Celica Forums Install Guides and Technical Articles Exterior Guides Body Kit, APR GT300 Body Kit - General FAQ

Got all the info I need to know to make sure I get all the right mods before this widebody shabang. For anyone interested in following in this process I'm thinking about making a website for it. What do you guys think?? Here's the info:


What should I get for suspension with this kit?
TRD or Tien coil overs; if you want to save some money you could go with ground control coil overs with tokico HP blues.

How about springs?
Springs are not recommended, the APR kit needs to be supported properly and kept from scraping springs can't adjust the height the way a coil over can to properly do this.

Any other suspension mods necessary?
Hotchkis rear chamber links are recommended, these help to align the car with the new big ass wheels and drop.

Max tire size?
Most run 18s but 19s are doable. Notice these are the same as stock, the APR widebody does not fix any turning radius problems that the Celica already has with HUGE tires.

What are the offsets and max tire width possible?
the offset's are -4 for the front and 0 for the rear
the MAX recommended width for the tires are 8.5" front and 10" rear

How about the Underbody plastics or aftermarket panels?
The carbon fiber splitter only goes back to the wheels and doesn't cover the oil fill area, these plastics should be fine where they are. Fitment with C-One and the in production TPR aren't known.

should I have the shop bolt or mold the kit onto my car?
BOLT, if a mistake is made in molding it will look like shit and be expensive to fix. Also body sway can cause the kit to crack if it is molded. This kit is a DIRECT BOLT ON.

What's with the rear fender, it has to be cut or replaced or what?
It will have to be cut up about 2 inches to allow clearance for the wider tires

How well will aftermarket exhausts like the TSRM with large canisters fit?
Will fit perfectly into the rear of the kit.

What exactly is replaced with this kit?
Front fender, bumper, side skirts, rear bumper. The rear fenders are just cut up and then the APR fender is ATTACHED.

Where can I get big ass wheels like that?
A tire place, or they can be purchased directly from APR, they carry racing hearts in approx 14 styles in different finishes with tires price is between 2 and 3 grand. As long as they fit the above specs they will work well.

Do I have to repaint the whole car?
No, a good body shop can match the paint on your car as long as it is in decent condition. If a body shop is going to just go from the factory paint code and not take into account the fading of the paint, don't get your kit installed there. Most repaint the car because they want a new color with the new kit. But they have a car there that just had the kit painted and it matched perfectly fine.

How about the fog lights?
They will have to be relocated and new mounts will have to fabricated since they are not supplied with the kit.

OEM hood or is carbon fiber a must?
This kit will work with the OEM hood or any carbon fiber hood.

How about my CAI? Will the fender plastics need to be removed will my CAI be more susceptible to ingesting water now?
No the location for the CAI can remain the same. It should be fine. Though a heat shield may be a good idea.


OK guys that's it everything I found out. I wanted to clear it all up cause i know a lot of people have questions and I don't want there to be false info given out. This info is all right from APR.

More photos at...
https://celicahobby.com/gallery/index.php/category/apr-gt300

and...
https://celicahobby.com/gallery/index.php/category/album-20041004-apr-wide-body-gt300-mrs

Awsome! i hear theres a lot of work to the widebodys, but good look and it will look great when its done.
Good questions asked and the website would be a great idea also, but when you do the website post pics of your car along the way of being done so people have an idea of what to look forward too

^^ That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing. Having it be a progression of building a show worthy celica from the ground up. I'll have guides and articles and shit like that. HAHA and maybe a lil paypal link down the bottom for "donations" I think I will start working on the site, isaac mind if I borrow some pics and articles from here?

EDIT: credited of course

make sure you post the website here or pm me it when you have it done or started thx

Great info FloydianSlip6. I just got my APR kit and I didn't know the answer to some of these questions.

I still have a couple questions I can't find the answer to. Even though you asked, their answers still don't tell me what I need to know.
I asked them myself and couldn't get a clear answer. anyway...

