By this point of the Wekfest event, it was already pretty close to the gates opening to the public. As mentioned in the podcast, there were some issues trying to get all the vehicles inside the building, especially with the new fire marshal imposing some strict rules on us. The delay actually helped me out though because it gave me some more time to shoot. I typically put my camera away so I can start judging the Honda/Acura classes of the event but since their was no crowd yet, I did as much as I could to cover the show. I’m trying out this new thing now where I try to only shoot photos of cars that are staged inside that I didn’t previously capture outside during the roll-in process. This just gives me more time to see everything without having multiples of the same cars over and over again. I mean, if I get more than one photo of a particular car, that usually means that it is a pretty good build that deserves multiple photos but I also understand the need to see a little bit more of everything. Things can get kind of dry just taking the same photos of staged cars inside the building anyways and that’s why I focus so much of the photography on the outside when the cars are moving around. It just makes for more dynamic coverage, you know?…

So in the concluding section of Wekfest East 2017 coverage, you’ll see mostly photos from within the show, and at the end, some roll-out shots. There was so much controversy and insanity that happened at this show that we essentially had to leave as soon as possible, so I didn’t shoot as much as I would have liked after the show ended. There was just a lot of tension built-up throughout the day with the fight, and some of the cars not being able to get in, that there was this feeling that something bad could happen so the people who operated the New Jersey Exposition Center just wanted to get everyone out once the show ended. Again, please listen to the recent podcast for further explanation. Let’s just say that things were getting a little testy. All of that withstanding, I did get a good bulk of photos inside though. You’ll see a lot of Hondas along with some unique builds that really caught my eye. Sit back and enjoy. It’s a long weekend with Labor Day coming up, so I’m not sure when you guys will actually sit down and read this, but I hope that you read through all of it.

As always, thanks for looking…

At a glance this Integra looked relatively simple, almost “typical” of what you’d see at a car show these days. An Integra with a JDM ITR front face, BYS front bumper and some Spoon SW388 wheels wrapped in Toyo R888. When I started judging the cars however, this was the first owner to approach me to tell me about his car. As it turns out, this Integra actually has something along the lines of 300k+ miles on the chassis! Crazy to think that an Integra this clean has that many miles on it. The owner said that he’s been everywhere and basically done everything with this car. Pretty impressive to see how dedicated he is to keeping this Integra in tip-top shape considering its age and usage…

The fully-shaved engine bay is starting to show its age a little bit with minor imperfections here and there but the bay overall still looks fantastic. The heart of the Integra is actually a H22A swap (H2B set-up) with a Rosko Racing Upper Plenum upgrade which has been polished to match the Go Autoworks intake pipe, and the header is a coated Whitfield Racing piece. Love the candy purple shaved valve cover with the carbon kevlar wire cover piece along with the tucked radiator with cooling hoses that have been sleeved to match the kevlar. Pretty awesome stuff. Love how the windshield cowl is also hydro-dipped to have that “kevlar look”….

Chris Panchoo’s dark blue Integra running Spoon Sports side mirrors and Enkei RPF1 wheels…

Spoon-themed engine bay set-up with the traditional red valve cover and the addition of a FEEL’S Honda Twin Cam radiator cap. Nice of Chris to remove his air filter so I could put my watermark there…

Kevin Beepat’s Milano Red Integra looking good with the bronze Mugen MF8 wheels. A P1-Spec front lip brings the front end a little lower and matches the Mugen side skirts. In the rear is a Mugen Gen. 1 spoiler, ITR rear and added cool points come in the form of Ganador Super Mirrors…

Though it is largely Mugen-themed outside, the engine bay houses quite a bit of Spoon Sports accessories…

Nice and simple black Civic coupe on bronze Volk TEs wearing a Airwalker front bumper with the addition of a TOP1 Motors splitter…

Tyler Clauss’ Civic coupe was one of the more surprising builds I saw at Wekfest East. I actually sold Tyler the carbon Tactical Art lip you see in the photo. When he had originally hit me up to buy the lip, his car was still in the process of being put together so I had no idea what it actually looked like. He was a pretty persistent guy too because I was a bit lazy to ship the front lip to him, worried that it might get damaged in shipping but he really spared no expense in getting the lip, which either meant that he had a shit load of money or he was just someone who really knew what they wanted. Fortunately, the lip arrived in the East Coast totally in perfect condition and looked great on his coupe….

