retro trunk goodies

[RedCar]

Taking a long weekend off from work, I roadtripped 5 hours back home to visit family... but on the way back early this morning my right rear tire gave me a surprise!

It happened on a pothole at the end of the pavement right before start of a 10 mile sandy shortcut section... the pothole clunking didn't seem any louder than usual, but after the pavement I could hear more dirt flinging inside the wheel well than normal. Using unprecedented countersteer going through the next couple bends at first I just thought, 'wow! I'm getting really good at dirt drifting'... but then I stopped because the dirt noise in the wheel well made me suspicious and discovered sidewall destruction encircling the entire inner face!

Fortunately the spare donut had some service left in it and brought myself (and hitchhiker) to town without further trouble... it did make me think twice about old tires though. Totally unexpected (and lucky) for the sidewall to give out on a  low speed pothole instead of hours of 80mph freeway and occasional autoX abuse they've been getting lately.

Anyways, I also had a chance to appreciate the OEM jack/tire iron and remembered the disgusting old 1st aid kit in the back of the car too... not sure if it came from dealer, or if it's just from a previous owner? Also suspicious that the spare might be 80s vintage too... it's got instructions printed all over it, and an interesting winter type tread pattern with lots of sipes. 



oh... and def not original, but a while back I replaced all my rotten rear carpet with astroturf!

[twotone_ra64]

That's cool! Not the tire sidewall explosion part, at least. My car came with factory tools and jack, but not a first aid kit. Also, the spare tire was not a donut, but rather a full size tire on a spare steelie. I won't be replacing it, and instead, lining the spare tire well with carpet of some sort and filling it with tools and flat tire repair stuff. Also, I would need some kind of solid topper to make sure whatever's in my trunk doesn't cave into the well.

[RedCar]

Good point. i guess full size is a subjective thing, 185/70 looked like a pizza cutter compared to my 225/60s... but I guess it is full size for GT cars. Here's a cool link about yokohama tire history http://specials.yokohama-online.com/100-years/
It looks like the last time they used the serif font and symmetric Y logo on my spare was 1977!


Does your trunk still have the hinged plywood sheet that levels the cargo area with the seats when they're folded down?

[swan song]

If those are indeed the original trunk bits and you are not partial to them, you might want to put those up on eBay and see if you can get a pretty penny from somebody that is wanting to do a full concourse restoration on the Celica

[twotone_ra64]

Does your trunk still have the hinged plywood sheet that levels the cargo area with the seats when they're folded down?

My trunk came with this plywood disc that has a clip in the center to hook into the steelie center bore, but it wasn't hinged or mounted anywhere. With the old spare tire in there, it was actually higher than the level of the trunk floor.

[sirdan]

Im waiting for this to happen to my truck tires. They have to be at least 10 years old.

[RedCar]

My trunk came with this plywood disc that has a clip in the center to hook into the steelie center bore, but it wasn't hinged or mounted anywhere. With the old spare tire in there, it was actually higher than the level of the trunk floor.

Personally I really like the plywood sheet across the spare tire area. With the seats folded down it makes a really large flat area good for sleeping or just stacking things more securely. There are little stabilizer feet in the corners so it doesn't tip around, also has padding on the underside with a spring latch in the back to prevent it from rattling.  It even has a little kick stand to prop it up while you load/unload things in the spare tire compartment, it all seems well thought out as with everything else Celica... i'm sure some of the guys at the BACC meets have examples if you haven't seen one already.

Im waiting for this to happen to my truck tires. They have to be at least 10 years old.

Before I didn't really believe the 6 year rule of thumb for tire expiration... now I'm not so sure. Truck was wearing 90s tires up until recently and they handled quite a bit of abuse pounding along river bottoms and lava rocks... no grip on wet or snowy pavement though, which is why I tossed them.