Check Out My New Grille (Real Altis Style)

try www.taprecycling.com they have all kinds of Toyota/Lexus parts for all years and models to choose from.

Now that is a excellent source of parts!

Wonder if they could dig all the stuff I'd need for power door locks?

Has anyone been successful using www.taprecylcing.com ? I found it a while back and signed up to be notified when new items (corollas) come into their inventory. I also e-mailed them to check if they had anything I might want and didn't get a response.

It would be cool to have this resource so holler if you know what's up or places that are similar.

I just signed up for their mailings and did the e-mail confirmation thing. Let you know if I actually get something from them.

BLACK?!?!??

My "Indigo Ink Pearl" Corolla is currently spinning like a top in my garage!!" :twisted:

It may be a "dark" blue, but it's BLUE, dangit! :twisted:

Check it out:



Blue!!

thoots

DARK SILVER? Why I outta...and Art outta....and Achint outta....


It's MOONSHADOW!!!!

Ahem.

OK, now with that bit of unpleasantness out of the way....

Let's review:



The dark blue color is the darkest color I've ever owned. I was having quite a bit of regret over that color choice before I got the new grille -- "too dark!!" But, the chrome grille really added a whole lot of "bright" to the front end, and that made me 100% more satisfied with the dark blue color. In fact, I think the dark color really makes the chrome grille that much more effective, by contrast. In fact, while I've always thought that I'd add fog lights to the car eventually, now I'm not so sure -- that might be "too much bright" stuff all on the front end, now with that chrome grille in there.

By the way, I think the dark blue also contrasts very well with the red taillights -- check it out:



Why anyone would want to swap these with those clear Altezzas absolutely mystifies me! From the overall look to the smallest detail in the internal reflectors, I think these look GREAT!

thoots

hehe that rear shot would make a great toyota ad except for the fact that best buy would sue the pants off of them

OK, moving on!

Then, there's this bit about the fabulous "smoked" headlight covers on the "S" model. Dude, that makes a HUGE difference!! Here's a good shot of my non-smoked "LE" next to a smoked "S" -- both with the same Indigo Ink Pearl (not BLACK!!) color:



What a difference!!! Heee heeee!! :twisted:

I've seen the smoked "S" covers close up -- yep, they looked "smoked" to me. But, from what I can see in these pictures, and from real-world experience -- it really ain't no difference, I'm afraid!! You just can't see it!!

Let's try a different presentation of that same shot -- I split the picture in half, and arranged the two cars vertically. Check this out:



In both pictures, that's my "LE" with the chrome grille, of course, and the "S" with the fog lights. Dang if I can tell a difference in the lights!!

Hope this helps any smoked-light decision-making!! :twisted:

thoots

Yeah, whatver you think the best is the most important. I like the way you keep it so clean. Good Job. 8)

damn that thing is shiny

Ahh makes me proud to be an Indigo Ink Rolla Owner 8)

i love its look, now i gotta wash my car on saturday to make it look more bling bling

thoots what kind of camera do you have? Mine is a 3.2Mpixel, and it won't take pics so detailed you can read what kind of tires are on the car from that distance.

BTW, how did you get those on your car? Were they on the car when you bought it?

i got a 3.2 and i have the same question :shock: how many MP is that, that pic quality is the same as my dad's $1200 SLR Camera/Lenses setup.

Alot of it is probably that thoots has a very steady hand or using a tripod. I know that sometimes my pics are a little shakey with my 3.2MP camera

Edit: i remember his camera is 4.0MP, but MP is only the resolution of the pics, so when you resize it down you lose the clarity.

If you look at his last pic real close in the bumper you can see him standing with the camera, his legs at least. Don't see a tripod (but that doesn't mean one isn't there).

I've been a Pentax SLR owner most of my adult life. My roomie in the USAF had a Nikon he'd bought on TDY in Japan. We stood side by side one evening in the hills in San Bernadino Cal, and snapped pics of a sunset. We were both using Fugi AS400 film. We both put them in the film shop on the AF base at the same time.

His pics looked professional, mine looked like a 6 year old got ahold of daddy's camera!

He (roomie) said it was the lens. Nikon was superior to Pentax optics. I'd be tempted to believe digital camera manufacturers use the imaging chip from the same companies, since only a few make them.

So I can't help but wonder why some digital cameras are superior to others.

Actually my dad's camera is also a Nikon N90 with several lens/filter attachments, some of my better car pix were taken with his camera and then with the use of a scanner at work i got them on to my computer. I have to agree, that compared to the Minolta he used to own, the Nikon is far superior in picture quality, even their digi cam's are hella sweet, i guess that is one of the perks of workin at a place that sells this stuff. Quality or not you get what you pay for.

Folks,

Thanks for the many kind words! Let's see if I can answer some of those questions....

I use a Canon PowerShot S40 4-megapixel camera. I always use the highest resolution and picture quality, and I take lots of pictures -- usually at least four or five of any given angle you might see here. Having lots of storage space (2 gigs, total) helps a whole bunch! I often come back from shooting sessions with 300 or 400 pictures to wade through.

Most of the pictures you've seen here were shot "free-hand" -- a few were tripod shots, most notably anything at night or in the early evening.

Also, I've usually posted shots left at full picture quality -- without adding any compression during any editing. Actually, some of the pictures here are the first ones I've posted with some compression -- I've saved those at "85% quality" in my editing program.

Anyway, those are my "secrets" -- use a good camera, and get some good light, mainly. I am EXTREMELY happy with my Canon S40 camera, as I was with the Canon "Digital ELPH" camera I had previous to this one. You won't see me trying any other brand any time soon!

This might be a good time to give you a link to my "PBase" picture gallary -- check this out if you'd like to see more:

http://www.pbase.com/thoots/corolla

And, if you'd like to see more, just bounce out to see my other galleries, or just go here:

http://www.pbase.com/thoots

Enjoy!

thoots

http://image.pbase.com/u32/thoots/large/21099207.corolla_17.jpg

Nice pic!

ph0bi,

Hmmmm... Let's try this:



Hee hee!! The one up on PBase that you pointed to -- the "original" corolla_17 picture -- is one that I "forgot to resize!" So, though it has been reduced to 85% quality, it does show how large in resolution those 4-megapixel pictures can be!

Oh, and I guess there's one more question I didn't manage to answer yet: about the tires. Those indeed aren't the original tires that came on the car, which were the horrifyingly awful Firestone FR690's. I swapped those off for a pair of Remington Emerald LX "luxury touring" tires at about 750 miles. The local garage that has done all my service for about 25 years also sells tires, and after hemming and hawing over a bunch of other possibilities, I just asked him if he stocked something that routinely gets good comments from his customer in regards to "smooth and quiet ride." He said that he's heard tons of good about these, and the price was right to do the swap job. They look good, and I think they perform just tons better than the icky Firestones!

So, that's the story behind the tires!

thoots