Well this is getting interesting…
Some cool stuff added for The Chronicles 2-Year Anniversary Meet….I got a message on Facebook early yesterday from Gene Tjin and he told me that he and his brother were finishing the Tjin Edition Roadshow on the west coast and would like to be a part of the meet. They want to do their whole truck/rig set-up with some of the Tjin Edition democars and I couldn’t be more honored to have them there. It’s crazy how they even know about it. I know Gene follows this site on occassion but to have these guys at the meet showing their support is a wonderful thing. I have the perfect location in mind for them on the lot so this opportunity is a great addition to the 2-year anniversary celebration.
Don’t know who the Tjin brothers are? Well read more about it on the official Tjin Edition Roadshow website.
I’ll have more details when I find out what cars that plan to bring out but either way, this is a great thing. Even more reason now to come out and chill at the meet!…
On another note, VIP parking spots up front should go on sale later tonight so if you guys are planning on parking up front, make sure to grab those spots because they might go fast. People that purchase the spots will get guaranteed parking in the front part of the Eibach lot and will also get a limited edition sticker that they will be asked to put on their car so that it makes parking that much easier. We need to get everyone inside in a timely manner so the sticker will help give us indication that you have a VIP spot. All the info will be included in the FAQ that will also come when the spots go up in The Chronicles storefront…
Random bits of news…and dirty strange observations…
So uhh…as you guys know, I got a new computer recently so I was busy moving everything over. The only issue I had really was getting the sticker cutter and the vinyl cutting program to work with Windows 7. I’m not a big fan of Windows 7 but I finally figured it out so for you guys that are waiting on your orders, they are going out today. I just had to catch up on some orders first and I sent out a giant batch of them today so you guys who are waiting should expect them shortly…
Also, I’m currently working on the details of The Chronicles 2-Year Anniversary meet and the FAQ should be finished shortly. I’m actually gonna work on that once I finish up whatever I’m doing here, also known as sleeping. The VIP spots will go up for sale soon in the storefront and I will make the announcement when they go up. Not really sure how quickly the spots are gonna go but I already have people hitting me up on Facebook about the spots and everyone is gonna have to wait. It takes quite a bit of time for me to organize everything on my own plus there is other mag work coming in that I am also working on. That and I am also busy playing Madden 11 so yeah, things are moving along at a steady pace…
So anyways, as most of you know, I am quite the “adult movie” connoisseur. Okay, not really but yes, probably. Like any normal guy from our generation, I enjoy, sandwiches, Street Fighter, and the occassional pRon. It’s like watching basketball, sometimes you may catch a dunk that you didn’t know existed before and once you see that dunk, you want to go and see if you can do that dunk. Or if you can’t jump, you imagine being able to do that dunk repeatedly. Haha…but yeah, I am also a fan of box office hit movies, like Avatar. What would make the world a better place you ask? Weeeellll…combining the box office hit movie with some good ole’ penetration and you have the solution to world peace. I recently discovered that there is a newly released Avatar XXX parody. Unlike the actual Avatar movie, I don’t think they’re so much worried about the fucking tree burning down or whatever and more concentrating on screwing eachother. What is directly related to the original Avatar, is that it is in 3D. So I imagine there would be segments of the movie where you would have to violently dodge a incoming spooge shot, and not of your own spunk, but the spunk of the Naa’vi. I was hanging out with my Phaze2 fam bam yesterday and while we were at Mel’s Diner, the subject of the Avatar XXX movie came up. How did it come up? Well, dirty pornos usually appear in conversation out of nowhere because it is important for the survival of future generations, or something like that….I was telling Salem about it and May brought up a really good question that I am sure you are all wondering….
May - “Do they like, connect ponytails in the XXX version like in the original Avatar movie?”
StickyDilJoe - “Nooooo…from the preview pictures that I have seen, there are things that connect but they definitely aren’t ponytails. The only ponytail contact I spotted weren’t actually ponytails but more like penises going into vaginas, and/or penis to mouth contact. They don’t connect hair of any sorts because the female Naa’vi, apparently, are completely shaven. There might also be ponytail to what looks like Naa’vi asshole but that ponytail might also be a human flesh colored penis attached to a blue Naa’vi man.”
So in summary…No, they do not connect ponytails. But hey, you never know…I haven’t actually seen the movie yet but I’m sure they include some form of ponytail contact.
Don’t believe me? Well see for yourself…
I believe this to be somewhat of a Naa’vi spirit rain forest festival. In the back, you can see them doing their native dance, with no ponytail contact. The human in front is obviously doing some form of Naa’vi worship…
This…is also not ponytail mating. I guess this is the Naa’vi version of what I believe to be the spinning piledriver aka the drill aka the Chinese Wheel Barrel technique. Imagine this is stunning 3D.
So yeah, once I get ahold of this movie, I will let you guys know what it’s about. Big Mike posted up a question on Facebook asking if it’s always true that sequels are never better than the original movie, but this one looks like it might break that mold…you just never know.
It’s Official…
Man, it’s crazy to think back almost 2 years ago when I first started this site. I went in with zero expectations. It was just something I wanted to do out of boredom, you know? I had begun to follow a couple of blogs here and there but the one that really captured my attention was Speedhunters.com, which was already a powerhouse at that time. It covered everything; cars of all makes, from all over the world, and even a bit of lifestyle and car culture here and there. It was a great site but what it lacked was, in my opinion, coverage of Hondas. Drifting was huge in the Speedhunters community so there was little to no room for Hondas. I thought to myself; damn, maybe I could try to put something together about Hondas. Just something that would summarize a lot of what was going on in the Honda community. Something that would give people what they want to see from Honda forums but without all the bullshit and politics. I had some time on my hands then because I wasn’t doing work for Super Street yet and was just freelancing for Honda Tuning. It was steady work but it wasn’t something that had to occupy the majority of my time or anything so starting up a site would be fun.
I ran the idea through a couple of people and the opinions were very different. Some said it would be cool, some were skeptical, and some didn’t even follow any sort of auto blog site so they had no idea what I was talking about. One day, on a random ass night on October 23rd, 2008, I said “fuck it, I’m bored”, and I signed up for an account on WordPress and began working on this site, not really knowing or caring if it would ever be anything or not. It took me awhile to come up with the name. That was probably the hardest part. I went with “The Chronicles” because I wanted to tell a story. Something we could all look back on some day. I had ZERO content to begin with, I didn’t know shit about how to do layouts or how to modifiy them, NOTHING. The first layout, which I’m sure some of you may still remember, was super generic. And the pictures were small as hell. I think the first post I did was on Loi’s Civic hatchback. It wasn’t the racecar it is today and it was just like, something very basic and streetable. It even had a shaved bay and a nice tuck. Look at the crazy thing today. It’s a fucking beast. Other than that, there was nothing to post. I had to scour the internet on different nights just to dig up Honda content.
