sw20strike

Well hmm how to start off.....My name is Kirk and my journey first began back in June 06 when I first got my tC brand new from the dealership. I've slowly been working on it and has been a long journey, Like many I started off with little mods, changing the light colors, debadging. Then later came a bit more serious about. Purchased the hotchkis tvs system, got a better set of tires. Later down the line my first noticeable mod to help me stand out came about. I originally got the NIA Lip kit with some APT fogs



It was still a work in progress though. Engine wise still stock. After other people around the area started painting there stockies black, I decided to change it up and went gold and silver.


Made some new friends and lost some along the way





Eventually I got a new set of wheels in the form of 18 inch RPM R505's, got the tsudo n1 exhaust. Speed source motor mounts, Energy suspension master bushing kit, DME rear strut, Tanabe front strut, Ingall's ETD, Megan STS and some corrsport shifter cable bushings.



Probably forgetting some mods to list. Fast forward a bit. At first I tried buying a turbo kit locally and the dude ended up screwing me over and I ended up taking a hit. I never did get the stuff or he gave me crap parts. I got tired of dealing with him and this isn't the first time he has done it to people locally, so he'll get what he deserves. Through that incident I acquired a ATP mani and downpipe, some injectors,random piping, ebay turbo and bov.
I then tried to purchase a kit through here, and that ended up falling through too. I already started getting other misc parts and ended up having gauges and other installation stuff laying around in the house to that time
Moving forward to August 2010. After having the NIA kit for like 2 years, I ended up having to depart ways with it after driving one day back from school the mounting hardeware for the driver side skirt decided to fly away. After getting ran over this is what it looked like.

I miss the old kit. Still have 2 front lips and 2 rears that i'm working on in the free time to improve my fiberglassing skills. At that time, my friend decided to part out all her carbon fiber goodies. So I got a good deal on her parts and ended up with the carbon fiber rs1 kit and I can't remember who makes the hood.


I liked the new look, took me a while to get used though and I still miss not rocking the NIA kit. Also during this time, my stock struts have taken a beating by now, so I decided to pick up a set of Raceland coilovers after doing much research on them

I let the car sit a little lower than when it had with the hotchkis springs.Then winter 2010 came. I ended up buying Boostit06's turbo kit off of here and turbo dreams were within my reach. Sorry Boostit, using your pictures since I never took good pics of it when I recieved it


With winter now in full swing, it was too cold to work outside, The constant weather changes put the install on hold. I ended up driving down to florida during winter break. Once I got back classes started back up and I still needed a few things for the install.
January 2011 came. On January 20,2011 an unfortunate accident happen. While driving home from school I decided to exit off the highway and get some gas before I got home. I was doing the speed limit, and before i hit the actual exit I lost control of the car and ended up hitting a guardrail doing 65-70 mph. After hitting the guardrail, the car then flew into the ditch. I always wear my seat belt and the air bags deployed. If you never been in a accident, that F***ING hurts so bad. I ended up being taken away by ambulance. After impact I passed out for a little bit and then woke up in pain as a passerby and state trooper(who happened to see it all since he was at the top of the exit) made me stay in until medics arrive, I could move and probably after a little while walked out of the car.



I remember having to call my mom and sister telling them I'm in the hospital. Everyone who saw the accident happen thought I was dead. I remember having to call my mom and telling her I'm in the ER because I got in a car accident. It was not a good day, wasn't a good week to begin with but that just topped it. They ran test on me and I was fine. Walked away with no broken bones, no scratches or bruises. Friends found out and all we're wondering how it happened. The state trooper asked me some questions and in VA failure to maintain vehichle control counts as a reckless. I ended up getting a ticket from the whole incident smh. The turbo was still in the house, some other parts were also laying around too.
I knew in time I would end up getting another tC though. I'm sad my tC got totalled, but so thankful I didn't die.
I test drove some new cars trying to find a replacement. This included the Mazdaspeed3, Honda civic si and crz and the new 2011 tC,never did get to test drive the new WRX. After driving all of these I drove an hour and some change away to test drive a rs2. I fell in love and driving that RS2 gave me more excitement than any of those other cars. I was still in love with the tC. I was waiting for the insurance check to come in and by the time it did the car sold. I was sad about it. There werent many 5 speed tC's in my area and I was starting to lose hope.We now move into March. March 11, I see an add on craigslist for a 2006 scion tC in CSM with 28,000 miles on it. I drive an hour away from where I live to test drive it. It was amazing to drive a tc again. It was basically stock with only the addition of a short throw shifter which i'm thinking may be a a doc iso piece but not sure. March 14 I bring my mom up there. She originally wanted me to buy a brand new car, but after talking to my dad and uncle who said no matter what car I get i'm going to end up tinkering away on it, she approved of me getting a used tC. That day she signs the papers. I was now officially a tC owner again.(sorry no pics of the new car yet lol)

I picked the car up on March 17 and as I was being extra careful trying to drive the hour home and get adjusted to the new car, a rock flew into the windshield leaving a spider crack. FML, not even an hour into owning it and something happens haha. I was ____ed.
The original plan to drive it around for a week or so before I started modding again.

