My last post here was at the end of July. It always amazes me how fast time goes, especially as I get older. I guess I haven’t really spent a ton of time working on my personal cars since then (which I could sort of argue is a good thing.) Both cars are currently on the ground and drivable for the most part aside from some occasional starting issues with the hatch. Despite the lack of changes or major projects with the cars, I don’t have a ton to complain about at the moment.

I spent quite a bit of time driving my hatch this summer and got to enjoy frequent trips to the office with pretty solid reliability. I eventually burned through my front pair of tires due to a sloppy at-home alignment job when I made front suspension changes last spring, so I ended up replacing those with another pair of 215/40/17 Advan Flevas. My longtime friend Mike (AKA Skud) owns a shop I have mentioned previously called Detroit Drifting Co. and was kind enough to swap the new tires on for me.

I picked up a set of toe plates from Amazon in order to attempt correcting my toe at home so that I don’t burn through this set of tires so quickly. Ironically, I have yet to accomplish this task, but it’s slid down the priority list now that the season is essentially over.

I am still planning to try the 180SX airbox in my hatch, but haven’t installed it just yet. I plan to tackle that task at some point this winter though as well as a couple other items in the bay that would be nice to take care of. I want to return it to more of a factory vibe like the coupe has. More on those details in a future post though…

I decided to swap the Silvia center panel on the coupe for my B-Craft GTR Style grille. I love the look of both so it’s fun to swap once in a while. I didn’t end up driving the coupe nearly as much as I wanted to this summer, but I hope to next season. I have some changes in mind for it that should help accomplish that goal- we’ll just have to see if I follow through with them or not.

In mid September, I took delivery of my good friend Tim’s S13 hatch project. You’ve seen the car here a few times over the years during various trips I took to his house to help out with the car and hang out. Well, Tim ultimately decided after nearly 7 years that he did not want to complete the car and was ready to move on. Tim asked me if I would help him part out the car as he would likely get more money that way and I have a lot of experience with the process. I agreed and took delivery of the car September 18th so that I could get to work on it.

The last month and a half has been a whirlwind while working on disassembling the car, selling all of the parts, packing them, and getting them shipped out. This hasn’t left much time at all for my personal cars, but it is what it is. I am pleased to report that I am finished with removing items from the car.

I received a deposit on the rolling chassis last week and should have it out of my garage this coming Wednesday. Rad Mike and his friend Miguel came to get the SR20DET longblock last weekend, and another local S13 owner picked up the Work Meisters and 180SX VLSD on Halloween which really helped to free up space in the garage. I have a few more engine related items to sell and then the partout will be finished.

I elected to keep the Buddy Club Spec II off of Tim’s car for my coupe as the HKS Hi-Power on it currently is very quiet. The ground clearance with the secondary muffler isn’t the best either. I test fit the Buddy Club and found a couple issues with the fitment for whatever reason that caused the cat converter to hang lower than with the HKS. I ended up putting the Hi-Power back on, but I might see if my buddy Mike can modify the Buddy Club this spring to fit better. I did really like the sound of it though- with full interior, a high-flow cat, and a stock airbox it wasn’t much louder than my hatch. One thing is for certain though- I need a little more ground clearance in general on this car before I feel comfortable driving it all the way to my office.

A few weeks back we managed to check something off my list for the summer- Alicia and I drove both S13s downtown to Dairy Queen with the girls. It was a little nerve racking for me to take both cars somewhere at the same time for a number of reasons. The hatch hasn’t been starting consistently, both cars are low, and I am always worried that someone will hit us when we take the girls with us in these cars. I always limit our drives to very short distances and am very diligent and cautious when they ride with me. However, despite my constant worrying, everything worked out great! It was really cool to drive the coupe and see my hatch behind me in the rear view mirror- a very surreal feeling. It’s a cool memory and I am glad we finally had a chance to do it at least once this year!

My mom was gracious enough to offer for me to store my coupe at her house for the winter. She lives about a mile away and has a two car garage that she is only using one spot in, so this is crazy helpful and convenient for me. Now my wife will be able to park the van in the garage and avoid scraping the ice and snow off of it every morning when she takes the girl to school. She’s been parked outside in the driveway for at least two years, so I am glad to finally get her vehicle back inside.

One final update that’s a pretty exciting one. Back in March of 2020, my friend Matt from Zilvia.net reached out and asked if I would be interested in his set of bronze NISMO LMGT4 after seeing a post here on the blog saying that I was looking for some. He was still living in Japan at the time and the wheels were located in the states, so I had to wait until he came home in late summer of 2021 to get them.

Well, it was a very long wait, but I am happy to say it worked out. Matt bought these wheels new from the Rays factory in Japan in 2011, mounted them on his project, took a couple short drives, and let them sit for years. Two of them included the original boxes, and I also have the four brand new optional center caps for them. One wheel does have a bit of rash unfortunately, but they’re otherwise more or less in brand new condition.

I am really thankful to Matt for selling these to me. I haven’t decided how I want to proceed yet. I want to run them on my hatch, but don’t want to run 18×9.5 +12 all around. I have a couple people willing to trade me a pair of 17×9 +22 for a pair of the 18s, which would be ideal- but I hate to break up the set and I am worried the bronze won’t match since most 17s are older than these 18s. We’ll see how things play out, but for the time being I’ve got them tucked away until I decide what to do. I want to keep my 17/18 TE37 though since those are also getting tough to come by. I’m also considering converting the coupe to five lug, but I don’t think I want to run 17/18 on that car.

Anyway, that should bring you up to speed with where things stand right now! It’s been pretty cold this week, but should be close to 60 degrees this weekend. I am planning to winterize the garage and back yard this weekend and get the cars tucked in for the off season. I might sneak one more trip to the office in on Monday in the hatch, but we’ll see what happens.

I’m excited to get back to working on my personal cars and sharing some content with you guys. If there’s ever anything you’d like to see or hear more about, don’t hesitate to email me at Damon@camryonbronze.com or DM me on Instagram (@camryonbronze) Thanks as always for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Damon