I upgraded to 89-92 front end, and WTF??

L

lifesnotfair

New Member
Dec 26, 2005
356
0
0
Dominican Republic
I picked my car up today, after a week and a day at the shop. It has clear turn signals, 91 bumper, euro fogs, and 89+ JDM mouldings (no rear-sidemarkers).

1st of all, how FREAKIN' STUPID do they have to be, not to be able to put the two bumper grills in the correct possition? I mean, FFS, out of the 4 corners, one is "rounded", and it's the one that goes in the lower-center of each side. COME ON!!! I'm so pissed. They used a bunch of black sillicone to put it in there, guess they didn't find where to put some screws. I bet Sillicone is not the best option. ARGH! Already called them, going tomorrow so they put it in the right place.

2nd. My left turn signal is now "blinking" faster than normal. (Right one is OK). What would cause this? I've heard maybe a bad bulb? .. If I turn emergency signals they both blink normally too, and up front it would seem as the bulb is OK. Didn't check the rear though.

3. My radio has no sound!? WTF? What could they have done? I can't listen to either the CD's or the FM tuner...

4. My horn sounds weaker! WHAT? This stuff is unbelievable, what on earth could've caused that?

I gotta tell ya, I'm not happy right now. The car looks better and everything, but I'm just not happy. :( Plus I have this horrible sound coming from the rear, which I'm pretty sure is a Strut Top (or Hat)... which I can't find anywhere.

I'm starting to hate my Supra now. :-(

Also, the front end seems like something is missing. It's probably because: 1. I have no front lip.. and I don't want a Bomex or anything, the car is on Eibach Springs and that lip lowers the car about 2 more inches and I know it wont last long with the streets around here. I'll leave it lipless or I'll buy the stock little black one. HOWEVER, I think that what's making it look weirder is the fact that it has no plate in the front. I only have one license plate, and it's in the rear. In my previous cars I've never had front plates.. well, I had an "ADVAN" one in one of my Integras... Some people with Hondas/Toyotas/Etc put japanese plates up front.. dunno if it'd look cool on my car. Dunno what to put there, but it's screaming for something... damned bumper has 4 holes (guess for a euro plate and for normal plate).... aCk!
 
N

NDBoost

Guest
tell me why did you entrust someone else to do a job that could of easily been done in a single afternoon? You can take the bumper off in 30min tops.

there are a very and i mean VERY select few things i wont do myself.

Body work (IE: Painting, repairing body panels)
steering work IE Steering racks etc


Other then that i do all my own work, oil changes body panel swaps new electrical items all done by me. I don't trust another set of hands that i dont know personally to have a wrench within 10ft of my car.
 
MassSupra89

MassSupra89

Almost done.
Nov 3, 2005
1,707
0
0
MA
1: Theyre idiots...so are you're grilles molded in there now?

2: fast blinkers are usually caused if you have a bulb out/unplugged/missing. Your car sends voltage to power a certain number of lights...if your rear blinker is out, all the power will go to the front one and will be double worked. (check your other lights)

3: Did they need to do any work behind the dash? Forget to plug the radio back in? I don't see why they would for a bumper install but you never know.

4: The horns are up front behind the bumper and in front of the intercooler...my guess is they forgot to replace one?

5: Don't hate the supra...hate that shop. Never do business there again if they screw up every possible thing you had done, and even screwed things up they weren't working on.

Good luck, refuse to pay for additional work, once they've fixed it all never go back.
 
L

lifesnotfair

New Member
Dec 26, 2005
356
0
0
Dominican Republic
Ok, not all is lost, here are some answers:

My bumpre grills are there with sillicone, they just have to take them out (WITH CARE! I'll be there myself when they do it, I spoke to them), and switch sides.

The turn signals used to be fine. I wonder what bulbs they put in my new clear signals... maybe they bought wrong ones, although that would make both sides blink fast? Gonna check if the rear side of the fast-blinking side is done or what. Today my electrician will go to my house anyways, coz I want him to enable my car to be able to turn up the FOGS without popping up the pop-ups. (I wanna do that with the first touch of the lights switch.. you know, the possition where usually the pop-ups would stay up, but off.... that's the best way. If I want the pop-ups up, but off, and with no fogs, then I turn off fogs with the switch to the left. So it would all work perfectly like this, I've thought about it a few times already =P )

I sent the car to the shop, BECAUSE the mouldings needed paint. Also, the bumper needed paint (it was a complete different color as I got it from eBay). Trust me, I wouldn't have sent it to the shop to just change a turn signal. I swapped the tail lights all by myself and thought it was a piece of cake; I'm an engineer, I'm not that dumb ;-) .. but I don't paint, I'm not THAT handy =P

I think maybe a cable is inplugged from the powerplant on the trunk, I'm gonna check.. this one I'm hoping to solve tonight when I get working on it with my eletrician.

