Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 20…
I’ll be at the Super Street FF-Battle today so if you guys wanna stop by and chill, you know where to find me…Anyways, back with more of Big Mike’s Prelude rebuild. Basically just assembly of new engine pieces and maintanence here and there before the F20B goes back in…
Brand new Bisimoto cam gears…
Timing belt, windshield clips, grommets, spark plug seals, cam seals, valve cover shit, cowl clips, etc…
Big Mike’s homie Ejay came by to help out…
Old Skunk2 cam gears and timing belt coming out…
…and replaced by the Bisi cam gears, orange of course to match the custom orange exterior,…
…and new OEM timing belt…
Fitting for the custom clutch lines…
Mocking up the clutch master cylinder…
Bit of a minor set-back with the reservoir being too close to the firewall…
ARP 12-point stainless steel mounting hardware…
More stuff being mocked up for fabrication…
By the next update the motor should be in the car. While that’s stuff is going on, here’s some shots of the wheels that are getting refinished…
If you guys are wondering, no these won’t be like super aggressive low offset wheels. That’s not Big Mike’s style really. We tried to convince him but he’s more of a old school guy and he doesn’t want to do crazy fender mods to get wheels to fit any what not. What can I say, it’s not for everyone. Definitely shouldn’t take away from the build though….
Back with more as it comes in…
The road to Nisei…Tony’s neglected NSX…Part 2…
Finally, an update on the NSX…Last time we checked-in, the NSX was being used as a storage unit with all kinds of shit stuff inside of it. Well Tony finally emptied it out and being to tear off the front-end so that it could be sent off for repairs…
Don’t think many people got to see the rear of this NSX before with the rear diffuser installed. He had actually just put this on last year before Nisei but as you all know, the trailer fucked this thing up pretty badly so no one ever got to see it. You can also see the custom center-exit L-Con exhaust…
Nice to see the interior again after all the clothes and shit were taken out…
Front-end off…
Here’s a better look at the damage that was done…Alot of cracks and chunks missing. Hopefully once it’s fixed it’ll be as good as new…The biggest issue is the carbon lower piece. Most likely won’t be able to keep the complete carbon look anymore and will probably have to be painted once repaired….
Gotta figure out the audio too since this thing used to have a complete audio set-up. Most of the stuff was sold and or moved onto his other car…
Look at the damage done to the fender…yikes. I can’t imagine the feeling watching that shit tear apart like that. Even the sideskirts were damaged because it’s all essentially one piece…
Everything that needs to be fixed has been removed and sent off to the bodyshop for paint and repairs…
While all the body stuff is being taken care of, it’ll give Tony a chance to finally install this ARC oil pan that’s just been sitting in his garage for ages now…
He also just got these mirrors recently…
That’s it for now. Basically just needs to fix little things here and there, umm…get the car running finally haha, battery is probably shot, and of course the bodywork. Stay tuned….
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 19…
Dammmmnnn…part 19 already. Before I begin though, I thought I’d mention that I make my writing debut in the new issue of Super Street that’s out on newstands now. I’m grateful for the opportunity and happy to expand my horizons in the industry. If you see it make sure to pick it up. My homie Chris also makes his debut in this mag too, but as a photographer. I’ve known the guy for awhile now and he’s also one of the few guys in the Accord community that doesn’t hate me. Haha, I don’t blame them though, I guess, success usually tends to breed contempt. Just how it is. Anyway, Chris is a hell of a photographer and I’m happy I convinced him to come out to Socal cuz it kinda helped him get his foot in the door. How fitting that we both make our debuts at the same time. I’m still freelance of course so I continue to do work for Honda Tuning as well so if you’re wondering, no, I’m not jumping ship. I’m like a hired gun, so to speak… So far so good over at SS though, Jonathan Wong is a cool dude…
What better way to kick off the start of my work over at SS then to show a picture of me drinking while sitting on top of a toilet. It’s almost poetic…Damn, I almost miss that ridiculous hair…
On with the build shall we?…
This will be the 19th of the series so far…which will be dubbed…”The Rywire Section”. Black and white for dramatic effect, and obviously to hide the fresh orange paintjob. I also made it black and white because Rywire doesn’t see the sun much with all his wiring duties, so he has an unusual pastel white glow about him when photographed. B&W is the only way to make him blend in. He’s so white he glows is what I’m trying to say. He’s doing all the work and it’s much appreciated. Anyone who’s willing to drive back and forth from Norcal to Socal week-to-week to do work is a down ass mofo. Gotta give him props for doing that…I can’t even stay awake walking from my car to my apartment so I can’t imagine driving almost 15 hours round trip all the time…
Rywire surveying the filthy interior after it came back from paint, trying to figure out where to start…
The mess….
The only time the words “Big Mike” and “scrubdown” will ever be used and used in a non-creepy or prison-love context…
Ryan puttin’ in work…
Break-time…
After the under-dash wiring was cleaned up, it was time to move on to the engine…
AEM CDI Pencil Coil conversion…Basically used as a type of individual coil-pack for each plug, like newer models that are DIS, or distributorless ignition systems…These are used for better spark delivery and to run in conjunction with AEM engine management. Big Mike tells me that he basically ordered the entire AEM catalog….
Ry-wired up…Using only the best stuff of course. Gotta have the DR25 Raychem stuff…
Booster delete to manual brakes…. After Ryan finished up the coil pack wiring, next up was custom brakelines…
The results…
Big Mike also managed to find an OE Prelude car cover…
…Here he’s demonstrating the Big Mike Scrubdown after clubbing Rywire in the head with a dumbbell…sick.
More to follow as it comes in…thanks for looking…
IA Follow-up…
Love the discussion guys, keep it coming…haha. I know that what I said might have came off a little insensitive but after having a talk with my boy Chris out in the midwest, I think we came to an agreement that both events are very different. Is IA better than Eibach? No…totally different event. It’s always good to talk about these things though because it helps us see how different people in different regions see things. I love the guys out east and their cars, hell when they came out here, I personally drove out to wherever they were just to hang out with them and meet them. So it’s not like I got any resentment towards the east/midwest. Keep doing your thing. Shit, alot of you guys out there are helping me rep this site so I certainly can’t say anything bad about that. Like Chris said though, most of the guys out there that support this site “get it” and they understand what I’m trying to say. I’m happy you guys got big things going on out there, it’s about time! Haha…alright alright, time to stop…keep doing big things people.
