jamesN272
06-18-2004, 08:21 AM
Hope this helps everyone get to know me a little better.
Had to resize a lot of these. Will get some nice 5mp pics of the Camaro when I get her back and shined up. I'll leave my pride and joy 99 Mazda Protege (beater), 5 speed, 115k, bought for $2500, out of this post. She's too much car for you guys...
My first car, 93 Del Sol SI. Great car...I paid for a good half of it, got it right when I turned 16 (sept 2002).
I have a video showing off the entire car + me rolling down the street and getting on it in 1st. Anyone want to host? Robbie?
The stereo was a custom system. Previous owner built systems out of a best buy for all kinds of cars. Best part of this car hands down. There were three 12's molded into the trunk and gobs of power (can't remember the watts) and a pioneer headunit alllllll shined up and recarpeted to look PERFECT.
It was all in a beautiful show presentation that still to this day is the best i've seen in person. I should have entered the shows, I would have dominated.
Robbie, please hit me up on AIM or MSN so I can send you this video...
Had the VIS body kit (not by choice http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/smileyR.gif ), Crane cam, some headers, nice CAI, and that big ol 'Hyper' Exhaust that was slanted. Those were the good ol days. Reliable, topless, 40mpg, maybe 150hp? Man...was I pimpin :mrgreen:
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/DSC00038.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/back.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/side272.JPG
That was almost two years ago...we're (Jessica and I) still together :mrgreen:
Ending up selling it for about $1500 less than we bought it for. Went to a girl and her brother from Cinci. He had an SI...identical to Adam's. Nice people, I almost cried http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif
My next car, I paid for with my very own CASH, August of 2003. 91 Mitsu. 3000GT VR4 aka the nightmare. My first real sports car, 6 grand out the door 8)
I was so damn happy driving it home. Most enjoyable ride i've ever had....
but on the way home (6 hour drive), blew a vaccum line and bent a valve or two. It was a great experience. :( I had $1500 tucked away for this and bought numerous things (1k worth) from a gentlemen named 'Amro Kessem'
I didn't know Amro had been scheming people with 3S's since the start of web boards. I was maybe his 20th victum? I ended up getting about $750 back, but that was almost 2 months later and after I had an attorney call him. Fun Fun. He ripped off about 10-15 more people after me, before the admin of 3si recommended us to contact the IRS and shoot for tax evasion.
We did, he's about to get owned....i'll leave it at that.
Anyway, a friend and I (Rich, drives a 95 RT TT BPU+) removed the entire motor and pretty much replaced everything I could afford. Oil pump, every gasket, t-belt, plugs, everything, too much to list. Low mile heads/turbos...put in a Blitz dual stage MBC and my friend Sean sent me the vaccum lines for free. Replaced the entire interior with a black. Leather seats all around, black carpet, and then some custom fab parts Rich and I put together with a pocket knife, pieces of plastic, and some glue. A lot more work was done, I can't remember...It turned out BEAUTIFUL
Took us 2 months of weekend work to do the whole thing and get all the parts in and when we did, low and behold the tranny is fubar'd and for some reason won't go in any forward gears.
Everyone told me it was the clutch so I took it down to the dealer and bent over...$1100. It was great too, they were so upset because I didn't buy a new $400 flywheel, just had my own reground. :roll:
The idiot hick mechanic didn't know anything. It was SO frustrating...found some metal shavings (that were the syncros) and starting to tell me I must have broken an entire gear from driving it too hard. I laughed in his face telling him the car has been sitting for 5 months, you tell me how i'm going to break ANYTHING.
They didn't like me very much from then on out. http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/thumbsdown.gif http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/lmao.gif
Car ended up being the same as when I brought it there. I took it pretty hard...the dealership called me 2 times in the next week asking if I wanted to have them swap the tranny (5 grand+)
Mitsu won't go inside a tranny because they're commies http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/angry-fire.gif
They can only replace the whole thing. I declined and put the car up for sale.
REAL bad experience, sort of you-live-and-learn deal. I sold the car as is taking a HUGE loss. Put in about 3,500 and sold it for what I paid, $6000.
Anyway, here are the pictures. I LOVED this car and drove Rich's car a few times... (BOOST=http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/drool.gif ) I have nothing but praise for these cars. Headaches and money pits, but damn you fire it up after building it up and it's like giving birth. When I get some extra cash, I WILL buy one of these as a daily driver. AWD is indescribable and despite probably being the worst thing that ever happened to me, it might have very well been the best. I learned too much over the coarse of 6 months.