1. Can I put a 19X8.5 -4 offset on the back and have it be flush with the kit?

2. Do I need different fender plastics?

3. Will a molded on kit still crack if it is done by a pro who has experience with molded kits?

4. My shop is having trouble fitting the large Apexi N-1 exhaust. How do most people run the pipes for that?

5. Why doesn't the wide front fenders make for a better turning radius with bigger tires? I guess the tires hit the inside?

6. Will my smaller 17" wheels work with wheels spacers until I can afford bigger tires?

Anyway, I don't think you need to make a website. Now that I know you have this topic started, I will just keep checking back here to see if anybody knows the answers to my questions.

We could also send all the people who start topics with questions about this kit here.

badceli I had my front fenders and bumper molded and they cracked at 2 points from just scrapping a little at the bottom of my driveway. I wouldnt suggest molding at all because the filler that they use to mild with isnt as flexable as the F/G or urithane that it being applied to, meaning its the first thing to break.

Well I was thinking to not just have it be about the widebody conversion, but the whole process of generating a show celica from the bottom up. Dealing with everything from basic engine dress up and stuff to realistic ideas for making some money.

sounds like a great idea Floydian, you should run with it. I'm looking to make a show celica myself, this website you're making would be a great resource

About the fender plastics, wouldn't there be a gap between the plastics and the wider fenders? When I show my car this year, I will have one side on stands, showing the suspension and undercarraige. I don't want the wheel wells to look like crap with a big gap in there.

The guy molding my kit has done many molded kits. His kit is molded. He said most shops don't know how to do it. You have to mold it on with a special mold that will flex.
I trust him and I need all the points I can get. I'm still not going to score well in body mods (which is most of your points, same as points for engine mods).
All I will have for body mods is the APR kit, shaved door handles, molded Sparco gas lid and a BRS hood. That's not enough to win a BOS.

With the wheel spacers, I would have them big enough to make the wheels sit flush, but I really don't want to do that. I really want the bigger wheels. Just don't have the money right now.
My car is about to come out of the shop with the custom turbo, then the kit get's molded on, then the interior and system will be done.

NEED MORE MONEY.

I thought the same about the fenders. But that's what APR told me. Maybe the metal goes in the compensate? Yeah the downside of the whole thing is that BOS is a bitch to get! But the widebody adds more points than just a regular kit. That's why I'm going the audio competition side first to make some $$$

Never thought about that. Maybe the fenders do come in towards the plastics. I won't get to see my kit until I get back from Iraq in a couple months. I wish we had somebody on here that has the kit, so we could ask them stuff like that.
Tristan with the Siver one is a member, but never comes here.
I actually went to another site once just to ask a guy that has the kit a couple questions.

As for BOS being hard to get, would you want it any other way? Wouldn't mean much if it was easy.
I'm probably going to sound like an ass for saying this, but I got tired of winning Best Celica and Best Toyota everytime I entered a show. It started getting too easy and now I'm just not happy with just winning those now. So now I'm going for BOS. The problem with that is...it's almost too hard to compete with somebody like Mull who has Blaupunkt backing him.
It will be fun trying though.

So you're into audio competitions huh? Tell me about your system.
My system was recomended to me by an old bass head that has been into sound off competitions for the past 15 years.
I have one Zapco 9.0, two Zapco 3.0's, one 18" Treo sub, two Boston Acoustic Z series component sets, two SPL caps, two red top batteries and an Alpine head unit. The 9.0 puts about 4,500 watts to the sub and the 3.0's put over 1,300 watts to each component set. Can't wait to hear it.

yeah I agree best in show is a title that should be hard to get.

As for my system I've been saving for the system and i will be putting it in this spring. For now I'm working with JBL speaers, but those will be boston acoustics by summer. speakers are set to be amped by a JL 450/4. The sub will be a JL 13.5W7 built into a custom trunk that I designed and am in the process of building. That sub will be powered by a 1000/1 JL amp. All the sound will be sourced from my new eclipse AVX2494 that has a built in amp. I plan to be up and running for some audio comps by mid-late may. Overtime I'll pump some more cash into the system, but that's my jump off point.

