Shin Kaeru 神カエル-My build(-ish?) thread

[etikoner]

You won't regret those, especially with the HD glass.
While I agree that painting em will be awesome, I didn't let the lack of paint stop me from installing my Vitaroni mirrors.. Lol

[Ihatecars]

You won't regret those, especially with the HD glass.
While I agree that painting em will be awesome, I didn't let the lack of paint stop me from installing my Vitaroni mirrors.. Lol

I want to throw on the majority of my new parts at the same time. I have this image of everybody being super surprised by all the changes happening in such a short period of time. I'm odd.

[Ihatecars]

Sooooooooon

[etikoner]

DUN DUN DUN

What dothest thine box behold?

[Ihatecars]

I'm sure a few of you knows what I ended up getting in the mail above, but for the few that don't...






Mad JDM boxes


And inside...




Money




13.10.3, yo





And the valve stems.

I don't have tires yet... I'm dumb. I had the cash for tires, but I splurged when I found a cool part for sale.

Here's a little tease of what it is...

[pacman 99]

Nice wheel choice Nic.

Is that some sort of windshield visor? air deflector? Probably not the part I should be looking at.

[ueru]

Very cool. Nice pictures, too!

[etikoner]

Wonder what the hell you bought. I'm thinking mazdaspeed side skirt but I somehow don't think youd go for that at this point.

Maybe the MS roll bar ehhh

[JamieH]

With all the teasing of parts, Asuka being your avatar makes more and more sense.

Lets see, it ain't wheels, I hope it it's not the MazdaSpeed "rollbar", so either the front bumper, side skirts, or that spoiler.

[— fwdtamiya —]

]
Is that some sort of windshield visor? air deflector? Probably not the part I should be looking at.

That's what I saw first too wth is that?

...I hope it it's not the MazdaSpeed "rollbar"...

It's not

[Ihatecars]

Nice wheel choice Nic.

Is that some sort of windshield visor? air deflector? Probably not the part I should be looking at.

Thanks Francisco! And It's definitely not the visor thing.

Very cool. Nice pictures, too!

Thanks, ueru! I'm trying to catch up to you in the photo game.

Wonder what the hell you bought. I'm thinking mazdaspeed side skirt but I somehow don't think youd go for that at this point.

Maybe the MS roll bar ehhh

Not the rollbar.

With all the teasing of parts, Asuka being your avatar makes more and more sense.

Lets see, it ain't wheels, I hope it it's not the MazdaSpeed "rollbar", so either the front bumper, side skirts, or that spoiler.

Close.

That's what I saw first too wth is that?

I'm not sure what it is, but I'm starting to dig it.

It's not

[Ihatecars]

I got tires for my RPF1's! I was looking at a bunch of different sets ranging from RT615-K's to R888's, but after a lot of deliberation I decided to go with Dunlop Direzza ZII's. I felt they were the best mix of fun and practicality. Oh, and the fact that they're now super cheap after getting discontinued also helped.



I decided I'd try and get on top of the whole getting my wheels mounted thing as quickly as possible. The only obstacle was the fact that I seemed to have misplaced my wheel locks keys. I decided to stop by Discount Tire after work to try and see if they could get the locks off for me. They were able to get the locks off without much of any problem, except for the fact that they cross threaded two of my wheels studs.



After finding out what Discount Tire had done I immediately contacted them and made them aware of what they'd done. Discount Tire blamed my studs getting cross threaded on my 949Racing lugs, and that only thing that they could do was to sell me a new set of lugs and smash them on the studs with an impact gun. I promptly declined and insisted they pay to have my studs replaced. After a lot of bitching and complaining I didn't really go anywhere. I ended up finding myself at Pep Boys, buying the replacement studs and other tools I'd need to do the repair myself.

Luckily the job wasn't too difficult and I had some friends to provide help as well as entertainment. Admittedly, replacing the two studs took far longer than I'd initially thought it would. I'm talking about 5+ hours. Partially to do with me being ill-equipped for the job, and partially with my friends and I lollygagging the majority of the time.



Luckily I was able to get everything taken care, and get Shin back on the road before sun set. Now I have to find a shop to get my tires mounted on my wheels, as well as find a shop that will align my car to my custom specs.

Even with Mismatched lugnuts and being dirty as hell from being worked on for the majority of my Sunday, Shin still looks amazing.



Sorry about all the cellphone shot. I'll try and bring my DSLR with me when I get the wheels mounted and I have Shin's alignment done.

[riefdaddy]

If you use locking lugs in the future and lose the key, I have a solution for removal. Get a sacrificial socket that is just a tad smaller than the wheel lock. Then drive the socket on with a BFH and you can get the lock off. To remove the lock from the socket, you will need the BFH and a center punch. I just did this a few weeks ago on my car. I'll never get wheel locks again. It showed me how simple it is to defeat them.

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

I knew someone who had 4 locking nuts per wheel and they just took the whole car, stripped the entire hub etc, and dumped it :\

[Ihatecars]

If you use locking lugs in the future and lose the key, I have a solution for removal. Get a sacrificial socket that is just a tad smaller than the wheel lock. Then drive the socket on with a BFH and you can get the lock off. To remove the lock from the socket, you will need the BFH and a center punch. I just did this a few weeks ago on my car. I'll never get wheel locks again. It showed me how simple it is to defeat them.

This was actually the method I used to get a single wheel lock off, but I didn't have any more sockets to sacrifice to the wheel gods. I now have non-locking 949 lugs.

I knew someone who had 4 locking nuts per wheel and they just took the whole car, stripped the entire hub etc, and dumped it :\

I feel wheel locks are dumb. Like in the guy you knews instance, if a thief really wants your car they'll get it. Wheel locks or what ever.