1998 Corolla 1.6 G6

July 21, 2010

Hello people,

I got my corolla today and im quite excited at the prospects of making it look and drive sweet, its mechanically sound and the body is clean however it is totally standard. I'm not the most technical minded however i do learn quick, hopefully by picking ur brains every so often.

a few things i want to do prior to engine and performance mods:

1, To spray the black bumpers to match the rest of the car which is a lovely almost lead grey. Any idea how much this can cost?

2, Get some nice 5 spoke alloys, any specific reccomendations? what kind of size can u go up to with these cars without having to adjust the wheel arches?

3, Possibly lower it? even tho it is relatively low anyway...

Possible performance mods

Again humour me as its my 3 day as a corolla enthusiast - I really wanted a g6r however i knew insurance wud kill me as ive not long been on the road so im thinking at some point to get a diff engine from maybe a starlet or even a gr6, has this been done?

What else would you advise to make it that extra bit of fun when driving? Im open to any advice as im just collecting ideas but i defo want to make this car the bee'z knees coz i think they look amazing. Also, body kits, should i bother? ive always weaned away from the idea as i don't wanna look a boy racer but a subtle side skirt or something like that maybe?

I really like this purple one however im not keen on the spoiler

Ill upload pics of mine with this and pics of something i want it to look like. I hope that helps and thank u for any input

July 21, 2010

Hi mate and welcome to TOC, I'll make it quick or I'll be told off by the KP Police for posting during my holiday.

For the alloys, you can never go wrong with a set of ROTA's with a Jap car, very JDM and fairly cheap. ROTA Slips are a common one, me dads CTS has ROTA Slips and they look awesome:

IIRC they cost about £500 including tyres; rotashop.co.uk

If you want to lower it just a little then the cheapest and best option is lowering springs, however do not go any lower than 40mm on standard shock absorbers because they will knacker and could possibly burst. This is because you are asking them to do the same amount of work in a much smaller space of travel. So if you go any lower then go for a set of coilovers, they are more expensive but have much tougher dampers and will ensure that you don't have any serious problems. Once upon a time coilovers were very expensive but you can get a basic set for a lot less. OR you can get a suspension kit for about £450 which is like a set of coilovers and it lowers the car, but you cannot adjust it any futher.

Sorry but I cannot help you with the bumpers.

To make it nicer to drive you can go for a set of strut braces (front and rear) they tighten up the chassis nicely and really do help these with the handling. Toyota had to pull out of the WRC due to shite chassis with too much flex.

If you have a large budget then a Polyurethane Bush Kit is the way forward which will basically tighten up the whole car, every rubber bush gets replaced with PolyBushes which are far tougher and just cannot be crushed. There are a few people here who can vouch for them, and I will be too pretty soon when I finish fitting mine up. It is a daunting task to remove and fit them but I have now made a tutorial on how to do so, which will make it much much easier.

Hope this helps mate,

KP