How “stickydiljoe.com” came to be was simple. Anything that had The Chronicles in it was already taken. Stickydiljoe is a screenname and moniker that I’ve had for years now and it was catchy, and somewhat dirty, which I think helped me get a couple of extra viewers every month just because it sounded like there would either be porn or weed on this site. Neither of which were heavily prominent on The Chronicles. Now we have a little bit of T&A here and there but that’s also done out of sheer boredom. I also had no camera or any idea how to use one back then, so producing my own content was not something that I could easily do. I had to ask people to take pictures for me, or I would drive down to San Diego to go visit my parents and then take my mom’s point and shoot back with me so I could take pictures at meets. I specifically remember one night when Rodrez was talking to me online and we were just talking about random bullshit like MMA or whatever and he brought up to me that he thought the site was a cool idea, but he had also spoken to Aaron Bonk at the time and he was wondering if I would get into trouble for using pictures from other sites and what not. I didn’t want to get in trouble or fuckin sued or something so I had to get a camera to shoot pictures with, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to run anything on this site without having to quote sources or take pictures from people that I didn’t know. Luckily my boy Loi came through big and told me that I could use his old Canon Rebel XT (Like old 1st gen. Rebel status) and I could keep it for a long period of time because he wasn’t using it anymore. It was at that time when the site really started to take on a new direction. I could finally take pictures. The only problem was, I had no idea how to use a fucking camera. It was like a some crazy complicated shit that I had no idea how to comprehend. As you can see from the earlier pics, they were horrible. But I eventually started to pick it up a bit and hell, up until the early/middle part of this year, I was still using that old Canon to take pictures. I didn’t get the camera I’m using now until I started getting more work from Super Street and Honda Tuning where I could actually pay it off.
The site started out rough…I remember I had some of my own friends that were kinda skeptical. They didn’t think it would go anywhere or they didn’t understand the purpose of it. I had some stickers made back then that I would give out to friends and others to help kinda get the name out there, and I’m not gonna lie…I knew those people threw those stickers away. I can’t blame them but hey, it motivated me to make the site better. I think the site started to become more well known when I did the “Indepth look at horrible idea” series of posts. It was just me being an angry fuckn and talking shit about things I didn’t like about the Honda community. It was funny but it also generated some heat, which was really good. The heat and hate made this site bigger because people would post it up elsewhere and for every 10 people that were angry about the site, I picked up one or two that agreed and began to follow the site closely. Other than those posts, I have to credit my homies from my Phaze2 family for really helping this site take off. Whenever we would go places, I would just bring the camera along to document whatever we did, whether it was eating (something we do alot) or just random car shit that we were doing, which kinda brought about the “behind the scenes” feel of the site. Mikeyyyy can promote anything and sell shit to anyone and he really helped me get the word out about the site, which was an amazing help. Then the site started taking on a different direction, where it began to become more of a lifestyle blog than anything. It was still about the cars but hell, people were starting to take interest in what we were doing. Phaze2 was doing really well at that time, we pulled off consecutive magazine features and basically everyone in the crew ended up being in a magazine, it was great times. That brought in more people to view The Chronicels because they wanted to see what we were doing and how the cars came to be what they are.
It had to have been the first Wek’Fest we went to when the hits started to pour in. People wanted to see coverage from shows that they couldn’t attend. The only problem was that the pictures from the show itself came out horrible. I didn’t know how to shoot in low light at that time so the coverage consisted of like 3 white cars that were sharp and crisp and the other pictures looked like I was running or I had a severe case of Vertigo. Another guy that I have to credit for helping this site move along was Big Mike. When he approached me to cover his rebuild of his Prelude, I didn’t think it was going to get that crazy. I don’t think I knew Big Mike that well at the time but covering a major build would be good for the site. I just didn’t know whether or not a Prelude would appeal to many viewers but it actually did really well. He opened up the eyes of the Prelude community and a steady flow of them still come in to view the site today. It worked out perfectly. And hell Big Mike has become a household name now and everybody knows his car and respects his build because they got to see how it was put together and how much work went into it. I have zero regrets about covering that build and I can honestly say that Big Mike is one of my closest homies today.
The Chronicles became much bigger because it became a lifestyle blog. Hondas became a companion more than a necessity for the site. People were just into what we were doing and what car guys did when they weren’t doing car shit. There is such a heavy stigma out there that west coast guys are just a bunch of rich kids that have their cars built in shops and I hope that this site helped to change that view. We’re just regular people. We build cars, go to shows, bullshit with eachother, and have a blast. We’re also really friends. Most of us aren’t friends with eachother because it helps us pursue a bigger goal in life or with cars. Fuck, we hang out because we enjoy eachother’s company, and I also hope that this site shows that. I would like to think that The Chronicles has even helped bring many of us closer together. Guys that knew of us and didn’t really talk to us before because we weren’t on that level of communication began to approach us because they had seen the site and knew that we were just chill people. Some of them obviously wanted to get some shine so they could get on the site, and even some shops pretended to be our homies and took advantage of the exposure but they are long gone. As easy as it is for people to come up and talk to me, it’s much easier for me to disregard them if I feel they have other motives. What I want people to get from this site later on is when they want to look back on what the Honda community was like back in this time, they could look to the The Chronicles and capture the spirit of our generation. I’m proud to say that this site has become pretty well-known in our community of enthusiasts. The hits that we are generating every month continues to grow and we’re setting new records every month. Not bad for something that was started on a whim and with no expectations of ever being anything near what it is today.
I told myself and my homies that if this site ever makes it to the two year mark, I’m gonna put a meet together to celebrate the anniversary of The Chronicles. I’m not the type to throw meets because I generally don’t have much time nowadays to do it but if it’s to celebrate the site, I’m down. I didn’t know what location to do it at and that was the first and probably the only major stepping stone I encountered along the way. Luckily Ryan from Eibach was kind enough to open up the gates to the Eibach facility for me to use. Eibach is one of the landmarks for Hondas out here because it’s the location of the annual Eibach Honda Meet, something that has become a staple in our community. Having the ability to use this spot is only going to make this meet so much better. The date that was eventually set was also significant, because it is also the date when I first started the site, October 23rd.
I’m proud to announce the 2-year anniversary of The Chronicles aka “2YRS”, which will be held at the Eibach Springs facility on October 23rd, 2010. The event will take place from 1pm-7pm and I will release the complete FAQ for the meet tomorrow, with every question that one might ask regarding this meet. For now, check out the flyer for the event. PLEASE DO NOT POST THIS ELSEWHERE. This is strictly for people that support and follow the site. I don’t want this turning into some random ass meet where like groups of 40 other makes and models of cars show up who have never even heard of the site. That will take up much needed space for people that do follow the site and it is an injustice for you guys who want to actually come out and show your support. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming on here everyday and reading my random ramblings. I never thought this little blog would get anywhere and now we have the opportunity to celebrate two fun-filled, crazy years of The Chronicles. Save the date!…
Careful planning…
Been spending the last couples days working on the parking situation for The Chronicles 2-Year Anniversary. Everything seems to be coming smoothly so far. Once I get the parking situated, then I’ll post up all the details on the event itself. I will have a full FAQ with everything you guys will need to know if you plan on coming to the event. Parking up front, much like Eibach, will be the “VIP” spots and they will be coming in first. I’ll be selling the spots up front for people that want to for sure be up front. Set-up will be very similar to Eibach except I won’t be charging for parking along the sides and the back and spots will be cheaper than the annual Eibach Meet. It just works out easier that way if I can have the front spots spoken for and established. Plus the money from the parking spots up front will help pay for various things at the event like port-a-potties and what not. Just to help cover some costs. I’m sure some of you will be like “why I gotta pay for a meet?” with bad grammar and all. For those I say…no one is forcing you to come. You can park in the back if you want. This is more of a celebration and I want to have a relaxing atmosphere where I don’t have to stand around and park cars all day. I’d like to be able to actually spend time with people and cover the event for the site as well. Anyways, more details to come as I put things together. Thanks everybody for your support. I’d love to have you guys out there.
