Abandoned [MicroImage] 2007 Garm (Cali_Yaris) turbo yaris

[youtube.com/KARR]

I recently found and bought the old microimage yaris owned by Garm

figured you guys might enjoy seeing it still exist.

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6513

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6515

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6514

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6516

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6516

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6518

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6519

[WeeYari]

Is it still running or did the motor eventually blow?

[sh0rtlife]

hell even if the motor blew assuming you can turn a wrench....it would be less than a grand to rebuild it

nice score..what did ya pay for it

forgive my shit memory...but is this the car that "had to be destroyed"..i remember there being a car built on a TRD test mule or something that had to be destroyed..leaving it in a storage unit to get auctioned assures is "lien" ability to get titled legaly

[youtube.com/KARR]

Is it still running or did the motor eventually blow?

It runs!! I bought the car from a storage unit place.

[youtube.com/KARR]

hell even if the motor blew assuming you can turn a wrench....it would be less than a grand to rebuild it

nice score..what did ya pay for it

forgive my shit memory...but is this the car that "had to be destroyed"..i remember there being a car built on a TRD test mule or something that had to be destroyed..leaving it in a storage unit to get auctioned assures is "lien" ability to get titled legaly

No this isnt a trd mule. But it is a really cool yaris build. I gotta really good deal on it all i will say.

[youtube.com/KARR]

I got it to run but has injector stuck issues. I only ran for like 10 secs or so.

I have ordered all new injectors deka 60lb same as what was in it. And ordered other new fuel related stuff like FPR (aem FPR was bad inside) ,DW filter 5 micron, and a new walbro/TI automotive pump.

After I get these installed will run the car again and work on some other issues.

[WeeYari]

Only a handful of us left here who know who/what Garm/cali_yaris/MicroImage was.
I really enjoyed watching this car go from a stock 2007 to a less aggressive, still considered a daily driver build. It was a thing of beauty. Lost it for me when it became a mission for power (357 whp?), stripped down race beast.

sh0rtlife; I believe you are thinking of Jason@SportsCar. He acquired preproduction models to do race builds. After a couple seasons, those cars had to be crushed as they were never eligible for resale. Either that or SEMA builds which also were doomed for the crusher.

[sh0rtlife]

yeah thats the car i was confusing it with...such a wealth of stuff on this site its easy to confuse some details


hell even if its a gutted car currently..no reason it cant be "dialed back" into beeing a road ripper with full gut..so it puts on some LBS..even if the HP was dialed back to 300 it would be a riot on the street

[youtube.com/KARR]

Only a handful of us left here who know who/what Garm/cali_yaris/MicroImage was.
I really enjoyed watching this car go from a stock 2007 to a less aggressive, still considered a daily driver build. It was a thing of beauty. Lost it for me when it became a mission for power (357 whp?), stripped down race beast.

sh0rtlife; I believe you are thinking of Jason@SportsCar. He acquired preproduction models to do race builds. After a couple seasons, those cars had to be crushed as they were never eligible for resale. Either that or SEMA builds which also were doomed for the crusher.

Yeah i have read all the forum post from garm on here. And def seems his journey was cool with this little car build. I havent been on any forum in years almost feels weird typing on here now haha. Reminds me of different times before facebook....I am mostly a 240sx guy had over 100 of them through the years. And here I picked up this oddball fwd car that garm dumped a bunch on money into. And I do like the :cool: little car its interesting.

[sh0rtlife]

at the end of the day they are flickable gokarts..and they grow on ya fast

[youtube.com/KARR]

at the end of the day they are flickable gokarts..and they grow on ya fast

I am excited to drive this car! I just need to replace a lot of old parts. The car was built pretty well has lots of good parts on it. The fact it made 357 on 91 cali pump and water/meth mix is pretty wild considering the weight of the car. I plan to get it running then go to larger injectors and have it retuned for 93 since I live in Florida. And maybe later update the old aem ems series 1 computer to something more modern. So i can then put the car on ethanol.