I want the balls for my bass which is why i want the W7 but am more keen on the shows that judge for not just decibles but clarity, which is why I like JL and eclipse. Anyone can cover their car in subs and amplification but it takes skill to make it all sound clear and nice.

That's kinda the same theory I'd like to use when I build my car. I want to show that the cars got balls, the widebody, but at the same time keep the mods tastefull and clean looking. I think a lot of times that's lost in the show circuit because it's easier to be flashy and gain points that way. KNow what I mean?

Cool. I have to run right now, but I'll talk to you later.

Badceli the fender plastics you can zip tie them but they dont fit perfect with the apr kit and personally I think you should purchase a set of wheels before anything cause it wont look right with 17s and spacers plus in order for the rims to sit flush you would need about 2 inch spacers and thats not really the safest alternative especially if you plan on driving your car often oh yeah about molding your kit to the car no matter what type of mold you use if you drive the car and not trailor it its going to crack I molded my car I do bodywork for a living and if I was to drive my car theres no way I would have molded it if you have any question feel free to ask

i love the APR widebody, but man, its gonna cost alot.

Thanks caldebe,
You just might be right. You got me thinking that maybe I should just bolt it on for now and use the money I would save for wheels. I'll give that some more thought.
As for using zip ties to hold the plastics, I don't think the judges would like to see that too much. If they don't fit, I'll have to fabricate something that would look better than zip ties.
Thanks for the advise.

FloydianSlip6,
I was going to say earlier before I had to run that I do know what you mean. I hate show cars that are just flashy and nothing else.
That's why my other goals besides BOS are to also hit 400whp, run an 11 second 1/4 mile and reach a top speed of 200 mph. I talked with c2gas and QTRMLR_1 for several weeks about this and it seems to be possible. So that's what I'm going for.

As for the JL Audio system. Very good choice. I always liked JL Audio.
Have you ever seen Jay Laub's system? Very nice. Chromed JL amps in black molded fiberglass.

^ I haven't but I'll be sure too look that up. Hey I think I'm going to end up making that website after all. Would you be willing to post up some info as you create your show car as well??

Those are very high goals but I think they will be attainable. I think, and so does Mike (Lucky) that a lot of work will be done with the 2zz this year in terms of support and bolt ons. Keep me posted. And please, if you decide to help me out with some pics and info for the site don't hesitate to email me or IM me. I will start working on it later this month, need to find some webspace and stuff. It would be just awesome to get some pics as the widebody is coming together and being installed! Let me know!

Sure I will. Sounds cool. I started a topic in the General Automotive Discusion forum called Car Show Tips and that was fun for awhile, but I think we ran out of questions to ask Jamey. So it died. I thought that could be a place where we could just keep talking about show cars.

If you do make the site, it should be pretty cool. I just hope it doesn't do as bad as some of the people who have tried to make a new Celica site lately. There is usually about 5 people viewing. Not very fun.

Here laubs system. Don't like some parts of it, but I love the chromed JL amps. I decided to have my Zapco amps chromed after seeing his system.

The problem with Zapco is...I get a little tired of people looking at me like I bought something from Radio Shack because they never heard of Zapco. Then when I tell them that Zapco has won more world finals than any other brand, they really look at me like I'm stupid because they have never even heard of Zapco. Have you?

The question that Laub get's most of the time is..."Are those 8's or 10's"

What do think they are?

His interior is also what got me started on chroming plastic.

This is my Zapco 9.0. Doesn't look like a $2,500 amp does it? Kind of ugly, but I think they are the best and Brent at BD Audio Creations thinks he can make them look good. Can't wait to see what he comes up with.

it'd be interesting to see how he makes that box a pretty box post pics when done.

I get the same response out of my system, but my system was bought at a flea market, yet it still puts out the sound I'm looking for. Brand really only matters for show systems, because known brands give you more points from the judges, if you're out there w/ something new, people will be like wtf? and be like that's some crap, even w/o hearing it, belive me i've seen it happen to my friends car at the shows.

I hope floydian does get the widebody, it'd be nice to see a different one than the one on the APR Calendar, especially one that I got to see built step by step, like he plans on doing.

