An Iq Called Toya

[Guest]

Yep, I agree with Mark, the black and blue looks best. However, it has blue on it... thinks? Maybe Tarquin aka David, could somehow provide a little 'blue' light on this Badge? Of course, I've just realised, it's illegal isn't it to show blue light outside the car because plod takes offense.

However, if you have an airbrush, there is a simple technique to have that effect put onto your black vinyl. Spray the edge from an angle to get the 'blended' overspray, so it looks like it is faded as it goes 'in to' the centre of the Badge. Love the idea though. Perhaps some 'vinyl artist' (hello Sally, you know one I believe?) could come up with a variety of 'fade-in' colours over black or other coloured vinyl to fit into the Badge area, front or back, or both.

Sounds cool to me.

[craggle]

I really like the black and blue myself but haven't seen anyone selling that Badge separately and I think the iQ has a slightly bigger Badge than the Yaris and Prius have so guess their badges wouldn't fit our cars.

The plain black background is a halfway point I guess but as you say, the black and blue one looks great. Wonder how I can recreate that look..... :)

Craig.

[craggle]

Hi Aaron,

I will make sure I don't clay too often tempting as it is. Might try to get a day off work and get my springs fitted, had them ages now and want them on the car!

Hi Bob

I do indeed have an airbrush so will have a think about how to do that vinyl sheet and make sure it's sealed and resilient to the weather.

How about this Badge, looks genuine Toyota and has blue LED's fitted but I'm guessing it's the wrong size for our cars, I'll have to go and measure my iQ Badge later.

http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_1648wt_1065

Not particularly cheap though for both ends of the car!

Craig.

[craggle]

Well, Finally managed to get my Eibach springs on the car today. Pretty easy job to fit too. Rears were really easy and took about 20 minutes and the front end was fairly quick too.

Took the opportunity to pressure wash the wheel arches and clean the inside of the wheels and gave the engine a quick clean too, Amazing how much dirt builds up behind the lip of the rear wings.

Might have a bash at my daytime running lights tomorrow. :)

Craig.

[tarquin]

Craig

I need one. If it fits I will fit them and dam the consequences . If not will do some measuring to see if the Yaris Hybrid one fits

David

[Soeley]

Nice one Craig, it does have a much better stance now doesn't it.

Don't forget to get the geometry checked and adjusted as necessary ;)

[craggle]

Yes, Car definitely looks better for being an inch lower and the ride hasn't suffered at all, maybe got better even. No problems on the speed bumps getting home either.

I have a set of Dunlop tracking gauges and camber gauge in my garage all left over from building my kit car so tested the geometry today, Slight adjustment and all is good again. :)

I had a play with daytime running lights today but couldn't get a decent result. I tried a string of LED's stuck on the edge of the headlights but they were crap to be honest, Didn't stick, didn't like bending round the corners and then when I tried to run the wires the top of the strip completely snapped off including the wires. £10 wasted there! :(

I'll get some proper LED running lights from somewhere and fit them in the grill or lower vent next to the spotlights I think.

Craig.

[Guest]

Well, Finally managed to get my Eibach springs on the car today. Pretty easy job to fit too. Rears were really easy and took about 20 minutes and the front end was fairly quick too.

Took the opportunity to pressure wash the wheel arches and clean the inside of the wheels and gave the engine a quick clean too, Amazing how much dirt builds up behind the lip of the rear wings.

Might have a bash at my daytime running lights tomorrow. :)

Craig.

Looks very good Craig. I like the fact the original Toyota wheels look bigger now they are closer to the wheelarches. This is something that, although not easy or cheap, will make a great difference to the stance/look of the car. Nice one.

[aaronfife]

Very nice Craig, toke you long enough to get those springs fitted :P They do look lower at the rear than mine, but that might be the 16" wheels on yours making it look lower. I now wouldn't go back to standard springs, rides nice and goes over every speedramp I've came across :)

I fitted DRL's like Taz's, except I put mine in the same position as the new Aygo. Cable-tied them at the wire end to the grill and haven't had a problem. There were a complete nightmare to set and wire up though but thanks to David on here, I routed through all the problems.

