MarkWs Bronze Behemoth - UPDATED page 42

[Westy]

MarkWs Bronze Behemoth

 

I started my search for another Supra around 8 months ago as I knew my daily driver (SW20 Toyota MR2) was on its way out. My initial thoughts were to buy an N/A to try and save on fuel costs but with my current TT6 showing good mileage per gallon and my love of the TT responsiveness I decided my next car would also have to be a TT6.

 

I had always loved the factory colour 1A1 Anthracite (Bronze)(MSB) after seeing so many clean examples on SupraForums and the infamous "Supra Dreams" video.

 

http://www.supraforums.com/forum/showthread.php?614419-Anthracite-Supras-owned-by-members

 

This colour was held in high regard in the states due to its rarity with the most sought after spec being a factory 1A1 TT6 hardtop. With that in mind I created a wanted thread and awaited the "impossible" task comments:

 

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?277382-1A1-Anthracite-Supra-Manual-Hardtop

 

My requirements:

 

Factory 1A1 Anthracite Colour

 

Stock Bodied

 

Hardtop

 

Manual (preferably 6 speed....N/A or TT)

 

Months past with a few 1A1s coming up but they were all N/As, TT Autos or Aerotops! None of which I was particularly interested in tbh and I really began to think about a more practical (cheap runaround) car.

 

I woke up one morning and spotted that I had a missed call from Jurgen @ JM Imports timed around 0030hrs! So I call him up to see what was up and he says he had bought a factory 1A1 TT6 hardtop which had gone through auction that night and asked if I still wanted one!

Couple of pics sent and a rough outline of the spec later...I sent the 50% deposit based on these pics and Jurgens reputation for clean cars!

 

 

A week or so later the car was at the docks in Japan ready to be shipped and it was advertised on Facebook and the JM imports page.

 

 

The car had been marked as SOLD, but still my phone rang out with texts linking me to it...and I simply replied saying "SOLD" as wanted to keep it quiet for all the folk that were enjoying winding me up about 1A1!lol!

 

 

Very few people were told and one detective (Mr Adam Littler) guessed and interrogated me until I caved!lol! I was not on Facebook at this point but was sent this pic the day the car was being picked up from the docks by Jurgen.

 

 

Exciting times as it suddenly became real once I knew the car was in the country!

The car was taken to JM Imports and here are a small selection of the pics from its time there:

 

Busy!

 

Love this pic as it really showed off the colour:

 

The To Do list I sent to Jurgen was simple:

 

1. Fully undersealed.

2. Supply and fit CAT1 alarm with installation certificate.

3. Fit and spray Facelift Bumper Insert.

4. Dye the carpet black

 

I was so tempted to go straight to full BPU again but thought I'd give stock a go given that this would be my daily driver.

 

In the midst of all this I went on a road trip with Sunny and Liam down to Kerons (Extreme Performance). The Supra bug wouldnt let me not spend any money on my new car;), so I picked up a mint set of OEM Recaros; OEM Black headlining + visors and a Facelift Bumper Insert...all of which had come out of Benkeis Yellow Breaker.

 

 

The facelift bumper insert was posted off to Jurgen to have fitted and sprayed. After that it was just a waiting game. I kept an eye on the picture updates Jurgen was posting on FB and the date for collection was set as Saturday 4th May 2013.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

I obviously collected a couple more little items awaiting this date, which included a Supra engraved Rad Plate and the ultra rare Gold TRD Oil Cap.

 

 

Some pictures of Jurgens prep on the car:

 

 

Ready to go:

 

 

Before I knew it collection day was upon me and myself, RossC and Liam headed south to JM Imports! It was a sunny day with clear blue sky and I couldn't believe my luck as I knew this weather would show the 1A1 paint off perfectly.

We arrived at Jurgens at 1200hrs and I was blown away by the car and I couldn't believe I had gotten myself a TT6 Hardtop in undoubtedly one of the rarest colours the Supra was produced in.:d:d

 

This was the first time I had seen the car in person:

 

 

Remaining balance paid to Jurgen and a suitable amount of time spent drooling over his stock we headed off to the nearest Shell station and then McDonalds....with some food in his belly Liam was out straight to work on the lower rubber boots as they were worn out and causing the boot lid to rattle:

 

 

Sorted:

Edited May 4, 2013 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

And homeward bound:

 

We got caught in heavy traffic due to a bad collision somewhere between Newcastle and Carlisle (hope no one was seriously hurt):

 

But eventually we got back to Scotland!!!

