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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 1, 2014 0:03:48 GMT -5
Thanks!!!! lol. I think you might be able to put that flasher in the new 9th gen Corolla you have
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 7, 2014 22:31:49 GMT -5
Finished dying my interior door panels and upper tray carpet back to black. It didn't come out perfectly black, as the dye I used was more of a restorer than a color changer. Oh well, at least they look a LOT better. Best thing is that, while the fabric is nice and dark again, it's still just as soft as before! Not like spray painting it, no stiffness at all. Though the upper tray carpet did turn out black... it had faded to a blue color:
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 13, 2014 2:20:40 GMT -5
Well the door panels are still purple... just darker colored. Oh well, so much for that lol. Door Fabric is Still Purple by gold94corolla, on Flickr In other news, I got my set of new painted fenders! Fenders Take 2 (And More Paint) by gold94corolla, on Flickr My replacement doors came in Finally..... Doors! by gold94corolla, on Flickr Here they are, along with the original 2 new fenders that didn't match at all lol. New Parts by gold94corolla, on Flickr Doors have been sanded, filled, sanded, primed, sanded, and washed. Ready for paint! Doors Primed & Ready For Paint by gold94corolla, on Flickr I cut a piece out of the original fender (you can see the hole up there) and sent it to the fender painters so that they would actually get it right this time. The 2nd set arrived, and these actually match (close enough anyway) lol. New Fenders Paint Matched by gold94corolla, on Flickr
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Post by mindbeats on Oct 13, 2014 9:47:16 GMT -5
looking good chris. glad to see youre getting her back to form
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Post by Rinconrolla on Oct 13, 2014 13:54:56 GMT -5
Dam looks good bro !!!
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 13, 2014 23:43:11 GMT -5
Thanks guys!!! Slowly but surely now!! lol
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 14, 2014 0:48:20 GMT -5
I've had an itching to put some LED high beams on my car for a while now. I originally wanted to put them in the head lights instead of the high beams, but couldn't find anything that worked. I really liked these from Baja Designs, they seem like the top of the line products, and I liked the 5000k color vs bluer from other sellers. www.bajadesigns.com/ProductDetail?ItemNumber=500003 Bought them on Amazon for a little bit cheaper. www.amazon.com/Baja-Designs-Squadron-Driving-50-0003/dp/B00JG0AVAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1412225535&sr=1-1&keywords=Squadron+Xl They come with 3 lens options: Wide cornering, Driving, and Spot. I ordered them with the Driving lens installed, which is a combination of the narrow Spot and wider output (you can see the differences on the lenses). Baja Designs Squadran XL LED Spot Lights by gold94corolla, on Flickr This is just the 2 wide LEDs This is the 2 spot LEDs And together, they make a more useable beam than either option alone Both of them together With the stock low beams And with the HID kit in the high beams They definitely seem bright lol, and definitely true to their 5000k color (the high beams are 4300k) So, time to put them on the car somehow. I decided to put them behind the upper mesh grille so that as much light would pass through as possible. Took apart everything to figure out how I wanted to mount them. Figured that the easiest way was to fabricate some brackets and bolt them to the back of the crash bar... that would be solid lol. Simply used some right angle brackets, anchored to the crash bar, and with the LED brackets installed on top. Painted the brackets black to hide them Installed the LEDs into the brackets Bolted the bar back on the car And it was a perfect fit, like I had estimated. Barely touches the condensor Fits behind the support bracket on this side (the brackets aren't symmetrical, I realized after putting the lights on lol) Wired them into the high beams Done Everything lit up lol Just the LEDs alone.... my goodness, these things are massively bright lol You can see the combination of the spot and wide beams, and how either one alone wouldn't be very useful. Love it! Took some pics in the fog tonight So I guess that's that lol. Yes, they do fit behind the grille perfectly, just enough clearance behind the mesh. I don't have my other 4 high beams hooked up at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how bright it all is when I'm done lol
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Post by Rinconrolla on Oct 15, 2014 11:59:02 GMT -5
WoW bro that looks amazing !!!
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Post by akuma64 on Oct 15, 2014 17:26:43 GMT -5
very nice CHris!!! Its awesome how you do your own work. KUDOS!!
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 15, 2014 20:32:50 GMT -5
Thanks guys, the only person I trust with my car is ME lol
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My IS300
Oct 16, 2014 16:38:37 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by 7thgen7a on Oct 16, 2014 16:38:37 GMT -5
I feel ya on the work for your car,no one can mess it up other than you.
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 16, 2014 20:00:52 GMT -5
And I mess it up enough lol.
Radiator sprung a leak overnight I guess, been leaking all day. Fortunately, it's at the top, and I caught it when I was working on the car tonight.
