Thanks Jeri. So much cussing but this song goes hard.

And this commercial just got me. Someone emailed it to me recently and it had me thinking about Nico, and the fact we were planning to go to Final Bout with the guys.

I was determined to do a Club Loose event this year. It had been 2 years since I had been on that track and it presented some challenges I wanted to surmount in the SC, namely the first entry. I had never done the course with a working ebrake and most of the time I had no power steering.

This time I had both so I was looking forward to the challenge. The car is heavy and not well suited to a track like this but I was satisfied by the end of the day. Next time will be even better.

Richman

This day was also our friend Jonny’s birthday. So we put together and got him a cake. If you look close at the picture below you can see us tearing into it. He was super surprised and really happy. That made the day!

Then we went and got Pizza and drove home.

Every car I had built up to this point was restrained. I did the safe road on them and while they looked good I wanted to go hard this time. So the over fenders, hood vent, red interior were all part of the plan. But I wanted to top it off with something I didn’t see on any other SC. A GT wing coupled with a low slung spoiler. I had no idea if it would work but I just did what I felt.

Test fitting the Bomex spoiler on the wingless trunk I wrapped Gold for extra nuts factor.

I measured and cut the bomex to fit around the GT wing and then painted it with some rainbow flake.

The gas flap broke off so I pulled one off my old shell and wrapped it to match the trunk. Kind of cool!

The homey David Lu caught me at work parked all alone.

After the oval event I was kind of drained. After about 4 years of trying to get the SC together and finally having a “successful” outing I just wanted to relax and not stress about getting into the garage. I didn’t even wash the car. I parked it in the garage and focused on getting back in shape and riding my motorcycle. Around this time my friend Nico passed away a week after my grandfather. Going to his funeral let me realize how many people have become important to me just through this hobby. I took some time out one weekend to go to visit Rich Whiteman aka Richman at his new house. It’s so huge I named it White Castle. The plan was to take a few shots of our cars together but it was stuck at the dyno. Tony from Freedom Motorsports came through and we just sat and talked all day. A good time. No work, no stress, just chill.

Kato saying “Bruh, What Are Thoooosee???”

I got an invite for a stylish car day at a private track. So after getting the car pretty I had to address the biggest issue on the SC. The power steering and the angle. Richman had cut up and welded my knuckles for me but I had not yet installed them.

Off with the front.

New rack.

Old out.

I wanted to get these coated but I didn’t even have time to paint them.

New knucks in.

As I was putting my AN fittings into the new rack I had a complete brain fart and used an impact gun.

Completely sheared apart the fitting. I was frantically calling places to see if they had any fittings for me to use. Then I remembered I had recommended my friend Punch to use the same lines that I had for his Cressida. but they turned out to be too short. I called Punch and he was going to take a lunch break and would meet me at his apartment and give me the brand new kit. I tried to pay him for it but he wouldn’t take any money. A great friend! I hustled back and got everything buttoned up. Thanks to Brent for driving me out to Punch’s. I would have missed the track otherwise. I didn’t take before or after pix of the angle but I noticed a big difference. I also ditched the rack spacer which for some reason blows the seals.

I took the SC out to “The Oval”, a private track near Penn State about 3 hours away. This was the first real test of the car since I redid the brakes and suspension. On the highway the car was smooth aside from some rubbing and sideskirt to road contact. My brother followed me out and my homie Punch met up with me at the track a few min. after we got there.

I love how low the car is and that it tucks rim under compression. Sadly the car has so little grip I may have to remove some camber.

Alex is an excellent driver. Hans Lessig takes some great shots too!

Some cheesy footage.

Overall the car felt good. I was happy with the angle. We could have gone a bit more aggressive but it was a vast improvement. The rack was smooth and I didn’t have to muscle the car as much. But I needed to get rid of some camber for more grip. The car had not a lot of forward bit mid drift.

Eric sent me a photo to let me know how much he loved my car and its horrendous body.

Rich texted me a few times to let me know the prep on my car was taking longer than expected. I tried to warn them!

I did a few things to get it ready but couldn’t get to it all. I fixed a hole in my rear bumper, and a few other plastic spots, got rid of a bunch of tar and a mystery rubber all over the car.

This was the next shot I saw and I was amped. I decided to go with no added pearl and I’m glad. Eric and Rich’s cars looked nuts but I wanted a more simple quiet look since my car isn’t making 400hp and I don’t drive nearly as good as those dudes.

Matchy Matchy

Car could use a good cut and buff.

Monday I got the car home and started to assemble it.

My ocd was screaming when I dropped it off knowing it wasnt going to be perfect but I was super happy with how it came out for what it was.



