Re-Badged to how the rest of the world gets 'em

Today I removed the Scion badges and put on the Toyota badges.  Seeing as how everyone else in the world except the United States gets this car with the Toyota badges, it only seemed like the right thing to do. I decided to keep the stock chrome look.  I'm not planning on blacking out the front headlight housings, so I think the chrome badge looks better than a blacked out badge.  If the housings were darker, the black badge would make more sense.  Here is what I did:

1.  I took the car on a run to Petco and parked it in the blazing hot summer sun for 30 minutes then drove it home.

2.  I sprayed the emblem area with quick detailing spray to provide lubrication to the painted areas while working on the adhesive.

3.  For removing emblems, moldings, or anything else adhered to the car, I like to use old membership cards that are medium-firm.  Today the Craftsman Club card was called up to duty.

Front

Rear

Rear removed

4.  Once the emblem is off, some glue will remain. I found that just by working my thumb I was able to get 99% of the adhesive off and cause minimal irritation to the paint.  It helped that the surface was still quite warm.  I used a petroleum base solvent very sparingly and carefully to get the remaining small adhesive sections left behind.

5.  Since I used a solvent to remove the adhesive, and since this badge is a different shape than the factory badge, I decided to re-do the Opticoat.  First was to clean with a car soap spray and wipe down.

6.  Next, I hand polished the area.

7.  Then I liberally sprayed on the alcohol cleaner and wiped off any remaining oils.

8.  After that was completely dry, I applied 5 drops of Opticoat to the applicator pad, which was more than enough to do these small sections. 

9.  After allowing the Opticoat to do its initial cure, the emblems were placed on the car.  Nice!

Front of car

Rear of car

Now... about those Scion badges on the wheels and that FR-S logo on the trunk...

Saturday 7/20 - Mid-Atlantic FT86Club meet at Pure Automotive in MD

After meeting a Mid-Atlantic FT86Club member at Katie's cars and coffee last week, he let me know of a large meet taking place in Maryland, and that some on the NoVa members were meeting in Langley in an organized drive.  Sounded fun.  And it worked with my schedule, so why not?

I showed up at Langley and there were already ~10 FR-S and BRZ there. A few more showed up after me and I think we had about 13 or 14 cars overall for the convoy.  We rolled out at 11am with an eclectic mix of modified cars, at least one of each color from the combined color palette of Toyota and Subaru, and clear but hot weather.  We hit the beltway and that's when it got entertaining.  Keeping a line of cars that long together on 495 is comical at best, but when they are lined up and snaking along the 495 turns on the Maryland side it is quite a sight to behold.  I was pretty much in the middle of the procession and it was funny to just look forward and backward as I've never seen so many of this car out in the wild, let alone all at once.  I often found myself staring into the rearview mirror a bit too much, only to find out the convoy was slowing a little late... oops!

Once we got the hang of signaling intentions and the people in their mommyvans and SUV's around us finally realized that its not a coincidence that all of these "like" cars are driving single file and maybe its not a great idea to cram their people-hauler into the middle of it, things went pretty smooth.  Much smoother than I expected.  In some of the various merging instances though, it was pretty obvious that the guys with the superchargers had a pretty good advantage getting up to speed for the merge.  I didn't realize how much of a safety issue my lack of horsepower was.  Just like the airbags, ABS, and traction control, it looks like I'm going to really need to consider adding a supercharger.  For safety.  Heh.

We rolled into Pure Automotive around noon and settled into parking along one of the buildings.  There were already some from Pennsylvania and Maryland there.  The Richmond and VA Beach folks rolled in a little after us, if I remember correctly.  Parking was well coordinated and the shop was set up to handle all of the folks no problem.  Other than the oppressive heat, it was a perfect day for the meet.  Big thanks to Brady at Pure Automotive for hosting this meet and dyno day!  I'll be back out in a few weeks to pick up the Five Axis lip spoiler!  Below is a good shot of the event site, with the NoVa contingent backed-in against the building.