[91mustang]

I remember this car, seems like it was sold to someone, last I remember from what happened to it. I think I was going to buy something from his shop but he closed it up

[WeeYari]

Car arriving in Florida a little over 9 years ago.
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49052

[youtube.com/KARR]

Oh very cool to see!

[sh0rtlife]

this whole thing reminds me of a street bike i bought only to find various bits of its history on a motorcycle forum for kawasaki's ..very cool when you get the "previous life" of a rig as a bonus after buying it

[justjesus]

WOW. this was a trip down memory lane, but it also made me sad to see it that way.

This car was a little beast. I actually had the pleasure of doing a few autoX passes on it. LOVED the coilovers on it.

Was with him on several autoX runs, and even one or two drag days. Car could scoot. I almost bought it when he offered it up to me! But I was short like....the asking price.

I'm sure i still have video of it's anti-lag! Search YT for "anti-lag yaris" - it may pop up.

The engine was built by (forget the names) the guy who built engines, including for one very fast Scion gal back in the day. She was a big name back then. Forged pistons, and rods. Lots of one-off parts if i recall.

Nice score. Please post pics when it's cleaned up!

[youtube.com/KARR]

this whole thing reminds me of a street bike i bought only to find various bits of its history on a motorcycle forum for kawasaki's ..very cool when you get the "previous life" of a rig as a bonus after buying it

Yeah all vehicles have a story, some are just way cooler than others! haha

Its cool that history of this car exist online so far my favorite thing about the car.

[youtube.com/KARR]

WOW. this was a trip down memory lane, but it also made me sad to see it that way.

This car was a little beast. I actually had the pleasure of doing a few autoX passes on it. LOVED the coilovers on it.

Was with him on several autoX runs, and even one or two drag days. Car could scoot. I almost bought it when he offered it up to me! But I was short like....the asking price.

I'm sure i still have video of it's anti-lag! Search YT for "anti-lag yaris" - it may pop up.

The engine was built by (forget the names) the guy who built engines, including for one very fast Scion gal back in the day. She was a big name back then. Forged pistons, and rods. Lots of one-off parts if i recall.

Nice score. Please post pics when it's cleaned up!

I thought it would be cool to share the car here since it had a presence on this forum. I have been ordering parts for it to get it in order. I haven't even washed it yet. I may do some videos on the car on my channel maybe not sure yet.

From the research I did on this group you are right. The husband Arthur Armendariz drag racer Leslie Durst Armendariz is who built the engine. And he did post on this forum some. I did try to reach out to him on FB a week ago but didnt get a reply yet. Maybe he will maybe he wont who knows.

The biggest question I have about the car is why the Jax florida guy who bought it abandoned it!

I was able to look at the udder racing FB page and in one pic it shows the mileage on the car. 30,472.
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6520
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6521

Garm told me over the phone when he sold the car the built motor maybe only had 1000 or so miles on it. Yes race miles but still thats very low on the engine build itself.

I did check the mileage on the car when i first got it but i cant remember what it was. I know it was almost the same. I am gonna go out to the shop sometime today and hook up a battery and see what the current mileage is.

[WeeYari]

The biggest question I have about the car is why the Jax florida guy who bought it abandoned it!

That would be an interesting story.

[youtube.com/KARR]

That would be an interesting story.

I just wrote Gino on FB so will wait to see if he responds.

[youtube.com/KARR]

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6522

Good morning, So I ended up with a car you used to own. Toyota yaris. It was purchased from a storage unit auction. I wanted to just find out some history about it during your time of ownership. I have done a lot of research on the car and its owner prior to you and learned a lot about the car. Just curious why you had abandoned the car.

Hey Karr! So it was car a few of my buddies and me used to own a few years ago. We all grew up and ended up going separate ways and it got kind of forgotten. I ended up trading it for something and it never got picked up for like a year 😂. It wasn’t worth the the time and effort to tow it and honestly it needs a fair bit of work that I just don’t have time for. If you have any questions about it I’d be happy to see if I have any answers for you! It’s actually a cool little car hopefully you can get it up and running!

