CamryOnBronze

Not much of a throwback since these shots are from less than a year ago, but I came across one of them today and it got me thinking about fall. Despite the consistent temps in the 90s for the last two months, I’m sure that it will only be a matter of time before I am wearing a jacket while cruising in this thing and the leaves are turning.

Kind of a bummer since I just got the car done for the season, lol.

And one from fall 2010:

I’ll be posting a picture of something pretty cool tomorrow, in honor of Friday. The wait is almost over!

Damon

Well, I finally got to drive the car over the weekend- and I am happy to report that the car and I made it to Chicago and back in one piece, lol. It wasn’t without problems though. When I went to leave on Saturday morning, the car wouldn’t start. I noticed that the fuel pump was not priming when I turned the key to the “ON” position. I removed the fuse, inspected it, and put it back in the fuse holder. After doing this the car fired right up. Pretty weird, but at least it seemed to be running OK.

Leaving the house Saturday morning.

About two hours into my drive, I realized that a family in a pickup truck was trying to race me, lol. They kept pacing me and revving at me, so I let them get back in front of me. They proceeded to drive about 60 MPH, so I got on it in 3rd gear to pass them. When I shifter into fourth, I noticed the car drop to idle speed and the gas pedal had no tension in it. Cool, I snapped my throttle cable… lol.

After pulling over and popping the hood, I realized that the cable had only come disconnected at the throttle body. Whew. I brought some tools with me on the trip, so I tightened everything back up and was on my way within about ten minutes. I think I must have forgotten to tighten the cable after I put the engine back in. This is exactly why I wanted to test drive the car for a week or two before leaving on a big trip like this, haha.

Making my way around the lake.

Despite being concerned about the starting issue, I decided to stop and get gas shortly after entering Indiana. I like to gas up at the same exit every time I go to Illinois- it’s a great spot to pull off before the traffic starts to get insane. Fortunately, the car fired right up after filling up, and I was on my way to meet up with Ginash of JDM Chicago before the show.

I eventually made it safely to Ginash’s house. He turned out to be a super cool dude, and it was nice talking to him about the Chicago scene and cars in general. His NSX is a super nice car- the attention to detail is very impressive. After waiting for a while for the other guy rolling with us to arrive (white widebody NSX from Wisconsin) we were on our way to the show.

White NSX being unloaded.

I don’t know much about this car, but I guess the aero kit on it is one of three in the world or something. Whatever the case, it was a really impressive car. Sounded awesome! I was a bit embarrassed rolling with these guys in my beat old S13, lol.

Obligatory JDMC sticker for the show!

Unfortunately, I pretty much didn’t take any other pics over the weekend, lol. We arrived at the show after meeting up with the other JDMC booth guys and parked the cars. Kyle and Jason were already at the show when I got there, so it was cool to hang out with them. Kyle’s 180 didn’t feel like going to the show, so it decided to break its starter the morning of the show, lol. We ended up just rolling around in my car and Jason’s FD for the weekend.

Here’s a shot of my car someone took at the show. I took a crappy cell pic of my car there, but my phone decided it was too crappy to save.

The show itself was pretty fun for the most part- pretty standard car show stuff. By the time you finish up a 7 or so hour car show with loud music, air horns, subwoofers, and two-steps blasting in the hot sun, you have usually had enough. It was cool to see a show I had never been to and meet up with a lot of the Illinois people that I only get to see a couple times per year though. I even met a couple of people that said they read the blog, so that was pretty surprising to me- appreciate that!

The drive home was uneventful for the most part. Kyle and I crashed at my brother and his girlfriend’s place in downtown Chicago on Saturday night, and we proceeded to blast my frame rails on some stuff downtown on the way there. Lots of speed bumps in his area, haha. The car didn’t want to start when I left to come home Sunday morning, so I had to pull the fuse again for the fuel pump and it fired right up. Very strange- I am going to have to look into that this week and see if I can sort it out.

Big thanks to Ginash and the other people I met in the JDMC booth for offering me the spot and being really cool to someone from out of state! I had an awesome time seeing old friends and making new ones. As cool as this show was, hopefully next year I can make it back to Import Alliance for my big summer event!

Damon

A few snaps from back in September 2010, back when I drove down to Illinois and met Kyle and Broadfield for the first time. The pics from this gathering are what eventually landed Toby and I on the cover of Modified. Pretty cool dudes!

The funny part is I am currently using the same wheels as my throwback post from two years ago, lol. The Blitz Type 03s are FINALLY assembled and will make their way to Michigan next week! Looking forward to it.

Damon

My wife was gracious enough to spend some time with Kinsey yesterday so that I could finally slap my car back together. I was also very fortunate to be able to borrow my old Work CR Kais and tires from a friend so that I could test drive this thing before the trip to Chicago on Saturday- thanks a lot Greg! The wheels will be for sale soon as well, so let me know if you might be interested!

The idle was super high, but I got that sorted out. So far it seems to be in pretty good shape. I’ll probably try driving it to work tomorrow and see how it does. I always get super nervous about driving the car after it has been down, especially after nine months lol. It’s now or never though!

