HID Results...

so i finish installing both HIDs and notice something.



do you see anything different?

stupid porsche guy...

i was driving on Mira Mesa Blvd right after getting one of my HIDs installed and noticed this porche boxter in my rear. i thought nothing of it, just a normal driver with a fancy car. he changes lanes and decides to pass me. big deal. at the stop light we were side by side and still i didn't think nothing. i accelerated a bit just to pass this guy, and supposedly he thought that i was challenging him so he speeds up and passes me. i was like "okay?" and i didn't even redline my car.

at the next stop light and with the road clear i decided to go for the redline from a medium roll. so his car speed rockets across the road. he had me for half a mile and then i caught up to him and passed his ass the rest of the way. i was going about 100+. stupid porsche. and at the stop light i was looking at the guy. and he didn't really acknowledge me. but what i did notice is that he had his son in the passengerside. he was lookin at me all conspeciously and gave him the thumbs up. if i were that guy in the boxster i would've never raced. its just plain dangerous with a young passsenger like that. oh well.

i went home and did a little research on what the specs are, and this is what i found... im not sure what year it was but i found something close:

Engines & Power
	Base	S
Standard Engine	2.7L 217 hp H6	3.2L 250 hp H6
Horsepower	217 @ 6500 RPM	250 @ 6250 RPM
Torque (lb-ft)	192 @ 4500 RPM	225 @ 4500 RPM

HID Installation Part I

I got an instant message today from Chris aka Supra_Dupra_17 from the Supraforums. He informed me that he was in San Diego for work and had a couple hours to help me out. Originally, we planning on installing the HIDs on Monday after Christmas. So i jumped on the opportunity to see what we can do. It was halftime (Chargers vs. Chiefs) and decided to head up to Mira Mesa.This was actually the first time i met an actual supraforums member in person. i introduced myself and shoke his hand. he was pretty cool dude. so i parked the car next to his car (Black 94 Wingless Supra). i open my trunk to show him my tools and he noticed that i was missing a specific 10mm head. so we went to the nearest kragen to pick up the head.

when we got back we planned out what were going to do. he unbolted the both headlight bolts. i disconnected the battery and removed the wiring harnesses. chris and i had a hard time removing the headlights. after a few minutes of wiggling and pulling the light, they were out. i cleaned the area where i was going to mount the ballast (HID box thingys) and stuck the velcro. he plugged in the ground to the side of the car and plugged the other wire to the battery. the install looked quite easy. if i did it myself i wouldn't have known the secret to removing headlights. we were able to finish the passenger side only. he had work @ 3pm and it was 2:30 when we finished. so we put back the driver side light. so i drove home with my headlights on so i can burn in the passenger HID. i didn't know it was going to take this long to install a half an HID bulb.

to be continued on monday...

Installation Anyone?

So i got these HIDs last monday and haven't put them on yet. I tried calling up a couple of friends but they cant help till next week. I've read the instructions, and it seems simple but i just want to reassure myself that I'm doing the right thing.

And just for fun i called up 2 different shops in San Diego to see how much i'd cost to install them. One shop quoted me $100 and another $250... It would probably take like an hour to install. Sheesh what a rip off...

ill keep ya'll updated when i have them up.

Lighting up the Holidays with HIDs

I'm giving my car a nice set of Philips HIDs for Christmas. After my somewhat disappointing experience with the brightness of aftermarket halogen bulbs, I've opted to go with an HID set up for my low beams. I've been quite impressed by the light output from such bulbs that I decided to join a group buy on supraforums. Realworld Motorsports I'm expecting them to arrive Monday. Below are pics of how they might look like.

finally i get my refund

i finally got my damn refund from luminicsbulbs. they are nice people but damn did it take a long time... i bugged them with emails and instant messages and it finally got done.

here's a tip... if youre an impatient person like myself and buy something online, make sure you intend to keep it. if you don't want it, just sell it on ebay! you'll get your money faster and don't have to wait for the company to credit your money to your account. although you might lose a couple bucks from stupid paypal and ebay fees at least you get your money.

who reads my blog?

i'm just curious... who reads my blog in regular basis? do you read it daily, weekly, monthly? leave a comment and let me know .

