Madoka <3 - Steve's build thread/journal
 

Introduction:


Hello everyone, welcome to my car journal/build thread!


To start off, I would like to say that I don't have an FRS...yet. However, it'll be soon. The original plan was to save up a huge sum of cash for at least a 50% down payment and buy the car April of next year. As you already know, plans change. I went to take a test drive and moved the date up to end of summer-mid fall. After obsessing on how great the hour I had with the car was and seeing where my finances are, the latest plan is to get it next month; most likely 2nd week or so. This all depends whether I get hired on from intern to full time within the next 3 weeks...


Anyways, let's get on with what I have in mind (basically transferring all the stuff over from my notepad text file):


The car:


There are a lot of Raven, Whiteout, and Firestorm FRS's around my area. I haven't seen any other colors beside those three. I originally wanted a Hot Lava but when I saw pictures of an Ultramarine, I nearly drooled. Looking online, there are none within a 25 mile radius so I'll be driving about 60 miles to a dealership that has 2 in stock. Model year: 2015. The dealership I went to said it'll take 10 days to order one from factory but I read it took two months for shipping. I cannot wait any longer.


Mods/Additions:


After doing some research/calculations on car payments, let's just say I'll be taking my sweet time with mods. I do want to save for the future so it may be a mod a month (depending on costs and my feeling that month). Most likely, I'll start off small then take it from there. People did say drive it for 6 months to a year before doing anything so I'll take that advice and run with it.


-Exterior:
Full Toyota badge swap
License plate relocation kit (lowest priority out of all mods, current and future)
Continental Extreme Contact or Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires (Not right away, when stock tires go bald)
New wheels, don't know which one to choose. I'm fine with stock wheels until I get bored (and the cash)
HID conversion kit from DiodeDynamics or Morimoto Elite HID system from The Retro Fit Source
Rexspeed Wide Angle convex mirrors


-Interior:
Footwell lights (maybe)
Wider rear view mirrors (if needed)
3D MAXpider all weather floor mats
Wider Accelerator/Brake pedals (if needed after a month or two of driving)

New speakers/head unit/subs??


-Engine/Exhaust/Suspension:
K&N drop-in air filter
Borla cat-back “S-type” exhaust or Magnaflow cat-back
KW or Tien coilovers (maybe)
Forced Induction – This is a way down the road mod, after factory warranty ends and I get extremely bored and making tons of cash. I loved the car in power stock form so this may never happen. Who knows?
**More to come in this section as I continue to research and learn!**


-Extras:
Now this will come once I have extra cash to spend (as with everything above). My 3rd interest besides anything computers and cars is anime (aka Japanese cartoons). You may or may not have seen pictures, or in person, of some cars in specific areas of Japan and worldwide with vinyl wraps of anime characters. These types of cars are known as Itasha or “painfully embarrassing/painful for wallet” cars. The majority of car owners would most likely never do this to their cars for various reasons. I want to have some fun so at first, I'll start off small with perforated vinyl on the rear window and see how it goes from there. Also, I may do the interior dash where the passenger is up to the right side of the head unit. If I want to continue, I'll get a full body vinyl wrap. There is inherent risk to this expensive plan because this car will be my DD. Rock chips, the elements, closed minded people who will want to destroy the wrap using keys and the like. That's one reason why I'll start small with the window instead of going full body. If you wish to know about Itasha cars, there's a Wikipedia article that summarizes everything!


Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. Of course, I'll be using a different character design:




http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/a...pshde1vsit.jpg









Summary:


If you made it this far, thank you very much for reading through all this! I know it's not much compared to other members. I am still learning about cars and the Twins in general. This car will be my very first purchase, second car overall. It's exciting thinking about driving everyday, that inevitable stupid grin I'll have, and the list goes on forever. Yes, I'll be taking a financial risk with buying this car now instead of next year. I could lose my job a few months down the road; I may not even get the full time position! Making this thread may be pointless. But if things do fall into place, I know I'll be enjoying this car and having more fun in general.


In closing, below is the very first “mod” I will be doing. If you have a question as to what the plate means, just a quick Google search will explain it. I ordered the plate back in February before committing to the Twins. My current car is just temporarily holding on to it.




http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/a...psckmgdm5s.jpg





More mods will be added if or when I get interested. Any questions/comments/concerns/whatever pertaining to anything written above, feel free to post a comment!