Life has been ultra hectic lately for me. Lots going on and work has just been crazy, so I really haven’t devoted a lot of time to my car. Things are different this time around and my priorities have shifted, so it is much easier for me to let the car be pushed to the side in order to spend time with my family. I still enjoy tinkering with it as much as ever, but I also know that it’s not my main priority.

I decided to change things up a bit and sold my red Bride Zeta II and Ergo to a couple of my friends. Brett found and alerted me to some really cool black Bride seats for sale in Japan, so I decided to finally make the switch and go back to black seats for the car’s rebuild. I had been going back and forth on this for months and figured I might as well try a slightly more subtle approach in my old age, haha.

The red seats have been replaced by a Zieg II Pro Series (carbon kevlar shell) and a Brix 1.5, both of which are in decent enough condition. They both have their share of flaws and fading, but I got each of them for an awesome price and I’m happy with the decision overall. The Zieg was missing the foam from one cushion and a head pillow, but luckily I was able to source both items from Japan.

I’ve got a few small things to do before I can call the interior complete. I am currently on the hunt for a Defi oil pressure gauge to complete my set, so as soon as I have one of those I can wire and install the gauges. I want to mount them in the dash on the passenger side, but I think I will probably wimp out on drilling into my clean dash and mount them in gauge cups on top of the dash. I also need to wire my Pivot headlight controller and adjust the angle of my driver’s seat. I would really like to add a Safety 21 7 point dash escape cage as well before I consider the interior complete.

As for the exterior of the car, I finally picked up my aero from paint about two weeks ago. It had been painted for weeks but I just didn’t have time to go get it. The painter did an awesome job and I am really happy with all of it. I got anxious the other night and decided to test fit everything. The spoiler and tail light trim are installed and I am hoping to finish the remaining items soon, but this is a good indication of what the car will look like with the Hot Road aero installed once complete.

I’m super excited to see the car finished and on the ground. The aero looks better than I anticipated and I am really digging the look with the factory mirrors in place so far. My Hot Road hood has been delayed about 2-3 more weeks due to a miscommunication with GTR Garage’s shipping vendor in Japan, but I think that will really send it over the top once installed. Very excited to finish the car and see it on the ground.

You may have noticed that my Work XT7s are gone and have been replaced. I stumbled upon this pair of Blitz Techno Speed Z2s for sale on Instagram and decided to jump ship. I considered buying an 18x9J/10J set on Zilvia several months ago, but the offsets were weak and I didn’t want to run 18s up front. When this pair of original 17×9 +15 popped up I had to have them. I’ve never really seen a 17″ set of these, let alone in sizing this good.

For the rear, I picked up a pair of 18x8J Z2s with the same darker face finish I found on Yahoo Japan for a great price. When they arrived here in the states, I sent them off to VR Wheels in California to have them relipped to 18x10J +21. Both pairs will end up being 1/2″ less aggressive than my Type 03s were, so I think that should be much less of a hassle and I will be a lot happier with the outcome. I am hoping they’ll be complete sometime in the next two weeks so that I can order tires. I am considering running a bit more tire this time, but I haven’t come to a conclusion just yet.

Aside from waiting on the rear wheels and a set of tires, the car is more or less ready to be driven. I need to have my blow off valve welded this week, bleed the brakes, install the boost controller, and finish a few other small detail items before it can be driven. My goal is to have the bugs worked out by the end of May so that I can cruise out to Grid Life to hang out with some friends, but we’ll see if things go my way or not.

If you read through all of that, I salute you! I’ll try to do a better job at updating this as things come together next month. Looking forward to having my car back on the road again!

Damon