Hey, How did you paint the plastic pieces that are on your steering wheel? I want to paint mine, but I am not sure if I would need to take out the airbag to get at them (it looks like I do, but im not sure)

 

The paint is holding up pretty well. The only spot thats worn down pretty bad is the steering wheel trim piece with the buttons. I'm gonna repaint it soon and wrap it in clear vinyl so it doesn't wear down again.


yeah you gotta take out the airbag but its really not a big deal. You just remove the two torx screws on the back of the wheel and lift the airbag off the wheel. I didn't even bother disconnecting it, I just held it up while I unscrewed the trim pieces, and set the bag back in place while I painted.



Oh I love New Orleans. Sad to leave for the summer, I'm gonna be working in Detroit for a few months but I'll be heading back to NOLA again in the fall for school. I started driving on Monday and got back to Michigan Tuesday afternoon. I feel silly for showing off having a bike in my car now because that isht was f*(&in packed for the drive north





Anyways earlier to night I ripped out all the existing HID stuff I had in my car and replaced everything with Morimoto parts. New ballasts, bulbs, and wiring harness. It looks great, I'll update with some pics soon.

Oh and this is funny, while I was working on my headlights, my sister got in her car to go to 7eleven and when she turned on her car one of the ballasts of the HIDextra kit I put in her car fried out haha. I had a leftover working one so I got her lights working again for now but I'll probably be placing another order with The Retrofit Source soon.

 

Heres two quick pics, cant see much besides the drivers side ballast








I would have gotten better pics but I've been wrapped up in suspension problems. Before I left New Orleans I picked up a set of TRD coilovers from another SL member who never actually used them after he bought them from another SL member.
Well the install went well but I was having trouble getting the drivers side height adjusted to match the passenger side and aditionally the alignment was wayyyyy off. Like really bad. Well eventually I went back and inspected everything with a fine tooth comb and found that the mounting bracket for the driver's side spindle was bent. I hate everything lol

Heres a pic of the passenger's side in good condition



annd heres a picture of the driver's side with the defect circled




I'll try to get a picture that shows the issue that is created but heres a rough diagram showing the problem that is created




So yeah not driving the car right now because I do not want the issue to become worse and cause a major problem such as losing a wheel lol

I called Progress and they pretty much said there's nothing they can do for me since production of the TRD coilovers has stopped so really the only option would be to have new brackets fabricated and welded on... which I do not want to do.
I'm bummed that I'm out $500 but the bittersweet silver-lining is that I took the money that I was saving for wheels and dropped for a set of Dan Gardner Spec Street Coilovers from Dezod.



Even though the TRD set was messed up, for the short time I drove it I could tell a huge improvement in handeling over hotchkis spings and stock struts, so I can not wait to see how this thing handles with a brand new DG Spec set!

Package should arrive early this week and I want to get the install done as quick as possible so expect some pics soon.

 

Sorry to hear about all the bad luck. It will be sick tho when you get those DG coil overs on, Will you be able to post pics of the install?

 

Meant to take more pictures during the install but didnt really get any besides this:



These coils are a dream though I absolutely love them. Both handling and ride quality are much improved over the hotchkis+stock shocks I've been running

 

Ahh, now you know what it feels like to run one of the really stiff coilover sets. I love my DG coils.

 

yeah man they're great. I've been messing with the heights for so long trying to get all the corners perfectly even but I think I need to just stop and accept that 1/16th of an inch differance here and there is fine haha


also, small update, I re-mounted my ScanGuage II. I originally just had it velcro'ed to the dash below my gauges along the A-pillar. I went through all my pics and this is really the only one that shows where I had it



I liked the idea of having it there so I could scan other peoples cars if they needed me to check their CELs for them but I've only ever had to do that once so I decided to go ahead and pick up Doctor Isotopes mounting panel:



I'm really happy with it, still getting used to looking down there instead of by my gauges though

 

Your tC is so nice man and it's probably been answered before but...

What kind of paint did you use for the dash? I've been wanting to do mine, but I'm a lil scared to since I've never done it but your's looks amazing. I want to do mine in red, so anything you can share with me would be fantastic.

