Photos Of My 93' Corolla

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I changed my front lip in the weekend. Decided I wanted something slightly fatter to give the front end a 'fuller' look - The only problem was that the particular front lip I wanted was extremely hard to find. After searching the local junkyards and wreckers for about a year I finally managed to find one a week ago.

The actual lip itself is a genuine Toyota item which was a factory optional extra for the 1997-2001 Toyota Caldina (ST215, JDM). Since they were only available as an option, the vast majority of Caldinas don't have them fitted, which is why it took so long for me to find one. Got one in the end though and did a bit of custom work to make it fit. The fitment was very close but I had to heat it up to adjust the curvature a bit.

Here's some pics that I took today:

 

[turbomr2]

Schweet ride! Attention to detail is always a winner

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Schweet ride! Attention to detail is always a winner

Thanks bro

Here's a new shot from me:

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Here's some new photos that I took yesterday:

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Here's my latest addition which I installed yesterday - A very rare genuine Toyota Graphic Equalizer!! . This was only available as an additional option for customers who purchased the Super Live Sound System option when the car was purchased brand new in Japan. The EQ was a rather pricey add-on so there aren't many of these units floating around out there. They were available for all of the AE101 models (this particular one came out of an AE101 FX-GT) and various other models of that same era.

When I found it the plug had been chopped off and it was disconnected, so it was a bit of a gamble as to if it actually worked, but fortunately a guy I know in Australia had also managed to get his hands on one late last year for his AE101 Levin and had already figured out which wires went where and was able to provide me with all of the info I needed to make the installation quick and easy :). I had to convert the factory audio wires to RCA connectors so that it was compatible with my modern day head-unit and aftermarket amplifier, but apart from that everything else was virtually a cut-and-splice type of job.

The equalizer allows you to adjust the audio settings very precisely, ranging from thumping bass to ear-piecing highs, with 3 programmable user presets to select from depending on which genre of music you're listening to so that you can basically 'set it and forget it'. Otherwise you can adjust each individual setting to your liking by going through the frequency tuning screen and moving the levels up or down. As for the visualizations, there are 3 different display settings and 2 display level settings. I personally like the traditional graph-type display, however the drop-type and 'bounce' type display settings are also cool to watch. You can set it to stay on one particular display setting or have it revolve to different settings as you're driving.

The buttons light up when the park lights/headlights are turned on and the display is able to be dimmed both night and day, regardless if your lights are on or not. The 'DEF' button beside the 'DIM' button standards for 'Definition'. When this is pressed/activated it basically helps to make musical instruments sound more defined. Once you've played around with all of the different settings and have discovered what works best for your particular taste, your whole audio experience is enhanced and everything sounds exactly how the producer of the music would have intended it to. It works really well with the four coaxial speakers I have installed and compliments the factory option tweeters superbly.

This is the second one I've ever known of in real-life and the first one I've ever seen anywhere over here so I decided to remove the factory option Multibox and stick this in it's place. It's been a fun little unit to play around with so far :)

Here are a couple of photos that I took today, and also a video that the guy in Australia made who I mentioned earlier (all credit for the video goes to him - Footage of the equalizer in action starts at 59s) -

Stock OEM Toyota equaliser modded for aftermarket stereo - YouTube

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Today I installed a custom made bellmouth that I made by a metal spinner (the same person who made my trumpets). I also put the first half of the factory surge box/plenum back on so it's sandwiched between the trumpets. Should keep a bit more of the heat out and looks better at the same time.

 

[CountersteerSan]

Great shots Kiwi-Corolla. I really like your corolla and your mods. I drive an ae101 and to be honest, I'm quite inspired by your project and now there a sudden urge in me to get back to Malaysia and start upgrading my corolla. Anyway, have a nice day mate Hope you'll update your mods here again soon.

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Great shots Kiwi-Corolla. I really like your corolla and your mods. I drive an ae101 and to be honest, I'm quite inspired by your project and now there a sudden urge in me to get back to Malaysia and start upgrading my corolla. Anyway, have a nice day mate Hope you'll update your mods here again soon.

Thanks a lot! . I'm glad you like what I've done so far and that it has inspired you to work on your own Corolla :). I'll be sure to post any future updates here

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I spent a couple of hours sound deadening both front doors today. I bought four sheets of it and did the outer skin (door handle side) with one sheet on each side. Planning on putting some inside the actual door panels/cards themselves and possibly on the inner skin of the door too.

Pulled the window regulators and glass out which made the job a lot easier. Amazing how much of a difference it has made, not just in music quality but the whole feel of the door. Feels much nicer to open and close now and should help drown out some of the road noise when driving.

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

I just spent another 3-hours sound deadening the inner skin and the door panel/card on each side. Also installed some new component speakers. Went from 6.5" 4-way speakers with 75w RMS each to 6.5" component speakers with 60w RMS each.