I heard them say “what-bach?”…A commentary about Import Alliance…You can hate me now…
Let me begin by saying this…What I’m about to tell you is not for everyone and many of you may not understand what I’m trying to say. I have alot of “acquaintances” out east and in the mid-west, many of whom I consider to be friends. I’ve also had the opportunity to meet alot of these guys in person during the Eibach meet of this year. Some I’ve met through the internet forums. There a good group of guys, many of whom are very good at building Hondas and very innovative in their own right. This is not for them. The PG+K guys are cool, I love their cars, and they are one of the staples (in my opinion) of the Honda scene outside the west coast. This is not for them.
This is for the guys who are running amock on Honda-Tech and other forums screaming “what-bach?” and others who are trying to swear up and down that Import Alliance shits on the annual Eibach meet. Really? Maybe in sheer numbers….but we’re in the business of “Quality over Quantity”…
I’ll be honest. I was actually somewhat intrigued by the idea of traveling out there to check this out. As a fan of the community and someone who works in the industry, I wanted to go out there. We got alot going on out here lately so it wasn’t the most opportune time to just purchase a plane ticket and fly out. I had been discussing with Mikeyyyy and the rest of our group whether or not to make the trek out there and it was hard to have everyones’ schedules work together to make it happen. When alot of the midwest/east coast heads were out here for Eibach, I had a chance to discuss Import Alliance with them and they all told me the same thing. “It’s definitely a fun event” they said but….but….”there’s no way that the quality of our cars out there can match the number of quality cars out here at an Eibach meet”. I’m not making this up. It was the general consensus of people who have been to both events. There’s no way an Eibach meet can match the sheer numbers of a multi-interstate meet like IA. It wouldn’t be possible. We wouldn’t have anywhere to put them and we’d get shut down for flooding the streets. Hell, that’s practically what’s happening now. IA tops Eibach in the numbers game, there’s no argument there. But the quality ratio speaks for itself. I don’t wanna look at maybe 100 nice cars and then have to comb through 1,500 cars I’ve already seen somewhere else or are imitations of top cars out here. That’s what’s great about the Eibach meet, the numbers are still relatively small and the majority of them, are incredibly detailed builds. “Did he just say imitations of top cars out west?” Yes I did. Motherfuckers are biting. HARD. I would show you the pics but we all know who did what and who’s copying who.
There’s no comparison really, because they’re two very different events. IA has the numbers and is a multi-platform event. Eibach meets bring the quality. Even the top dogs of the east will tell you that. I’ll put money on that statement.
I understand that one of the best parts of the IA meets is the cruise there and the huge caravans. It’s also very cool to have enthusiasts who come from different states to unite at one event to show off their cars. That’s a great thing. Does it dismiss what we do out here? Fuck no. And if that’s your reasoning behind thinking that IA is better than Eibach, you’re fucking dumb.
If you wanna think about it, put it in these terms. Would you rather go to a club where there’s less chicks but they’re all hot or go to a club and have to comb through a bunch of so-so looking girls just to find some hot ones….you see what I’m saying?
Import Alliance better than Eibach? Uhh…”Sorry”. Two very different events…. “What-bach?”….haha…you guys are taking this shit waaaayyy too seriously.
With that put to rest, can someone please tell me why no one can get a full shot of a car at IA? Every picture I’ve seen is like a motor shot, or like, one section of a car, like a fuckin fender or something. Can we get some complete shots please?
A wiseman once said… “You can teach a guy to do a j-swap, but you can’t expect him to make a hood that fits.” Come on guys, someone out there bank on this and fab a hood that fits please? Like a dude walkin’ around with half a cock out…
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 18…
Ahh…time for part 18 of the ongoing Big Mike Prelude rebuild…
So Big Mike decided to clean up some suspension stuff before putting the pieces back into the car and rolling it out of the bodyshop…
Gotta have the new toothbrushes so that the steering rack doesn’t get cavities…?
Post-cleaning…
Also, cleaned the control arms, coilovers, etc…
Crossmember was pretty dirty too so that was also cleaned up…
Steering rack re-installed…
More OEM stuff…
Random stuff that came back from chroming…
After all that cleaning was done, it was time to head back to the bodyshop to get the Prelude home…
Officially done with paint and flawless…
Before getting the car out, the steering rack had to be re-installed to be able to roll out of the shop…
Rack and crossmember back in…
Since the car is semi-back together, here’s a shot of the chromed door hinges…nice touch…
Ryan aka Rywire guiding the car out and onto the trailer…
…and finally back at home…
Now is when the real fun begins…full reassembly, motor work, installation of the lines….stay tuned.
International love, mistaken identity, etc…
Am I the only one that thinks that the Dave Matthews band fuckin sucks? Not just like a regular suck, where you go “ehh, shits kinda whack” but like “fuck, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything good from them” kind of suck. I’m usually pretty open about what music I listen to and will listen to basically anything, but you know what? Dave Matthews band kinda sucks. There’s no punchline to that joke, I am just not a fan. If I saw Dave Matthews I’d buy the guy a beer but I sure hope he doesn’t sing me a song or something…Anyways…fuck…
So I’m gonna get back to Big Mike’s rebuild this weekend when he gets me some more stuff. The guy is like cleaning his parts with brand new toothbrushes. I woulda just gone with old toothbrushes that I don’t use anymore but that’s just Big Mike for you. He goes out and buys new toothbrushes to clean his rack and pinion while I’m willing to bet he’s using an old ass tooth brush for his own teeth. Haha. Speaking of Big Mike, I’ve actually had a couple people tell me that they think that when I say “Big Mike”, they think I mean I’m talking about HeyMikeyyyy. I asked them why and they tell me because his name is Mike and he’s big. That’s fucked up first of all. And secondly, Big Mike is not HeyMikeyyyy. I’m sure both parties would be kinda offended by the confusion so to clear the air, they are not the same person. The main difference is that HeyMikeyyyy eats meat and Big Mike is a vegetarian. Yeah, that’s the main difference. They don’t look different or anything…haha…
And for those of you that don’t know, this was Big Mike’s old car circa 2003…
If you were to hop on my time travel machine, which I no longer use by the way, and head back to 2003, you would probably find me in the parking-lot of SDSU sleeping in my car. Sure I was supposed to be in class but I was tired okay? Big Mike on the otherhand, was already doing Big things….no (big) pun intended….crush alot. Huh? This picture was taken back in the day when Extreme Autofest was never good. The only good thing about them was that girls used to get naked and bikini contests were contests of who could get naked first and not “fashion shows”.
