BlueBullet89's Build Thread... Pic Whore

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
So, I've been meaning to get around to sort of a build thread for quite some time. The unfortunate thing is I haven't been able to find many of my old pics. The majority of them were old film photos so the ones i do have are digital pictures of old film pictures.

To introduce myself to those who aren't familiar, the names Doug and back in high school (2000-2004) before i was familiar with the supra, i drove my dads Ford Bronco II. He had put a real nice paint job on it, lifted it 4 inches, wheels/tires, custom RV bucket seats, upgraded speakers and a few other things. One of my friends at the time introduced me to a magazine, July 2001 Issue of Sport Compact Car, featuring a red 1998 Toyota Supra.

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This was shortly after The Fast and Furious came in to theaters and i recognized it as the same kind of car that became the Orange Supra from the movie. He continued to explain the car in detail and then showed me that the price to pick one of these up was circa $25,000. I was hooked. I knew that this "Dream Car" would actually be attainable in the future. He let me keep the magazine which was read over and over. Another 6 months passed and i heard that there was a Toyota Supra for sale in my TINY town. To that point in my life i had seen only ONE Supra in my life (Silver stock body MKIV) around West Valley City, Utah. Had GReddy exhaust and silver 5-spoke wheels. So my mom and i drove down to the small lot where the supra was and i did not see it anywhere. We spoke with the dealer and he took me out to see a poop-brown colored car that looked nothing like the supra i was familiar with. I looked it over and was sad to see it wasnt what i thought but excited to think that i could probably afford an older gen Supra.

After some bartering (2001 mind you) I purchased my 1989 Supra NA/auto, Mahogony Pearl with Tan/Brown interior for $3,400. The car was bone stock and in immaculate condition with 130,000 miles. I became the second owner. Overtime I grew to love the more square body and notice the subtle curves it had.

Pics of the day i bought it.
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I eventually wanted to make some mods to the car and being an immature 16 yr old i wanted Neon, Muffler, Decals, and wheels. I purchased a Ractive Muffler, StreetGlow red neon lights, 2 blue strobes to go in the front grill, a 5 foot sheet of 3M gold decal to make and cut out some decals, and 16" Superior 5 spoke wheels.

RICER STATUS: Im gonna try and find some of the old photos that were taken with the neon.
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gotta love my momma :)

The car after only about a year ended up starting to have overheating issues and other problems. I was not very knowledgeable about supras so had no idea that the 7m was very prone to BHG's and such. Needless to say this caused A LOT of drama between my dad and i because i didnt have the money for repairs, didnt have the knowledge to do it myself, and yet i still needed transportation to school so he had to loan me the money (another whole story/issue in itself).

I dont wanna post mine and the cars whole story in one day so, stay tuned/subscribe/whatever and i'll keep updating with the whole progress of the car. I know my Sig is gonna kinda give away a bit of it but i think a decent amount of you on here are somewhat familiar with my car anyway.

Doug-
 

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
Well, I'll keep posting.

So... a bit more in detail. My dad loaned me some money to pay for the supra when it was purchased with the plan that i would repay him back the next summer. But since i was going to school my parents also felt i shouldnt be working during school, so i had NO money. The FIRST time i blew the headgasket it overheated a lot. My dad said we were gonna take it to his mechanic and i didnt have a choice (his name was on the title). He argued the point that this mechanic was the best price and that "we always take our vehicles to Joe's". I had a problem with that considering we probably had one of our vehicles in there every 2 months. More things just always seemed to go wrong after getting a vehicle back from Joe's. $1,000 dollars, a few seals, and a replained head later the car was back on its 4 feet. It was nice to have it back but i went more in debt to my parents. Continued driving it for about another year constantly getting crap from a kid at school that had an SRT-4 (his dad was who i bought it from). But beings it was NA auto, i didnt really have much street credit except for the name "SUPRA".

I did love the functionality of the interior for being an 89. Power seats, side and back lumbar, power mirrors, Automatic Climate Control, Cruise, 10 disc changer and probably the most comfortable stock seats i've been in.

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Sadly you'll see i had some Wal-Mart Red Liquid Neon tubes down the side of the shifter and two more under the dash. (Ya i was defintely in the wrong state of mind back then).

