Crossy

That looks like an unreal bit of kit, how much were those coilovers out of interest if you dont mind me asking?

All in hand mate, Have spoken to them, they've just asked for a couple weeks to see how they deal with things and then they're going to contact me from there with a chance to reschedule a date once they ease into the flow of how their business will operate

To get the spoiler to where I really wanted it finish wise I decided to polish the spoiler blade while it was off the feet. To do this I used my DA with a polish that was minimal cut and mostly gloss enhancement, as you can see the lacquer had begun looking faded in a couple of areas, and there was also an area that had paint breakdown from the poor previous paint on the feet. These were really surface only marks. So the blade went from that, to this Now inside housing light and direct sunlight show 2 different sides of carbon; so I had taken the blade outside prior to mounting it back up to the feet and was still happy that there was no remaining blemishes left. As I wouldn't get another opportunity for a while, I took the time to polish the areas that were still slightly stained from where the spoiler had sat previously, I had to do this really carefully to ensure I didnt remove excess paint from the area near the holes The outcome was pretty good finish wise both sides as well. I was happy enough, so put on another 3 layers of sealant down here in the hope that the jetwash will power the dirt off with more ease around this area going forward, gave the spoiler blade 3 coatings of spray sealant and mounted the spoiler back on the car This actually left 1 part remaining to fit, the front bumper which I knew I would be tackling at the weekend. But for now the car was back in 1 piece and I wasnt getting anymore comments from neighbours or Instagram telling me not to smooth the boot lid and go without the spoiler haha I had actually managed to fit the wiper delete as well by this point. I had removed the motor and the arm, sealed and tied back the cabling incase I wanted to replace it in future and put the grommet and cover in place While I had the DA out I decided to tackle a project I had sat around for a fair while. This really shows the power of sunlight to the finish of carbon, as you'll have seen in some previous pictures I've had a Carbon Roof Skin sat in the background for some time! It's actually for a BRZ, and you can pick them up from Siebon for around £950 or more from the US. I managed to source this one from the UK for £150 due to the damage on it and had planned to restore it. In previous pictures you really cant see the actual scope of the damage to the gel coat on the carbon, however when put in direct sunlight... This had been on another BRZ that had sat at a workshop, and they fucked up by leaving the car outside in an area under a tree, so where the leaves had collected on the roof over winter and retained a higher level of water right on the surface of the car this effect began happening over time, water spotting left in sunlight also does this over time but it takes a lot longer. To say the lad was annoyed with the garage was an understatement but he had a replacement from them so sold this one dead cheap. So while I had the DA, my pads and polish out I took a heavy cut compound to the surface of it with 2 passes. And then a low cut and reasonable gloss compound, followed by a no cut and high gloss compound. This took me about 2 hours of polishing in total, cleaning the surface at regular intervals to ensure I wasnt cutting into the gel too far, but also far enough to remove the heavy marking. The end product was this! The end goal with this is to actually wet sand the gel layer back, and then 2k lacquer it, but until then my Girlfriend was made up with it as it's to go on her BRZ and she thought I had wasted my money getting it!

I guess it's all about making a small bit of progress with it every week! Been a bit disheartened with mine lately, as I was making really good progress with it all, only to have this delay since February where all the parts I ordered I'm still waiting on due to this virus shutting a lot of shipping etc down. They all get sent on the 7th July now though, so every cloud and all of that! I may finally regain the motivation to get into the relocation work I have the cables and tools etc for under the bonnet finally. That sounds well planned out aswell, nice seeing you've got yourself a list of priority as such to go by. That Ridox kit should look absolutely spot on once sorted, the half carbon versions were my favourite as well, they just seem to flow better. I always planned for mine to go Full Ridox when I picked it up, but ended up enjoying the stock body too much to actually go for it and spent the money elsewhere on it haha. Looking forward to seeing your progress with it either way! Hopefully catch you later in the year then if we manage to get any shows that hold on!

