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I don't mean to pull you up on this, but you do realise that the SSR Professor SP1, Work Meister and Garson DR302 (my wheel) and all the exact same wheel design apart from very small minor detailing? (i.e stepped lips, number of bolts between spokes, and extremity of dish). The OZ Scara is "common" in the VIP scene and only has small dish. I do like the Work Euroline but not only are they common in the VIP scene, but are quite common in the UK too! My wheels came up at a good price and are the only complete set in the country. And which Fabulous wheel are you referring to? I suspect you are talking about the Profound model which is similar in design.

Yes! I'll be at the Club Aristo stand. I'll be there on the Saturday and Sunday. I will also be at Modified Live (Brands Hatch) 28/6, TRAX 6/9, Japshow Finale 4/10 and Modified Live (Snetterton) 11/10. The car may well be at Ultimate Street Car, but I won't be there myself.

Ok, I can't keep it all to myself, its not fair after all! I think everyone has waited long enough! :) Car in the booth Bright ambient light in the booth gives the car a sort of dark chocolate colour with a gold pearl. Low natural light has a maroon tinge to it...you can see the very subtle rainbow metalflake in there. With the flash, it really sets it off! Lower door panels and wings painted, just to show that it really is "just" a black colour! Close up! Can't wait to see the car put back together again now! :D

I am looking forward to seeing the car in the flesh. The colour looks dark in low light, but lets just say i drive into a petrol station, and I can imagine the finish looking absolutely sublime! I am excited for next weeks show which is Modified Live at Brands Hatch!

Right so the car has now been painted! I've obviously got full pictures but for your viewing pleasure I've got 3 sample pictures in varying degrees of light... Low light picture Same position but with flash. Brigth ambient light. All pictures are deliberately poor, shaky and out of focus. ;)

Here are some pics of the shell that is ready! And now some pics of the roof painted...no close up pics, the colour will remain a secret until Sunday!

No worries guys, I went down there today, and we talked about a lot things, the windscreen washers being one of them! We will use the spray jets that link up to the wipers! I think the ones he's using are found on Citroen's and Pugs! Roof is being painted today. We also discussed the TRD 2 Way diff in the car. It is far too agressive for a VIP car and the with the weight of the wheels and the distance the weight is from the hub, it was going bananas as they were moving the car. I need to get a regular open diff to alleviate this problem. So...would anyone like to buy a very exclusive and expensive genuine TRD diff?!

A few more pictures from Saturday... Anti stonechip paint on the bodykit Smoothing of the bonnet with the removal of the windscreen washer jets. How i'm going to cope with bird poo on my screen, I don't know lol Internals of fuel filler cap painted. Now I don't know if its just a trick of the light, or its a crazy colour scheme, or maybe even, a sneak preview of the colour of the whole car. I'm not sure! I will be seeing him today and Wednesday to have a look. Should be fully painted by Wednesday I think... Wet sanding the bonnet Completely wet sanded door. I think this picture is probably the most representative of Will's skill in prepwork thus far. Its not even painted and its just like a mirror!

can you not get the car bra? Thanks for all the kind comments everyone. In regards to a car bra, I would need a custom made one for my bumper and would still need to stick tape around the inner arches anyway, so there's no point really. I also think it looks kind of cool with the tape on the car as well. I think i'll use it to write silly messages on the car as well

Some guy on Driftworks has said something along those lines as well, haha! I will also be using the 3M blue painters tape as protection against stonechips on the way to all the events so if you see a black Aristo with a tacky blue nose on the road, give us a wave ;)

A few more pics from yesterday... Spraying the boot shuts Spraying the bonnet shuts. Spraying the inside of the arches to spruce them up. Masking up the newly painted shuts and hanging the doors to make sure that everything opens and closes properly...and masking the newly painted bits means only one thing...Exterior painting is next! I spoke to Will earlier today and he's going to spend the next day or two wet sanding and flatting all the panels. He hopes to have painted the car by Sunday. Its getting tight for time but we have contingency plans in place for all the little touches. What I can tell you now is that the car will be fully complete for JAE at very least!!

Few more pics from this week Puddle lights being installed Doors shuts and inners being prepared. Kandy black paint applied Rear screen out for tinting.

Check out my VIP Aristo project thread for examples of Will's work. He owns Streetoptions and the quality of his workmanship is out of this world. Check his website www.streetoptions.co.uk for examples of previous builds and work. You can contact him on 07986 295 073 or at streetoptions@live.com Tell him Lam sent you from the Lexus Owners Club ;) He is based in Raynes Park, near Wimbledon/Sutton, so he's not too far away at all.

Boot plugs (lol) Flush and primed boot Rear end completely transformed! Wet sanding will be taking place this week now that I've chosen the colour. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the body will be painted by next week...!!!

