Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Sparco gas lid opinion please

You guys have helped me decide on everything I've done to my car so far and I appreciate that. Now I need your help again.
I want the Sparco gas lid, but it's driving me nuts because I can't decide on chrome or silver.
Keep in mind that this is a show car with chrome bars running through the whole interior. I'm trying to build the perfect combonation of show car/race car look.

This is how the car will look by March 2005, except it will have an unpainted BRS hood and shaved door handles.
Chop by cooltoy2000. Looks good huh?

yea it looks good but no I'm not a big fan of the sparco door though, but thats just me!

Personally... i think chrome looks tacky

But thats me, Id go for silver

i am a chrome man. (coming form a jeep with all chrome to celica so its still in my blood) I did mine in carobn fiber so it woudl be soother. but if i had the $$ i would get one of those in chrome. plus its a show car with chrome on it. so you got my vote.

i'd go with Silver.

although i do not like that sparco lid. its it almost, if not, identical to the 3rd Gen Eclipse's gas tank lid.

Thanks everybody.

tgts2000, what would you get then?

TimO, do you mean chrome all together or just for a gas lid?

hombredelassrtas, that's a damn good idea. Do you mean you did a gas lid in Carbon Fiber? That would look great. That would really go with the Carbon Fiber hood and the Carbon Fiber end caps on the wing.

Thanks Zero, I was going to get the eclipse gas lid, but I don't want an Eclipse part infesting my Celica.

umm, youre welcome ?

How about the TRD Fuel Lid? what better way to go show than going JDM?

Zero, that would be cool, but impossible with my APR kit.

well since you definitely want the sparco lid I would definitely say silver!

my bad bro, i didnt know you were getting the APR kit.

Thanks.
There are two more options. Carbon Fiber or red. Think red would blend well?

I was going to have my lid sent off and carbon fibered, but the place jsut overlaid and did not roll the edges so i decided ot do it myself. I jsut traced it and cut it on a sheet of carbon fiber i had. Turend out great and cost much less than the 50 to have the same thing done and didnt have to take off gas lid. I woudl make you it but i justed used my last bit up mkaing a sheet for behind the license plate but i can give you the name of the guy i got it from if you need.

CF. the more the better, IMO.

Thanks hombedelassrtas and Zero,
I'll let you know when I decide on something. Not crazy about Carbon Fiber stickers. The only other thing I would be worried about with Carbon Fiber is that it might just look like a hole in the side of my car from a distance.
Maybe I could get cooltoy2000 to do another chop for me on this. I really need to learn how to photochop, with all the chops I want. Chops are a really good way to help decide on things like this.

its not the cheap carobn fier vinyl that you see on most crap jobs. I had a guy who mkaes carbon fiber send me an epoxied sheet 15x40, great gloss on it, semi rigid but stil flexible enough to go on the curve of a gas lid. my sheet was 50, but i used it in a few projects so it was worth it. He sells differnt weeves and colors as well. But it ownt be a replacement as much as an overlay. doubt they make the sparko style in carbon fiber, atleast not in real caronb fiber. if you find it let me know.

^^^yah. dont buy vinyl Carbon Fiber crap. there should be an auto body shop that have rolls of Carbon Fiber. Ask them to wrap it in Carbon Fiber or make a Carbon Fiber one.

I asked a company that does carbon fiber overlays and reporductions but they said that it woudl not hold as an overlay on the little edge of the gas lid. maybe they were jsut lazy. If you look in my profile cna see i used hte same sheet for behind the license plate and my heat shield.

Now that sounds cool. I didn't know you could buy real Carbon Fiber in sheets and just wrap things with it. Maybe that would be a good way to do the hatch handle and wing end caps that I can't find in Carbon Fiber.
Can you tell me how to contact him or could you send me a sheet if I send you the money? This would be a good group by thing. Not that I have ever recieved anything from a group buy. I tried to get an s2000 antenna and Carbon Fiber door sills from Group buys. Never did hear back from anybody.

