An Iq Called Toya

[i cue]

Thanks that is great to know.The last think I wanted to do is put them on to find that it only lasted a few months. I remember my last IQ ended up with a few fine scratches on the sill which showed up as that car was white. My new IQ is black but I have seen another black IQ for sale 2013 reg.( main dealership down south) with 8 chips that show up really badly the white beneath. So what you might gain with scratches you loose out with chips !

Jane

[craggle]

An update!

I applied some stripes today to the lower edge of the door panels. I like them, some have said, Meh, but my car, my stripes. :)

They came from an eBay supplier for the bargain price of £17 delivered. :)

A post detailing the fitting of them is here...

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/156505-stripes-for-your-car/page-4

I have also ordered a set of four Toyo Proxes T1-R tyres in 205/45 17 size to replace the 16" winter tyres on the car at the minute. I will take my 17" wheels over to the wheel refurb company in the next week or two and get them stripped, blasted and re-finished in a nice silver colour, apply new tyres and let the summer commence. :)

Craig.

[Soeley]

I think it looks goog Craig, just right :)

[ianlinux]

What a waste of money :(

[ianlinux]

Only kidding, looks pretty cool :)

[surfcitylocal]

Very nice. Clean installation as well.

[tarquin]

Craig

She looks really great very shiny

David

[craggle]

Step one of operation "new wheels for my car" has begun today.

These are the wheels I'm going to be fitting to the iQ and they were bought last year from eBay for the bargain price of £40ish for all 4 of them. They are OZ Racing F1 wheels, 7"x 17" in a chrome finish but were very damaged by the previous, careless owner. I have the centre caps and the blanking caps for the extra set of wheel nut holes that I won't be using.

Last week I ordered a set of 205/45 17 Toyo Proxes T1-R tyres from Demon Tweeks through eBay and today's task was to take the tyres and the wheels to Wheel Works in Crawley for refurbishment.

They do a full refurb involving acid dip, Blast cleaning, repair and blend any scratches, pre-heat, powder primer coat, spray colour then finally powder clear coat.

All that work and fitting new valves, fitting the tyres and balancing all comes in at £66 per wheel including the VAT. Pretty good price I thought for such a thorough process and they do them on a 3 day turnaround! :D

Here is some before pictures, Hopefully I'll post some after pictures on Friday or Saturday.

Craig.

[Soeley]

Can't wait to see them finished and on the car Craig :)

It does make you wonder why some people choose to have nice wheels fitted as an option or buy them as aftermarket items when they simply don't know how to park properly and avoid the curbs :o I saw a Porsche Cayenne the other week and all four wheels were in much worse state than your before shots!!

But then it does mean there are some bargains to be had like you found.

[tarquin]

Craig, quick nip out and buy another one for comparison

Ha Ha

David

[aaronfife]

+1, take a sneaky pic and let us see. These could look mega. What colour have you opted for?

[surfcitylocal]

Some people really need these...

[craggle]

I've seen quite a few American cars over here with those curb feelers fitted. Very simple but effective idea. :)

My wheels are being refurbished in a nice silver to match the car. :)

Craig.

[ianlinux]

Do you remember these fine accessories from the 60s and 70s?

I think I should add a pair to my iQ and see if I can increase drag enough to reduce fuel inefficiency down to 22mpg. After that, next stop will be to see if I can compete with a Hummer (by dragging bricks, stray anchors, carpet baggers and witches) for worst fuel consumption on Planet Earth

[vox]

If you have high granite curbs like we do here that are uneven and have very sharp corners, one mistake and you have a ruined wheel. I grew up in Crawley and lived there for 35 years. One thing the place has is wheel friendly kerbs that lean away from your wheels and have nicely rounded corners. All cast in concrete.

Did you know that "kerb feelers" are illegal in the UK, I have no idea why, but they are.

Those wheels should be very nice when they are done craig and the Toyos are excellent tyres that grip like s**t to a blanket, but the trade of is worse fuel consumption and they do wear out rather fast on the drive wheels. My smart 205/45/15s lasted about 12,000 miles on the rear, but that had 117 foot pounds of torque with the remap and it did have a turbo.

[ianlinux]

Did you know that "kerb feelers" are illegal in the UK, I have no idea why, but they are.

Is it because the lawmakers want us to "kerb" our nice shinies in order to keep the refurbishers financially replete? ;)

Plenty for sale though on UK ebay. Can't even get on govt website to check ATM.

Agree though Craig, will be nice when done - even when I am having a downer on my very own miniHummer :D. So good luck for some nice wheels

[vox]

It's strange how the rules/laws a constantly broken. It's illegal to overtake in a pedestrian crossing zig zag area and the same applies to parking the wrong way round, i.e, parking facing the oncoming traffic. How many people actually get busted for this these days? Kerb feelers? who would notice?

[ianlinux]

I suppose they [kerb feelers] are simply seen as hazards, but then, in reality they're probably as benign as mudguards. Who knows. Perhaps someone had the back of their calves scraped by an early adopter of these flying off but despite improvements in design have somehow remained on the "list of dangerous additions". But are they good at wind resistance? Trying to get my iQ down to 21mpg fuel efficiency after applying the Morris Minor wind breakers LOL :D

[Soeley]

Well I think they should make car headlight Eyelashes illegal and market curb feelers as Car Whiskers :)

[vox]

I'm surprised there isn't an optical/ultrasound curb detction system fitted to some of the larger cars on the market. I drove a huge Chevvy years ago and it was hard to see where the front wheel was. and it was left hand drive.

Although thinking about it, driving a small car a curb detector would be useful as it only takes one moment of distraction to chew up a rim, an audible warning like the reversing sensors would work if they were recalibrated for the closer distance.

Is anyone game to try making some?

[tarquin]

Thats an idea actually

You could fit a reverse parking sensor each side and tailor it for curb use

David

[vox]

The hard part David is recalibrating it I would think and it would be on all the time. Not a bad thing when squeezing through a very small gap in traffic or whatever.

[craggle]

Wheels are finished, all refurbished and ready for collection. :)

Craig.

[craggle]

Right then, Wheels are here!

Here is another before picture and the after pictures of the refurbished wheels. They were done by Wheel Works in Crawley and you really can not fault the work. The wheels look as good as, if not better than new and all traces of scratches have simply vanished.

Highly recommended company and a very fair price for the work involved.

[craggle]

So, first thing to do was fit the black plastic plugs into the spare wheel nut holes, give the wheels a coat of wax polish and fit the centre caps. I refurbished the polished aluminium centre caps myself by bead blasting them, etch priming, filling the surface then a coat of silver paint. I bought some OZ racing stickers from eBay and clear coated once they were stuck in place.

I did try re-polishing the caps first but they were simply too corroded and pitted to make them look good so painting was the only option for them.

Next move was to fit the spigot rings to the centre of the wheels. These rings convert the 75mm diameter hole in the wheel down to the much smaller 54.1mm diameter of the hub on the iQ. These rings are essential, you can't simply rely on the 4 studs to keep the wheel running true and to take the full weight of the vehicle.

I started at the front and fitted one while leaving the back wheel in place for comparison. Picture attached. I also fitted one side at the rear and took a photo so you can the difference in width of the two.

I'm pretty pleased with them. There is lots of clearance between the tyres and the steering and suspension parts and so far, no sounds of anything rubbing on the body. First impressions are they are noticeable quieter than the winter tyres I had and a lot smoother ride.

Craig.