Year 1:
April 2020:
Here she was fresh off the boat
From the dealership, it came with the TRD USA air intake, sway bars, and I ordered a set of FRS RS 2.0 17" TRD wheels to be used as winter wheels (Due to it being one of the few 17" that clear BBK)
First thing I did straight from the dealership was dropping it off at the detailers to get full front Xpel PPF applied. I knew I wanted to get the full TRD aero kit on so had to wait until the delivery of the front bumper, side skirts, and trunk spoiler to come in before getting the car ceramic coated
However, during this time, I found out the OEM GT spoiler on Kouki 86s had holes that would not be covered with the new spoiler. Ended up having to get a new trunk lid and get it painted (should've bought base trim!)
Overall quite happy with the color matching and paint job!
May 2020:
First order arrived!
Trunk spoiler + rear side spoilers installed
Side skirts installed
Fender fins installed. Totally butchered one of the OEM ones using a fishing line to slice the adhesive but ended up being too careless and sliced through some of the black plastic underneath. Killed any chance of reselling those!
Quickshifter installed. This one was a pain in the ass because I thought the stupid dust boot was much more fragile than it really was (I didn't have to replace with the new one, just reused the existing one). As long as you don't catch the boot on the sharp pullout pin end and slice it up, you will be fine using your fingers and stretching it right over everything.
Took me longer than it should because i didn't realize the washer by the pin fell off and was on my driveway after I pulled back into the garage (after putting all panels and stuff back) so had to rip everything off just to install the washer (including that bloody dust boot)
Celebrated finally finishing the quickshifter at the end of the night by slapping a little bit of interior rice
The next day, time to install the front bumper aero! You ill definitely want an extra set of hands (or 2) as popping the aero onto the bumper takes a good amount of manipulating. Also have a tube of superglue on hand as the plastic washer comes with some weak adhesive that would likely fall off during your attempt to pop the aero on. I didn't have any on hand so ended up taping the washer right on and putting in the screws right through the tape.
Took the car in to get ceramic coated after this. Around a month later, the A'PEXi header/op/fp combo came in.
June 2020:
After ceramic coating
And installed. However, on my first drive I got this nasty rubbing/rattling noise every time I mad a hard-ish left turn. Next day went under again and loosened some bolts and positioned the overpipe as far away from the crossmember as I could. Problem solved. Went out and did some logging runs on a stage 2 OFT tune for steve99 to make some additional adjustments.
July 2020:
TRD aero stabilizing cover and TOM's CF steering wheel installed
Fujitsubo Authorize RM+C Quad tip installed
And finally, TRD rear bumper aero installed to finish the season! Installation involved cutting the exhaust area to enlarge the space to accommodate the quad tips. I would highly advise renting/borrowing/buying a low vibration air saw to make nice clean straight/curved cuts vs a rotary tool which I started out with but ended up with a lot of jagged edges i had to file/sand down after. Even going as steady as possible, the way a rotary tool cuts cannot compare to how a thin straight blade can cut. It was a night and day difference. Another tip: the templates for the cutting should be stuck onto the inner side of the bumper. Although it doesn't really matter for the cutting portion since it's much easier to cut from the outside. However there is one side that requires a small hole to be drilled in order to insert a wire harness clip that you will end up drilling on the wrong side if your templates are stuck on the outside! But use common sense! (Which i totally lacked cuz i drilled an unnecessary hole lol) The hole you need to drill will be on the same side as where your wire harness runs (drive side)
End of season photos on a real camera after a good wash:
Went for a scenic drive in Alberta and took some pics but it was a gloomy day and I only brought my wide lens which distorted the car quite a bit. Didn't bother processing or uploading the pics last year but found them on camera today and figured I'd over-process these to make them look more like drawings. Still a lot of distortion but surprisingly was able to pull out a lot of details from the original shots to bring out some blue skies and clouds