My job the next summer kinda bombed so i didnt make enough to pay back my parents. :( My dad felt that as long as i had debt to them i didnt have any money to do anything. Easy to see that the supra caused a LOT of fights between my dad and I. He felt that my car was such a waste of time and that i should be out hunting and fishing with him every single weekend. After about 3 years graduation finally came. I then went to work for Nash Trailers (RV camping company) on the assembly line. That was the best job available for somebody my age in my home town (~$14.50/hr). After 9 LONG months of laying carpet, putting in windows, and building roofs, i had FINALLY paid of the money i owed my parents and saved about $8,000 for the Mormon Mission i was about to leave for.

These pics were actually just after i got back from the mission but that is what the car looked like just before i left.
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I look back at these pics and i feel like :frustrated: WHAT WAS I THINKING?
Notice the GORGEOUS Ricer muffler.. :barf: :lol:
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Sad thing is it took me WAAAAAYY too long to get around to taking the decals off.

Just about 3 months shy of leaving to Lima, Peru the Supra's tires were getting pretty bald so a friend and i decided to go have some fun with them and take a video. He was driving his S2k, and i in the Supra we drove out behind Wal-Mart to the loading area. I power braked to start into a burnout. I probably held it 500rpm below redline for about 45 seconds and then let off the brake to spin into a donut to finish out the video. Oddly enough for some reason the supra died when i stopped the donut. I thought it was quite odd that an auto tranny died out. I turned the key over and it started right back up (worry left my mind). The dumb decision we made was to go and do ANOTHER burnout up at my church's building lot.

Take #2 held it just as long throwing out some REAL good smoke left some REAL nice marks that would stay on the light colored concrete for at least 3 years. I let off the brake spun out and the car died again. Turned the key over, wouldnt start. This happened probably 4 times before the car finally started. As we drove off i could hear tick tick tick. Got to my buddies house, check the oil and for some reason it was completely dry. :( drove home and the next day found what would progressively get worse to some bad Rod and Head knock. Motor was SHOT.

3 months later and time to leave for my mission my dad wanted to know what i was gonna do with the car. At that time i had done my research on a 1jz-gte Twin Turbo Swap. I wanted to park the car for the 2 years and then fix it when i got back. My dad wanted to,
#1 Scrap the car, (the junkyard said they'd give him $500) what a joke.
#2 Rebuild the current NA auto engine through his mechanic $2500+, even bigger joke.
My dad came to the realization that my swap didnt sound like such a bad idea beings since i could do one for 2600-2800 for a full clip.

I drove the car over to my Grandparents with what sounded like a loose wrench in the motor parked in his barn, covered it with a tarp, said goodbye and left for the next 2 years.

I have to say I thought a LOT about my Poop brown supra tucked under a tarp while i was gone and WHAT WAS IN STORE FOR THE SUPRAS FUTURE RE-BIRTH.




Story continued in a couple days. :) stay tuned for the REAL PROGRESS
 

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
thanks guys, another update. :)

I left my home town of La Grande in March 2005 headed to Lima Peru for 2 years and it SERIOUSLY flew by. One of the big things i was really happy to come home to was the family and supra of course. Peru was an AMAZING experience. I learned so much and really was humbled and greatful for the people i was able to meet and how that changed my life. The day we were ready to fly home packed everything i had accumualted over the 2 years into 2 bags. From 2005-2007 the airlines weight limit changed from 70 lbs a bag to 50 so i ended up having to pay a bunch in overage charges. The other missionaries and i left Peru at 8pm and flew into Atlanta, Georgia, then from Atlanta to SLC, Utah, then I continued by myself from that point since i was the only one that lived in such a small town. Flight left from SLC, to Kenniwick, Washington, then a 15 min flight from there to the SMALLEST AIRPORT EVER, in Pendleton Oregon.