 

I left the lads in Glasgow and headed home, where I immediately dyed the underside of the boot blind as it was driving me nuts!!!lol!

 

 

Much better! Phew!lol!

 

 

So with the car back home I thought I'd better give it the once over and see exactly what parts were fitted to the car:

 

I have sifted through all the paperwork that came with the car and can confirm that the wheels are:

Work Emotion CR Kai 5x114.3 - 18" - 9.5" +38 Front and 9.5" +30 Rear - MGM (Matt Gunmetal)

 

http://www.workwheelsusa.com/product.php?category=27&wheel=80

PDA Spec Sheet:

http://www.workwheelsusa.com/media/wheels/27/80/WORK%20Emotion%20CR%20Kai%20Spec.pdf

 

 

 

Exhaust is a Fujitsubo Giken FGK.

 

http://www.fujitsubo.co.jp/english/

 

Can't find any specific info on this exhaust for a TT Supra though!? Anyone know anything about them!?

 

 

The Coilovers are from a company called Standard Suspension or STD!lol! From what I can find they aren't the most expensive out there (Got a quote from the company $1330 excluding shipping and taxes from the States....circa $1750/£1130 delivered) but are a good all round product and being brand new I'm sure they will do the job of ferrying me around.

 

http://standardsuspension.com/suspension_r1.php

 

05/05/13: First full day of ownership I thought I'd clean up some bits of the car that my OCD couldn't cope with. First up was the exhaust which is stainless steel but was extremely dirty and stained. The top left pic shows what I was up against and the rest are after a little elbow grease:

 

 

Next I moved onto the hubs and wheels. The Work wheels don't come with any centre caps and given that there was a little corrosion on the disks and centre hub, it was spoiling the overall look. Quick run over with a wire brush and some rust treatment applied I painted the centres black. Normally I'd do the entire centre of the disks but they don't look to have much life left in them tbh so didn't bother (New ones will be done).

 

With the wheels off I gave them a clean and applied some Poorboys wheel sealant to protect them. The wheel nuts got a buff up at the same time:

 

One thing that did concern me was the absence of spigot rings from all four corners!? I will order new ones but in the meantime I whipped the ones out of my Volks which luckily are the correct size! The colour is a bit much, but normally they are covered by a centre cap and tbh they will just have to do.

 

Black spigot rings and they should be looking

 

 

 

06/05/13 - Today I had to pull out the black car as the Volks with MT Tyres were currently fitted to it and I required the spigot rings for the front wheels on the bronze. Much of the same as yesterday the disks/calipers were wire brushed, rust treated and centres painted black. The wheels were washed with Bilberry and once dried had Poorboys wheel sealant applied. Spigot rings fitted and wheels nuts buffed up they were put back into the car.

 

Everytime that I start the car a little Japanese women starts talking to me, which Jurgen pointed out was for the toll roads in Japan and that there was a card reader in the glovebox for this. Below is a collage of the visible electronic parts - Sony MD & CD Player (Top), Blitz FATT DCII (Bottom Left) and the above mentioned toll card reader (Bottom Right). Her talking is cool ATM but I'm sure ill eventually rip it out!lol!

 

Edited May 7, 2013 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

As requested I then pulled both cars out for a couple of pictures! I had to drive one to a quiet street nearby so as not to interfere with traffic, walk back home for the other and vice versa to bring them back! See what I do for you guys!

 

 

This was the first time they had officially met! Lol!

 

 

Also removed all the old bolts from the engine bay and replaced them with one of Robs dress up kits:

 

Almost forgot....this car is pretty low and there was no way in hell my jack was fitting underneath to lift the front today, so knocked up some ramps to give it some clearance!:d:d

 

GB anyone!?lol

 

 

10/05/13 - I pulled the lights out today as tbh I thought they were letting the whole look of the car down. I gave them the "facelift" treatment.

 

 

Finished Product:

 

Whilst they were out I also removed the orange blobs and tinted them...didn't want them too dark, but just enough to hide them in the gaps of the front bumper. The indicators on the wings have been tinted to the same shade also.