The IQ is looking very nice now, especially with the Badge too, good work

[tarquin]

Craig,

Did you use the LED strip where the light comes out of the edge rather than the flat side. This makes them easier to curve around the lights are in the thin slot between thethe lens and the body. Virtually invisable untill turned on.

David

[craggle]

Yeah, They were the very thin, probably about 5mm wide by 2mm high versions from eBay and the light shines out the side. Problem I had was bending them around the corner fractured the flexi PCB material under the clear covering material so they no longer worked. Very unsticky, sticky tape on them too.

The wire problem at the top was where I tried to bend the cables over to get them to flow along the grill line but the flexi PCB fractured again detaching the wires from the strip.

Maybe I just got a bad set but not wasting money on them again.

Ordered some DRL's in a small box now so will see if they fit in the lower grill next to the fog lights. That's where I'd like them but if not I'll bring them up next to the headlights.

Oh, The badges, Haven't done them yet, I want to go for the black and blue version but haven't got around to finding a way to replicate them yet and I think all other Toyota's badges are a different size?

Craig.

[craggle]

Another good day today in the garage.

Got a Toyota rear skirt the other day as I heard the Sport pack is being discontinued for the 2012 - 2013 Model iQ's so just in case they stop making the lower skirt I thought I'd get one while I can. :)

The exhaust trim was a lucky find on eBay for £30 brand new in the box and the correct one for the 1.3 car with the skirt, Lucky. :)

Unfortunately you can't get the lower skirt already painted in Silver, It's available in white, black and a few other colours but not silver so I had to go to Halfords and use their colour mixing service to get an aerosol of 1F7 silver and a can of clear coat.

The paint is very good quality from Halfords colour mixing service and a couple of coats of Simoniz clear lacquer has produced a pretty professional finish and a very good colour match. I have had a lot of experience of painting things with rattle cans and proper spraying equipment so I was happy to try but use a proper paint shop if your not confident in your painting abilities.

Also managed to fit and wire a set of DRL's to the lower grill. They fit using existing holes and slots with some home made bracketry and I fitted one of those LED-DRL units that automatically switches them on and off as and when the engine is started and off course they go out as soon as the main lights come on.

I wanted to hide them a bit more really as I'd love the car to look normal but just light up when needed but I fitted the units as far back in the grill as I could but they are still a bit visible. Not disappointed though so I'll see how they go and how long they last, they were only £6.99 from eBay after all! :)

Can't think of much else to do to her now, Any thoughts..... :D

Craig.

[aaronfife]

Looks great :D

Jealous of the rear skirt but I refuse to pay the £200 or so price tag lol. You've made a cracking job of the IQ!

[Mr Jones]

I really want the rear skirt but £200ish is just too much for a little plastic at the back... In fact, any body works seems excessive in price :/ Maybe on my next car upgrade, I'll need to try and wrangle in some body kit too...

[craggle]

Yes, I have to admit it isn't a cheap thing and it essentially a moulded bit of plastic but it does come with all the fixings, sticky tape pre applied and a longer towing eye. Yeah, alright then, It is expensive... :)

I was actually toying with the idea of making a fibreglass mould from it and producing my own versions in fibreglass but thought there might be some sort of copyright violation there though!

Craig.

[craggle]

Been a while since I've updated this thread, Winter has pretty much seen me driving the iQ and not doing a great deal of work on her due to the freezing conditions.

Mostly the car has been going great, managed to pick up a jagged bit of metal in one of the tyres which had to be replaced which is a shame really as I was trying to wear them all out evenly to get 4 new ones when the time comes. Managed to get a brand new matching Bridgestone from eBay though for only £40 so not too bad. (£120 list price)

Today has been lovely and sunny here though so thought it was time to get outside and give the iQ a good clean. Inside was hoovered out then outside polished with waterless cleaner followed up with some Meguiar's Tech wax. Not used it before but pretty good and easy to use in a sprayer.