Thanks for writing back dude! Yeah so my dads friend is one of those old guys that goes to those storage auctions. And he saw the car and wrote me about it and i had him bid on it for me and i won. Thats how i got it. Def has set up a while. haha Was there anything wrong with the car that i should worry about? I ordered all new fuel system parts for the car. But I did ge the car to run for about 10 secs just to test

So the only issue is everything on that car is everything runs through that ecu and we could never get it to run right. It was running fine and just one day it wouldn’t stay running. I’m sure it has something to do with the ecu. Other than that I don’t remember too much more about it. I wish I had more for you!

I’ll dig through my emails and stuff and see if I can find anything helpful for you! It will be a cool project for you.

[WeeYari]

It's too bad the MicroImage forum died. Garm basically bailed on YW and started the MI forum. That is where the bulk of the history was captured as the build went from radical -> extreme -> sold.

[youtube.com/KARR]

It's too bad the MicroImage forum died. Garm basically bailed on YW and started the MI forum. That is where the bulk of the history was captured as the build went from radical -> extreme -> sold.

Dang hate to hear that! would have been cool to see. Yeah i tried using archive.org for that site and it didnt show me much

[youtube.com/KARR]

I checked the mileage wtf!

The car only has 44 more miles than when it got delivered to the guy in jax florida.

44 miles!!!

Old mileage
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6521

New mileage
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6523

[WeeYari]

OMG WTF!

$7,500 USD to drive 44 miles. Worst investment ever!

[youtube.com/KARR]

OMG WTF!

$7,500 USD to drive 44 miles. Worst investment ever!

I don't even know what to say! Seems they were young guys when they bought the car. And maybe didn't know much about cars at the time maybe didn't wanna damage their investment. And then maybe had falling out based off what he messaged me.

This is just such insane news to me. All day yesterday after I checked it, I was saying to myself 44 fucking miles! Told some of my close car friends as well 44 fucking miles! Just such a insane twist to this car's history.

This just shows you never know whats going to happen to a car after it gets sold.

Gram treated the car to a good life! Then after it was exiled to rot in a storage lot.

I however am even more excited about the car now!

[youtube.com/KARR]

I found out yesterday that the deka injectors on the car were modified to fit the perrin fuel rail. The injectors have been machined on the bottom tip metal part. As well as machined on the plastic part at the top of the injector.
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6524

I bought new injectors identical to the ones they used. So machined them down the same with what tools i had available. I used a belt sander and a dremel worked great.

I also went to install the new black AEM FPR i bought but the ORB fitting orings, that go into it were trashed. So I gotta go find some today from somewhere.

[06YarisRS]

Excellent...Following...

[sh0rtlife]

napa..they have the books to find you any o-ring...even stuff that is by all rights unobtainable

[youtube.com/KARR]

Update sorry no pics. I will start taking some.

Got the car back together went to prime fuel and, major leaks from the fuel lines.Spraying out of the hose in multiple places!

The car has redhorse fittings so I am assuming now, that they used redhorse 235 fuel line.

redhorse 235 (Stainless reinforced polymer core with nylon outer braid) only has a life span of 5-7 years... And this car has been sitting since december 2013.

I should have knew better and put more thought into it.

Anyways I will be replacing with stainless PTFE hose which last FOREVER!

Also I am starting to see some things I would like to do different the more I look into the car. There are some hose and wire routing issues that need to be done better. Regardless very cool little car.

[youtube.com/KARR]

Some things written on back of the AEM v1 ecu
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6528

Also it seems the AEM ecu is a Honda AEM ecu based off the part https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6527

[WeeYari]

This thing really did become Frankenstein's monster. Where are the giant terminals to harness a lightening strike?