The old speakers sounded good but since I have 6.5" 90w RMS 3-way speakers in the rear deck and factory tweeters up front there was far too much treble, so the component speakers fixed that nicely. Kept the factory tweeters so I didn't have to make up a special mounting bracket for the new ones. Everything is being driven off my 444w 4-channel amplifier under my front passenger's seat.

Here's a comparison video between the front and rear doors I took once I finished:
1993 Toyota Corolla Sound Deadening Comparison - YouTube

And a whole bunch of photos I took during the process:

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

My latest purchase - A brand new set of BC Gold coilovers. Ended up getting them for a really good price so grabbed them today. They have 30-way damper adjustability so my spine shouldn't shatter to pieces on long trips

 

[ronaldindin]

wow this is crazy. awesome stuff

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Thanks

I installed the BC coilovers today. I've set the damper knobs to 5 clicks from fully soft on the fronts and 10 clicks from fully soft on the rear. The ride height has been adjusted to 300mm from the center of each wheel to the fender lip, which has the subframe sitting at bang on 100mm off the ground, the minimum height allowed by law here in New Zealand.

I must say that I'm VERY impressed with the ride quality of the BC's. When I first went for a test drive I honestly couldn't tell that I had installed coilovers as the ride comfort was virtually the same as my old spring/strut combo, however when going around corners you could definitely notice the difference in the handling performance as it stuck to the road as if it were on rails. I've booked my car in for a full wheel alignment tomorrow so once the toe is reset and everything else aligned I'm sure it'll handle even better. All in all I'm extremely happy with these coilovers so far and I look forward to putting them through their paces over the coming years.

Here's some pics I took after installing them, and a photo of a sticker that I bought on the way home to finish the day nicely :)

 

[Mr.Chaser]

Bro Kiwi-Corolla， another nice & sweet item purchased！ Same as mine coilover brand= BC ！Yeah， really value for money！ Mine pillow ball special order with caster adjuster:) U wont regret by using this Fully adjustable coilover。

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Bro Kiwi-Corolla， another nice & sweet item purchased！ Same as mine coilover brand= BC ！Yeah， really value for money！ Mine pillow ball special order with caster adjuster:) U wont regret by using this Fully adjustable coilover。

Thanks bro! Good to know that we're using the same brand of coilovers! . What are your front/rear damper settings? Are you using the standard 6kg/4kg spring rates?

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Here's my latest mod - FGK 4-2-1 stainless steel extractors. Designed and built in Japan by Fujitsubo Giken Kogyo and are one of the best sets of extractors you can buy for the 4A-GE. Had them fitted today and I'm already noticing a power increase. It replaces the very restrictive factory squished pipe that goes over the front subframe, so there's no more flat spot in the rev range when accelerating at full throttle. The needle seems to sky rocket even faster to redline and doesn't feel so sluggish down low.

Also fitted an OEM 24mm front swaybar, although haven't had a chance to test out the new handling characteristics yet as I had the old factory extractors etc in the trunk on the way home so I didn't want everything sliding around and causing damage.

 

[Mr.Chaser]

Thanks bro! Good to know that we're using the same brand of coilovers! . What are your front/rear damper settings? Are you using the standard 6kg/4kg spring rates?

Haha, i forgot already... If not wrong front i'm using 8kg instead of 6kg. Click from soft(front) 13, (rear) 10.

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Oh nice, good to know. My rears are set on 10 clicks from fully soft and the fronts are 5 clicks from fully soft. Might bump the rears up to 15 though and the fronts up to 10. Still running the 6kg/4kg spring rates.

I decided to put my digital calipers up against the standard mid-pipe to see how bad the restriction really is where it goes over the subframe. At the pipe's widest point before the restriction starts it measures in at approximately 53.57mm (2.10"), and at the pipe's most restrictive point (where it goes over the subframe) it shrinks right down to approximately 28.10mm (1.10"). After the restriction the pipe goes back to it's original size of 53.57mm (2.10") but the disruption to the flow of the exhaust gasses would be huge.

The FGK header set retains it's original piping size the whole way along, so it makes me wonder why Toyota decided to hammer the piping down so far when there's so much room between the underbody of the car and the subframe. Admittedly, there are usually heatshields covering the mid-pipe, but even so there's still plenty of room under there.

It's hard to tell how bad the restriction/pancake effect really is from the photos but in real-life it looks terrible. It's easy to see why I noticed a gain in power almost instantly after installing the FGK set:

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Here's some new photos that I took today:

 

[Kiwi-Corolla]

My latest mod that I decided to install today - 266mm rear disc brakes! I converted from the old drum brakes to these nice shiny discs from a JDM AE101 Levin GT Apex (same discs/calipers used on the JDM AE101 Corolla GT sedan, FX-GT hatchback and BZ Touring wagon models). The discs and pads are brand new so I had a bit of fun earlier bedding them in earlier :). Took me half the day to install them as I had to run the new handbrake cables and painstakingly remove the long bolt that goes through the lateral arms but I got there in the end. Here's some photos of the finished job: