Squiddblog

Moving....

2009-05-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Running a new blog over on Violent Running,

Check it out:

Violent Running Blog

Let the 2009 Build Begin

2009-04-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

Yes. It's time. I'm not much of a writer lately so I'll let my pictures do the talking.

Actually, I'm not much of a photographer lately either. I blame the lighting. Or the heat. Or how ugly this car is. Either way, let's go.

The car starts as such:

1993? 240sx Coupe SE
DOHC motor 160k miles
5-Speed
HUD
Power everything
After market Sunroof
Espelir lowering springs
No A/C
4-lug
welded differential
Most of a silvia front-end
right front crash damage
bad alignment
400$ price.

400$, not a bad price for what amounts to a smooth running dual cam manual coupe. Just need to get the sucker to drive straight. I've messed with, at great length, the camber and toe settings but I have yielded no results. The thing won't drive straight. So now it's down to replacing parts to make her as straight as can be. The battery is bad, the oil needed changing, the gas was bad from sitting around.

The front end is pieced together in my usual fashion. The car came with two dual-halogen headlamps but the brackets were pretty much busted. I traded a side-skirt for a set of new dual-halogens. The car came with the fenders in these pictures. They are bent, cracked and warped. Definitely going to be replaced. I am missing almost all of the lights otherwise, sidemarkers, turn signals, corners, etc.

Luckily I was able to use a Silvia hood from my friend Karl's crashed street car. The right side of the picture is where the damage was. He hit a boulder drifting in the mountains. It pulled out pretty well for now. At least it covers up the motor. The Silvia bumper was a 5$ buy from a friend in Grandma's Garage. The license plate is still his, reminds me that I need to cut it off and give it to him. (It's riveted)

More of the lovely full interior...

The roof was a bit of a problem...

It had an aftermarket sunroof that was VERY thick. I was hunched in the chair just driving the thing. Since this car is basically just going to be a "missle-car" (cheap, purpose built drift car for tandem practice) I tore the sunroof assembly out and just riveted on a piece of thin aluminum.

Looks pretty tough? Or ghetto. I say ghetto.

Well, here's how she sits. Or sat.

Today I picked up a set of coil-overs from a coworker. I was looking for something with decent build quality, decent lowness-potential, and sub-1000$ price tag...

Tein Flex coil-overs. 750$.

Decent price, the selling point being that they were rebuilt and re-valved by Tein no more than 300 miles ago.

Sturdy, low-enough, and cheap to rebuild. Works for me.

They are pretty clean, installation should only take a few minutes since I've done this a million times before.

They're already pre-loaded and set to a decent ride height. Just plug and play. Or so it would seem....

The left side comes off resonably easy. I am down to 3 studs on this side, one of the studs backed out into the hub and wore to a stub. As this car has been sitting around in a driveway for 8 months, I am not really concerned about it yet.

Installation of the left was a breeze, pop the bottom spindle bolt out, the top, the brake line bracket, then the 3 14mm's on the chassis and you're out.

Assembly is just the opposite. Use a small jack to push the spindle up to meet the new, shorter shock and slide the spindle bolts in. Tighten and throw the wheel back on.

A shot of the camber plates. Obviously not set correctly.

The passenger side went relatively trouble free, save for a cross-threaded stud that forced me to break out the "big-bertha" air gun to snap the stud. Oh well, now at least I'm 3-lug on both front coils!

As she sits now, front coil-overs installed. Coming up next time, rear coilover installation! And hopefully a new battery. Stay tuned!

The Job So Far...

2009-04-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a few months, a few events. Here's what I've accomplished so far:

Falken Tire 2009 Calvin Wan S15 Testing from Falken Tire on Vimeo.

Went to the San Bernardino Sheriffs E.V.O.C. training facility to film Calvin Wan's pre-round 1 testing with the new Falken S15. This used to be the red HKS S15, amazing car. By far my favorite car in Formula D in terms of body, ride height, wheel fitment and authenticity. This video has graced the front page of Streetfire.net and has been by far the most viewed video I've made thus far.