The man's name is john thorson, jthorson@charter.net . He sells sheets of cloth and epoxied as well as kits (for allot of money) for you to epoxy your own sheet. Here is an auction for a 12x12 sheet of epoxied for $10. IT was great work and i highly reccoment the guy. Now its flexable enough to go on a curve of say a hood or fender, but it is not rigid enough to go ont he curve of say the end of a bumper or wing( turning it over on itself). The epoxy will crack if bent in half. It is easy to cut, i used some old siccors (new ones would cut it nicer). It is paper thin and shinny as hell. Here is the link to the eay aucition. I have some higher quality pics of the caronb fiber on my car i will post.

Hey, I just looked at your profile. That is some really nice work. Very clean and everything flows well together. I like your shift knob too. How does it feel? I don't really like my TRD shift knob. Not a comfortable grip.

here are some pics, 1st is my rmm heat shield i overlayed with a sheet of the carobn fiber, used 3m blue and some electrical tape to keep it down shows that its pretty plexable, but wuldnt go to far past that point. Last one shows how glossy btu doenst show guality good, bad shot i guess.

2

3 final

i like the knob, minus the fact it comes loose after i trive, held on by 3 alan screws. my dad suggested locktight but i havent had time to do it yet. Nomrally fomr a day or so of driving it starts to wiggle. I got it becsaue it went with the theme and got the momo on it

Thank you very much. I will ask him to send me a sheet and give this a try. I wonder if that's how GOLDCELICA did that little bike of his. I'll have to ask him that.

Well, lock tight is a better idea than what I did one night when I was drunk. I took a hack saw and cut my shifter in half, then super-glued my shift knob back on. Stupid. Never come up with ideas for your car when your drunk. Especially when it involves a hack saw and super glue. Still holding good though.

LOL, but i'm sure it worked well must say i like the fighter style, nice grip, but it is really high, deff want a few inches off it. got to get a short shifter.

The pictures look great, but after seeing them up close, I don't think I'll try this myself. Judges today are very picky. One rough edge or uneven cut and they take more points from you than if you didn't do anything at all. I'll get the sheet and find a pro to do it for me though.

Yes, get the short shifter. Don't do what I did. I actually made it harder to shift by doing that. So I'll be buying a short shifter too.

See thats what my plan was. I bought the sheet ot have it cut for a hood stripe. I went ot every bodyshop in ginaesville (not many up here at UF) and none wanted to touch it. I found one place that wanted $100 to cut it and glue it to my hood. I only paid 50 for the sheet so i said f it. I am sure that if you take ur time you can do it great. I used crappy siccours as well. I have leared a cheap nail file gets the edges really nice. But if you knwo some good body shops that are willing to touch carbon fiber then go for it.

i'd get the chrome one... it will match with your rims.

Yah, I have a friend of mine (Brent Davison, owner of BDaudiocreations) doing all the work on my car while I'm here in Iraq. Best installer I have ever seen. Companies like Rockford Fosgate come to him to build demo cars. Check out his work at www.bdaudiocreations.com [bdaudiocreations.com] sometime.
He has never worked with Carbon Fiber, but said he would give it a try if I wanted.
I gave him 10 grand to do my system install and interior as soon as the car comes out of the shop for the turbo install next month. Can't wait to see it.

What are you doing awake anyway? Isn't it like 4:00 am there?

Thanks spaztikid. Have you installed your BRS hood yet? I would like to see that.

I'm in college, never sleep. but i am actually heading in now. I am an RA for a dorm and am stuck here all thanksgiving. very boring so jsut chattn. Gave me time to install apc hyperwhite fogs (were crap, returned) install carbon fiber bezel, and make 3 sets of seat grills. cant decide if i want the reg silver, blue that matches my car, or black. Painted htem otnigth so cant tell till tomarrow.

heading in, have a goodnight. Goodluck overthere. Cant wait to see pics of ur car when its done.

yeah its been on for a few months... i havent taken any pics of my car in 6+ months tho.

i'd say go for chrome..

Okay. Talk to you later hombredelassrtas. Good talking to you.

spaztikid, shame on you. How can you install the hood that everybody wants and not even take pictures to show us. Kidding. Let me know when you take some.
I was going to try and find the other 18 cars who has our hood, but figured that would probably be impossible.

Thanks Virgilson. I think I'm torn between chrome and red. Carbon Fiber would be cool, but not too sure about it.