 

 

Orange blobs refitted:

 

Headlights back in (bad pic, but as you can see it was raining,so ):

 

Comparison:

 

Will get better pics when the weather is a bit better, but this has transformed the look of the car IMO.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

Well after a week of commuting the car was rather dirty! It has rained pretty much constantly since I picked it up from Jurgens, so thought I'd take the opportunity to clean it before heading off on DragonBall 2013.

 

All rubbers, plastics and tyres cleaned with APC then snow foamed:

 

 

Cleaned using two bucket method and dried using a cobra guzzler. Bonnet and boot open to drain any excess water:

 

 

Hand polished using Menzerna SF4000 and a coat of Collinite 476S applied. This pic also shows off the headlights quite well:

 

 

And finally I fitted my Supra engraved rad plate which arrived today courtesy of Al Massey:

 

 

 

Steering wheel changed back to OEM three spoke that car would have originally had:

 

Momo Removed -

 

Stock wheel I had lying around -

 

Replaced the gaiters today with new black leather/red stitching items as my old gear gaiter was torn and looking well past its sell by date:

 

 

Eagle eyed amongst you will notice the ashtray light is now also red.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

Next up I whipped off the heatshields and fuel tank cover to clean, rust treat and paint them before the Scotttish winter starts again!lol!

 

Must have been around a kilo of dirt in the fuel tank cover:

 

They have been rust treated and painted with three coats of smooth black Hammerite (same as I did on the black car).

 

Will have to refit them in the morning though as it takes an age for the paint to dry properly!

 

Couple more pics of the car to prevent complaints (you know who you are)

 

 

 

I then pulled off the HKS intake along with the IC pipe and noticed that there was traces of oil in the IC pipe...I know that trace amounts is ok and to be expected in a 19 year old car, but just as a precaution I pulled out the SMIC and all piping to see exactly how much oil was present.

 

The SMIC is in very good condition for its age, but with it off I gave it a rinse through with some petrol to remove any oil deposits:

 

There was some oil within, which was expected given that it was in the pipes, but not any amount to lose sleep over.

 

Once dried out I straightened the worst of the fins and gave it a coat of satin black paint:

 

All pipework was also cleaned out and the adapter for the HKS filter was also given the satin black treatment. after that everything went back on as expected and I can rest easy knowing there isn't a major issue.

 

I've also ordered a new magnetic sump plug and will most likely give the car an oil change to make sure everything is tip top.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

Managed to get a bit more work done on the interior....first up was the UK speedometer dial. The dial itself was a breeze to fit and IMO it looks 100% better than the j-spec dial with a sticker over the KPH!

 

Before

After

 

The issue now though is that the speedo dial is reading the signal from the converter wrong and the yellow KPH is reading the correct MPH...meaning the MPH is reading rather low compared to my actual speed! I raised a thread regarding which wire would require to be bridged to bypass the converter but as yet no answers are forthcoming!?

 

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?291732-HELP-Speed-Converter-Delimiter-Issue

 

Whilst the dash was out I also changed the ignition barrel light from green to red to match the footwell lights:

 

 

Today I popped up to Liams to crack on with fitting the black headliner. I'll let the pics say the rest:

 

Grey headliner:

 

Liam getting involved:

 

Race Spec!lol!

 

Black goodness

 

I did plan to put the Recaros in aswell but after a long day in the sun I thought a cold cider was a better option!

 

Hopefully I can get this speedo issue sorted ASAP and then I will look at refurbing the dash panels.

 

 

Car has now been fully machine polished and waxed.

 

Finally the paint is up to standard...can't believe the contaminants that claying removed!

 

Also gave the engine a quick wipe over:

 

Since the car was clean and I recently took possession of the club banners I thought an impromtu photo shoot was in order!

 

Edited October 2, 2013 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

Ok so the camber on the front of the car is literally destroying tyres! There is almost full tread in the middle and outer edge, but the threads are now showing on the inners!

 

Being my daily driver this is not ideal as it means that the fronts are lasting under 2k miles!!!! I have contacted Kenny Brown in Hillington re booking the car in for a full alignment and I have just ordered two new front tyres from Camskill. Not ideal when I'm trying to save for my holiday next month but that's life I suppose.

 

To save my self getting points if stopped by the traffic police I have fitted my Volks:

 

 

Ooooooft:

 

 

Better pic of the Volks:

 

 

 

30/07/13 - Car was in for a full alignment today at Kenny Brown in Hillington, Glasgow. Cost me £144 inc VAT, but he did say this was purely down to the amount of labour time they had to put in as the numbers were all over the place!

