I drove 800 miles this weekend

Not so bad, right? About a round trip for a typical Tail of the Dragon meet.

Karma from getting the vert running (DrBoost, you cursed me) hit me. HARD.

All week, i'd been trying to track down a driver's side 90-93 Celica GTS/Alltrac front fender. A necessity with what i'm doing to my car. The reason why i only need ONE, is that i bought a "pair" of them off of a forum member some months ago. Welp, i got them back from the painter, only to find that they were mismatched. ONE was GTS/AllTrac, the other was GT/ST/Convertible. No good. I need the wider GTS units to be able to fit my tires under my car.

So i contact the seller. He tells me to go pound sand, pretty much. Awesome. I look on Car-Part.com. EUREKA! Look at them all! Why didn't i do this in the first place?!?!

I call the first place. "Yeah, we got it, come on out and get it." I drive 45 minutes to Brickyard Import Salvage, the pull the fender. They bring it in to me. It's a GT fender. I point this out to them, and they give me some BS about it being interchangeable. Well, yeah... it'll bolt to the car, but it's not the same part. At all. I go home.

I try another junkyard about an hour north of me. Same EXACT thing happens. I start to feel like i'm in the twilight zone.

I call a junkyard in Westfield, IL. The swear up and down they know what i'm talking about, and they have what i need. I drive the 2+ hours out there. I wait an hour for them to pull it. Before they even make it in the door with the part, i see that it's ANOTHER GT FENDER!!! I go off on them, demanding at the very least, gas money.

One of them comes up to me, apologizing, he actually seems to know what he's talking about. He offers to source another correct one and ship it to me for free. Now we're getting somewhere. I get his card, and turn around to leave. On my way out, he yells over to me. "Hey, is that white fender the one they pulled for you?" I tell him yes, at which point, he says back "Bud, there's another one out in the yard, let's go out and take a look." We find it, it's a pristine maroon Celica GTS. BINGO!

I grab the fender, the faux CF nosepiece, and the rockguard to the fender. I leave with that, minus $50. Let's take a tally.... the fender at toyota is $250, the nosepiece i've never seen sell for less than $80, and the rockguard is usually another $40 in good shape. I'm finally happy.

But was it all worth the hassle? Ugh.

Oh.... and even THAT wasn't the karma.

The convertible blew up 30 miles outside of indianapolis on Thursday. AWESOME.

I was at Deals Gap this weekend too! i was in a 96 Miata M edition (the purple looking one).. And i drove 1300 miles this past (4-day)weekend :p

Sorry about your bad luck. but looks like you finally got what you needed. At least fender wise.

The reason why i only need ONE, is that i bought a "pair" of them off of a some months ago.

Name plz.

MiaTurbo wrote: I was at Deals Gap this weekend too! i was in a 96 Miata M edition (the purple looking one).. And i drove 1300 miles this past (4-day)weekend :p Sorry about your bad luck. but looks like you finally got what you needed. At least fender wise.

I didn't get to go, because i was busy getting the vert done, and couldn't go without the fenders. :(

Did you see all the Celicas out there this weekend? Supposedly there were 30+ Celicas and MR2s. I'm still mad i couldn't go.

I'll be out there again in June.

Ahh, sorry i miss read. i thought you were there because there was a Celica meet too. Well, that sucks even more.

HiTempguy wrote:

The reason why i only need ONE, is that i bought a "pair" of them off of a some months ago.

Name plz.

Not on here. No worries. I should have elaborated when i said "forums." Not this forum. In the seller's defense, which is why i didn't push it too hard, the fender probably did come off the same car, even though they didn't match. There's a 1990 GTS in my local pic a part that has one GT, one GTS fender.

A win is a win bro, be happy you got the parts and it was a great day for a drive.

aussiesmg wrote: A win is a win bro, be happy you got the parts and it was a great day for a drive.

Yeah, it really was.... i just wish i had had the foresight to map out a non-highway route. The Celica even with crusty bushings and bad strut mounts is still a very fling-able and entertaining ride on backroads.

I'm definitely happy now, save for the bottom end replacement job i have to do on the convertible now.

But at least i get to test fit the new shoes tomorrow.

A friend of mine was at the Gap breaking in his new-to-him SV650, he mentioned there were a ton of Celicas getting in everybody's way. Funny that it would come up here, too....small world!

Bryce

Nashco wrote: A friend of mine was at the Gap breaking in his new-to-him SV650, he mentioned there were a ton of Celicas getting in everybody's way. Funny that it would come up here, too....small world! Bryce

Yeah, i was supposed to be there.... i know everyone that was there.

This past weekend was the Celica and the Rotary meet. I'll probably go out there soon to break in and test the new iteration of the car.