It was great meeting folks.  I had no idea the Mid-Atlantic section of the forums was so active and had gotten so organized.  I had popped in there a couple times when first joining and it was not anything like it is now.  So, if you're a FR-S or BRZ owner, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region, check out  http://www.ft86club.com/forums/

There was a solid assortment of suspension set-ups, wheels, turbos and superchargers there for window shopping.  I don't believe any of the turbos got on the dyno, but some of the Vortech and Innovate kits went up for some initial tuning.  All of these kits have only been out a short time, so there is more upside to all of them.  I'm keeping my eye on them for sure, especially the twin-screw Innovate kit with its clean install on top of the engine.  Maybe once Innovate releases the intercooled version.  Maybe.

Below are some pics of the forced induction setups.  Somehow I missed snapping a pic of the Vortech Setups.  I believe the highest Vortech reading was ~275hp at the wheels, and the highest Innovate was (I think) ~240hp at the wheels.  And these are on stock injectors and still preliminary tunes.  Another Innovate kit went on after I left, and since that BRZ had a straight through exhaust I would expect higher numbers still.  The torque curves showed good bump across all kits and were nice and flat for a broad RPM range.

Innovate Twin Screw Supercharger

Turbo - 

Turbo

The cars were lined up for a shot taken by the shop.  Below is a front shot that could have used another 5 feet of elevation to make it better.

Reverse View

And here are just a couple of the red ride.  All in all a nice day and good to meet enthusiasts and window shop future modifications installed onto someone else's ride, to either move them up the "to-do" list or scratch them off entirely.

Next project arrived today

USPS delivered the next project this morning.  These are Toyota emblems to swap out the Scion emblems.  I'm well outside of Scion's target demographic age and lifestyle, so they probably should have handed me these when I bought the car as not to put a blemish on their marketing   ;-)

I'm trying to decide if these will remain chrome, get painted black, or some other derivation such as black chrome or a hyperblack.  I need to decide soon, because I need to get these on the car while the emblems will just peel off in the summer sun.

Decisions, Decisions!

Cars and Coffees

I've been trying to hit up the various Cars and Coffees at least once per month.  Been a while since I've blogged, so here are some pictures from some of those over the past couple months.

Leesburg is trying to get its own cars and coffee going.  This one is the smallest of all, being a fledgling event. However, it was a great opportunity to just talk and hang out.  I hope it gains some traction, as its near the house and could be a great launching point to sunday drives out west.

Here are some shots from an early summer cars and coffee at Fair Lakes.  It was nice to see another FR-S out in the wild, this one with the beginnings of the TRD body kit.  The owner was a nice guy, and has spent a good amount of time and money on modifications already.  The white looks good, but the pictures don't pick up the brilliant pearl paint at all.

At this meet my old neighbor Tom showed up with his "new to him" 72 Dodge Dart.  Its a cool car that he's fixing up.

Some pics from Katies the day the Veyron was there.  And some other nice hardware.  I've never seen Katies so busy.

I love the Bugatti.  It is so choice.  If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

Mclaren

I love the Ariel Atom.

We (shouldn't have) overnighted parts... from Japan

Wow!  It's been a long time since posting.  The FR-S has been performing admirably.  The handling is crisp and on the new commute to work MPG has been an impressive 32mpg.  It's still got that raw feel of my 96 Miata, but the modern amenities have made summer driving much more tolerable... a roof and cold A/C!  The car still rides choppy at times, is loud, has a whistling engine, likes to kick out the rear and can put ear to ear grins on whenever called upon!  I can see a lot of these hitting the used car market from people who need more refinement, or who came from cars with smoother rides, sound insulation, and less quirks.  You have to want this car to look past some of its personality, and if you want it, you'll love it.  It's like the friend of yours you take to concerts because they always buy the drinks, but throughout the show they won't stop yelling 'Freebird'!  Kind of like that.

The mod-bug has hit me in a bad way, and I've been trying to resist to big ticket items.  The first purchase was to procure some new taillights that blend in better with the rear end than the altezza-style taillights that came stock.  They just ruin the flow for my eyes, from every angle.  There are several choices that came out on the market, but most are a variation of the altezza but with LED, or are smoked.  I've never been a fan of smoked taillights, and they would have done nothing to help the taillights from being a visual distraction on a red car.  And the smoked tails remind me of the Camaros and Mustangs and Neons at Orlando Speedworld.  Yeah, so I chose red.  There are very few choices in a pure red taillight for the FR-S, and I looked at countless pictures and weeded out all but one brand based on my personal taste... TOMS.