Shameless Promotion…
It’s been a great year for Hondas in print and the next upcoming issues will be no different. Though the Super Street issue isn’t scheduled to drop til the end of the month, this month is a great time to pick up some magazines. Import Tuner has the long-awaited feature of DPK*David’s Civic coupe, with great snaps by Luke Munnell, the latest issue of Honda Tuning that’s scheduled to drop next week has a great story about a K24-swapped S2000 and a personal favorite of mine, Ejay Adriano’s DA. Ejay’s DA is definitely different but what makes it great is the story that goes behind the car. I’m proud to say I had a chance to put that article together and I honestly think that it’s one of my best, just because Ejay has such a great story to tell. The Super Street issue that is upcoming has none other than Mike G’s Tank on the cover. There really isn’t much introduction needed in regards to Mike G’s Civic because it has been around for years now and speaks for itself. The car is legendary on the internet. Make sure to check it out in it’s latest incarnation since Mike G brought it back from a 5 year hiatus.
They say that the internet is hurting publication but we have to remember to support print. There’s no better feeling than going to your mailbox or walking into a 7-11 and seeing the newest issue of your favorite magazine. Just that feeling of being able to hold it in your hand and to be able to flip through it to see your favorite builds or your homies car, it’s something you can’t describe. So please go out and support your favorite mags. Buy all three copies because it’s marks another great month for Hondas in general. SUPPORT PRINT. If you don’t, then I’m gonna be out of a job and I won’t be able to do The Chronicles anymore because I’ll be working at a fucking gas station. PEACE.
Honda Tuning.
Super Street.
Import Tuner.
Buy your own copy and don’t borrow from your friends. You’re not 12 years old anymore, you can afford 5 bucks a copy!!
Video time…
Ehh, definitely not nearly as funny as the first one but that’s how it usually works. The first one kinda came out of nowhere and a lot of people liked it. This one you should go in with lowered expectations. I know the site has slowed down a bit since not too many events are going on anymore but I am working hard on THE event to attend to close out 2010. Just sit through the video and it should explain some more things to you guys. I’ll get more details as soon as I get them. I’m currently working on the floor plan and trying to figure out how everything is going to work…Oh and those of you who are waiting on sticker and shirt orders, those are definitely going out ASAP…Anyways…enjoy…
BBQQQQ at Mikeyyyy’s
Ah shiet, first post on The Chronicles from the new computer! Haha…I’m still pretty frantically busy moving everything over from my old PC so today’s update will just be a couple of pictures from Mikeyyyy’s BBQ that was in the valley. His family throws one of these annually and they’re always a blast. It’s good to see and reconnect with friends that I haven’t seen in a minute as well as meet Mikeyyyy’s family. They are super generous and are awesome hosts. I haven’t been to a BBQ with that many people and that much food in a while. Most of the pics from that day I didn’t even take because I was too busy eating everything in site. Doug and a couple of other homies walked around with the camera and just caught whatever they saw. It was great times for sure…Enjoy. I’ll have more information on the 2-year Anniversary meet as soon as I get more stuff planned out and executed. Like I said I’m still heavily in the process of moving everything over. It’s kinda hard to do anything without any programs and what not…
Mikeyyyy and is dad doing work on the BBQ grille…
Enjoying the food….
Murdock doing what he does best…
Mikeeyyy’s niece being held by Big Mike…
Salem and Henry on the grille…..food was bomb!…
After the BBQ, we didn’t really have anything planned so we just went back to Mikeyyyy’s place. I hadn’t seen his new place yet so it was cool to go and check it out…
This is a shot of us in the living room. He’s got a couple of plaques laid out on his wall of our old mag features. There are a couple that aren’t up there like Phaze2 Tony’s but his was pretty recent so I don’t even know if Tony has his own plaques. That and his feature was fucking huge so it would have been like 4 plaques on it’s own and that definitely wouldn’t fit on the wall…haha…
May thought it’d be a cool shot of us each holding our cover features up. Tony wasn’t there cuz he was working so Doug is holding his and Arnel hadn’t shown up yet so our friend Yogi was his stunt double…
Wasn’t much else going on after that. We were bored and just waiting to go eat up dinner in North Hollywood after that so we just watched TV and called time…I don’t know why but we ended up watching Alien Sex Files III on TV and strangely enough…
…there were no aliens in it. Just a bunch of chicks munching on each other’s boxes on the kitchen counter…
On the way out to dinner, Mikeyyyy wanted to show me his newest crack on his fender. If you guys don’t believe him when he says this car is his beater, well it really is. He was driving around on the 10 freeway when this happened…
Shit makes me cringe every time I look at that picture…Oh and if you spotted Big Mike in the background of the other pic, he was looking at Arnel’s new side project build…keep an eye out for that when he finishes it….
That’s about it. Thanks for looking guys. Back to work on putting my new computer together and importing all my old shit (porn) into my new hard drive….
Ah shit, not this again…
For the most part, things have been pretty good this year and especially within the last couple months, everything has had a very mellow, positive vibe. Of course you will have instances when random bullshit and this would be one of those cases. It seems like only a year ago when we heard about that S2000 being vandalized as a result of a heinous hate crime and this is definitely not as bad as that, but anytime somebody’s car gets fucked with, it’s just a bad situation. I mean, I’ve known and spoken to some people who used to bang too and they would beat other people up and shit before they would go and try to fuck with someone’s car so when shit like this happens, man it just kinda makes you heated. I don’t know all the details on what happened and I don’t even think the owner has really figured it out yet but Art, the owner of the S2000, went to go visit his parents and when he came out early in the am, he found his S2000 vandalized. This isn’t like your run of the mill egging or keying either, shit is pretty rough to look at, especially if you’re a fan of the car. I’ve been quietly keeping an eye on Art’s S2000 for a minute now because I’ve met him on numerous occassions and we have mutual friends and honestly, it’s a nice build that has a lot of potential. He was gonna build up the motor and what not because he’s a big track guy and loves taking his car to time attack events. Well anyways, the pictures speak for themselves. I don’t know what happened and I’m not really going to elaborate on it. I just don’t like to see when people’s cars get fucked with because that shit is just unnecessary. Especially if it’s for no particular reason than to just be an asshole or a fucking hater. This happened sometime last week so I’m sure Art is in the process of trying to figure things out and getting the car repaired and what not but if you don’t see the car for awhile, this is what happened to it…
This is how it looked the last time I saw it, which was at Nisei 2010. It was parked right across from my booth so I had a chance to take a couple shots of it. If you wanna see them, just head back to the Nisei coverage…
…and this is how the car looked when Art went outside that night/early morning. I guess the neighbors heard what was going on so maybe they can provide him with some answers…
Whoever these individuals were, they kicked the shit out of his car…
They didn’t take anything from the car or anything but they did a number on the outside…
They kicked or hit the Voltex wing until the whole top layer of it broke off. There’s another picture on Art’s Facebook page where the top of the wing is literally sitting on the sidewalk…
Footprints all over the side of it from them kicking every panel of the car…
There are a couple more pictures but you guys get the idea….such a shame to have something like this happen. I mean, people say ‘karma is a bitch’ and what not but fuck, seriously that shit ain’t gonna do anything for all the time and shit that is involved in getting this thing repaired. That and you might also get a feeling that the car is tainted now that it’s been fucked with and repaired. I don’t know, I hope Art the best and hope he gets this thing back together ASAP. He’s a cool dude and it’s shitty for something like this to happen…Best of luck to him and I hope this thing comes back better than ever.