About the JL's, they look like 10's to me, but wtf!? they do look like 8's lol

Hey fuck em, any true audiophile knows zapco is the shit. Most people have similar reaction to eclipse. They're like eclipse wtf is that some generic brand

Those JLs are 8's

rofl, why would you go w/ 8's, they are so tiny! personally I'd go w/ 12's and just have 2 instead of like 4 8's.

Anyways, I'm with you Floydian, I'm interested in Widebody myself since I just dished out $2100 for my Deep-dish rims. I couldn't help it, the rims were so nice, I had to have them! But now I have to wait 3-6months until I can get them from japan. I'm just not sure which widebody kit to go with.

That thread and this one are what inspired me to make the site. I think that if it's going to do well I'm going to need a lot of help from everyone around here. There's no way it can be done alone. Hopefully I can get some help from Isaac in setting everything up too. Thanks for your help badceli. As for anyone else whose interested in contributing and helping out, I will be in touch with you all in about a month when I get the webspace.

all you're going to really have to do is set up a forum site and post that way, but if you're looking for making an actual website, I'm a webdesigner and anything you have a question about, holler, I'll hook ya up with the help.

^ great I'll certainly come to you with questions. I've grown up in an advertising family and my mom is a graphic designer so I'm hoping I can make it look halfway decent. I'll post a thread before the site starts and anyone interested in helping can help out. The goal is that is just focuses on moding the celica from a show standpoint. I have no deisre to compete with this site. This is my home . As it stands now I have Jamey and a friend of mine who are car show judges so hopefully they will be willing to help out.

Nice dude, looks like you got some of the areas tacked down. I agree, the only reason for the site is to show how to go about creating a show car, not to compete w/ EC, I wouldn't be able to do that, EC, as you said, is my home.

A good idea would be to post the actual judges sheets that they use to judge our cars, and since your friends are judges, that'd be fairly easy. then just base the site off of that, and certain areas.

Like how to build a show engine, and how to build a show system. what to look for in every area as far as rims and tires, body kits and authenticity of parts and all that jazz.

Making the site shouldn't be all that hard, it's just getting the cash together to actually follow thru with the projects and such.

Just a few thoughts.

^ I like that idea about the show slips a lot! Now what do I call the website?? That's what I'm brainstorming because I need to register a domain name before anything lol

showcelica.com? how-to-celica.com? celicashowoff.com? I'm not sure.
at school, how they teach you to create a name for a domain they just tell you to take what your site is going to offer and list it, then combine certain aspects of those things and create the name.

in your case, you have:
Show Cars
Celicas
How-To
...
...

and you get what i got up above.

how about

customcelica.com ? I like the alliteration I think it's catchy

Great ideas. I like that one...www.customcelica.com, but if I was the owner of this site, I would say "Hell no I'm not going to help you make a site, why would I want to help to take my members?"
You plan on it just being about building a show car, but that will get boring. Your members will want more and they will start topics just like they do here. Then you WILL compete with EC.

I asked Jamey if he could post a sample of the new score sheet for 2005. He said he couldn't.

Shit. I have to run again. I'll be back.

Well I'm hoping that maybe it can become interfaced together to a certain degree. Basically if you want to know how a judge will view a mod, what points that will get you, what's the BEST system for competition. Then customcelica would provide that. But I don't really have any desire to deal with everyday driving questions and stuff like that. Because then I would be competing with EC. But there are a lot of people out there that want to get into the show scene and this would provide a gateway as to what to expect. I want to plaster how great EC is all over my site so people that aren't already active here will be active. It may just be an ideal but I think it could be done. I hope Isaac will understand what I mean.