A spot on the bumepr I filled that previously was for DZus fasteners. I didn’t prep it right and the paint just seeped into it.

It can always be touched up later!

Thursday night I took the car to my local home depot parking garage and finished attaching everything. New roof spoiler and some other additions.

Fixed a few issues with the headlight and got the alignment a bit closer in. It was way way way off in a rush to get the car drivable to paint.

With 2 days to get ready for paint I needed to swap my chewed up front fenders for the straight ones I bought about two years ago. I also needed to clean up this weird rubber spashing on the car. This chassis had some super strange stuff with it since I got it. Actually when I saw it in person I decided not to buy it. But Ali who was selling it gave me a decent deal. Being that it was a 5 speed manual car I bought it. But I wish I went with a nicer body.

Having a small garage with no light has its drawbacks. As darkness fell I had to use touch more than sight. I cut myself so many times and smashed many parts of my body.

I had a spare bumper and new sideskirts as well to get painted. I put the fiberglass bumper on because I knew I would not have a truck to carry the spare and the oem could be folded into a car.

This is the reason I went to a 235/35/18. The frame on the SC is insanely low and 40 series would get caught on transitions. The car bottoms out but I went with a 20kg spring to try and limit that.

Installing stuff months after you get it is such a bad idea. I found out while putting the drivers side fender on that ALL the mounting holes not under the hood were broken off and missing. So I fitted it the best I could in the dark. I had to hammer the lips flat as well since I didn’t have my fender roller. So they came out pretty bad. I should be able to smooth them out with the roller later though.

My neighbor friend Nate loaded up the bumper in his Camaro and we drove 1.5 hours to Eric’s house to drop the car off.

Then Eric showed up with the other cars. FC and S13 both LSX making around 400hp each. Boss.

I got word recently that my homies SC went up in a fire. Super bummed about it. I plan to give him my old shell and all spare parts so he can get a ride out mobile asap.

I hit up my dude Richman to get my knuckles cut finally. The steering on the SC is insanely crappy. I installed a Maverick Motorsports rack spacer, and while it greatly improved the angle it has blown two racks. I spoke to Alex Pfieffer and he let me know that he has never been able to use one without blowing racks. So I decided to get my knuckles cut (although being against them in the past) as the SC has the worst angle stock.

Science

While there and checking out the shop he let me know that he and his cousin Eric were going to be painting their cars that Friday. We had attempted to coordinate colors in the past, specifically LP2 Midnight purple but the paint was just too expensive. Eric had gotten a significant discount so I decided to jump in. I went home and immediately started to prep the car.

I took a friday off to go over to my friend Collins shop. He was stopping in only for a short time to do a few things before he went to NY. But he was kind enough to let me use the space and tools to cut the car up for over fenders. I had to raise the car to get it to the shop as the speed bumps going to the shop were pretty big. That morning I pulled the car out the garage and jacked it up. I walked back to get a jack stand and heard a loud crash. The car fell off the jack. something made me wait to pull the wheels off and I’m glad I did. Twice I left for Collins shop and had to return to the garage to tighten the suspension. Hicas on full lock.

Electricity everywhere!

It took me a while to warm up to doing overs. The fact that the paint on this car was so bad made it easier.

I used a razor to mark where to cut.

One motion had cut the inner fender already so the bacon method was out the door. Once I started cutting I felt totally good about doing over fenders.

The entire quarter was bondo. So much that dust covered the shop and the car.

I didn’t want to cross the body line in case I decided to go back to metal flares.

Then I realized that was stupid.


My welding plus the contaminated metal and the not greatest welder made for some sucky welds.

Celebretory burnie.

On the way home all five passenger rear studs broke leaving me stranded. Luckily I had just gotten off the main road.

Before this the suspension felt great on the street.

Thanks to Jackie, Punch, and a fellow named Ron that stopped to help out I got it back home about 1:30am.

That Sunday I trimmed the overs to fit, i primed the welds, added fender liner, and filled the gaps with expanding Urethane.

Unfortunately I did not have the fitting I needed (M6) for my rivnut gun. So I ordered one and just mocked the quarters up.

Now that the quarters were sealed I was able to instal my rear seats finally. They make the car feel soooo much better. I have a few trim pieces to swap out and the belts still need to come out.

I also started to work on the ashy rear deck that had the GT wing on.

On a whip I decided to wrap it in Rose Gold. I stink at wrapping and it came out pretty bad. I had to cut it in two and sand the peeling clear coat down. I plan to get a Bomex rep spoiler to hide the seam.

That finally brings us current. I missed a ton and some is out of order but whatev.