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Pics of my Luxury Toyota

Discussion in 'Lexus' started by Goldy, Oct 25, 2011.

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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Next up, in August, I finally got around to finishing my custom LED tail lights. I instantly loved the car again with these installed... gosh I hate the stock tails lol

    Inside is painted flat primer black (except for the reflectors), all of the LEDs have been replaced/upgraded for consistent brightness and longevity, and I added some red LED strips to use as DRL/rear fog light.

    [IMG]Completed LED Tail Lights by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    Had to rewire the tail light harness to get the tail lights operating safely. The red wire runs to the "rear light" switch by the steering wheel.

    [IMG]PWM Installed by gold94corolla, on Flickr


    Flip the switch, and these light up:

    [IMG]DRL Lights by gold94corolla, on Flickr


    turn on the head lights, and they light up the same configuration as before, but better

    [IMG]Running Lights by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    with the DRL on as well

    [IMG]Running & DRL Lights by gold94corolla, on Flickr


    Brake lights are much brighter now

    [IMG]Brake Lights by gold94corolla, on Flickr


    Black finish inside matches the tires perfectly, just what I was going for

    [IMG]IMG_6566-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    More quick pics

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    [IMG]IMG_6570-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]IMG_6571-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]IMG_6572-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]IMG_6573-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr


    DRL on

    [IMG]LED Tails Lit by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]LED Tails Close by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]Rear DRL On by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    DRL + head lights

    [IMG]LEDs On Close by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]LEDs On Side by gold94corolla, on Flickr
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Another road trip!

    Spent a weekend driving down to Atlanta for TheRetrofitSource's open house. I didn't get any pics while I was there though lol.

    Took the usual route through South Carolina. Left my house at about 3:15 am, got here at 11 am.

    In South Carolina out in the middle of nowhere, I love it here so much. (all of the driving/scenery pics are unedited)

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    Then it was downpouring rain.

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    Stopped at the church to visit my grandmother's grave and put another solar light on it, the one I put there last year still works!

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    This dog is tied to the tree literally every single time I've ever been here (it's a long rope though)... even in the rain, poor thing

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    Then got to TRS at about 4:45 (took a quick nap at 1:30). Had a great time there! Ended up driving 3 hours north afterwards, and by the time I got to the place I wanted to sleep for the night, it was after 1am, and literally every place was either full or closed. WTF? So I slept in the car lol.... saved a bit of money, and it wasn't so bad actually.

    Left at 7am for the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was still rainy, so the Parkway was enshrouded with clouds for the longest time, could barely see anything lol.

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    Some heavily-edited pics.... without editing, you can't see the car the fog was so thick

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    Two less- edited pics

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    More edited pics.

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    No spectacular views this time, just clouds. Like literally clouds, not just fog, but clouds lol.

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    A break in the clouds gave a little bit of a view

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    It finally cleared up towards the end though, so I was able to get a good sunset pic.

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    Got home after dark to make for a nice weekend.
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Earlier this month, I finally did the work to convert the JDM mirrors from RHD to LHD. It was just a matter of swapping the bases... I got lucky, and everything lined up perfectly!

    [IMG]USA Mirrors Disassembled by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]LHD Conversion Complete by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    Then the mirrors installed easily... just a matter of bolting them on.

    [IMG]Completed Mirrors 1 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]Completed Mirrors 2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    I LOVE how they look. The signals are perfectly level in the mirrors, no weird angle to them. And the covers don't look too big or anything. Certainly looks better than the weird lights I had drilled into the old mirrors lol.

    Next up was a TON of wiring. First, I had to cut off the old power mirror switch and solder on the new harness. Same thing with the mirror harnesses. With the harnesses swapped, the new mirror switch and mirrors plugged into the stock harness.

    Next was to get the signals and folding operational. Because the USA mirrors have 2 functions that the JDM mirrors do not have (heated surface and autodimming), that gave me 4 extra wires in the harness to use for the signal and folding. So, I didn't have to run any extra wires through the door harnesses. I did have to run wires from one side of the car to the other under the dash though. 2 wires for the power folding on the passenger side, and 1 wire for the signal. Both signal wires come out of the door harness, and then to the driver's kick panel, where they solder to the wires going to the instrument cluster turn signal indicator arrows.

    The folding is all self contained though, so the driver's side folded without any extra wiring. The passenger side just had to be connected to the switch in order to operate.

    Push the button in, and the mirrors fold up!

    [IMG]Driver's Mirror Folded by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]Passenger's Mirror Folded by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    And the signals work! They are visible from all angles.

    [IMG]LED Light Front by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]LED Light Front Angle by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]LED Light Side by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]LED Light Rear Angle by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]LED Light Rear by gold94corolla, on Flickr


    And here are some pics of the wiring lol...... you can just ignore these, or you can try and decipher them to understand how much work this was.

