CamryOnBronze

I left Michigan after work last Friday and headed down to Normal, Illinois for the annual Nissan BBQ at Toby Broadfield’s house. The event was actually on Sunday, but I drove down early to hang out with Kyle and Toby for the whole weekend- makes the almost six hour drive a lot more worth it that way. It was cloudy when I rolled out on Friday evening and just generally sort of gross out. Naturally, it didn’t take long before I broke out my favorite road trip items- Red Bull and Teriyaki beef jerky. It does your body good… I think I was in southern Michigan near the Indiana border when I drove through a pretty cool thunderstorm- especially for mid October. There was a ton of chain lightning across the sky- I tried to capture some with my phone camera, but I am still new to using it. I caught some of it in this video, I just can’t figure out a way to rotate it lol. It’s not like you guys have never seen lightning before- if nothing else, at least you can hear the exhaust and my dope tape player/stock speakers:

video

Pretty cool sunset after the storm passed...

Once I got to Indiana near the state line, I met up with Max (s0apgun) and Tony (Midwest Myriad) for dinner at a brewery in their hometown. It was pretty cool to meet up with those dudes- chill guys for sure. I am jealous of how close they live to Toby and Kyle, haha. I ended up getting to Kyle’s place around 12 AM, blinding him with my headlights, and crashing out a short while later after checking out Forza 4.

On Saturday, we hung out with Toby at his shop for a good chunk of the day. In the afternoon, we headed back to his place and washed the cars in his baller garage.

We test fitted each other’s bride-fabric-wrapped glove boxes and arm rests in our cars for the hell of it, and ended up trading. I think both cars look a lot better with the colors swapped.

I don’t have any pics of the arm rest and glove box in the car yet, but I will grab some later this week. When I am down there next I will buy Kyle’s red fabric he has left and do up a new set of door panels to match the rest of my interior. That will probably be in January or February. In the mean time, I will probably sell my door panels with the black fabric on them.

On Sunday, we cruised over to Toby’s in the morning for the BBQ. Kyle’s car had a bad MAF sensor, so we had to limp it over there blowing smoke like a turbo diesel. Thankfully, Daoud and Ryan both brought us MAF sensors they picked up from junk yards the day before, so we were able to get the car running so that we could cruise a bit on Saturday night after the BBQ. The cookout was awesome and the Forza contest was a lot of fun, despite the fact that I can’t play XBox to save my life.

Kyle's car had an upset stomach after the bad MAF and pooped on Tob's driveway.

It's even crazier in person... nuts.

I hit the road pretty early on Monday morning when Kyle left for class. About ten miles down I-55 from his place, I got pulled over by an Illinois State Trooper. Sweeeeet. He ended up being a super cool guy and only gave me a written warning for my exhaust. He had me sit in the police car and chat with him about it while he wrote the warning, which was pretty weird… can’t say I have ever done that before. It was really funny though- he said it sounded like an airplane when I drove by and asked why I had so many bars in my car, lol. With my warning in hand, I was back on the road. Thankfully, the rest of the drive home was uneventful and the weather was a lot better than the drive down. It’s crazy how different the landscape is just six hours from where I live- its all flat corn fields out there with very few trees compared to Michigan. They also have a ton of these wind generator things everywhere that are wild looking- I saw trucks hauling the individual blades going the other way on the freeway and they were about three semi trucks long. Pretty nuts- nothing like that in Michigan that I have seen.

Flat.

Looks like something out of a sci-fi movie...

I lol every time...

So yeah, it was an awesome trip! Kyle took a few snaps with his nice camera that I will post up later this week. The weather here feels like it is taking a turn for the worse, with high temps in the mid to low 50s for the next ten days and a lot of rain. I will probably only get to enjoy the car for another month at the most before she gets tucked into the garage for the season. 😦 I’ll update as much as I can before the season’s end, though. Thanks for reading! Damon

Fall is here!

An update where I finally do something to the car should be here Thursday- then a trip to Normal, IL to visit Toby and Kyle all weekend! There will be lots of TYPE X.

Damon

TGIF! Looking forward to enjoying the car this weekend- high of 81 tomorrow and sunny all weekend. I’m sure this will probably be the last one we get like this. Pretty stoked!

TOMEI POWERED

Got swirl marks?

New headlight setup next week. Should be pretty cool! Have a good weekend everyone!

Damon

Brian hooked me up with a box full of JDM the other day. Pretty cool- thanks dude!

lol, love it...