My Parents were there to pick me up and it was great seeing them after 2 years. I know over the 2 years the relationship between my dad and i had gotten a lot better. We made the last 45 min drive from Pendleton to LG and stopped at the house to drop off my bags. immediately my parents wanted to take me to my grandparents to see them. We arrive and my grandpa meets us outside. Without even heading inside the house my dad asks. "You wanna go take a look at the Supra?" Knowing he was just trying to be nice, and me not trying to show my excitement of seeing it i said "Ahh we dont have to". He said again "Why dont we just go take a look." I was thinking is my dad gonna surprise me with a newly painted supra? As we walked out to the barn, he asked me. "So, what are the plans for it?" Of course motor was shot at this point. So i said, "Well i'm gonna get a job, save up some money and get the thing running again." We open up the barn door, pull the tarp off and there sat my supra exactly as it was but with now light scratches in the paint from the tarp. Needless to say i wasnt surprised and wasnt upset either. We started walking further into the barn. My dad then says, "Weren't you planning on buying a 1jz clip or something?" I respond "Ya", VERY surprised he even remembered what the motor was called. As we walk around the corner he says, "Dont you mean something like this?" I sit there dumbfounded as i see a JDM Supra front clip with a 1jz Twin Turbo motor/trans all wrapped up in plastic. I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES. My dad who HATED my car with a passion had gotten together with my Grandpa and got me a welcome home gift, purchasing the front clip and getting it shipped to our place. Cost them $2,500. I was now the happiest 21 yr old i ever knew. I dont have any pics of the clip before the motor was pulled but i do have some from after.

The body of the clip wasnt in that great of shape but i didnt really care. The clip came complete with dash gauges and everything needed for the swap :)
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The motor and trans had 76,913 original Kilometers or 47,792 miles. I was WAY happy
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The redline on the NA was right at 6k, the redline on the 1jz is 7k
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The RHD stock boost gauge of course wouldnt fit the LHD dash.
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The day after i got home i was over at my grandparents in the morning pulling the supra into my grandpas shop to get started on the transplant.

I got the 1jz and trans pulled from the clip within a day or two.
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Threw the motor on my grandpas trailer and took it down for a pressure wash. It was a really clean motor anyway.

Then it was time to get the POS 7m NA out of the shell.
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Major 4x4 status without the motor haha
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Buddy who helped with some of the work. 7m auto out, 1jz ready to go in.
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I love using my grandpas shop. Heated, lots of space, engine hoist, and tools :)

1jz Yummyness haha
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Motor mount adapters 91 motor to early 89 body
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Beautiful wiring that would turn out taking a WEEK to extend and make sure everything was correct.
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The thing that was a bit of a surprise was this motor came with the Hydro fan, not the clutch fan so no nasty fan noise when revving and it pushes a lot more air.
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Baby Twins and 3" downpipe
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The car at this point was coming along well. I knew that i would soon have a sleeper in my midst. :) I'll keep you all posted with more updates and progress. Next step 1jz in the car.
 

Jarvis

New Member
May 14, 2012
177
0
0
Baton Rouge, LA
Man, that thing looks pretty sweet. I also drove a Bronco II back in high school, and ended up buying my first Supra from my uncle back around that time (an '87 Turbo that he ragged to hell.) Been in love ever since. Keep up the good work!
 

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
About time i add more progress to the build. It took only about 3 weeks of harness extending, waiting on a few extra parts (mkiv power steering line, air filter, filter adapter) and some maintenance work till it was time to finally drop in the 1j. As far as maintenance work, i cleaned the plugs and made sure all the gapping was good, put on a new serpentine belt, flushed all the fluids and replaced. I felt with this motor i ONLY would put Full Synthetic oil in it and NGK or better plugs. When we lifted the motor and started moving it into the bay I was a little upset at my grandpa because as we were dropping in the motor he took a crow bar and was prying on the motor and against the radiator support and TEMS covers to jimmy the motor into the car. He ended up bending the inner-lower side front radiator support and made a couple small dents in the TEMS covers. I wanted to add a little color to the bay so to match my stock gold pin stripping and the gold colored detailed calipers i of course painted the spark plug cover and TEMS covers gold also.

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After hooking up the fuel lines, charging the battery, throwing the wheels back on, and a lot of me being paranoid, it was time for the first fire up.

I hop in the car throw the key in the ignition, turn to ACC, ON, and Turn over. It was a beautiful sound to hear that fire up one the FIRST turn. At that point i couldn't be any more anxious to take her for a drive. 15 min later i was pulling out of the shop and headed for the street.

As i started heading to my house just a mile away i experienced one of the best feelings i would grow to be addicted to... BOOST! The "kill-joy" of the experience was as i would really get into boost, it would start cutting. Instantly i was all paranoid again and wondering what was wrong as i didnt know a TON about turbo motors.