simply gross...

i've seen car crashes and other weird stuff on the side of the road while driving, but today was quite gross. while i was stuck in traffic on my way to work i noticed a bmw parked on the side of the road. the door was open and everything. from a far it looked like the lady of the car was dumping her cup of coffee on the side of the road. as the traffic moved along i noticed it wasn't coffee.... guess what it was? she was throwing up chunks. she couldve just gotten out of the car and run to the bushes, but she decided to let everybody see it. when you gotta go you gotta go eh? now it just replays in my head and can't get it out! HELP!

wash and wax.

i finally found time to wash and wax my car. it's been over two weeks since i washed my car and months since i waxed my car... as i was drying down my car i noticed all these stupid rock chips on my front hood and bumper. i hate those damn lose gravel rocks on the roads, and there is no way to avoid it. my hood is full of small scratches and swirl marks :( black colored cars suck! it looks cool and everything but really hard to maintain. and if you work close to the beach its even worse! those damn birds like to crap everywhere. its just my luck that they like black cars. a perfect target to drop there wrath of poop. i'll probably end up buying a TRD hood or a Do-luck hood in the future. but for now, i need to deal with it.

LTB Motorsports Review

Well i finally received part 2 of my order today from LTB Motorsports. One thing that stood out the most was there customer support. Great customer support is a big plus in my book. They answered my questions promptly through phone and email. I didn't have to hold for too long to get a represenative. LTB Motorsports has competitive prices. Overall, it took about a week to receive the order.

There are several areas they can improve in:

They didn't update me often about the status of my order. I only got a receipt of my order and that was it. I didn't receive a shipping confirmation or tracking number. I had to call them up and email them to check the status.

Another thing they can improve is the method of how they ship their products. Instead of sending the whole item instead of two seperate orders. It's quite a hastle expecting two seperate packages instead of just one. I think they have a vendor in several cities that supplies them with parts.

All in all it was a positive experience. I would definitely shop there again for small things. I give this retailer

Luminicsbulbs.com / LTB Motorsports

sometimes its good and bad to buy online. it's good when you're satisfied with your purchase and you don't have to send it back. it's also good that you can find the best deals on different products. its bad in a sense when you have to hastle to return the item and wait for your refund. i don't really like returning stuff to online retailers. i think its too much of a hastle to wait for your refund. i hate knowing that i send the product to a retailer i've never done business before. who knows if they are going to keep the product and keep the money as well.

In my previous entry, i bought a pair of bulbs from Luminicsbulbs.com and wasn't satisfied with my purchase. i notified luminics about returning my product. they seemed surprise that i was satisfied with my product. according to there website they are the #1 aftermarket bulb. i told him i was going HID and decided not to use the bulbs. so he told me to send the bulbs back with the receipt and they'll process the refund.

on monday i went to the post office to send the bulbs back. i got tired of waiting for people to buy them on supraforums. so today i called them up and they said i will able to get a refund tomorrow or on friday. so hopefully i can get that refund. i'm testing them to see if there customer service is up to par. and if it all goes well i'll refer them to other people.

yesterday, i received a package from the LTB Motorsports. i actually ordered a pair of Piaa Super Silicon Wiper blades. my current wiper blades are wearing out, especially the passenger one. the passenger one has some of the wiper blade wire coming out.

anyways, when i opened the FEDex package i found out that they only shipped only one blade... I was quite disappointed yet again. i called them up this morning and asked about my order. the guy said they ship seperately... it doesn't make sense to send stuff like that seperately. 2 wiper blades? give me a break! doesn't that cost more money to the retailer. he told me it'll be delivered either today or tomorrow. so i gotta look out for that as well.

ebay auction update...

i lost the auction... it went up to $260! i hope i can find another one on ebay or on supraforums.

luminics verdit...

so i've had these lumunics titanium white bulbs since wednesday and i have to say im quite disappointed. dont get me wrong they are really cool looking. they have a nice silverish white. the down side is that they aren't that bright enough. i have to use my fog lights that have the stock bulbs to brighten the road. without my fog lights its like im driving in the dark. my eyes feel strain from focusing on the road to hard.