Aaaaanyways….I got an email the other day from Takeshi from Type K Autosource in Japan. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Type K, they’re basically the equivalent of what importers do here in the US for JDM parts. The USDM scene over there has quite a bit of a cult-following and they’re all about making their cars resemble their US counterparts. Takeshi had purchased a big batch of stickers from me before because people over there were asking for them and he emailed me the other day for even more stuff, including shirts. I guess many of the Japanese enjoy reading The Chronicles and seeing the US west coast Honda community. I wonder if they actually read the stuff I write. If so I wonder if alot of what I say is lost in translation…
Takeshi also told me that he was out here for the Eibach meet earlier this year and he also purchased a USDM Integra Type R while he was out here. He even sent me pics…
The funniest part of his email was when he told me this…
(I) recently finally got USDM ITR infront of my shop. Actually when I visit at EIBACH in MAY, it was trip to buy ITR for me. So I’m very happy to own USDM ITR and she will be safe rest of her life… no one steal ITR anymore in JAPAN.
Fuck, “no one steal ITR anymore”? I didn’t even know they steal Hondas in Japan. Does that shit end up in TJ like the ones here? Haha…I must admit, it’s pretty cool to see a LHD ITR overseas. Better there than here obviously because they definitely still steal ITRs here and at least that ITR entered another country with good intentions.
I need to get some rest so I’ll leave you with a piece that my boy Salem did for me. He told me that he cut this and a couple more awhile back but just never had the chance to show me…
Pretty cool right? Can’t wait to see the other ones…
The homie Loi Song also passed this on to me a couple weeks ago. It’s my first t-shirt model…
This shirt must be comfortable because everytime I see Billy in it, the dude is falling asleep…First at the Eibach meet and now in the car…Haha. I think this was around the time when Loi had him drive the Sportcar Civic from Riverside to the K&N facilities for a portion of the Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge. Driving a gutted Civic with no A/C in LA traffic during rush hour in scorching summer heat with a black shirt? No thanks…that’s like listening to Dave Matthews band..Ohhh intro, body, conclusion, guess I didn’t sleep through all my years of college afterall!
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 17…
Back in the paint booth for the last time….welcome back to Big Mike’s rebuild…part uhhh….17…
After Big Mike looked over the car for the final time, the bodyshop went and repaired all spots Big Mike deemed to be “unsatisfactory”…
You can see from the discolored sections that they’ve been sanded down and primered…
He wasn’t happy with the way the doorjambs came out either so he had them take the hinges off and repaint that section…
And here it is fresh out of paint:
Both seats are now done as well. After the paint work was finished, Big Mike even brought the Prelude home so it’s sitting at his place now ready for reassembly…
Glass has gotta go back in too, so of course OEM glass pieces were ordered as well as moldings…
Back next time with more updates. It should be sitting at home now with Big Mike and the homies putting it back together. Paint was quite an adventure but I’m sure the reassembly won’t span another 17 parts. Everything should be straight forward from here….
Support Hondas!…
Okay, for all of you who tuned in to see Big Mike build coverage, I swear, it is coming tomorrow. I was basically tying up some loose ends for work today and editing some pictures when I caught this on the Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge website. It contains a couple of videos of Loi Song and the Sportcar Motion Civic and basically breaksdown what is in the car. This is one of the premier time attack Hondas in competition right now and we would all appreciate it if you clicked on the link below and took 5 min out of your busy day to watch the videos. You can watch it while on the toilet, inbetween commercial breaks, while you’re waiting for your pRon to finish downloading, etc…. SUPPORT HONDAS. Click the link below…
I can’t begin to stress how important it is to support Hondas in any form of road racing competition. If you read the Chronicles then you probably have love for Hondas and especially this one since I’ve documented it on numerous occassions. Now meet the man behind the build and the owner of Sportcar Motion.
CLICK HERE to go to the Castrol SYNTEC Top Car Challenge site featuring the Sportcar Motion Civic.
Thank you guys so much for doing so.
N1 Concepts Grand Opening and Norcal Adventures…
Okay, finally back with a bunch of shit for you guys to stare at. Tomorrow will be Big Mike build continuation but today we’re gonna take a look at our adventures in Norcal. Man I ate so much this past weekend….if we did anything this weekend, it was definitely the mass consumption of food…Let us begin…
So I had to go to a wedding that Friday in the afternoon because it was for a close friend and I promised her that I would be there. I woke up like at around 9am or so and got ready. I packed all my shit because I knew I wasnt gonna have time to return home before I headed off to Mikeyyyy’s so I loaded up the Fo-Runner and headed off to San Diego. I show up to SD around 12:15pm and it just so happens that my homie and brother from a Mexican mother, Jose, is in town and he and his wife pick me up to go have lunch. I mash on a California Burrito and after that I headed off to the wedding…
The wedding was pretty short but it was definitely a good one. It was hot as shit that day though and I still had to drive up to Magic Mountain area so I didn’t stay very long. I just hung out for the ceremony and then took some pics after and left.
I go back to my parents and change back to normal clothes and head out from SD around 5:30pm. Traffic wasn’t too shitty so I make it to Mikeyyyy’s place around 8:50pm. While I was waiting for him to come home from helping his dad, DPK*David and his girl roll up next to me. He mentioned he wanted to go last week but I thought he was joking so it was weird to actually see him show up. I guess his girl had never been there and he decided to take her up and show her around.