Japanese Classic Car Show 2010 Coverage…Part 3…
Alright, back with the final installment of the JCCS 2010 coverage. Not an over abundance of car pics in this part but I think I covered the JCCS in decent fashion…
I’m sure you guys are familiar with this Fairlady from last years JCCS. It was a hit on the net and now it’s sporting a new scheme…
Awesome posture…
I think we were all wondering how many people we could possibly fit into one of these Subarus…
Next to the red was this blue one. The owner or whoever was maintaining it randomly started talking to me about it. Turns out this Subaru belongs to a dealership or something and they still use it to deliver and pick up parts…
A 356CC engine, 25 horsepower, that gets 66 miles per gallon…wow…
Dude thought it would be funny to smile in one of my shots…good job asshole…
Badass Corolla…
Not really sure why this was at JCCS but it was still cool to see it there…
After we walked around for a little bit more, most of us were getting hungry so we decided to get to our cars and wait like 2 hours for us to be able to get out of the parking lot…Eventually we did make it to the Pike where we were gonna enjoy some good grub…
The view was amazing. When you think of Long Beach, you really don’t think about this area and how great the view is…
Once everyone was able to show up, we step inside Famous Dave’s to order some BBQ food…
Trying to figure out what to get…
May and I opted for the sampler meal….shit had everything and it was pretty good…
On our way out after eating, I walked outside Famous Dave’s and spotted this parked outside…
Decided to go walk around the pier since we hadn’t been there before. Plus we had a lot of time on our hands so everyone was cool with the walk…
Group shot…
You can beat these views…
Heading to the light tower side…
As we walked towards the light house, we spotted this one guy that was doing all these crazy back flips and shit…it was uhh…”interesting”…
Group shot #2…
Makin’ our way up…
Here’s that guy again doing all the crazy flips and shit…
We just sat at those benches up top and hung out for awhile and just BSed about random stuff…it was definitely good times…
The view from up top…
Well, that ends the coverage of the 2010 JCCS. Other than the parking situation, the show was great. Then a great big lunch after and enjoying the fresh air by walking around the pier…it was awesome times. I can’t wait to do it all over again next year. Thanks for looking…PEACE.
Japanese Classic Car Show 2010 Coverage…Part 2…
Here we go, back with more coverage of JCCS 2010. This will probably be the portion of the coverage where we see the most 510 stuff. Just the way these guys are putting their bays together now…amazing stuff. A lot of similar styling to Hondas guys currently too, with the beauty washers and other little intricate details. I know the pics have been resized so that they fit into this layout of the site but definitely try to take a closer look at the engine bays…
Not really sure what Rywire was looking at here but whatever it is, he made his jaw drop…
Crazy amount of fabrication work. Chassis has been all cut up and is basically a tube-framed chassis now…
I see this truck every year at JCCS and it’s every bit as immaculate as the day I first saw it…
I took a pic of this bay because it was clean and because it was also sporting this really small turbo that I saw on a couple other Datsuns….
Check out the dash and the APEX’i PowerFC….crazy…
This Mazda RX-4 built by Ranz Motorsports definitely was one of the show stealers of the event….2JZ-GE IS300 swap which has been boosted…
Custom fitted IS300 dashboard which gives this RX-4 like an interior modern feel…
Closer look at the IS300 cluster…
Rear flare…
Custom fuel set-up with a fuel cell sitting in the trunk…
Shots of the rear quarter…This thing is crazy and it has to be seen in person to truly be appreciated. It’s a crazy mix of modern technology with a classic, rare vehicle. A lot of rotary guys out there may be screaming bloody murder because of the Toyota engine swap but who cares…
A couple of Boso-themed wagons…first one on the SSR Starsharks and other on Longchamps…
Gonna close it out for today with Mark Arcenal’s Hakosuka Skyline. You may know him from Fatlace and all those Illest stickers, HellaFlush, etc. The man is doing it and has been on the grind for years now. Happy to see that he picked up a Hakosuka and is adding his own personal flare to it. If that man knows anything, it’s style and his Skyline represents that…
TE37V wheels look good on everything but it’s looks like it BELONGS on a Hakosuka…
Notice the “FTL-C” (Fatlace) sticker, which is an ode to look of the PMC-S or “Prince Motor Club Sports” logo that was present on many Hakosuka race cars of that era….Cool stuff…
That’s all for today…Gonna wrap up the coverage tomorrow with part 3 of the JCCS 2010 coverage. It was a cool show…stay tuned…
Japanese Classic Car Show 2010 Coverage…Part 1…
Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to everyone that watched the video I put together the other day. It’s received such a huge response and it’s funny because I just randomly put it together one night because I was bored. Thanks to everyone that enjoyed it, I’m happy I could give you guys some laughs. Anyways, on to the JCCS 2010 coverage…It was back at the Queen Mary again in Long Beach this year which meant that parking was going to be complete hell. As expected, it was. I ended up driving around the lot for almost an hour before I finally found a spot. I was actually about to give up and leave and on the way out of the parking lot, I happen to come up on a spot. It was just May and I there in the beginning but then Big Mike, DPK David, and the rest of the guys came by to check out the show as well. I have no idea how they managed to find parking so soon but they ended up in the lot for another hour as they tried to leave so I guess it makes up for it, haha. Alright, on to the pics. The majority of the coverage will be of the Datsun 510s. If you saw my coverage last year, you’ll see that it was much the same because I am a real big fan of those cars and the guys that are doing them up are doing an awesome job…
This was the first car I saw when I walked in. I’m also a big fan of the AE86s and this one has a Honda F20C swap and TE37V wheels that look to be very popular among the old school crowd…
1UZ-FE V8 swap in this one…
80s Celica with a 1JZ swap…
Starlet with a tucked bay and 4A-GE with ITBs…
I remember seeing this Corolla at Nisei and I finally got to take a closer look at it. Easily one of my favorites at the show. Love the color, swap, wheels, everything…even the Vision side mirrors…
Saw this little Honda at the Skunk2 Unmeet. Really interesting build and I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of it soon…
1986 Honda City that’s been in the U.S. for a couple years now. It’s cool to see it in basically the same condition but it’s not like this car is gonna go out of style any time soon being that it’s probably the only one in California…
I wonder if anyone noticed that this Corolla had a Beam’s 3s-GE swap in it…it’s a pretty rare motor stateside so it’s interesting to see it in an older model Corolla…
While I was waiting for the rest of the homies to show up, I ran into Ken Myoshi. We chatted for a bit and then he had to go cuz he had all kinds of hot ass food in his hands…
I also ran into Freddie from Autofashion. He didn’t really say anything because he was walking around in this pose all day….When he walked into the show, they charged him twice …
Big Mike…
Spotted this CVCC with a ZC swap and immaculate Enkei J-Speed wheels…
2JZ-GTE swap…
Love the simplicity of this Corolla. The bay is on point and the exterior is flawless…
Shortest radiator hose ever…haha. Love this car though…
This was interesting…
F20C swapped 510…thing must be a blast to drive. The older the S2Ks get, the easier it is to get ahold of F20C engines and put them into everything else….
