Here is my build thread of my 1997 Corolla DX with a 1.8L I4 with auto trans 4 speed with lockup.
Quick story about the car, my normal car was a 1992 Toyota Camry with 303k miles and the brake line went out for the rear tires (and tank rusty, other brake lines, fuel lines, fill tube). Everything but the tank is original! I have wanted a corolla since I first bought the Camry about 2 years ago, and I spotted a overly cheap corolla on craigslist. To make the long story short, I got it for $700, and needed brakes redone all around, struts all around, front end alignment was WAY off, been in several small wrecks (city beater), and a few other minor things (light bulbs etc). I have around $700 in parts and around 4-5 hours of work into it. Same car in fair shape sells for around $2500-3000 all the time locally.
Now for the mods...
First things first... the upper grill block!
A quick background story on this, my mom use to make home made soap, and used clear plastic to wrap them and a hair dryer to slightly melt and shrink it to seal it up. I ended up taking a trash bag and putting my OEM grill in it and wrapped it like a present. Using my solder rework station, I melted the overlap first and continued to "shrink" it till it was tight. Only thing I don't like with this mod is that I used a thin trash bag, so I had 2 layers instead of 1 which makes it look a bit odd when you get close. From a distance You can barely notice it.
I do not have ABA testing, since I knew the Corolla has oversized engine cooling abilities.
The last one is kind of hard to see, the back side is solid like the front, but looks bad due to the overlap etc. Cardboard is there since I don't have a lower grill block in yet.
Next mod is my hood seal since the OEM ones were shot. The last owner forgot to put the oil cap on the engine, and it spit oil all over under the hood... not good for that rubber! I removed the rubber strips and ran Camper Mounting Tape using as many layers as needed to see the foam hitting the hood when closing/opening the hood to check.
Lately I just noticed the back side of the hood isn't sealing (vibrates at idle), so I need to upgrade that one as well.