Also, I noticed the Horn is just fine when I press it from my steering wheel, HOWEVER, when I push the alarm button on my keychain, it sounds weaker than it used to. Weird, huh?

Also, someone please suggest what I could put in the front... ;) Maybe one of those japanese plates? =P

AND IF SOMEONE HELPS ME WITH THE BLOODY STRUT HATS... :-( :-(
I'd be so grateful! :)

This car is my first automatic car... I will hate it until I swap a 7M-GTE into it with a manual tranny. I will rebuild whatever engine I buy, coz I don't wanna be breaking things frequently. I think I'm done exterior-wise now. Car sits on Eibach's with cheap KYB struts, with nice 18 rims (9.5" rear 8.5" front), it has the JDM tails, and now with the front and mouldings... it looks OK, I guess. Now it has to be able to RUN... =)
 
MassSupra89

MassSupra89

Almost done.
Nov 3, 2005
1,707
0
0
MA
Once you go GTE you could cut the license plate piece out...allowing for more air for an aftermarket IC...If done right this can look good, almost factory. But if it looks even alittle hacked it wont look that great.
You could also get a Turbo A duct, or replica, same theory, allows air through the bumper.
For a quick fix that will cover that blank spot just get some type of vanity plate, whether its a japanese plate, or a toyota or TRD one it will look better if you hate that blank mounting spot.
 
L

lifesnotfair

New Member
Dec 26, 2005
356
0
0
Dominican Republic
bcg04: Yes, indeed. Only a supra owner can do it right. Damned shops don't know crap. That's why I'm worried about buying a GTE engine and having it machined for the MHG... I just don't trust people, LOL...

Anyways, I fixed most of the problems.

1. The radio had the FADER all the way to the rear speakers - problem is, speakers are hooked up as front speakers, through the amp.. I'm not sure how it works, but now it's OK. This pissed me off a LOT, because if they messed with the FADER, it means they touched my almost new Pioneer head unit a lot. Another reason to HATE that shop.

2. The left turn signal was quick because the rear lights were unplugged on that side. Took 2 secs to solv this one too.

3. Oddly enough, my horn sounds the way it used to (loud) when pressed from my steering wheel. However, when I press the alarm button, it sounds less loud. This is actually a good thing, I don't know how or why they did it, or if they even know they caused this, but it's a good thing!

4. My electrician was here and hooked up the Euro fogs on the 2nd touch of the light switch, so I can have the fogs on even with the pop-ups down. I won't be driving like this often, but having the option to do it is great. =) Combined with my Hella H4 super white bulbs it looks niiice! =)

Tomorrow I'll go and swap the bumper grills, that's still bothering me.

Another thing... those clear turn signals... They didn't satisfy me as much as I thought they would. Maybe I need to get those euro ones, half amber-half clear. Damn! =(

The car looks 10 years newer with the JDM mouldings, all nice and straight... coz the old 88 mouldings were ALL BENT, made the car look as if had been hit.

On another subject (boy I talk a lot!), lately I've been thinking about ride comfort. I have 275-35-18 rear, 245-40-18 front... I've heard that a big profile tire helps ride comfort a lot. I recently installed Eibach Pro springs (new) with cheap KYB GR-2 shcks (new), and I feel ride comfort is not too good when going over bumps. I figure the tyres don't help. I was thinking of putting my sawblades back on (225-55-16 all around) to see if I feel a difference. If I do, I'm gonna strongly consider selling my rims and getting smaller ones, so I can put bigger tyres on them. But 16" is just... small for a MK3! I mean, come on, they're 16" STOCK! But if I buy a 17" rim, could I still fit a 50-profile tyre on it?

Which brings me to ANOTHER thing! I once read that the 2nd number in the tyre numeration, was a % of the first. So, a 205-50 tyre, means it's 102.5 (205 divided by 2) milimeters tall. If this is true, then a 265-60 is 132.5 mm tall... ? OR, would a 195-50 and a 275-50 have the same "tallness" .. ? Someone pleas enlighten me! =)
 
IHI-RHC7

IHI-RHC7

"The Boss"
Apr 1, 2005
1,310
0
0
40
Oregon
Did they replace your header panel core support when they did the 89 "upgrade"? 89 front turns and grills have mounting points that don't exist on pre 89 header panel cores. The only way to make 89 grills and signals fit correctly is to replace the support as well.
You are correct about the tire sizes, but that refers to an unloaded height, so when the car is sitting on the tire, the height from ground to rim is not exactly what the calc would say.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom