So I have been mulling over for a bit which way to go here. I have been wanting to restore and drive a couple of older cars for quite some time; 1 of them being a 1st gen 4cyl, 5 speed T4R. I had one in my early 20's and regret selling it, although it was the right thing to do at the moment.
What I want is a DD, nothing wild, nothing built for off-roading really, just something that would take me to the mountains and around the western US during the winter to do some boarding, throw the bikes in the back for some mountain biking, maybe something to sleep in occasionally when early morning hikes were in order. I don't drive much currently, maybe 500-600 miles monthly. I do want it to be reliable, nice paint, etc...
I talked with a couple of mechanics that I trust and they both told me that getting parts was tough and in the end it wouldn't be worth it. That's a little disheartening, I am tired of new cars and while my latest car has been amazing, a GS430, I can see it being a money pit that isn't worth fixing long-term (its 10 years old), everything is expensive on a Lexus.
I would pretty much just look to build a stock 22re with a few upgrades for a bit more HP. For the rest of it, I would want to stay pretty much stock with the exception of a minor lift and some upgrades to increase creature comforts a bit. Plus, I want the experience of restoring a couple of old vehicles to call my own. I have very little experience working on cars, but I am willing to take things very slow and spend the time to plan out each step, do the research. I would also like to drive it for a bit to get used to it before I would start tearing it apart.
I'd like to get some advice from the forum, are 22re engines and T4R parts that are quality hard to come by, where would be my challenges from a parts / restoration perspective? Like I said, I don't mind this taking a couple of years, I have the time, the funds shouldn't be an issue, it would purely be a project that wouldn't replace my current DD until I had confidence the bugs were worked out.
The other project I am going to do is a 65-66 mustang, but I would like to do the T4R first as the mustang would be a complete ground up resto-mod (mild) that would take me a bit more time possibly.
Any advice, thoughts, comments?
What I want is a DD, nothing wild, nothing built for off-roading really, just something that would take me to the mountains and around the western US during the winter to do some boarding, throw the bikes in the back for some mountain biking, maybe something to sleep in occasionally when early morning hikes were in order. I don't drive much currently, maybe 500-600 miles monthly. I do want it to be reliable, nice paint, etc...
I talked with a couple of mechanics that I trust and they both told me that getting parts was tough and in the end it wouldn't be worth it. That's a little disheartening, I am tired of new cars and while my latest car has been amazing, a GS430, I can see it being a money pit that isn't worth fixing long-term (its 10 years old), everything is expensive on a Lexus.
I would pretty much just look to build a stock 22re with a few upgrades for a bit more HP. For the rest of it, I would want to stay pretty much stock with the exception of a minor lift and some upgrades to increase creature comforts a bit. Plus, I want the experience of restoring a couple of old vehicles to call my own. I have very little experience working on cars, but I am willing to take things very slow and spend the time to plan out each step, do the research. I would also like to drive it for a bit to get used to it before I would start tearing it apart.
I'd like to get some advice from the forum, are 22re engines and T4R parts that are quality hard to come by, where would be my challenges from a parts / restoration perspective? Like I said, I don't mind this taking a couple of years, I have the time, the funds shouldn't be an issue, it would purely be a project that wouldn't replace my current DD until I had confidence the bugs were worked out.
The other project I am going to do is a 65-66 mustang, but I would like to do the T4R first as the mustang would be a complete ground up resto-mod (mild) that would take me a bit more time possibly.
Any advice, thoughts, comments?
