Shined up the XRS a bit

[OCDetails]

I took the day off from work on Friday to do some much needed detailing. After about 5 hours of attention on just the paint, I think it is looking pretty snazzy. :) I washed and clayed it and then polished it out with Danase Swirl Abolisher III and a yellow cutting pad. I polished out the haze with Danase Swirl Abolisher I and a blue pad. I used my Flex XC3401 for the polishing and my PC 7424 for applying the sealant. I used Wolfgang on Friday and then put another layer on today. I'll put one more layer on tomorrow and call it good. Wolfgang tops out at about 3 layers. Then I'll be able to go on to the carnauba or glaze topper. I am thinking about using Danase Wet Glaze bosted with Polycharger before I put any wax on top. This color shines up nice, but I'm wondering if I can get it a little wetter looking.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/Pilot%20and%20XRS/DSC05387.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/Pilot%20and%20XRS/DSC05412.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/Pilot%20and%20XRS/DSC05388.jpg

[OCDetails]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/Pilot%20and%20XRS/DSC05429.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/Pilot%20and%20XRS/DSC05389.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/Pilot%20and%20XRS/DSC05455.jpg

[Bob]

Looking good Anthony!

[Charlies02GLS]

Headlights tinted on that or are they stockers? Great subtle advertising on the lower rear valence of the vehicle by the way, gives the vehicle a crisp look.

Nice reflections by the way.

[OCDetails]

I've been known to go a little sticker crazy before. ;-)

The headlights aren't stock. The stock ones look good, but they had too much chrome on them for my taste. In 05 the XRS was unique in the fact that it had black housing headlights while every other model had chrome. Now they all come with black housing and they aren't as unique.

So I went from this:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/19-16-20074-52-42PM.jpg

To this:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/frontemblem.jpg

I wanted to put my HIDs in, but the reflector housings just aren't made for them. So getting the projectors in was great for me because now they weren't collecting dust in my garage. I had pulled them out of the fog lights on my Legacy GT and since these projectors took H3 bulbs it was a perfect fit. The halos look pretty cool too. :0)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/DSC04453.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/05xrs/DSC04451.jpg

[OCDetails]

I found a remote relay that I think I posted somewhere in here. I connected the halos and the little lights there in the middle to the relay and now I can control them independant of the parking lights. I didn't want to run a switch into the car, so this worked out the best.

I tell ya... I've got this thing wired. The fogs are independant of the headlights so I can turn them on by themselves now. The halos are on the remote. I've got the MD player in the dash with a 10 disc changer under the seat with an auxillary device connected in between. That device allows me to connect my laptop in the front seat and another line to the DVD player in the back seat for my kids. One other line has a bluetooth adapter on it that allows me to stream from a portable media player through the car stereo. It is quite the little setup if I do say so myself. :) The only other thing I have planned for this car that I might try out are eyelids on the headlights and a nifty overlay on the rear. I'm going for sort of this look on the front:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/BlueBatmobile2005/Toyota%20Corolla%20Overlays/IMG_2962.jpg

and this look on the back:

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/blkrolla/overlays.jpg

I've got a sticker guy who is going to cut them out for me whenever I send him the pattern. I think it would be interesting to see how it looks. If it sucks then I'll just pull them off. :)

[Charlies02GLS]

Good idea going with the wireless remote, if I ever put in the HID driving lights in my Jetta I'll be going the same route.

For the projector and halo retrofit did you just JB-Weld them in after dremeling the housing? That's the first time I've seen Halos on a Corolla so props to you for doing it.

I think the eyelids would look great, especially since you can just yank 'em off as opposed to the plastic ones you have to permanently glue onto the lens. With the stickers on the rear the vehicle instantly reminds me of an IS 300 (which certainly isn't a bad thing =-P). If you do it make sure you throw up some pics on here since I'm interested to see how it'll turn out.