TRD Altezza Super Street

Made by Fujimi, I didn't exaggerate the name of the car, that is exactly how it was printed on the box!

Minor mock up of the body parts. I really got to say that this kit sucks. Bumpers are too wide at the wheel well edges, and have nothing to mount with, the entire front bumper was solid, headlight openings were too large to even glue the headlight lenses on. It took me around 3 hours per day for 2 weeks just to get it to the current shape where all the mentioned parts fit.
:banghead::banghead::banghead:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01691.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01692.jpg

Strangely, there are holes on the body that looks like it would be used for rear bumper mounting. However the rear bumper has nothing built in to accept those holes, so I put studs at the back of the bumper to use the holes on the body as mounting points. Paper clip wires were glued on the body near the wheel wells to keep the top edge of the bumper flush with body. The bumper was realigned using boiled water before all those mounts were glued on.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01693.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01694.jpg

All holes were opened on the bumper. In the original kit, there were 3(!) layers of plastic underneath the radiator grill and each layer were quite thick (around 3mm) I broke my PE scriber opening these holes. In fact, the whole body was pretty thick. (typical fujimi) With the help of those bumpers I assure you this is one of the safest 1/24 vehicle you can find in a hobby store.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01695.jpg

If you look closely you will see I used white epoxy putty around most of the area that surround the lens. There are still some gaps but a mixture of white glue + black paint should take care of them fine.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01696.jpg

Another thing about Fujimi is that they often give you correct decals but wrong body parts. Apparently the kit gave me a factory Altezza front lip so I made my own "TRD front aero spoiler"
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01697.jpg

Front bumper all opened, with scratchbuilt mounting points, and TRD front aero grille. The bottom grille is supposed to be a honeycomb shape on the real car but I can't find myself any mesh that looks like it. I think an opened hole with any mesh will look better than it being closed.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01698.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01699.jpg

Holes were also opened for clear fog light lenses instead of the original white plastic "sphere". Stolen from the spare parts bin. The blue paint will get washed prior to assembly.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01700.jpg

TRD seats modified from Fujimi Integra leftovers seats. Apparently the real car does not use this type of seats but I just want to make use of my garbage.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01701.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01702.jpg

Fujimi even neglected the AC vents for the interior, I like how they made a half decent inner door panel though. (at least the general shape is there :dunno:)
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01703.jpg

Wow, looks like a lot of work (and reminds me thus of my AMT Firebird). Keep up the good fight; you've done a great job so far. I'm excited to see this one done as I immediately liked the Altezza/IS200 ever since I learned of its existence through Gran Turismo 3!

Alex

P.S. Calculus--good stuff. :)

Nice, I'm in the progress of one too:

http://i29.tinypic.com/20j61xu.jpg

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=887280

Nice start. I had thought about buying one of these kits, now I am not so sure....

M-tuning: How did you like the fitments of this car? It has been the 5th time I accidently broke off the rods supporting the headlight housings behind the front bumper. Also I know I will have a hell of a time modifying the wheel stance, I found out that the front wheels in this kit have some serious positive camber!! (guessing 3-4 degrees)

924: haven't opened that calculus book for a while now, physics and differential equations is where it's at.

Seats, center carved out, backs filled, putty treated, before Mr.Surfacer:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01704.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01705.jpg

After Mr.Surfacer, still needs a little more work but most will be invisible after flat black goes on.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01709.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01710.jpg
Good riddence backless box stock seats!! :bananasmi
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01711.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01712.jpg

All body pieces airbrushed Mr.Surfacer. Still LOTS of sanding to do now. Side markers removed.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01706.jpg

I found out the side mirror mounting points looks too blocky and big, so I filed it smaller and smoothed it out to a half circle. Original door handles were flat and flush to the rest of the body, so I added some extra thickness to make it stand out.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01707.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01708.jpg

The fitment was ok, I just glued the bumpers on and left it drying.

One thing I forgot to do is the doorhandles, you did that great.

Wish I did it too.

Looking good so far. Differential equations is my lot in spring '09.

Good luck (with both!)

Alex

Nice, good to see ya back with a new build!! Im tuned, I love the way you modify your builds ever so slightly. The seats came out sweet, wanna cast em? I have the Sard version started, but put it back in the box as all the resin body parts are 2 mm too small. So its a slooooow build, but thanks to you I have motivation to mess with it again. Great Progress!

Nice, good to see ya back with a new build!! Im tuned, I love the way you modify your builds ever so slightly. The seats came out sweet, wanna cast em? I have the Sard version started, but put it back in the box as all the resin body parts are 2 mm too small. So its a slooooow build, but thanks to you I have motivation to mess with it again. Great Progress!


