[y3nny]

Started spending a lot of time on the car so decided to start a build thread to keep track of mods. It's an '03 TCM auto that I daily drive and also autoX every once in a while. Here's a link to the album: '03 TCM IS300 - Imgur

7/17/10
Bought the car with 97k miles on it. First car! Completely stock, sport design trim.

1/13/11
Got rear ended. Free bumper!

11/25/11
Swapped out stock sound system for Alpines and a Sony double din.

12/01/11
Dropped on Eibach Sportline springs. Front and rear sway bars also installed.

1/05/12
Greddy RS exhaust installed. Very deep and loud without the silencer. Slight drone at around 2.5k - 3k RPM though.
Swapped out the center console and instrument plane bulbs for white LEDs also.

2/21/12
New Enkei GTC01s 18x8 +40 front and 18x9 +40 rear, wrapped in Falken Ziex 912s 215/40 front, 235/40 rear. Held on with Project Kics r40 lug nuts.
Both the front and rear fenders are rolled but I'm still rubbing :[
Also got a Cusco front strut tower bar, Tokico Illuminas, an Altezza 3bar grille and a shorty ebay antenna

3/6/12
Injen CAI and Nokyo arctic white DRLs.

4/14/12
PLP radiator cover + heat shield and CF engine cover. Haven't installed the heat shield yet cause I can't get to the nut in the rear... Lightly tinted my side markers also.

5/4/12
Greddy rep front lip, LTuned sides, Carson Tuned rear. Didn't like the fog light openings on the Carson so returned that and got a Greddy lip. The search for a LTuned front continues...

7/5/13 more here
Sorta abandoned my build thread. How she sits right now:

Future Plans
More camber up front cause I like broken suspension.
More lip.

 

[y3nny]

Might add a parts list here? Reserved!

 

[randy315]

looks clean. happy modding!

 

[Bezik777]

Good work thus far , cant go wrong with TCM .......but i do hate that grill lol

 

[SupraMan1784]

Good work thus far , cant go wrong with TCM .......but i do hate that grill lol

:lol: everytime i see this grille on someone's car i expect that comment to show up from you. although i would have to agree....i did own the dark chrome version of this grille for a few months. it didnt fit for some reason....went with the sportdesign grille and never looked back.

back on topic, i like your progress y3nny. im feelin the wheels a lot and the greddy rs...good choices.

 

[y3nny]

:lol: everytime i see this grille on someone's car i expect that comment to show up from you. although i would have to agree....i did own the dark chrome version of this grille for a few months. it didnt fit for some reason....went with the sportdesign grille and never looked back.

The grille is a bit too light in color imo so I'm going to paint it a darker color. I also think it doesn't fit for some reason, but I like the grille too much to go back to my SD grille. I'll make it work somehow lol

 

[Jerm__]

car looks great man, congrats and good luck with the rest

 

[N V ME]

Keep up the good work.
Looks good so far.

 

[IS3_FTW]

Nice and clean

 

[broketuner]

Looks great so far. I love the TCM color. That bolt on the back of the block by the firewall to install a heat shield is in an insanely tight area....it was one of the longets parts to installing my heatshield last week.


to gain some access I removed the coolant hose and also the electrical connector off that bracket to see the bolt...made life somewhat manageable. If you need to remove the 4 nuts on & under the TB, soak those bastards good, 1 of mine was so seized that even that plus a pencil torch couldn't get it loose

 

[y3nny]

Looks great so far. I love the TCM color. That bolt on the back of the block by the firewall to install a heat shield is in an insanely tight area....it was one of the longets parts to installing my heatshield last week.


to gain some access I removed the coolant hose and also the electrical connector off that bracket to see the bolt...made life somewhat manageable. If you need to remove the 4 nuts on & under the TB, soak those bastards good, 1 of mine was so seized that even that plus a pencil torch couldn't get it loose

Thanks for the tip, I'll be attempting the install again this weekend.

 

[Cestrocks]

CLEAN !! i love the tcm !!

 

[y3nny]

Picked this up today:

 

[Jerm__]

^sweet, when's it going on?

 

[y3nny]

^sweet, when's it going on?

Probably middle of next week once I get it painted. I'm still trying to decide if I want to try to get an LTuned or not though. I think I prefer the round fog light openings.

 

[N V ME]

Nice pick up!

 

[ellis300]

omg those bulbs....i wantttttt.....looks good man you make me think twice about selling my altezza grille badge! keep the mods going!

 

[y3nny]

omg those bulbs....i wantttttt.....looks good man you make me think twice about selling my altezza grille badge! keep the mods going!

They're real cheap on ebay

 

[y3nny]

Updated first post with new pics! Scraping the Greddy lip everywhere...

 

[mister chief]

So clean, love the color :approve: