Steve's Aurion ZR6

[DJKOR]

maybe the its just the camera, but your engine bay looks like a pale yellow and not the gold colour of the outside of your car...

I think that comes down to the lack of clear coat? I guess in the gold colour, it is more noticeable compared to others.

Do you notice the difference when driving now Steven?

[Steven]

maybe the its just the camera, but your engine bay looks like a pale yellow and not the gold colour of the outside of your car...

I think that comes down to the lack of clear coat? I guess in the gold colour, it is more noticeable compared to others.

Do you notice the difference when driving now Steven?

The engine bay is painted a very basic dull Gold color, doesn't look like a metallic base at all. Toyota probably thought it would work better in a harsher environment like an engine bay.

Difference wise, it's hard to tell as I never really pushed my car hard at all previously so nothing to base it off. However just around town the steering does feel a little more responsive, but I'm being very mindful of the placebo effect.

Cost wise? All the metal I had just lying around, so the only cost was $5 for the hi-tensile bolts and lock-nuts. Bargain I reckon :)

[Tash]

Yes.. unfortunately the engine bay in these cars is less than desirable in terms of colour lol

Great looking Aurion though, and fantastic to have another gold cousin heheheh They're some fantastic home made mods too, particularly the carbon fibre interior :) Best of luck with whatever the next project is!

[Guest]

$5 for a strut brace, nice work :D

[Andrew357]

The engine bay is painted a very basic dull Gold color, doesn't look like a metallic base at all. Toyota probably thought it would work better in a harsher environment like an engine bay.

Difference wise, it's hard to tell as I never really pushed my car hard at all previously so nothing to base it off. However just around town the steering does feel a little more responsive, but I'm being very mindful of the placebo effect.

Cost wise? All the metal I had just lying around, so the only cost was $5 for the hi-tensile bolts and lock-nuts. Bargain I reckon :)

$5? Oh man. That's... somewhat cheaper than my $470 job. hahaha, probably does a better job as well. It looks smart as well.

[SecaBoy]

$5? damn! thats awesome! :D

[Steven]

My grill from carmate arrived today - I won't say anything about the service.

The grill is made of fibreglass surprisingly. The fit and finish will require ALOT of work to meet my standards, I even needed to modify it just to get it to sit on the car. All the fitting holes don't line up either, nor does the Toyota badge fit in the provided space (nor sure whether I should delete the badge hole entirely, opinions?)

Also it's cracked in several places, can't say I have much praise for the fibreglassing. Looks like I'll be reinforcing it and working on the finish most of this weekend.

Pics up over the next few days, in the meantime here's the grill in question

http://www.carmate.com.au/product_details.php?productid=TOYAUR06MFG

[Steven]

Got the new grill semi installed - still some aspects of the finish that aren't perfect, but it's a lot better than how it came. The mesh is to come later, I'm not using the stuff that came with it but some other punched metal I've had lying around for awhile now.

BTW the amount of work this grill needed took me by surprise. It needed heaps more fibreglass and epoxy reinforcement as it kept cracking when flexed. The mounting tabs had to be reshaped just to slide into the factory clips. The top side tabs for the mounting screws were completely off mark and I actually needed to completely recreate these from scratch. Even the Toyota badge needed a part cut from the original grill in order to have something to stick to.

[Andrew357]

Far out, sounds like you had to do a fair bit of work, but the end result looks pretty good.

Can we get a close up of the mesh please?

[Steven]

Far out, sounds like you had to do a fair bit of work, but the end result looks pretty good.

Can we get a close up of the mesh please?

Will do first thing in the morning once it's light again. Try to imagine something similar to a speaker grill.

[Steven]

Mesh in the new grill, and filled the lower half of the front bar as well. Hard to see in the pictures unfortunately.

Next mod - Aftermarket Satnav or Wheels, depends whether I have to wait much longer for the updated Satnav

[mikka]

Looking great Steve - sounds like a lot of effort but the result is worth it.

[SecaBoy]

i like that grill man... looks pretty sweet!

very different to the other aurions in brissie which is also a +ve... :)

[VF-X]

Lookin really neat!

[Andrew357]

Yeah, the grill looks good.

I like the centre bar ones better than the RS ones and the smaller mesh looks great.

[Steven]

cheers guys. Been looking around trying to decide on what rims I'll be getting. I've stumbled across the below listed by Tempe Tyres, opinions? BTW if anyone could give me an idea how big they are in the picture it would help, I think I may be stretching the budget going for 19"s.

