I stumbled across my old Nokia 3650 which had a 16mb SD card in it. To my surprise… it had a slew of old photos and video on it from around 2002-2004. A fun trip down memory lane for sure.

My best friend Hooman when he was working at United BMW in Roswell.

Random shredded Bridgestone at GTE.

My Corolla preparing to fail emissions miserably.

My car on the lift at the OLD Batlground Engineering.

One3 Creative computer upgrades.

My good friend Michael at Jack in the Box after GT Live in 2004.

My 330i loaner car and Jason Greene’s ’64 Impala outside the old One3 studio.

My Corolla feeling sleepy the night I bought it.

On stage the last night I played with my old band: Katapolt.

New transmission for the e46.

My Corolla… freshly panda’d.

The Autopower rollcage for the e46 that was promptly returned to have a full custom cage built instead.

These photos were in this order on the phone… it looks like the vinyl gets washed off at Cactus Carwash.

Superior erecting. That’s right.

Southeastdrift threw a practice event up at the Braves Municipal Stadium in Greenville, SC on Saturday. The asphault DESTROYED tyres, but the event was a blast! It was definitely laid back, and rad to chill with the crew for the weekend.

Chris Rhoad let me slide his GTS hatchback around until the tyres popped. It definitely made me miss my li’l eight-six!

This car looks so sexy without 20lbs of vinyl & stickers.

I heart vitaminenergy.

Chris Rhoad on cone detail:

Aftermath.

Support Drifting.

My li’l eight-six was just picked up to be shipped off to Wisconsin. She had a great li’l run. I feel like I salvaged that li’l car from a life of gloom, and made it shine. I’m sad to see her go.

An original 1st run of the sticker that started it all.

I love these flip-ups.

Goodbye

A small piece of eight-six history… the Bronson cigarette.

She’s gone.

I ended up getting WAY more for the car than I thought… but that somehow doesn’t make it any easier to let go.
That little car will be missed.

All done! HUGE thanks to Erin, Byron, and Matt for helping with the install! The car feels so much better. The struts were so blown… the fell apart when we took them out. Oil went everywhere!.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The stock 15-year old suspension on the Corolla is beyond blown out, so I got some new parts to replace the bad stuffs. I didn’t want to go crazy with anything… so I snagged some goodies off eBay. I like that all this cost less than one set of springs for the e46!

.

.

.

.

.

.

I got my baby some new kicks today, c/o of Marcos Ruiz. He hooked it up, and they look SLAMMIN’ on the car. I snagged two 15×7″ Watanabe’s, and four Centerlines (2:15×7,2:15×8). Once I get tyres for the 15×8’s… I’ll prolly sport the Centerlines all the way around – until I can find two more Watanabes… then they will be on there. Its amazing what offset can do for a car. I love it!!!

I couldn’t stop staring at the car tonight. It totally changed the demeanor.
She doesn’t look like an SR5 to me anymore… but one step closer to a GTS!

Now… about that 20v…

The inevitable had to be done. After over a year of procrastination/exuses on my behalf… Hooman and I finally got our li’l eight-six one step closer to how we planned it. The car’s original 1986 panda red/black combo needed a refresher of sorts… and she finally got it! $65: 11 kans of krylon, two rolls of painters tape, one fine-grit sanding block, one sunday paper, and two 5-hr day’s work… and I present to you – Atlanta’s ONLY white/black panda eight-six!

Step 1: Wash her down & remove excess drrrt.

Step 2: Wet sand any problematic areas (such as the Jesus fish a previous owner applied.

Step 3: Rattle-can the wheels ultra-flat black.

Step 4: Begin masking off windows, tail lights, & trim with painter’s tape & newspaper.

Step 5: Bust out the Krylon.

Step 6 (not really illustrated): Mask & paint lower half of car & hood satin black.

Step 7: Leave her sit overnight & start the next day with a fresh head clear of Krylon dust.

Step 8: Tape & mask the black portions of the car to prepare for the white. Use the sunday paper to aid in covering the black portions you already sprayed.

Step 9: Start the white paint application.

Step 10: With the white paint applied, give her some time to dry & cure.

Step 11: Take dorky picture of self with gas mask on. (BTW, I highly recommend one of these – especially if you’re doing this in a poorly ventilated locale.)

Step 12: Unwrap your work carefully and slowly… the paint still hasn’t completely cured, and you don’t want to destroy hours upon hours of work.

Step 13: Bask in the glory as the fruits of your labor are fully unveiled.

Step 14: More post-completion poses.

Step 15: Bring her to the surface & back into the real world!

Hooman and I are the biggest dorks on the planet, and we love every minute of it. We had to Initial D the thing. This was a team effort for sure. I was primary masking technician, since I’m so damn picky about detail… and Hooman was primary paint general, since he’s the rattle-can master. We could not have done it so well individually. I thank him for putting up with my time-consuming mask techniques… I think it turned out AMAZING!