I sent Isaac a PM so we'll see what happens.

my whole entire kit has been molded for almost 2 years now and i haven't had any visible cracks... with the exception of the one underneith my driver side door but that only happened because my boyfriend took me down this crappy ass road and part of the plastic that runs under the wheel well and up around ripped off and when the screws came out it cracked my sideskirt away from the door.. yeah he got yelled at for that one cause he KNOWS that i don't take that car on crappy roads... that's what i have the truck and the sebring for!! anyway yeah... you just have to be VERY careful if you get it molded... and i also didn't lower my car for the risk of it cracking... most of the roads around here are uneven and i knew that if it hit it would crack... and that would suck to fix so i am not lowering my car until i can have a method to raise it back up when i drive (bags, cylinders)

That is great news celikitten. I was starting to worry about molding my kit. Glad to hear that they won't crack if you're just carefull because I really need the extra points.

Now let me back up to where I left off.

FloydianSlip6,
Are you sure those are 8's? I'll give you one more guess.
Finally, I found somebody who knows about Zapco. You are the first.

hkysk8r86,
You said brand only matters for show systems, but I don't think you can win a sound off competition with sparkomatic. (that's a crappy old brand I don't even know if they make stereos anymore). Lots of people go to Best Buy and get the cheapest system they can find. Then wonder why it sounds like shit. So I would say brand does matter for more than just shows.

I think Laub went with the smaller subs just to be different. Everywhere you look, you see 12's. I was surprised the first time I heard what a good set of small subs can do. Plus you can have a smaller, lighter box with small subs.
I got one 18" sub just because I like big subs with a really deep bass.

Tell me about the wheels you got for $2,100. I'm still shopping for wheels.

I <heart> audio. I think that really nice brands should come up with better names lol. Cause you have to admit, Zapco sounds lame lol. I remember when I first heard about them I was like, DAMN they may be good engineers but their creative department needs to work on that name!

I still think that they are 8s the painted rim makes them look a bit bigger than they are. And I don't think JL ever made anything smaller than an 8. I think the smaller subs are nice, cause you can have more of em and still have quality.

You are right about that. I almost didn't buy them because "Zapco" sounded so damn stupid and cheap, but after a couple months of research, I had to have them. Not sure what I would say if Zapco wanted to sponsor me and asked me to put a big ass "ZAPCO" down the side of my car.
I would love for a big audio company to give me a full sponsorship, but that shit would look damn stupid.
First time I heard that name I thought "WTF is that? Radio Shack crap?".

So, I gave you two guesses on what size subs those are. 10's or 8's. You got it wrong twice. Did you think it was a trick question?

Anyway, here is my sub. Also kind of ugly, but also a brand that has won more finals than any other brand. When I bought it, the warranty didn't have a power limit. It just said "This sub will handle any amp made." Warranty good for one year.
Now they changed it to a power limit of 2,500 watt rms.

Still not sure how to make this thing look good. Maybe have it chromed too. Not sure yet. I like the tough look it has though.

Just finished putting on a apr wide body kit. It was a ton of work I sanded and sanded and bondoed and sanded and fit and refit well you get the point But when it was on and fitting just right nothing looks as good in my opinion.

^^ nice work. I'm not a huge fan of the color, but the paint job itself is beautiful.

Welcome to ECelica Hardy. Very nice work on the car. Nice paint and nice sound system.

So tell us all about what you had to do. Can you answer the questions we have been trying to find answers to?

1. Will a 19X8.5 -4 offset fit flush on the back?

2. How did you get your fender plastics to fit the wide fenders?

Well, I'm afraid the guys on here are not going to like the color. It's different, that's for sure.

Why do you say you had to use dondoe when the kit is not molded on?

I see a Viper in the Garage. Got some money in the family huh? Ever drive it?

Oh, and I just added you to my widebody photo collection in the Videos, pictures, audio clips...etc forum. Hope you don't mind.

Hardy,
I just noticed that you are a girl. That makes a big difference in what people will say about your paint.
I was going to say that it would be a very cool paint job if you were a girl, but didn't want to offend you if you were a guy.

Hardy doesn't sound like a girls SN.

BadCeli, I've had a shitty PoS Flea Market system for about a year now, been in 2 competitions won 1 and placed in top 10 in the second. I'm using a "Audiophonics" system, not many people have heard of them, they are a rip off of Audiobahn, but they sound nice as hell, they aren't good quality speakers as far as workmanship goes, but as long as you're not pushing too much wattage over the RMS of the subs you can pound all you want. I'm going to be replacing them soon though, I'm getting a kicker setup. Going w/ 2 12" Kicker Comp CVR's and then a 1000x2 Kicker Amp. But like I said, the system can work with sound offs, yet it's not reccommended only because you will most likely lose to all the Kickers, JL's and Infinity's of the world.