i thought there was going to be an improvement but there wasn't. i might as well just do a HID conversion than play around with damn bulbs. oh well.

oil change time again...

note to self... changed oil @ 96080 miles.

racelegal @ the Q

its that time of the month where all the race fans gather to watch drag racing at qualcomm stadium. i decided to meet up with a few friends of mine. albert, one of my friends just got his supra back from Sinful Enhancements. i must admit they did a killer job, from white to quicksilver. the transformation is just simply amazing.



he parked his car infront of one of the booths... a lot of car enthuists were checking his ride. a photographer guy took a few snapshots of his engine bay, probably for the racelegal website. i chilled and talked to his bro andrew "the skyline fanatic" and vick "the red MR2" guy. this was actually my second time attending this event. its quite fun just watching the cars race and just chilling with homies.

ebay!

i've been looking around on ebay to find some upgrades for my ride with my limited budget. i was thinking about upgrading my bulky 4 spoke steering wheel to a sleek 3 spoke one. i stumbled and found a celica steering wheel. i made my bid and hopefully i can get it for the asking price on the supra forums.

the wheels on the supra go round and round...

ive been doing a lot of thinking about what rims to get... i remember a few months back i was considering a set of 18" Volk Racing GT-C in black with a chrome lip. But i've noticed that a lot of Supra owners have them. a guy had them for sale and gave me a great deal on them. but i had second thoughts.



now im looking into getting a set of speed star SP1 rims. these wheels look awesome. they're available at the tire rack but won't be in till april. so i have some time to set some money aside and save up for rims.



What do you guys think? Leave a comment and let me know which wheels do you like better!

luminics lights

today , i received my order of luminics bulbs that i ordered late monday afternoon. to my surprise i recevied to pairs of Titinium White 9006 Bulbs instead of just one. im must be lucky or something. i might either sell the extra pair or send them back and exchange them for a different one to replace my fog lights.

the lights look great in the garage. however, i wasn't able to drive around with them. i'll have a chance tonight after work. I'm quite excited to see how they look in the evening. They aren't HIDs though but it'll do for now. all i can say is that they look way better and cooler than the stock lights. i just hope they last longer than the PIAA Super Plasmas i bought for my corolla years back. I kind of regret buying those PIAAs for my corolla. Damn PIAA lights are quite pricey. The Luminics Buls were probably half the price!

GOOD NEWS!

I received a letter yesterday concerning the accident. My insurance has concluded that the accident is 100% the other driver's fault. I was quite excited and relieved after reading that letter. I knew i had to be patient with the process. I hope i get my $500 deductible back...

car accident...

my ride got hit on the rear driver side panel while i was driving to work... the guy who hit wasn't pay attention. he was on his cell phone. i was even 2 minutes away from work. i tried my best to avoid the collision but failed. i will post pics later. i was able to get quotes. one from sdcs for $1386 and another one for $1508. i'll be out a car for about a week. his insurance willl be covering the rental. my poor supra :(

sorry for the lack of updates

im not sure who checks my blog anymore... but sorry for the lack of updates... ive been wrapped with other things.
i changed the oil last month with the royal purple stuff... I've heard from the supra forums that this oil kicks ass,
so i decided to check it out. it seems like my car is performing better but i get its just a placebo.



on a down note -
i had a flat going to work last week... damn tires! i guess thats a good excuse to buy rims... i just need to save up the
dough. but thats my small mini update for now. ill hope to update soon as upgrades keep flooding in. i wish.

test

this is a test of my desktop widget for mac os x tiger!

trd exhaust pics

vroom vroom

finally its installed... the first part of the day i looked for a place to get this exhaust installed. i went to the local midas to get a quote but they wanted 130 for the job, which is way passed my budget. 130 installing a bolt on exhaust is simply crazy. although they seem like a reputable company, im not sure if they ever worked on a supra before. so decided not to go with them. i called up my bobby from elite image, but his shop was booked. so elite image out. so i was thinkin about whether i should do it at pann auto. a lot of people on supraforums have been dissing this shop. however, i heard there is this one guy who specializes in high end cars and has worked on supras before. so i called up pann and asked for tim. i talked to tim for a bit and got to know him and what his work. so i agreed to go to pann and get installed by tim. so i get to pann around 2pm and ask for tim. tim greeted me. i found him to be very approachable and friendly. some people who work on cars usually just want to do a half ass job but tim seems different.

