) and that was the culprit but since we were there already we didn't back out. The whole replacement, including parts, machining and labor costed us USD 135/-