In the shaved and repainted engine bay was a turbocharged H2B set-up utilizing a Precision turbo with custom dumps routed through the hood. When I saw it rolling into the venue, I couldn’t help but notice the huge drag slicks up front and was worried it was just done as a show prop but it turns-out that this set-up is pretty legit. I didn’t even realize it was Tyler’s car until I saw the lip later on while I was walking the show…

Brian Cardoza’s Milano Red EM1 Civic SI sitting on black Volk RE30s and a BackYard Special front bumper…

Cardoza’s set-up is a little different than your typical EM1 SI. Instead of the B16, he actually has a LS/VTEC B18B1 swap. I believe he blew his motor a while back and needed to run this set-up just to get the car going…

This bagged Civic sedan looked good with the Japanese Domani front swap and 3-piece CCW wheels…

The engine bay looked especially good with the custom engraved and coated single-cam motor equipped with a tucked radiator set-up. The brake booster has also been eliminated for a manual brake set-up to further clean-up the bay. Definitely unique and love the execution overall…

Simple black 98-01 spec Integra on Kosei K1 wheels along with a right-hand drive conversion…

This Varis Subaru WRX from Bag Riders was stunning.The car just sits so well on the ground with the brushed Forgeline wheels…

The engine bay set-up was equally as impressive. If you guys are familiar the Subaru Boxer is usually a pretty horrendous looking piece of machinery and it is way more difficult to make a bay look good on a Subaru. This one is nicely tucked-away, engine bay has been smoothed and re-sprayed, with some polished engine pieces to really bring this engine bay to life. Typically when you see a Subaru engine bay, you just glance, look at how big the turbo is and run away as quickly as possible, haha…

Love the green on this Liberty Walk widebody Infiniti G37 coupe. Color choice is on-point, especially with the bright gold lip on the RSV Forged wheels….

One of the most uncommon builds in attendance that day was this ST204 Celica on Volk Racing RE30 wheels. I remember seeing it last year as well but it didn’t have the Aero Magic front lip yet, and let me tell you, it makes a huge difference in appearance. The car looks so much more aggressive. The owner also added side mirrors as well, but I’m not sure exactly what they are, perhaps East Bear?…

What really makes this Celica a super interesting build is what lies under the hood in the form of a naturally-aspirated Toyota BEAMS (Breakthrough-Engine with Advanced Mechanism System) 3S-GE engine. This I believe is the ST202 Celica variation of the 3S-GE BEAMS with the different intake plenum than that of the ones you’d see typically in RWD format on say, an IS300. The motor makes 197HP from the factory and later versions were used in the WRC series but altered to be equipped with a turbocharger. This particular set-up also features an HKS intake, which I don’t imagine would be easy to acquire these days….

Root beer Civic hatchback on white Work RSZ-R wheels rocking Spoon Sports front brakes, a B-swap, and Kirkey Racing seats…

Kinda bummed I didn’t get a chance to capture a photo of Raymond Perez’s engine bay, since I was shooting so early on in the day before guys popped their hoods. I later got to get a good look at his Civic and it actually has a GSR swap equipped with a Jackson Racing supercharger….

Bagged white Civic sedan with Japanese front/rear bumpers, thin side moldings, intersection lights, Honda Access headlight covers, hood shield, bumper pole, headlight squirters, and Honda Access front lip. Just to name a few of course. This thing had a ton of rarely seen accessories…

Check-out the flared front fenders and rear arches to house the custom Volk Racing Evolution wheels on this Honda Accord Wagon. I know we’re not all keen on “stance-themed” builds but I think for Wagons like this, it looks great. Love the paint choice, the headlight retrofit, smoked lenses on the blinkers and intersection lights, everything. I always tell myself I want one of these things but will never actually pull through and get one, especially since I already have an Odyssey, which is essentially the less cool-looking brother of the Accord…

Widebody Subaru WRX STI running aggressive Work Meister M1 wheels from Clean Culture…

Wild-looking burgundy Honda S2000 on custom Work VS wheels representing Cambergang. It had a really interesting custom exhaust too which I didn’t get a shot of so you’re just gonna have to take my word for it. On another note, these Acura MDX Jewel-Eye headlight retrofits are super popular on the East Coast…

I had a pretty lengthy conversation with Steven Crespo, owner of this DC5, during the Wekfest event. For whatever reason, we always end up chatting about cars for a long time and I appreciate him taking the time to talk. He told me that he didn’t do much to his car this year, other than taking my advice from last year and adding a rear wing to his right-hand drive-converted RSX. Crespo said that he just wanted to enjoy his car this year instead of worrying about making it perfect, which is a good thing in my opinion. I think it is important to just sit back and enjoy your work sometimes instead of constantly thinking about what to do next to keep up with everyone else…

Crespo also said that he really appreciated being able to see Big Mike’s Prelude in person because it really inspired him to make some huge changes to his build for next year. He said he didn’t want to build exactly the same car or anything, because it would be pretty difficult to build something along the lines of a Big Mike Prelude, but there were certain aspects of the car that really appealed to him and made him think about what he could do to his. It was probably one of the best conversations I had that day. Guys like him remind me of why I like traveling to different places to enjoy our car community….

