Vamp's Domain History?!

Vamp's Domain History?!

Has anyone else noticed that Vamp's site has been unresponsive for the last few months? http://vamp.darkravers.net/cpg/

Definitely an end of an era, RIP Vamp :sad:

I started noticing about a month ago when I started researching the 01 conversion. He hasn't been around for a while. I don't even know if he still has his Rolla

Nah, looks like a db error. Hope he gets around to fix it.

i really want those pictures back there many stuff that i wanted to do that he already did and now its lost

? like a site rip or something?

it's just a website with corolla information.

^ lol, you tought me that CS. *bows down*

Site is still down,
Does he talk to peons?

as stated, contact the guy directly. no one here will do the running for you.

what's a vamp?

he's the creature of the night stalking on old ladies and sucking on their blood.

Isn't that the Chupacabra?

The Chupacabra likes old ladies? That's news to me. lol I thought it described a lawyer more precisely.

I like chilupas

Real Chalupas or imitation Taco Hell Chalupas?

he's half chalupa and vampire. he enjoys sucking on old ladies blood and working on 8th gen corolla

Bump cause i need a DIY for the front end conversion for the 8th gens

I think there's another DIY on here somewhere.

theres one on toyotanation.com very thorough with part numbers and pictures.

Talking about it i just found this today on toyotanation this should help everybody out save you the time looking for it ok so enjoy ...

I just completed a front end conversion myself and it's not as easy as Vamp's guide indicates. Below is Vamp's guide re-rendered, based on the original text, plus my first hand experience.

(Disclaimer: Piggy had an collision in 2003 that I think was not properly repaired. Front end was since adjusted but something was still off. Got to get my body shop and discuss. So YMMV)

------
This mod is quite involving, so plan to spend the whole weekend on it (that is if you don't want to rush it).

Here is the parts list:

01-02 Headlights
01-02 Corner Lights (I bought Depo OEM replacements)
01-02 Bumper (or body kit)
01-02 Bumper Mounting Arms (bought mine from dealer, $16 each)
01-02 bumper Mounting Bracket (goes behind metal bumper bar, see below)
Two 9005 bulbs (high, came with headlight)
Two 9006 bulbs (low, came with headlight)
Two 9005 sockets (pulled from a gen7 at a junkyard)
Two 9006 sockets (Canadian Tire, $8, or pull from a junkyard)

I DID install the fog lamps . If you score a pair of factory fogs ($100/pair on fleabay), PM me and I'll help out with a wiring diagram. No matter how you get your sockets, the wiring is going to be the same.

Let's begin by taking the stock bumper off. I marked the screws with red arrows. Those are 10mm. The plastic clips I marked with blue arrows. You remove those by popping the center part out with a flathead screwdriver and then removing the whole thing. Be careful not to break them off. If you do, go order some from the dealer ($3.3).


(Vamp)


(Vamp)

There are two more screws on each side. Both 10mm. One is located on the very end of the bumper, marked by the bottom arrow. (The correct order for installing this screw, from top to bottom, is: support arm, bumper, screw plug, mud shield, screw.) The other one is hidden by the black plastic mud shield. It's flexible, so just use a socket wrench, and push the plastic towards the inside to get to that screw. Once you found it, it's easy to remove. Now that you have off the screws removed, pull the bumper cover forward. It will slip off the white plastic guides and come off. The foam absorber will be most likely still be attached to the bumper. Pull it off. If it's stuck to the bumper cover, fish it out. You'll need it for installation. Now, you're car should look like this, but with corners.


Remove the corner light. They are held on by a small screw that screws into the headlight. Once it's off, get a firm grip on the corner light and pull it off directly forward.



(Vamp pic retained for arrow reference)

Next remove the headlights. First remove the top bolt, marked by the very top arrow, then the side bolt. The third bolt, marked by the very bottom arrow, is hard to get to. Use a long socket wrench extension. It seems to have a big enough washer that you can reuse in mounting your 01 headlights (see below), so make sure you keep it.
Now, remove the bolt holding the adjuster, marked by the yellow arrow, and the whole headlight should be off. Once the whole headlight is off, disconnect the socket (pull on it really hard). Now your car should like exactly like the first picture. The first part is done.

The hole for the front mounting bolt are NOT the same. Where you would find the threaded hole for your bolt on a 01, you will find a bigger hole on a 98 that allows the horizontal aiming mechanism to go through. This is when you need an oversized washer to fill up that hole so the bolt can be secured. The threaded hole for that bolt are on a metal piece that is welded to the chassis which is different between 98 and 01.


(toyodiy; also refer to 1st pic in Vamp guide)

As you can see there is a lot of difference in design. ... Toyota could have come up with the face lift sooner, but I guess marketing strategy always wins. At the point it's wise to replace the mounting arms. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, see pic below. It's a thin black beam that extends from the body to the outer bottom edge of the bumper at a 45 degree angle.

On 98-00 it's about 1 inch too short for the 01-02 bumper. Remove it, and replace it with the 01-02 one. The mud shield will not reach it now, so don't worry about trying to attach it to the new arm. Or you can get a 01-02 mud shield from dealer or junkyard. The driver side is more involved. You can also try to get at it via that long extension you used to remove the headlight, if that's what you used. If not successful, then read on. You'll need to remove the resonator box. It's held on by 2 screws and a bolt. Remove your battery and the plastic tray it's on. You'll see a gold-looking bolt, unscrew it. The first screw you can see directly from the front. The last screw is hidden behind the mud shield. Push it towards the resonator box from the inside of the wheel well and you'll see a screw. Remove it and then you'll be able to pull the resonance box down and out of the way. Now you can get to the mounting arm screw. Replace the arm with the new one. It's up to you if you want the resonator box back on the car. I noticed a little power loss at high speeds after I removed it, so I suggest putting it back on.