We hang out at the house for a little bit and set off for Norcal. Apparently (Though Salem denies the fuck out of it) there was a fire at the grapevine which resulted in traffic being deadlocked for awhile. They were like an hour or so ahead of us so they got the worst of it. It took us awhile to get outta there but we eventually made it out once all the firetrucks got out of the way. I hadn’t eaten dinner yet so we decided to take a rest stop at Tejon and I grabbed some IN-N-OUT…
David decided to take like 20 minutes at the gas station trying to decided what to drink and after that we went to the Starbucks. We headed out and were making good time but all the drinks David had made him want to piss real bad so we had to make another stop…
These are the cars we took up north. No Hondas sorry…
David went to go stay at Ray from ATS Garage’s house and we made it to the Residence Inn around roughly 5am. Salem and the other guys were already there and sleeping so we got settled down and went to bed. Mikeyyyy and Tina woke up at 8 or so to try out the “greatest breakfast ever” according to Salem. I just decided to sleep until 9. By the time I got ready to go eat breakfast with them, Mikey and Tina came back with disappointed looks on their faces and we just went back to sleep again. Woke up later on around 11am and took off to N1 Concepts….
Not really sure what was going on here but this was the first thing I saw when I showed up at N1…
Some Hondas that were outside the meet…
This was the scene when I walked up to N1 Concepts. They had a couple cars posted up front and girls posing for pics and what not. They also provided free drinks and free hot dogs. Both of which I consumed heavily upon arrival.
This silver DC2 belongs to Hai. Pretty nice set-up overall and the stance was on point. The Integra as a whole is nice. The only major complaint I have about it is that fake Ebay Spoon brake caliper covers. They were like really obvious too because if you look at it closely, you can still see the stock caliper under them….Other than that I really like the car. Just some little touches here and there and it could be a pretty badass DC…
This car I’m a little confused about. JDM ITR front on an EG is definitely different…does it match? Ehh, that’s debatable. BYS bumper too, and you know that ain’t cheap…
I’m sure this was the most talked about car of the whole weekend. Only twin turbo K I’ve ever seen and with good reason. Kinda unnecessary except for some cool points. I was informed that it only made about 360hp on the dyno as well. Something a bigger single turbo could have done so you know that it was done just so the owner could say that they were trying to be different….
Here’s a closer look at the turbos and the manifold set-up….
Like I said, the car is not bad. Someone, who will remain unindentified, mentioned that the car “needs a hug” and that’s spot on. It’s got some good unique ideas, but the execution is a bit sloppy. Definitely interesting to have a twin turbo set-up though. I had an idea to do that but just didn’t have the resources to do it.
David showed up right after us and is in this pic talking to Serg from People’s Choice…
Walked around inside the showroom area, then realized that they had another section to keep their shop cars and other folks who they knew that went to the meet that day….
Had to give this dude a shout-out for the stiffest greaziest (yes new word) asian helmet mullet EVER. You had to see it in person. It looked like one of those aerodynamic helmets that they use on the Tour de France or some shit…haha. Plus the dude was shooting models all day with sunglasses on. Gotta give him props for being down to rock that helmet hair so hard. I was taking this pic and he hawked at me like he was the fuckin terminator haha…
Pretty cool touch to have the S2000 inside their showroom…After hanging out for a little bit we got hungry and decided to go eat…
On the way to the car I caught this nice CR-X rolling out of the meet…
Also caught this purple DC2…
Ended up at this spot that Salem recommended called the Texas Roadhouse…
The homies trying to figure out what to eat….
I had the pulled pork and bbq chicken. Didn’t get any pics of it because I was gorging myself but thats just an example of some of the stuff we were eating. The food there was really fucking good. Wish we had one of those down here so that we could eat it all the time….haha. Maybe they do actually, just never had a chance to eat it…It’s kinda like Lucille’s down in Socal but less expensive….
Tina is probably still raving about how good the bread and cinnamon butter is…. After we finished eating and shot the shit for awhile, we headed back to go grab Salem’s TSX from N1 Concepts. The meet was already over but some cars were still around so I took some more pics…
Saw this gem in the back corner of the shop. Very nice hatch. I’m sure alot of you have seen it before because there’s one pic of it that is floating around on the internet and always seems to get posted.. It was kinda taken apart so I guess they’re doing work on it…
The J’s DC2 after the N1 crew moved it back inside…
OG Honda bike…
Hung out at the shop a little bit more and had a chance to see what they carry there and what not. Alot of good stuff inside and those APP brakes are the shit…oh man, can’t even imagine how those would look on a car. Anyways, for those of you who are up here in Norcal, please make sure to stop by and check out the shop. The crew there is very friendly as well so don’t feel embarassed to ask questions.
We took off after I finished taking pics and headed back to the hotel for a break before dinner…Overall the meet looked to be a success. There was a constant stream of people coming in, and even though some cops came by to see what was happening, no one really got deterred and took off. Big thanks to N1 for throwing a good meet and providing us with free drinks and free hot dogs…
Got back to the hotel and watched Salem park in the handicap spot with his handicap tag and all. No he’s not handicapped. You draw your own conclusion about that one…haha…
Hung out at the hotel for a little bit and even played a little basketball with Doug and Mikeyyyy. There was a mysterious kid there playing with us too who we had never met before. Strangely enough, he didn’t even utter a word. Just made occassional grunts and shit and played ball with us….Maybe it was a g-g-g-ghost…ooooh…
After that, Mikeyyyy had to go visit some family that he hadn’t seen in awhile and I had nothing else to do so I tagged along. Got to meet the cousin who originally gave Mikey is DC and got a chance to meet a big chunk of his family. Super nice people. They were cooking crab and steak and everything. Crab was pretty delicious I must say. We went to like three different houses of theirs just to take care of some stuff and visit more family he had. By the time we were done it was probably 11-12 already so we had to make the trek back…
Saw alot of this out there. =P
On the way home, I got hungry again and we ended up going to the IHOP that I ate at like 15 times when I was up here for Wek’Fest. Nothing has really changed in there. Food is the same and the old man that hated his life was still working the register. Had a country fried steak breakfast and then crashed out at the hotel after that.
