Very Minor Interior Mods

June 10, 2006

Completed my first mods on my new Celica. Nothing special as I have been waiting for the V5 to come through and the car has been parked at home whereas I am still at uni. (Well, finished uni, just making the most of the flat to party before moving back home)

Anyway, if anyone else is annoyed by the stupid "Toyota" DIN cover which sticks out above the stock radio and serves no purpose. I thoroughly reccomend replacing it with an Autoleads DIN pocket. It cost me £15 from Halfrauds and came with all the brackets and bolts needed to fix it straight in. It looks much better and actually serves a purpose. Mine has space and slots for 3 CD cases. I just use it for my sunnies.

Next I replaced the red alarm LED with a blue one simply by dismanteling the LED case and resoldering a new LED. Make sure you retain and reuse the resistor that is soldered to the anode. LED cost about £1 from Maplin and is a standard 5mm clear blue one. I also replaced the !Removed! lighter bulb to a blue one but it is too dim to see in the day.

I'm sure there will be some more minor mods soon but I am concentrating on making it the best standard Celica it can be.

Ben

June 11, 2006

Lookin alright! :thumbsup:

So what do you intend to do with the CDs you can carry around now...?? Don't think they'll fit in the hole you've got there... ;)

June 11, 2006

Ha ha, I thought there was something wrong with the standard CD player. It all makes sense now :blink: ..... The ISO adaptor is on its way from flea bay. So a nice cheap Sony head unit will be in there soon.

Ben

June 12, 2006

How difficult was it to change the LED in the cigarette lighter?

I'm guessing that it involved some soldering, what size of LED did you use?

June 12, 2006

that's a good little mod. one thing people have remarked on in my car is the stupid plastic thing sticking out above the radio.

flip-out dvd would look better though B)

June 12, 2006

Monitor would be nice, but I can't have everything. A new car is more than enough for me at the moment. The ciggie lighter bulb was easy enough to change. Just pull off the gear gaitor surround and remove the bulb holder like you would any other (sidelights, indicators etc..) then by levering up the tiny latches on each side you can remove the bulb and the soldered connections. Desolder and resolder the connections to the new bulb making sure it all looks the same as before and refit. Only took 10mins. The bulb you need is simply a 12V bulb (not LED) and must be approx 3mm diameter by 8mm long. These can be found in almost any colour from places such as Maplin and cost less than 50p.

Mine is not as bright as I had hoped so I might try putting in an ultrabright LED with resistor instead. Only trouble with that is it works of the dimmer. We'll see.

Ben

June 13, 2006

Monitor would be nice, but I can't have everything. A new car is more than enough for me at the moment. The ciggie lighter bulb was easy enough to change. Just pull off the gear gaitor surround and remove the bulb holder like you would any other (sidelights, indicators etc..) then by levering up the tiny latches on each side you can remove the bulb and the soldered connections. Desolder and resolder the connections to the new bulb making sure it all looks the same as before and refit. Only took 10mins. The bulb you need is simply a 12V bulb (not LED) and must be approx 3mm diameter by 8mm long. These can be found in almost any colour from places such as Maplin and cost less than 50p.
Mine is not as bright as I had hoped so I might try putting in an ultrabright LED with resistor instead. Only trouble with that is it works of the dimmer. We'll see.
Ben

I had the same problem replaced my double jap stereo with a single pioneer big hole in the dash got this plate made up by my buddy who has a laser cutter in work.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j157/rallymad/DSCF0641.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j157/rallymad/DSCF0636.jpg

He also made one up with toyota on it if anyone wants it they can have it see link below

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j157/ral...15Image0026.jpg