Long hard road…

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

I bought Sebastian via an auction, not one of those fancy ones with great pictures, mechanical inspections and a consumer friendly system, but rather the ones where dealers flip less desirable trade-ins, cars that have sat in stock too long, or don’t scrub up so good.  
 

So I knew when he arrived on the back of the truck that I’d been doing some work.

In the past few weeks I’ve been chipping away on him.  And I guess he’s starting to feel more like a family member rather than an interloper on the driveway.

He rode on the top deck from Sydney!  First time we saw him in the metal was being dumped outside Pickles Canberra.

He came with 5 tyres (handy) representing 4 different brands.  This has subsequently been addressed with a set of Continental EcoContact EC6.  With an alignment and the new rubber things are much more pleasant. 

The interior has some interesting wear.  Obviously a lot of flat-packs or something were stuffed through the spilt food seats!

The balance between human slime, filth and oddities like the cubby lid being so jammed with coins that it wouldn’t open.  In the end I had to remove the console to empty to out.  $14.25 is a nice return.

Don't believe the human slime?  After cleaning the interior of 4 doors this was my bucket of rinse water.  
 

Service history is pretty good, with Toyota for the vast majority.  However not that long ago (May) he had a major service, one where the spark plugs should have been done.  The lack of finger prints suggests otherwise.  Oh well, plugs are cheap and we will run through and redo the service items from the major.  As his history is pretty good I’ll alternate DIY interim servicing with legit stamped services where things are definitely done.

The other thing.  Oh man.  I remembered why I love and hate black cars.  Sebastian is replacing Celeste (not a Toyota) who sadly was written off in January last year in Canberra’s “Hail event”.  My little commuter hot-hatch is just too small for the longer trips we make - well in the few months between COVID closing half the country it seems.

 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

I mention Celeste because she was also black, and as someone who cleans cars for money (amongst other things) you really can’t own a black car and have it look like most people’s black cars.  Bad marketing and all that.  

Obviously I will have 7 years of swirl inducing paint trauma to minimise.  No not correct, there’s no way Sebastian warrants the whole enchilada, but we do want him to look nice.  
 

Oh - I guess my good deed of “let’s put in new FOB batteries” deserved punishment. 

yeah, more filth.

10 minutes alter clean FOBs and another thing done that I didn’t think I’d need to do.

Some before/after shots.  Nothing tricky or difficult.  Just effort.

Even the headliner needed careful attention - I started in the back and worked forwards, as you can see by the demarcation line.

Fresh mats all round and new boot liner finish the interior off- only after carpet shampooing and a lot of leather conditioner on the seats.  

[KAA]

Wow great work Aaron getting Sebastian looking much better and much happier, it always surprises me how people can let a beauty like our Aurion's get in such a state of neglect. especially how the hell did bugs get into the fob?? wow if i had seen the fob first I think a trip to the bottle shop would be the first thing before attacking the car with cleaners. Ty for the Pic's as it shows how much you love your new addition and want only the best for Sebastian.

Keep us updated how the paint comes up as I hate paint swirls and especially on a Black car, so looking forward to how it shines back up

Keep Safe

KAA

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Sebastian is a Prodigy, bought because we needed a long-legged distance car, and to be honest after spending $2k on hire cars in the last 12 months and another $1k booking in a couple months we started to realise that not having a tourer was starting to bite.  But just because we want touring doesn’t mean we don’t want some cornering. 
 

Step one was decent tyres and alignment, step was ordered before he got here.

Whats metallic blue, has two position adjustment and is 19mm round?

 

A quick wrestle around the exhaust and body roll should be moderated somewhat.

We can still look at dialling the suspension in a bit more, considering the other cars in the household are nimble little things Sebastian can have some poise, but he’s not getting away with being a “boat”.  
 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

But let’s talk about paint.

Artistically sideways but it doesn’t matter.  When he arrived he didn’t look that bad, but 4 washes with a sealant/wax/glaze stripping agent, then an iron decontamination and Claying reveal all.  The swirls are terrible.  There’s signs of lots of small touchups done with brushes, and I almost think maybe he went through a hedge once.

First peg off a typically bad spot.  Dig out the tools and have a play.  Yep, there’s enough clear to work with, and it’s working well with a relatively mild approach. A “medium” cut pad, and some diminishing compound.  The great thing about diminishing compounds is as they work the abrasive breaks down and becomes finer, this can be moderated with moisture, but only so much.  If there’s not enough cut, generally you grab a heavier grade, or use a forced rotation machine.  
Anyway this first cut told me what I needed to know.  There’s hope.