Next day, we woke up at around 11:40 or so and got our shit packed up and checked-out. We decided to look through the porno section of the TV and saw something pretty disturbing…
I think I saw everything this past weekend…From a wedding to a tranny/ladyboy at the N1 meet and now what looks to be granny-porn…ahh, I think it’s more than enough for a span of 3 days….Luckily we were all tapped out from eating with a meal to come so no one had money to purchase this gem. Oh just imagine how much more twisted this post would have gotten had we watched these “old and ugly grannies who like to take in some young dick”…
Of course we had to have one more meal before we left so we headed into the city to grab lunch before heading home. Someone mentioned Blondie’s Pizza being a bit of a landmark or something so we did the tourist-thing-to-do and ate there….
There was a pretty big line when we got there so it took awhile to get the pizza. Luckily I only ordered a slice and got it right away. Everyone elses took awhile and some of the guys went shopping while I stayed behind with Tina and Mikeyyyy to eat…
Pizza was pretty bomb I must say…
After we finished eating we hung out for a about 15 minutes and then proceeded to head home. Salem and the other guys stayed behind to hang out for another day before going back to Socal…
All in all it was a good weekend. Weather was okay in Norcal. Some parts were just as hot as it is down here but in the city and stuff it was pretty cool. I didn’t get back until pretty late and I can honestly say that I’m still pretty beat. If the grammar seems off or some parts are just plain not understandable, it’s because I was falling asleep while I was writing parts of it. Haha, sorry….Thanks for looking though, hope you enjoyed the coverage….Out.
Back home…
It was an interesting trip to say the least…I saw some cool stuff, ate alot of good food, and saw alot of shit that I wished I didn’t see….but that’s a Norcal trip for ya. I actually got home pretty late and I had alot of stuff to catch up on while I was gone. Plus I was trying to go through all the pics and there are just so many that I couldn’t get through all of them in one night. It ended up being a “trip” instead of just going to a meet and taking car pics. So I think if you guys are expecting like 200 pics of cars or something then you will be disappointed. The pics consist more of the trip up, the stuff we did up there, cars I saw at N1 Concepts, and more personal stuff that we did while we were up. So if you want to tune in, just make sure to check back. If you just wanna see cars pics, I think there’s a couple other sites for that..haha. I’ll leave you with just one pic for now….
Be back later on with more stuff…ALOT more stuff.
Heading North…
Ahh, I’m feeling a sense of accomplishment today. I had alot of work to do this week for Honda Tuning and Super Street and I’m very happy with the results. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work with these publications and I love what I do. I’ve grown accustomed to how the business works and I am still learning more everyday. Sure I lost a bit of sleep knocking these features out but it’s all worth it in the end if I can produce written word that people enjoy reading. I’m sure alot of you people out there buy magazines or pick them up just to glance at the pictures. I’ve been guilty of doing that alot too but working in the industry has taught me that alot of the writers (sadly not all of them) put their hearts into writing these things and would really appreciate it if you actually read the articles. Sure pictures are nice, but it’s good to get the brain going by reading stuff that’s actually enjoyable and not a text book or some school shit.
With that said, I think I deserve a bit of a break and am taking a mini two-day vacation to Norcal to check out the N1 Concepts grand opening. It’s not really a vacation because I’ll be covering the event for The Chronicles, but hanging out with homies and shooting the shit is just as good as any vacation….
Before I go, I just want to let you guys know that Big Mike is still getting stuff together, cleaning up his motor, and waiting for paint to complete after he looked it over for flaws.
As for the NSX, it’s also being prepped for repairs. The front end is now off the car from what I hear, and bodywork will start after this weekend. I’ll also be doing the headliner and pillars on this soon so that should be interesting.
Anyways that’s about it. For you Norcal guys, see you up there Saturday. I’ll see you Socal people later….off to visit Socal’s ugly sister, Norcal! Hella hyphy hyphy hyphy. Purple shirts and tight jeans hooray…haha…
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 16 1/2…
Might as well make it a 16 1/2. No major progress and since I already updated earlier today, kinda seems like a shame if you missed the other stuff. Before you view these pics and judge, I just wanna say one thing…Big Mike is the homie. You’ll never find another guy that’s more geniune and compassionate. He just happens to be incredibly meticulous. Some would even say that he’s downright picky. But guess what? It’s his car so he can choose to be as picky as he wants to be. The guy is a perfectionist and it shows. Just dropping all that money on brand new OEM parts should show you that he’s not taking any short-cuts in this build. Hell if you look at the update before this one, you will even see that he had the inside of his fenders painted. Who’s gonna see that, really? With that said, the following pics may lead you to see “man, this dude is picky as hell”. Yeah, he might be, but he wants his shit done right. And if he was building your car for you, he would probably react the same way. I also want to say that if I was the paint guy, I would hate my life and drink myself into oblivion. But that’s just me. Okay that was a joke. But man, Big Mike just isn’t your average dude. He went over the engine bay and used masking tape to point out each and every mistake or flaw that he wanted to be fixed. Are these major mistakes? Ehhh, it can be left to interpretation. I had similar mistakes on mine after paint as I’m sure you all have. It’s just one of those things where you say “Oh, it’s not that bad, no one will ever see it” and move on. Big Mike had the inside of his fenders painted. He had a dolly fabricated so that the chassis could be painted correctly. He hand washed his heater control unit. He eats sandwiches with a side of bread. He’s a very unique guy. The inside of his fenders are painted. That’s the automotive equivalent of like, a human asshole. Only one or two people will see your’s in a lifetime. Hopefully. And only one or two people will have their hands in that area. Hopefully. Big Mike just isn’t a “oh it’s not that bad, no one will see it” kind of guy. In terms of cars I mean, not assholes. On with the pics shall we?….
Here’s the bay during Big Mike’s inspection…
I actually had to look at the higher-resolution version of these pics at full size to be able to spot some of the things he was pointing out but I do see where it would need correction…
You guys see what I’m saying? It’s a very “not that obvious and most would let it go” kind of mistake. But that’s just where Big Mike stands in terms of details…
Moving on…
More OEM parts came in and other parts came off for cleaning before reassembly…
Brand new hood hinges from the dealer…
Hood latch that needs some tlc…
Other assorted parts that need cleaning…
Alternator and Innovating relocation bracket coming off…
Crossmember, suspension, and rack&pinion disassembly… And a big fucking brick.