Kinda iffy on the bay of this 510…It has a custom intake manifold but it was like literally sitting on the shock tower. I wonder if it had just been completed and they trailered the car there because they didn’t have time to figure out the spacing of it all. It’s also weird because the finish in the bay was like wall spackle…
Always been a really big fan of Volk GT-Ps. I had a set of 18s once but I sold it to my buddy Yukio. I remember it because he was gonna pay me in payments and the first payment he gave me was $20….twenty.dollars. Haha…but he ended up paying me for it. Took him like 3 years but hey, that’s what friends are for!!….
Shaved and tucked 510 bay…
I didn’t take a picture of the entire car but this pic alone will give you an idea of what was going on. “DATSFORMERS, more than meets dat eye!!!” -Big Mike
That’s all for today, back tomorrow with the other batch of pics from JCCS 2010…
F*ck The Chronicles!…
I’m actually still working on the pics from Japanese Classic Car Show and so far, they look pretty good. I have a bunch of content on the Datsun 510s that were at the event and that was my main focus every year because I am a huge fan of that chassis. When I finish them I will get them up for you guys to check it out. I was gonna try to finish it and put some up for you guys but I actually have to wake up in a couple of hours to go down to Eibach to talk to Ryan aka vtecvoodoo. I’m working on something huge and if all goes smoothly, I’ll be able to finally make an announcement and give you guys the full details…
So anyways, in one of my random nights of insomnia, I was on youtube and other video sites going through some of those videos that people usually put up with the cartoon-like characters that talk about the import scene or typical stereotypes that they feel need to be addressed. It’s a cool idea but generally they come off kinda wack and totally not funny. I’m not gonna name any videos in particular but I’m sure you have seen them circulated around forums and what not. They just aren’t that great. I found the site that people use to make them and I wanted to see if I could do something that like and possibly make it a little more entertaining and here it is. I just did it for fun, addressing some of the stuff that people would typically say about The Chronicles and the people involved on this site. I had some fun learning how to put videos like that together and I’m happy with the end result. I didn’t think it would be anything big so I posted it on The Chronicles Facebook page as well as my own personal one and it got a great response. Sometimes the best way to deal with things is to be able to laugh at yourself. So take it for what it is and if for whatever reason, some of you actually get offended by it….my bad. Just some light-hearted “humor”…Enjoy. I’ll be back with JCCS coverage later…
Oh, a quick note. Whoever keeps trying to google “Christine Mendoza nipslip” and keeps ending up on The Chronicles, seriously…if and when it happens I will be sure to let you know, okay? Dudes keep trying to search that shit and somehow they end up here. And if you’re wondering why you’re not seeing any of the other posts on the main page, it’s because it’s been adjusted so that only one post at a time appears on the front page now because all the coverage I’m posting is slowing the site down a bit for you guys. Breaking it into single posts will make it easier for the site to load up faster. If you guys want to see the older stuff, I’m sure you know how…Anyways, I’m out…thanks for watching…
From time to time, I will post stuff that is exclusive to the Chronicles’ Facebook page that doesn’t always appear on the main site. If you guys want to see that stuff, make sure to join The Chronicles Facebook Page. I think you just click the “Like” button or whatever it is now….Thanks.
Skunk2 Unmeet 1.0 Coverage…Part 2…
Alright, back with more coverage from the Skunk2 Unmeet. Just a couple more pics and some random stuff we did later that night…Enjoy…
Spotted this old school Honda in the parking lot. It was pretty crazy…had a custom carbon fiber lip, body was straight, and had like 13-inch OG Volks on there…
More people came in and out throughout the day. The crowd wasn’t huge by any means but there was a consistent flow of people…
Big Mike’s Prelude…
Clean LS parked off to the side…
Another shot of Jose’s RSX…
CB Accord wagon…
IS w/custom purple Enkei wheels…
DPK David’s nephew…
Loi walking his dog…as Loi would say “Dog walking are done.”…
Salem finally decided to show up and David thought it would be a cool idea to use Salem’s window as a leaning post…
Big Mike finally decided to update his old ass Sidekick phone but getting…another old ass Sidekick…
Loi’s doggie…
Ejay walking around by himself…looking like an STD prevention ad or a Cialis commercial…
Call him if you want to cyber….
Big Mike and Chris tossed the football around…
Chris’ baby watched…
PlanB Mike heading home…
Sheeps, Doug, Salem, and Wes…
I always see this Evo X pop up at every meet and event. Nice car…
May being emo…
Mike G and baby Kenji…
A bunch of them rented this four person bike/cart type thing and they actually made up their own time attack event where different groups would do laps around the parking lot to see who had the best time. I don’t know who ended up winning but that shit was pretty serious…
OldManJames’ S2000 as he was preparing to head out…
DPK David as he drove off…
Dave from Skunk2 cookin’ up some pollo asado…
Aaron from Skunk2′s daily NSX…
Banana tits…
The homie Dougie…
One more shot of Salem’s TSX before I headed home…
First time I had ever seen Aaron Bonk skate…haha. Dude can still do it but he was probably sore the next day…
After I left I just went home to take a break before we got together again later that night to celebrate Rywire and Travis’ birthdays in downtown Fullerton…
We met up at Commonwealth and everybody came out to chill. Even guys like Jared and Ejay who lived probably an hour away…
When we got inside, we realized that it was cougar night and there were old cougars on the prowl all over Commonwealth. They also had issues with their credit card machine so they were only accepting cash. It was the start of what might have been a rough night…
…we made the most of it and had a chill time there…
Black Pie was getting down as usual…
…and even managed to mingle with some cougars…
Ryan double fisting drinks…
Ejay and DPK Jared…
I and Pie…
Big Mike and Ejay’s g/f Jennie…
Okay so at this point we were chillin’ and even Big Mike danced with one of the cougars. Then some douche tries to start shit with the homie Chris and David steps in to cool down the situation. The only time David doesn’t try to punch somebody and security swoops in to swarm David and his cousin and they kicked them out for “fighting”. Shit was pretty dramatic and we all just decided to leave to go to another spot…
We ended up at Branigans or something and it was like an Irish Pub. It was kinda late already and not everybody was rocking full-out club attire so we just went to chill at the bar…
We discovered this piano inside and Ejay hopped on to play some songs…
Some girl was partying like it was her birthday and here’s Travis pointing at her right after she ran outside to go yack on the sidewalk…
Oh Phaze2 Tony came out with us too and here he is taking a picture with May. I don’t know why May’s other hand is doing that but I think she thought she had another drink in her hand…
That spot was kinda boring but we stuck it out til the end and then we headed to Denny’s to eat afterwards…
We hung out while Ryan went on a drunkin tirade about how his buddy’s dad Sal Marello was the actual guy that wrote the Cocomo song by the Beach Boys and how he was the one that coined the term “The Situation” long before the guy from Jersey Shore did…it was…uhh..an interesting time…
That’s all for the Skunk2 meet. The next day it was an early lunch and then off to Long Beach for the Japanese Classic Car Show…stay tuned…
Skunk2 Unmeet 1.0 Coverage…Part 1…
Man, what a weekend. So much to do is what seemed like such a short amount of time. This was the first weekend since the back-t0-back Norcal trips and both days were filled with events to attend. First was the Skunk2 Unmeet and then the next day was JCCS. It was also Ryan Basseri aka Rywire’s birthday so we made it a point to make the most out of the weekend and celebrate his life since he came down to Socal to hang out. The night of the Unmeet was filled with its fair share of debauchery so I’ll include some of the pics from that night in part 2 of this two part coverage of the meet…
Anyways, I made it out to Yorba Linda Regional Park around 11:40 or so with May just in time for the hot dogs to start cooking. The meet had started at 10 but it was still relatively uncrowded at the Unmeet…
I parked next to the DPK guys who had already been there for awhile…
Black Pie…
I brought Yum Yum Donuts because it’s always appropriate to bring donuts to a bbq but everyone seemed to be happy to devour them while the hot dogs were still in its final stages of cooking…
Black Pie realized that I was using my 10mm wide angle lens so he crouched over to meet the angle of the shot. This S2000 belongs to Supertwinz James aka OldManJames aka MacGyNguyen. I call him MacGyNguyen because he can literally take any situation and either turn it into a birthday announcement or online debate…
It was also Travis’ birthday too and he looks oddly uncomfortable here because his girlfriend bought him that gigantic watch which made it impossible for him to get a full extension to put his hand his his pocket…His watch was so big that he could tell the future…
Saturday was also 9/11 so Skunk2 brought out this Osama Bin-ata…ahh, get it…that’s both witty and an obvious play on words….