Yea I am always looking to return, just that school really tied me up and now that summer break is here I have a couple months of free time minus my job.

I have a heavily modified project too (Mitsubishi Mirage coupe made from Evo4, shortened body and chassis, reworked front bumper, engine bay, new rear window, interior etc) but it has just gotten so work intensive I just put it away for now. Maybe I will finish that this summer.

The problem with the seats is that I only replicated the TRD seats to the upper part, the butt part of the seats were mostly original except the side feet bolsters. I never had the intent of fully replicating the real seats since I know the real car doesn't use them anyways. If you compare the real one to this there are considerable differences.

http://images.turbomagazine.com/features/0511tur_05z+lexus_is300+seats.jpg

Note the cushion lines, especially at the bottom of the seats. I just kept mine flat. The thought of casting these TRD lookalikes crossed my mind too since they will be useful for my other projects, but I will have to think about the feasibility of me casting, afterall I am quite a noob at it.

After the Mr. Surfacer dried, the front bumper and body have been sanded today. Once I make it through all the other parts they will then be coated with Mr. Base white 1000, preparing for the color coat.

Got the body painted mitsubishi W83 white. I used that white because I will have a couple white mitsu projects ahead and didn't want to buy 2 kinds of white which will be almost unnoticeable. The hood was left with white primer, masked the TRD logo, painted black. After all that painting was done I put on SMS CF decal, cut the logo off the original black hood decal and put it onto the spot masked before the black paint.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01732.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01733.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01736.jpg

The SMS decals were much easier to work with than the fujimi decals. The fujimi decals were thicker yet more brittle. Putting Mr. mark softer onto SMS decals softens it just enough to conform while fujimi decals wrinkled pretty bad along with being softened. Last pic shows some wrinkles and chips on the side TRD logo.

Will the wrinkles flatten as the decal dries?

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01734.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01735.jpg

Nice work, i've always wondered about what this kit is like. Great work so far, can't wait to see it finished.

Current stance. Rear metal axle removed.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01746.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01747.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01748.jpg

The wheels are a bit off center since I made them so much toe out to match the shape of the body.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01749.jpg

Brakes. Calipers cut off from original part, sanded the original discs flat then added grooves. Then the calipers are glued back on after paint. Front calipers came from my parts box and modified with milliput.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01752.jpg
Front.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01751.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01754.jpg

I think you should lower it....just a bit...BTW, nice brakes sir!

Its looking fantastic !!

I dont see anything wrong with it, only the rear wheel is off the centre as you mentioned. Im sure you can fix it easily.

i like the spoiler on it, keep up the good work

Just got the rear wheels realigned. It's a little better, I think. This is the final stance anyways.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01763.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01762.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01761.jpg

nice

you sure did a great job with fixing the stock fujimi altezza. :)

Painting window surrounds....
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01779.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01780.jpg

TRD muffler with machined tip using aluminum tube.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01781.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01784.jpg

TRD seats, flocked interior, and remade the shift knob.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01782.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01783.jpg

Wow, that looks really sweet. Keep up the good work!

That hood shot looks super smooth. Very nice work. Appears to be some bleeding around the fog lights though and in my opinion, interior is too street for this look...should have more of a race interior, even though you say super street :smile: . May I ask what you used for the tyre valves?

^ The bleeding around the fog lights are getting covered by the thickness of the lenses which I painted black. All that is seen is the chrome paint surrounding the inner "projector" piece. About the interior, I originally wanted to concentrate on the painting of the body and correcting the body lines, improving some basic skills since I haven't done anything for the whole year. The flocking in the interior was a last minute decision since it really felt inadequate without it, and even that was a bit strayed out of my plan. Also, last time I searched TRD didn't make a roll cage for the Altezza so it was out of the car's theme anyways.

The tire valve stems were made from thin wires I bought from wal-mart. I never really measured their thickness but I tried a few other types of wires before settling for those ones.

Here are one more pic of the TRD aero grill before assembling it. The car is complete.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/altezza/DSC01785.jpg

Also, last time I searched TRD didn't make a roll cage for the Altezza so it was out of the car's theme anyways.

The tire valve stems were made from thin wires I bought from wal-mart. I never really measured their thickness but I tried a few other types of wires before settling for those ones.

Oh ok, still looks good without the cage :) . Valve stems also look realistic to me. You have good results with just some wire.

What CF has been used?
http://www.hlj.com/product/SMSSM1024 or http://www.hlj.com/product/SMSSM1424 ?