Hopefully all these paint issues are figured out. Back with more as it comes in…
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 16…
Busy week but back with more from Big Mike’s Prelude rebuild…Today we get a chance to take a look at the two racing buckets that Big Mike is having color matched on the back side…
Sanding down the seat to smooth everything out before paint…
Primered and ready for paint…
Crappy shot of the bottom of the seat after paint. Obviously you can’t see the color but it’s matched to the exterior of the Prelude…
Big Mike also had them smooth out the hole he cut for the JDM foglights so that it looked OEM-spec as possible…
He also wanted you guys to see that he had the inside of the fenders painted as well. No short-cuts taken in this build….
Back with more later as it comes in…
Busy…
Sorry guys, I’ll be back with an update later today with some more Big Mike content. I don’t wanna leave you guys hanging thinking nothing was coming or thinking something was wrong with your browser or some shit. I’m actually very busy this week working (for a change I know) to put food on my table and money in my pocket. Anyways, be back later today with some stuff for you guys….
Inline Four Expo 2009…
I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t too impressed with this meet. I also didn’t stay too long because their wasn’t much to look at. I give the Inline Four guys credit for trying to putting on this big production, but it kinda fell short of what I think they expected. The $5 registration, though questioned by many, made sense to cover the expenses of food and what not…so no real complaint there. I guess I was just expecting better cars? I mean, it is a meet after all though and not a car show, but I guess I’ve been spoiled lately from other meets and their turnouts. I thought about it and I remember alot of people not having very many nice things to say about them so I guess those people chose not to show up. I can’t judge because I don’t have any experience with the place, but people have come to me and said some not so nice things about them. The turnout was actually alot smaller than I thought too with all the vendors their and all.
I stayed for a little bit just to look around but left to go eat. I guess the cops showed up later and shut the meet down because it was too big and they needed a permit. Cypress isn’t exactly the best city to be throwing meets in the first place and I’m sure all the kids that were revving and hauling ass down the street didn’t help. I don’t know why people want to fuckin smash down the street in front of a meet anyway. It’s fucking stupid. No one cares. I checked the meet thread on NWP also and I guess the organizer also complained about people drinking alcohol and girls pissing in public and shit. Haha. Wouldn’t been funny to capture the pissing on camera though. Don’t really know why girls like to squat and piss on the ground in public though, usually just back splashes all over their feet and ankles and shit right? Real classy haha….In the end, the lack of a permit, kids doing stupid shit on the street, drinking, and girls pissing in public was the downfall of this meet. For me it was just the quality of the cars but I can’t blame them for that. Hopefully if they decide to do it again next year it will be better. Just seems like a big production with the registration and then the “IL4 Expo 2009″ stickers they made. I wonder if the organizer was happy with the turnout or not. I applaud their efforts but it just wasn’t that memorable of a meet. I usually love going to meets and I was actually looking forward to leaving…Fuck maybe it was just the heat…Man I sound kinda angry about this shit. It was a decent meet, that’s all I’m trying to say. Just not anything great. Guess I just expected more….
Alright, on with the pics of cars that caught my eye, and the usual homies of course…
Crowd was pretty decent by the time I got there in the early morning. Norman was there again and for some reason his head looks bigger than usual…
Meaty ass tires…
This is the Fit that Honda Tuning magazine is building. Honda supplied the car and HT mag is just responsible for modding it and doing tech articles on it. Looks pretty nice now with the new JDP front lip and Mugen grill. Makes it look like a complete front bumper replacement…
Speaking of frontends, here’s something I haven’t seen in oh…8 years? Haha. When was the last time anyone saw a Zeal front end? Crazy…
Really nice hatch. I saw it in the last issue of Import Tuner and it’s a cool build with some neat styling cues on it. Yeah, I said “neat”…
Mackin showed up and had a big display going. Love those limited edition CE28s…
Rolled up to the meet with this S2k in front of us. Like the LMs…
The As1 buddy friends where there and they rolled pretty deep….
Seeing this car makes me miss my Accord when it had the CPRs on it…
Finally got a non blurry pic of Nit’s S2000…
This coupe caught my eye. Pretty nice build. Just needs to fix a couple things here and there and it’ll be set…
Sick little track EF right here. Full function inside and out…Love it.
They had dyno sessions going on that day too which drew a decent crowd…
Really liked this white S2000…
Only Phaze2 dood there…
Crazy hatch right here…K-swapped and all…
So after walking around for a little bit, we decided to take off to NWP for some pizza. Mikeyyyy mentioned that he wanted to go since he missed out last time but we got tired of waiting and just took off to wait for him over there. Rodrez was hungry and went along as well so we cruised to Irvine for some food. I didn’t take pictures this time around but it was about the same…pizza was eaten. Big Mike also showed up too and ate a sandwich with a side of bread. Yeah I know. Good thing we went to eat there because we found out that someone had bought Northwood Pizza and they were gonna be changing owners real soon. Had to grab a slice before it changed hands….We went to Yogurtland afterwards to eat some yogurt. Turns out that the Yogurtland owner was the one that purchased Northwood Pizza. Wonder if there’s gonna be any dramatic changes…
After we gorged ourselves with food, we headed over to DPK David’s house to check out the progress on David’s coupe and to chill with the rest of the DPK guys. It was fucking hot that day so it was nice to just be able to chill in the shade and relax…
Here’s how it sits right now. Just waiting on a couple little things here and there and reassembly will be complete. Looking forward to seeing the final result. Alot of detail in the bay. I wouldn’t expect anything less from the DPK homies….
It’s another build that you have to see in person to catch all the details. One of the homies said that you could stand there for hours and not catch everything…
Here’s a preview of the shaved bay….so shiny and smooth.
