The transformation has begun!

First I had to fix the nose of the car - since my coworker had an unfortunate incident 3 years ago (unbelievable that she was driving like that for 3 years)

During my lunch break I just swapped the bumper for a new one!


Then I ordered the chrome molding - got this today!



And today I also got my Megan Street coilovers - they look really nice and I was impressed by their build quality


Stock ride at this point



I also got the Proclip phone mount / still need to instal my iPhone holder there!

 

I love that shade of white, very nice and clean car! $800 is a smoking deal, I would definitely go for it!


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The new wheels have just arrived and just installed the tires on!

Btw I ended up returning the 17x8 ET35 wheels since I figured that it wouldn't be an easy fit and got another set of 17x7.5 ET42.

I just need to find time now to install the suspension and the wheels



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The new wheels were heavier (as expected), 30.4 lbs vs. 42.8 lbs but the pleasant surprise was that the new front suspension was lighter 12.2lbs vs. 15.4lbs


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I set the stiffness to 18/32 at the front and to 24/32 at the rear - that's because I wanted to see if I could induce a bit of lift off oversteer. The stiffness can be adjusted easily at the front but it would be almost impossible to adjust the rears without removing them.

I rode the car for just 5 miles and overall it feels good. My only complain is that the rear springs are too soft so even at the highest setting the car sits as low as in the photos. I'm a single guy driving by myself in most cases so this shouldn't be a problem but I think I might end up changing them with something stiffer since I bet it would be riding on the bump stops if I ever put 4 people in the car


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Just to know I wasn't aware these shock are pretty bitchin and you can actually adjust the ride height without moving the spring perches - therefore not compromising the shock's travel!
You just need to loosen up the lower ring and unthread the shock's body - essentially elongate the shock!



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Omg I can feel the surge of power!!! Haha no, not really but I my air filter was filthy and I needed one so I went with K&N!
At the same time I lifted the rear shocks just a tiny bit but I feel that it needs a bit more rake.


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It's a nice filter, it's definitely worth the extra $25 I spent for the laughs and giggles when people see the K&N sticker in an severely underpowered vehicle

 

Due to its electric motor which is kicking in whenever needed the Prius can mask the lack of power with its instant electric torque. It's not a bad car to drive around especially after the suspension mods and wider tires.


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Polished the front headlights
Installed and EZ lip
Adjusted the ride height (raised it and gave it a tiny rake)




Here is the Prius next to the car it is supposed to replace





The new anti-sway bar arrived and was installed


The bar is significantly heavier than the bar it replaces



I also test fitted the seats and they do seem to fit! This would be a very expensive project / need to short out the electronics and then give it to a machine shop so they can make custom mounts.







I also started preparing my rear spoiler for a respray in the factory color / it's crazy how thin is the paint!



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I was just test fitting the seats to see if they can fit in the space. I haven't address the airbag issue. These seats do have airbags so my plan is to plug them in but unfortunately the airbag pigtail is different so it would need to be retrofitted with the right plugs. The other option in the table if you are swapping your seats for some others without airbags, is to connect some resistors in the outlet to eliminate the airbag light on the dash.

There are too many cables (taken into account that they are manual) in the Prius seats which I don't really understand what do they do - so it's really very early for me to say anything.

You have airbag connector
Another connector which I believe it's for the seat belt.
Then another connector with multiple wires which I'm not sure on what it does. It could be for the seat belt pre tensioners (milliseconds during the crash tightens the seat belts).


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The spoiler came out pretty nice - not to bad for a $15 investment. The only issue is that I only managed to put one layer of clear over the paint and then the weather went to shit here in Southern California / so since I didn't want to drive any of my other 5 vehicles in the rain I had to remove all the masking and drive the car...
When the weather gets better I'll do a wet sanding lay 5-7 coats of clear and buff/polish it.

Next thing will be to do have llumar ceramic tint in all 10 windows, install the seats and perform an alignment.


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Since my Prius was still in the pair booth I took my street legal race car on the way back home - good God that was so much fun, cooking the rear tire at the slightest throttle application




Hey guys,

Does any of you have the pin out diagrams for the seat electrical connectors?

These seats have an enormous amount of connectors for manual seats!


So we have three plugs
Yellow airbags
What about the gray and black?
I'm speculating gray for the seat belt on/off chime
Is the black a resistor that tells if someone is sitting on the seat? If so why there are more than 2 cables?


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Okay so I went back and disconnected the each wire one by one so I can take more precise photos and also so I can see what error message I'll get.
In each case the message that was receive was an airbag light (Like when the air back is disconnected), below you can see all the connections close up, any help would be greatly appreciated!





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That is very helpful, thank you so much!
So did you say that there is also a sensor showing the position of the seat? You mean if it's pulled far behind or all the way to the front?

Btw I just had LLumar ceramic 30% tint in all the windows and transparent ceramic at the front




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I also de-badged the rear and contemplating to use the stickers in the Lambo just for the giggles



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