Drifting is cool

Yes, drifting is cool, look what you get to do and get away with! Aaron and Russell drift around a spectating police officer, then Aaron drifts around me.

You can also check out the photos I took from the April 26th event in Mineral Wells here: http://www.rc-tvproductions.com/portfolio/mwapr09/

Debrief

I normally post updates after the fact so I’m trying to get this up while its fresh. Just got back from the April 26th 2009 Mineral Wells TX drift event. Once again we had an interesting trip. Printed vinyl all Friday evening and Saturday morning for Russell Walker, a local Texas drifter who needed his car’s vinyl done by Wednesday when he would be leaving for The D1 competition in Anaheim, CA. After that we went to pick Ross and his car up; he was trading his S14 KA24de auto for a S14 CA18det manual car from the same person who he got the first S14 from. Ian got a free turbo out of the deal so we played truckers and hauled the cars to and from North of Ft. Worth.

Anyway, we pick Ross up and load the car on the trailer then head over to the shop for Ian to pull his stock knuckles on the miata. In Mineral Wells he would be trading them plus cash for a set of cut knuckles. OK, so he pulled the knuckles, I sanded on Patches for a bit, load up and left for Ft. Worth. About an hour into the trip, guess what? We blew another trailer tire. This time it exploded going 65mph and made the trailer jump. We pulled over to swap for a smaller diameter spare, but we had to find a regular sized tire to get all the way to Ft. Worth…time to buy aa new set of trailer tires, this was just getting ridiculous. It was 5pm, everything except an NTB about 30 minutes north on Temple TX was closed. Go there, pay out the ass over $400 for a new set of trailer tires. We shoot the shit with the guys at the NTB as they change the tires, they finish and we’re on our way again. Arrive north of Ft. Worth at the trade spot around 8pm, unload the KA S14, load the CA S14. There was a weekely car meet going on towards Ft. Worth near an awesome Mexican Restaurant. We haul ass over there, meet up with the guys, have some dinner, chat for about 3 hrs, check out this crazy FB RX7 (project Wifey Drift) and head to Aaron’s place around midnight.

Wake up with Aaron around 6am to go set up the drift track out in Mineral Wells. The drift event went on with some bouts of rain and wind. Russell blew the headgasket on his 400hp S15 sr car (right before the big D1 event). I slammed my thumb in a truck’s door *ouch* Got some cool video (including a tandem donum around an unsuspecting cop) and photos. Left around 5, got back into Austin around 10pm, dropped off and parked Ross’s S14, dropped off the trailer and came home. Now for the photo story

One of the crazy badass vinyl we cut for Russell. Oil slick metallic under Police reflective white. Balla!

Picking up Ross's KA S14

Three ball joints! Gah! Removing the Miata's knuckles

The third tire to blow this month on the trailer, time for new tires.

At the NTB in Temple, just backed the car and trailer in

The wittle CA18 S14

Awesome burrito at this hole in the wall mexican place open until 11pm

A FB RX7 aquired by trading a $75 KA24 engine to a guy. Will be used to teach their wives how to drift, caged, Hello Kitty racing seats, and it spits flames!

Us riding on Aaron's trailer to help setup the D1 Anaheim practice course

very painful door slam on my thumb. Was instantly bruised, looks alot worse now

Green cut Miata knuckles, old Miata knuckle

Ross's new CA18 S14

My photo of Aaron driving bubbles's car

My photo of Tyler Cox and his 400hp+ SR S14

And here are some short videos from the drift event during setup.

Aaron playing close:

vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/4348943

Aaron drift by:

vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/4349091

All week

Its been a busy week to say the least. It also happened that we decided to take the last quarter of the Bird Shit car out of our shop to take to the scrap yard. We didn’t get to the scrap yard so the quarter of a 240 chilled in the back of the Tacoma this entire week as I drove to campus, work, etc. Needless to say I got some funny looks.

adding something interesting in UT parking garages

Thanks

Thanks to JetGirl for the outline of my car in the header becasue I’m too lazy to make all that cool graphic stuff for my blog for now. Once things settle down in the summer there might be some more graphics on the way. http://www.jetgirlart.com/

The Weekend at the Shop

This weekend we took a small break from our studies and spent it working at the shop. Tons of cars need attention and only two of us (plus Ross part of the time) to give it. Over the weekend we worked on 4.25 cars, bondoed, painted, fixed, played with an awesome cat, rearranged the shop, and even started and moved my RB car.

Friday night after work I started applying bondo on the Slammed Bitch. Here I'm marking where I needed to apply.

Mmmm, pasty

WTF did they do to this roof to make it this lumpy?