 

When I left this morning at 0930hrs:

 

I asked for the before and after numbers so here they are:

 

Got the car home now and does feel tighter in the corners but there was too many "Sunday drivers" holding me up to give it a true test. Kenny himself seems a pretty genuine chap and even offered to look over the suspension on the black car for free if I pop back in...there was even a guy camping outside this morning that had come from up north to have Kenny set up his car, so don't know where the bad rep comments have stemmed from!?

 

 

Oct 2013 -

As this is my daily driver car it's time for some Fuchs Titan Race 5w-40 Oil, genuine Toyota Oil Filter and new magnetic sump plug to be fitted prior to the winter months.

 

Car hasn't missed a beat and as a special treat I've just paid for some bling from Robs Gold Rush Supra to spruce up the engine bay a little. Might be a bit OTT for a daily but this is what I've bought:

 

24ct gold Greddy Oil Cap

24ct gold Suspension Rings

24ct gold Radiator Plinth

24ct gold Bonnet Stay

Chrome bonnet hinges

 

 

Cleaning has begun...couldn't fire in the new gold items with the heat shield showing surface corrosion and dirt everywhere!

 

 

How much to chrome it then Rob!?

 

Put everything back in this morning as I'm working this afternoon!

 

Anyone for some Gold!?

 

 

Had one victim as one of the vac pipes split refitting it! PITA! But luckily a had some hose that will do the trick until I can buy a new one:

 

 

 

Had a spare set of OEM seats lying around, so fitted them this morning:

 

 

:innocent:

Edited October 14, 2013 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

Summer 2013:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too shabby for a daily driver:

 

 

January 2014:

 

Ordered a brand new set of Facelift rears + looms from MrT this morning but decided that I'd rather put them on my black car as it is the "mint" one. With that in mind I scavenged the facelift rears from it this morning and fitted them to the bronze car.

 

Fog light is all wired up and they are working perfect.

 

Enough talk though. Here's some pics:

 

 

My facelift headlights also arrived from Keron but they will require a little refurb before fitting.

 

 

 

March 2014:

 

Got my hands on some double sided tape so the JDM rear bumper pods are now fitted and tbh they are growing on me!

 

 

Time to get this car looking even lower!

 

Earless MVP lip arrived 13/3/14. Just awaiting double sided tape and some bolts to fit it.

 

Edited March 14, 2014 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

April 2014

 

To celebrate 10,000 posts on the forum I thought I'd present my new wheels!

 

BBS LM 2 Piece Split Rims:

Rears 275/35/18 10J ET50 (Front Mounted) Circa ET38 (Reverse Mounted)

Fronts 245/40/18 9J ET42 (Front Mounted) Circa ET30 (Reverse Mounted)

 

Bought from Keron at Extreme Performance:

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?304217-Bbs-lm-forged-alloys-18-quot-with-continental-tyres

 

 

The wheels were in decent condition but my OCD would allow me to fit them to my car in this condition, so the refurb begun!

 

The wheels were each split to be cleaned up and polish the lips to a better standard:

 

 

I decided that I wanted more dish! So the faces were reverse mounted:

 

 

I couldn't wait until the new bolts came to see what they would look like so sat them beside the car to get an idea:

 

 

 

 

:cool:

 

I've been looking into gold bolts for them but tbh I'm starting to like the look of the standard BBS black ones!

Either way I think they will look awesome once done!

Edited April 11, 2014 by Westy (see edit history)

[Westy]

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Thank you for not posting...Kaan!!!

[Graham1984]

What's this all about? You have reserved a lot of space so must be something good.

[ashbuster]

lol with project threads mods will clean it up for you anyway bud

[Geo]

LOVE IT MATE!!

[Jurgen-Jm-Imports]

thanks mark was a pleasure as always ;-)

 

you missed one good photo from smoking images. ( that shot went viral)

[Westy]

What's this all about? You have reserved a lot of space so must be something good.

Just future proofing.

lol with project threads mods will clean it up for you anyway bud

Better this way as I have sufficient space to fill without bothering the mods.

LOVE IT MATE!!

Cheers buddy...Jurgen said today that you were a fan of the car.