[DJKOR]

cheers guys. Been looking around trying to decide on what rims I'll be getting. I've stumbled across the below listed by Tempe Tyres, opinions? BTW if anyone could give me an idea how big they are in the picture it would help, I think I may be stretching the budget going for 19"s.

I'm not a huge fan of those wheels. Seen them on a Gen 6 Camry before and didn't like the 'raised' part of the outer lip. When it's parallel with the ground, it makes your tire look flat. But just he design in general isn't my thing. The colour combination works well though.

And those would be 20's.

Edit: I knew I took a photo of it. Back in May 2008 I spotted this. Those rotors are looking real sad there.

[Steven]

20? That is definitely larger than I want to go (plus as you said, it makes the stock brakes look pathetic).

My budget looks to be around $1600 for wheels with tyres. 19s out of the question?

[arc]

Go down to stylish wheels down in Moss St he should be able to help you out.

[mikka]

Probably not the look you're going for but I got the 18in Kappas and Federal 595RPM's for about $1600 all up.

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af360/mat1311/Aurion/aurion1.jpg

[Steven]

Few things, mostly stereo related.

Installed an aftermarket Satnav and all that goes with it - which means RCAs to the boot amplifiers, installed the reverse camera and ran a coaxial cable to the boot for the eventual DTV antenna (the one you get with the satnav isn't really usefull).

Also popped open the Satnav as I was interested in there internals (and was considering changing the panel illumination color from white to blue). It's actually pretty well made, from my limited experience in these things I couldn't really find anything obviously cheap about it. Unfortunately changing the color of the LEDs would require a fair bit of extra disassembling including desoldering so that idea was quickly dropped - however whilst I was in there I added a rear connector for USB connections! Tomorrow it's off to Jaycar to pick up some pieces to have myself a center console "Aux" box for connecting RCAs, 3.5mm or USB - Ipod will stay in the glovebox.

Now if only I could change the darned loading screen for the IGO v8 nav software I'd be set.

more pics to come

[sikwitit]

cheers guys. Been looking around trying to decide on what rims I'll be getting. I've stumbled across the below listed by Tempe Tyres, opinions? BTW if anyone could give me an idea how big they are in the picture it would help, I think I may be stretching the budget going for 19"s.

im going to worn you dont buy **** from tempe i bought tyres and when i got my car back front bar was cracked and had many scrachs on the headlights. go to ozzy tyres they will look after you.

sean

[Steven]

doesn't look like I'm getting wheels anymore, just a new set of treads after tax time.

Figured out how to update the gps loading screen. Here's the loader I've made up.

[Steven]

Thought of a way to "fix" the slow startup of my new stereo whilst also making it a bit trick. Basically the unit will start up as soon as the car detects my key, and will shut down after I leave. I understand this means the unit may possibly be playing when the car is turned off, but only when I'm near it so I'd actually prefer it this way. Also the second I lock the car it will shut off.

Of course I can only do this because I have the smart entry system. What I have planned may also work partially on a regular turn-key car but I couldn't confirm that without seeing one in person.

Already planned how to do it, checked the car's wiring diagrams and that also confirms it's possible. Hopefully I should have it ready to show off on Thursday's meet :)

[DJKOR]

Thought of a way to "fix" the slow startup of my new stereo whilst also making it a bit trick. Basically the unit will start up as soon as the car detects my key, and will shut down after I leave. I understand this means the unit may possibly be playing when the car is turned off, but only when I'm near it so I'd actually prefer it this way. Also the second I lock the car it will shut off.

Of course I can only do this because I have the smart entry system. What I have planned may also work partially on a regular turn-key car but I couldn't confirm that without seeing one in person.

Already planned how to do it, checked the car's wiring diagrams and that also confirms it's possible. Hopefully I should have it ready to show off on Thursday's meet :)

Steve... I can only think of one issue. Say your stereo is powered up prior to starting. When you start your engine, would the power cut from the head unit long enough to make it start all over again? Just test this by pressing the start button firstly with your foot off the brake, let the head unit load, then put your foot on the brake and hit the start button again. If your head unit goes back to stage one, I guess you will need to work on that a little more.

I considered this with my original Auspack unit (where it took it like 15 seconds to load the disc contents), but the power cut to the stereo which is experienced during starting the engine was enough to make the head unit start the loading all over again.