[sh0rtlife]

those are resistor values, probably were changed on the board itself, this was a common practice on the 80s alfa's and bmw's to raise the redline and tweak the performance within the stock ECU...changeing the values in other places can change the fuel curve too...so i dont see why that couldnt still hold true or even be used to "modify" the incoming signal of a device to better match what the ECU wants as a range

[youtube.com/KARR]

those are resistor values, probably were changed on the board itself, this was a common practice on the 80s alfa's and bmw's to raise the redline and tweak the performance within the stock ECU...changeing the values in other places can change the fuel curve too...so i dont see why that couldnt still hold true or even be used to "modify" the incoming signal of a device to better match what the ECU wants as a range

I found one post here on yaris world from garm where he stated that aem modified the ecu. But didnt say why or anything. Maybe to do with vvti control? thats just a guess. The ecu does work because i did crank the car once. I am just exploring the car to learn as much as i can about it.

Also found out today one of the gauges isnt working (aem tru boost) so i am gonna need to replace it.

Pretty much lots of things need replaced because of how long the car was sitting. Whats crazy is the tires even though they are dry rotted to hell have almost full tread and still have the nipples on them. haha

[sh0rtlife]

i deal with cars that have sat for decades and honestly, more often than not its a matter of replaceing most things rubber(belts hoses tires yes brake hoses too), anything beyond that useualy just needs a lil TLC..guages included..you have to think about "moisture damage" more than anything IE check every bloody ground and connector and clean them and id be willing to bet most things spring back to life..sometimes the simple act of removing something and putting it back in will bring it back to life..wish i was joking but its very true

[Compeer]

Sick car dude and awesome revive project! That things going to be a beast can't wait to see her all shined up!
You should make a video where you water blast and clean her.

[Black_griffin6]

This is so amazing. I always wondered what happened with that car. So glad to see someone scooped it up and is fixing it; I was gutted when Garm sold it.

Garm sold me so many parts and helped me a ton over the years. My Yaris wouldn't be half the car it is without him.

[youtube.com/KARR]

It runs!

Sorry so long for a update...been busy and had to order a bunch of parts.

New deka 60 injectors, new aem FPR, New Fuel pump, New -8 an feed and return lines, New Deutsche Works 5 micron fuel filter (the car had oem lines with -6 attached to them previously) I am probably forgetting some things and it still has other things it needs, but I got a running car!

Here is some video off my phone of First start! :headbang:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMD5-GTeR34

[youtube.com/KARR]

:w00t:

Drove car today for first time! Garm yaris lives on!

https://youtu.be/me_xHDFFrmU

https://youtube.com/shorts/DqkhMN9RxEM?

https://youtube.com/shorts/BnntNKd0BgQ?f (https://youtube.com/shorts/BnntNKd0BgQ?)

[youtube.com/KARR]

Finally decided to wash the garm yaris! Cleaned up pretty well!
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6530
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6531
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6532
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6533
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6534
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6535
i put a little mileage on the car haha
https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6536

[sh0rtlife]

damn this is crazy clean...are you missing the front flairs and thats it?

[youtube.com/KARR]

damn this is crazy clean...are you missing the front flairs and thats it?

I have them you can actually see them on the counter in one of the pics.

[remcafee]

anyone know what car those flares are from?

[WeeYari]

anyone know what car those flares are from?

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showpost.php?p=650271&postcount=4

[youtube.com/KARR]

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6537

[WeeYari]

After some digging on here I believe;
1 -> starter
2 -> alternator
3 -> some thin gauge white wire

If you can piece all of this together you should be able to determine what 3 and 4 are.
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://sakhsondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/yaris-electrical-wiring-diagram.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjjufyrz9f-AhXzIX0KHU-QDG4QFnoECFoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw15WhN-tfM_DVUe2gLzzixc

[youtube.com/KARR]

After some digging on here I believe;
1 -> starter
2 -> alternator
3 -> some thin gauge white wire

If you can piece all of this together you should be able to determine what 3 and 4 are.
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://sakhsondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/yaris-electrical-wiring-diagram.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjjufyrz9f-AhXzIX0KHU-QDG4QFnoECFoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw15WhN-tfM_DVUe2gLzzixc

Thank you so much!! yes that means the other black wire aka #4 goes to engine bay fuse box just like the the small white wire.

