Automotive

Covercraft UVS100 Premier Series Custom Sunscreen for the Toyota Supra MKV

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I park my car outside so it constantly gets beat by the sun’s UV rays. I apply interior protectant but one thing that I really like to have is a sunscreen. It’s a simple accessory that’s quite effective.

When I had my Tacomas, I used a Covercraft UVS100 Premier Series sunscreen. The overall experience was good. The Covercraft sunscreen fit the Tacoma well and it looked pretty good so when it was time to buy one for the Supra, going with Covercraft again was an easy decision.

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The specific sunshade that I purchased is the UVS100 Premier Series in the chrome camouflage finish part number UV11657EC. This is listed at $83. There is a normal UVS100 sunshade for $70 and from what I understand, the main differences between the two is that the Premier Series has a black binding whereas the standard has grey, the Premier Series has some more premium color options, and the Premier Series comes with the optional storage bag which costs $14. I really like the chrome camouflage finish so the Premier Series was the obvious option.

These Covercraft sunscreens are advertised as being “Custom Patterned for a Perfect Fit”. I would say that the overall fitment is pretty good. However, the sunscreen that I received does seem to be a bit short on the sides. This is interesting because it was actually a bit difficult to get the sides positioned because they felt too long at first. But when I got them in place, there is a small gap on either side. This is expected to be able to make the screen fit but the gap just seems to be larger than my Tacoma’s sunscreen.

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Getting the sunscreen in place was somewhat difficult in general. This is because I had to work around the Supra’s infotainment system and the HUD projector. The infotainment system sticks up right in the middle of the dash so I had to maneuver around it in an interior that’s not all the big to start with. Then the HUD projector creates a bump in the dash that causes the sunscreen to be more snug on the driver’s side than the passenger’s. These things made positioning the sunscreen a bit annoying but I’m sure that with some experience, the process will go by more quickly.

If I had to complain about something, it would have to be quality control. My sunscreen arrived with a few issues. First, it looks like the adhesive that they used for the interior lining is not holding in place properly and is wrinkling. Second, the side that faces out looks like someone dropped a strip of adhesive on it. I’ll be contacting Covercraft about these things to see what they say about the situation.

Overall, I’m enjoying this purchase. At the end of the day, the Covercraft sunscreen will help to protect my Supra’s interior and that’s all I care about.

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How to jack the Toyota Supra and put it on jack Stands

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The new A90 Supra is one of those cars that actually needs a tutorial on how to jack it up and put it on jack stands because there seems to be some confusion.

Before we get started, I wanted to show you the jack and stand positions as indicated by Toyota in the official workshop manual. I’ve seen people argue about where you can and cannot jack from so here’s the official word from the manufacturer.

Let’s get started with jacking up the front. We’re going to first take a floor jack and position it towards the middle of the front lip. This isn’t absolutely necessary but when working with cars that sit lower, it’s a good idea to have a low profile jack. If you have some 2x4’s around or something that you can drive up on, this will also help with clearance and make it easier to see where to position the jack. If you’re going to jack up both the front and rear, start with the front as there is less clearance room. If you start at the rear, the front is going to dip forward, making it much harder to jack the front up. If you’re only jacking up one end, remember to place a wheel chock at the opposite end to help prevent the car from accident rolling.

Both the front and rear jack positions are essentially positioned between the wheels and are about 36” from either bumper. This means that unless you have an extremely long jack, you’re going to have to lower the jack handle all the way down and push the entire jack under the car.

At the front, we are going to position the jack at this circular indentation. Be sure to position at the indent with the bolt, not the black plastic oil pan cover. Once the jack is in place, it’s time to pump the handle and raise the car. Take note that because we had to lower the handle all the way down to fit under the car, there is going to be very little clearance to pump the handle. It’s only going to be able to move a few centimeters at a time. Just keep at it and the car will raise little by little. As the car raises, there will be more clearance room for the handle and everything will lift much quicker.

