Intro: Diary of a daily driver...

[Jedidiah]

Great site you all have here.. the best way to get to know my car is to tell the tale of conception to today.. figured I would just post the chronicles of my adventures and have a place to report the future adventures to come.

Disclaimer: While there will be pictures, they will suck because they are off an I-phone. This is also not for the attention-impaired.


With that said, Here is how I bought her about two years ago:



Too Funny right?

So after driving around like that for about a year, I began my journey of driving low... (again, crappy pics.. sorry)





What's funny about these pics is that the car really isn't that low.. just goes to show how modifying is an evolutionary process. I would definitely suggest someone who wants to drive low to do it in incremental stages, as your driving styles change dramatically the lower you get.

After a couple of months of driving at that height, I slowly started lowering the car lil by lil... camber, tire sizing, fender modifying started to come into play.. one day, I had 4 friends in the car (guys ranging from 180-250 lbs) and my car sat like this:

[Jedidiah]

There I realized that thats how I want to drive all the time. But, with the commitment of riding low comes its setbacks:








I left my car at my parents house for a week while I was on vacation... I came back to the above. My parents have a 4 car garage, and my dad went to move the car out of one bay and into another. When moving the car into another bar, he entered the incline of the garage with the wheels turned, and the driver side caught the tire and pulled the fender in. I had to then raise the car and pull the fender out with a hammer just to get it on the flat bed truck.

Lesson learned: DONT LET OTHER PEOPLE DRIVE YOUR LOWERED CAR.

Two weeks later, all better.....




The next thing was to make sure my tires didn't cause that problem again, SO new tires and camber adjustments:

Went from a 225/35 in the front to a 225/30 front for more stretch... less rubber on the road meant already bent rims were inevitable but again, the price you pay for driving low.

You can see in this picture that there was less stretch before...



With the new tires... much more stretch and less height with the 30 series:






CAUTION: When going to this extreme of a tire fitment, if you daily drive your car you will at some point bend a rim. The ride will also be substantially rougher, but you will get some crazy attention being that much lower.

Now for the rears:

From a shot 245/35:



To a 235/35... ahh thats better:

[Jedidiah]

So now that the tires are setup right, onto fitment and alignment...

First Jeff Tsai getting busy on a metal grinder to their rear fenders:





The man is serious about his work..

I don't have pictures, but the front fenders have been shaved and fiberglassed for re-enforcement.

For those of you who want to meet the DOCTOR OF ALIGNMENT look no further then Brandon Budd... PM for his number if your local to Dallas / Ft Worth.

Here is Brandon doing work (notice the spacers) :



AND we now have lip to fender flushness:






And this was the result of that work:




BUT thats just the beginning... there's more...

[Tuck&Poke]

damn, you sucked every ounce of life from those rears, car is sick as fuck, props

[Jedidiah]

NO less then a week after getting her dialed in, I'm driving down one of the cleanest stretches of highway in Dallas (I-75 near Mockingbird Ln).. I have never seen so much as a beer can roll across this road. That night was different... I'm cruising not paying much attention, drive under a lighted bridge when all of a sudden I see a 80lb dead dog laid out in the middle of my lane!

I'm driving 65mph and I have 1 second to react.. I decide to take it dead on so I don't mess up my wheels or suspension. BOOM! Car catches about 1 foot of air, and my exhaust is used as a meat grinder while I fly over the dead dog. Fog lights pop out and are attached only by the wires that light them. The look like strobe lights on either side of my car going down the highway. There is a loud consistent noise that sounds like I'm dragging the transmission.

I pull off and get out to find that the bumper is messed up, but not bad. My fender liners are hanging out, and my undercarriage liner is wrapped under itself, and that is what is causing the sound. Because I'm so low, I can't pull it out from underneath, so I have to get creative.

This next part I couldn't make up if I tried... so I slowly drive up an exit ramp and into a VERY expensive neighborhood and begin lifting the car up to get an idea of whats going on. This is 9pm on a friday and I'm on my way to a party dressed rather nice. I randomly have a dremel in my drunk, and realize if I can get power to the street, I can cut off the undercarriage shield which will allow me to drive the car.

I go knock on the house of a very nice lady, who runs a 100ft of extension cord out to the street and I begin to cut away and the plastic and metal that is still attached to the car. There is dog guts and blood everywhere, but 45 minutes later I have it off and lower the car back down.

I'm now covered in dog blood, guts, sweat and oil and look like I just killed a person. I go to the drug store to get some duct tape and begin to wrap the front bumper so the lip stays on the front bumper.

When I got to my party everyone just stopped talking... silence. They really did think I had killed someone or something.. I grabbed a beer and hopped in the shower.. I just started laughing at that point.. you have to with a story like that.

Some bad pictures of what I'm talking about:











and yes, that is dog guts and blood.... the underneath of the car looked WAYYYY more gruesome. Smelled like a Mongolian BBQ as well.


So I drove around like this for a month:

[Jedidiah]

Finally said enough was enough, so I took it off and put it in the shop to get fixed and used one of Jeff's old white bumpers in the meantime:




From there, the Sharpie bumper came about and after 3 weeks, and 25 hours of hand drawn art, you have this:










Definitely was different and felt a sense of accomplishment when it was done. Found out though that you have to sand down a surface before you can put clearcoat on it.. I did not do this. Didn't think to. So there is no way to seal the sharpie. Which means it will fade if I leave it on.. so off it went and the blue bumper went back on.


At this point its been three months since I got new tires put on.. here are my front tires with about 5K miles on them:




Whats wrong you say?? Lots of tread left... nope.. look closer:





Yes, my friend... that is what a thin tire and -4 degrees of camber gets you.. they are SHOT after 3 months of driving... this is when its appropriate to say "you gotta pay to play..."


The rears were due to be flipped as well, but I ran out of time and my tire tech thought I had a couple 100 miles to go.. WRONG. 3 days later.. BLOWOUT:




What blowout Ben? Tire looks fine....



Ahh.. I see..

Here is what the tire looks like off... see that round hole? You would think that was a nail.. nope.. that is me literally running through every last ounce of rubber:






And the tires off the wheels... no nails... this is just -5 degrees of camber and me running through the rubber..






And fresh rubber... back up and running:

[B Rod]

Nice work! Welcome to the site.

[Jedidiah]

And how she is as of two days ago:









Like I have said, its not easy driving this low, but it has sure been a fun adventure...

I will update this thread as more adventures come about... next stage is going lower and wider in the front

[Tuck&Poke]

we can be friends

[1985zcar]

You're on coils right? What ones?

Car looks awesome.

[M.Burroughs]

Your car is my inspiration.

[gumballer_80]

That is truly one beautiful motor!
You were right to go lower, oh so lower
Props.

[06tiburonofdoom]

Awesome progression! Very fun to read.
This is easily my favorite GS ever.
AMAZING work, man! I can't wait to see what you do next.

[TheStig]

Damn, I give you props. Lots of work and bullshit to fix. Sick car, and nice job.

[mahadeva81]

thats a beatiful car.. i like the color very much...