mezdup ultramarine

[mezdup]

Fog Lamps + Bezels (3/3/13):

so i ordered the fog lamps, bezels and wiring harness all on the same day about a week and a half ago. the fog lamps came the next day and the bezels came on friday. i have no idea how long the harness will take as @nigel-jdmparts seems to be out of stock for at least a few weeks. anyways, i couldn't wait for the harness so i installed everything else.





install was relatively simple. the old bezels popped out easily. for the screws, i used these 2 pictured below. the top hole for the fog lamp mounting point is actually a little bigger than the bottom one so the combination of these 2 was perfect. i got them both from lowes for about $1.50 each. i used 1/4x20 on top and 10x24 on the bottom. some of the tabs on the bezels aren't popping in easily, but i'll figure that out when i get the wiring harness.

[abutterman]

Originally Posted by mezdup

Mudguards (2/24/13):

finally got to take some pics of the mudguards i installed last week. only part that was a challenge was those damn clips on the underside of the car. i'll find a trick to them someday. i didn't bother drilling holes, just used some double-sided tape as suggested by @abutterman here. that seems to have worked fine. the only one that didn't install flush was the front driverside, but it seems to have fixed itself over the past week, looks great now. it rained a couple of times this week as well and the mudguards definitely helped block some of that kickup. these look and work great and are well worth the $50 you can get them on eBay for.

When i put mine on i just pressed them against the car and clipped it all up. Toyota mentions that it is normal/acceptable for there to be a slight gap, probably due to slight variation when they're made. Mine have survived the whole winter so far installed this way with random temperature fluctuations and they don't shake or rattle or anything so i'd say its perfectly fine to leave it without that extra screw.

[mezdup]

Sound Tube Noise Suppression (3/9/13):

just a quick and simple mod. found a DIY by @Tech for this and figured it'd be nice to do. it involves simply covering the sound tube's entrance into the cabin, just a little plug that caps it to lessen the amount of noise coming in from the intake. it was about $1.50 for 2 plugs that fit perfectly. could have been a placebo effect, but i did notice it being a little quieter from the engine. it's hard to tell because of my exhaust, but for under $2.00, it doesn't hurt. here's what i used:




didn't take a picture of the application but it essentially looks like this:



and just to be clear this minor mod is only for people who don't want to delete the sound tube, but want to suppress the cabin noise and be able to undo the said noise suppression whenever they'd like.

[mezdup]

VG Shark Fin, H11 Fog Light Harness & 35W 6000k DDMTuning HIDs (3/18/13):

got my shark fin today from @86_ZN6 via his groupbuy. paint matches pretty well, quality seems great. i do have a dent in the adhesive strip, but i remember other people just ironed it and it went away so i'm gonna try that when i'm ready to install it. that, however, will have to wait until its warmer and i can clean my car. here are some pics though:




also i got some 35W 6000k HIDs courtesy of @abutterman who recently upgraded to a limited BRZ and was selling some of the stuff he bought for his FR-S. originally i was considering throwing these in the fog lights (just got my wiring harness from @nigel-jdmparts, here), but i have 5000k in my headlights atm and that'll probably look weird. so i'm thinking about switching the headlights to 6000k and putting 5000k in the fogs. and if that looks weird, i'll just get replacement 6000k bulbs for the fogs. regardless, spare hids are nice to have on hand haha.

[mezdup]

35W 6000k DDMTuning HIDs (3/23/13):

swapped the 5000k HIDs i was running in my headlights for the 6000k i got from @abutterman. unlike the 5000k, these new ones actually fit in the housings and twisted a quarter turn with ease as they should. clearly something was wrong with the ones i had originally because i couldn't get those to twist more than maybe a 16th of a turn. that being said, as a result the cutoff is much better on these. i definitely notice the hint of blue, but i like it. overall i'm enjoying these much more than the 5000k.



also i found it weird that my phone picked up my old set with a heavy blue color, but these seem to have come up white. strange.