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Post by akuma64 on Oct 16, 2014 20:13:07 GMT -5
hah i was really hoping the dye would work out. Im always hesitant about those particular projects because I dont want it to mess up or not be how I expect it.
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 16, 2014 20:59:48 GMT -5
Well it's not worse.... it definitely looks better. But I guess it's not color CHANGING dye, just color RESTORING dye.
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 22, 2014 20:20:59 GMT -5
Continuing where I left off, the LEDs were bolted up to the car. Here's how they fit behind the grille There is literally 0mm of space in front of and behind the light, they just barely touch the mesh grille and condenser. Couldn't have fit them better!! And then, continuing my second head light retrofit from where I left off in August, I finally finished them up. Got some fresh new LS430 projectors and shrouds, again modified to bixenon (but by a different person this time, did a better job). Bolted the brackets from my first head lights onto the new projectors (took many hours of aiming to get just right) Put them on the car for aiming The cutoff is even sharper and has more color than last time! Here's the high beam, just from the bixenon projectors alone (much wider, nicer high beam than the first set) Output of the low beams on the road Trimmed the bezels to fit a little better Test fitting Next up was to trim the shrouds, just like the first time (very time consuming and stressful, though I cut them even better this time around). Glued the shrouds in place And sealed the lenses back on On the car completed! I decided to stock up the high beam HID wiring by trimming out the extra connectors (between the green lines) and soldering the bulbs directly to the ballast. This helped warm-up time and reliability CONSIDERABLY And it eliminated a lot of messy wires behind the head lights. Green dots represent high beam wires, blue arrows are the low beam projector ignitors, red arrows are the high beam projector solenoids, and red dots are the turnsignal/switchback DRL harnesses. Since the car was having trouble running all 6 high beams at once on the stock wires, I ordered this relay harness from theretrofitsource. It powers the high beam HIDs and one of the solenoids directly from the battery, so that only one of the solenoids and the 2 LED pods are on the stock high beam wires. Much more reliable now, and no more flickering. High Beam HID Wire Harness by gold94corolla, on Flickr Wiring behind the head lights is crazy lol. And that's it for that update, it feels so good to have this second retrofit completed. I love driving with the projectors at night, and the LED spot lights are SO bright, the amount of light overall is impressive. And I just love how it looks.
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Post by mindbeats on Oct 23, 2014 5:49:49 GMT -5
Wow!!!! Let there be light!!!!!!!!
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 23, 2014 19:40:45 GMT -5
I'll have to get some output pics sometime lol
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Post by gold94corolla on Oct 24, 2014 0:32:00 GMT -5
Found that my radiator cracked a week ago, managed to catch it before it lost too much fluid though. Apparently, this is how they all fail, right in this upper section: Radiator Is Leaking by gold94corolla, on Flickr Note all of the stress cracks formed: Radiator Crack by gold94corolla, on Flickr Immediately bought a new Denso radiator on Amazon, which arrived in a few days: New Denso Radiator by gold94corolla, on Flickr As well as Toyota Red Coolant and distilled water to create a new 50/50 mixture to refill the system: Distilled Water + Antifreeze by gold94corolla, on Flickr Having never messed with a radiator before, this project was yet another new experience for me. However, it was easy. Drained the coolant and trans fluid out the bottom: Old Coolant & Trans Fluid by gold94corolla, on Flickr Radiator removed: Radiator Removed by gold94corolla, on Flickr Old vs new: New vs Old Radiator by gold94corolla, on Flickr Swapped the fans and a sensor over: Fan Assembly Swapped by gold94corolla, on Flickr New fluids mixed (extra fluid went back in the Toyota bottle at the end of the project) Coolant Mixed by gold94corolla, on Flickr Done! Went perfectly. Made sure to monitor and add fluid as needed. Completed Radiator Swap by gold94corolla, on Flickr So that was an unexpected but relatively fun project, and now the radiator should be worry-free for a very long time
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Post by gold94corolla on Dec 7, 2014 1:20:49 GMT -5
OK so this thread is way behind again, so I'm gonna post a ton of pictures. I don't remember where I left of regarding the body work and painting I was doing, so if I missed some pics or posted them twice, oh well. You know that I painted my front lip and mirrors a while ago, complete with clear coat I also bought a brand new JDM Altezza mesh grille and painted that New one is on top, old on the bottom Notice how my old grille is all broken around the edges, it never sat properly on the bumper. I ended up not liking the Altezza badge on the mesh, so I used my old mesh and emblem on the new grille. My old emblem was looking terrible, after the black VHT spray tint had mostly come off. The carbon fiber background was yellowing as well. So, I bought a brand new black pearl colored emblem on Ebay for like $70 lol, and I polished up the carbon fiber. Came out looking nice and fresh, and the finish won't just come off. Installed I'm actually not a fan of the new grille. Because it actually mounts