my supra project.

This is my 1st picture upload thread so please bare with me

Its been 3 years since i bought my supra and on a very tight budget i have managed to transform the car's looks completely

this is the day i bought my supra. very standard silver 3 ltr na

However i got this in a bit of a bargain as i knocked the seller down due to the rear suspension being a little bouncy, and 1st thing i did was buy some tein complete suspension overhaul.

once fitted the ride was so much better and i found bomex front bumper new never fitted for sale and got that at a very tidy price indeed and went about fitting it

I then took it back off and bought some cans from halfords and sprayed it the same colour as the car, meshed up the holes and fitted the indicators back on

I cleaned up the headlights as the cars an import and they looked horrible but they just dont clean up very well so i planned 1 day to buy glass headlights..

The wheels were really really bad condition but they was staggered and a good size so i kept hold for the time being and reconditioned them myself

the next part i got was the side skirts, i originally wanted vailside but after ordering veilside and getting bommex in the post, once i complained i got my moneyback and told to keep the skirts, so i fitted them to see how they looked and fell inlove with them.. not bad for a freebee

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once i had fitted them myself i took them back off and again like the frnt bumper sprayed them myself

and refitted them again

so far looking good

I have never liked massive ariels, and the dumpy s2000 is nice but i like no aeral.. so i removed the aerial and installed an internal aerial which sticks to the top of the windscreen and covered the hole at the same time removing the rear wiper arm, the sprayer from the top of the boot and fibreglassed them all over, knowing 1 day this car will be professionally sprayed i wasnt too worried what it looked like til then as long as bits matched. I then found a kakimoto cat back exhaust for a really good price on here and decided to buy it and i installed that right away buy cant find too many pictures of it in my collection so ill skip uploading a crappy pic. and started thinking what to do with the rear, do i put a full rear bumper, diffuser or spats?? but once i spotted the trial rear bumper i knew that i wanted it, however at that price i had other things to do to the car 1st.

next stage was the headunit, and as a birthday present i was given a double din touch screen all singing and dancing headunit with sat nav, dvd player, tv reciever all built in and went to work fittin it, however it was slightly larger then the normal double din size and to make the hole bigger

and after fitting it looked like this.. sorry for night picture, it took awhile to get in

i didnt know which direction to take the interior and randomly came across someone selling 2 bucket seats brand new in blue collected for £60 i couldnt turn this down as even if i changed my mind id still sell them for more, so i collected them and went about making some fitments for them from the old seats to fix to the floor of the car

i must admit this wasnt easy and the stress factor made me walk away at times but after a weekend of tweeks and modification to the rails slightly they fitted well, sat a good height and was more importantly safe!!

I then realised my brakes needed changing for the mot and after a long drive back from a holiday 1 of my rear calipers seezed and really ruined my alloy wheel as it cooked the brake pad. so i changed the caliper, put ned pads all round and upgraded the rear discs and front discs to vented grooved and drilled disks and painted the parts that would rust normally as i noticed other peoples rusting.

the car at this point was looking very good and to be honest i was proud of myself. and i decided that it was time to do something with the sound system so i upgraded all the speakers in the car to pioneers and bought a mtx sub with palns to by another when i had more cash and went about making a boot build not having a clue where to start or what to use and looking back i done it wrong lol

but after plenty of fibreglassing and filling it looked something like this just needed more sanding and filling and then sprayed with the car when that time came

Looking good mate... the boot install will take ages to do. i remember when i did mine, it took days to sand it down and to get it right! i got fed up in the end and covered it in leather!

at the same time as changing the discs and pads i bought some new wheels as i stated that the caliper seeze messed up 1 of my alloys but i cleaned it up and still sold it for a good price which made buying these less painful for my bank manager. i was looking through the mkivowners club and found a pillar for sale which held 2 guages and after my battery was getting old n kept failing me i decided to buy a battery guage as i tend to sit in car with no engine running listening to stereo on my lunch breaks and then the car wouldnt start, plus they look cool, so i also got a vacuum guage again cos the car isnt a turbo what guages do i need? its strickly for looks as it moves around loads when driving. if the car ever becomes a turbo we all know that the guage will be replaced. i also changed the steering wheel and boss and i dont have any pictures of these as my old phone broke with these on and i havent taken new pictures yet. i continued with the boot build getting closer to finish and put it back in the car and it looked like this which i was happy with and i just found a picture of the wheels when they recieved so heres that too