Like I said though, I've never done this, before I bought my tC I drove a '96 Camaro and had do intentions of doing anything to it but I love my tC and I'm trying to become less car retarded lol.

Thanks for any help you can lend.

 

yeah thats definitly the most common question I get asked. I'm gona go ahead and quote myself here



Its a good and fun project. Search around, theres plenty of DIYs out there, heres one of em I grabbed off Google for ya

http://www.yoursciontc.com/forums/14...or-pieces.html

 

Thanks for the share, once I finally get time to do mine, I'll def post some pics up.

 

I've gotten kinda sick of yellow fogs recently so last night I swapped out my yellowz for some LED bulbs to match my HIDs


the old:



that new new:

 

Bump

Get ready for the uber-post.

Been a while since I've updated, and been really busy with the car lately.

Early August I decided to go throw in a fresh clutch and flywheel. I picked up an ACT Street Clutch and ACT aluminum flywheel (12 lbs.) from Dezod, and dug in. Let me tell you, clutch replacement on this car is an absolute nightmare. Just horrible. There were many times we were doubting weather we were gonna be able to get the car moving again lol. But after 2 and a half days of work the car fired up and the break in process began.
Unfortunately this is also when I started having some bad luck. The very next day after I got the car running again. I drove it to work and came out to find this:



The whole back window was shattered. Didnt look like a break in or anything, my best guys was that the one of the lanscapers kicked up a rock with a machine and it flew into my window. Security couldn't find anything on tape though.
I had to punch out the glass and drive home like this:



Getting it replaced was a nightmare. My insurance set me up with safelite. Now keep in mind that I called in advance and requested that I pay the extra fee to use OEM Toyota glass and not their aftermarket crap... They insisted that their aftermarket glass is just as high quality and that I shouldn't worry. They couldn't have been more wrong.
To make a long story short I probably spent a cumulative 8 hours on the phone with Allstate and Safelite and went through 3 wavy and crooked pieces of their aftermarket glass before they got me a Toyota piece of glass. Luckily I didn't have to pay anything throughout the whole process, just a lot of time. The final replacement (with OEM glass) was actually done the very morning that I began the drive back to New Orleans, so yeah that was a stressful day.
Then I got to NOLA just in time for Hurricane Isaac, I'll spare the details but it wasn't fun to say the least.
Finally, about two weeks ago I came out of Target to find a nice dent and scuff on my rear quarter pannel. I didnt get a pic before I buffed out the scuff:





As you can see the paint buffed out just fine so I went to a Paintless Dent Removal place hoping they could pop it out, however because of the location, they couldn't help. So once again I called up Allstate lol. Good news is, the car is going into the body shop tomorrow morning.

I try to make the best out of a bad thing so while its under the knife, I'm having a little extra work done

If you actually read this whole post, congrats, you are hooked on phonics lol

expect an update soon!

 

Just so I'm not bumping this thread from the dead to do nothing but complain, here are some pics from ridin the mini chopper in the Woodward Dream Cruise! It was a blast!

 

Got the car back from the shop today. Both the dent and the antenna are gone!

 

Looks pretty clean without the antenna there. Where is it relocated to?

 

I pretty much just flipped and finagled it so its buried behind the trim in the hatch:

 

Notice any difference in reception with the antenna placed like that?

Sent from my GS3

 

Can't really say to be honest. I hardly ever use the radio. Maybe used it once in the past year. I tried finding a station earlier today to see if I could get anything with the hidden antenna and I've got to say its pretty bad, so it's probably worse, I just can't be sure it didn't already suck. If I decide I need a better functioning radio, I've seen antennas online that you can buy that are made to pick up signals even when buried. Might try one if those later.

 

Finally ditched the stickies last week.



Enkei Raijin 18x8.5 et 45
Hankook Ventus V12s 245-35-18

Proper photoshoot pics comin soon.

 

What did you do on your taillights? it looks amazing! and how low are you dropped and running with 10mm up front and 15mm in back? i want to drop my car a bit more and space out my stock tires, but the rims im looking at are +42, but shouldnt be too bad since its only a difference of 3.