properly, it sits kinda recessed and the transition between the grille and bumper looks too obvious. My previous grille blended better, so I'll paint that and reinstall it next year. Oh well, this isn't the first time I wasted money on something lol. Here's an older pic for reference to show how the old grille blended in better. Next, I redid the rear quarter panels around the tail lights, because my previous body work didn't end up perfect after my accident in 2012. The body work came out perfect, but I did have to repaint and reclear this side because you can see that I didn't blend the paint well enough. Other side. This side came out much better. The body work came out perfect. I still need to blend in the clear coat though. And now that I've painted partial panels, I can tell the the spray paint doesn't match the old stock paint perfectly. Oh well. At least it's shiny now lol. As you could see up there ^^^ I also redid the rear bumper where I removed the side markers. I used superglue in with the bondo this time to prevent cracking, and it actually worked lol Final wetsand and clear coat Repainted the rear lip as well, and clear coated it Final wetsand and clear coat And again, you could see earlier that I redid the side skirts as well. Final wetsand and clear coat But I left it outside too long after it got dark, and the humidity got to it and ruined the finish. So I had to wetsand and buff the surface to remove that mess, top is wetsanded, bottom is buffed. Not exactly perfect, but much nicer looking than ever before. I ended up finding some nice right-angle pieces that I could glue to the back of the skirts and give them rigidity, worked perfectly. gonna continue this in a new post
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Post by gold94corolla on Dec 7, 2014 1:58:40 GMT -5
Next You know that I got some brand new painted fenders And doors. Finally gonna fix that huge damage on the side. Doors prepped, dents filled, sanded, primed, ready for paint Prepped for paint (took me a while to develop a way to paint them lol, ended up suspending them from the garage door tracks with bungy cords and vice grips) Painted Clear coated, then wetsanded, then clear coated again (ended up with orange peel, but I can buff that out later) Transferred some parts to the rear door, like the hinges and handle and locking mechanism Rear door removed (that was really easy) Just gotta pull off the panel on the B pillar and you can get to the bolts and wire harness, super easy. Rear door installed! Again, really easy, though it is kind of a pain to line up. Luckily, my blue LED strips came off the old door perfectly, and the glue was still 100%, so the strips just stuck right onto the new door. Next, I had to remove the front fender in order to access the bolts for the front door, which meant taking off the front bumper and head light lol. Good thing I was replacing the fender anyway, and I already had the front bumper off from redoing the head light retrofit (yes I drove around with no bumpers for a couple of weeks) Front door removed (again, super easy) I bought a new pre-painted door handle on Ebay, because I thought the old one was broken. I also had to transfer the entire lock mechanism to the new door, which wasn't too hard, just required some figuring out. Turns out, the old handle was in perfect shape, but the actual crush in the door was preventing the connecting rods from operating. Oh well. You can see that the lock mechanism itself got crushed in the smashed door, but luckily, it still worked perfectly. Installed the front door, stuck the LEDs on, and everything worked! Luckily, the windows and motors were included in the new doors, so I didn't even have to mess with those. I'm just going to get the windows retinted, rather than deal with swapping in the old windows. Completed door swap. I had to redo the wiring in the front door for the power folding LED mirrors, but that wasn't too much work. Everything is back to normal! Then I put the new fender on Before rolling After. I ruined it instantly though, because I pulled it WAY too much, causing the lip to get messed up, and the fender itself warping and ruining everything. This picture is after I pushed the edge back in. So I ruined my brand new fender, but I'll get another one next year and paint it myself so that it matches 100%. Done! I then replaced the other fender, since I had messed it up long ago when I rolled it and when I put the suspension in. Having learned from my mistake, I rolled this side perfectly. Came out beautiful, I'm 100% happy with this side. Finally was able to put the front bumper back on Then I put the rear bumper and lip back on. You can see that the new fenders didn't end up being a 100% color match from certain angles. Oh well. Then I put the side skirts on. Car is looking better now than it has for years, thanks to the fresh body work, paint, and real clear coat! Eventually, my brand new pre-painted fender moldings came in. I got new ones because I didn't need the old ones with LEDs drilled in. Washed the car [ And that ends the body work for 2014! Learned a lot, accomplished a lot, and things are looking better than ever. It's hard to imagine how much I've done to this car in the past couple of months since my trip around the country, especially since most of the work doesn't even show really, just redoing a lot of stuff. Body work plans for 2015: Buffing/wetsanding the clear coat on the doors and fenders to blend everything in, new fender (again), new (old) grille, new front lip (going with a different/custom lip this time), and new driver's side rear door.
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