Ryan, SuperTwinz John, Ryan Der, and SuperTwinz James…May is in the background distributing donuts to Carlos and Jared…
“Hey Jared, who do you think is better looking, me or you? – Me…
Speaking of being better looking than Jared, it was a big day for him. Not because he admitted defeat but because he was getting his DPK sticker that day. Jared became the newest member of DPK that day and we all got together for his inauguration ceremony. There were candles lit on black chrome candle holders, salsa music that was chopped and screwed, 8 pigeon calls, and Black Pie even made a speech….
Sheepey gave an awkward smile of approval…
We all clapped and hugged and wiped tears of joy from our eyes and Jared happily accepted his new brothers and prepared to apply his sticker…
DPK regulation states that the sticker must be applied at exactly 62.38621 degrees of angle so it was important that he got it down correctly…
Congrats to DPK*Jared…
After that it was hot dog time…
Sheepey hooked it up with some foot longs and it made eating them both awkward and delicious…
Skunk2 had a small tent area where people could buy shirts and grab free Unmeet stickers…
Mike from PlanB brought out his Evo X on Enkei NT03s…
Un-intended male sensuality in this picture but I was just trying to get a shot of Jared’s S2000…
A clean DC that was there on Volk GTNs….
OldManJames S2K…
Hasport J32 Civic. Can’t wait to see this thing at Super Lap Battle with the Exospeed front-end on it…
Not bad…
Jose Guzman aka JDM Matter’s DC5…
Morgan’s Skunk2-sponsored K-powered CTR…
Carlos aka Mugen Boy’s S2000 CR…
…and his EK with BYS bumper and SE37Ks…must.be.nice…
DPK*Henry’s RHD hatchback…
Ryan’s CR-X now back to a B-series swap…
DPK*David decided to switch it up and brought his Mugen front lip back and rolled out on some 15-inch RE30s…
Keith aka KeyChain’s Accord. He came out for a good 30 minutes or so to come say what’s up…
Black Pie again…
It was time to break open the Osama Binata so Big Mike assigned birthday boy Ryan to do the job…
…it only took him a couple of swings before he busted it open and a bunch of candy, stickers, and Skunk2 radiator caps fell out…
Brandon doing his video thing for Skunk2…
PlanB Mike’s Evo X…
Jennie, Ejay, and Bolt Boys Frank hanging out…
Nice Ruckus with some copper-plated goods…
DPK*Jared S2000…
Sheeps…
Big Mike MC’ing with the mega phone and Brandon filmed during the push-up competition where the winners won either a Skunk2 radiator cap or t-shirt…
Enrique Rosario doing work. I think he was close to winning it until Rywire came in and did like 78 or something…
Even Pie got involved…he pushed so hard he created a sinkhole and half the spectators at the meet fell in…
That’s about it for today. I got more stuff for you guys tomorrow. Actually with the JCCS stuff and other random pics, there’s gonna be a bunch of content all week…Stay tuned…PEACE…
Must be nice…
Just some quick stuff for you guys today…it’s gonna be a busy weekend with the Skunk2 Unmeet 1.0 on Saturday and then Japanese Classic Car Show on Sunday. I love going to JCCS because it’s a totally different environment from what we are normally used to and the cars are simply amazing. The Skunk2 Unmeet is going on of course and it’s cool because it’s really just based around people hanging out and not so much with the cars themselves. The weather has been pretty nice lately so it’ll be good to go out to a park and relax with the homies…
More info on the meet HERE.
I also wanted to give a quick shout to Jonathan Wong and Super Street for sending me one of the new Super Street “Supreme” style shirts and a gang of those Super Street stickers that I’ve been trying to get for awhile now. Not only is it good to freelance for these guys, they also take care of me by giving me free shit occassionally. Thanks Mr. Wong!…
Now I can finally wear some NEW clothes for a change…haha…
While I was up in Norcal over the weekend, the ATS guys hooked me up with some new “Still Fast” gear. I guess they’re trying to start their own clothing line and they wanted to give me a sample of some of their shirts and stickers. Thanks doods, the quality of the shirts are really good. If you guys know me, I have some weird thing about having wrinkled shirts and shit and these shirts are like impossible to wrinkle! haha…My asshole cat laid on top of it for a good 3 hours and the shirt was still good to go minus all the cat hair that d-bag left behind!…
Another weekend in Norcal…Hella Part 2…
DISCLAIMER: The following post will be mostly non-car/Honda related. This post is more on the lifestyle side of it so if you come on here just to see cars, check back later…
Okay, back with the second half of the Norcal mini-vacation. We didn’t do much on this day but go to the ATS BBQ at Chris Sakai’s place. I gotta say, Dina makes some amazing food. It was a blast and a pleasure to be there. Both the food and the company were excellent…Thanks to the ATS*Family, Chris Sakai and his wife Dina for being such amazing hosts. We all had a great time. I was supposed to shoot Anh’s car that day just so I could do a small write-up on it for The Chronicles but just our luck, as he rolled up, one of his radiator hoses broke and coolant was everywhere. We didn’t want to risk it and drive it anywhere so we just parked it. I guess it wasn’t meant to be, haha!…
Chris and David hanging out…
The Blackest of the Pie…
Jared eating some chicken while Ryan watches on…
Darryl, Jared, and Pie…
The delicious food that we ate all day long…
Assortment of drinks…
Wek’Sos Ken with geniune Honda parts in the back and a drunk Ferd creeping up in the corner…
Norcal dudes hella hanging out and drinking…hella…
The sausage king…dude gobbles up sausage like Pacman…haha…
Ryan and Jared doing their usual 2 hour talks about Seinfeld and how great that show is…Ryan Der randomly got sucked into the conversation…
I’m sure many of you remember this S2000, now rolling on SSR Type-Fs…
ATS*Ron’s hatch…
You know you trust your homies when you allow them to party around your car and have steel chairs inches away from it, haha…and you gotta pop the hood and stunt at the bbq too…
Anh rolled up in his Integra…
…and Ken and David were messing around with it…
…and then the hose blew and Fred had to find another braided hose to fix it…
Intense conversation was had…
Anh stayed for a little bit and then had to go home with a bunch of gifts from everyone for his newborn baby, Charis….