I decided to move the battery in the car and move the engine bay fuse box inside the cabin so been a wiring nightmare lately and wanted to make sure i hooked the alt up to the correct place on the terminal.

[Desircustoms]

Wow, congrats mate, that's a beautiful find!!!
Please post videos whenever you go track/drag race it.

[youtube.com/KARR]

Wow, congrats mate, that's a beautiful find!!!
Please post videos whenever you go track/drag race it.

Yes this was a crazy find! I have been working on the car for a while now. Runs well as of recently i decided to clean up the wiring on the car some. Then i went crazy and deciced to move the engine bay fuse box inside the cabin...not fun job. As well as moved the battery to the back of the car. When I am ready I plan on rewiring the entire car.

[WeeYari]

What are you making room for in the engine bay?

[youtube.com/KARR]

What are you making room for in the engine bay?

I just didnt like the cluttered look and wanted to make it look nicer. I got it all back together now. pita

It does make room for a different style manifold in the future though.:smoking: I dont have a lot of money to throw at the car right now so, just been doing what I can as far parts that had to be replaced because they were old. I did some fuel system upgrades. And been doing a lot of cleaning on the car. I actually just put the front bumper back on last night.

The car runs great and the rev limiter with the ebrake pulled is nuts like a machine gun haha. Very fast and furious haha

[youtube.com/KARR]

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6538

[youtube.com/KARR]

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6539

[youtube.com/KARR]

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6540

[ern-diz]

Absolute insanity.

There is no way.

Guess I picked the right time to check back into the forum!

I still have Garm's number and text him from blue moon to blue moon.

Just unbelievable!

[youtube.com/KARR]

Absolute insanity.

There is no way.

Guess I picked the right time to check back into the forum!

I still have Garm's number and text him from blue moon to blue moon.

Just unbelievable!

It really is wild this car was sold and just sat for 10 years without being driven. Blows my mind. I been working on it for a while now getting it cleaned up. Such a cool little car. I have spoke/texted Garm and he very nice and gave me some info about the car that I wasn't able to find on the forum from his old post.

[youtube.com/KARR]

And yes I know the current wheels are not good. But the works now live on a miata.

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6541

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6542

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6543

[youtube.com/KARR]

Today was the first time I had the car out of the garage in months so washed and took some pics.

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6546

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6544

https://www.yarisworld.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1321&pictureid=6545

[youtube.com/KARR]

Drove the car tonight sure is fast! :biggrin:

What a fun car! :smile:

I love it! But I really like 240sx cars.... :bonk::bonk::bonk:

Sad to say, I am trading it off tomorrow. :frown::brokenheart:

Maybe I will regret it, idk. :iono:

The Yaris is headed from north florida, down to Naples florida now. Just saying, in case anyone is every curious where its ending up at, this time in its journey. :frown:

So to the new owner, if you happen to run across this thread. I hope you are enjoying it, and treating it well. And the car continues to get more upgrades! :headbang:

[youtube.com/KARR]

It was fun posting on a forum in 2023!

:respekt: to all the yaris heads here!

[WeeYari]

:cry::brokenheart::cry:
You did great work bringing the beast back.

[youtube.com/KARR]

:cry::brokenheart::cry:
You did great work bringing the beast back.

Glad i got to give it some life back.

The legend will live on!

[ern-diz]

It really is wild this car was sold and just sat for 10 years without being driven. Blows my mind. I been working on it for a while now getting it cleaned up. Such a cool little car. I have spoke/texted Garm and he very nice and gave me some info about the car that I wasn't able to find on the forum from his old post.

That's awesome :thumbsup:

[ern-diz]

:cry::brokenheart::cry:
You did great work bringing the beast back.

+1