My 93' Corolla from New Zealand (JDM AE100)

Went for a quick photoshoot today

 

I installed a 240kph speedometer today

 

this car is getting better and better every time I see it. good job

 

Thanks man :cheers:

 

These arrived in the mail today - My 110mm trumpets (ram tubes/velocity stacks). Made right here in New Zealand:

 

I installed the trumpets today. Sounds absolutely amazing. Like music to my ears. I knew they were going to be loud, but not THAT loud, not that I'm complaining

Rigged up my old cold air intake piping to it in an attempt to route force-fed cold air to the trumpets from the pipe positioned behind the front bumper. Will probably keep it there as it can't do any harm, but will change the blue silicone joiner to a black one so it doesn't look so out of place.

Didn't have a chance to do any drive-by videos today, but took a couple of videos of me revving it, which I have compiled into this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbXTAI_guvk&feature=youtu.be

And of course, a few photos for good measure:

 

In-car video of me enjoying the newly fitted trumpets. Just under 8-minutes of pure acceleration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BtZLpzcong&feature=youtu.be

 

I replaced the factory screws that hold the trumpets on with some much nicer looking hex key screws today. Simple yet effective . I also took some proper shots of the new engine bay:

 

My ITB splash guard arrived from the US today so I wasted no time in chucking it on. It's made by Techno Toy Tuning and is brushed aluminum, specifically for the Blacktop. It's really best suited to smaller trumpets such as 50mm and 70mm, since my 110mm ones are about the same length as the guard itself, but should still help prevent any water and stones etc from making their way further up into the engine bay. It ties in nicely with the trumpets and makes them look a bit more at home, while also acting as a gasket between the ITB's.

 

this car makes me want to start some project again... I love your work. It's the reason why I'm still on this site.

 

Thanks a lot dude. Glad you're hanging around to see my updates. That's some dedication right there :rocks:. Much appreciated mate.

I bought and installed some TRD spark plug leads today:






Also bought an FGK header set and spent the afternoon polishing it up (only the parts that are visible when installed). Will probably chuck it on in a couple of weeks:

 

yeah it's really refreshing to see something else than others do. There are tons of Civic and 240sx build threads, but this is something you don't see every day + you're doing a great job. (also Kevin's threads with his mr2 and mrs are worth seeing)

 

I appreciate that mate. These cars have so much potential but most people just see them as workhorses/runarounds. Thanks, I'll have to check out those threads

I changed my front lip in the weekend. Decided I wanted something slightly fatter to give the front end a 'fuller' look - The only problem was that the particular front lip I wanted was extremely hard to find. After searching the local junkyards and wreckers for about a year I finally managed to find one a week ago.

The actual lip itself is a genuine Toyota item which was a factory optional extra for the 1997-2001 Toyota Caldina (ST215, JDM). Since they were only available as an option, the vast majority of Caldinas don't have them fitted, which is why it took so long for me to find one. Got one in the end though and did a bit of custom work to make it fit. The fitment was very close but I had to heat it up to adjust the curvature a bit.

Here's some pics that I took today:

 

Here's some new photos that I took yesterday:

 

Here's my latest addition which I installed yesterday - A very rare genuine Toyota Graphic Equalizer!! . This was only available as an additional option for customers who purchased the Super Live Sound System option when the car was purchased brand new in Japan. The EQ was a rather pricey add-on so there aren't many of these units floating around out there. They were available for all of the AE101 models (this particular one came out of an AE101 FX-GT) and various other models of that same era.

When I found it the plug had been chopped off and it was disconnected, so it was a bit of a gamble as to if it actually worked, but fortunately a guy I know in Australia had also managed to get his hands on one late last year for his AE101 Levin and had already figured out which wires went where and was able to provide me with all of the info I needed to make the installation quick and easy . I had to convert the factory audio wires to RCA connectors so that it was compatible with my modern day head-unit and aftermarket amplifier, but apart from that everything else was virtually a cut-and-splice type of job.

The equalizer allows you to adjust the audio settings very precisely, ranging from thumping bass to ear-piecing highs, with 3 programmable user presets to select from depending on which genre of music you're listening to so that you can basically 'set it and forget it'. Otherwise you can adjust each individual setting to your liking by going through the frequency tuning screen and moving the levels up or down. As for the visualizations, there are 3 different display settings and 2 display level settings. I personally like the traditional graph-type display, however the drop-type and 'bounce' type display settings are also cool to watch. You can set it to stay on one particular display setting or have it revolve to different settings as you're driving.

The buttons light up when the park lights/headlights are turned on and the display is able to be dimmed both night and day, regardless if your lights are on or not. The 'DEF' button beside the 'DIM' button standards for 'Definition'. When this is pressed/activated it basically helps to make musical instruments sound more defined. Once you've played around with all of the different settings and have discovered what works best for your particular taste, your whole audio experience is enhanced and everything sounds exactly how the producer of the music would have intended it to. It works really well with the four coaxial speakers I have installed and compliments the factory option tweeters superbly.

This is the second one I've ever known of in real-life and the first one I've ever seen anywhere over here so I decided to remove the factory option Multibox and stick this in it's place. It's been a fun little unit to play around with so far

Here are a couple of photos that I took today, and also a video that the guy in Australia made who I mentioned earlier (all credit for the video goes to him - Footage of the equalizer in action starts at 59s) -

http://youtu.be/AfMOJdgO59k?t=58s

 

Great to see JDMchat back up and running!!

Time for some serious updates!

I installed a custom made bellmouth that I had made by a metal spinner (the same person who made my trumpets). I also put the first half of the factory surge box/plenum back on so it's sandwiched between the trumpets. Should keep a bit more of the heat out and looks better at the same time.

 

I received/installed this today - An Ultra Racing rear strut brace. Should help stiffen things up a little more

 

Here are my two latest purchases - An Ultra Racing 29mm solid front swaybar and a Whiteline 18mm solid rear swaybar, both with polyurethane bushings. Should make a very noticeable difference to the handling compared to the original 24mm front and 14mm rear swaybars

 

Hey Kiwi, This has to be one of my fav threads so far looking through the forum today. Thanks for the continued updates . Just out a curiosity what camera are those shots taken with ? Getting in to photography myself.

 

It's my absolute pleasure mate. Thanks for running a forum which allows me to do so! . I was pretty gutted when JDMchat went offline so I'm very pleased that everything is back up and running. The camera I use is a Canon EOS 600D (known as the Canon Rebel T3i overseas). Would be a fantastic starting point if you're getting into photography

I installed my 18mm Whiteline rear swaybar today. I finished installing it quite late in the afternoon so haven't had a chance to go for a drive yet but I'm sure I'll have a bit of fun throwing the car around some corners to test it out