A little research and time later i found that my vacuum lines from the compressor side were capped off and same on the actuator side. So i was overboosting and hitting fuel cut. I hooked up the front turbo vacuum line and took her for a drive. Instantly that rush of adrenaline came back as i got full boost with now cutting. Instant addict. :D

SHORT TIME PASSES

I ended up getting a sales job and needed to get down to San Diego for the summer months. Long story short (california's story at least, haha) i was growing out of the ugly 16" wheels. With my job selling pest control i randomly ran into a guy taking some black RacingHart Evolutions 18"s off his 350z. Ended up picking those up and throwing them on the supra. Definitely made a difference in the look of the car.

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put in some chrome valves.
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My weird brand tires i put on. Triangle Talon
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It was about this time is 2008 when i started the Clean mkiiis thread http://www.supraforums.com/forum/showthread.php?512575-CLEAN-MKIII-s...-post-pix-here that i was realizing my car was a bit RICE (with the input of some others ;) and i needed to move away from that. I started doing some photo shop, getting rid of the decals, side molding, and door handles, just messing around playing with some renderings. After doing the photoshop below i realized. I wanna go the "Clean" route.

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Unfortunately with school and everything i wouldn't end up getting rid of the decals for quite some time :nuts:

It was around this time that my paint had received quite a few paint chips, the clear was fading and it had a few slight body dings. Even though my Poopra brown color was rare i was getting tired of it.

BIG COSMETIC UPDATE NEXT. :) PAINT, LOWERING SPRINGS, +MORE.
 

Raybo

GOT 1JZ?
Dec 24, 2011
21
0
0
MN
Awesome store/build. I'm glad i never went through the "rice" phase haha, watched all my friends though. looking forward to updates!
 

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
While i was going to school i still had my original sub system in the back of my car. 2 Pioneer 12"s in a bandpass box that LITERALLY touched the hatch glass when it was closed. it was a decent system but was overkill. I guess it was fate because i came out one morning on my way to school and noticed a bunch of cars in our apartment complex whose windows had been shattered and a cop was out there talking to some people. I thought to my self "that sucks" as i open the door to my car... i then noticed some glass on the ground behind my car and walked back to notice... THIS!!!

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Needless to say i was PISSED! they literally RIPPED the sub box out with the amp breaking some of the cables. They broke into 7 cars that night. More than the system, i was upset about having to replace the rear window cause that glass is NOT cheap. (fortunately i found a local guy who was parting out his supra so i picked up a whole hatch for $40 :) and replaced the rear window myself. Time passes by and its about time i got some new tires so a friend and i went up to a mountain road so i could get rid of some old tires on the stock rims and have some fun doing it.

[video=vimeo;60854923]http://vimeo.com/60854923[/video]

this burnout went SIGNIFICANTLY better than the one when i had the 7M motor in it. Heres a few pics of the tire carnage after.

Piled up rubber from the tires.
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:) LOTSA rubba
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Got some new tires, got smart and FINALLY removed the decals and purchased an A-pillar and a couple gauges.

You can clearly see where the decal protected the paint and left the SUPRA imprint and the rest is scratched and fading.
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I also purchased some clear marker lights.
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Most dashes are pretty trashed/cracked so i was happy mine was basically mint.
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So, NEXT update i'm getting all into PAINT and we'll see some real progress. I'm gonna have this thing updated TO DATE. within a week so when i take it up to Oregon for our cruize, i'll get some new photos, GoPro vids, and i should have Launch Control setup by then.
 

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
PAINT BABY PAINT!!!! (i apologize in advance for the majority of the pics are cell phone. i do have some good dig cam pics to come)

After FINALLY getting fed up with my Poop Brown Supra I knew it was time to stop talking the talk and walk the paint walk. :) Funny thing about the timing of my decision was i was soon to have another big reason to paint the car. Sure it had really bad fading clear on the hood, about 5 LARGE paint chip areas that i covered in touch up and a swiss cheese front bumper from rocks over the years. One of the things i've loved about this car is the Targa Top. Able to pop it off and have an open top without the vulnerability or noise of a convertible. I was out enjoying a topless ;) summer drive, and drove back to my apartment. Already having had my 80gig iPod stolen from my car by leaving the targa off even with the windows up i formed a habit of placing the top back up on the car so it would LOOK bolted down. I just placed the targa back on top with the plan to come back out later that evening for another topless drive.

