Creole's Creation
 

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Creole's Creation
 

I took delivery of a 2014 Raven FR-S on my birthday March 5, 2014. Probably the best birthday gift I could have given my self. It is my first car I purchased on my own. The dealership I work at told me the car had been delayed a few more weeks due to something at port, and I pulled up and found my raven on the "pad" with a sold sign on it. It was absolutely filthy just like I had initially told them I wanted it when we first ordered it. To my surprise however, while bouncing up and down out of sheer excitement that I had finally got my car, 3 separate couples saw the car and told me that if the buyer falls through to let them know because they want the vehicle! Needless to say, it took a few seconds for me to take the car off the "pad" and go for a long drive haha. One of my sales managers said "we shouldn't have left the car in the front because now we won't be able to get him to do any work today lol" boy was he right. I did jack squat that day, except play with my new car!

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Then she got a much needed bath

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First new car I've purchased on my own, so i thought i was cool driving with my plastic wrap on the drivers seat. :lol:

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As you can tell, my iphone camera sucks. We will address that later down the road..

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Somewhere between this time and 6/23/2014 I picked up my JDM TOMs taillight as well as the Advan TCIII rims! We won't see any good photos of these until the cars photoshoot.

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However I refuse to put the Advans on until I get my coilovers. So they make a great table for now lol. (Not really using them as a table, thought it'd be a cheesy joke, they are still in the box wrapped up). I chose a set of michelin pilot super sports in 255/35/18 square for the rims, these too are still wrapped up lol.

Didn't really touch her for awhile...

11/13/2014

This happened while I was asleep, It also happened the day I put this thread together lol.. I allowed a family member to move the car off the hill, and well.. She forgot to turn the car on, so when she lowered the e-brake she panicked because the power steering wasn't "activated" nor was the Hydraulic Brakes, so she rolled down the hill, jumped the curb and hit a concrete / brick wall at the entrance of the neighborhood.

Lesson learned here: dont let people drive your vehicle, without you in the car.. :cry:


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Got the build moving again once I found out the car wasn't being totaled :happyanim: and decided while the car was down, it would be a good time to purchase my coil overs and some other goodies to keep things in-line and get the look I wanted.. The car will not be stanced. My goal is to be 100% Functional, as i get into Auto-x and going to Road Atlanta, and AMP.

12/1/2014

I went with the RSR Black*I Coil overs with Swift Spring upgrade. Went with 9k/9k spring rates.

Before the Swift Springs

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After the Swift Springs

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Out of sheer impulse I picked up the following SPL parts, i told my self it makes sense buying their complete line because i would need to eventually right? Well needless to say, I cant wait to see the difference the parts will make.

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Eccentric Lockout Kit
Pro Endlinks
Titanium Rear Camber Links
Titanium Rear Traction Arms
Titanium Rear Toe Links

I should be getting the car back from the shop on friday :party0030:. Will get the rest of the parts installed and I will get some proper photos taken! I will also update the thread with the rest of the pictures!

She forgot to turn the car on? Oh boy.

Glad you're getting the car back soon. I would punish the family member by making her sit in the back seat of your car any time she rides in it. She can't possibly do any damage from back there.

Lol I know right? She's not even allowed near the car haha


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Ouch!! Great start though with all the parts you've acquired. Goodluck!

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words! It's fun learning how to install all the different mods!


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Creole's Creation
 

Went to see the car the other day. And they are making great progress! I think it looks good. It should be finished, just need to get over there to pick it up.

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What do you guys think?


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Got the car back today!! I'm letting it air out because it still smells like paint at the dealership I work at, however I noticed one small thing with my toms tail lights I have. I have the JDM Tom lights with OUT the side marker, but my driver side tail light has the side marker lit up I didn't take a picture of that, as I have a spare tail light since the accident I'm going to try.

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Also, the passenger tail light has a yellow turn marker but my drivers side is red. I'm lost as to why, I never changed out my turn signal leds.

Any ideas?

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the red signal w/ side marker is a USDM Tom's... mix up with the tails?

Can't you just change out the signal bulbs?

Did the shop order the tail light for you? Maybe they didn't know there are different variations.

That's what I thought, when I got home I looked at the invoice I have and it is for the JDM TOMs tails. :iono:


I'm sure I can, and I will if I have too. Was just odd. My first set of toms didn't do that.


I thought about that, but i ordered the tails, and brought them to the shop.

Well if you do end up swapping it and it works, lemme know. I have the USDM ones but I still prefer the yellow signals.

Will do. I prefer the yellow signals as well. And I'm not a fan of that side marker on the USDM lights, so I'll probably try to get rid of that one.


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Nice start!

Question about the spring swap. 9k/9k Swift springs are quite a bit stiffer than the RS*Rs standard 7k/7k for Black-i's, did you get custom valving to match the new rates? How does it ride?

No, I didn't get any custom valving done. I didn't think that was necessary. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to put them on the car yet. I want to learn how to do the install, so I have to wait for the shop to have time for me to use a lift! Hopefully, if I'm not busy Wednesday I will be able to get it knocked out, and let you know how it rides.