Martin Cabrera’s freshly repainted Lexus IS300 Sportcross all set-up for the show, displaying his engine bay which features a 2JZ-GTE engine swap…

Sermon Garcia’s Black Pearl Lexus GS on Nine1 Forged Wheels…

Brian Howley of Showstoppers USA New Jersey’s 500HP turbocharged EP3 Civic on Advaning Racing wheels…

The power of the K-series engine is matched with eye-pleasing aesthetics featuring a massive polished Magnus intake manifold, neo-chrome plated valve cover and engine mounts, along with a dual-wastegate set-up on the Full Race turbo manifold…

Joe Lardieri’s Civic hatchback from Regiment Zero running a First Molding front lip, BYS rear wing, and black Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels…

B20 VTEC engine set-up running a Skunk2 intake manifold and custom engine breather set-up…

AP2 S2000 with an aggressive front aero set-up featuring an ASM front bumper and WASP carbon front splitter…

I’d see this Subaru online everywhere this year but was curious to see how it looked in person. It’s rather simple on the outside, just running Aeroflow Dynamics over fenders, but the engine bay housed something pretty special…

Sticking-out like a sore thumb in the completely shaved bay with its slight-tilt was a Nissan RB26DET engine swap with a custom V-mounted intercooler. Pretty crazy to see an RB-swap in side of a subaru and the execution is just excellent on this build. Despite what many would think, this set-up actually works too and the car drives as-is…

The trunk of the Subaru showcased its Airlift Performance air set-up and next to it was its custom fuel set-up…

Subaru WRX STI hosting a set of deep-dish Volk Racing TE37V Mark II wheels. Sitting right on top of them are Karlton fender flares all the way around…

Joe Tobias’ Subaru WRX STI looked great with its Zero Sports front lip and Chargespeed sideskirt combo. It was also bagged and seated on WEDS Sport TC105N wheels which were paired with Endless big brakes. Nice touch with the huge roof scoop as well…

Perhaps one of the cleanest builds in the entire building was this AE86 Corolla on display at the RavSpec booth on brand new Work Equip 40 wheels…

I showed you guys a couple photos of it in Part 1 but here you can finally see the turbocharged Honda F20C engine swap. The motor looks like it belongs in there and everything is tied together quite nicely with the custom turbo set-up and all. This thing probably fucking rips…

BN Sports Lexus SC build on SSR Professor SP3 wheels…

Under the hood of the SC was a 2JZ-GTE swap housed within a cleaned-up engine bay…

Good to see Willy’s imported Honda Integra Type R again, always sitting nicely on Volk Racing wheels with its Buddy Club front bumper and Mugen rear spoiler…

This strawberry-faced S14 definitely wasn’t the cleanest but it caught my attention as I was making my way through the show…

Under the hood was a Nissan RB25DET NEO engine swap, with the signature NEO Straight-6 engine cover…

Rarely seen Vogue Silver Metallic (VSM) Honda Integra Type R equipped with a carbon Spoon Sports front lip, Spoon brakes, Spoon Sports mirrors, and bronze Volk Racing wheels…

Right next to it is the more classic Championship White Honda Integra Type R, this one also executed with a Spoon Sports theme…

I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed staring at this custom widebody and radiused Honda Accord on WEDS Kranze wheels, owned and built by Peter Giuffre…

Eventually I had to stop shooting to focus on judging the car show itself, so I put the camera down until the evening when I was able to capture some exit shots after the show…

Check out the cut rear bumper on this S2000 as it left the New Jersey Exposition Center. The CR rear wing and Spoon Sports mirrors are a nice touch…

The “Wild-Z” Rocket Bunny Z33 airred-up and cruising out…

Johne’s SW20 MR-2 was as mint as its vanity plate indicated…

Nothing better than classic Porsches driving into the sun…

Missed out on the opportunity to capture a photo of this Supra during the show but it sounded pretty mean as it left the venue…

Appropriate to get a shot of the Rocket Bunny FD that I first captured when I started doing coverage early that morning of the show…

Ito’s Accord Wagon looking like it couldn’t possibly roll at this ride height but it somehow did…

VIP build of 2017 probably goes to Nate’s Q45…. I don’t know if there are many out there that could argue that…

…but we live in a pretty argumentative world, especially in the Internet age, so I’m sure someone has something to say about that…

Mike’s custom LS400 is right up there too. Crazy to see guys rolling like this seated so closely to the fenders…

And that’s a wrap on this one folks. Sorry that it might have taken some time to get all the coverage up but there is so much content going into this site now that it isn’t always easy to just throw up all the photos at once. I tried to be as descriptive as possible too, attempting to find the owners of the vehicles and what not. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Still a steady flow of content coming your way, so make sure to come back!…

Thanks for looking…