Tagged: toyota

styling

I’ve always pulled a lot of my styling ideas for my personal cars from other makes and styles. I don’t like to surf any one particular forum for ideas. I feel like the reason why you see a lot of similarly modded cars on the same forums is because that is all people ever look at. If they know A + B is the combo to set up their ride then why take a harder road? My personal style is function always following the looks of the vehicle. Now that doesn’t mean it will be the fastest around the track or have Rcomp tires on it 24/7, but I always set my rides up so that I can hop in them at anytime without worry. My newest project the E90 is a great example. I stretched the tires and have the wheels millimeters away from the fender lip, but at the same time the car rides excellent and doesn’t rub no matter what happens. To me a car is not complete if it only looks a certain way. Making it perform (whether that just be driving on the highway without issue) is just as important. I don’t mind a dedicated car (for performance or looks) either, but for myself I need my cars to be used on or off the track and parked or doing 80. I’ve always liked old school Toyota’s that are drift inspired. They typically look good and are meant to be used also. I feel like you get a bit of that influence by looking at my E30 drift/street car.

e30front

cressida update

I’ve managed to get most of the basics out of the way really fast for the Cressida. It’s pretty fun putting together a bunch of random suspension parts that fit and work good. It’s on GC coilovers up front (eibach springs front and rear) and KYB’s all around. The rear KYB’s are for a Camaro. The wheels are just 15×8 -15 Bart racing wheels (steelies). They were dirt cheap, and I had a set of 15″ tires in the garage ready to put on them. I feel like the info I got for the front spring length was wrong because that is maxed out and there is still a little gap. I want to get another inch shorter spring and call it a day!

the life of a grippy

As always I am going to keep you guys posted on what’s going on over here. It’s been busy lately so my updates have been more spread out, but I figured I put a few things together real quick. I recently took on a 4 month old puppy which takes a chunk of your time in itself. He’s learned so much already, and has turned out to be an awesome dog. His name is Max.

The car stuff will always be my passion. Once the E30 got messed up a bit from my travels up to the Bay Area I figured it was time to just fix it for now and park it. Take it off of daily driver duties and keep it for special purposes.

I quickly ordered up stuff when I got my Fiat 500 to get it low and looking good. There was a few things I didn’t know about the car when getting it. It’s not the easiest vehicle to get low, and then it’s difficult to drive at any height that would be considered that. The rear is a solid beam setup which runs out of travel very quickly, and the front of the cars subframe sits extremely low even at moderate heights. If you want to tuck tire you will certainly lay frame on nearly flat ground. The BC coilovers I ordered have been great, but I felt there was a few things they could improve on. I think they set the suspension up to be safe still at maximum dropped levels, but for guys like myself sometimes you just want to turn down the coilovers to an unreasonable height for a meet or show. The length of the front coilover spring and collar adjustability leaves you wanting a little more. I ordered some new shorter front coilover springs which are just slightly uprated. I wanted to do the same for the rear, but the awkward spring size is making it nearly impossible without spending a ton to have something manufactured. For now I’ll just have to play with the rear collars like I did before.

I decided if I lightened the duties of my E30 I would need something fun but cheap with some potential. I’ve always wanted to mess around with a Cressida. I found a great price on one so I grabbed it before it was too late. It’s turned out to be a good running car so far. It is definitely a beater in the strongest sense. There isn’t hardly a panel, switch, lock, handle, or speaker that hasn’t been destroyed. The paint is faded, but the body is straight. The motor and trans seem to be smooth so that’s good enough for me. I’ll be able to get this sitting low and somewhat fitted on the cheap, and that’s the only real plans for it now.

kenny chow

This is my friend Kenny Chow’s Corolla wagon. I’ve known this guy for several years now. The wagon has always been cool, but it has gotten cooler and cooler over the last couple of years. It sat in his driveway for quite some time due to electrical problems. It’s one of those cars that pushes me to continue being original with my projects.

Toyotafest the Old School

I always enjoy seeing the classic Toyota’s at Toyotafest Long Beach. It’s my favorite segment of the show. If there is any cars more deserving of reward it is cars that the owners have maintained so well over the years. Enjoy!


supra detail

I helped my friend towards the end of him detailing his all original Celica/Supra. This was all done with ChemicalGuys products. He’s been on the CG fix before I even knew what it was. Keep in mind this paint is single stage. So there is not an actual clearcoat. Everything paint wise is built into a single stage so you see actual red paint come off when you polish. It gets super dull and pink looking easily. You can see how amazing the CG products worked on this bad boy. This was a 4 hour multi-stage application job. The car needed as many protective coats as it could take. BTW he has T3 coilovers ready to go on soon. Then 15×8/10 -25 will be mounted up. We are hoping it’ll be ready for the Toyota show coming up in the LBC soon.