My wife shot a couple of short videos of me taking it out for the first time as well. The car sounds really stupid in these since the idle was at like 2200, lol. Thankfully I got that sorted out though.

Fingers are crossed that the Blitz 03s are done in time for the weekend. I will keep you guys posted!

Damon

Alright, I’m finally giving in to Throwback Thursday. Mostly because I have not updated my blog in FOREVER, and I apologize for that! I know that whomever is left that still reads this is only going to care about my 240, but I promise some solid updates on the car next week. If all goes remotely according to plan, it will officially be back on the road!

But now, throwback Thursday. This is my build prior to my 240- a 1999 Toyota Solara. It had the 1MZFE V6 engine with a 5 speed manual, and was actually surprisingly quick for such a heavy car. I bought it after finding that my Camry had aged and was not a good platform to work with. I was told it was going to die fairly soon, but the car still lasted me another 5 years and 100,000 miles. Go figure, lol.

The exterior of the Solara was pretty simple. It featured a Renova grille, shaved emblems, and a Kaminari lip kit- which was a remake of the TRD kit the dealer originally offered. I think kaminari still uses pics of the car to sell the kit on their site to this day, lol. Besides that, the exterior just had window tint and black housing headlights.

The wheels were Gram lights 57s, 18×8.5 +40, which I remember thinking was SUPER aggressive. I had a couple of sets of JIC coils on the car that eventually both blew out, so I ended up with K-Sports. The only other real suspension mods were a TRD strut brace, TRD rear sway bar, and for a very short time, a squeaky Rotora BBK up front.

The interior was originally tan when I got the car, so I drove to maryland and picked up a complete black interior from a totaled Solara and converted it. The interior also featured Defi Link meter gauges with a custom gauge pod, Sparco Torino seats and harnesses, an SAFC-2, and an AEM Uego wideband.

Under the hood was a TRD supercharger kit at 6 PSI from a PulleyBoys Pulley, Injen Intake, Supra injectors, JPP headers/y-pipe/catback with a custom Apexi muffler, Walbro pump, ACT clutch and Fidanza flywheel, TWM short shifter, etc. It put down 253 WHP on a Dynojet and was a blast to drive, but the whole FWD thing was just a bummer.

Just as my interest in the 240SX started to form, I got rear-ended and the car was rendered a total loss. I still miss that car because it was fun to cruise around in, and it was always the only Solara at a meet, haha. I constantly had people ask me if it was an S15 or Acura TL, lol.

Bonus: YouTube video of the car racing a friend’s 350Z on another friend’s personal driveway/air strip, lol:

Damon

My old rear setup with the TE37 was 18×9.5 +12 and 225/40/18 Yokohama S-Drive. The new rear with the Blitz Type 03 is 18×10.5 +20 and 235/40/18 Dunlop DZ101.

The new setup should only be 5mm more aggressive than the old setup offset wise, which I thought would give me a little more camber like I wanted. I forgot to take into account the fact that the car is now sitting about 1″ lower in the back due to swapping out the SPL subframe bushings for the PBM solid subframe risers. The addition of the lower height and the extra 5mm has required me to run a lot more camber to clear the fenders. This is a bit excessive for what I prefer to run on the car.

The tires were dismounted this morning, and the wheels will head back to Yuta at WheelFlip in California this afternoon for adjustment to the offset. I am hoping that they can fill & redrill to bring the wheels to about 18×10.5 +25 or so, so that I don’t have to sacrifice any lip or width in the process. We’ll see what happens! The front wheels are still waiting on their custom front lips to be completed.

Damon

Well, after having the car ripped apart for almost exactly eight months, I got to take it up and down the street last night. Always a good feeling to drive the car again after so much stress, waiting, and hard work through the winter months.

I still have some work to do before it is completely road ready, but most are just details at this point. The rear suspension and wheel fitment need to be addressed- they are currently sitting with a bit too much camber for my taste. The front wheels are still at WheelFlip being rebuilt, so these temporary fronts without much lip will also be replaced soon.

I’m sure it will all come together in the next month. I’ll be taking it easy over the next few weeks after our baby is born, so I am glad I got it together before she arrived!

Damon

My curiosity in Instagram finally boiled over… my username is camryonbronze. Feel free to follow along! I’ll try to post something related to the car at least once per day if I can. Maybe that will be a little easier than making a blog post once per day, lol! We’ll see I guess…

I actually managed to work on my car a little bit last night! I got the hangers straightened out on the Trust DD so that the tips are centered between the rear valences. I bolted it up completely, and I am really happy with the fitment of the exhaust. Looking forward to hearing what it sounds like this weekend.

After sorting the exhaust out, I removed the hood pins from the hood and took the stock hood latch off to see how the hood fit. Without the factory latch in place, the hood sits nicely and actually fits really well. It’s not 100% perfect, but I think it is going to look great with the pins relocated and the hood painted.

Proposed sticker fitment:

Hoping to make more progress next week! Getting really close to taking it for a spin. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Damon