This thread will serve as a photo-heavy, narrative deficient version of the complete build on my website. I'll toss in some context and captions here and there - but the visual story will remain untouched.
This is essentially the complete story of this car, since first ownership in January 2015 to the present. I started with a bondo-ridden s13 hatch and ended up with a bent-ass tin can spec, body dropped S13, with many elements of minitruck culture embedded within.
For those who have not been exposed to minitruck builds, those trucks generally feature a "body drop" where the frame and cab are modified around the drivetrain, essentially dropping the body over the frame, while keeping the drivetrain raised. The body drop on the hatch involved modifying the unibody and both front and rear subframes to raise the drivetrain and lower the unibody/frame.
This build really isn't for everyone, and that's cool. Low cars are pretty stupid but as the title suggests, they send serious endorphins to my brain when I see them. Something about reducing negative space under a car really speaks to me. Then there's the element of creating problems to solve, I really love that.
more drifting with friends
first time drifting on modded knuckles, total game changer!
our local event was called Drift Valley, and this group was instrumental in helping me get the fundamentals of drifting
17/18 with work wheels of diff generations
the last time I hung out with my friend Stephen before be passed away. he was my first friend at a dealership job
got some rear equips to build
lip is gone cuz I put the car in a ditch LOL
let's make a poor people power brace!
welllll before this shit got the point it is today
100DOD 2017, this time painted!
lots of cruising
an improved version. this mf was on the car for years and I replaced it with a PBM unit this year (2023)
this mf hit my car in a parking. nice old lady, we talked it out and went out own ways. it was the holidays and the damage was minimal
ok let's make this bay less ugly and tuck some shit. look how well my rattle can paint job held up (sarcasm)
foul.
less foul
lmao I thought I was so cool
black friday shopping. this shit wakes a stock KA up
yes i cleaned this off before clutch install
this was so much fun (no it was not)
tucked harness was well worth it tho
first and last time I hand polish wheels
kouki tails and brigs, this mf is shaping up
$500 R33s
not black
oh yea
let's toss some more cool shit on
this is how you prep for an event with a stock KA
the low style heroes event was incredibly fun!
Got some side skirts and went a little lower
drifting with friends
my first 100DOD event
my first aero kit - origin stylish front and some junk skirts and rear bumper. I obviously did not know how to fit aero
my first big overhaul on the engine - headgasket
learning how to use a DSLR
head nice and clean
nice and flat
it's coming together! borrowed a torque wrench for the headstuds haha
first cool set of wheels!
I sanded the car down, primed it, and took it for paint. I was too poor to afford the roof so my friends wrapped it
first fully painted car
rattle canned the aero because poor
first roller
the wheel problem begins
so much horrible styling lmao
started getting the car pretty low around this time though
getting more of the hang of drifting as well
first crash. the car was down on power due to an injector failure and I overcompensated for the poor engine performance
17/18 with CR2P
finally we address those ugly front wheels
starting to feel the pain of being low. smoked this bumper on a grooved road
started learning some tandem drifting
more poor styling... the wangan wing is great but not on this car with large wheels
some more welding
finally have a cool front and rear wheel setup
now we tucking 17s!! this was early 2016 I think
wing looks horrible on this car
my little engine made smoke! I was pumped on this photo
i repaired the bumper and started pushing the driving some. really needed some more camber up front though
grabbed some matching 17" rear equips to build
more tandem practice
at this stage the car didn't look half bad
I finally ended up fixing a dead injector issue and celebrated with a sitter
17/18 with work wheels from different generations
I really liked a lot of camber back then. This was a 38mm extension
i definitely learned that I prefered welding thick metal over the thin body metal
we unfortunately still have the green bay, but now we have camber
aaaaand we start making some proper styling choices. Full factory Kouki 180 aero minus the rear spats and wing, that comes later
sikky green engine bay is definitely peak 2015 energy
loved getting to see this and meeting you at sse this year. this machine really is one of a kind
How is this thing sitting currently?
Exedy OE replacement, I also could have used two paper plates to hold the torque from this total monster:
back in she goes
my eyes burn
finally, a half decent looking part of this car. enkei kojin 17x9j
Around this time, the engine locked up due to multiple torn injector O-rings, a bad fuel pump, and a variety of different issues. I left the car alone to pursue other hobbies for a few months. One day, I was re-inspired and headed back to the shop and after reading online, I took a massive breaker bar to the crank and broke the mf loose. I then addressed the issues and the damn thing ran again! This it the same engine in my car today LOL.
Pulled the dmax coilovers off the coupe:
not sure what's up with this weird angle flex on tein tie rod spacers and stock knuckle..
cut the quarters after finding multiple centimeters of body filler hiding a smashed quarter
First drive, will never forget this feeling
not sure what I was going for with these ugly ass colors
cruising with friends
got a bumper
paint match attrocious. Also - chuki extensions on the Zenki front? cmon man
first drift event was actually a success
somehow making the car uglier as months went on
took the car apart due to cooling issues as the season persisted
I thought this car looked so sick back then lmao
sitters to test the cooling repairs
First schassis was a coupe I picked up in 2012. I loved coupes too much to trash that car to learn drifting, so I picked this thing up in Jan 2015 with my pops:
swapped subframes with the coupe. One of my original aesthetic transgressions was the aerosol gold subframe for sure.
subframe on:
i really hated rust back then and made it my mission to decimate it wherever possible. Now that I know more, I pick my battles
pulled an engine for the first time:
removable core support and prep for paint
who let me use a welder?
going for that partial shave like the 6 o clock shadow
looked at way too many VWs
i took this photo thinking I was killing it, where really a bunch of these tack welds missed
unnecessary
aerosol etch primer over bare metal and body filler - I really needed adult supervision
i brought some of my friends down with me. join me in my misery
second massive aesthetic transgression:
just what this build needed, some bluw and red AN hoses on an import
ghetto ass brake lines my friend Marc bent, painted the bay with the headlight brackets on, this is going well
this part was like legos, re-sealing this mf