Yeah it was by far the cleanest Supra I could find for my money at the time I was looking for one so it was a no brainer really! It's stayed Tiptronic a lot longer than I thought it ever would, but I've actually enjoyed the box more than I ever thought I would as well! Yeah it was just the way I decided to work through things in the end, make sure the bodywork and under body are absolutely pristine and then move onto the engine and gearbox to hopefully make some gains on the power side and go manual. You had the itch for a manual box yet? Yeah I did see those, just concerned that its another bit of material to hold water against the chassis with it being felt and potentially cause rust. I think I saw your post actually mounting the rear camera! Looked really good and is an idea I have saved on my to do list haha. I've got to catch this thread up to where I am currently with the car, and then I can get through the bay relocation work I'll be starting and get all of the new carbon bits on when they finally arrive from the US! I've got a steering wheel I'll be working on as well to get the car running paddles like some others here have done too! Then it will be on to the Gearbox next year. Was going to go R154 at the start of the year but ended up holding off an will most likely go the T56 direction with it I'm thinking currently! I had a Caffeine and Machine meet at up for April but it was postponed due to Covid, they're re-opening soon so I'm expecting a new date for it if you're interested. There was actually a thread on this forum about it! Thanks for the kind comments man! Sam

Had the parts back from being sprayed, made a last second decision to get the mounting points for the front plate smoothed over, same with the mounting points inside the grill area for the facelift centre bar in an attempt to keep the front looking really clean and clutter free. Ended up being really nervous about the finish of these parts as anyone in the industry knows, there's like 4 continents of slightly different colours for each paint code, all with about 8 variations of tint to the paint. Was also absolutely amazed that the front bumper could fit inside the Supra itself when curved around the passenger seat and into the rear with the seats down Picked up a little rear wiper delete and had that done as well Got a little bit of time together to get the side pods on, with new clips. Was actually surprised how well these matched to the rest of the paint, the guy definitely did a top job with it. For anyone interested and local to Shropshire this was a guy called Nigel at Sprayaway in Oswestry

At this point I decided it was time to get certain areas in line with the rest of the bodywork, which is ridiculously clean for a nearly 23 year old car. There was a few areas I wasn't happy with and had sourced a painter in my general area that was renowned for high quality work and his attention to detail. The areas I had decided to target were the front bumper, side pods and spoiler feet. The front bumper inside the arch had a split in it since I had picked up the car, and it used to absolutely grate on me everytime I'd see it, especially at shows even though no-one really ever pointed it out. I'd had a couple of chats with the guy doing my bodywork and had decided that I'd just go all out and get a new OEM Front Bumper from Toyota while it's still an option. I could have gone down the route of plastic welding it, but after all of the prep work and hassle of sanding it down and preparing it for paint, cost wise it was more effective to get a new front bumper and sell the old one on for someone who would do the repair work themselves to save labour costs. This was the view in my living room for the next few days! Once this had arrived I moved on to removing the side pods and spoiler, images of their condition to show why I wanted it doing From here, I removed the carbon blade and all of these parts went to the bodywork shop. However, I was left with quite a mess to tidy up before taking these down, and my OCD kicked in haha. Under the side pods, probably never having seen a clean really weren't all that bad, but I got to cleaning them anyway with a degreaser, detailers brush and a detailing spray. I then topped the area with 3 coats of a spray sealant just to try and keep more grime at bay in future when the side pods were put back on. I then got to the area I had taken the spoiler off. I'm not sure when the TRD spoiler went on the car, but christ it retains dirt, so it may be worth popping yours off and checking so that you can pre-prevent any issues of rust going forward! This is what I was left with and I did fear the worst had started However, I gave these areas the same treatment, few blasts of degreaser, a soft detailers brush to agitate it all, and then very carefully cleaned the area. I then went over it with a detailers spray to get rid of the rest of what would shift without a polishing compound. Fortunately enough there was absolutely no rust, just areas where the paint had rubbed off around where the bolts sit and it came up reasonably well prior to having time to get the DA polisher out. I had a work callout at this point and decided to call it a day. I used detailers tape to seal off the holes left from both sides, with cling film in between just to give it more of a barrier for moisture and dust and left it looking sorry for itself for a day!

Thanks for the kind words both! Nearly caught up to the present day in this thread now so some good progress coming up with it Yeah I'm hoping so! They have a date of reopening set at 11th July, so hoping we should get our event there by September latest!