March 18-I ended up doing the windshield repair.

March19- I ordered parts tuesday night and by the 17, some parts came in. HID's,oil filter sandwhich, oil pressure and temp sending unit and also the greddy turbo timer and harness. To say the least I was eager to install. Today started off slow, picked up single mounting kit and harness. I then started to tear apart the interior around noon.
Greddy Turbo Timer2


After going through the turbo kit stuff again, I thought 1 bag was just full of wires. To my surprise it held hidden treasures in the form of a AEM digital oil pressure gauge, a cobalt boost gauge and a greddy turbo timer1. I really should've paied more attention to that bag, but it was so much wire and they were extra parts given to me by the seller (Thank you again). to say the least I now had more doubles of some things haha. I started connecting all the wires in the garage for the turbo timer. I then pulled my old headunit from the old mounting kit stuff and placed it in the new one. I started to test fit it in the car. Had to remove the door mechanism in order for the screen to open all the way.

Test Fitting



My old mounting kit didn't have so much gap between the waterfall and the screen so planning later down the line to buy some plastic panelling and make a template to fill in that empty space. I then found my old mirror control unit and decided to just run with that one. I place the turbo timer above it, made a little cut into the mirror control housing to run the wire through.



I ran the wires after reading the DIY:HKS Timer install and ran into no problem. I spliced the ebrake wire a bit too close but everthing was working properly. I then moved onto placement of my wideband again. I didn't want to deal with undoing all the gauge wiring from my pillar, so I opted to get a gauge cup and install it on the little fuse cover.



I placed it a little higher than how I had it set up in the previous tC. Pretty much today was all wiring if you all haven't noticed yet XD. Luckily I still had my old gauge pillar. I tested those ones on the jump box first to make sure they were still working. I then went to work running the power lines and ground for all the gauges.


Wiring Storehouse and dremel to make a opening on the back of the gauge cup for the 2 wideband harnesses.


It was then I realized I didn't have enough colors to distinguish which is which if I ran the wires through the wall. I also didn'nt have the red RTV to put on the new tapped oil pan or the oil or filter to install the sandwhich end haha.

I just finished hooking up what wiring I could do and made sure all the gauges worked. The wideband took forever because I ran into a issue with the ground, but initially thought i had blew a fuse or the power wires had faulty connection. After playing with the 3 wires I managed to get all 4 gauges lighting up.
.

The sun left and it started to get cold again so I ended up calling it a day for now. I'm still awaiting a couple more parts to come, and sorry if the pictures aren't the greatest quality, I ended up taking them with my phone. I wasn't going to make a build thread but david(pwee08 ) told me to since i'm starting from the ground up. I'm going to try and take better picture with my actual camera tomorrow or when I start working on it again. the only problem with that is I feel it slows me down alot and currently am doing this by myself. Stay tuned for updates of my boring build.

pwee08

iTrader: (7)

WOOOO BULDS THREAD!!! Coming back stronger and better!!

sw20strike

Haha yeah man congrats on buying a dremel.

TrueHyperFoX

A/F Guage dont get in your way when your getting into your car?! I have a Kill Switch for my subs that sits there and i always accidentally kick it off there getting in there.

sw20strike

Um at times, I remember it is there so I'm careful about getting in and out of it. The gauge cup rotates too, so even if I hit it it just moves a little. Nothing too serious I guess.

killatc171

iTrader: (2)

awesome build so far man. cant wait to see this done. nice to see someone else that lives around me lol i can actually see it in person lol.

sw20strike

Haha yeah man,trying to work on it little by little everyday,but I woke up all late today. Hopefully more parts come in tomorrow and I finish the rest of the wiring today or tomorrow. Wiring is not one of the things I like doing.

killatc171

iTrader: (2)

awesome. yea i can understand that. wiring was one thing i always hated doing. no matter what car it was in lol.

