Good times! What else are you doing while its all stripped down?

 

sounds like you've got it all figured out, kiku. good luck sir.

 

This exactly happened to me. Instead of regular zipties I bought metal ones. But I raised the car enough to no rub. Goodluck to you Kiku!

 

Haha, I wish I had it all figured out but I kinda make it up as I go.

 

Nice build, reminds me of learning and building my first car.

Keep up the good work.

 

I ran most of my wiring in the actual frame of the car... but that involves stripping down the harness. There is about a 1/2 inch gap.

 

TF pulleys were on sale for blackfriday and picked those up:




Engine bay getting some new primer:


Teaser of the new colorway:

 

interesting.

do you have any pics that aren't vintage/instagram filtered?

 

some but, usually I take the photos and post them to IG and then upload those to photobucket. I'll take some that aren't eventually~!

 

You seem to be never satisfied with anything. lol

 

weather has been too cold for paint :\ still incomplete on the engine bay but heres some more pics:






stickers because friends:




Also have some new coilovers on the way from Jaime (battlecat)! cant wait

 

what makes you say that?

i was a little hard on kiku earlier, trying to help him make sure he didnt have an electrical fire, and get the haltech running.

but the picture filters really downgrade the quality. i was curious what all these pics look like in more raw form.


edit: also, sick stickerz bro.

 

i hate this car.......

 

As a college kid who also started his FD his senior year of high school, I completely relate to everything you're going through. I also never had touched a wrench before my FD and starting in the car world with this car is not easy haha. Everything is a PITA to do because its a rotary, money is scarce, on top of the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing half the time haha. Just staring into instruction manuals for hours, scouring the forums to finally having that a-ha moment lol. I applaud your build man. Its inspiring to see it. Keep up the good work. Sub'd

 

Haha wow theres a lot of us college builds! Props to this guy tho^ id be scared with an fd not knowing much about them or cars in general haha. Looking good man! I know how annoying it is with money sometimes but id rather eat ramen all day to pay for my parts! Lol

 

I hate you too gay boi

@jacobcartmill
no worries. Like I said, usually its easier for me to upload to IG, then download, then post here. Rather then trying to get the shitty photobucket mobile app to work. Car is being rewired, it was pretty sketchy and I learned a lot wiring some 240's after the fd.


@kelldog44
The struggle is too real. Id say 85% of the time, I do something that just "feels" right when building it haha.

 

HURRY UP AND BUY!

 

Flickr app is much easier to use. Just sayin.

 

uhhh, I'm bored today so I guess I'll update this for fun.

Flash back like 7months ago?



Engine bay all painted looking cool, steering wheel on the right side. etc etc.

Started putting suspension back on

Modified knuckles for more angle thanks to David Campo and KG Made



Running Part Shop Max s14 inner tie rods with Abercrombie motorsports s14 outers



angle looked something like this, but it has more to go since I "massaged" the wheel wells and took a grinder to the front part of the frame.



low funnsies.

 

Also started (and finished) rebuilding my motor.

Specs are stock ports (wanted middle power band and torque)
Rotary Aviation Classics
Solid Corners
OE Sides
New everything, oil control rings, soft seals etc

Wrote feels on a rotor, because its funny.



My Rudolph motor all put together after the second assembly try.



It was a total PITA but I think it was worth it. Fingers crossed I didn't total botch the motor build.

Anyways, my brother came over and helped me drop the motor in. Probably the fastest I've ever dropped a motor. Took like maybe an hour?



All in and doing stuff





I can't run the TF pulleys until I get an idler pulley of some sort. So eventually :|

 

Fast forward some more, the girl that I was living with and I broke up so I moved out to find a new place.

Car has taken a while to make progress but I did a **** ton of wiring on it. Full chassis harness from scratch.

Here's how it sorta looks inside the car. I have all the relays for my ARC8000 mounted in my glove box. the battery has a resetable link and a kill switch. the switch is mounted where the cigarette lighter was. most of the wiring is sleeved and heatshrinked. used DT connectors and all that jazz.



Quick shot of the LED taillights I made at one point. These were the prototype version for my production style ones that came later.



These are the production style. Just running lights. The center fills for brakes



I put lambo doors on the car, because RICEcar.



Somewhere along the lines I had my car get broken into twice. Once I lost about $1000 worth of parts that were in a box. Had a full set of defi's, my aem wideband, and some stuff for my haltech. Was a huge bummer besides the money because I had gotten a really good deal on the DEFI's and they were a part I never thought I'd own since they are so much money. Also had my battery stolen. sucks to suck I suppose.

 

Fast forward to now:

My good friend helped me out with some fab work. Before the Vmount set up was super super janky and embarrassing. We changed that.

Front bash bar:
It ties in to the OE toe hook mounting points, from there it has stand offs for the bottom of the radiator and the bottom of the oil cooler mounts. Strong enough to be a jack point and probably could withstand a decent impact with another car. Allows me to finish cutting the frame up for more angle and such as well



Radiator top mounts. Dont mind my beat rad. its seen some things.



IC Mounts:
The previous **** was awful as well. So that was changed and some dimple dies were used. Also swapped out my fake Greddy Type RS for a TRUST Type R BOV because it sounds so much cooler.



Car runs, sounds awesome, and I drove it for the first time in almost 2 years. Took it down the street to rotary performance to have the exhaust made. Should be picking it up maybe the end of the week or early next week.

 

Also, one of my favorite things came in:



As far as I know, I'm the only person in the USA with this kit, possible in all of North America. Took about 3 months for it to be made due to the holidays and I had it cut in half to save on shipping ($350 vs $1200)



I got the front, skirts, and canards. I have a diffuser that also has never been on an fd for the rear.

Here's a test fit, skirts not bonded or even mounted other than being held in by the door. Have to say this fits WAYYYY better than the knock off vertex I had. It was practically perfect fitment without even being attached.







If you dont know, this is the same kit that was on Asamoto-san's fd3s back in 2003 at Tokyo Auto Salon



Also got another set of DEFI's from japan. Missing a few sensors but paid $250 for them with cups, controller, and a speed sensor.



To say that I'm excited would be an understatement. Ive been working to get this aero somehow to me for the last 2-3 years but couldn't find a financially viable method. Luckily some cards fell into the right place and its finally mine. Can't wait to have it on the car, and painted. Not to mention getting to drive my car again.!

 

Drove the car from Dallas to Fort Worth. Started mocking up my aero. Since the kit was cut in half it needed to be bonded back together. Spent most of the weekend sanding, glassing. filling, etc but all of its back in 1 piece. Also test fit the diffuser. need to trim some things so it sits a little higher than it is right now

 

Pic from the inside as I drove. First time really in 2 years performed great. Temps were all solid (not the ones shown on the defi's obviously haha). She starts everytime. didn't catch on fire or anything. Pretty stoked.




Had rotary perfomance make me a custom 3" stainless exhaust. Just needs some tips and its all done