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Creole's Creation
 

Well we're still waiting to get the parts installed, it rained somewhat hard last night and i came out to check on the car and found this

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:/ lol

And i am waiting for evasive to hear back from TOM about my wrong tail light

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Creole,

For what it's worth:

I had a similar mix up with TOM's Tails from Evasive back in July of last year. I ordered the US DOT approved version, recieved the JDM version (box was incorrectly ID), on the second trip ("straight out of the box") got a mixed-matched pair (don't remember specifics), finally got it squared away on the third trip.

If you're not already working with him, you might try contacting Hugh (at Evasive), he's familiar with the problem. Good guy, he helped me out.

Hope it's resolved quickly for ya, I know it's no fun. Take care...

Thank you! I believe Michael is getting it taken care of for me. I know things take time so I'm trying to be patient. If it doesn't work out I will contact Hugh! Yea I think I got lucky on my first batch, everything was perfect lol.


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Creole's Creation
 

Well today we got started with getting the parts installed. I think it's kinda cool to say I know how to install everything and uninstall everything. I took a few pics along the way but most of my time was spent trying to learn how everything worked. I didn't have the tires with me to get them mounted and balanced so we decided to deal with that tomorrow with the alignment and the other tweaks. SPL makes some quality parts!

On the the pics

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So before we got the car on the lift, I told the tech that I had been smelling something burning and the cars been making some weird noises since I got it back from the body shop. Well this is what we found..

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Sorry for the quality of the pics, they were taken with my iPhone. The tech said it was a transmission gasket? Or something like that. He had no idea how it may have happened aside from the accident. Any ideas?


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Heavy duty degreaser and some good old fashioned elbow grease will get that stuff off your pipe. In RWD cars it's not uncommon to have seal issues around the transmission output after rear end accidents. Same thing happened to me once, had a rear end smash, fixed it and a month later the output shaft shattered lol

Nice build btw :thumbsup:

Got the tires mounted and balanced. Parked the car for now, as I need to do some work today. I'm waiting on the alignment and to get back on the rack to adjust the height, each corner looks like it's at a different height lol


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in for updates, ordered the same wheels aswell and I'm very interested in the inner front clearance. Also, what tire sizes did you order?

I ordered a set of 255/35. I'm on coils so I think I'm fine as far as clearance goes. It'll be a couple of days before I get to drive it. I'm waiting on camber bolts and a transmission seal lol.


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While waiting for my camber bolts to come in, alignment and adjusting the coil over height, I decided to snap some pictures! I'm excited to finish this up. As soon as I'm done with those things I'll change my brake pads and schedule my first track day!

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Looking good!

Got the height adjusted today and got my camber bolts installed. While i was putting my rims back on the car, my friend who was teaching me how to install them, told me i should take a look at hub centric rings for my advans.

I've read that people have problems getting the rings out after they've been there for a bit. Is there a certain brand, or material I should be on the look out for while shopping?

@Racecomp Engineering @CSG Mike

Metal ones won't melt on.

We can get them for you; which model advans do you have?

Finally got the time for my alignment!

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Front and rear now!

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Gonna be scheduling my first track day as soon as I pick out a new set of brake pads!


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To follow up with you on your question..

I took it for a short spin after the alignment was done, the car felt amazing.. It wasn't a stiff ride, at least not to me. Unfortunately I can't really compare it to something for you, as I've never changed out coilovers.

I didn't drive it hard as i was listening to see if I was rubbing in the front and for some other noises I heard.


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Minor Update, hub centric rings will be in tomorrow for me to get the installed. Driveshaft is being replaced through Toyota warranty. It was leaking pretty bad again after the gasket was replaced. I think the tech said something about it was cracked

Wheels look amazing!

Renato
Team TWM Performance

Getting my drive shaft replaced through warrenty. It sucks when i go to work right now, because i see my car just sitting :(

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She's ready to go! My centric rings were to big, even though I checked. Meh oh well. I'll sell the ones I have and order a new set! So far, the ride is really nice. I went 3 clicks stiffer in the front because I thought it was to bouncy. I'm still learning about it, so I'll adjust the rear later!
Any recommendations for a complete detail in Atlanta GA. I found like 15 places online, but the one with the most reviews is like 1200 for a full detail exterior and interior lol.


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Creole's Creation
 

Nothing like a clean raven with a fresh coat of wax!

iPhone potato photos

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Creole's Creation
 

Well I finally got around to installing the 3rd brake light I picked up from @wheelhaus, it took me 2 days to get everything right, but it was 2 days well spent. I've never done a mod like this before on my own, so it took me some time lol. On to the potato photos!

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Testing the connections..

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Mounted..

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@wheelhaus thank you for the quality product and the detailed instructions! I love it!!


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Thanks! Car looks fantastic!

Brought my girl back to Louisiana to show her where I'm from, and well, I ended up just cleaning the car and trying my luck at photography lmao. Here's what I would consider to be the nicest photo I took with my shitty i6

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Dem wheels, so meaty <3