Falken Tire 2009 GT2 Porsche 911 RSR Testing from Falken Tire on Vimeo.

Went to Buttonwillow, CA to film the testing of our 2009 Porsche RSR. Epic. Car is so gorgeous, and in a pack of the "usual" ALMS paint schemes, the car stands out like a flower in a dirt field. Lovely.

The 2009 Falken Models from Falken Tire on Vimeo.

The 2009 Falken Models came by the office for the poster photoshoot. While I'm not really into models, they are all extremely friendly and down to earth!

There's many more videos coming down the pipe, but these are public at the moment!

2009! Best year ever!

2009-01-17T05:49:00.001-08:00

I got it!

I got the job. After my first real, professional, interview. I got THE job. Multimedia Specialist at Falken Tires. What could be more fitting for me? I make drift videos for free. Now someone wants to pay me for it? Count me in.

I'm speechless. It's 530AM, I haven't slept in two days, and I'm about to head out to Orange Show Speedway for an amateur drift event.

More deets as I get them.

Blogs are hard.

2009-01-14T05:09:00.001-08:00

Seriously. What do I put here? I just don't think anyone will care! What can I say that is important enough for someone else to read? Is that what blogs are (no offense)? Just places for people that think what they have to write is important enough for people to read it?

I don't really mean that in a bad way but maybe that's why I've always struggled with writing. I never really feel like what I have to say is all that important. Only when I really feel like I have a story to tell do I write a good amount.

Anyway, busy as shit as always. I want 2009 to be awesome, and I'm putting out my energy harder then I ever have, just gotta see if I can find some people that want to do the same.

I shaved, since I had an interview. I didn't really lose much, the beard was pitiful, fully grown on one side and thin as a baby's ass on the other. My face is messed up or something.

No Shave December??

2008-12-18T04:14:00.000-08:00

I guess there's a new trend. Hop on the bus, for those of us that forgot to participate in No-Shave November... There's no shave December!

I'm growing my shit until I get a job interview. The beginning:

Meager beginnings. It's hard for us white folk to grow good facial hair.

Smelling Better Days

2008-12-17T00:17:00.001-08:00

I know this answer to this is probably no, but have you ever just smelled something that reminded you of better days? Random I guess.

Like, every time I smell someone smoking the green stuff, I don't even recognize it as marijuana. It just smells like my Jr. high best friend's house. I spent practically every day over there hanging out, burning green army men, making lame stop-motion videos, throwing shit off roofs, skating etc. But every time I went in their house it just reeked of this particular smell. Never did figure out what it was until long after me and my friend split ways and I was hanging out somewhere and someone lit up a joint. I finally realized my friend's parents were stoned out of their mind every single day.

2009

2008-12-14T15:34:00.000-08:00

The new year approaches. Looming ever so... loomy. What does the new year old for us? For me? For thee?

Hopefully for me it is the beginning of a new life of non-poverty. No longer will I have to steal food and borrow cars. No longer will I have to sleep, shivering in a bedroom barely big enough to fit a bed and a desk. Hopefully it means not having to decide between paying the rent and paying the credit card.

As of late I've been in a bit of a lull. Working ridiculous hours for a ridiculous wage at a ridiculous company in Santa Monica. As always, I'm the hardest worker and the lowest paid. I have this weird work ethic. No one here works harder then they have to, only lifting a finger when absolutely necessary. It's sort of funny, until the wave of pressure from upstairs crashes upon my weathered shores and I'm left standing there with a measuring cup to catch the wave.

Analogies. Ride the snake.

Hopefully, by this time next month, I'm sitting pretty as the sole producer of multimedia content for a pretty substantial player in the drifting community. Hopefully the next year means traveling around the country, doing what I love to do.

Smelling burnt race fuel.
Tasting rubber particles in the air.
Getting tremendous sunburns and heat exhaustion.
Nearly getting hit by race cars just to get that pivotal shot.

Hopefully.

Otherwise I'm gonna blow up the world.