I’ll send you some Red Wings doo dads soon, man!

This guy just celebrated his first birthday last week. He’s a handful sometimes, but an awesome dog!

Eight weeks old, when we brought him home:

This morning:

Naps:

Remember, kids- those cute little fluffy puppies turn out to be big, havoc- wreaking DOGS. lol. Happy Friday everyone! I should have some cool 240 updates early next week. Thanks a lot for reading!

Damon

McNuggets

Type X cupholders are useless, lol. Thought the 370Z McD’s bag was pretty cool. I totally ripped off of RA64Freddy in my last post, BTW.  I guess I was feeling inspired by his posting style, haha. Keep it up Fred!

Drive your project every day you can. Rain or shine…

Rain, wind, construction, traffic jams, no defrost, forty miles, hour & twenty minutes. But still dope in the project car…

New seats arrived from Cali yesterday! The ZEROS is one of two in the USA, formerly owned by Mr. BH WORLD himself. I am still in shock that I managed to score these things. Super happy with almost everything about them right now! I’m going to have them cleaned professionally and then I will be completely content. Digging the look without the back seat right now as well… I think it will stay that way with some little details to clean it up back there completely.

It started getting dark on me, so some of the photos are less than perfect. I’ll try to get some more shots tonight and post them up. Loving this setup right now though! I was nervous about all of the black Bride accents with the red seats in there, but I actually really like it. Subtle interior helps the seats pop/stand out. More updates soon!

Damon

I barely had any time to touch the car last night, but I decided to skip dinner and get this thing back on the ground. There is nothing better than finally pulling the jackstands and starting your car to roll it off of the boards after having it all torn apart- even if it was only off the road for about a week.

My friend Mike loaned me some Fortune toe rods and a Bride Zeta III to use while I am in between parts, so that was super nice. I still need to decide what I want to run for toe rods- I want the Cusco ones to match everything, but they don’t have a bend in the rods to clear the subframe. I don’t think it will be an issue, but something to consider for sure.

Tonight I need to bolt the Zeta in, burp the coolant, and adjust the rear camber a bit. Apparently I did a bad job matching the new arms up to the old ones, because the tire is touching the sheet metal on the driver’s side and at about -4 on the passenger side, lol. I’ll take it in for a proper alignment again when I get some permanent toe rods on there.

So yeah, so stoked to drive this thing! The weather has been feeling a lot more like fall lately, which is a total bummer. It was 39 degrees out when I let the dog out this morning. I can feel winter creeping in- better get some enjoyment out of the car before ol’ Mother Nature decides to throw down.

My new seats left Cali yesterday, so they should be here sometime early/mid next week. Can’t wait to install them and post some pics! Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Damon

Sorry about the lack of updates- I’ve been slacking big time.

Let’s see… I tore the car apart on Tuesday night. I sold my Koyo radiator, so I had to pull that out and get it ready to ship. I also got rid of my Zeta III and my Kouki 180SX rear seat, so those have been shipped out as well. I am looking for a buyer for the kouki 180SX passenger seat, so let me know if you are looking for one!

Terrible cell shot, lol.

While the radiator was out, I decided to install my GReddy alternator pulley. The one I got was used and didn’t come with the washer/spacer for installation, so I am off to the hardware store after work to try to find something that will work. Then I’ll be able to drop the GReddy radiator in as well.

I’ve also got the suspension torn apart a bit. I purchased an S15 Helical diff from a friend, so I am in the process of putting that on the car. I just need to seal the cover back up and top off the fluid, then that will take the place of the Tomei 2 way. I liked the Tomei a lot, but it’s just too much for the street on a daily driven car. It sounds like I’ll be delivering that to none other than Mr. Soapgun himself next weekend.

Finally, I am installing my Cusco tension, RUCA, and traction rods. I am still trying to decide what to replace the SPC toe rods with. I would love to do the Cusco units, but they are a pretty big chunk of change. I wouldn’t have all of the other Cusco arms if I didn’t get a great deal on them. We’ll see though, maybe I can boss up, lol.

I’m planning to finish most of this by Saturday night. The new seats won’t be here until late next week, though- which is a bummer. Here’s a little something that showed up yesterday for the new setup- hopefully that will keep you guys interested!

So yeah- keep a lookout! I’ll have to post an update early next week. In the mean time, check out Kyle’s progress– dude is making serious moves and putting me to shame. Love that car so much… KING OF RED.

Damon