Once the car is at the appropriate height, we can take our jack stands and position them under the safety stand supports. The jack stand locations are indicated on the side skirts by little arrow markers. If you’re unaware, the Supra uses a support housing similar to many other BMW and Mini Coopers. This housing is plastic and can warp/deform if it is used improperly. To support my Supra, I use an adapter that attaches to my jack stands and fits perfectly into the hollow section of the plastic housing. If you’d like to learn more about this adapter, I’ve made a separate post dedicated to it. I highly suggest that you check that out and invest in the adapters as they are the best way to support the Supra that I’ve seen. After the jack stands are positioned properly under the plastic supports, it’s just a matter of lowering the floor jack and letting the Supra rest on the jack stands.

Let’s move on to the rear. The initial setup is going to be the same. We have to lower the jack handle all the way down and push the entire floor jack under the car. At the rear, we are going to be jacking up from the rear differential. This is very important. You want to jack up from the black portion of the diff, NOT from the silver fins. If you lift from the fins, there’s a good chance that they’ll be crushed under the weight and you’ll have to spend money on repairs. So remember, move the jack past the silver fins and jack up form the black section. Again because we have to lower the handle all the way down and because there’s little clearance, we’re going to have to do a bunch of micro pumps to get the lift started before there’s enough room to really pump the jack. When you’ve reached the desired height, position the jack stands under the stand supports and lower the jack.

And that’s it. The Supra is now properly seated on some jack stands. Not going to lie, this is a pretty tedious process and I would have to say that the A90 Supra is the most annoying car that I’ve ever had to put on jack stands. But once you understand the process, things go by pretty quickly. Just be sure to jack from the appropriate points so you don’t end up inflicting damage to your own car.

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Floor Jack https://amzn.to/2BBbtCI
Torin BIG RED Double Locking Jack Stands T43002A https://amzn.to/36LrDVF
Toyota Supra / BMW / Mini Cooper Jack Stand Adapters: https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=forsvaraengineering&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR10.TRC2.A0.H0.Xbmw.TRS2&_nkw=bmw&_sacat=0

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Toyota Supra / BMW / Mini Cooper Jack Stand Adapters

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With Toyota’s collaboration to make the Supra with BMW, comes some interesting BMW auto making decisions. One of these things is the locations where you’re supposed to put the jack stands.

If we go under the Supra we’ll see that there are four hollowed-out plastic rectangles. This is where we’re supposed to put jack stands or lift the Supra from if we’re using a car lift. The problem is that you shouldn’t really use them as is.

First, if you take a floor jack and lift up from one of these points, there’s a good chance that the edges of the plastic will damage and deform. Second, if we try to use a normal jack stand with a curved saddle, then things don’t exactly fit and again could damage the jack stand location. I’ve seen people, stick one edge of the saddle’s curve in the hole and call it good. All I can say is that I personally wouldn’t do that.

So, what are we to do. After looking around, one of the most common solutions is to use a BMW/Mini Cooper jack pad. These are typically made from rubber or aluminum. These pads work when you use a floor jack because they have a flat section to hold the pad. They don’t exactly work with a jack stand unless the stand also has a flat surface like these ESCO jack stands. The ESCO stands with a jack pad seem to be a good approach but it’s an expensive one. Each stand costs about $55, then we also have to factor in the cost of the jack pads. So, we’re essentially looking at between $200-$300 or even more, just for a four-point jack stand setup. I just think that’s way too much for what it is so it was back to searching for something else.

After some digging on eBay, I found Forsvara Engineering who makes adapters for the jack stands that I already owned. This seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

So here they are, the BMW/Mini Cooper/Toyota Supra jack stand adapters. Installation of these adapters is very straightforward. You essentially just slip the adapter over the saddle of the jack stand and tighten it down with the included bolts. Forsvara Engineering makes a variety of different adapters for some common jack stands. If you have something different, they also have two universal designs. Take this Harbor Freight Pittsburg jack stand. Forsvara makes a few different Pittsburg specific adapters, but just not for this particular model number so I had to go with a universal design. The difference between the universal adapter and the model-specific adapter is that the universal adapter comes in two pieces that clamp together around the jack stand saddle rather than one piece that slips on. The universal adapter is available in a compact and standard size. The sizes are to accommodate different sized saddles.

Take a look at them in action. With the Forsvara adapters, we now have jack stands that are perfectly suited to hold the Toyota Supra and any other BMW or Mini Cooper that uses a similar plastic post.