I picked the colour yesterday, and its a lovely colour. Nothing too garish of course, but I'm not going to let anyone in on the colour until its on the car. Needless to say, its got a strong pearl in it, and just enough metalflake to be a show winning car, but not be too outlandish ;) But I digress, more picture provided by the main man at Streetoptions! Brackets for new indicators. Comparison of the stock indicator against the new Audi A8 LED indicator. The curve of the arch actually follows that of the angled side of the indicator! Its little touches like that Will ahead of the rest. Full despoiler

Couple of teaser pics from the weekend... The bootlid is just a mockup as you might see some ripples where the lights used to be. I'm also keeping the spoiler off. I also now know why the arch follows the line that it does, as opposed to the suggestion that BlkonBlk made. There are 2 factory swage lines that run straight on the body. The new arch emulates these straight lines, so now it looks like I have 3 swage lines. Making it more bulbous ruins the factory lines completely. As does putting the spoiler back on.

The tyres are narrower than the width of the wheel and are stretched on. This is a popular thing that is done in the drift scene and VW dub scene as well as the VIP scene. I think the reasoning behind it is that it accentuates the wheel even more as less rubber is visible. Ideally, I'd have wide wheels and wide tyres for grip but 335/30/19's are rather dear! haha!

Just a brief update from Will: He decided that the stock indicators on the wings, and any aftermarket replacements would just not cut the mustard for the look that we were going for as they were too bulbous. So he sourced some Audi A8 LED indicators and modified the wings to fit them. He was saying something about creating a bevel edge so that it would sit flush and look really smart. He has also removed the inner LED rear lights from the bootlid and smoothed them over. This look really does change the rear of the car. Not many people have done it, but I've seen a picture of one and it does catch your eye! The car will be fully prepped in the next week. I an going to see him as he will paint some test cards for me this evening so I can look at some different colours. Black Kandy with a blue pearl, black kandy with a bit of blue metalflake, or cherry black with a subtle rainbow metalflake are all possible options We have less than 3 weeks before the 1st major show of the year (Japshow, since we've missed Japfest) . I've resigned myself to the possibilty that only the exterior will be finished by then and I will not have my fridge/rear cabinet ensemble ready by then, but heres hoping!

New pictures of the new rear arches! The rears don't look quite as aggressive and "in your face" now that they are in primer and have been shaped and smoothed. Couple more pictures, this time from the offside. And finally, the rear bumper and sideskirts need work in order for them to flow with the new arches, and you will be able to see what is required from this picture.

New pictures from Will...Rear arches are taking shape now! These pictures are definately over a week old as I saw the car on Wednesday 29th April, and there was fibreglass applied to the rear arches so that he could sand them into shape...but I digress! Enjoy.

Update from the Streetoptions website today (18/4/09) With this being a Four Door vehicle, It does complicate fabrication a touch. It was then necessary to form and weld two pieces of sheet to follow the shut lines of the rear door and quarter panel. These will eventually form our returns, visible when the rear doors are open. The next stage is to begin to form the Inner Arch Returns, These will bridge the void between the original quarter panels and our new flared quarter panels. They also taper upwards towards our cut back arch, Allowing the Wheel Rim to run close to the quarter panel, while the stretched tyre resides within the arch return, with plenty of clearance. Before the new quarters can be welded to the car, They will be fully welded from the inside, allowing the outside wheel arch to be grinded down to a small bevel edge that resembles the factory wheel arch returns. Two small returns need to be fabricated for the areas where the quarter panels meet the Rear Bumper and Sideskirts. A few more pics. I got sent these this morning (25/04/09) but I'm pretty sure they are from Wednesday when I last saw him. His note in the email said that he had completely finished welding the entire arches and he was going to finish off the arches with some filler before priming them, so expect a complete rear arch picture early next week! Nice smooth edges :D Door shuts taking shape. Door shuts effectively complete :)

After taking the necessary measurements from our cardboard template, we cut out both sides in 22swg steel. We also added some cardboard ribs to the centre of the arch to give us the desired amount of flare. The steel sheet was then temporarily fixed in place to allow us to measure up for the other steel pieces needed to be cut. In order for the the body to sit low enough with the wheels on, the factory arch has to be cut to allow for more clearance. Note the steel "ribs" that will hold the shape of the new arch.

Front wings are now hella flush and ready for paint. This picture has an odd reflection, making the wing look bent? This is not the case! Work on the rears is set to begin over the weekend. Once Will is happy with his mockup, then he will start to cut some steel to build those wide arches... So this is how she sits at the moment Look how fat those wheels are! Once the rear arches are complete and Will is happy with them, we will be creating molds of the rear overfenders, and will produce an off the shelf product that we KNOW is a perfect fit on the JZS161 Chassis and for any wheel 19" wheel with a super aggressive offset. Bear in mind i will NOT be running an aggresive camber setup, just to show off Will's workmanship. So by my calculations, you could easily run a 13" wide wheel with negative offsets by dialling in a bit of negative camber.

Here are a few more pics of what Will did with the front arches. Two pieces of sheet steel were cut and shaped. One for the vertical part line, and One for the New swaged top piece. He used a thinner 22swg sheet for its flexability, as the top piece has to have a subtle curve across its top. With our steel pieces tacked up on both sides, we can finish weld the pieces in place, Using a 'String of Pearls' technique to minimise distorsion of the panel.

Obviously they were going to stick out from the bodywork, but I needed to see how much So Will at www.streetoptions.co.uk has been tasked by me to create a full custom widebody conversion to house the wheels. He will be fabricating the rear arches out of steel, and they will follow the factory lines and will look something like this...