COB's '94 Supra Turbo

ChildrenOfBodom

Moderator
Flashback to 2007.

I was 16 and had my first job at In N Out, across the street from a Circuit City.

Every night, there was a white MKIV Supra parked in the Circuit City parking lot. It was my first time seeing one up close.

The car was in sorry shape. It had a cracked up carbon fiber hood and beat up Blitz body kit. It looked better from far away.

Circuit City closed down and the car was spotted only a few times after that.



8 years later in 2015.


My neighborhood is separated by a major thoroughfare, thus, I rarely visit the other side.

On a rare occasion of driving through, I spotted a big spoiler poking out from a cul-de-sac. Curiosity came knocking.

It was the Supra from Circuit City. Layers of dirt covered the car, and the tires had debris built up around them. The tags had been expired for two years (2013 expiration date) and Google Street View showed it hadn't moved since then.

I snapped a photo from the passenger seat of my friend's 1984 300ZX (below). Buying neglected cars has always been a passion of mine, I eventually bought the 300ZX, too.

At this point, I had a MK3 at home, but it was not finished. A MK4 would have been way out of my price range, so the intention was to settle with a built MK3 Supra.


There were a few other local neglected cars that I wanted, but this one immediately jumped to the top of that list. The next few days were filled with wonder - who leaves a MKIV Supra outside to rot? What's wrong with it?


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Google Street View showing the car parked in 2013.

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There was only one way to get this car - grow a pair and ask to buy it.

The gentleman who answered the door was the owner. He said it had been sitting for quite a while and was likely only going to sit for years to come. It seemed like he wanted to see the car get restored and driven.

A closer look revealed the following:

1994 Supra twin turbo
Automatic
TT calipers painted red with Brembo stickers, rusty rotors
Blitz bumpers, side skirts, spoiler, trunk logo, BOV, turbo timer
Relatively stock and untouched 2JZ-GTE, stock twins
Carbon fiber hood, cracked and faded, doesn't fully latch
Aluminum radiator, missing fan shroud and condenser
Blitz 19" wheels with Michelin tires, 245 front, 295 rear
HKS Super Drager catback exhaust
96-98 headlights and tail lights
Cracked windshield, rear view broken off
Purple tint, bubbling up badly
White gauge inlays, aftermarket Pioneer radio
Dents all over, scratches in the paint, fading here and there
Faded pearl white paint job, jammed and everything

To my surprise, he threw out a number that was completely within my available budget. There was no doubt, many thousands would be required to restore this thing.

The key was also missing, so there was no indication of mileage. It was unlocked.

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A day went by. My anxiety levels went off the chart. I need this car in my life.

He accepted my offer and we went to the local Toyota dealership to have a new key cut from the VIN.

I popped in the battery from my 89 MKIII Supra, which was engineless at the time. The instrument cluster came to life with 63,000 miles even on the ODO. The MKIII battery needed a jump, since it had lost charge sitting idle about 9 months.

The transmission was automatic, unfortunately. The 2JZ-GTE's oil was clean and at the proper level. Turned the key and she started right up. I regret not making a video of this event... it was a moment to behold. I was shocked with how well it ran - I had assumed it was not running, hence the sitting.


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Immediately, I took the car around the block for a test drive. The first turbo spooled up with minimal pedal effort and the sound had me hooked. I let off the pedal and heard "PSHHHH." The silliest grin came upon my face, I knew this was my lucky day.

Here it is back home in my driveway, a mere 1000 feet away from its prior home.

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Here it is with the older Supra counterpart residing in the garage, plus a gutted/chopped up 89 Supra parts car in the driveway.

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I had to go to work - there was absolutely no doubt in my mind what I was driving that day.

Note - ugly white gauge inlays and aftermarket radio.
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Made it to work without a hiccup!

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My friend Carlos helping me clean it up.

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Years of dirt washing away...

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A distinct color difference was uncovered!

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Blitz Technospeed Z1 19"... dirty as hell. Clean up then polish.
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Headlights next, some bad oxidation going on:
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Cleaned up and looking much better:
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Cleaned up interior, seats could use some reupholstery
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Blitz logo and Toyota logos were painted Gold... ugly if you ask me. Plus this Blitz logo can go in its entirety.
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Notice the blue in the paint?
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What kind of shape is it in mechanically? Motor just looked
Dirty in that picture, but fortunately unadulterated. man what I would give to get my hands on one of these.
 
What kind of shape is it in mechanically? Motor just looked
Dirty in that picture, but fortunately unadulterated. man what I would give to get my hands on one of these.

It's not perfect, but it runs good. It needs a little tune up, but with a documented 63k miles, I can't imagine many Toyotas would have problems.

It needs a power steering pump at least.
 