So it’s two proper cutting passes, at that point swirls are largely mitigated, deeper scratches minimised, and critically the metallic is really starting to come out.

Now before I go on.  I am NOT trying to “correct” this paint to a mirror, flawless finish.  It’s too far gone for that, there’s too many deeper scratches and touchups.

Too many?  Well here’s the thing, if you look at a car that’s more than a few years old and you see swirls you know there’s a paint-care hygiene issue (although they aren’t avoidable over time), but when you see touchups, really deep scratches and NO other damage you pretty much assume the paintwork has been cut to within a micron of its life.  In my view our cars should age like we do, they pick up scars of life, the echos of adventure and automotive escapades, and while there’s no excuse for looking shabby, there’s nothing wrong with looking like you’ve travelled.

Stretch the test across the bonnet.  
 

Artisitic phone obviously wants you to see where a cat, dog or possum has tried to climb the bonnet ridge.  These will soften further with the finishing polish, but they’re not going away easily.

And then get carried away.

Admittedly there’s some more to be done on the pillar at least but again this was only an initial “take the worse off” go.

In a week or two I’ll pencil in a decent enough chunk of time to roll him into the garage, do the final polish and the. He’s getting at least two applications of a decent all-round ceramic coat.  The final polish will more than anything take out the imperfections from the co****r treatment today, plus it’s safe for running in the lights, B pillar plastics and so on.  

The ceramic will also fill and somewhat hide some of the heavier marring and give the paint protection for about 2 years if I keep up the basic maintenance.  Sebastian lives outside with Chilly (my commuter hack).  

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

LOL the swear filter picked up the **** in the word co****r.  So imagine I a C word that has an A word jammed in the middle  🙂

[Tony Prodigy]

Hey Aaron, nice find !

I enjoy a good challenge too. I'm guessing you got it pretty cheap for the shape it was in, and it looks so much better now after a thorough clean. Some people can be real grubs with their cars. Those before shots of the interior are proof. In a funny way, all that goop kind of serves to protect the surface untill it is cleaned and sprayed with a proper protective later. Loving the fresh mats and boot liner too.

Black cars are hard to keep defect free, especially for something around what 10-12 years old ? I think people with zero detailing experience should buy black cars because they will start to look pretty ordinary quickly. All that wash induced marring is much more noticeable on dark colours. It's probably been through car wash too. Arrghh..How I hate those places.

You are definitely on the right track with the multi stage correction. Can I ask what products you have and what machinery ?
Deep scratches are just something we have to live with and to be honest, not too noticeable after a good massage. The main thing is to clean up the swirls and refine it enough to lay down your protection. I would add that ceramic coatings don't have any filling capability if that's what you were hoping for. They are more like a robust sealant that creates a resistant barrier to the elements such as road gime, fallout, bird droppings and UV degradation. It will further enhance the gloss level following the final stage. Just be sure to use a good panel wipe before you apply it to remove any residual oils and contamination. It needs to be squeaky clean, done inside and one section at a time. 
Example, split the bonnet and roof into three or four sections and the rest into two or three sections each. Once applied and buffed off, allow to cure as per the instructions and your good. You can then apply a sacraficial layer of protection on top in later weeks. Plenty of these to choose from. Take your pick of waxes, polymer, SiO2 or Graphene infused products.

Look forward to seeing the final result. 

Cheers mate 

 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Yeah, price was a massive factor.  In the local market a 2008ish GSV40 Presara with about 150-200K on it will be in a dealers yard for near $15K.  

Being a March 2014 build Sebastian is barey past his 7th birthday, but has done higher than average kms.  Basically doing 500km/week for most of his life he’s now just under the 190,000km mark.  

After the various on-costs of Auction buying, trucking and holding fees, plus the inevitable inspection, registration and stamp duty we are still well decently ahead, although arguably still paid too much.  We have no need to put in bulk distance so within a year or three he will have “typical” mileage for his age.  

 

All true heavy (Aka old school) ceramic type coatings will fill micro-marring, and settle in low points.  The trick, is to use a heavy application in the first pass.  Let that flash off, then level with the second pass.  Usual cross-hatch pattern etc.  I’m not talking about filling completely, but rather like the old school Glazes, where the filling effect changes how light is reflected from the surface damage.  You are left with a mark, but not one that shows up like crazy.
 

