Steven

I would avoid the 2nd option if I were you. Like stated you take a very large risk relying on the other person's decency having them follow through with what they initially promise. I've heard of many cases when the at fault party begs for insurance not to be involved and promises to pay, only to have them deny paying later on, baulking at your repair quotes, denying the damage altogether or sometimes just falling out of contact completely. With my last car I had an old man open his car door onto mine at a car park (right in front of me) which caused a small scratch, and constantly maintained that "it will buff out" amongst other things even refusing to give me his details. A trip to the cops for refusing to provide his personal info, and then handing his rego to the insurance company quickly got everything sorted in my favor and a resprayed car door out of it. I shudder to imagine getting it sorted out without the insurer's backing.

My sunroof in the ZR6 is factory fitted and hasn't yet given me any grief - seals very well against the elements, no rattles etc. And having folded edges makes it appear far neater than a simple rubber seal would. I have 2 thoughts about this. Either a) Toyota is trying to save money by using an aftermarket option for sunroofs (quicker production time, fewer "roof" parts required in storage etc) or B) Instead of giving you a brand new car made to your specs they're trying to build up an already built one to what you request. Regardless, I find my sunroof to be a mostly useless option that I virtually never use and the SatNav that usually comes with it is best replaced by any number of aftermarket versions out there that do a far better job and offer more features.

Photoshoot sounds great. Still got a few things I want to get sorted coming really soon.

Can't believe I've missed this thread - and here I thought I was the first to use that gearknob. Did you shorten the gear shaft for yours as well?

updated the front page with some better pics. Still doesn't do the new grill justice though.

yep. those reflectors became mandatory after being introduced into Australian vehicle design rules for road safety. As a result if you remove them it's a defect (and one not easily remedied). If the jobs done well I don't really see how you would get pinged for it unless they were looking for it. Insurance assessors know all about these mods and would love to use it to void a claim.

The foglights are as they left the factory at this stage, including the surrounds. My new ones haven't arrived yet. As for the headlights, give painting them black a go! It's a really straight forward mod and the results would look awesome on your car.

Got the grill properly finished, which involved giving the whole thing a new coat of paint (and cut/polish) and properly securing the mesh to the grill. Pic is at night, and also doesn't seem any different from other pic posted Can't wait till it's back on the road. Will need to organise a Brissie photoshoot to get some quality pics happening.

yes i think i must, just got to get the money together. bit tight at moment. Didn’t win the lotto last night then lol? hay have had an idea put to me yesterday when we was fitting the oil cooler, we had half of the induction system pulled off, just the front "scoop" and lower pipe that goes to the resonator. Amway since the electronic butterfly in the main part of the induction just after the scoop but prior to the air filter assy only snaps open under hard engine loads and the engine is "sucking air" from the lower pipe the rest of the time it was suggested that you might get better or more air flow if that bottom pipe was reworked/rerouted to get its air from the lower bumper i guess a little bit like a CAI would. You fella's that have some experience with induction on Aurion tell me your thoughts; think it would do anything or just a waste of time lol? The way i see it is that it’s pretty much still getting a similar amount of air but just from two difference places??? Many of us actually remove the lower pipe altogether for a slightly louder induction noise - it provides minimal power gain (if any) the Aurion v6 appears to get better gains from exhaust upgrades as opposed to intake upgrades (not including forced induction obviously). I'm hoping to get some real world testing on my modified exhaust once it's back on the road early April.

speaking of the Yanks, they had the same idea as you (except the other way around) http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364171

Typically these bulbs are not too durable and won't put up with the rigours of driving over rough roads. I don't understand the point of these bulbs though if you're only after them for how they look rather than being of actual use in projecting light, seeing as they're illegal to run whilst driving under normal conditions.

I've tried desoldering LEDs before, it's very risky as about half of them end up getting killed by the heat before the solder on the pads reflows enough to remove the led. As for putting a resistor in series to raise the overall values, you will still have the same small difference in button values and further if the autome unit doesn't allow you to change the expected input resistances then in all likelyhood you won't be able to get any of the buttons to work as then they will all be out of range.

Scary... Can't see it myself, wonder if it's got something to do with your moderator powers?

I'm having a break for a few weeks due to work etc. Barring any change of heart I'm out till early April

Does your autome headunit have the option to change the resistance values for the steering wheel button functions? If so you'll probably find you can get them working by altering these digital values rather than attempting to replace the SMD resistors on the circuit boards themselves. Also I think I used 1056 type smd leds on the circuit board as, even though theyre smaller than the factory type they still output more than enough light. They're still a pain to solder though as you need to be quick to ensure you don't overheat them and obviously their size makes them fiddly. It's not something I recommend if you haven't much experience soldering.

I'm interested to see how they go, but I'm not expecting much in either light output or durability.

This is a permanent power supply problem if ever I saw one. Basically your unit is only getting power when the car is turned on, which means no permanent power to maintain unit memory. It's unlikely to be a problem with the unit, more likely either the wiring harness or the stereo fuse (located above the passenger footwell). If you're handy with a multimeter it's easy to test to find the problem. If not, have you tried plugging your factory unit back in and seeing if it's able to maintain it's memory? This will tell you whether it's a problem with the car, or from the new unit's harness or the unit itself. If it's only happening with the new unit, get a replacement harness from George. He's very easy to deal with and very good when it comes to warranty concerns. If the harness then doesn't fix it let George know and he will swap over the units. Hope this helps.

obviously a car set up for the track is going to be done differently than one for the drags. I'd rather be quicker around corners than in the straight. I'm interested to see how it bolts up. I did mine without a hoist (just a jack) and it was fine except for the swaybar links which only JUST had enough thread. I wonder if they took this into account when making the 23mm? something to consider and be interesting to see if there's enough bolt thread in the swaybar links when installed.

damn that looks good. Now I'll be on the hunt for gold caliper paint for my calipers too!

How'd you go about it? I tried it myself using the niteshades stuff which made it look really mean, however in the daylight it looked like crap

Here's an idea of what my new front grill is going to look like. The new "mesh" needs to be secured better, I just did a quick fit to get an idea of it on the car.

getting a bit tricky with my grill. Project to be finished on my next day off (ie, mid 2012)

mate those aren't the same, in fact we've been wondering whether they might be better than typical T10 or T5 replacements etc.

the same seller is selling the licence plate LED's for USD$45 I'm going to wait to see the quality of these door ones before I invest in the rego plate lights. DJKOR got some for his TRD and found they were ultra bright, so much that it became a distraction and as a result they had to be dulled down. I'm in no rush and am thinking of something a bit trickier for my rego plates.