Most blades I can find are priced at £239.99 (Knightracer) upwards. So I guess £200 would be reasonable considering the coating it has isn't cheap. (For info, any marks that appear in the top coat can be removed by heating the coating up with a heat gun on a low setting, or a hairdryer)

I managed to get a quick photo shoot in at Lake Vyrnwy which was a nice day drive out, this was all before Winter when I knew I wouldnt be using the car so wanted to make the most of it! The results were tidy as well, even though the car was covered in road grime at this point. Also took the car down to Caffeine and Machine on the way to a weekend away in Bath. Was my second visit to the site and people seem to love it and are always asking about it, especially asking to pop the bonnet. (I've actually set up a Supra meet here which was planned for April 2020, which got postponed due to the Covid Lockdown! This will be going ahead still once the lockdown is lifted and they're properly reopened once they discuss future dates with me; a fair few people from this forum have already got tickets!) Definitely up there as 1 of my favourite sites for a day out for coffee and lunch! In October 2019 I was also picked up as a Sponsored car for Juicy Details; they're a big detailing company that sells car care cleaning products. I actually used their range of products for about 18 months prior to this so it was unreal for me to get picked by them out of thousands of applicants to be taken in for their 15 cars for the year, the work I had put in at shows cleaning my Supra and helping others prepare their cars was one of the reasons apparently which was a nice little feel good moment! I'll be with them until October next year, and hopefully more years going forward. It's nice to be able to vouch for products that I genuinely use day to day, as well as detailing others vehicles with them as well. I have a referral link: https://juicy-details.co.uk/?ref=9082 With a 15% discount code "Supra" for anyone interested in checking their products out. I'm also happy to talk through detailing methods or any products with people who message me for advice or just to chat. Alternatively, I usually offer a hand detailing cars once they're parked up at shows (if we actually have any this year...) if I have time before it starts, where I use the products so you can check out results first hand! Anyone local to Shropshire can always give me a shout as well and venture over for a beer and a car cleaning day, I often have mates over for this every month or so

Carbon TRD Blade for sale, completely unsure what price I should be asking for this so feel free to have a discussion below. It's in ridiculously good condition with no marking, has just been polished by a professional detailer and then coated with a Self Healing Graphene Coating (which will last 5 years plus with proper looking after) as it was done with the rest of the Supra. I've just replaced the blade with another shape of one from Gary at Charge Auto Styling (see last image)

Want some black leather rear seats to replace the blue cloth style ones in mine, so I'll eventually have those to re-sell. They need to be near perfect condition

I've experienced both sides of this. I'm an avid detailer, I actually have the Supra sponsored by a detailing product company called Juicy Details. I have taken on full 3 stage polishing on cars, including my own Supra. But have also taken mine to a "proper" detailer for work which included a full Self Healing Graphene coating as well recently. It all depends how confident you are to have a go, as with anything a lot of the work is in the preparation of your tools, products to use, and actual decontamination of the car. I wouldn't take my car to anyone who doesn't understand thickness/depth of paint as well as the available technology to gauge it (Micron Testers etc), how hard/soft different manufacturers paint is, especially with pre 90s and many 90s cars which had 2pack paint rather than paint with the lacquer over as with all modern cars. I also wouldnt go to anyone where I haven't seen them doing the work on cars first hand. Anyone can take dramatic before and after photos without having done the work to the level they should have done. Images below show the difference on my paint before, during and after. This took me 2 full days of work to achieve the final outcome, which isn't showed on these images. The most important part of getting yourself into a situation with polishing/detailing is to research and understand what you're trying to achieve, research the products and equipment needed to do it safely and properly, and to ensure you have plenty of time to complete the task at hand to ensure you're not rushing it. I can suggest any products/equipment to use for those who want to do it themselves. I could help people in person if local to Shropshire with understanding all of the cleaning processes prior and post polishing!

The next time I got to use the Supra was Japanese Performance Show, having been to it the year before on the MKIV stand which was organised here I was buzzed for it this time as it was 1 of my 2 favourite shows of that year. I actually applied for an Indoor Show and Shine position and managed to get 1 alongside 3 other Supras which I'm sure a few of you will recognize as Dom's, Mani's and Elliot's. This is definitely a show I advise people go to if you get the opportunity, its always a great day out. I was approached during the end of the show by a young lad that wanted to shoot the Supra along with a couple of other cars, so I stuck around while the place emptied a bit at the end and let him use the car outside now he wanted. To be fair to him he did an absolutely great job of it! I'm hoping JPS will still go ahead this year as it happens late in the year. I'll hopefully see you all there as it's a great social day out with a good crowd, and you can see the changes to the car in person, as this thread is currently about 9 months behind with what I've done to the car and have ordered still to come!