After finally deciding on TOMS taillights, I waited for them to reach the shores of America.  And waited.  And waited.  When the FT86club forums began buzzing that the TOMS lights were available, I went and placed an order with one of the vendors advertising stock.  All good, right?  As it turns out, no.  Shortly after I placed my order, the vendor RallysportDirect updated their website.  Their taillights are not the USDM TOMS taillights, they are straight JDM.  JDM yo... FTW.  Not really.  The JDM tails require re-pinning the vehicle factory taillight harnesses.  Sorry, I'm not interested in dinking with the factory wiring, not when what was initially advertised on the forum and vendor site was a plug and play product.  After refusing the delivery and getting stuck with shipping costs for a product I would have never ordered had the vendor known how to update descriptions on their website in a timely manner, my second order from an authentic TOMS US vendor arrived.  These were in fact plug and play, from Guerilla Racing.  Lesson learned.

Installation was easy.  I won't get into that too much.  But below are some comparative pictures and installed pictures.  My personal preference has always loved the look of red taillights on red cars... ferraris, civics, mustangs, porsches, fusions, etc.  I just like how they look... unobtrusive.

The box... well packed!

Stock vs TOMS... puts how cheap looking stock is in perspective, no?

Side shot with flash

Top shot

See how lame that stock light looks now? lol

The last shot with a stock tail on the car.

Parking lights on.  Nice.  

New tails.  They're red.

Side Shot of TOMS

Side shot of stock

Tour de Brevard

Today I took a driving tour of old roads, old homes, old places and visiting some friends. After you move away from a place you have lived in for a while, it is always odd driving through and seeing what has changed... and what hasn't. It was great visiting and talking cars, getting the opportunity show off the FR-S some to fellow automotive enthusiasts. One has a mint C6 Corvette and the other your run of the mill family car, for the family that needs to get places quickly... a 335 turbo with the M sport package. All in all a good day.

Below is a shot from Indiatlantic beach early in the day.

Warm weather = Car day

The weather went into the 60s today. That means time to work on cars. I spent the day washing up the daily drivers that had all kinds of winter road mess on them. A coworker can over to install CR edition shocks on his S2K. I helped out a little but the shock install was one of the easiest on any car I have ever seen, and he handled it easily. The weather was very nice and just hanging out talking cars or griping about work was a great way to spend the day. The warm weather brought out all the neighbors and kids, and it was cool to see everyone outside doing their thing.

This pic is what I wished my garage looked like all the time... 2 bays, 2 sports cars!  The other pic sums the day up nicely. Old worn out shocks removed and a kiddie bike.

First Oil Change!

Today I decided to do the first oil change.  Scions come with free maintenance for the first 24 months, at the intervals determined by Scion.  I didn't want to wait too much time for the first oil change given the relatively low miles seen by the FR-S, and I also have a fairly extensive road trip planned that would technically require an oil change somewhere 2/3 of the way through the trip.  In addition, I really don't like taking my vehicle to any  dealer for any service... ever.  Given all of that, I decided to go ahead and freshen the oil myself.

The FR-S takes 0W-20 synthetic (pretty sure all 0W oil is synthetic at this point, so that could be a redundant sentence).  I couldn't find many deals on 0W-20, nor could I find a great selection of brands and local shops selling anything on sale.  After trying to find Mobil1 synthetic on sale and some frustrations with Discount Auto Parts excluding 0W-20 from any sort of special, even after telling me they would honor it, I decided to hit up Leesburg Toyota Scion to see what the OEM 0W-20 pricing was like.  I did not buy from this dealer, but after talking with some folks there I really wish I had.  They are a smaller dealer, smaller market, and a bit more old school in some things.  It was a pleasant experience and good conversations on oil and other maintenance items.  Pricing was good as well.  The OEM synthetic was about $2 less per quart than the mobil1, and is actually one of the best rated oils on the "Bob Is The Oil Guy" forums.  Here is a shot of what was used.

The FR-S is super simple for performing and oil change.  The only car that I've discovered to be easier and cleaner to change the oil for is our 2004 4Runner.  The main things that make these two vehicles so simple is the placement of the oil filter.  Both vehicles place the oil filter above the engine, on the front of the engine, within easy reach, and upside down.  The drain plugs have easy clearance and the openings in the skid plates are ample to keep oil from getting caught up in them.

