Such as . . . if you have a Ford Expedition and show up for smog testing with a Chevy engine under the hood, and that wasn’t one of the engine options for that model year vehicle, you’re going to have a hard time, unless you show up with a bar referee label
I’m bringing that up, because YOU were the one who mentioned that OP could shoehorn a Chevy LS engine in that engine bay, in spite of the fact that OP himself said he wanted to drop in a remanufactured engine, which implies he was planning all along to drop in a Ford engine, which would be correct for that model year vehicle
By the way, I was at Costco today, and happened to park next to a Corolla of your vintage. I’d say 1988 or 1989. It didn’t have motorized belts or airbags, that’s why I think pre-1990, but definitely your body style. It was a white base model car, with apparently pristine original paint. I’m not sure if it was mechanically as pristine as the body, though. I don’t think the owner was as electrically savvy as you, as I didn’t see any horn or ignition switch bypasses, in other words I didn’t see any aftermarket dash mounted horn button or push button to start the engine.
You mean like the Corolla below? I happened to notice a new Mercedes the other day with almost the exact same body style. It’s a Classic, no doubt about it. I like how my push button mods make the dash light up like a Christmas Tree during start-up. But not everyone would. It’s a custom classic!!
re the LS engine, mea culpa, just an idea is all. I expect the OP’s objective posting here is simply looking for an assortment ideas, and can easily sort through them to decide for themselves which most suites their objective. It’s not an unheard of thing to pop an LS engine into a Ford, but definitely wouldn’t be a common thing to do, especially for such a recent model. Like I say, I think the OP is just looking for ideas, and isn’t much troubled to have to sort through them, picking the wheat and tossing the chaff.
@Nevada_545 … I saw that newish Mercedes I liked mostly from the side, it looked more like the second one that the first of your photos. It didn’t seem to have that ornament that is tacked onto the hood like on the first one. I don’t think it had that particular tail-light style in the 2nd one tho, a little less angly-ly. A more straight-forward, classic tail light arrangement in other words. It definitely had that little ridge styling along the top of trunk, as is clearly seen in your second photo.
I concur @db4690 , the base model is the more attractive of the Corollas of that era.
@Nevada_545 … I think it must have been this Mercedes 520 I saw, first photo below, I thought had a similar design to a 92 Corolla , base model, 2nd photo, below.
What do you folks think? Overall body design looks pretty similar, eh? I prefer the bumpers on the Corolla tho, those things are tough as nails. I’ve bumped into steel posts at 2-3 mph, not even a mark.
lol … I’m not saying the cars look the same. The quad exhausts, the wagon train wheels on the Mercedes, the bizarre rocker panels, the black top, the $1500-to-fix-a-dent bumpers, the certain-to-get-a-nick-in-the-parking-lot door panels, all definitely give the Mercedes a different look from the 92 Corolla. All I’m saying is the body designs are very similar.
I definitely like the Corolla appearance better than the Sonata @db4690 , rear view anyway. The Corolla of that vintage sports a journeyman design, not some high falutin’ 5th Avenue design like the Sonata. That particular Corolla pictured directly above however has a different tail light configuration than my own. On mine the tail-lights don’t extend into the trunk lid. My Corolla is configured more like Mercedes did it on the 520.
I feel Corollas have tended to look rather nondescript and boring. I find the current model a little more exciting to look at. In any case, I find that older model to be one of the more boring looking models
Mind you, I’m not disparaging Corollas, or Toyotas, for that matter, as I’ve owned several Toyotas over the years.
No offense at all @db4690 , beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Opinions about car styling differ a lot, person to person. Myself, I like the 89-92 Corolla appearance. I think those were the group of years where the body style stayed more or less the same. I didn’t like the next styling change starting in 93, that was indeed a boring look imo. But the next styling change after that I liked ok. I think the current Corolla looks pretty good as you say, but I don’t like the size, too big. I prefer the more compact look of the smaller wheelbase.
I like the Mercedes 520 too btw, except for the nit picks I mentioned above. The 520 is a great looking car overall.
OK now that jogs my mind. A friend had one of those back when. I had to put a bumper and grill on it. Somehow he ran into something late one night. It was a little unclear how it happened but he mumbled something about a ditch and a post. It was old enough then so I think I got the parts for $25 and I do recall having to do some welding in order to get it apart.
Later on he had some rust on the lower fender. That metal was so thin it was almost impossible to weld a patch panel in. Just blow right through the metal the minute there was an arc. It was just a plain ole dependable car but not much else.
