Hey guys, I am a little late to the build thread party but better late then never. I bought this car on July 29th 2010, I spent about 6 months day and night looking for a 100% stock ap1 with low miles. I probably spent close to 1,000$ in gas,food,beer,hotel stays for me and my buddies traveling 100s of miles to end up looking at duds that were supposedly in great shape, no accidents or repaints. YEA RIGHT!!! lying and deceiving ass people! Oh well. I searched high and low looking for a pristine white,red or sebring S and found nothing. One day I was searching in the LA area craigslist and stumbled upon this beautiful low mile pristine ap1 with detailed pics that was too good to be true. Immediately I call the guy and told him I would head down on friday night to pick it up on saturday morning, he sounded a bit hesitant to wait as i was driving down from northern california. As always something happened and my buddy flaked on me, so I called him and let him know I wasn't going to be able to make it. Sure enough during the week a different buddy of mine agreed to go with me as i persuaded him with covering all cost for breakfast,lunch dinner and beer lol. I called the seller and told him I would be going down the coming friday he said yea sure give me a call when you leave your place and when you arrive in socal. Got off work grabbed my cash and my buddy and we were off to socal. About 7 hours later we arrive, its passed midnight and I call him to let him know i will see him at the bank in the morning. I was super nervous because I still thought it was too good to be true, but sure enough when we he arrived at the bank I couldn't believe my eyes. Super clean two owner 100% stock Berlina Black s2k with no scratches or SWIRLS! When I hop in it the car still had the new car smell I turn the key and see the odometer light up 20,003 miles. I am sure he put the 3 miles from his house to the bank. We did the transaction and I was a happy and proud s2k owner. ok I will stop rambling and get to pics, when I got it was sure I was going to keep this car 100% stock besides some wheels. Well that didn't work out at all lol. These are the first batch of pics for now, I will search and upload some more pics to add in order as I started modifying her

18697_627401 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627414 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627418 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627409 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627410 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627407 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627404 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627423 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627413 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

18697_627406 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

 

About a week later I sourced a set of spoon s2k spec sw388 and a eibach pro kit.

023 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

021 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

005 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

I ended up picking up a semi new greddy se exhaust from a customer who had ordered one from us but couldn't stand the drone. He reached out to me to see if I knew anyone interested so I told him I would take it off his hands for a reasonable price.


081 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

 

A couple months of not doing anything to the car other than some basic fluid changes my father decides to back into the car (left front fender). Only a big scuff and a crushed fender, I was heart broken because the car was not going to be with the original paint it came with from Honda after it gets repaired. I contemplated what to do, take it to a body shop and have them blend the whole left side of the car and run the risk of not being happy with the work. Or changing the whole front end to really make the repaint/blend worth it.... Quickly I got to searching for parts.


First thing I picked up was a Js racing type V cfrp hood from a local member

DSC01989 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

since I didnt want to have repaired fenders I decided to go with downforce fenders

IMAG0019 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

IMAG0020 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

fender1 by Mario Magana, on Flickr
I must say the quality of these fenders are top notch only thing is it does take some massaging to make them fit

While having all that space to fit a nice set of square 17x9 wheels for track use, I decided to pick up these old school honda time attack edition volks in championship white with the red stripe

volk by Mario Magana, on Flickr

I knew I was going to start tracking this car so I couldnt bring myself to buy a authentic amuse bumper that will probably get destroyed if I ever go off track. So I picked up a shine auto r1, good thing I did because this bumper has already taken a beating.

IMAG0098 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

IMAG0100 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

IMAG0101 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

A lot of trimming and sanding around the headlight area was needed to make the bumper fit as close as possible to oe fitment.

 

Nice start, look fwd to more

 

Thank you sir much more to come just need to upload them to my flickr account

 

good story

excited to see what you've been up to with your build! i like everything about it so far, especially the sw388!

i've also been thinking about changing my front bumper. going with a replica (i'd go with shine, too) is appealing for many reasons like the ones you mentioned above. gotta think about it some more.

are you planning to go with more aggressive wheels to fit the df fenders?

 

Thanks,yes I went with 17x9 +35 on all 4 but i would like to find a set of 17x10+50 ce28 or re30. I think im going to be getting rid of my bumper soon if your interested lol no need to repaint

 

awesome. 17x10 +50 is super rare. better off going 17x10 +45 on the re30. they can fit bbk up front unlike ce28s.

pm coming your way.

 

The rs3s the volks came with were down to the cords so i picked up these bad boys IMAG0250 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

Everything trimmed up, sanded and massaged to fit like a glove. Right before I sent her to paint

IMAG0122 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

IMAG0124 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

Picked up a Eibach front and rear sway bar, spoon x brace and project mu club racers while the car was at the body shop. Also some BC racing coilovers, worse coilovers ever lol

IMAG0538 by Mario Magana, on Flickr
this thing made a nice difference on the rigidity of the front subframe, no more flex on uneven roads or STEEP ass drive ways. When you upgrade to a higher spring rate you will notice the flex in the chassis under certain driving conditions.

IMAG0539 by Mario Magana, on Flickr
What can I say about these brake pads....They are F&CKING AWESOME!!!

I was patiently waiting for the body shop to be done with the in the time frame they gave me(1 week) but they were getting close to the end of the second week so i decided to pay them a visit

IMAG0151 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

IMAG0148 by Mario Magana, on Flickr

IMAG0149 by Mario Magana, on Flickr
They told me it would be done in two or three days. Couldn't wait to get it back to the shop and throw on all the parts I had waiting for it

 

Sub'd for a beautiful car and a promising build