The past week of driving this car has been a total blast. I don't understand why this thing was left sitting, it just needs maintenance.

The attention factor is also surprising. People stare and wave when they see it on the road. Intersections are awkward, people blip their horns just to say "NICE CAR!"

I was backing out of a spot and had to make sure not to hit a Tacoma parked across the way - the owner joked with me, "Go ahead and hit it, your car is worth more anyway!"

It's also been fun taking my friends out with it - It's a total rice rocket in a funny, novelty type of way.

As you'll see here, the novelty wore off quickly :)

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Side skirts... screw these things. Screw everything about them. They're riveted and molded into the body with bondo... this is be a ton of work to repair.
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I shouldn't have flipped the hood this far back, it messed up the windshield cowl. It didn't have a hood prop so for some reason this seemed like the thing to do... yeah, no.
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The hood off, next were the fenders. Unfortunate that they were molested with the sideskirt, they were numbers matching panels :(

There's some evidence of funny business - literally no brackets for the front bumper are OEM. The horn is definitely not the original one. The crash bar is missing. The AC lines dangle - no condenser.

Someone had a front end wreck - it could've been far worse.

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Looks better already... As you can see, that stupid riced out truck next to it is only useful as storage, since it's owner won't do anything about it! If it were mine, I'd have parted the ***** out years ago.

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Next up was breaking off the massive globs of bondo on the sides of the car.

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Time to get this car back on the road to looking right!

OEM parts! They're silver, but whatever, they'll be painted someday :)

Front bumper
Rear bumper
Fenders
Hood
Side brake ducts

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Wing removed, bondo removed, and hood properly latched! Much better!

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FYI....the odometers in the MKVI's are extremely easy to disconnect and/or swap out with another unit. This can be done in less then 5 minutes. Not saying this was done to that particular car but just want you to be aware of the fact it can and has been done on a lot of these cars over the years.

Anyhow, good luck getting her back into shape. Looks like you're well on the way bringing it back to life. Keep the progress pics coming.
 
I always enjoy your threads. Watching a good vehicle getting caught up on maintenance and restored is a good read in my book.

From a previous MKIII owner, I just never fell in love with the looks of the MKIV. The powertrain is awesome though.
 
FYI....the odometers in the MKVI's are extremely easy to disconnect and/or swap out with another unit. This can be done in less then 5 minutes. Not saying this was done to that particular car but just want you to be aware of the fact it can and has been done on a lot of these cars over the years.

Anyhow, good luck getting her back into shape. Looks like you're well on the way bringing it back to life. Keep the progress pics coming.

Thanks for the advice. For what it's worth, I did run a carfax report. The report covers 3 previous owners and all numbers came back consistently throughout all years 94-15 :) So that's a good sign. Hopefully getting further into the motor will reveal if the mileage is true or not. It was a bit strange how even the miles were.


I always enjoy your threads. Watching a good vehicle getting caught up on maintenance and restored is a good read in my book.

From a previous MKIII owner, I just never fell in love with the looks of the MKIV. The powertrain is awesome though.

I agree with you actually, the MKIV is a nice car, but it's all about that drivetrain!
 
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So the transmission is getting to me... already thinking about swaps. Anyway...

Isn't that just the ugliest ass end of a Supra you've ever seen? Body kits are the work of satan.

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Rear bumper removed, rear quarter skirts coming off next.

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Crash bar fully intact - the rear is undamaged thankfully. The trunk tumbler lock doesn't seem to turn though, gonna try to lubricate it.

Bonus goodies - it's got tail lights off a 98, which have gunmetal insides rather than black. Also, there's a stainless rear strut bar, looks like a Cusco.

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Stock bumper installed. Needs a stock wing now. The tint is also pretty terrible, but I can't see it while driving since the rear view mirror is in the back seat. Somehow it was ripped off the windshield and took a heap of glass with it.

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Dreadful bondo... what the hell kind of person does this to a Supra?

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Bonus! It's got a genuine HKS Super Drager exhaust. Old school.
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Brake ducts fit fine, but I've gotta find a way to get more of this bondo off. Needs new clips too.

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Now there was the matter of a spoiler. The Blitz one was ridiculous, I just couldn't stand to see it. Jumped on craigslist and someone was selling a white spoiler for a steal! $25! Immediately jumped in the car and picked it up.
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YES!
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Targa top off is also very nice!
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White gauge inlays removed - Factory looks 100x better! Now it needs a 6spd tach to eliminate the mess of PRND2L, O/D off, and MANU lights.
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I have a friend that has the same luck with guns as you do cars. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I'm excited for your build. Are you going to sell the mkIV as a shell or part it out?
 
Always impressed with how you turn these old Toyotas. I think you'd have a team of helpers if we all lived local.
 

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