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Toyota GT-Four ST205 Restoration

Julian
Tuesday, 09 June 2020 / Published in Restoration

Toyota GT-Four ST205 Restoration

Toyota Celica GT-Four (ST205) 1995 Tour de Corse winner - wikipedia- Mytho88
Toyota Celica GT-Four (ST205) 1995 Tour de Corse winner
Mytho88 – 6th Toyota_Celica GT-Four WRC (ST205) taken in Showroom of Toyota

If you don’t know the Celica GT-Four ST205 you probably either are too young, or not interested in WRC. This famous car was so quick the competition couldn’t keep up. It was all going well for Toyota, until a cursory inspection of the mandatory restrictor, showed up a hairline crack. Upon closer inspection the restrictor which had successfully passed all the scrutineering up until now, was found to be an ingenious method of allowing more air to bypass the restrictor. Max Mosley the president of the FIA at the time said “It’s the most ingenious thing I have seen in 30 years of motorsport.”

Still cheating is cheating, and Toyota were banned for the 1995 season, which the silver lining was enabling the legendary Colin McRae to win in spectacular style.

Values of the Celica GT-Four are rising steadily now, and whilst it’s unlikely to ever top the Lancia Delta Integrale, it will always hold a unique place in Motor Sport history.

Roll forward to the present day, and Balance Motor Works are carrying out a restoration on a 1995 Celica GT Four – this is one of the WRC homologation versions with all the trick bits (some not activated like Anti-Lag and Water Injection).

Celica GT Four under bonnet
Underbonet shot as the strip down progresses
This is the “easy” way to remove the Engine and Gearbox complete on the subframe, by raising the body off the assembly.
The slow and painful process of stripping the underseal off the car begins. Although it is in fairly good condition, this process reveals areas of corrosion that would have remained hidden. Note the rear subframe which has been shot blasted and powder coated

Well nearly 2 years has passed since the last update to this project…here we rejoin the restoration as what looked like a slight amount of corrosion on the sill turned out to require a LOT more work than first envisaged.

celica gt4 resto - rust repair 1
So you might be thinking this just looks like it needs a plate on the outside to fix..appearances can be deceptive..
celica gt4 resto - rust repair 2 - inner sill rotten
this is what it looks like behind the outer sill – not good.
celica gt4 resto - rust repair 3
Cut away all the rot and you can see why doing chassis restoration properly is so time consuming – there is a lot to rebuild here
Celica Rust repair 4 - rebuilding the inner sill
Celica Rust repair – rebuilding the inner sill
celica gt4 resto - rust repair 5
Inner sill repair progressing
celica gt4 resto - rust repair 6
Inner sill complete – note the use of Copper Weld Through and reassuringly expensive Primer “Metaflux 70-44”
celica gt4 resto - rust repair 7
Outer sill almost completed

that’s all for this update…more to follow soon…

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