Oh, and the hood is offcentered cause I suck at teh hood bolts and couldn't get it on right. Took me a few hours but I did it get back to perfect prior to lettting her go :?
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/brokenVR4.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/VR42.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/VR43.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/TTeb.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/engineVR4272.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/VR4popups.JPG
The pop ups were the best part...so...cool.... :cry:
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/GaragedfrontVR42.JPG
I have some pictures of her being loaded onto a trailor and me waving bye bye...but that's too emotional. Too...too...emotional.
Bah, anyway...
After that I was debating whether or not to buy an LS1 F-bod or save for a C5, Supra, etc etc etc
I found this one clean looking 99 Z28 on ebay with 100k.
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/maro3.JPG
I have some mental defect that makes me seek high mileage cars because they're so retardly cheap. It was this or wait 3-4 months till I could afford a newer, lower mile one. I bit and emailed the guy 3 hours after I first saw it. Oh well...no regrets. :mrgreen:
Talked to the guy, he was the 3rd owner, bought it from a dealer, and wasn't sure of the car's mods. Said he was told stroked with high compression, and remembered being told it was a 383. Not being a car guy, he wasn't too sure about very much... knew it was FAST and yada yada...a company named Skunkworks built it. Now I don't know if any of you have ever heard of Skunkworks or what kind of monsters they build, but the last car that I could find anyone hearing of/seeing that they had built was a big cubed NA C5 that put down some wild numbers.
I did some research and found VERY VERY VERY little about Skunkworks. Some sidenote of GM, I would say that they were the SVT of GM that died out a few years ago. I found absolutely nothing. I have some friends looking for stuff but it's been a little over a week since I have heard from them. Supposed to provide me with a number, but I was told by the previous owner that it was already tried and no one would realease any info about the car. Gay.
Well, I learned that it was bought new by some Indiana state troopers as a race/show car. That was the end of the trail...so WTH let's go check it out and bring it home :mrgreen:
It was a decent deal, I got it for 10k...drove down in April and checked her out. Some stuff was weird...the door looked a little funky (Then learned it had been in a mild accident - guy was not at fault though and I couldn't find a single weld, so it wasn't serious) and that it had these weird emblems. You'll see in the pictures, it has the Skunkwork emblems and then some little signature beneath the CAMARO in the back that says 'Billy Ray'
I saw some stickers on the intake that said 40 years of NHRA 1960-2000 or something like that. It suggested that It would have been built back then (2000)
Saw some pullies that didn't look stock, saw some other minor things. A real nice polished hurst short throw shifter too. Started her up with what looked to be the stock SS exhaust (on a Z28? hmmm) and it def sounded too throaty to be stock. The tires were new. Idle was lumpy...it was great, I was ready to drive it home w/o caring what it had done.
And drive I did...this thing was a monster to me. Would have ATE Rich's RT TT...I was in awe.
Well, on the way home the tranny started grinding while shifting. Talked to the guy I bought it from, we split the cost of rebuilding the tranny and replacing the clutch/flywheel with some off brand performance one. (Didn't care too much, would throw a stronger one on later) The car sat at Lee Myles for about 3 weeks. Looking back this was a wise move, it was a good measure to have it all rebuilt...plus there's a WARRANTY http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/deal.gif http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/yup.gif
After that, I got the car home safe and sound with a great shifting tranny and a softer clutch. I had ordered a magnaflow cat back exhaust and had that put on the night I got it back. Looked hot and sounded incredible. Same night I swapped the plugs for some TR6s (good in high comp. motors) and some new MSD wires.
Went pretty good, got it done in about 6-7 hours...pulled an all nighter. Took the car to my sister's graduation the next day and it started acting up with the idle and seemed to have lost some power. Cruising in 6th didn't have too much pull like it used to. I thought it was the plugs, turned out it was the PCV valve (see other thread)
Despite idling weird and feeling a little loss of power, I went ahead and changed the oil with some Castrol 5w-50 synthetic (It had ran this it's entire life, found oil change stickers in the dash 8) )
Next was the headlights. I did the smoked mod and painted the non reflector parts black. Was a real job, ending up putting some serious chips in my headlight housing seal (the green plastic thing) but still sealed it up and put it all on. It looked great even though the paint had ran about 1/4 of an inch in about 2 places. Took 4 hours total.
I then did my ghetto wheel painting w/o taking too much care into taping. I left the lip silver, it would have looked a lot better and less messy had i just painted it too but hey.