I can’t tell you how happy I am with these adapters. I’ve seen some sketchy setups and am so glad that to have found these adapters. This right here has got to be the best jack stand set up for the BMW jack stand supports.

If you’re planning to do your own services on the Supra, this is one of the best investments in my opinion. Check out Forsvara Engineering and support what they do. If you’re interested in anything mentioned in this post, links to everything are listed below.

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Forsvara Engineering eBay Store https://www.ebay.com/sch/forsvaraengineering/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=
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BMW Jack Pads https://amzn.to/307Bggb

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Torin BIG RED Double Locking Jack Stands T43002A

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With the recent recalls, I’ve decided to move away from my Harbor Freight Pittsburg jack stands even if they are not affected. I just don’t want to take the chance in case the recall inaccurately listed the affected stands. So, I was in need of some replacements.

After some research, I’ve decided to pick up the Torin BIG RED Double Locking Jack Stands. The stands that I purchased are rated at 3 tons but 2 and 6 ton options are also available. Indicative of the Big Red name, these jack stands are only available in red for the main body with black accents.

For the most part, the Big Red has a pretty basic design that looks like many jack stands. It has a pyramid-shaped base frame, locking handle with a rubberized tip, and a ratchet bar with a curved saddle. All pretty basic stuff.

Again, I’m replacing my Harbor Freight jack stands because of a concern over safety. From what I understand about the recall, it seems like there were some inconsistencies in the molding and casting of the various parts. I’ve seen examples where the pawl was not manufacturered correctly and that resulted in it barely touching the ratchet teeth. Because of this, if there is a shift in weight while the stands are under load or if the handle is accident touched, everything could come crashing down. This can cause damage to property, injuries, or even death.

I’ve never done any research on jack stands. The Pittsburg stands are actually the first set that I ever purchased. They were just what I had readily available around here so I bought them without hesitation. That being said, I’ve always thought that jack stands have an interesting design in the sense that the ones that utilize this basic design, essentially have no fail-safe. Everything is dependent on the pawl and ratchet design. If that ever fails, like in the case of the Pittsburg jack stands, it’s game over.

This is why I went with the Big Red double locking jack stands. Along with the standard pawl and ratchet design, this stand does have a fail-safe. This comes in the form of an additional pin. With a traditional jack stand, you lift the ratchet bar up to the desired height and call it a day. With the Big Red Double Locking jack stand, that can also be the case but if you want an additional point of safety, you can insert the pin in the side of the jack stand. Now, if the ratchet teeth happen to slip past the pawl, it would also have to get past the pin.

As of right now, I’m happy with my purchase. Hopefully, I’ll never get to find out if the double-locking design actually works under load. If you’re in the market for some new jack stands and want something safe, give these Torin BIG RED Double Locking Jack Stands a try. If you own a Harborfright Pittsburg 3 or 6 ton jack, check them immediately to make sure that they were not affected by the recall. If they are, take them back to Harbor Freight immediately. They’ll give you store credit or a comparable replacement. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been using your jacks for years and they haven’t failed yet, just get rid of them. You never know what could happen.

If you're considering buying any of the products mentioned, please support my work by using the links below.

Torin BIG RED Double Locking Jack Stands T43002A https://amzn.to/36LrDVF
Camera Gear Used: https://www.amazon.com/shop/haihoangtran?listId=3QJCL9HQG8JDW&ref=exp_haihoangtran_vl_vv_d
All the Auto Detailing Equipment I Use: https://www.amazon.com/ideas/amzn1.account.AF43XRPGVOUH2E5CJXQY4FIOGVAQ/3AI3XVAQEMORX?type=explore&ref=idea_cp_vl_ov_d

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Toyota Supra ZL1 Addons Rock Guards

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In the few miles that I’ve put on the Supra, I’ve already managed to get a few rock chips. Many of these are in the wheel wells and this is largely because of the design of the Supra itself. If we look at the body panels near the wheel wells, we can see that they dip in and expose a portion of the tires, both in the front and the rear. This allows for rocks to get picked up and fling directly at the side panels. Luckily the damage that my Supra has received is pretty minimal but it’s time to address this issue.

After some research, I came across the Rock Guards from ZL1 Addons. This product is designed to fill in the gap and cover the exposed section of tires. The great thing is that the Rock Guards utilize OEM mounting locations so there is no need for any modifications. All the required hardware is included so the install should be pretty straight forward.

