The blackhole to my paychecks =p

[imstillonjava]

I thought I'd backdate a little before memory gets more muddled.
The fd was the 3rd car I'd ever owned. It came at a great deal, but definitely needed a lot of TLC. Clean title, great price, strong motor (was on its 3rd one), reliability mods....and....left a lot to be desired in the chassis with 208,000 miles. As expected, the interior, the suspension, and the body needed some good amount of work.

I picked it up end of spring 2006.


And then I got to doing a lot of maintenance.

New tires, fuel pulsation dampener, spark plugs, fuel filter, flushed all fluids, new master and slave clutch cylinders, new battery, new balljoints for the front lower and upper control arms, new tie rods, switched in another set of twins, and started fixing some of the cracked interior pieces like the driverside door+ trim. New glovebox handle, center tunnel since the brackets for broken and loose, driverside window switch was dead as well.

I eventually got around to the funner stuff. I picked up a HKS downpipe and sent it to Swaintech for their White Lightening ceramic coating. I've never seen any ceramic coat that could compare, but its surface texture renders its application to be more limited.

I also picked up the UIM and LIM ceramachromed from Rich.
HKS RS intakes with some purple filters went on as well
Can't forget the Apex-i PFC
Oh...and I decided I didn't want the. airpump and installed block off plates.
..and a polished alternator cover.

The carpet...oh man that needed to GO! That eliminated a great amount of smell in the interior!






After updating the carpet, I freshened up the shiftboot and ebrake boots from Redlinegoods and topped it off with a rx8 5 speed shiftknob.

The cat was beyond dead on the car, as was the thermal exhaust. They both were past their last leg. So out it dropped and in went a SMB metallic cat and a Ganador titanium exhaust....only to be replaced later on with a Feed sonic titanium exhaust....which then got replaced with....another Feed sonic titanium exhaust. hahaha.

man I love engrish.



See? I really did have two :X



I went through the strut bar phases.
First the Autoexe front, then the ARC titanium one....twice =P I never learn!

I was sad to let the rear Autoexe go, I spent so much time making it fit so flush!


And then boost controller phases. Knightsports EBSIII, ESIV, and I finally settled on the Apex-i AVCR.


Oh...and suspensions....aragosta? ohlin? aragosta?...ohlin pcvs it is!





Somewhere along the lines I ended up upgrading the fuel setup with a supra pump and refreshed 550s and 1300s using Witchunter.
Oh yeah! and the surge tank cover.

[imstillonjava]

Can't forget the exterior...
I wanted to go all FEED. So eventually, I had pieced together a set of FEED cf hood, fenders, rear fenders (yet to go on the car permanently), and cf sidesteps.
I have the RE-Amemiya diffuser with the side generators still sitting in the study room garnering dust for the time being also.

And I ended up picking up a set of FEED halogen signals/fogs, tow hooks, and light covers.

I know theres also a brand spanking new set of Ganador side mirrors hiding somewhere in the garage along with the newer round tail lights.

And the parts along with the EVO-R projector headlights somehow turned my montego blue car half unpainted black.


And these CE28s which were put on just to see how flush it would sit with the rears....are actually just hanging out in the garage as is with not a mile on them I rolled it onto the driveway about once so far! What a shame.



The seats in the car were torn (at least the driverside was terribly so, and it smelled funny as well!) So after much debate, I ended up going with a ASM Recaro TS-G bucket set.





And in the last couple months, I decided to finally install these delrin bushings I purchased, but in the course of installing those, getting the arms beadblasted and then clearcoating them, it was discovered more oem pillowballs, bushings, and rubber boots that were in need or replacement as well as the boots at the end of the tie rods.
And a start on the suspension got bigger and bigger. Everything was out, and I decided to upgrade the sway bars to a set of Feed sways I found for a good deal. And I decided to pair that up with a bunch of Super Now parts and a Makers7 tranny brace.
That'd be a great improvement to go along with the Noltec motor mounts that were installed earlier.










And then an opportunity for a Raceshop roll bar came by, and I didn't want to miss this chance again...


Ah, I forgot about this piece earlier. Polished and ceramic coated.


And last on my agenda for this post, but definitely not least. Something I wanted to replace the EVO-R headlights with because I wasn't satisfied with fitment or quality....a buddy helped me get a hold of these to go on the car.






Things that still need to go on now that are still packed away or enroute.
-RE-Amemiya VMIC
-Knightsports RF420 turbos.
-Apexi AST

Ah...might I add, newest part on the car is a red/pinkish r-magic oil cap...thats nifty and cool looking, but matches nothing like all getout!



...I can't wait to drive this thing again!

[KaiFD3S]

daym Carol, how much cash have you spent...LOL...I thought I spent a lot....

[Brent]

your car is looking great!! Tons of very nice and rare parts! I really like your seats. From the pictures though, it looks like they sit higher than stock, is that right? BTW, keep those headlights away from Charlie

[imstillonjava]

Originally Posted by Brent

your car is looking great!! Tons of very nice and rare parts! I really like your seats. From the pictures though, it looks like they sit higher than stock, is that right? BTW, keep those headlights away from Charlie

I shimmed them to stock height because......i'm 5'3'' and need to see over the steering wheel. HAHAHAH. But they can drop much lower.

[bbade]

wow awesome car man, i'm rather jealous

[charlies7]

NOOOOOO. How much did you get the headlights for? Im a HUGE fan of R-Magic and I really like your taste in parts. Great project and keep us updated. If you ever wanna sell the lights give me a jingle

[MaczPayne]

Wow, I just walked in on Christmas.

You make me jealous. Will it be done before 7stock?!

[imstillonjava]

Originally Posted by KaiFD3S

daym Carol, how much cash have you spent...LOL...I thought I spent a lot....

I'm just trying to catch up to you! Your car is an inspiration ^_^

Originally Posted by charlies7

NOOOOOO. How much did you get the headlights for? Im a HUGE fan of R-Magic and I really like your taste in parts. Great project and keep us updated. If you ever wanna sell the lights give me a jingle

I dont know if I would sell it, but if you ever want to pick up a set, I know a little birdie that can get you a price that I think is a little better than elsewhere

Originally Posted by MaczPayne

Wow, I just walked in on Christmas.

You make me jealous. Will it be done before 7stock?!

Ken wanted me to have it ready, but I think it'd be a bit rushed. I'd have only a little more than a month to work with. Guess we'll see, but my prediction is 'not likely' I'll still swing by sevenstock though!

[Miata_mx5]

Originally Posted by imstillonjava

I dont know if I would sell it, but if you ever want to pick up a set, I know a little birdie that can get you a price that I think is a little better than elsewhere

He does not want lights just yet i think, maybe something else though.......

[charlies7]

indeed......

Originally Posted by Miata_mx5

He does not want lights just yet i think, maybe something else though.......

[Max777]

Nice! this looks to me like the proper way to build a car like the FD!

Althrough... I vote to get your lights replaced with RE-Amemiya lights, those looks a lot better than the squinty eye r magics... but that's just me!

[imstillonjava]

colorzzzzz!

[MaczPayne]

Why must you taunt me with those Ohlins?

Oh, you're also missing those Nagisa Auto UCA's :P

[renesisfury]

Wow! Beautiful build, I can see that the black hole is active.