[mezdup]

Car Wash & Axle-back Install (4/7/13):

gave my car a much needed car wash. looks great!





also a friend and i helped @abutterman install his new Greddy SP Elite Axle-back Exhaust. we grabbed lunch afterwards and parked like asshats:

[mezdup]

Grimmspeed Master Cylinder Brace (4/13/13):

bought a used one that @whataboutbob had bought through the groupbuy a little while back, but couldn't use as it wasn't allowed in the SCCA STX rally he's a part of. had a few hiccups with USPS in receiving it, but it came yesterday. installed it today with a friend (about 20min) and i gotta say, you can feel an improvement instantly. the brace is a really nice thing to have. a little while back some guy cut me off on the highway and hit the guy in front of him who stopped short and i slammed on my brakes and truly believed i shoulda came to a stop, but i bumped into him leaving a few scuffs on the front of my car, nothing major thankfully. but since then i started looking into these braces and i finally came upon a good deal. so yea, highly recommend!

[mezdup]

BRZ E-brake Boot Swap (4/18/13):

@abutterman offered to swap boots since he received his new leather boot from redlinegoods.com. i met up with him and was able to install it today. it's a pretty minor thing but it makes the interior look a lot nicer. i really don't know why the car didn't come like this.

Before:


After:

[mezdup]

Stivo Spoiler & Visual Garage Shark Fin (4/28/13):

spoiler from @WheelDude.com and VG shark fin from @86_ZN6. had a friend help me with the install of these 2 today. install wasn't too bad on either. the fin was cake. the spoiler we used a heat gun to make sure it really conformed to the trunk. so once we had it set we taped it up a bit and layered some bathroom tile on it. came back after about an hour and the majority of it was perfect. there were a couple of edges on the back of the trunk that popped up. so we heated those areas again and held it down for a while. seems to have worked. the spoiler looks great. the color match is a tad off under certain lighting but i love it. love the fin as well. here are some pics:

[mezdup]

Stivo Spoiler 2nd Attempt (5/4/13):

like a handful of others, my spoiler started coming off after my initial install. i did a second install with better tape and with 3M adhesion promoter, but i had to take it off. it started to come up at the edges again. so i think this was partially our poor taping job (we taped a little too far in from the edge, and we kinda rushed it so there's no pics unfortunately). so that brings me to really my 3rd attempt, but my 2nd documented one. this time i was recommended Scotch 20lb Mounting Tape from a friend so we used that (2 rolls at about $10 each from Lowe's, had to cut it in half because it was too wide haha). we just used rubbing alcohol to prep the car with and i plan to leave it overnight with bricks and marble chocks sitting on top of it. we left little gaps in the center of bottom sections to allow any moisture that gets in to escape. also we moved those flat pieces on the top corners back a little bit as suggested by @eikond here. that definitely helped with getting those sections flush. hopefully it looks good tomorrow. pics:

[mezdup]

Carbon Fiber Key Cover (5/4/13):

saw @R0ME0 selling these in the marketplace and decided to grab one for the hell of it. it's pretty nice. i probably won't use it regularly as it's kinda big, but i'll keep my spare key in it.

[mezdup]

Helix JDM Style Clear Side Markers (5/15/13):

got these for a good price through an @86_ZN6 groupbuy. i got amber LEDs for them, but i'm regretting it as they have a yellow base that you can see through the housing. pretty ugly. i didn't take a good picture of that, but i'm ordering some chrome bulbs to replace them.

they look great, fit great and took minutes to install. definitely recommend them!

[mezdup]

Fog Lights (5/27/13):
finally got around to installing these. i was waiting on @nigel-jdmparts to sent out the extension for the switch, but it seems he never got around to it so i had a friend with a lot of spare cable (electrical engineer) help me out. love them. such a great mod. for the time being i have LEDs in them, but i'm not sure if i'm gonna keep them. the fog light switch that came with nigel's harness oddly fits perfectly in the usb/aux slot. so i swapped them and put in some extension cords for the usb and aux. routed them through the cubby hole for my bass knob and taped them in there. pics:


fogs only:

fogs + headlights:

switch installation:


Subwoofer Install (5/27/13):
so i kinda hated my old pioneer 12" shallow mount truck sub and finally decided to do something about it. i found an open box 10" ported enclosure at a PC Richards with a $50 sticker on it. i got the guy to sell it for $30 so that was a great deal. then after doing a good deal of research, i bought a Pioneer TS-W254R from Sonic Electronix (here) and man is it good. it's been installed for a few days now, but i was finally able to move the cap and amp over from the old sub. now i just gotta do something about all those rattles this sub has produced haha.

[p00mba]

thanks for the pic with the foglight button location, i think i'll be using the same location!