as i walked into the garage, i noticed people working on cars. but what caught my eye was the surpa near the corner. tim told me that the dude messed up his engine and was rebuilding it. tim cleared his area up before driving my car into the building (a good sign of a good quality mechanic). he then lifted my car up on the lifter and started the job. tim allowed me to watch him in action. he seemed like he has done this before. his work was quick and flawless. we talked off and on about supras and how he has a passion for toyotas, while in the background u can hear the turbo civic on the dyno.

when he was all done he turned on the car and reved it. wow i must say it sounds awesome. not super loud and not super quite. perfect. i dont want to be overly annoying to attract cops and ricers. we fitted the stock exhaust and piping in my truck and headed off... im totally going back to tim for future performance upgrades!

so if you have a supra ask for Tim, he'll take good care of you! look for pictures of the newly installed exhaust soon!

TRD exhaust has arrived!

i finally got my trd exhaust in the mail today! the box was well packaged by the previous owner. can't wait to get it installed.

suspension upgrade...

the cusco bar is finally installed. it arrived thursday at noon. it seemed like a simple install. i removed all the screws and metal plates and placed the bar. the bar clears the intake manifold and the intake pipe fine... however after installing it and driving it around the car made a weird noise. it seemed like when i accelerated there was this metal rubbing noise. after driving it around, i checked the bar and it was indeed resting on some metal part piece that i didn't notice in the beginning. so i removed the bar and there was a scratch on it, since it was rubbing against the metal part. Good thing its not noticable since it's on the back of the bar.

the plan was to remove the black metal cover so the bar can clear. I tried removing the screws that were on the bar but the electronic screw driver messed up the thread on the screw which it made it more difficult to remove the screw. jarv made an attempy to remove the screw but wasn't successful. so i went to ARD, a local car shop to ask if they can help. they tried and failed. i gave a call to elite image, a shop where i used to hang out back in the early college days to help. bobby the owner told me to bring it by. so on saturday i swung by and he was able to remove the metal cover. having the bar on the car is quite is great. now i can hug the corners like a mad man. but gotta watch for the tires though... i dont wanna wear them out. tires are expensive on the supra. i can recall driving my corolla back in the days, and totally wore out the tread corner like crazy with the strut bar. all in all it's a decent upgrade. next on the list TRD exhaust! stay tuned for pics of the cusco strut tower bar.

strut bar on order

just placed an order for a cusco strut bar... pics will be up when i finish the install.

more air please...

jarv and i were talkin' the other day about adding the old monsterflow intake from the corolla into the supra. after looking at how the airbox was connected, it seemed like it was a simple install. we spent a good hour or so removing the stock airbox. then we placed the monsterflow right into the stock rubber pipe. i took the supra for a test drive after the install and it seems faster through all rpms. it's nice hand me down upgrade, and i didn't have to spend any money.

more pics!

like i promised a few weeks ago... more pics! enjoi






*Gotta love the reflection of a clean hood

upgrades?

i've been contemplating upgrades for my car... but my first upgrade will be my alarm. next might be tinted windows... next a cool sound system that i can hook up my ipod to... then probably some rims...

also i got a quote for an engine swap to the 2JZGTE turbo motor and itll cost 6500 for the engine and harness, with labor itll cost 9500. i need to start saving up!

too much attention.

wow i've noticed that this car tends to attract a whole lot of attention. i noticed a lot of people tailgating me on the freeway. just tonight a bmw drove side by side with me. i noticed his friends in his car were checking my car out. i assume they wanted to race me or something. but i decided not to do anything. i didn't want to harm my younger bro who was the passenger at that time, and i didnt want to get into accident since i just got my insurance that day. safety first!

Wawanesa Insurance...

The Supra is finally insured ;-)

back...

finally it's tuesday... i got my car back from kearny mesa toyota. and the car runs great! now its time to party! more pics coming soon.

