MarkWs Provocative Supra

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First and foremost this project thread is for keeping a record for myself of my cars progression so that in years to come I can look back and contemplate how much it has all cost ££££!

I joined the forum in September 2007 after deciding that I could finally afford to purchase one. Like many on here it was a dream of mine to own one of these cars after seeing one in my early teens. I searched the classifieds and read up as much as I could before finally deciding that if I was going to buy it would have to be a facelift 1998-2002 6 speed TT RZ! This meant that I didn't really have as much money as I had hoped as these cars carried a premium price!

Eventually after years of looking...in October 2010 I spotted this car on carsensor.net and promptly contacted Jurgen at JM Imports in Newcastle to get an OTR price:

2000 Toyota Supra RZ TT6 VVTi

Price agreed and payed, my Supra was finally enroute to the UK!

The car landed in Liverpool February 14th 2011:love: and was taken to JM Imports.

I had asked Jurgen to take the car to full BPU and to have some cosmetic work carried out. This included removal of the OEM rear spats, rear wiper/washer delete and rear badge delete. Once the work was complete I booked my train ticket to Newcastle and Jurgen picked me up from the station.

This was the first time I had seen the car in the flesh:

To say I was over the moon would be an understatement!:d:d

Next was the first drive with Jurgen in the passenger seat to test the boost controller and hit 1.2 bar! I had never previously driven a Supra in any form and I was blown away by the performance. ^

Everything finalised with Jurgen I started my drive back to Scotland which didn't last anywhere near as long as I had hoped.

Whilst awaiting the arrival of the car I had been busy compiling a miniature stock room of parts in my spare bedroom which I immediately set about fitting to the car. These included a chromed TRD front strut brace, APR carbon slam panel, Supra Radiator Plinth, Polished Radiator Expansion Tank, S2000 Aerial conversion and a Greddy 6 speed gear knob.

Wanted to keep the rear of the car completely debadged, so fitted the JM Imports emblem into the horn space on my APR slam panel.

Next on the agenda was the removal of the OEM mirror finish window tints. ^They were in good condition but I just thought they cheapened the look of the car. ^The rear side windows were a breeze but the rear screen was a real pain! ^Eventually I got all of the residue off and the Supra was looking nice and clean!

The car was now beginning to take shape and I decided I would attend the Scottish Modified Car Show that I had seen in the Scottish section of the forum.

This was the first time I had met any other forum members and was my first introduction to TeamBeard!

There was only the three cars that attended to represent the club including myself, Monsween/AilsaMX5 and MarcAB10.

Scottish Modified Car Show 2010

Both Kieran and Marc made me feel welcome and their cars showed me that I had a long way to go to get my car up to my newly ascertained standard! Both cars made mine look like it was a 4x4 and their polished rims and engine bay parts made me start my parts quest!

Vulturing over every sale thread that popped up I got my hands on a DoLuck Rear Strut brace, OEM boot blind, polished engine bay wing covers and a Carbon TRD lower deck spoiler.

After that I attended another Scottish meet at Braehead Xscape which let me meet more local members and convinced me that Suprapod 2011 was a must!!!

Braehead turnout:

At this stage the only thing I felt that was letting the car down (except the obvious 4x4 stance) was the wheels, so the search began! I spotted that Jurgen was selling a nice black set of BBS LMs that had web removed from the wangan supra (now owned by Steve.m) through eBay, but unfortunately I was outbid at the last minute!

Luckily though the next set to be removed and sold from one of Jurgens imported cars were a rare set of BBS RG-R DSK 18" Lightweight Forged Alloys - F: 8.5J 36 offset R: 9.5J 38 offset fitted with Pirelli tyres...which I purchased for alot less than they were worth!:d:d

These arrived the morning we were leaving for the Pod and a quickly set about cleaning them and getting them fitted to the car. No time for pictures I headed up to meet the others for the convoy south!

Suprapod 2011 was undoubtedly the last nail in the coffin which sealed my Supra addiction!

I had only ever seen some of these cars in magazines and I couldn't get over how good they were in the flesh! Small sample of pics for you!

I didn't drag the car at pod that day and tbh regretted not trying my hand at it...so the next day myself, TonyTT and Geo signed up to drag at Mini in the Park and found ourselves lining up to some of the quickest minis I have ever seen!!! We essentially got our backsides handed to us and we left wondering what just happened given that Geo was pushing out 712bhp!