When you see the “Fred Chapman Built” stickers on cars, it’s not really for his contribution to builds. It’s really for his amazing ATS*Miracle Dip that he makes. I don’t know what’s in it because I didn’t want to ruin the magic but that shit was delicious…
Ryan posing while I tried to figure out why one of the flashes weren’t working…
Fred and Jared trying to blame eachother for breaking the toilet…
Group pics even though you can’t see some of their faces…haha…
Fred Chapman and Black Pie…
May and I with the guys in the back…
Pie and Ken…
The Chapman Builts…
After we started cleaning up it was time to head back to the Dolce Hayes Mansion. We didn’t really do anything after because we had to check out early and have lunch with some of the guys before heading back to Socal…
After we checked-out, we headed down the street to Red Robin to grab an early lunch…
Ron, Angel, Chris, Dina, Fred’s kid, and Fred sat at one table while Ryan and us sat at the other…
Ryan drinking a smoothie of some sort…
We all ate, had some laughs and what not then it was back to Socal…
It was a good trip overall. Everything went off without a hitch and it was smooth sailing. Two weeks up in Norcal back to back is definitely not a typical trip I make and it’s probably gonna be the last bit of traveling I do before SEMA in Las Vegas. Thanks to the ATS guys and everyone up in Norcal for being so courtesy and taking care of us. Until next time, I’m out…PEACE.
Another weekend in Norcal…Hella Part 1…
DISCLAIMER: The following posts for the next two days will be mostly non-car/Honda related. The posts are more on the lifestyle side of it so if you come on here just to see cars, check back in a day or two…
Okay, finally back in business. I hadn’t really planned on going up to Norcal back to back weekends but I did promise DPK*David that I would go with him to visit the ATS guys whenever he had planned to go. I didn’t know he had his mind set on Labor Day weekend though, which was just one weekend after I came back from going up there with Rodrez. Luckily for me, Anh was able to hook us up big time with a pretty nice room up in San Jose so money wouldn’t be too big of an issue. I had pretty much just planned on using the money for food and little misc. things like gas so May and I told David and his lady Jackie that we were down and we took off for Norcal late Friday night…
We were gonna get to Norcal really late/early in the am so it was just easier to stay at Ryan aka Rywire’s pad. He’s got a pretty big spot and it wasn’t too far from the hotel so it took us little to no time to check-in to our hotel the next day. By the time we arrived, it was probably about 4:30am or so. We were still pretty awake from the drive so we just kinda hung out before we went to bed…
Hanging out in Ryan’s workshop area where all the Rywire-magic goes down…He’s got a couple of other roommates who are also car guys so there were parts everywhere throughout the house. I literally slept next to a set of BBR wheels and a Backyard Special front bumper in the room that I was staying in…
Trash…I’m just sayin’ 
Like 5 minutes after we finally went to sleep, Darryl from DPK’s Element pulls up and out comes Black Pie, Jared, and Darryl. I guess they randomly decided to make the drive to Norcal to hang out and the couples weekend that the girls were kinda looking forward to went right out the window, haha…
We all slept for about 3-4 hours and woke up to go eat breakfast and check into our hotels at the Dolce Hayes Mansion…
There wasn’t anything really good to eat in the area and we were gonna grab food again down at the Wharf later on that afternoon so we settled for McDonald’s…
After we finished eating our McNuggets, we were off to Dolce Hayes Mansion…
Here’s the view of the outside as soon as we rolled up. It was a pretty sweet spot to stay at. Very classy and had that nostalgic feel to it. Weddings are really popular here probably because of the backdrop and how it is sort of removed from everything else…Anh showed up to make sure that we were all checked-in properly before he went to work…
It was so nice outside that I decided to get everyone together to take a group shot. From left to right you have Jared, Ryan up front, Anh in the back with half his face covered, Black Pie is in the middle taking up all the space, DPK*David, Jackie, Darryl, and May…
Ferd from ATS wanted to go down to Fisherman’s Wharf with us so we headed over to his pad to meet up with him…
I didn’t know any of the Norcal heads actually lived in one of those houses that’s on some crazy hill with a driveway that is pretty much impossible …
Pie doin’ his thing…
I took the liberty of takng out complete shots of Ferd’s project because I wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted it out there or not…
Darry’s Element on TE-37 wheels…
Here we are just getting into downtown San Francisco…
May forgot her hoodie at the hotel and it was pretty fuckin’ cold so she went out and picked-up this “Hella SF” hoodie…
Jared attempting the reach-around on metal chilren…
Another group shot, this time including myself and ATS Ferd…
The girls took a picture together as well…
It was time for food again so I went to the usual spot to grab a shrimp/crab sandwich and calamari…May got the clam chowder and it must have been good because we both look super excited in the picture…
Ryan paperbagging it and looking as miserable as possible…
After we finished eating our seafood, we walked over to the old arcade museum because a couple of the guys that were with us had never seen it before…
Most of the games were old as shit but were still playable. This machine that Black Pie is playing with apparently isn’t used for arm-wrestling and it’s primary purpose now is to eat people’s quarters….