Wanted to change my cabin filter too so as I was out this morning and passing my local Toyota dealer I dropped in, pulled out the old filter in the car park, walked in and said "Have you got one of those?" Chap asked me if I'd like a clean one or with dirt included but they had them in stock so decided to take a clean one.

The old filter was pretty dirty to say the least, I turned the fan up full on the way home to blow any other debris out the filter housing then fitted the new filter when I returned. Pretty easy job, you just need to make sure the top clip on the cover is latched before clicking the bottom into place but not too tricky.

Photos below showing before and after with the part number for anyone that wants it.

Also peeled of the backing and stuck in place some fog light surrounds I bought before Christmas from eBay again. Easy to stick in place and enhances the front I think.

New wheels and tyres are needed next I think. Need to get some metal polish too and clean up the exhaust trim, got really grubby over the winter! :)

Craig.

[craggle]

One other interesting thing I did today was sit in the back of my car!

Never been in there before so while cleaning I climbed in and pulled the passenger seat into place and sat back. I was really surprised how roomy and comfortable it is! Not saying I'd want to sit in there for a day long trip to Scotland but it certainly wasn't the cramped space I thought it might be.

Toyota iQ impresses again. :)

Craig.

[Hicardo]

Hi Craig....can we just check to what extent you are vertically challenged?....before we agree with you that it's comfortable in the back of an IQ...hehe

[craggle]

Ha, Yeah okay, I'm not that tall, Only 5'7" or 1.7m for those metric people. I imagine it would be a bit cramped in there for someone over 6' tall. :)

Craig.

[tarquin]

Ha I'm 5ft 6 but don't bend very well lol

david

[Sensha]

I'm 6'2", and have ridden in the back from our house to our international airport way up in north Houston (my son driving to see how the car handled). Over fifty miles it was comfortable enough although not up to the front seat by any imagination. The main problem was entering and exiting the car, what with a sore back and all.

The iQ is a two seat car with the ability to carry three for brief periods, plain and simple. Having the utility there is nice, but we will seldom use it.

[craggle]

Well, haven't updated this thread for some time so thought I'd make a quick post.

Not much has happened with the car recently to be honest. She has been pretty much perfect, Had a couple of funny issues when it's reluctant to start but still looking into that.

The original Bridgestone B-250 tyres wore out, got about 30-35K miles on them which doesn't seem all that high to be honest? I replaced them in December with a set of Dunlop winter SP sport tyres in the same size. I have another set of wheels in the garage waiting to be refurbished then I'll stick a set of 205/45 17 Toyo T1-R tyres on them for the summer.

One good thing that happened though was last Wednesday (15th) marked the 2 year anniversary of me buying the car so I made the final payment on the finance. It was a big payment but feels good to get it out the way and receive my Toyota statement of account that says. £0.00 to pay on the bottom. :D

I'll update the thread when I get new wheels sorted.

Craig.

[surfcitylocal]

Congratulations Craig. It's always good to know you own your car. Nice feeling indeed.

[i cue]

Hello Craig,

I see that in March 2012 you used M3 clear tape on the door sills (what is M3 tape?) and protective patches which I have seen on eBay,to behind the door handle. Are they any good? Have you had to replace them due to wear and tear?

Jane

[craggle]

Hi Jane

It's 3M clear tape and it's a fairly thick, 0.5mm at a guess clear, self adhesive plastic film. I used clear but I think you can get colours too.

It's used to protect vulnerable areas from damage. The tape takes the damage and can then be peeled off and replaced. If you open the doors on your iQ and look closely at the bottom rear corner of the door frame you will see a factory fitted clear sticker that protect the edge of the wing panel. This is made from very similar stuff.

When I bought my car there were a few scratches on the door sill and behind the door handles so I fitted this tape to cover up the damage already there and protect it from any more damage.

This is the stuff I bought for the sills, the door handle pads were Toyota made items.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190692539988

I haven't had to replace any of it yet but I'm a guy, slightly shorter finger nails so I don't catch the door panel behind the door handle and I think I'm just a lot more careful or maybe more able than the previous owner as I've never touched the sill either! :)

Craig.