Never mind!lol!

After Suprapod 2011 I was going travelling around Thailand for 4 weeks and as the tax on the car was due to expire I decided I would SORN it. With the end of the summer and an unknown Scottish winter ahead the Supra was tucked up in the garage under its Stormforce 4 car cover.

The winter months werent as bad as previous years, and in hindsight I wish I had just taxed the car for the entire year...something I never would have said before given the snow and ice that previous years had seen! Hindsight is a great thing.

However on a positive note the monetary savings I made on fuel went into a fund for parts in the spring.

The Supra was run every week to ensure that everything was ticking over correctly and on good days it was pulled out onto the drive for detailing sessions with some products I bought from the above mentioned fund.

Now heading into spring 2012.

Next of the purchase list came HKS Hipermax 2 Coilovers, Titan Anti Roll Bars and a set of Volk Racing SF Challenge wheels fitted with Mickey Thompson ET Street Tyres that i could use as a Drag Set Up.

The coilovers were obviously second hand and had signs of surface rust but nothing major. Now given that I have an OCD complex over anything going on the car I thought I would completely dismantle them and sort it out!

Before:

After:

Forgot to take a before of the entire bodies!

Next up were the Volks:

18" fronts

17" rears

Then the refurb began......

Centre caps polished up

Kerbing fixed...primer on and wet sanded ready for colour!

Almost there...just need to tidy up a bit of overspray on the tyres due to poor masking and then clear coat!

Clear coat is on and spigot rings fitted:

Fitted:

I really like the wheels as they completely change the look of the car vs the BBSs!

For some reason my car never had the active spoiler fitted despite being an RZ...possibly the little Japanese man that owned it previously didn't like it!? But being a supporter of the stock look I decided to retro fit an active lip without all of the associated mechanisms to future proof the car for a FMIC and save all that weight!

The lip was attached using same method as Jevansio...It transformed the front of the car and i am still really happy with the way it looks!

At some point during all this I had also been onto Paul at Garage Whifbitz and had taken delivery of a Shine Auto Rear Diffuser with Vortex Generators (carbon twill weave). This had me focussing on the rear of the car and I noticed that the fuel tank cover was going to let the look down, so I went about removing it.

The cover was full of little stones and loads of grit! After a quick clean up I decided it was looking a bit shabby so I decided to spray it black using a Hammerite aerosol. It came out really good and I am much happier putting it back on the car. Not bad for £6!

Here's some pics

Removed:

Sprayed:

Fitted:

:d:d

Next point of focus was to tidy up the engine bay with a few more cosmetic accessories which included engine bay caps and a stainless steel bolt kit both bought from Rob Mitchell; a TRD oil cap brought back from TX2K12 by Marc_p for me; shroud cover and rad cover from Jamesys silver beast; bonnet dampers from Whifbitz; HKS Rad Cap from SumoPower and the fuse box cover and small relay box cover from EFL.

This with the parts already fitted saw the engine bay transform.

Picture from Japanese for sale thread:

And after some of my attention:

During another cleaning session with the car I had opened the rear hatch to dry off any excess water from the gutters and whilst at it I thought I would clean the inside of the glass. ^At this point I seen that there was some water ingress in the passenger side lower corner...nothing major, but notices that the glass was also loose at this point.

So I booked the car in to have the rear screen removed and refitted at a local place in Kilmarnock:

Apparently this was due to an insufficient amount of primer being used at this point to allow the sealant a good surface to bond to.

This wouldn't have created too many issues as the car is never taken out when its raining...but I was glad to have spotted this when I did as the rain can just start in the blink of an eye!^

Problem fixed I enjoying driving the car for a while and attend a couple more local meets:

That night I went for dinner in Merchant City (Glasgow) at when I turned around this is the pic I took:

One of my favorites! And not looking too shabby after driving 120 miles that day.

Before I knew it SupraPod 2012, Japfest2 and the SMC Show were quickly approaching!

So fast forward a month or so and it was time to get the car ready for Pod. ^After not dragging the car at SupraPod 2011 I was looking forward to sticking on the Volks and seeing how much of a difference the MT ET Streets would make.

Unfortunately I lost my wallet which had everything in it including my driving licence!? ^I couldn't believe it! With only a week until Pod there was no way I would get a replacement in time and I resigned myself to another year of spectating!

