Styling

04/08/11

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The exterior of the car has been kept deliberately simple, I like the style of the car without bolting bits of plastic on and drilling holes everywhere! Anything of the extra lighting you do see on here is invisible when off and mainly for show and demonstration purposes as, I am an auto electrician amongst other things!

Main bits

Deep gun metal grey metallic finish
18” BBS CH alloys with TOYO PROXES T1-S tyres
Lowered suspension -35mm
Remote battery charge point
Illuminated exterior door handles
Scanner in nose cone
US type side marker lighting and front lights
Blue side and rear under lighting
Custom GT Grapix number plates
LED lighting replaces all standard lamps
Clear front and side turns.

The most obvious mod would be the 18” BBS CH alloys, these have a set of 225-40 ZR 18 TOYO PROXES TS-1 tyres wrapped around them.

The suspension has been replaced with Koni sport adjustable dampers and Spax progressive springs lowering by 35 mm & improving handling superbly!


	The door handles have been fitted with hidden blue LED’s, these come on automatically when the doors are unlocked .



				I liked the look of the US style lighting on the Supra with side markers and yellow markers on the front so, decided to fit my own. I used LED’s for this & fitted them into the side mouldings so as to appear invisible during the day.



		I discovered the outer layer of the trim was transparent so, with some careful drilling from behind the trim, I was able to fit 4 LED’s into the plastic without coming all the way through the front of the plastic. Red LEDs are fitted to the rear trim while amber ones are in the door trims and front side repeaters. The result is an invisible fitting until the lights are switched on.

I decided to give the car a complete makeover on the lighting side of things. The main thing to have changed is the complete replacement of all exterior lamps with LED units with the exception of the headlights and fog lights.

Not only do LEDs llast forever and give out a richer clearer light, they also use a thenth of the power of incandescent lamps and “snap” on instantly - good for brakes!


	The swap over to LED involved small changes to the rear cluster lamp holders to allow the units to accept LEDs and also the bypassing of the lamp failure module.


	The number plate lights use the original holders with LED strips instead of lamps.

I decided the car would be bought up to date with a completely clear front end, this included replacement diamond clear front turns and custom made clear side repeaters that are a direct copy of the originals - just not orange & use LEDs on a custom reflector.

Diamond clear turns replaced the standard white and yellow units. Extra LEDs mounted in the units give them a more modern look as well as xenon bright white lighting & built in US style yellow markers.


	The yellow fog lenses were dumped and the fog & head lamps replaced with xenon white lamps which improved output greatly as well as giving the units a modern blue-white output.

For show use and purely a bit of fun the under side of the car has a full ground neon kit fitted in blue, notice these have been fitted properly so you can’t see the tubes!

As well as this the wheels have been picked out in green LEDs mounted out of sight behind the wheels, these fill the dark void left by the under lights.

You can clearly see my “KITT” scanner mounted in the nose cone! As an avid Knight Rider fan and after so many KITT comments I had to make one just for a bit of fun!

The scanner is invisible when off as its made from a thin, polished piece of clear acrylic mounted in the gap between nose and bumper. LEDs are mounted on the back of this insdie the nose cone and transmit light through the acrylic to the front. use of this also achieves the authentic trail effect of the scanner from the TV show.


	The circuit for the scanner I made up and mounted in the engine compartment remotely from the light bar to reduce its size As you can see for show use and demonstration the boot build is also lit up with LED and CCL lighting just to set it all off. A normally forgotten part of the car show illumination wise is the engine bay so, to be different the engine too has been lit up using a combination of CCL tubes and LED’s.




				I have spent many hours painting and polishing parts of the engine as an ongoing project so why not enhance that for night viewing as well?! Although in this picture it’s not too clear, some red LED’s have been fitted inside the spark pack cover, these give a great glow through the grilles of the cover! The CCL tubes have been mounted behind the fan, under the plenum chamber and behind the engine. The hood also has two tubes on to give overall light.