Newer generation coatings don’t do this as well because they’re generally thinner, but they absolutely rock at gloss level, and offer better chemical resistance and life span. That’s why so often coatings are layered if the customer is willing to pay the $$.  You have to remember most people are claiming two trips over a larger car with 30ml of liquid that has a solvent base.  That’s not a lot and requires extremely even thin application from go to whoa so it’s never going to be allowed to be a filler of sorts.

As for tooling, it’s a mixed assortment of DA and rotary.  I prefer Hex Logic pads and generally use Chemguys compounds because they’re what I started with years ago.  

I used v34 on a Orange (Medium/Heavy cut) pad yesterday.  Small throw DA and medium speed.  This makes the process a bit slower, but on Sebastian it’s a bit of archeology, want it to be very steady and progressive, rather than V32 on a rotary.  
 

When I get around to finishing the job I’ll do a final cut over the whole body, touch up a few of the worse areas with an additional pass and then just a fine compound with a polishing pad over the whole thing to give a consistency to the final finish.  Then it’s wash, ISO wipe and Ceramic.   He won’t be perfect, but more than good enough.

 

[campbeam]

I think that Tony is going to be in 7th heaven talking detailing with you.

Nice to see that Sebastian has been given an upgraded rear anti-sway bar.

Can you share further details of where you sourced the anti-sway bar.

[Tony Prodigy]

1 hour ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

Being a March 2014 build Sebastian is barey past his 7th birthday, but has done higher than average kms.  Basically doing 500km/week for most of his life he’s now just under the 190,000km mark.  

Man, I don't know what I was looking at, because I thought it was a 40 series lol ! I was more mesmerized by the black paint to notice anything else haha. Having looked at it again, I can see where I went wrong. You have the same car as I do, just a bit newer.

 

Good to finally have someone with a bit of detailing knowledge to bounce information with. I've been detailing cars most of my adult life, but have been doing it more on an enthusiast come pro level for over 10 years. Myself and a friend do cars for certain clientele on weekends mainly, so we get to play with a number of combinations. The rotary rarely comes out to play unless it's absolutely necessary as it can be a little too aggressive making the refinement stage a little more challenging.

1 hour ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

All true heavy (Aka old school) ceramic type coatings will fill micro-marring, and settle in low points.  The trick, is to use a heavy application in the first pass.  Let that flash off, then level with the second pass.  Usual cross-hatch pattern etc.  I’m not talking about filling completely, but rather like the old school Glazes, where the filling effect changes how light is reflected from the surface damage.  You are left with a mark, but not one that shows up like crazy.

I would agree with that. I think the more expensive the coating the more "fillability" it can have, but you will definitely need to put down two coats. It can get expensive, but if the customer is wiling to pay then the skies the limit right ? I use CarPro Essence as a finishing polish prior to laying down the ceramic as it has a nice filling ability as well as acting as a primer base for the ceramic sealant. The fillers are SIO2 based so this helps to bolster what the coating does too. Nice combination.

 

1 hour ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

As for tooling, it’s a mixed assortment of DA and rotary.  I prefer Hex Logic pads and generally use Chemguys compounds because they’re what I started with years ago.  

My main machine is the Flex XC-3401. I also have the Rupes Nano iBrid long neck and a small 3" DA with a 12mm throw. My friend has the rotary not me. I may buy one someday though, but haven't really needed it.

I also have the Chemical Guys Hex Logic pad set, along with many other brands of varying sizes such as Meguiars, foam and mcrofibre, Lake Country foam and Microfiber, Buff and shine Uro-Tec/ Uro Fiber, an assortment of Cheap Chinese foam pads and Scholl Concepts. 

There is so much one can have in this game and it's never enough. So many really awesome products coming to market it's hard to say no sometimes, haha.

Rag Company Rags, most makes, sizes and applications, compounds, from Menzerna, Meguiars, Koch, Scholl,to Wurth. Never used the Chemical Guys compounds, but I don't doubt their goodness. They make a lot of good products. I even have a nice stash of Chemical Guys Microfiber cloths too. Beautiful quality.

Man, I can go on and on lol..

1 hour ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

I used v34 on a Orange (Medium/Heavy cut) pad yesterday.  Small throw DA and medium speed.  This makes the process a bit slower, but on Sebastian it’s a bit of archeology, want it to be very steady and progressive, rather than V32 on a rotary.  
 

Exactly what I would've done too on factory paint, especially on cars with an unknown history. Start softly and see how it reacts. Rotary polishing is way too aggresive for soft paint and mostly unnecessary. A good 2 stage with a DA or Forced rotation is good enough. It will take a bit of time, but you can get amazing results all the same.