Finished it all up and snatched some pictures...I LOOOVED the way it looked. My neighbors told me I ruined my car, and that it looked like total shit. That was cool :roll:
I went and showed off and the meets...everyone thought my car was slow :mrgreen:
Got some new long tube headers and ORY 2 weeks ago, none of you clowns would help me put them on :evil: so I was forced to sell and then get some in the near future when I had some people to help me put them on
While the car was acting up I barely went WOT and never ran it too hard, didn't feel right. The leak got worse and I eventually got that PCV valve fixed last week and it made a REAL difference. MUCH stronger, real smooth too.
It's getting dyno'd within the month (with stock exhaust manifolds :cry:) and i'll get it all on video so I can show all the haters who called BS, or allow for each of you to kick me in the nuts for buying a near stock car...heh
The car is currently back in the shop getting 4.10 gears put in (it had 2.73s off a 98 - another story)
Anyway, here's what I got of it. Took these from my girl's camera phone...the final few are from a much better camera (before painted lights and wheels). I'll get many many many more after I get the door matched better and the hood tightened on. No engine bay shots cause I still have yet to clean it down with some simple green. It will look like a brand new car in my next post...I promise
Enjoy...
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/cam3.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/cam2.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/cam4.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/reargarageZ272.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/skunkwrx.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/garagedzfront272.JPG
And that's all. I will update asap, but no word on mods yet. Still up in the air whether or not I want to dump ALL my money in this or save till next fall/winter for a C5 when their prices drop because of the C6. Maybe a Supra? Or a bike? :shock:
We shall see. http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/3gears.gif
Had to resize a lot of these. Will get some nice 5mp pics of the Camaro when I get her back and shined up. I'll leave my pride and joy 99 Mazda Protege (beater), 5 speed, 115k, bought for $2500, out of this post. She's too much car for you guys...
My first car, 93 Del Sol SI. Great car...I paid for a good half of it, got it right when I turned 16 (sept 2002).
I have a video showing off the entire car + me rolling down the street and getting on it in 1st. Anyone want to host? Robbie?
The stereo was a custom system. Previous owner built systems out of a best buy for all kinds of cars. Best part of this car hands down. There were three 12's molded into the trunk and gobs of power (can't remember the watts) and a pioneer headunit alllllll shined up and recarpeted to look PERFECT.
It was all in a beautiful show presentation that still to this day is the best i've seen in person. I should have entered the shows, I would have dominated.
Robbie, please hit me up on AIM or MSN so I can send you this video...
Had the VIS body kit (not by choice http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/smileyR.gif ), Crane cam, some headers, nice CAI, and that big ol 'Hyper' Exhaust that was slanted. Those were the good ol days. Reliable, topless, 40mpg, maybe 150hp? Man...was I pimpin :mrgreen:
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/DSC00038.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/back.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/side272.JPG
That was almost two years ago...we're (Jessica and I) still together :mrgreen:
Ending up selling it for about $1500 less than we bought it for. Went to a girl and her brother from Cinci. He had an SI...identical to Adam's. Nice people, I almost cried http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif
My next car, I paid for with my very own CASH, August of 2003. 91 Mitsu. 3000GT VR4 aka the nightmare. My first real sports car, 6 grand out the door 8)
I was so damn happy driving it home. Most enjoyable ride i've ever had....
but on the way home (6 hour drive), blew a vaccum line and bent a valve or two. It was a great experience. :( I had $1500 tucked away for this and bought numerous things (1k worth) from a gentlemen named 'Amro Kessem'
I didn't know Amro had been scheming people with 3S's since the start of web boards. I was maybe his 20th victum? I ended up getting about $750 back, but that was almost 2 months later and after I had an attorney call him. Fun Fun. He ripped off about 10-15 more people after me, before the admin of 3si recommended us to contact the IRS and shoot for tax evasion.
We did, he's about to get owned....i'll leave it at that.
Anyway, a friend and I (Rich, drives a 95 RT TT BPU+) removed the entire motor and pretty much replaced everything I could afford. Oil pump, every gasket, t-belt, plugs, everything, too much to list. Low mile heads/turbos...put in a Blitz dual stage MBC and my friend Sean sent me the vaccum lines for free. Replaced the entire interior with a black. Leather seats all around, black carpet, and then some custom fab parts Rich and I put together with a pocket knife, pieces of plastic, and some glue. A lot more work was done, I can't remember...It turned out BEAUTIFUL
Took us 2 months of weekend work to do the whole thing and get all the parts in and when we did, low and behold the tranny is fubar'd and for some reason won't go in any forward gears.