Supra Maintenance

Today i checked the engine out to make sure everything was okay from the previous night. I noticed that one of the fuses was placed incorrectly. So i placed it in its designated spot, and I also purchased another 30 watt fuse since there was one missing. In addition, I removed a weird wire that was sticking out of the diagnostic thingy. the car seemed to start better with the new fuse. i cruised for a bit and the check engine light came on while i was driving.

we headed up to the toyota dealership at kearny mesa so can get it checked out. i dropped off the car for inspection. Oscar (Toyota service guy) called me up later in the afternoon and told me it needed some parts and it would be there by tuesday. He gave me two options. I could pick the car up that day and continue driving it without the new parts and bring it back tuesday or just leave it there and wait until the new parts arrive. Having thought about my options I decided to leave my car at the shop till tuesday, I didn't want to risk further damage to the car.

i'll be picking up the car on tuesday. for now im supraless... :(

Rainy Evening

I drove the Supra in the rain for the first time... It was pretty scary. The rain was pouring down really hard. While I was driving I noticed that the check engine light briefly turned on and off. That freaked me out. I wasn't too sure what to make of it. I thought that everything was fairly good when I purchased the car. Weird.

Photos of the New Supra

I Finally Found One!

After months of searching I'm a proud owner of a 1997 Toyota Supra.

The Supra Search Expands to Los Angeles

I've finally had time to make the trip to Los Angeles to search for a Supra MKIV. I invited my Uncle Joe to come with me. He has purchased used cars before and can spot a good deal. We checked out a 1995 twin turbo and a 1995 non-turbo special edition. I've arranged to meet with both sellers. My main priority was the Supra Twin Turbo. The owner of the twin turbo told me that several people were also interested in the car. I informed him that I was going to be in LA to check out another Supra in Long Beach. He was going to detail the car at Miami's Auto Detail Shop at San Pedro. So if I wanted to see the car it would be at the detail shop.

We arrived at San Pedro around 10:20am in the morning. Almost immediately I noticed the Supra. It was beautiful. Nice and black - such a perfect combination. At first glance it looked flawless with minor scratches. The engine bay was nice and clean. I immediately called the seller and told him I was interested. He increased the price from 16k to 17k. I told him I offered him 17k. He told me that he'll be at the detail shop at 2pm to discuss the detail. So I decided to wait until 2pm to deal. After a few hours of waiting one of the employees of the detail shop notified me that other people will be showing up to see the car. I was feeling a bit nervous that my chances of owning that car were slipping away. I continued to wait until they showed up.

It was 1:20pm, 3 people showed up, two brothers and their dad. They were checking the car in detail. They notice a lot of things wrong. The body seemed like it was painted again with a bad paint job and several sections of the body that were very questionable. They also noticed that the tread of one of the tires was balding. At around 1:35pm another guy showed up. He actually owned a dealership that specializes in sports import cars and sold 5 Supras this year. At 2pm the seller finally arrived. He introduced himself and informed all the sellers that somebody offered 18k. He seemed very shady and unsure of himself.

First of all he didn't expect such response for his Supra Twin Turbo. Second he didn't have any paperwork on hand just a yellow notebook writing down every ones offers. This was so unfair. I asked him if that's the car's original paint job and he said it was. However he retracted that statement and said that a portion of the car had to get repainted due to a dent. Immediately my Uncle Joe told me to forget this guy and leave. I shook his hand and left. My Uncle and I had a conversation in the car and he felt it was really unsafe to deal with this guy.

Our next stop was to Long Beach to check out the Supra Non-Turbo Special Edition. I called up the lady and informed her that I was running a bit late. The lady's car was parked in the side of the house. We checked out the car without informing her that we were here. We just did a quick walk around to see the body to see what shape it was in. I had to admit it had an ugly SE decals on the side, no spoiler, and totally needs a paint job.



You can tell by the picture it looked plain. We both decided to head home without test driving the vehicle. It was a learning experience for me.

On a positive note, a guy that I’ve been talking to about his Supra said his Supra was still available, since one of the buyers flaked on him.