SupraPod 2012

JapFest2 (Day after Pod)

Back Home

Scottish Modified Car Show 2011

After all this it was time again for me to go off on my travels, this time it was 4 weeks travelling round Laos and Cambodia! This turned out to be a month in which numerous big status Supras were broken and sold off...I couldn't believe the community had fallen so much in such a short time, but even more so that I missed out on all those parts!!!!

Obviously with so many parts and GBs floating around, saving after my holiday wasn't really going to be possible! Next on my purchase list was a Private Plate from ScoobySlayer (Carl) and a set of DC_Automotive Car Mats:

Private Plate Fitted:

New parts ordered:

HID Kit 6000k 55w HB3 Dipped Beam - Install guide

Carbon Fibre Centre Console Lid from marc_ps GB. Nice bit of kit and is a perfect fit!

I'll apologise for the poor pics but car is in the darkness of the garage!

Took the Supra out for a spin and thought I'd grab some up to date pics for you guys

The main criticism that I ever got of the car was the poor filtration capabilities of the HKS intake that was fitted so I contacted Chris Wilson as I heard that he supplied replacement filter elements that were of a much better grade of foam.

The minute it arrived I immediately set about swapping it for the old green HKS filter. I measured my original filter at a 225mm diameter but had Chris make my replacement 235mm to ensure the fit was perfect!

Old filter removed and dismantled:

You can see that the original filter element is quite a coarse grade of foam on both of its dual layers. And in with the new Chris Wilson element which is a much finer grade of foam on both layers:

And the end result:

The Dark Grey element definately goes much better with the rest of my engine bay though.

This element wasn't cheap at £31.44 delivered! But for the confidence that my engine is protected its a price I was willing to pay! Thanks again Chris.

Fast forward to the end of October 2012:

Cleaned and ready to be covered in the garage...apparently we will be getting snow very soon up here in Scotland so the Supra may be heading into early hibernation!

Well it's been a miserable month weather wise and tbh the Supra hasn't seen much daylight as a result! I filled it up to the brim last night as I had 50p off per litre vouchers for Tesco!

Then to my disbelief it was dry and sunny today (21/11/12)!!! So the Supra went for a run along the coast stopping along the way for some obligatory photos!:d:d Shame I didn't get these pics prior to the calender submission date!

Here's a small selection I took on my phone:

Was great to get back behind the wheel of the Supra!

With the weather back to 'ruin the day' mode the car is tucked back up in the garage, so I popped the jubilee clips off the car today and set about polishing them up as I was inspired by Robs gold plated ones!

All I will say is hats of to you Rob, what PITA job but its the little touches that count:

This is my efforts so far:

Refitted close up!

Some of the parts definately hadn't move since leaving the factory and for the amount of dirt I cleaned out I'm happy with the results.

I've also been freshening up a few parts in prep for the rear shine diffuser being fitted.

One part that was showing its age and had some minor surface rust was the exhaust heatshield. This is it after removal, rust treatment and a few coats of paint. Bottom in silver and the top in black as it is visible from the rear nearside.

Drop Links Refurbished:

Titan ARBs Refurbished:

My Titan ARBs were showing signs of surface rust around the bolt holes where the bolts must have broken the surface of the powdercoat, but seeing that they were in otherwise mint condition, I decided that having them re-powdercoated would be a waste of money. So instead they got sanded back, rust treated and the ends repainted with three coats of Hammerite. I also did the brackets and drop links at the same time.

The Burning of the Titanium Strut Bolts

Titanium vs Stock

Line them up:

Top: The Inspiration

Bottom: My Effort

Not bad for a first ever attempt.

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Next up came a spare OEM VVTi Cam Cover (Thanks to SteveR) which I could colour code as I wanted to keep my mint OEM one in standard form:

I wondered which colour to go for, but I think it'll probably just be painted 202 black to match the car!

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The next delivery was a set of DoLuck Braided Brake lines from Sumo Power. They were on sale and due to many good recommendations regarding the stainless fittings etc I decided that they would do the job nicely.

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Also picked up a *MINT* TRD steering wheel - black with red stitching!

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Oil and filter change on the Supra done.

Oil - Titan Pro S 5w40 fully synthetic

Filter - Genuine Toyota

Packed up the boot and shot round to a bit of spare ground as didn't want any oil drips on my drive!lol!

Project Kics magnetic sump plug cleaned up:

Didn't take any pics after this point as the oil filter that was in place was ultra tight!!! Had to use the old screwdriver trick to get it loosened:rolleyes:....and my hands got a bit of oil on them so phone stayed in the pocket.

