2002 Toyota Solara

[nelson]

Yeah so this is somewhat of an odd car to be tuning, I'm aware, believe me. Aftermarket support is about as readily available as snow in July.
It dawned on me long ago that without BIG bucks (the kind that are obviously not available in college) that it would never be a particularly 'fast' car, so i decided to go the style route instead.. so without further ado,

Perfromace mods:
Cp-e (custom performace engineering) MAF-ci intake/chip - highly considering getting the tunable version soon to see if i cant eek out a lil more power from the grandma-mobile 1mz block
Greddy EVO II Catback - this is somewhat of a prized possesion for me, they discontinued it for my car a few years back and a friend of mine on my forum hooked me up with it for a VERY reasonable price
TRD RSB - good ol' TRD red sway bar, arguably the best 'bang for the buck' mod you can do to this car, it made a HUGE difference in handling. I'm considering a Whiteline FSB (you toyota guys ahem*goodspeed* will know what im talkin about, but the possibility of added understeer on a FWD car is a lil deturing..
Tokico Blue Struts/Eibach Prosport springs - dropped it 1.6'' front/rear and a HUUUGE thanks goes out to Justin Jassy and DJ for their help on the install and the following disaster when my CV boot cracked :/.

The A/V List:
Alpine CDA-9883 Headunit
Alpine 6.5'' Type-R Components (doors) with tweeters
Alpine 6x9'' 3-way coaxials for the rear deck
Alpine V-power 40x4 rms amp (didnt have the extra 50 to go 75 watts rms - thats later on down the line)
JBL tweeters in custom fiberglass enclosures (i have them wired on separate channels running from the h/u with switches in the console for on/off)
3 Farad Capacitor
Lanzar Audio 2000 watt mofset amp, 500x2 rms
2 Kenwood KFC-W3011's (12'' subs) - i was originally thinking about type-R's, but honestly i'm glad i went with these, sound quality is great, very clear for 12's and if your aim is to just crank em up and let everyone in the surrounding blocks hear you, you can do that too - they're sitting in my fiberglassed solara box
7'' LCD on dash in front of passenger, the fiberglass mount was made from a block of foam, it alone took 3 weeks to complete.
PS2 - in the glove box, unneccessary, Im brutally aware.

Misc:
35% tint
tinted tails
shaved emblems - shes naked
Slyvannia Silverstar Headlights
LED revese/license plate lights
Painted Calipers
... theres probably more but its not comin to mind right now

Future things to waste money on:
Tubeable chip - (fuel mapping)
Wideband A/F gauge - need it for the chip..
Denso Iriduim Spark Plugs
NGk or Magnacore Wires
HID Conversion
Blacked out Headlight housings/clear corners
TRD Lip Kit
TB Extender
O/b Throttle body

I've done all of the work myself, with the assistance of some of the MM guys and a few friends at home.

Now, in all of its 1200 Watt RMS glory

work in progress - you can see the top of the 4 channel amp there


Kenwood 12's up close :thumbsup:




tinted windows/tails/debadged/greddy evo II/tokico blues - all new this summer


7 in. LCD, needs a lil cleaning, but the custom mount came out pretty good for foam, a dremel and fiberglass


ps2 mount needs finishing before its installed, but people can play guitar hero in my car, thats necessary right? wouldnt have done it all but i got the set up for free for my old subs, just had to build it in


bass knob relocation, again, the mount isnt quite done yet, still needs to be carpeted.


Greddy Evo II compliments of Unbalancedwood - i love this damn thing


custom solara box haha


JBL tweeters got moved into custom mounts between the ceiling and frame above the seatbelt, a lil dark i know, forgot the flash


close up of passenger side tweeter


both tweeters are running off of the old door speaker channel from the h/u, not the amp, and are wired to the opposing blue LED switches... which, now that i've gotten this far, have decided to not work right anymore and refuse to light up.. the big swtich in the middle is the killswitch for the subs


ignore the halfassed caliper job i did in the back last summer, when i get new pads it'll look fine


ill add that these pictures are all during construction and don't fully represent the finished product.

the list of future mods is a lil irrelevant becaues i plan on starting a new project next summer... 95 e36ic with a 1jz swap... stay tuned on that.. heh

[.RJ]

16 switches for the bitches

[/quote]

[ScottyB]

no pics in sigs please 8)

definitely unique. just don't hit anything that would make the pass. side airbag go off (picturing someone in the hospital getting a tv screen removed from their face)

[Evan]

a guy I used to work with supercharged his.

it was....about what you would expect a fwd open diff supercharged car to be

[nelson]

hah, i thought where i placed the TV i would be in the clear.. hmm.. i should probably consider removing that then..

[nelson]

/\ the airbags is above where the tv is..

[ScottyB]

the bag is still going to explode outward and downward to cover the whole dash. so i guess the tv is going to crush someone's nuts :lol:

not a big deal, just yankin yer chain. also props for ripping out your dash, probably the worst job you can do to any car. i love shredding my flesh on all the sharp crap back in there.

[Ginger]

/\ the airbags is above where the tv is..

Sure, but its not like it comes out and goes "oh, look at that, a tv, better not hit it, it's too pretty." It comes charging out of there like a canonball and will go "holy shit - look at the damage that thing could do! *bang*" And next thing you know you've got a tv running around like a hyperactive, caffeinated six year old with a baseball bat inside of the car... which'll probably end up targeting somebody's body or face.

But - cool build. I like how you're making an effort to keep things hidden, or looking factory. 70 pounds of fiberglass and Krylon would look pretty lame

[nelson]

i feel like its a ticking timebomb now that everyones mentioned it haha

[WRXtranceformed]

It shouldn't be hard to disconnect or turn off that airbag. Whole install looks very clean! Fiberglass stuff isn't easy to do or make look right.

[nelson]

It shouldn't be hard to disconnect or turn off that airbag. Whole install looks very clean! Fiberglass stuff isn't easy to do or make look right.

yeah i think i'll probably do that this week... then i have to open the dash back up and disable that abnoxious lil blinking light that constantly goes off when the seatbelt isnt on or the airbag sensor is disconnected...

[Jeff]

I put my screen in the glovebox in the Sebring...its baller and easy to do.

[nelson]

no space, its occupado by the ps2, the ipod and a rats nest of wiring in the back. plus the screen is too thick and i put way too much effort into making the mount for the dash not to use it hah