Yes it's still here mate. Drop me a PM with your address and I'll price up postage unless you want to collect near Shrewsbury! Edit: Just seen you're bio says Northern Ireland... Postage it is haha

Wiper arm and Blade sold. Motor still available

Thank you mate

Decided to book on last minute to Gravity Show hosted by Slammed UK. Fortunately enough they had a few inner spots left and managed to get it onto the inside set up. Drove it up on the Saturday and prepped the car to be show ready, and then left with the other half in her BRZ and went home! Gave it a full clean and 2 layers of wax. Also added a Blackmarket Black Satin Sunstrip to the car and removed the Speedhunters one, added the Gold Chrome 750mm Blackmarket Decal over the top. Returned nice and early the next morning to enjoy the show! Was actually surprised how much we enjoyed it, being a mix of cars and a lot of air ride set ups. Was definitely 1 of the best shows we had been to that year, the set up and organisation was spot on. Had a couple of people send me images of the Supra which went straight onto Instagram! Gravity will 100% be something I continue to apply for over the years, may even apply for the Interior Show and Shine in future!

Appreciate that mate. Hopefully if the shows at the end if the year are still on eh!

Had a bulb failure, so next up was replacing the rear bulbs with LED upgrades, the rest were really dim anyway so it was something that was bugging me. Removed the rear lenses and kept a drying towel in between the light and the body to ensure no marking on the bodywork. This is the mess I was greeted by... Naturally I had to clean it out before doing anything else, having dirt thats built up anywhere bugs the hell out of me! I used a degreaser spray, gave it a very careful hit with the jetwash on a low setting to get rid of the majority. Then another coating of degreaser agitated with a detailing brush and another blast. Finished it up with a detailing spray and a microfiber, paint was like new back there haha. LEDs attached and in, literally the easiest job to do While I was back in the boot area I also decided to unplug the power to the aerial motor and isolate it, then wrapping it in electrical tape and tucking it out of the way. Had wanted to do this for ages, car looks so much better with the aerial staying down. I had also bought some Carbon Sill covers and had decided while I was out with the tools and it was a nice enough day I'd line them up to plan how I was going to go about fitting them. Went about taking the plastic sill covers off. Best plan of action I found was to slide them left and right to free everything up, and then carefully pop out the retaining clips 1 by 1 ensuring not to be to rough as they're supposed to be reasonably fragile Same course of action here for cleaning as before with the area behind the rear lights, was actually amazed how well these areas were coming up once clean Lined up the Carbon Sills to ensure the fitment was good for a later date, I had a show coming up at this point and the last thing I wanted was to make a quick attempt at something the day before a show and make a mess of it, but as you can see the fitment looked good Gave the car a complete snowfoam and wash, so would have been irresponsible not to take the opportunity to take a snowfoam shot! Went out in the evening to take an image of the rear lights as well now that the LEDs were in The improvement was crazy, so much better! The only downside is you now get the bulb error on the dash. I plan to 1 day mess about with the rear lighting circuit as I believe it will be down to the resistance measured. I'll need to put an old bulb in, measure the resistance on it, and then replace the new bulb in and wire in a resistor to that value to see if it cures the warning light on the dash (However we are about 10 months on from this and I still haven't found time yet haha)

Appreciate that mate, glad you're happy with it!

No continuity between any of the cables on the paddles once the paddle is engaged, so I imagine they're not going to be useable with the wiring already in place. I suppose once you know the Tiptronic runs a simple open and closed circuit it's common sense to check the paddles this way. Hindsight and all that haha

In the process of trying to test fit paddles. All 4 buttons share Yellow, am I right to assume this will be the common live/pos? Or anyone know better than my assumption? The Shift Up buttons share a Blue and Red second cable, 1 goes either way to complete the Up circuit. The Shift Down buttons share a Black and White cable, 1 goes either way to complete the Down circuit. Trying to test fit some Paddles which run 3 cables, so need to test fit to ensure I can run them off of 2. Assuming that Red is positive, Black is negative and Grey is Earth

Looks spot on that, nicely done mate! In the process of creating a couple of these with fresh materials! One with paddles for the Tiptronic system, and one for sale as a test run, hope it looks half as good as that

Whifbitz Titanium 3" Single Box