Before we jump into wiring the headlights up, let's modify the bumper so that the 01-02 bumper cover fits. Marked with yellow arrows are the two steel guides. Those will not fit the 01-02 bumper. The small ones ("energy absorber mounting bracket") are easy to remove. They are held on by a rivet. You can either drill out the rivet with a drill (drill works better than rotary tool here), or just grab it with something big and rip it off. The rivet will pop off. The bigger guide is removed by unscrewing the two nuts (marked by the red arrow) on each side and removing the bumper. Then, the guides can be simply taken off the bolts. For the bigger guide, try to source the correct ones for 01-02. If you have it, replace it with the 01-02 version at this point. The finger on top of them slips into a slot on the fender and provides support for the bumper cover in case some j-asses decide to sit on that area. The finger on the 98-00 version is a few mm higher and won't fit 01 bumper covers. Replace the bumper back in its place and secure it. The nuts must be torqued properly to 27 ft-lbs.
When I did mine I found 4 U-shaped metal plates that aren't mentioned anywhere. I just left them there. You probably won't find anything similar.


(Vamp)
There is an issue with fitting the 01 bumper on the 98 side guides. The guides are the little white balls that mount on the fender and ensure a tight fit of the bumper. Here's the picture of the universal fender I got a hold of. You can ether buy the 01 fender (which probably have both holes there anyway) or you can modify yours to look like this one. You'll need a nibbling tool. You can get them from Radio Shack, and it basically allows you to cut any shape hole in sheet metal. Just drill a hole in the middle where the guide is supposed to go, and nibble outwards until you got a perfect size hole for that white ball guide.
If you are looking for measurements, place the hole (9mm x 9mm) 18mm back, and 12mm down from where the hole for 98 placement is. Because of interference from the welded metal frame behind, you probably will not be able to install the guide ball properly and will need to bend some metal and/or cut a slot on the guide itself for it to go in. I had to do both to RH side and didn't bother to punch this hole on LH side.


(Vamp)
Alright, now the fun starts. Let's begin by looking at the picture. As you can see, the 01-02 headlights have two bulbs. I tied the two black grounds together. That's how they connect to the ground on the H4 socket. Assuming you already cut the wires on your current socket, clean the wires. Here's which wire is which, and how they connect:

Red/Black (Ground) to 9005 and 9006 grounds tied together

Red/Green (Low Beam) to 9006 (Low beam) positive

Red/Yellow (High Beam) to 9005 (High beam) positive.

If you are lucky as to score a pair of male H4 plugs, do this soldering off the car and just plug everything in when done. This has the additional benefit of making this mod reversible.


(Vamp)
After you are done your set up should look similar to this. I soldered the wires together, and then used shrink wrap to insulate them. Remember to slide the piece of heatshrink on BEFORE soldering! Make sure you insulate the contacts; you don't want the rain to short out your contacts. Secure the headlight with the side bolt and the top screw and test out your wiring. Make sure it works before you put everything back together.

You can probably get by without cutting anything metal, unlike a Camry gen4.5 headlight conversion. But I am doing a HID retrofit simultaneously and needed cutting for the HID projector to clear anyway.


Noticed that I used a white ziptie at the hard-to-get-to headlight bolt hole to secure the fog light wiring.

For me, here is where I am having fun.

(Vamp; Buurin's experience is different)
The third mounting point is tricky. I simply took apart the adjusters that were once there, and then used it as a spacer. You can really use anything, as long as the headlight points straight and flows with the lines of the bumper. Rincon and myself (following his idea ) used oversized (fender) washer. Vamp guide illustrates using bits of the now-obsolete horizontal aiming screw. I recommend using the base instead, for you can actually thread an M6 bolt in for mounting. There is no horizontal aiming mechanism here on a 01-02 headlight. I used nothing between chassis and headlight. Instead I used one of the headlight bolts with an attached big ass washer from the back and nut+6mm washer through front.

Since the pic shows the relevant part, I'll mention this here. The two top bolt holes to the bumper cover are placed closer together in a 01 bumper, so much that force needs to be applied (ie. metal brackets needs to be ever so slightly bent) for them to bolt up.


(Buurin, never mind the fogs and HID retros )

This is the final product. Slide the bumper cover on. Secure it in the reverse order. If you do decide to install the new guides, make sure the plastic pieces that slip on them make it to the guides. Everything else that keeps the bumper cover on should be sufficient to hold it in place. Put corner lights on, check and re-aim the headlights. OK, now you are really done. Enjoy! You'll notice that optics on the 01-02 headlights is far more superior to the 98-00 headlights. Not to mention it actually has space to retrofit an F5 projector which can't go in the 98-00 headlights, being only 90mm tall.

want PIGGY'z headlights. lol

:bump:

In case you really really really need to see vamps domain,

http://web.archive.org/web/20071205214521/vamp.darkravers.net/cpg/index.php

Not all the links work, but the overview of every diy should work.

sweet i wish there were pictures , but its better than nothin. i wish we could get a whole backup of the page from vamp maybe if ur listening we would gladdly love to have it

Ill post some pictures.