What have you done to your c today?

Where did you get those Toyota branded wheel covers?
Mine are different, but perhaps they changed the design.

So, I am ready to "dip my hand" into the PlastiDip world. I had use regular primer and spray pain on my hubcaps, but it's chipping off. Will I need to strip the paint off before I use PlastiDip on these? Or can I just "dip" the heck out of them and they'll be fine?

 

You can plastidip without primer. Just make sure the surface is clean and spray away.

 

Finished the other front door with Noico! Loving the difference.

I also redid the fabric on the in-door armrests with black alcantara. It matches my seats now and looks (and feels) WAY better.

 

How did you do the arm rests? When I tried to do mine, they were sonic welded to the rest of the door plastics.

 

That’s correct. I made the mistake on the first door of drilling out the rivets. I say “mistake” because it was harder to reattach the door than when I did the second door by melting the tabs and removing it. Then remelted to reattach in both cases.

Once you have the armrest piece detached, the fabric rips off pretty easily. And the foam underneath. I used the stock fabric as a rough template for the new fabric. I lucked out with the alcantara fabric I ordered. It had really nice, cushy foam padding, so I scraped off all the stock foam. I bought 3M spray adhesive for fabrics and FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS. Haha. I note that because I didn’t at first, and the adhesive bled through.


iPhone ?

 

Also, you should be able to use a regular heat gun... My Dad had a fancy plastic welding one with the plastic weld sticks and all, but we wound up melting the existing plastic to reattach and only added a little from the sticks to where I had drilled out.


iPhone ?

 

If the paint is flaking off painting over it won't fix it, and dip won't fill the chips very well anyway. I would sand it down until you get to a smooth surface at least before repainting. Also "dip the heck out of them" anyway if you want it to peelable. I have one car that we have dipped, and even with what we thought was a ton of coats it was a pain to remove the first time.

 

today i, very quickly, wiped down after the rains... lol, one of the very few times i'll ever do this!

 

I've added Cruise Control to my Yaris Icon Hybrid. £13-00 for the switch on Ebay, then simple job to disconnect 12v battery, remove steering wheel airbag, then mount switch in centre of wheel and plug in! (It's not that easy on other models, apparently.)

I bought a used self-dimming rear view mirror on Ebay - I'd hoped the wiring was already in place (I believe it would be on a car with a sunroof) But I had to remove trim and feed a wire through to the back of one of the switches on the dash. (Factory install instructions can be found online). Very pleased with the result, especially as the standard mirror was just a bit small by comparison.

I wanted a high-level (or is it two level?) boot deck. Available from the Toyota main-stealer at £105-00 - I made my own with plywood and some stretch carpeting for around £20-00. I needed this because I added a full-size spare-wheel (car came with a bottle of goo and a pump!!)

My 12v battery was on the way out, so I fitted a 55 amp-hr mobility scooter battery (after reading Britprius's thread from 2010 where he did the same with his Prius). Much heavier than original, and capable of recovering from deep discharge, so should last the life of the car)

Winter tyres - I had a very lucky find on Ebay. I was looking for a 14 in steel rim for a spare (The car comes with alloys - which are heavier by the way!!) Saw someone offering four rims + tyres, so I made a bid and got them for £50-00! When I went to collect them, I was astonished to find the tyres were made in 2015 and had been used for one season - they looked like new! So had them on the car this past winter and reckon I got the bargain of the century!!. Only pain was fitting TPMS senders to each wheel which cost £100 (I'm a driving instructor so cannot have any idiot lights showing on the dash during a driving test!)


Things I'd like to do:

I'm looking at trying to camp in the back - should (might) be just long enough...

I wouldn't mind adding self-folding mirrors, but might not be practical or cheap - I'll watch out for used ones, maybe.

I'd love to be able to improve on the standard projector headlights, as they are suprisingly poor... I've tried LED bulbs,, which are certainly brighter, but not properly focused so mainly cause glare.

The seats are not all that comfortable - I don't understand how Toyota can design such a high-tech car and then make the ergonomics so poor!! I have some extra cushions for my poor aching back - but may modify the seats with a bit more padding to improve lumbar support etc. I would dearly love to move the passenger seat back about 1 inch (I know adapter plates are available from the Prius Chat shop) but buying stuff in, and shipping from the USA to the UK is eye-wateringly expensive!

 

I like the things you changed and will certainly follow your quest for the folding mirrors... but you can't complain that their cheap, bottom of the line car doesn't have expensive accommodations.

 

Bottom of the line? The Hybrid is the top of the line of Yaris - their is a higher spec, but has 16in wheels which give poorer economy, and gadgets I don't need or want...