I came back out later hopped in the car and took off down the street hoping to meet up with some other car guys at the mall. As i was stepping on it heading off i heard a slight sshh shhhh and then SSHHWWOOOOOO! I looked up to see NOTHING. Instantly realized a pulled a Fast and the Furious moved and blew my Targa Top off. I spun around to see the targa flying end over end in the air untill it slammed onto the street paint side down and slid spinning with some sparks popping up. I immediatly slammed it in reverse to get to the top before traffic caught up and ran over it. (I was SUPER lucky nobody was behind me because the targa could EASILY go through a windshield and that woulda been BAD.) I jumped out of the car and grabbed my severly scratched Targa, AMAZED it wasnt structurally damaged. Just bad paint scratches and SLIGHT crunch on a corner. With this unfortunate event i DEFINITELY knew it was time to paint. In the mean time before paint i figured i'd just rattle can the top black so it didnt look horendous. Below is at my cousins place, sanding down the top to paint it.

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Fortunately for me about this time i ran into a guy who also had a MKIII supra and he was going to school for collision repair at UVU in Orem. I thought PERFECT. get a real decent paint job for a real cheap price. I had a few ideas for paint colors. I went from thinking possible

Orange Sunburst Metallic
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Lamborghini Grigio Avalon Metallic
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or STI Blue
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I liked the gunmetal color a lot. more under the radar and just looks sleek, so i found the lambo paint code but my buddy said for some reason that code wouldnt give the mixing amounts. SOO... he had a gallon of multiple left over paints that were mixed together from his work but looking in the can it looked AMAZING. so i ended up buying that paint from him. I took the car into school, dropped it off and let him go to work.

The first progress i witnessed was below. he had done plastic repair to a few areas that has some bad paint chips or low areas.

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After he took care of the majority of the body work, he let me come in and help finish prepping by DA. Beings it was my car i wanted to put QUITE a bit more extensive prep into the car but he kept pushing me wanting to get the car done so most parts where left on the car for prep and paint.

These were last pics i took before it was finalized and moved to the booth to be painted.
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He started by painting the jams, which i was happy about cause i think that always looks really tacky with different color jams. He sprayed the engine bay jam, the doors jams, and the hatch jam. I got a call a couple days later saying he was worried i wouldnt like the color. I started freaking out. He told me it had a slight Olive Green pearl in it so it wasnt quite gunmetal under some light. He didnt want me to see the car until it was done but agreed to have me come in and confirm the color was ok to continue. I came in and LOVED it. it looked GREAT. SO clean, great gloss and great metallic flake, i gave the go ahead to finish and would come back a few days later to see the finished product.

Im working on the Finished paint post right now. Figured i'd do them as seperate posts though. :)
 

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
PAINT IS DONE!! YAAAAAHHH!

So he called me on a sunday afternoon to have me come over and see the finished product. (one of the happiest car days of my life) i did of course take some pics right then and there with my phone but im gonna skip to the dig cam pics cause the quality, lighting, color and all is just much better.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

BEFORE:
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AFTER:
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I had him do a little custom work to the car. if you notice in some of the older pics the badge on the front Upper nose piece was shaved, and there was a slight body light in the center which i had molded flush and smooth so its a nicer transition.

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Door Jams
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Here you can kinda see the slight green in the color.
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Bogwon

New Member
Dec 1, 2012
452
0
0
Bremerton, WA
I'm a big fan of green cars... dunno why just always liked the green ones. The darker the green the better for me, the grey/green your buddy did really looks awesome and also great story behind the making of the car!
 

bluebullet89

Member
Oct 16, 2008
192
0
16
Meridian, ID
Thanks guys

Here below we were hanging out after he painted his car. I originally wanted to do mine a blue like his but i'm pretty happy with the color i got.
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By this time i had FINALLY gotten Eibach's Pro lowering springs so it didnt have 4X4 ride height like his did.

After getting use to my new paint and the "updated" color/look, i started doing a lot of research on updating the interior of the car and a few other things.

I did like the smoked lights that he did on his and the red and clear just werent quite what i wanted. I felt my cars stance needed some more work along with the dash lights. For my next update

LED dash light Conversion. Nasty Stock color to Blue/Red

STAY TUNED.