Hi from Penrith

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

Hi, i'm Matt from Penrith, I own a 94 AE94 Seca CSi, and I think I probably know some of you from JDMST/twincam.org.au already, but I figured its about time I signed up here too :)

I got my beloved Rolla in November last year, i'm the 3rd owner (as far as myself and the previous owner could tell) and its just ticked over 108 thousand kms. Because of that it was bone stock and the interior is brand new, which is what I was looking for at the time, I didnt want to pick up someone elses mess/half done project. However, it was owned by a blind old lady for years, which is why despite the excellent paint, pretty much every panel has a gouge, dent or scratch.

What ive done: Day one I removed the original hubcaps (still in the shed if anyones interested...), and a few weeks later I added a Cressida lip. I always thought it was off an MX83- took it off a car at the wreckers and i'm 99% sure it was an MX83, but google searches dont show this lip on any MX83 so... I dunno... Made a huge difference anyway lol.

That was followed by the Kenwood head unit, not a very exciting visual mod, but made traffic so much more enjoyable- yay for mp3.

Pretty sure that I then removed the stickers and black strips from the doors/front guards after that, then I added the SX/RV ducktail spoiler, repainted to match the car, and painted the Series 1 and Series 2 grills that I have, AND painted the headlight casings black (all in one day lol).

Stayed like that for a few weeks, then I got the wheels off my brother's Swift GTi as he wanted to return it to stock.

Stayed ridiculously high for at least a month or 2, then I finally got my hands on a set of Pedders Superlows- that really transformed the look of the car.

Stayed like this for months again, and I was really happy with how it was going. Then another friend (Paolo, i'm sure hes on here somewhere) tipped me off about a Series 1 SX bumper for sale. I think we went and looked at it and bought it the next day.

Got the old bumper off (with a lot of work because I dont do this sorta stuff often ahaha) the next day, I think- not long after anyway- found that the brackets are different on the Series 1... Bumper back on, back to the wreckers, picked up a couple of series 1 brackets, back home, bumper off (much quicker this time)- starts to rain, oh well, halfway through now.

With a bit more effort than expected, got the SX bumper on that afternoon and all was well. Felt naked without a lip though and at the time I didnt think the Cressida one would look that nice, so Paolo donated his old Accord lip to me as he had picked up a VW Golf lip for his car. I loved the new look, I finally had the Corolla I wanted.

I painted the chrome strips on the bumpers black, and painted the black strip along the width of the rear bumper white, to match the front bumper. I didnt paint the chrome bits red because i'm not trying to emulate an SX here, and I chose black rather than white because I actually kinda liked the black on the bumpers- my panda (AE86 fan...) hah.

That love stayed til a few nights ago when I saw an SX Seca with a cressida lip, and I had to have a go at it myself- i've always preferred chin spoilers to lips anyway, and the cressy lip is definitly more of a chin spoiler than the Accord/626 lips.

And thats how it is for now :)

Future plans: Some sort of 4AGE, really depends on what comes up first, but I have my heart set on a silvertop, also going to be going manual.

New wheels, Volk Super mesh would be really nice, but i'm leaving my options open to just about anything from Volk, Watanabe, SSR, Enkei, Simmons etc.

Did a quick photoshop to see what direction I wanted to go in.

Definitly leaning towards Super mesh

Another friend of mine who is a wizard in photoshop put some together for me after seeing that (I consider myself pretty good in photoshop).

Not sure what these are, old Enkei race/rally wheels?

SSR SP1 *drool.

Coilovers.

SX brakes conversion.

Thinking about replacing the badges and stickers with new ones/recreations (a friend of mine redid all the stickers for his S12 himself, i'd go straight to him hah)

Going to paint the black door trims white, then paint the chrome in them black, to match the bumpers and tie the stripes together properly, and then I dont have to be so anxious about leaving it in a carpark unprotected.

But yeah. Just enjoying the car and the new lifestyle it has brought :)

Edited July 31, 2012 by Matt_Mcilwhan

[jeffy]

Welcome to the club dude :] !

[Pah]

Welcome to the club mate :D

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

Thanks guys :)

[Ronnyboy]

Welcome to the club :)

[JROLLA.]

welcome dude! good to see more AE Rolla's :D:D:D:D

[4ABHGE]

Hi Matt from penrith

[alan.chalkley]

Welcome Matt :)

Bring your rolla to our next club meet

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

When is the next one? I went to one earlier this year, with a few of the Corolla guys, was at Maccas somewhere (lol) at night.

edit: I went to Pick n Pay less today, picked up a couple of things- Passenger corner light, because the lense of mine is cracked (i'd say a previous owner crashed it into something sharp because theres actually a hole where something has gone through it lol), passenger bumper support bracket (I assume thats what its called?) because I was pretty sure that mine was cracked, but now I cant seem to find the crack in it... Maybe I replaced it when I put the new bumper on ahah >.>

AAAAAND a brand new dash mat! I guess the car must have been a really new addition and the owner must have just got a dash mat for it, for some reason... But regardless, got a dash mat (havent been able to find them anywhere, and i've been looking semi actively since January)- it was held to the dash by a big piece of velcro superglued to the dash, and then just the underside of the mat was stuck to that because its... wooly? I dont really know how to explain it, but anyone whos seen a dashmat before knows what I mean.

Because my interior is in such good nick, I am not superglueing anything to the dash, so I picked up a packet of craft velcro dots this evening, thinking they'd do the job, but they dont want to stick to the dashboard, so they arent really doing anything? Any idea of 1; how to get them to stick properly, or 2; a better way to stick the mat to the dash?