    [IMG]JDM Switch Wiring by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]Driver Door Wires by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]Passenger Door Wires by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]Driver Kick Panel Wires by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    [IMG]Passenger Kick Panel Wires by gold94corolla, on Flickr




    I made a video of the car. You can see the tail lights and mirrors lighting up. You can hear the new exhaust. At the end, you can see how the mirrors fold. Not good quality, but here it is:






    And one last mod. While I had the door wiring exposed, I cut this wire to the driver's window switches.

    [IMG]Alarm Improvement Mod by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    That was to improve the stock alarm. Before, if the alarm was armed, it would disarm if you manually unlocked it from the inside. So, if I left the windows open or someone broke the window, they could just reach in and turn off the alarm. Well, not anymore lol.



    And this thread is finally caught up lol.
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    FriskyDingo Well-Known Member

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    Nice! My Skyline and 240SX both had them and I loved them.
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Yeah man, I love these mirrors every day. The signal looks and functions perfectly. I fold in the mirrors at work, because it's rear-in parking, and the spaces are so narrow, and so the extra clearance is great. And the blue mirror surface works perfectly to reduce headlight glare. And the mirrors have a wide angle to them, so I have no blind spots to the sides anymore. 100% worth it!
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    Irvin Well-Known Member

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    Your car is so sexy
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    No.... YOU are so sexy
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    Thread may be caught up but is still dead. On another note, I need those tails in my life. And my friend alex loves this car.
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    He loves my car, or loves the IS?

    Well right now, I'm trying to decide between these for winter wheels. I've always loved the Work Meisters, but there's no way I'm using those as winters lol.

    Looking at either Rota D2 in gunmetal

    Rota D2 Wheel|Rota Rim|Rota Racing Wheels

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    or XXR 527 in Chromium black

    XXR 527 Wheels - Concave multi-spoke rims new 2014 colors

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    The XXR's fitment will line up better to what I already have, they'd be 8.75" front and back, with 35mm front and 20mm rear offsets. The Rotas will be a little more sunken, with 8" and 9" at 35 and 30 mm offset.

    I might be able to get a winter tire package with the XXRs (might), I'm definitely gonna have to put tires on the Rotas myself.

    XXR are cheaper

    But I like the look of the Rotas more.... just not the fitment so much. But it's winter, does it matter? lol. Keeping the 18" diameter. Keeping wide tires. If it snows too much, I'll stay in bed. I just need something other than a summer tire in the winter.
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    Or you could buy my wheels as I hate them and I really want them gone.....

    PS: loves YOUR car.
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Which wheels? Remember, I've still got those "LMs" sitting here for you
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    These. Sick of them.
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Yeah that's what I thought. Maybe if they were gunmetal, we could just trade lol
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    You could always power coat them lol
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    XXR 522 right?
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    Indeed
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    well no powdercoating for me lol. Why do you have 6 of them?

    I was originally leaning towards the Rotas, but might go with the XXRs after all.
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    I has spares. I curbed one, got pissed and bought two more to replace it :/
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    lol
    Added: Oct 7, 2014 1:05 AM
    bought 2 more of the wheels you hate
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    That was when I cared.
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Yeah well I always thought that they looked too small on the car anyway
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    A tad. I don't want much bigger wheels because of the harsh ride and extra weight to carry around. My ride quality has gone up considerably since going back to 15's. However the car rolls a lot more and definitely slides a lot more. Looking at a sway bar or something to plant the car better.
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    Irvin Well-Known Member

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    :awyeah:
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    lol I guess that those were your favorite pics of the bunch
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    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.

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    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:
    [IMG]
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    Well the door panels are still purple... just darker colored. Oh well, so much for that lol.

    [IMG]Door Fabric is Still Purple by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    In other news, I got my set of new painted fenders!

    [IMG]Fenders Take 2 (And More Paint) by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    My replacement doors came in

    [IMG]Finally..... Doors! by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    Here they are, along with the original 2 new fenders that didn't match at all lol.

    [IMG]New Parts by gold94corolla, on Flickr

    Doors have been sanded, filled, sanded, primed, sanded, and washed. Ready for paint!

    [IMG]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.

    [IMG]New Fenders Paint Matched by gold94corolla, on Flickr
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    TOYROLLA99 Kleen 8.125 (According to Mack)

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    if i may but in, although the rotas look nice I dont think they would match ur car that well.. The XXR's would flow with ur look more
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    They won't now. They is sold....
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    Goldy Well-Known Member

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    I think he was talking about the 2 rims I was looking at, not yours lol (good you sold them though, now you can buy mine)
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    Bdub215 3VZ; 2JZ

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    Or pay bills, fix a big hole in my exhaust and bank the rest.

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