Saturday night Ian, Ross and I were working on varius things and a cat comes wadering by the front door. Five minutes later he peeks in wanting to find out whats going on. Eventually he comes in to meet all of us and explore all over the shop. He hung aroud for a few hours until we had to leave. We named him Nismo; probably won’t see him again, but he was definitely a cute cat!

Ian amusing the cat with a bungee

Nismo chillin' on the SR car

Patches also went under the sanding block this weekend in preparation for paint. In the background Ian grinds at the old Bird Shit car.

BAM, I'm blue bitch!

1st coat of paint...a little bluer than I was expecting...

The black beauty also came out to see the light of day for the first time in months. A bit dirty....

Wat? Steelies on a 400hp car? Ian took my Excel milti-spokes for his new daily hatch...looks like I need to finish swapping my 5 lug and new knuckles on the front...

280Z gone

This Saturday at 10am the 280Z was removed from the shop. Ian posted it up on Criagslist for free and we had a plethora of people ready to take it; the guy who came was the 1st to respond. It was on his trailer in 10 minutes and 1 person to help (took us 3 people and an hour to get it on our trailer). Bye bye rusty Z!

Ian stripped off all the parts he wanted

Goodbye

Woah Easter!

This was not your average Easter. Wake up, load the G20, and head to Abilene Texas. Ian traded his turbo Infinity G20 for two (more) Nissan 240sx’s; a 1989 coupe with a blacktop SR20det swap with issues and a 1990 automatic SOHC for a daily driver. Drive was about 5 hours, trading went well, but the drive home was full of surprises.

G20 on trailer ready to head out

Drive up was uneventful, but it was a pretty day.

Pushed the SR coupe onto the trailer since it has some engine issues, most likely timing

The SOHC car with Tien and JIC coilovers

10 minutes on the road and the Ian's car starts smoking badly. I'm following in the truck and getting speckles on the windshield from it.

About an hour into the trip home and I blew a tire on the trailer in the middle of nowhere...and we didn't have any spares that would last 4 hrs home. Scary feeling, drove about a mile up the road in the median to get to a small gavel lot.

And a miracle happened...the gravel lot we pulled into was next to a trailer park and a "Tire Shop". Ian found an old crotchety man outside smoking and turned out he ran the tire shop.

After about an hour of trying out wheels, tire sliming the ones we found becasue they had nails and leaks, and re-beading them on the wheel - we got some on the trailer. They were huge, but they worked with less than a finger's width of clearance. Bought two for $25.

The view from our stranded spot was nice at least. Took this pic as the sun was setting before we got on the road.

So about a mile down the road after the car was smoking, after the tire exploding, after spending time with the trailer park dude - Ian's 240 overheats. We pull over again, stare at it a bit, then decide it would be best to take the jack handle and open the radiator.

I had some leftover water in my Taco Bueno cup that we poured into the rad on the side of the road and at every gas station we stopped at after that.

Stocked up at the next station

At our last stop about an hour outside Austin we went in for snacks and came out to find the 240 leaking from a new spot. Jacked it up and couldn't find where the leak came from so Ian just filled it up some more and we were on our way. Fortunately no more incidents on the way home. What a day!

Moar cars?!

What can I say, 240s are attracted to us…latest additions to work on are the Slammed Bitch and Bird Shit car, both 240sx hatches.

Slammed Bitch...name is a long story

The Bird Shit 240 was a wreck we picked up for parts and scrap metal for dirt cheap. The process getting the car home was a pain, stripping the car was a pain, and cutting it up was a pain. Pictures/captions will tell the story.

The car was buried way back behind the guy (Ross) in the back.

Once again there was an awesome cat

Took almost 3 hours to get the car out of its sitting place to the trailer. The bent tie rod didn't help.

Brought it back to the shop. Strip! Strip! Strip!

removed front and rear subframes, etc

Its time....

240 in 4 pieces

destruction

off to the metal yard

Patches in for Paint

Patches is my lovable gimp 1989 240sx. Swapped pig-nose for a chuki font end, fixed various problems, sold the fake Nismo racing seats, and am currently re-painting it at the shop – roll-on style! Hope to be done within the next month or so.

Masked

Bondo

1st coat primer

1st coat sanded

That is all for now

Miata gets new stuff

Ian vinyl’d up the miata for the drift event in Mineral Wells on March 22, 2009. Vinyl looked good. The car also managed to get damaged for the first time, twice in one day! First he hit a tire and dented the heck out of the passenger side door, then in the tandem he and his partner collided and that damaged the front drivers side fender.

applying vinyl at the shop

Ian drifting

fender damage