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Lots of time has passed since my last post. Got a new phone a while back and lost most of my old pictures. So this thread will skip forward in time a bit.
New parts as of February 2020:
Vertex side skirts
Vland headlights
Universal rear diffuser
Universal side splitter
78 Works v3 sequential tail lights
RR Racing carbon fiber intake
RR racing tune
Megan racing rear camber and toe arms
Godspeed front upper camber arms
Manzo(ebay tanabe) mufflers with 2.5" custom axleback
Diamond stitched carpet
Wheels: Trafficstar RTS 19x10+5 225/35 19x11+0 235/35
-7 degrees camber all around
Pictures of the 235/35 before and after being stretched onto the 11" wheel. Yes, lots of people will disagree and say it is unsafe. I completely agree, but that is how it has to be done to minimize rubbing issue. It's done alot of stance cars and the best way to prevent debeading is keeping your tire pressures HIGH. I bought an aftermarket TPMS cap that actively monitors the PSI and alerts you within seconds of a loss of 5PSI or more. I recommend you that proper precautions if you decide on a "crazy" wheel and tire setup like I had. I ran 50 PSI on all my tires
Had the setup with the Trafficstar wheels for about 6 months. I starting experiencing pulling issues 4 months into the setup. I got my car aligned 3 times within a couple months with no luck. Ended up selling the wheels thinking the camber was the problem... I later realized if i rotated the tires side to side or got new tires, my pulling issue wouldve been fixed. Oh well. 19s made my car look lifted from the rear which I wasnt a fan of, so I bought a new set so i could be slammed.
July 2020
Kansei Tandem
18x9.5+22 squared 225/35(switched to 215/35) with 10mm spacer 235/40
-7 front -3 rear
ARP extended studs on the front hub
Also installed 40mm shorted knuckles I had laying around for over a year. They were made by partshopmax (pbm) and i just painted them gold. if you're low, you know the issue of the UCA hitting the strut tower area. With shortened knuckles, not only are you able to go lower, but the ride quality increases alot since you arent bottoming out on the strut tower. Definitely a good investment if you are planning to drive low static like I do
October 2020
I saw this cool picture of another person customizing the shifter area so it looks like the newer gen IS. I liked the concept of that and decided to give it a try.
First step was to get a doner shifter console, remove everything and make the cut. I did this using a dremel.
Test fit with my WeAreLikewise shifter **** an ebay shift boot and retainer and with switches to control my subwoofer and various lighting in my car
skinning with carbon fiber weave, not that fake carbon fiber wrap
after about 5 times of laying resin and sanding. a long process but turned out well. the resin i got was suppose to be UV resistant so i didn't add clear over it.
Final product with the new shift ****, shift boot, switches and bass **** all fitted. The side pieces were also carbon fiber skinned as well as some other random interior pieces i decided to play around with
November 2020
Just a little story.
So as you know the bumper tabs on our cars suck. Mine were especially messed up from my car being super low and dragging my bumper everywhere despite doing the "bumper tab relocation" and plastic welding bumper tabs on hundreds of times. So one day as I was driving on the highway, I noticed a dragging sound. As I exited the freeway, it got louder without the wind noise from highway driving to drown it out. When I was able to park, I went outside to check and saw my rear bumper almost completey off, hanging by the top 2 screws near the trunk. I forgot to put one mounting screw and the result was the bumper popping off over a dip in the road. The bumper got sanded down at least 1/3 of the height on the edges from dragging on the highway and there was no way of recovering it. Luckily, I had a spare rear bumper and I was able to save my rear lip, rear LED reflectors and the rear parking sensors. So I was able to transfer the lip and LED reflectors on no problem. The replacement bumper fit perfectly for $100 shipped, although it came unpainted and no pre drilled parking sensor holes.
Later on I eventually added quick latches on my front and rear bumpers just for peace of mind that i'll never lose a bumper again. they're much stronger than the factory tabs and cleaner the the "jdm quick release" that involves drilling into the fender and quarter panel.
Nice write up!! I see you went back to the Vertex. Looks good with the Vlands
yup, i switch between vertex and the fsport lips depending on my destination and road clearance. I normally just run the fsport lips daily since they give me more clearance and the vertex lip for pictures.
July 2021:
Decided to wrap my car. Used Teckwrap Black Cherry Ice. This is my first attempt at a car wrap and since I used calendar film, it was extra difficult to glass and lay down compared to cast films like 3m. Still, the end result was worth the struggle, way less orange peel compared to 3M/avery and the other common brands. Front bumper was left untouched due to it being a repainted bumper with lots of damages. The paint would just peel up with the wrap if I tried to wrap it.
Also got bored and retrofitted my fog lights with RGB halo rings. Of course i run it purple to match the theme.
March 2022
My ugly unwrapped bumper was always an eyesore, so I finally pulled the trigger on a new bumper. 2021 conversion from RDlexus. Took about a month to arrive, the wooden box it was shipped in was completely crushed but thankfully the bumper was intact. fitment is perfect, except for the supplied emblem which isnt the right one. I had to cut off all the tabs and stick like 8 layers of double sided tape stacked up on eachother on it for it to fit nicely.
The next day, I wrapped the bumper. I did it in 3 pieces instead of 1, way easier than wrapping the rear bumper. Of course, I had to take pictures right after
April 2022
Found some JDM valenti side mirror lights. Has white running lights and amber switchback turn signals
Put an RGB LED strip behind the grills for "fog lights" since the only option for custom fog lights or any fog lights at all for the 2021 model are $1.5k for standard fog lights and $2.75k for RGB ones. For less than $20 I think these are a pretty good alternative.
Added a universal front lip, side skirt extensions and rear splats from ebay. I had to trim like half an inch off the lip because it was lower than the ground allowed it to go. Spent about $80 total because its just going to be dragging on the ground anyways. This is still static btw
Entered into a car show for the first time in the almost 5 years i've owned the car. You can really see the wrap pop in this lighting. The best part about it is that I drove it from my house to the show like this and nothing broke. I dont leave the front lip and side splitter on all the time since this is still my daily.
03-10-22, 09:16 PM