Here is a shot of the oil filter location (left) and the oil fill neck (right), within easy reach.

You really notice the light weight of the oil when you see how fast it drains.  It came blasting out once the plug was removed and drained in no time.  It drained more like water than oil.  It was something to see.  Having changed oil many times, I wasn't expecting that.  Thin oil is the new black, or something.  I had to snap a shot of this because it made me chuckle.  Everywhere you look on this Scion (Toyota), you see the Subaru logo.  I know it was a joint project, but man, based on the stampings everywhere you have to wonder what Toyota actually did on this car.

Sports Cars & Sport Bikes

Wanted to throw up a couple pictures from a mid-winter ride through Loudoun County from about 6 weeks ago.  Went through the curvy roads this time with a pair of sport bikes belonging to coworkers.  Let me tell you, driving with sport bikes is a whole 'nother experience!  Their acceleration is just insane.  We all had a good time on an unseasonably warm day.  I was paired up with a BMW S1000RR and a GXR750.  The roads were mostly free of traffic.  And I was able to scratch "get all 4 tires off the ground" off of the FR-S "to do" list.

The FR-S had no power to accelerate with these bikes.  The BMW S1000RR is putting out the same crank horsepower as the FR-S for pete's sakes.  But on the curves testing lateral grip, the FR-S was able to hold its own and keep pace, sometimes setting the pace.  It was an awesome experience and all came away impressed with the other person's ride.  Much respect.  Here are some pics from the day.

Thoughts on Nameless Exhaust

I've swapped the exhausts back and forth to compare and decide it the Nameless Exhaust is what I want the car to sound like.  I currently have it on the car, and am likely to keep it on.

My exhaust preferences are as follows:
-Looks good on the car
-No Drone
-Sounds sporty at startup
-No Drone
-Not obnoxious in traffic, but noticeable when revving up to redline
-Not so loud that you can't hear the engine

I enjoy the stock setup, which includes the sound tube, decent growl from the engine overall.  You can't hear anything but the engine though, which at times can be good.  However, the stock exhaust tips are some of the ugliest I've ever seen.

The Nameless setup adds a nice exhaust note at the top end, and is pretty throaty at cold startup, giving the car some much needed personality.  The tips are much better than stock and fill the exhaust cutouts very well.  However, this one suffers from a well known issue with nameless exhausts, which is a slight misalignment of the tips and how far they stick out.  It bothered me at first, but over time I'm not noticing as much.  I notice the sound more, and am happy with that.  I enjoy that I can hear the exhaust, but also hear the engine note, and they seem to be at comparable volume when really getting on the gas.  It makes audible shifting very easy, eliminating the need to use the tach for anything.  I'm very sensitive to drone, and like any exhaust on a 4-banger engine, there is a small amount of drone.  The RPM's that 4-bangers run at on the highway are higher than comparable v6 and v8 engines, and there is going to be some drone.  This is most noticeable at 55 to 65 mph, and above that wind noise begins to overpower any exhaust sound.

All in all, I'm pleased with the Nameless exhaust.  I don't think there is a better one to match my exhaust preferences, and buying it used made it a great bargain.  I don't think I'll be swapping them back and forth anymore.  :-)

Sad day for the FR-S

Yesterday was a sad day for the car. After a nice Sunday drive I headed home at a leisurely pace on highway 7 east back towards Leesburg. As the bypass hits the first traffic signal I slowed down as I've done hundreds if not thousands of times in this car. I came to a complete stop and sat... then after about 5-10 seconds the dash lights up. The dreaded CEL/SL (check engine light/slip light) issue that almost kept me from buying the FR-S in the first place. But friends reminded me that's what a warranty is for and I went ahead and got it. Sitting here in a dealer waiting room where they won't offer a loaner for bringing in a car that probably shouldn't be driven with those lights on... well there is a sting of regret there. We will see how it goes.

The code thrown by the car was P0017. This is one if the known codes for the issue with this car. I also reported my fuel pumps tendency to chirp or whine at idle when warm which is annoying. As I rolled into the scion dealer I just hit 4k miles on the car. Its an awesome car. Just plagued with some serious problems.  The jury is still out if this car is a keeper or just a fling.