Mine has full leather - the original owner must have paid an extra £1500 for that option!

 

After 11 months, I said goodbye to my warranty. Hopefully the trend of not needing it continues!

 

Still a Yaris though. Yaris/Prius C isn't anywhere near the top of Toyota's line. Full size Prius gets better things in the car, even though it would be completely feasible that they can put it into the C as an option.

Yaris/Prius C are entry level cars.

 

As is customary with these types of jobs, it took a few tries and multiple part orders to get it right, but I did manage to get a Pioneer AVH-2300NEX head unit, and an 8" Bazooka tube installed over the last few days. Going to install some better component speakers in front on Wednesday hopefully, and call it done.

Also got my dash cam installed the best I could with an extension from the power port since hard wiring to the fuse box was not a good option.

IMG_20180417_000428972 by zen_ posted Apr 17, 2018 at 12:19 AM

Head unit looks reasonably well fitted with the dash kit.

IMG_20180417_000548282_LL by zen_ posted Apr 17, 2018 at 12:19 AM

Bluetooth streaming works great.

IMG_20180417_000654281 by zen_ posted Apr 17, 2018 at 12:19 AM

Android Auto works with the phone connected to the USB (MicroBypass required)

IMG_20180417_000717907 by zen_ posted Apr 17, 2018 at 12:19 AM

Copied another member with the mic placement, but used the wrong kind of drill bit for plastic...gotta fix that later. Also notice that the previous owner was possibly the worst person ever at inserting a key (I did not notice that before buying the car).

IMG_20180417_000442044 by zen_ posted Apr 17, 2018 at 12:19 AM

Replacement USB / 3.5mm box fit perfectly in the factory location with enough wire to reach the head unit.

IMG_20180417_000900148 by zen_ posted Apr 17, 2018 at 12:19 AM

Kinda ghetto install, but it actually sounds reasonably good for what it is. The 50 watt model can safely be ran off the head unit power wire, which is fused, rather than 12v battery for easier install with the included harness. I grounded it to a bolt for the rear seat. Removing the sub for space is also very quick.

IMG_20180417_000450553 by zen_ posted Apr 17, 2018 at 12:19 AM

Murphy's law that any angled connector on a cord will be the wrong direction...oh well, i had another angle adapter at least to make it somewhat better.

 

Head unit looks good in there. I keep thinking I'm going to keep the stock head and change everything else. I'll be curious to see the component install. If you could snap a few photos with the front panels off, speakers out and windows down that would be awesome. Then that only leaves me trying to decide on amps. I usually go 90's era vintage stuff so I have no clue who makes a good modern amp. I've had a couple entry level JL's and Alpine in my Amazon car forever trying to decide lol.

 

The 6.5" Rockford Prime components I'm going to throw in using plastic adapters + foam strips + generic dynamat around the cutout, and hopefully the tweeters can be mounted on the OE bracket with some modification and hot glue. I'm just running these off deck power as an upgrade over the OE speakers, so re-fabricating and insulating the whole door isn't going to be done.

As for amps, Precision Power are great for the money. The new Trax class D amps should be very efficient upgrades over their older class D stuff. I had an A/B 5 channel PPI in my CR-V that was great, and I somehow sold it for more than I paid for it.

 

I haven't really looked at new PPI. I do have 2 pairs of Power Class and a 4 Channel Black Art series that aren't quite right for this application. Maybe I'll give them another look so everything could match! lol

 

I took the easy road by stripping out the OE tweeter bracket, then using a liberal amount of hot glue to attach the new one. Speakers went in fine, but I wish I had got 6.75" speakers instead of 6.5", as the larger ones would have fit easily with less gap in the adapter. I also just used foam insulator strip on the adapter to to door, and speaker to adapter mating surfaces since it's a low power install.

Only thing I can't figure out, and really don't like is that the old tweeter has to be plugged in for power from the OE wiring to go to the other connection to the woofer (see picture). Sure there is a better way than just leaving the tweeter base dangling somewhere plugged in.

Not the best system, but it's a huge step up from the factory setup, which was terrible, and was only about $600 for the Android Auto head unit, Bazooka tube, speakers, and all the needed adapters for the head unit and speakers. I would suggest to anyone that wants to put good, amplified speakers in the front to use a speaker adapter made of wood, and fabricate something better for the tweeter mount.

 

I would have to look at the wiring or wiring diagram, but yeah there has to be a better options than leaving part of the old tweeter there. I was planning to move my tweeters completely out of door panel all together, but the Vifa tweeter I like is about a 4" base so fitment is tight. Hows the depth on the woofer?

 

Added a cool new spoiler.