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Mango's History
Here are Mango's own words describing the history of his vehicle:
I got the car back in late '93 from a previous owner, had racked up a bit of miles already since he drove it nearly every week back and forth from Orange County to San Francisco. In the New Year of '94, it rained really hard and flooded the commercial street I was on, the car, along with almost 2 dozen other cars got flooded. My car got flooded up to the waist and floated literally like a boat. Naturally, it did not start, everything was messed up, engine internals, you name it. I was left with the choice whether to get it started and then sell it or just sell it as is. I worked on it day and night, at some point for 24 hours straight gutting everything out in the interiors to let it dry. At this point, the car started to smell musty and I got rid of everything out of the car but the engine bay. It finally got started and as you can imagine at this point, I wasn't about to sell it after so many countless hours of skinned knuckles, repair, trouble shooting, chemical additives and a couple of hundreds of dollars later. Since then, up to now, I've been bringing it up to speed and what it looks like now.
*ALL OF THE INTERIOR I DID MYSELF WHICH IS WHY THE WORK TOOK ME A BIT OF TIME, IF YOU LOOK AT THE PICTURES, YOU'LL SEE THE ORIGINAL COLOR OF THE INTERIOR ON THE SEAT ADJUSTMENT LEVERS, IT'S UGLY BROWN THAT'S WHY YOU CAN TELL I HAD TO REPLACE ALL OF IT WITH SOMETHING A BIT MORE UPDATED IN COLOR. THAT COLOR ON THE LEVERS WILL SOON BE GOING AS WELL.
THAT'S IT!!!! THE CAR IS PRETTY MUCH DONE 95% PERCENT! ALL OF THE REMAINING STUFF I PRETTY MUCH HAVE WITH ME ALREADY. AFTER THAT, I'LL JUST BRING IT IN FOR THE REGULAR PHYSICAL CHECK UP AT THE CAR DOCTOR, TOP OFF ALL FLUIDS AND ADJUST ALL OTHER STUFF IN IT! WHAT'S BEST ABOUT THE CAR IS, IS THAT IT'S A DAILY DRIVER AND IT PASSES EVERY SMOG CHECK WITH FLYING COLORS!! I HAD PUT THIS CAR TOGETHER NOT TO RACE (BELIEVE ME, PEOPLE ON THE ROADS HAVE WANTED TO! SORRY SIR, NO IS THE ANSWER!), IT'S NOT GOING ON ANY SHOWS ANYTIME SOON, I JUST DID IT SO IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE EVERY 86-89 CELICA GT OUT THERE (and so far, I haven't seen one that's as kept up as mine) ALL OF THE WORK ON THE CAR I'VE DONE MYSELF EXCEPT FOR THE STUFF I INDICATED. IT'S A REAL-TIME BUILD OUT FOR THE DO IT YOURSELFER WHO DOESN'T HAVE A LOT OF MONEY SQUARED AWAY OR HAVE OTHER FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS OTHER THAN THE CAR. I DON'T GET HOW THOSE KIDS OUT THERE PUT THEIR CAR TOGETHER IN SUCH A SHORT TIME WITH OUTRAGEOUS, EXPENSIVE STUFF. THIS CAR I'VE BEEN WORKING ON SINCE '94 AND IT'S ONLY NOW THAT IT'S CLOSE TO BEING DONE, NO SPONSORS, NO TONS OF MONEY, JUST PATIENCE. THE ENGINE MODS I'VE DONE NOT TO RACE OTHER PEOPLE BUT MAKE THE CAR RUN BETTER THAN WHAT IT WAS AT FACTORY SETTINGS. AT 150,000 MILES ON IT, IT STILL RUNS LIKE NEW. I DON'T PLAN ON SELLING THE CAR SINCE I'VE PUT IN COUNTLESS MONEY, TIME, EFFORT, AND BLOOD AND SWEAT ON IT. NO MAJOR ENGINE WORK WILL BE DONE, JUST PRETTY MUCH BOLT-ONS THAT WILL BOTH KEEP THE CAR LEGAL AND QUICK AT THE SAME TIME. I DECIDED TO DO THIS IN HOPES OF GETTING THE CAR IN THOSE MAGAZINES THAT ONLY SHOW HONDAS AND ACURAS. I WANT THE CAR TO BE THE POSTER BOY FOR ALL UNSUNG TOYOTAS OUT THERE, CELICA OR OTHERWISE, WHOM THIS WHOLE TREND FORGOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE! MAYBE IF THIS CAR MAKES IT, THEY WILL MAKE MORE STUFF FOR OUR CARS!
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