th last part this car was missing now was the rear bumper and after putting off for ages due to such high prices i finally bit the bullet and bought it and when it arrived i fitted it after much complication with the dispatcher

that was it, the kit fitted, interior updated, and once i fitted rear bumper tighter then in the picture i decided it was time for that spray job. so i looked round for companies willing to spray it for the price i was willing to pay. and with this i made a friend in dents bodyshoop local to me, he told me if i was willing to prep the car, he would paint it and charge me less then a grand, whats the worst that can happen i thought.. so i went about buying a rotary sander, all the grits papers i needed, and luckily my mate who done bodywork for 8 years helped considerable amounts as i am no car bodyshop worker, nor a mechanic of any sort. we spent 1 week (with constant stopping due to rain) to get this car ready for the shop, we fibreglassed all round the skirts, blending them into the car and this looks so good i cant fault them. at the same time i finished by boot build and wanted that sprayed same time, took all the tiny rust bubbles of the car,sanded and redone all the fibreglassing and it was as we thought... ready to be sprayed.

when i took it back to the bodyshop we chatted for hours, what colour.. ford focus st blue.. and the bootbuild sprayed black and the dash panels done too in st blue. ok all agreed. however... front and rear bumpers not prepped well enough so he done them again, he found more dents we missed and repaired them and 2 coated primered the whole car and a wet and wet primer on the front, rear and side skirts. a week later i get the call. shes ready...

now i saw the car and it looks sooooo good i was over the moon, howver with plastic headlights.. this ruined the car, all this money i paid and the lights kiled it, 1st stop.. toyota to order glass uk spec lights, and they came to £345 which is alot but it had to be done, on taking the car i asked so what do i owe you, hes responce, £850, bargain!! with my girlfriend being a photographer i fit my lights, all the bumpers and extras i told him id fit to save money, polished the car and we headed out right away. i ordered new spot lights after this and they are now fitted, some new mesh for the front bumper and better bulbs for the headlights. all done she looks a dream

Looks great, very impressed and a great read too.

turbo next?

Looking good mate, nice write up, alot of hard work and love has gone into that and it shows.

... and just as a dampner to anyone thinking everything worked out perfect, 2 weeks after respray some little prick keyed the car right down 1 side and she is now booked into the same garage again to have it fixed. but nothing works out perfect all the time

but heres the other parts i missed earlier,

the steering wheel, pillar guages and painted dash

blensed sideskirts,

with the boot build just as i was going to buy that other sub i got these 2 for half the price of the 1 mtx sub and these subs are god so i chose to do this

Unfortunately i cant afford masses and masses but i do believe on a budget, time on yourside and patience, waiting for that bargain you can do something special with a gem of a car. its cost me alot im not going to lie, but everything that came off and was repalced i sold on the forums and i want to thank everyone for the sales and the buys involved. every transaction on the forums has been clean and tidy, fast delievery, i did buy a couple of rear bumpers and sell them on as i kept changing my mind on what i wanted. all thats left to do now in my eyes is rear tint on boot as you can see the sound system through the window, window wiper arms need spraying, easy job, and discs need colour changing on the middles. and then then the engine upgraded slowly

Looking good mate... the boot install will take ages to do. i remember when i did mine, it took days to sand it down and to get it right! i got fed up in the end and covered it in leather!

ha yeah i thought the build would take a week, how wrong i was, took months of constant work to make it hard enough and strong enough to take a kick from the subs. next time ill use expanding foam. if there is a next time

Looking good mate, nice write up, alot of hard work and love has gone into that and it shows.

thankyou, and yes, the man hours involved, even on something as small as refurbing the old wheels took a weekend and i was only selling them to buy the wheels on the car now, glad it gets appreciated from fellow supra owners.

Looks great, very impressed and a great read too.

 

turbo next?

petrol is 1.33 a litre, and thats at its cheapest. the car drinks as it is a 3 litre, id love a turbo dont get me wrong but at the moment this car is an everyday car, but now it got keyed im reluctant to leave it anywhere, so its gonna be a weekend car before long and the motor bike will be the main attraction, once i get licensed lol. and when the car is only a weekend thing, then ill afford petrol easier and yes it will become a single big turbo'd engine, probably a straight swap job for 1 on the forums, there was an engine for sale last month for 5k fitted.. nearly got a loan but my mrs stopped me and im glad she did. cos i would be in debt driving it around everyday