Top coat sealants are a personal choice too. There's something for everyone. We are too spoilt for choice these days. Back in the day, there was hardly anything besides the local garbage Kitten, Turtle wax or Nu Finish lol.. I'm showing my age now 😄 How times have changed.

Look forward to the next installment. I have also started a "Detailing" thread here on the forum too so feel free to check it out and contribute if you like.

Cheers mate 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Thanks 🙂 

I was worried I may have been a bit prickly in my initial response on read back, I guess it comes about from being around the detailing game for near to 25 years.  It paid for a lot of my uni years and ultimately for me these days is a side gig that pays for the car hobby.  

Over the years I’ve deviated through a few brands but they’re all (in the commercial arena) much of a muchness.  The Chemguys V range of compounds are nice, as they are pretty much a hose-off cleanup, and 100% silicone and filler free.  
That said Blacklight is awesome smoke and mirrors on black paintwork if you aren’t coating it. 
 

Pick who didn’t apply the temporary sealant to both sides of the roof evenly?  lol.

I’ve done my stint doing show cars etc, got a few trophies for my own cars back then and helped others get theirs.  I turned my back on that scene after being an experience at a concours event where our car/paintwork was deemed to be too good for the entered category and removed from judging.  
 

Anyway, I had some essential baked goods to pick up today (5km lockdown here in the ACT) and made the roundabouts count.  It’s certainly evident Toyota cocked up the factory specification, the Sportivo bar should have been the default, and the Sportivo should have gotten a 18mm, and probably not have and the spring and damping rates fiddled as much as they did which just made them harsh and jittery compared the Commodore/Falcon sports suspension of the same era.

Its a “HardRace” part and was in stock, delivered within a day or two for $318.  Came with GSV40 and GSV50 bushes.  

https://www.hardracesuspension.com.au

I bought direct but you can also source through a few resellers.

Ultra Racing is about 3 weeks to a month away from having stock of their ARB making the choice easy given the adjustment and same-same pricing.

The green illumination is getting to me.  So I think we will be changing that.  

[campbeam]

48 minutes ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

Pick who didn’t apply the temporary sealant to both sides of the roof evenly?  lol.

I’ve done my stint doing show cars etc, got a few trophies for my own cars back then and helped others get theirs.  I turned my back on that scene after being an experience at a concours event where our car/paintwork was deemed to be too good for the entered category and removed from judging.  
 

Anyway, I had some essential baked goods to pick up today (5km lockdown here in the ACT) and made the roundabouts count.  It’s certainly evident Toyota cocked up the factory specification, the Sportivo bar should have been the default, and the Sportivo should have gotten a 18mm, and probably not have and the spring and damping rates fiddled as much as they did which just made them harsh and jittery compared the Commodore/Falcon sports suspension of the same era.

Again, welcome to the Forum. I appreciate someone like myself who is not afraid to admit a mistake and have a laugh at the same time. Personally, I hardly "shine my machine" but Tony has been an influence plus all those YouTube videos about detailing products to appreciate the extreme amount of time and effort to achieve worthwhile results. As my girlfriend would say "That is not nice" after being removed from judging because your results were too good. Not surprised that you have turned away.

Those baked goods are so essential especially during lockdown. Sure that you would have been gentler on the roundabouts once the precious cargo was onboard.

Going to back up your insightful comment, because I have fitted the Sportivo rear bar to my 40 Series ATX. Price was right and I spent a few hours in occassional dizzly rain wrestling the bar off that Sportivo at the wreckers. I did go looking later but have yet to find another Sportivo bar for my 40 Series Prodigy.

Looking forward to reading more of your posts about the "taming" of Sebastian.

[Tony Prodigy]

58 minutes ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

I was worried I may have been a bit prickly in my initial response on read back, I guess it comes about from being around the detailing game for near to 25 years.  It paid for a lot of my uni years and ultimately for me these days is a side gig that pays for the car hobby.  

Not at all. I could tell off the bat that you knew what you were talking about.

I started out in the car game from when I was still in my HSC years ('88-'89). I then took on the challenge of becoming a spray painter of all things because this is where my passion was after having spent time around the car scene at a younger age where I developed an eye for detail much to the amusement of all my friends. I would point out ripples, poor door gaps, poor gloss, orange peel etc. My friends would crack up. So my quest to pursue a career in paint and panel was born.