Spicy_McHaggiz

iTrader: (1)

Sucks about the car, and hello from Hampton!

pwee08

iTrader: (7)

Boosting this will be amazing

PS. BURN THE NIA LIPS NOAW!!!

sw20strike

March 21- Couple of things came in the mail today. Corport shifter cable bushing and Summit Racing shifter cage bushings.



Just finished mirroring my gauges again. Had this setup on the previous car, shouldve just stole the piece out of it so I wouldn't need to do it again. It rained today so not much progress done with the car


With the lights turned on and installed again sorry for bad quality pic ran to the car really fast since it's still raining. Took the pic with the phone.



Then a bad pic of the pillar pod,wideband and turbo timer at night. Again, my apologies for the bad picture.


Also went to walmart and Harbor freight today to pick up some material. Tape,disposable gloves, Brake Bleeding kit, wire connectors. Also picked up an amp wiring kit, some car mats and oil. Still waiting on some of the bigger parts I ordered to come in from the mail.

sw20strike

LOL I will not burn my nia lip kits. They are great pieces to practice laying fiberglass which is why I still keep them.

AcidDrop

iTrader: (4)

How did you like the Energy Suspension master bushing kit, did you feel much of a difference and was it a smooth or rough ride after installing it?

dropzone

^x2, and IDK if you've installed the Corsport Shifter Cable Bushings, I just reused the pins off the OEM instead of the supplied cotter pins. I've felt the shifts to be more notchy after the install, I also have the B&M STS installed, let us know how the shifting feels once installed.

sw20strike

I never got around to installing it all. The only thing I did install out of it before was the rear subframe bushings because My subframe mount ripped out and I though the welded nut within the frame itself broke off. I ended up buying a new rear subframe and opted for the bushing kit. Install was a PITA, but I did feel that the rear end was more responsive, but please take into account i already had hotchkis sway bars installed. I wish I could tell you how it felt before I did more suspension mods.As for the ride being rough, to me It wasn't. I can't really comment on this either, because at the same time I was installing the rear sub frame bushings, I also put in Raceland coil overs. Whether or not it added more to a rough I can't say. I can say I didn't feel anymore vibration than I normally felt( also had speed source motor mounts and the ETD on the car already). In cabin noise, didn't seem to change. However as with all polyurethane bushing I did notice some squeeking coming from the rear when it was winter.


I had the corsport cable bushings on the previous tC along with a Megan Racing sts which also came with cage risers. As for it being a bit more notchy I would agree, but then I guess it's just part of the install since we went to solid metal pieces to replace the rubber ones which get worn out over time. The Summit Racing bushings sadly do not raise the cage any,and at the moment in time when I was purchasing stuff, I forgot about doctor isotope who actually does make shifter cage risers. (fml). I'm still a bit unsure as to what short throw shifter is installed in this tC from the previous owner. I also ordered the axxtion transmission side sts which is supposed to reduce the throws 54%. While looking Short throw shifter thread the TRD STS reduces throws by 20%, so at the very least my overall reduction will hypothetically be 74%. Hopefully it doesn't make the whole shifting too unbearable. If worse comes to worse the Axxtion sts also fits on the xb2 so I may just end up installing it on my sister's xB if I don't like it.

Now continuing on from the whole shifting feel experience, I already gathered the material for the clutch pedal bump stop which is also planned to be done this time around. Couldn't find the elevator bolt they described so opted for a regular bolt and hopes it works.

March 22- No parts came in today. Just finished installing the shifter cage bushings so I can say I atleast worked on it somewhat haha.

Hopefully the weather clears up so I can work on the car today

tCjosh

iTrader: (8)

how did you mirror the gauges?? i'd like to do that to mine too...

sw20strike

You're going to need 3 replacement mirror material from your local walmart or other car parts store. Remove the gauge surrounding and make a trace of its shape using cardboard(i used the backing of the packaging material. From there trace that onto the mirror material. You need one mirror material for each circle. You're going to bend the material into the circle to make it fit. It should be a tight fit for the 2 smaller ones. The center one will have a little gap towards the bottom because the material isn't big enough to fill it all the way. Depending on how well you cut and trace will depend on how well it fits the first, other wise you need to make little adjustments here and there. Use some double backing tape if necessary to hold it all in place( you will need to use this for the center one).

sw20strike

March 23- Some parts came in the mail.



Cpillar bar, DME front and rear strut bar, rear hatch garnish and tbl.

Also picked up some different color wiring and other materials. Gonna try and shave the new rear garnish tonight or tomorrow and finish the wiring.

pwee08

iTrader: (7)

oooOOOOhhh Yeah more parts!!

sw20strike

haha yessir