Everything went as expected and as it was looking like a dirty girl I have her a bath!

I was going to simply put my new bolt covers on my passenger side recaro seat...but I have been trying to decide which pair is the better combination as my intention is to get the lesser pair retrimmed. Looking at my passenger side rail I noticed that there was traces of surface rust on the feet, no doubt caused by then not having covers and people getting in the car with wet feet...anyway I couldn't be doing with it!

So out came the passenger seat:

Quick hoover underneath and I went about removing the rails from the base of the seat. I didn't take pictures at this point, but its pretty self explanatory...albeit the hex screws were incredibly tight!

All parts were cleaned, rust treated and resprayed in satin black:

Building a cinema in the house with Recaros!

I then went onto dismantle two of my Recaro seats and done repairs on the bolsters that had collapsed....cost me a total of around 50p per seat as I bought some jumbo sponges from asda and packed out the hole before taping over to hold it together. Refitted the drivers seat this morning and went for a blast and it has done the trick. The bolsters are firm and supportive again, so well worth the effort and good monetary saving vs buying new bolsters at £43 a pop.

Also have the engine a quick wipe.

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In preparation for getting the Shine carbon diffuser installed I fitted the rear Titan ARB.

Stock TT vs TITAN

And everything tightened up:

Carried on and got the front TITAN ARB fitted...much more of a PITA than the rear as the engine trays etc all need to come off.

Drop links were completely seized and were past it IMO (surprised the MOT didn't pick them up). Out came the blow torch to heat the nuts and that broke then free! Luckily I had a nice new set!

Not one my favourite jobs I've ever done on the car, but everything feels a lot tighter now.

ARB Specs:

These bars weigh 15 pounds for both of them and they are made of chromoly with only the newest technology available.

The Front Bar specs are as follows (note these #'s are measured by the stiffness of the existing TRD sway bar that you can get from TRD - 27% stiffer than Stock):

Front Sway Bar (2 way adjustable):

Light Setting 8% stiffer then TRD 498.9 lbs/in

Heavy Setting 27% stiffer than TRD 585 lbs/in

Rear Sway Bar (3 way adjustable):

Light 18% softer then TRD 367 lbs/in

Medium 6% Stiffer than TRD 458 lbs/in

Heavy 35% Stiffer than TRD 588 lbs/in

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27/04/13 - today myself and RossC popped up to Liams to fit our Shine Auto Diffusers. Got both cars done in one afternoon, so hats off to Liam! You are a legend mate. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, but I have to say that I love the look of the rear now!!!

And finished:

I also fitted my newly painted cam cover:

BOOM!

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Brand New Facelift Rears picked up today.

Seems so wrong but I will need to splice the loom for the fog light conversion when fitting them tomorrow.

Can't beat new!

Ddddddd

That's enough reserved space! Should keep me going for a while!

A stunner! One of the cleanest i ever seen.

Keep up the good work.

Absolutely immaculate.

The ONLY thing that lets it down is that hideous air filter.

A different style or type would be a vast improvement IMO.

Also, SRD do a nice cold air box for a single, it's probably easily tweeked for use with twins.

Sorry to be nit-picking, I'm the last person who should criticize another's pride and joy, but your car is really clean and something in that corner would finish it off nicely.

Heap of rubbish, i wouldnt take it for free if you tried. Im not stopping you trying though lol.

Its a gorgeous car mate. Need to keep it stock and get more shiney under the bonnet

A stunner! One of the cleanest i ever seen.

 

Keep up the good work.

Cheers buddy!

Absolutely immaculate.

 

The ONLY thing that lets it down is that hideous air filter.

 

A different style or type would be a vast improvement IMO.

No worries mate the HKS filter is the only criticism that I generally get about the car. I have been on the look out for a stock VVTi box since getting the car, but hens teeth unless I buy new from Toyota!?££££

The VVTi MAF sensor makes it difficult to get another kit, as there just isn't that many made for it!?

All comments welcomed though - negatives comments just become future projects!

Heap of rubbish, i wouldnt take it for free if you tried. Im not stopping you trying though lol.

 

Its a gorgeous car mate. Need to keep it stock and get more shiney under the bonnet

Haha! The cheek of you!

Awesome car mate it's a credit to your OCD One of the best kept cars on the forum imo.