I spent around 12 years in the game initially and then decided I'd had enough. The detailing part of it was always there as I would pour over our family car and keep it clean and shiny for Dad. Taught me a lot of things. Mind you, we never had fancy tools back then like we do now.
Buffing machines were crude and somewhat dangerous in the wrong hands. There was no such thing as DA or forced rotation, only rotary. I still have my "Stayer" 2 speed buffer/sander I used back in the very early 90s lol.. I wouldn't use it today of course even though it still works. Back then, there was a greater emphasis on Acrylics rather than two packs and the buffer was a necessity as you had to chop the peel back and buff in order to get that glass like finish. Ah, the good old days !

My return to detailing on a more involved level came about a couple of years after purchasing my Anniversary Edition E36 M3. I met a fellow ///M enthusiast roughly the same time and we've been close mates ever since. A business was born and I was offered to join forces and do mainly Prestige vehicles. We have covered some ground in the last 10 or so years and not likely to stop anytime soon. Covid restrictions aside. I still love to detail. I call it therapy. Transforming something bad into a thing of beauty just hits the spot for me.

1 hour ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

Over the years I’ve deviated through a few brands but they’re all (in the commercial arena) much of a muchness.

I know what you mean. We find sometimes that one product seems to work a bit better over another depending on paint type. We start with a test panel first, usually the boot lid and see what combination works best. Whether it's going to be a sponge pad or microfiber. All depends on the day.

1 hour ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

Pick who didn’t apply the temporary sealant to both sides of the roof evenly?  lol.

Haha yeah. Too funny.

1 hour ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

I’ve done my stint doing show cars etc, got a few trophies for my own cars back then and helped others get theirs.  I turned my back on that scene after being an experience at a concours event where our car/paintwork was deemed to be too good for the entered category and removed from judging.  

I thought having the nicest paint would be the definition of concourse. Wow, I am staggered that they would pull a stunt like that !
Well done to you anyway. I have no doubt you would've earned them trophies. Very cool.

I attended a Concourse event many years ago with my M3 but I didn't enter it. Funny things is that my car got more looks than the cars actually entered. Had many enquiries about it too as you don't see too many Anniversary Editions around, especially in Sydney. It's more of a garage queen these days. I keep it fully maintained and on trickle charge. It's my pride and joy.

 

The sway bar you fitted looks the business too. Would be worthwhile considering upgrading mine sometime soon too. I'm planning on getting a set of Michelin Pilot Sport tyres and I think the sway bar upgrade might complement the overall compliance. 
what do you think of the front end ? Any plans to upgrade there either ?

Just looking at the hard racing website, they have no option for "Aurion" 

For an Aussie website it looks to cater for the American market. Do we search up Camry Instead ?

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Yes I think Camry was the search term I used.  Invoice grab below:

Front end now that it’s not tipping into the outside front tyre as hard is a bit floaty, I might move to the softer setting and see how that goes.  The turn-in and overall ability to position the car is so much better. We had the alignment done to factory to baseline from, and I think it will need half to one degree negative camber on the front as a minimum coupled with a little less toe-in.  All we want is to sharpen that initial turn-in bite and have it able to follow through.  Could play with rear toe a bit so it comes around more readily, but at the end of the day the long-legged tourer just needs to commit to a corner and be able to stick it.  
The out-of-box experience is that the outside front tyre overworks almost instantly, I think Toyota engineers aimed at a demographic stereotype and delivered a car that fell well short of chassis potential.

All I can say is MX5 clubs can be incredibly political, and that was a lesson in “don’t do anything better than the anointed king/queen”.  

We did do the winner of the 100 Years of Aston Martin Concours - having learnt the tricks in the early 1990’s helping Jaguar Owners prep there are certain do’s and do nots which will always be a proud moment considering the car was also a daily driven and had done a 4000km road trip to the event!
 

[campbeam]

52 minutes ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

All I can say is MX5 clubs can be incredibly political, and that was a lesson in “don’t do anything better than the anointed king/queen”.  

Bring on the lessons. I do not mind learning especially from someone else's experience.

Certainly interested to hear more of your thoughts on the alignment settings. 

I have got to re-locate those camber adjustment bolts and fit them just before getting a wheel alignment in the next few months.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Did I mention I bought the footwell lighting kit?

 

Again with the blue illumination while the console stack is green.  
 

I may have also bought illuminated window switches.  That’s going to be an interesting conversion isn’t it?

Even grabbed on of these in blue.

[Tony Prodigy]

NIce. I haven't driven our Aurion at night time for what seems like an eternity to even remember what colour everything is 😜

My wife drives it 99.99999% of the time. I'm the donkey who services it and keeps it nice and shiny lol.

