thanks guys!! lol. i miss my damn car already... (its only been a day)

i called the body shop. even though thats all the damage you can see, it needs a new bumper. when they took the bumper off, they saw it cracked about halfway down under the center grill.

 

ok! car is back... so what's the first thing i do, take it to work and put the TRD springs in!!!

before lowering...



difference between stock and TRD springs.


installed... thanks to a lift and power tools, it only took me an hour to get to this point...



and the rears are done!!! (the easiest part of the process...)


thanks to the salty roads of chicago during snow, check out the rusted exhaust..


aaaannnnddddd..... done!!!




too bad the body shop drilled into my bumper... so they said when their shop frees up later in april, he's gonna take it back in and fill in the holes...

 

very nice! after i get my system in, and do my exhaust, these are next on the list. how bad do you think itd be without a lift? i got floor jacks and air tools

 

it wouldnt be too bad... its just gonna be a little tedious since you're working that low.. power tools will help though... it took me a total of 2 hours since i ended up stripping the bolt on the rear shock... i tightened it soo much with the impact gun... so take it easy on those... and be careful with the spring compressors... they can get tricky...

 

More like, can be a spring loaded gernade lol EXTRA CAREFUL

 

just found out i get employee pricing on TRD parts so this mod might come sooner than i thought

 

Hey, where did you get your springs installed? Just got my tein's (s-tech) in the mail today and can't make up my mind where to go to get then installed.
Reason I'm asking is because I see you have an Illinois plate.

 

I did them myself at my work... i work at grossinger toyota in lincolnwood...

im not sure of decent shops that can do it around here... when i come in to work tomorrow, i'll get back with you on a quote from our dealer...

 

Thanks! Shouldn't take more than a couple hours for the install right?

 

naw. it shouldnt... it took me longer cuz i went ape **** with the impact gun on one of the shock bolts on the rear and stripped it... so i had to cut it off and put a new one in...

 

That sucks..
I've only replaced rear shocks myself on my 325 a while ago
Had a similar problem, but only because of the previous owner had obviously screwed around with the shock mounts, which are a common problem for the model
The last time i replaced springs was back in high school - autos class...don't really feel like doing that again.. lazy

 

I did it with a floor jack and four jack-stands. I took my time to clean off all of the rubber isolators for the springs (ArmorAlled) and I installed the TRD front tower brace at the same time. So, I spent 3 to 4 hours doing this. An impact is mandatory because the front strut bolts are torqued to 177-ft-lbs (2,124-in-lbs) and my ½” drive torque wrench only goes up to 150-ft-lbs! Those are 22-mm (3/4-in) hexes.

The only real pain was loosening the inner most bolt of the lower, rear suspension arm…lowering the car on its wheels and then torquing those bolts while the car is on the ground. This bolt is called the “C” bolt in the instructions. The exhaust pipe is in the way of the right one. If this is not done, the rubber bushing will get sheared out with the added 1-inch drop.

Oh, and the drop is exactly 1-inch…front and rear. I measured from the garage floor to the chassis before I started. I drove it for a day and measured it again.

 

any plans to tint?

 

yup.. 35 all around... thats what i can legally do in Illinois...

 

We have 4 build threads up top, decided I'd give all the build threads a bump.

 

Whats up everyone??? i thought id chime in here. i kinda miss the scion forums. well, first off, i dont have the tC anymore.... i know, whomp whomp... i really do miss it sometimes. but after years of driving a coupe, i couldnt say no to the deal i got on my next car. i got it cheap... not to mention its a RARE color combination. now, im rocking a 2006 Lexus GS300 AWD. Glacier frost mica with black interior. here's some pics.

Lowered the car with Megan Racing EZ coil overs. 19" Varrstoen wheels





but i decided to go with something more "VIP" so i decided to let go of the Varrstoen and pick up some Vossen CV-1's. I've actually seen these wheels on a 2tC and it looked GOOD!!!







Coming back to these forums made me miss my tC!!! It could have looked way different from when i had it... kinda makes me wonder what it could have looked like. Everyone's tC's look awesome here!!! Hope you guys like!!!

 

How did you like the TRD springs? I want to get some on mine

 

I liked the trd springs. they ride really close to stock. maybe a little harder. but i dont think they lower the car enough. the nice thing about the TRD springs though, is that i never had issues about bottoming out or rubbing.

 

I've got TRD springs and I'm not worried about scrapping or going over bumps. The car looks little bit more aggresive as per comments I've received. A nice little 1.2'' drop IMO.

I'm very happy with them.