After we talked about cars for awhile, we kinda just sat on the porch until the evening…then I went home and crashed out…
All in all not a bad day. The meet was kinda blehhh…but the pizza, hangin out with the homies, and relaxing afterwards saved the day….I’m sure I’ll probably hear some backlash for the comments about the meet. Oh well, been awhile since any controversy or arguing occured on here….haha…
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 15…
Went to the Inline Four “Expo 2009″ today. I’ll have pics up tomorrow. I wasn’t impressed I’m sorry to say, but I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow. Back with part 15 of Big Mike’s rebuild since he had people calling him today asking when their would be updates….which is a bit puzzling because he doesn’t run this site…but whatever…haha…
As mentioned in a previous post, Big Mike had discovered that his front bumper had more damage to it than previously thought so he actually went out and got ahold of an OEM Honda front bumper. How? I think he went to that gypsy fortune teller machine in the movie “Big” and wished for one….I don’t know….
$$$
None of that “Certi-fit” garbage…
Big Mike needs to open up the slot for the JDM fogs so he quickly went to work and started cutting up his brand new OEM bumper…
Meanwhile, back at the bat cave….I guess Big Mike wasn’t very happy with how the engine bay came out after it was painted. He’s a very meticulous guy, as you should have noticed by now, so he had them repaint it a couple (yes, a couple) more times until it came out to his liking. I’m sure those guys will be very excited when he goes over the rest of the car….haha…
Doors painted inside and out…
Paint came out good huh? Color is nice and crisp haha….
The weekend approaches…
Well, not too much going on today. Just thought I’d ramble about some random shit today. For those of you that ordered stickers, they will be going out beginning of next week. I usually try to get a group of buyers together in a batch before I mail them out. That way I can keep track of everyone and not forget anybody in the process. If you guys wanna help support the site and purchase some stuff to make the lastest batch shipment, click here. Anyways…
For those you that are out of the loop, there’s a meet over at Inline Four this Sunday and I guess it’s gonna be a big one because they’re charging people to park and giving out free stuff and food and what not. Lot of “ands” in that last sentence…Well the thread on the NWP4Life forums didn’t really produce a flyer for the event so I just kinda created my own….
I kinda just put whatever was on my mind at the time when I thought of Inline Four. I honestly have never been there so I can’t say I know that place well enough to produce legitimate images of what goes on over there. So at first thought, I produced a muffler, a white EF hatchback, a fucking motorcycle, “$5″ for registration or something, and “yay” because it’s a meet and people love that shit. Why is the Ultimate Warrior in the background you ask? Well, apparently this meet is supposed to be fucking awesome, and who is more awesome than the Ultimate Warrior? Yeah, nobody. So if you’re not doing anything this weekend and wanna go out and check out some nice cars, be sure to make your way out to the gorilla-press-slam-to-flying-body-splash of car meets. I’m pretty sure I’ll be out there with the homies and I think Mikey wanted to cruise and go eat pizza at NWP afterwards since he missed out last time after the Autotoyz meet.
Man, that flyer is so sick. I don’t know about you, but when I see the Ultimate Warrior on a flyer for a car meet, I’m dropping my shit and going to that motherfucker. He’s so angry right there, so you know it’s going down. He’s almost as mad as that one time when Papa Shango made him throw-up….yeah, you remember!!
The road to Nisei…Tony’s neglected NSX…Part 1…
Takin a break from the Big Mike rebuild series to give Big Mike a breather and to hit you guys with some other shit that’s going on. For those of you guys that have been keeping up to date with our group (Phaze2xDoods!/HotStuff International), you’ll probably remember our supercharged Sorcery widebody NSX that hit J’s Gathering a couple years back. Well Tony, the owner, ran into a couple problems with it shortly after that event and the car really hasn’t seen the light since then. We attempted to get the car out to Nisei for the past two years now and it just hasn’t happened. Unfortunately, soon after those events occurred, Tony kinda just lost interest and took a break for awhile from the whole car community. With this possibly being the last Nisei and all though, I kinda got on his ass about getting his car up and running again since it’s always been his goal to make it to Nisei. I think I had to remind this guy to register for the show like fuckin 20 times or so before he finally did it and on top of that, he recently took some pics of his NSX to show me what state it’s in and well uhhh….what….the….fuck…..
Jesus….look at this thing. It turned into a fucking closet. R. Kelly is hiding in that shit. If you didn’t know, which I’m pretty sure you didn’t, the reason the car just sits in the garage is because of a mishap with loading the NSX onto a trailer last year the night before Nisei. To make a long story short, it caught a gap in the trailer ramp and basically tore the whole fuckin front end off. The way the kit is, it’s basically all one piece up front so when the front end got caught, it tore the front fenders in half. I’ve never seen this guy so angry in my life, and I don’t blame the guy, so he basically just parked it in the garage and it’s been a closet ever since…
I hate to say it, but he’s had a string of bad luck the last two years and we’re definitely gonna be keeping a close eye on it this year to make sure nothing happens to it. All we wanna do is get this thing safely out to a show for once because when it did show, it took home awards everytime. It would be a waste for it to just be a storage unit and waste away in a garage. Tony added a bunch of new shit to it last year too and it was truly disappointing to see the accident happen to it. Man everytime I look at the pictures I feel kinda sad haha, what fuckin horrible state for an NSX to be in. I don’t want to say that the guy hates his car because it’s not true. It was his dream car and he adored it, just all the terrible mishaps kinda wore him down you know. Hopefully we can get it on track this year…
Dude, is that a torque wrench sitting on top of your carbon fiber wing? Haha…Starting to make it harder and harder for me to defend your ass….You can’t see me but I’m shaking my head right now. This thing was so ridiculous back in the day….supercharged and water cooled, custom one-off exhaust by L-Con, concave CE28s….man….Anyways, from what Tony tells me, he’s pretty excited about getting this thing running again. He’s finally getting back into the swing of things and assures us that it’ll be ready for Nisei Import Showoff with even more goodies….
Really Tony?…An SC400 bumper just sitting on your car and shit…haha…
Big Mike’s build is of course the priority since he’s completely redoing his whole car but I’ll be checking in from time to time with Tony and updating you guys on the progress of his repairs. It’s not gonna be 2343982 parts like Big Mike’s but I’m excited to see this NSX come back to life. From what Tony tells me, it’s gonna be pretty legit. Everyone just cross your fingers and hope and pray that this thing makes it out to Nisei this year. I’m tired of watching stupid random accidental shit happen to this car and preventing it from getting the spotlight it deserves. Stay tuned everybody….