Look forward to the install Aaron. So are there factory blue and green variants for the lighting ??

I'm going to have to sit in the car at night time to soak it up again. 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

The centre stack seems to be green only (GSV50 at least) and the window switches aren’t illuminated - I don’t think they ever were in AUDM cars, but the same switches appeared in other models internationally with illumination.  
 

It will be interesting to see if they just work or I have to play shenanigans with the loom in the doors.

I’ll just pull the AC controls and change the LEDs on the circuit board, have already done the 5mm wedge lmao in the gear selector and Lighter.

Blind button will have to be dismantled.  
Headunit is going in the skipbin eventually so I don’t know if I’ll bother, but same story as AC controls.  
 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Well that was a bust. 

Pulled a bunch of trim off to release the  switch.  Discover the “Parking sensor” switch is a generic item.

Pull the original switch apart.  

solve my problem.

Also new headlight bulbs - Just some Phillips WhiteVisions, cheap, legal and a decent improvement over “old” bulbs.  They do degrade with time and the ones I removed were well past their prime.

LEDs in the map lights now too.  Just have to get (or more likely make) a panel for the courtesy light mid-roof.

[KAA]

Awesome information and pic's Aaron, TY for all the info your providing, Sebastian is looking wonderful now.

I have been toying with adding footwell lighting for some time so will be interested in how you went about it and the end results. I don't like to play with electrical in our Presara as being a 99% computer on wheels I don't want to do anything major that causes a lot of dollars to be needed to undo my stuff up.

One thing I would like to fix is the fog light bulbs being yellowish light compared to the Zenon headlights, have looked about a bit but can't decide on the bulbs needed to plug and play so any ideas welcomed.

Thanks again for you contributions

KAA 

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

KAA as you have Presara with HIDs you really do get a bit stuck with matching the other bulbs to them.  I would jump on Powerbulbs.com and find a “H11” bulb that has a colour temperature above 5000K, from memory about 5300K is where most OEM HID bulbs are.  So you want to be around that.  
 

You can do the same for the HB3 bulbs for the high beam.  Keep in mind that halogens and LEDs in those colour temps are unlikely to be road legal.  It’s a side effect of them needing more “filtering” of the light to pass the whiter/blue light and to have the higher light output promise they also don’t last as long.  

The WhiteVision I’ve just installed are 4300K, and are significantly nicer at night than regular globes, but nothing like HID.  Celeste had the BiXenon adaptive cornering  lights.  They were magic.  
 

The Toyota courtesy light kit includes everything, well except the 16mm drill bit to mount the actual fittings.  I’ll have a go at it on the weekend, probably a 2 hour job.

I might grab a spare AC control unit and do the LED swap on that just so I can plug and play it.  

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

Oh powerbulbs.com is generally good and well priced, but sometimes Amazon absolutely smashes a deal out of the park so check a few sellers 🙂. Mine came from Amazon for a decent saving.

[Sebastian Woodhouse]

One thing you’re all going to work out about me is that I really don’t like things being “she’ll be right”, or half…um…baked.  That’s not to say that sometimes one has little to no choice, but for the most part we can choose to let things slide, or just fix them.

One of my door switches is not like the other three.

Holes and an uneven array of rubber gubbins make my OCD twitch.  I don’t like it when that happens.

$17 and 4 days late I have a bag of 10 gubbins.  Ok they have a fancy Toyota name, but these are aftermarket equivalents from Febest.  I now have a plugged hole and 9 gubbins in a baggie.
 

This is a $4 door switch I paid $11 for so I wouldn’t have to wait forever for it to arrive.

Instead of swapping switches to some random quality one, I popped the rubber cover off the new switch, and fitted it onto the Genuine Toyota switch in the car.

 

Two small things that make me feel better inside and help me sleep at night.

[campbeam]

You detailers must be the same; i.e. OCD 😁

Looking forward to being further entertained and educated by you and Tony.

Anyway, nice to see those extra yards of effort in action.

[Tony Prodigy]

11 hours ago, Sebastian Woodhouse said:

One thing you’re all going to work out about me is that I really don’t like things being “she’ll be right”, or half…um…baked.  That’s not to say that sometimes one has little to no choice, but for the most part we can choose to let things slide, or just fix them.

I suffer the same affliction Aaron. I'm well known on here for my OCD'ness. 

Half baked, as you say, is not something I subscribe to either. If you have to do something, do it right, do it once. Mistakes happen, of course, but we all learn and improve.