Starting at the front, we’re going to turn the wheel as far as we can in the direction of the wheel well that we’re working on. Here, there are 4 push rivets towards the outer edge of the wheel well. We will be utilizing these mounting locations to install the Rock Guards. We first have to remove the OEM rivets. This is a pretty straight forward process. All we have to do is find something that fits over the center pin and push it through the rivet. Here, I’m using a center punch. I’ve found that some rivets can be easily pushed through by hand while others are more tightly held in place. For the difficult rivets, just take a hammer or mallet and drive the punch or your tool of choice through the center pin and hole. At this point, the rivet body is loosely held in place and can be extracted. This can be done with the center punch by sticking it in the hole and wiggling the rivet out. If you have a specific rivet removal tool, that’ll be great for this step. I happen to have a trim removal tool that worked pretty well. Once the OEM rivets are removed, we can take the Rock Guards and do a dry fitting to make sure that everything fits properly. I’ve seen people install the Rock Guards two different ways. You can either put them on top of the fender liner or between it and the body panel. ZL1 Addons shows pictures of the Rock Guards between the OEM panels so that’s what I went with. I also think that this provides a cleaner look. Once everything is in place, it’s time to lock the Rock Guard down. Here’s a little tip, use your pin tool to align the holes prior to installing the new rivets. Leave the tool in one of the holes so that things don’t shift too much. Now, take the new rivets and push them into place. Don’t worry about the center pin just yet. Once you’re sure that everything is seated properly, you can go ahead and make the center pins flushed with the rivet head and lock everything in place. A mallet will be a good tool for this. Once all the rivets are properly installed, we are done with one side of the front.

Let’s move on to the back. Here, ZL1 Addons doesn’t mention that it is required to take the wheels off, but it will likely make the installation more straightforward. I felt that I could install the Rock Guards with the wheels on and I’m going to show you just how I did that. Like the front Rock Guards, we are going to have to remove some OEM hardware. Instead of rivets, in the rear we have to remove 3 bolts. There isn’t much clearance room but I was able to fit a stubby rachet in here with an 8mm socket and get the bolts out. From here, it’s just a matter of installing the Rock Guards with the new hardware. If you haven’t noticed, there is a bit of a gap between the fender liner and the edge of the wheel well. To compensate for this, ZL1 Addons provides us with some spacers. These go behind the Rock Guards and everything is held in place with the provided longer screw and washer. If you’re doing this without taking the wheel off like I am, I found that the easiest way to approach this is to hand tighten the topmost hardware first. After doing this, the Rock Guards can still easily swing back and forth. This will allow for enough clearance room to mount the hardware in the other two locations. Just get everything lined up and hand tightened. Here is going to be the hardest part of this process. We now have to fully tighten these screws down. I found that there wasn’t enough clearance room for even the stubby, a socket, and a Phillips bit. I then switched to a ratcheting wrench with the bit and although this works, the bit just moved around too much for my liking. I ultimately settled on a pair of locking pliers and the Phillips bit and this combo worked great. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a bit tedious to only have enough clearance room to be turning the screws about a quarter of a turn at a time but it’s really not that bad. The spacer takes up a lot of space and the screws realistically are not fastened very deeply. It actually did not take that long for me to tighten the screws down. I can almost guarantee that doing it my way would be faster than taking the time to jack the car up, put it on stands, take the wheels off, install the Rock Guards, then put everything back together. So, if you’re interested in this product and were worried that you’d have to take the wheels off. Have no fear, it is very possible to install the Rock Guards without doing so. At this point, all there’s left to do is to install the Rock Guards on all four corners and we are done.

I have to be honest, I was on the fence with the Rock Guards because I thought that they’d be very obtrusive and obvious. Now that I have them installed, they actually look very factory. If someone is not familiar with the Supra, they probably wouldn’t think anything of the Rock Guards. They just fit very well on the Supra. The color matches very well with the existing plastics and they are just wide enough to cover the entire tire and be functional but not wide enough to alarm anyone. They look good and will provide lots of protection. If you’re asking me, I have no absolutely no hesitation in recommending the ZL1 Addons Rock Guards for the Toyota Supra.

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