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 14…
Back with part 14 of 1,656,495 of Big Mike’s rebuild…shum on (RIP MJ)….Billie Jean is not Big Mike’s lover, she’s just a girl that thinks that he is the one, the kid is not his son…alright that’s enough…moving on…
Here’s the frame dolly completed…Big Mike will tell you more about it:
“This is a dolly that I had my friend Ron Warkentin of True Berserk Fabrication create for the Prelude to rest on so that the entire front end from top to bottom to underside could be prepped and painted.” -Big Mike
“This dolly has casters that support 900lb/wheel. The style and strength of the tubing is far beyond what I needed for this car, but that just means that it can and will be used for other vehicles. In fact, the body shop just might keep the dolly after all is said and done.” -Big Limpin’
Coulda used it to wheel in Michael Jackson’s gold-plated casket…it looked heavy…what, I’m just sayin…
Subframe, crossmember, suspension, traction bar all had to come out to ensure that the front of the Prelude was completely painted, even the underside…
All loaded up….Big Mike actually just picked the shit up and threw it on his shoulder and put it gently on the dolly. He was gonna just hold it up while they painted it but he had to go to work. He also used a black and white camera to take the pics too so blame him if you can’t see the color of the car…
So glossy…
Stay tuned….
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 13…
Today’s update will consist of pics of a dolly that Big Mike’s fabricator is putting together. The dolly will be used to get the car in the air so that the painter can properly prep and paint the front end, subframe, suspension, and crossmember. May seem a little crazy for most but when it comes to Big Mike, it’s all in the details….
The rest are just OEM parts that Big Mike bought recently. Pretty much replacing EVERYTHING imaginable…
You might look at the huge box in the back and expect like a radiator or trunk mat or something large…
…but uhh..yeah…kind of a waste of a box Honda. The environment and general space-saving is important to you I see…
Fuck-a junkyard…
Like if anyone had just ever questioned how much quality Big Mike was trying to incorporate into his build, just this post alone with all the OEM shit should say it all…
Seriously…who would buy this….
Plenty more to come….
Exclusive Content…Big Mike’s Prelude Build…Part 12…
Make sure you guys scroll down after you read this if you happen to miss the mid-day update yesterday. Alright after much debate and argument, a consensus decision has been made….we will be saving the debut color of the paint until the build is complete. It actually wasn’t even so much of a consensus decision, nor was their really much debate about it. Big Mike and I just both agreed that it would be best to debut the paint when the build is complete….
For me, I came to this decision because I honestly was a bit iffy on the choice of the color. It took a second look at it for me to really “get” the color, you know? I didn’t not like it, but it kinda threw me off. I just feel that if I show you the paint now and if you don’t agree with the choice or like it, you won’t look at the rest of the car the same. Like if you don’t see what you like, it’ll take away from the hardwork that was put into the rest of the car you know? It’s definitely outside the box. I would rather have you guys go through the rest of the build first and then see the paint later, because the paint is probably the least important part of this build. Big Mike is excited about how it came out too and I’m sure he can’t wait to show you guys. He feels that it would just be in his best interest to debut it at Nisei. And I gotta respect that decision. Even if I wanted to show you guys, it would really be his decision and it’s his to make…
If you’re wondering, no, the bay will not be a different color from the rest of the car. It’s just not Big Mike’s style. He loves the creativity with the two-tone bays but it’s just not for him. I believe they were waiting on something else before the bay is painted and the next time you see shots of the car, it should be all complete and in one color….
I really hope you guys take the time to read these captions. I see guys on forums ask Big Mike questions when the answers have been clearly laid out in the commentary that I make. No, that is not primer and the car will not be “battleship grey”, the color has been cut out of the picture.
It’s hard to tell (obviously), but from what I saw, the paint came out great…Just needs another color sand and buff…
Just some of the front end and doors that still need to be painted…
This is only one of the real problems that have presented itself so far. I guess the front bumper was more fucked up than Big Mike initially thought and he was not happy with it. He ended up ordering a brand new bumper from Honda because the current one is garbage to him with all the cracks and what not…
Almost there…
Back for the first time…
Told you I’d be back with another update today. Hope you guys don’t miss this one after the Big Mike stuff is posted later on tonight for tomorrows update. Anyways, we were all standing around waiting for HBK Jame’s shoot to finish up elsewhere so I decided to just take some random shots of Jon’s hatch. Guess they came out decent considering no flash and it was starting to get dark and what not….
Most awkward reaction to getting a feature ever! Look at his face, haha…you got got son!…
The pics without the “Chronicles” watermark are actually bigger pics, just click for the bigger versions…
Overly saturated version…
Business as usual…
Damn, pretty busy this past weekend. Hung out with the Phaze2 fam for July 4th and watched alot of illegal fireworks. Then on Sunday evening I headed out to go check out HBK Jon’s shoot for Import Tuner. They were also busy finishing up HBK James’ shoot for his white hatch and it took longer than expected and went on into the late evening. We waited at our meet-up spot for a quite awhile and I ended up just taking some pics randomly for fun. Jon’s shoot was at a different spot and it was dark as fuck by the time they started. First time to a mag shoot that started after 9pm…needless to say, it was the sketchiest shit EVER. Haha….good thing there were alot of people there or I woulda been worried about the guys. From what Luke Munnell showed us, it came out really nice. Make sure to pick that up whenever it hits the stands…
I’ve got so much of Big Mike’s stuff that I still have to edit and I just haven’t been able to get to all of it with it being a holiday and staying out late for the shoot and all. I’ll be back later today with pics and what not for you to look at. For now, here’s a random wallpaper I made of HBK Jon’s Civic when we were just shooting the shit and hanging out…Guy’s car is so low that he actually like scraped on a completely flat surface is that makes any sense. Thanks to the security for being assholes and harassing us, and the mexican dude that works at American Apparel for continuning to speak spanish to me after I told him that I don’t understand what he’s saying… I’ll be back later…time for some shut eye….
Back in a few…
Click on image for full-size…