Well you must be good with systems to make something like that sound good.
Unless you're like this one person who came on here once, I can't remember their name, but they posted a topic about how they had won 3rd place Best Celica at the Extreme Autofest in Dallas. They pretty excited about it, so I didn't say anything, but I wanted to say "Hey, are you really that proud of that third place trophy? I was there and there were only 3 Celicas that night, you got 3rd because there were only 3 of us".

Not that I would ever say that to anybody. Just thought it was funny.

Anyway, why go with Kicker? So many people say they have nothing but trouble with Kicker.
I was going to go with Kicker because I love their looks. Then after a few months of research, I just found way too many people that trouble with them.
But maybe if you're that good with systems, you will know how to avoid the common problems that idiots like myself have. Like the time I didn't know you couldn't put a 1000 watt amp to a 200 watt sub.

And tell me about your wheels.

Hi badceli,
I put on 225/40 18 on the front and rear. I would have had to go to a super low profile tire and I think it would still of rubbed inside my fender wells.

Fender plastic: On the front I just un screwed them and moved them out to the edge of the new fender and screwed them back in. They rub a little when I turn sharp. So I'm going to take a heat gun to them and push them in some. This should fix the slight rub I have now.
The back fender we cut into the original fender and welded on a stip of metal so the new flared fender would fit on them and help support the flare. its hard to explain.
About the bondoe: No as you can see my body kit is not molded Thats asking for trouble but the work was in getting the parts as smooth as the rest of the car. WE basiclly block sanded and bondoed all the low spots and block sanded again. The rear fenders and every part did not fit as tight or smooth as we liked so we would fit them and add or remove what was needed tell the fit was just right. It took a lot of work. We put in over 100 hours on just sanding and fitting the body kit.

Some asked about the name screen name hardy my brother signed me up to this sight about two years ago and well there you go. I'm Sarah HI

O yes the Viper thats my dads Its a venom 500 with a 300 NX shot

Well it's nice to meet you Sara. I think you are the second Sara we have. The other one uses "Sara" as her screen name.

Thank you very much for answering my questions. I can't believe I never thought about just stretching the plastics a little with a heat gun.

About your dads Viper, I don't think I could walk by that thing everyday and get into my Celica without getting pissed off. I would want to get into that thing soooo bad.
Must be nice to have a dad cool enough to buy a car like that. My dad lived in a van down by the river.

So you have the same size wheels on the front and back...that's great. Everybody has been telling me I can't do that and that I need a 19" or an 18X10 on the back to fit flush, but I didn't want to put wider tires on the back of a FWD. So did you have to use a spacer for the back wheels?

And how is it going with trying to get into a magazine? Did you get the answer you were looking for?

I put a small spacer on the front and a larger spacer on the back. To buy custom off set rims were way to much money. I do love my dads car and he lets me drive it as long as he is in the car with me. He would never let me take it out alone. Its so fast with the 300 shot and all the engine work it has around 800 hp

300 shot!!!! Holy crap! That's insane. I have never heard of anybody using a 300 shot before. That thing MUST be built. Nice.

Good idea with the spacers. I think you are the first person I have seen with that kit that doesn't have Racing Hart wheels. In fact, I was going to get RH's just because everybody keeps telling me it's the only wheel that fits the kit.
I was getting ready to sell my Jet-Ski just so I could afford the 3k for them. You just changed my mind on that.

Thanks again.

Hi Hardy or anyone else who has experience with wide body on a celica with 19x8.5 front wheels,

One of the rim is a little bent which causing the tire to deflate slowly, and I would like to know,
1. I should sent it out for repair or get a new one?
2. I think the offset for the front is -4, does that mean its -40mm? If it is, do you think this offset is good for the car?

Thanks!