Also got a toyota badge from an mx73 cressida (black plastic rectangle with embossed TOYOTA lettering in white) to put on my series 1 grill. Got home and tried to drill 2 holes on the right hand side of the middle slat, but as it turns out I dont have a drill bit big enough :o In doing that, I accidently snapped one of the clips off the grill lol, but its ok, supergluing it back on tonight (tarzans grip, used the same stuff on my indicator clip as it snapped, hasnt come loose yet ;) ) so it should be fine. Cut the bits that you screw into off the badge and im just going to glue it onto the grill, it'll cover the holes anyway. Kinda annoyed that I didnt think of that before I drilled the holes ahah...

Edited August 2, 2012 by Matt_Mcilwhan

[alan.chalkley]

For gluing plastic parts I use plumbers plastic pipe glue.

Look at the NSW meet thread for details of the next meet , it will be on it in a week or so.

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

Can only see details about last months EOMM?

[69.NIX]

Matt,

Welcome to TOCAU. In Sydney, we meet at the end of every month on the last Saturday at Greenarce Macca's, starting around 8PM.

This month will be a cruise which I will be organising, so please feel free to come along. No details of the cruise have been released just yet, but stay tuned :)

[WS91]

Good to see another Western Sydney member!

Welcome to the group - car looks good too. What camera are you using?

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

Ah ok i'll keep watching then :) Thanks dude, Canon Eos 1000d. (some might have been taken with dad's Nikon D1000 though; but not many)

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

I'll get around to making a build thread eventually, but for now this will do lol.

I'm after refence photos of the stock (preferably good condition) GTi and SX Seca stickers that were on the spoiler and rear doors, as i'm going to get some custom OEM style ones made up (a friend of mine did some damn good remakes for his S12 Silvia), anything you can provide would be awesome, I cant find many large, clear photos of them; not close enough to actually see them clearly anyway. Thanks in advance :)

[JROLLA.]

hey matt did you do the blacken headlight mod? if so how hard was it?

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

I did, not hard. I found a guide for it through google, but basically we (my brother and i) removed the headlights (obviously), took the bulb out of each, took any plasic clips/other meltables out and chucked em in the oven at a few hundred degrees. Keep checking them every now and then, I was worried that the plastic back would melt so I checked every other minute, but it might take 30-40 minutes. What this does is soften the glue that holds the lense on. When you check, try to pry the lense off with a flat tipped screwdriver, probably a small one to begin with so its thinner. Be careful though, its easy to snap bits off the edge of the lense, and certainly dont force it, the glue is stronger than the lense lol- just give it time and it will be easy. Once theyre apart, mask the reflector up well and paint the rest (hopefully you'll recognize if theres something else that shouldnt be painted, I cant remember, but i'm pretty sure I only masked the reflectors), allow to dry, remove masking, place the headlight back in the oven without the lense to soften the glue a bit again- once its softened, put the lense back on tight and place back in the oven to let them stick properly (I think, also cant quite remember).

BUT.

Your headlights are already black?

[JROLLA.]

hey man, cheers for the guide.. i was thinking it was done along those lines :D

nah my ones aren't black.. maybe just in the photo ey!

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

...Are your parkers black? They look black, as well as the headlights lol.

[JROLLA.]

its just the photo ey.. BTW i thought i saw your car at aqua golf the other night, although i rembered you had the s1 front bar!

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

lol I dont go to Panthers at all if I can help it...

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

Hey guys, just thought i'd test the waters a little. I'm currently looking for the following:

Digital gauge cluster

Rear roof spoiler/visor/weather shield thing

Electric mirrors and everything needed to make them work

Electric mirror bits.

If you or someone you know is selling any of this- must be in good condition and working- please let me know :)

[Wildseven]

hey dude Love the work you put into your car :)

Keep it up and keep us posted :) waiting for more updated photos :D

Welcome to TOCAU

[Matt_Mcilwhan]

Oh I hadnt updated this as much as I thought.

I painted the side mouldings white/black to match the bumpers and put them back on with double sided tape (automotive grade), thinking it would work. Worked pretty well til I washed it, that removed most of the stickiness from it so they've been half hanging off since lol. Got some... uhh... forgot what its called,like urethane but starts with an s? lol, anyways, the stuff that manufacturers actually use to stick things like this on, and stuck the one back on the drivers door properly. Worked a treat, so happy, going to do the other 5 next weekend lol. Also found that I had a series 1 seca badge on the floor of my bedroom so I stuck that on the bottom of the spoiler, same spot as it is on the bootlid without the spoiler. Works about as well as the side mouldings did with the double sided tape, so i'll stick that on with the good stuff too.

Manual and 20v wont be happening. Re evaluated a bit and found that I dont really want a manual car as a daily, i'd much rather have a GTi hatch or something later on down the track as a weekend fun car and keep the seca 4afe, auto and comfy for daily duties. Also means I can get new wheels, rear disc brakes and coilovers quicker lol. Will be getting a custom exhaust made up for it, nothing too major, but still. For the tip i'm thinking a simple dual tip arrangement like on the sx, but 1.5/2" tips (not sure what the size of the sx's tips are now I think about it).

Test fitted Paolo's OG San's as well.

No spacers on the front, 8mm spacer on the rear (only one handy) to clear the strut lol.

Wheels have been decided upon, going to get Axis OG Oldskools (which are Work Equip 03 replicas) in matte black.

Obligatory photos.

Oh yeah, removed all the slats from the grill too. I like it :D

[Wildseven]

Looking good. Makes me want to get one lol :D