Ryan hand-cranking an old XXX machine…I imagine beating off was quite a task during the era when these machines were in use. I mean, what if you’re about to finish and then you have to insert another quarter or something. Then you have to start hand-cranking the lever again to build momentum and you lose your own momentum on the other arm and you can’t even blow your load on the side of the machine anymore…shits wack…
I’m not entirely sure what they were doing here. Probably a failed attempt at break dancing or something…
On our way to Ghirardelli Square, I saw this cable car operator snapping a picture of something. Not sure what it was since he probably rolls through there on more than one occassion everyday…
Our view on the walk over to Ghirardelli…
We got some free chocolate samples and David hung out with some of the ATS homies while the rest of us went to go do some wine testing. I don’t know shit about wine and I didn’t feel like drinking anyway so I just watched…
Jared, May, and Darryl wine-tasting…
It started to get dark and some of us separated from the rest of the crowd so that we could get ready for dinner with ATS Ferd for his birthday…
I ate at Osha Thai the weekend before with Rodrez so I decided to go back so that David and Jacky could try it. David said he was a big fan of Thai food so we definitely had to go…
May and Jackie after we all had a shot at Osha Thai…
May actually got some video during dinner with her Canon S3…Kinda random but I thought it was cool to capture the moment…
Ferd and David taking a shot of Patron for Ferd’s birthday. DPK David is a trendsetter and does the “lime before the shot” method…haha…it takes them awhile to do the shot because everyone kept trying to take a picture…
Here we are doing the birthday song thing to Ferd…It sounds like there were about 40 people singing the song but it’s just the 5 of us…and the waitress of course who just decided to lip-sync it and wave her arms around…
That’s about it for today. The shot above was actually taken before dinner. Ferd took us to the top where we could get a view of San Francisco. It was an awesome sight but it was also foggy and cold as shit. The shot is actually way clearer than the actual view…Anyways, I’m gonna post up the rest tomorrow of the ATS BBQ at Chris Sakai’s place. I was gonna post it all up in one day but I fell asleep like 4 times just doing the first half of this post…Alright, back tomorrow, peace…
Another weekend over…
Spent the Labor Day weekend up in Norcal with some friends and just got back last night. I’m going through the pictures now and it’s not too much car stuff, if any…stay tuned if you wanna see some hanging out and random ass shit. I’m tired as hell and gonna pass out now…peace. Back later…
Exclusive Content: Abunai Racing Integra…
I’ve been meaning to get ahold of Arn and his Integra since I saw it at Wek’Fest earlier this year. He had just debuted his new hydrogen set-up on his K and it was nothing that anyone had seen or done yet. It’s fitting that it worked out that way because Arn has been on the forefront of the Honda community for many years now. He’s one of the guys who has been building Honda longer than the majority of the current generation. He started out as a drag racer but has taken on more of a reserved role now that he’s grown up. Now he usually just keeps to himself and focuses his time mostly on his wife and baby, who he expects to be born in about 3 weeks. I was supposed to go get some shots of the car last week in fact but he had baby stuff to attend to so it was pushed back until this past Tuesday. For me, it’s truly an honor to get a chance to take pictures of this Integra and have it featured on The Chronicles. I’ve been following this DC2 for as long as I’ve been into Hondas and Arn has always had his own way of doing things. He was doing gold-plating on Honda parts long before anyone thought to dip anything, drag racing 600+hp Hondas at the track whether or not drag racing was the “cool” thing to do, and now he’s created a hydrogen-powered K-series before anyone even fathomed the concept. Oh yeah, 24K gold Mugen M7s? That’s all Arn right there. The guy thought to tear M7s apart and customize them when dudes had trouble finding a complete set just to rock on their own cars.
I brought Big Mike along with me to meet up with Arn in the valley because Mike and Arn go waaaayyy back. They don’t exactly live near eachother so it was cool to bring him out so that they could reunite. It also helped me get there faster because I could drive in the car pool lane, haha. Arn was all smiles when we showed up and we took off to go find a spot to shoot. I had a location in mind because I remember the spot that Rodrez shot HeyMikeyyyy’s Integra at but when we got there, it was completely fenced-off because the neighboring business had closed down. So we drove around with Arn close behind to find a spot to shoot at. We found some random ass spot that was a little sketchy but after an hour or so, it cleared up and we were able to do whatever we wanted. I wish I could provide you guys with more information on the hydrogen set-up but I think that there was some interest in doing a tech article on it for publication so I left it alone. With that said, let’s go to the pics. Same routine as usual…pic followed by a link below to a larger, hi-res version…
I present to you…
“Daisy”…
What I really wanted to do was get some updated shots of the engine bay…by the time it came time to do the bay, it was starting to get dark…
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Thanks for looking…and thanks to Arn Reyes for supporting The Chronicles and building a great Honda…
L*Con Race Cars…
I’m just about done with the pics of Arn’s Integra but I thought I’d put this up before the weekend. I think people will be busier clicking back and forth with those pics and I don’t want these to get lost in the mix. My boy Tony has been hitting me up to check out Louie’s new shop location since he moved from Placentia a couple months back. I’ve been pretty busy lately but I did have a couple hours free late afternoon yesterday so I decided to meet up with him. For those of you who don’t know Louie, he’s the sole owner and fabricator at L-Con Race Cars. The guy is a genius when it comes to welding and fab work and he has built his own business from the ground-up. He’s done work for Scion corporate for their SEMA demo cars, plenty of time attack and drag cars in the past, and also has done lots of work on Hondas. He did the cage for that yellow EP that I posted up a week ago when I was over at Inline4 and he also did the custom exhaust on Tony’s NSX. He’s a cool dude and is really laid back so it’s always cool to go down there and chill with him for a minute. He’s recently moved his shop to Garden Grove on a street that’s oddly named “A Better Way” and has set-up shop in an old Ducati spot. When I got there it was around 7 or so and Tony, Louie, and a couple of other guys he has helping him at the shop were posted up outside…
I’ve also been thinking about throwing The Chronicles 2-year anniversary meet at L-Con so I had to go see what type of space was available…
Alex Doan’s S2000. I hadn’t seen this car in awhile but I guess he helps Louie out at the shop…
Tony’s NSX of course. He’s been taking this thing to work lately which makes the morning commute a little more interesting…
I was surprised to see this Civic posted up at the shop. Many of you guys may be unfamiliar with this car but it is “JDM Jon” Tanji’s old hatchback. He passed away in 2005 but to this day is still one of the most influential wrenchers in the Honda community…
It’s crazy to see that his Civic is still in the exact same condition that he left it in 5 years later. His family gave the Civic to one of his closest friends after his passing and he also helps Louie out at L*Con…
Here’s a look inside the shop. He’s got a couple projects going on right now including an S2000 from New York that is gonna be acid-dipped and seam welded…
That Civic CVCC with the S2000 motor sitting in it has been basically in the same state since I first met Louie. It’s his own personal project but he’s always so busy working on customer cars that he just hasn’t had the time to finish it. Hopefully he finishes it one day…
There’s also a spot in the shop where they work on bikes…
The storefront area is still pretty empty because he just barely moved in two months ago, and he’s also never had a storefront in the past. He mentioned possibly setting up a clothing display. Nothings really set in stone yet but it might eventually become Louie’s very own clothing store. One one of the other rooms inbetween the storefront and the bay is a room where one of his friends has set up his tattoo business. With the new space he has now, Louie is basically turning his shop into his own “fantasy factory”…
You can see the layout here. The first window to the right is a view of the bay, the middle window is the tattoo spot, and the third windows facing the front lead to the storefront…
The rest of the pics are just random stuff that I snapped…
DA with SSR Type Xs on the lift…
Spoon Sports catalog which was actually really organized and symmetrical, unlike their kevlar weave…haha…
A view from behind the shop…
Another shot of Alex’s Spoon S2000…
Tony’s NSX…
RIP Jon Tanji…his birthday actually just passed on the 30th of August I believe…
If you guys want to hit up Louie about some serious fab work, whether it be piping, a full cage, and exhaust, whatever…here’s the new address. He doesn’t have access to his old website anymore so the information on there hasn’t been updated yet. When I left they were still trying to figure out how to get into the server to changed the info but I don’t know if it was successful or not… Here’s the address…
13851 A Better Way Unit 11D
Garden Grove, CA 92843
(714) 572-4130
That’s all for today.. back tomorrow with all of Arn’s DC2 pics…
Just a preview for now…
I’m kinda busy finishing up some work for Honda Tuning but I haven’t forgot about you guys. Just trying to make time for everything before I take off to Norcal again for the weekend. Here’s something I’ve been working on that will probably be up by tomorrow morning. Big Mike and I headed out to the valley to go visit Arn so I could get some shots of his DC2. No one has really gotten any new shots of it since he put on his hydrogen set-up and put on all his new Skunk2 gear so I went and snapped some pics. Here’s just a quick sneak peek for now. It’s the only image I had time to work on last night. I’ll have larger clickable versions when it’s all done…