Everyone told me it was the clutch so I took it down to the dealer and bent over...$1100. It was great too, they were so upset because I didn't buy a new $400 flywheel, just had my own reground. :roll:
The idiot hick mechanic didn't know anything. It was SO frustrating...found some metal shavings (that were the syncros) and starting to tell me I must have broken an entire gear from driving it too hard. I laughed in his face telling him the car has been sitting for 5 months, you tell me how i'm going to break ANYTHING.
They didn't like me very much from then on out. http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/thumbsdown.gif http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/lmao.gif
Car ended up being the same as when I brought it there. I took it pretty hard...the dealership called me 2 times in the next week asking if I wanted to have them swap the tranny (5 grand+)
Mitsu won't go inside a tranny because they're commies http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/angry-fire.gif
They can only replace the whole thing. I declined and put the car up for sale.
REAL bad experience, sort of you-live-and-learn deal. I sold the car as is taking a HUGE loss. Put in about 3,500 and sold it for what I paid, $6000.
Anyway, here are the pictures. I LOVED this car and drove Rich's car a few times... (BOOST=http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/drool.gif ) I have nothing but praise for these cars. Headaches and money pits, but damn you fire it up after building it up and it's like giving birth. When I get some extra cash, I WILL buy one of these as a daily driver. AWD is indescribable and despite probably being the worst thing that ever happened to me, it might have very well been the best. I learned too much over the coarse of 6 months.
Oh, and the hood is offcentered cause I suck at teh hood bolts and couldn't get it on right. Took me a few hours but I did it get back to perfect prior to lettting her go :?
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/brokenVR4.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/VR42.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/VR43.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/TTeb.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/engineVR4272.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/VR4popups.JPG
The pop ups were the best part...so...cool.... :cry:
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/GaragedfrontVR42.JPG
I have some pictures of her being loaded onto a trailor and me waving bye bye...but that's too emotional. Too...too...emotional.
Bah, anyway...
After that I was debating whether or not to buy an LS1 F-bod or save for a C5, Supra, etc etc etc
I found this one clean looking 99 Z28 on ebay with 100k.
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/maro3.JPG
I have some mental defect that makes me seek high mileage cars because they're so retardly cheap. It was this or wait 3-4 months till I could afford a newer, lower mile one. I bit and emailed the guy 3 hours after I first saw it. Oh well...no regrets. :mrgreen:
Talked to the guy, he was the 3rd owner, bought it from a dealer, and wasn't sure of the car's mods. Said he was told stroked with high compression, and remembered being told it was a 383. Not being a car guy, he wasn't too sure about very much... knew it was FAST and yada yada...a company named Skunkworks built it. Now I don't know if any of you have ever heard of Skunkworks or what kind of monsters they build, but the last car that I could find anyone hearing of/seeing that they had built was a big cubed NA C5 that put down some wild numbers.
I did some research and found VERY VERY VERY little about Skunkworks. Some sidenote of GM, I would say that they were the SVT of GM that died out a few years ago. I found absolutely nothing. I have some friends looking for stuff but it's been a little over a week since I have heard from them. Supposed to provide me with a number, but I was told by the previous owner that it was already tried and no one would realease any info about the car. Gay.
Well, I learned that it was bought new by some Indiana state troopers as a race/show car. That was the end of the trail...so WTH let's go check it out and bring it home :mrgreen:
It was a decent deal, I got it for 10k...drove down in April and checked her out. Some stuff was weird...the door looked a little funky (Then learned it had been in a mild accident - guy was not at fault though and I couldn't find a single weld, so it wasn't serious) and that it had these weird emblems. You'll see in the pictures, it has the Skunkwork emblems and then some little signature beneath the CAMARO in the back that says 'Billy Ray'
I saw some stickers on the intake that said 40 years of NHRA 1960-2000 or something like that. It suggested that It would have been built back then (2000)
Saw some pullies that didn't look stock, saw some other minor things. A real nice polished hurst short throw shifter too. Started her up with what looked to be the stock SS exhaust (on a Z28? hmmm) and it def sounded too throaty to be stock. The tires were new. Idle was lumpy...it was great, I was ready to drive it home w/o caring what it had done.
And drive I did...this thing was a monster to me. Would have ATE Rich's RT TT...I was in awe.
Well, on the way home the tranny started grinding while shifting. Talked to the guy I bought it from, we split the cost of rebuilding the tranny and replacing the clutch/flywheel with some off brand performance one. (Didn't care too much, would throw a stronger one on later) The car sat at Lee Myles for about 3 weeks. Looking back this was a wise move, it was a good measure to have it all rebuilt...plus there's a WARRANTY http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/deal.gif http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/yup.gif
After that, I got the car home safe and sound with a great shifting tranny and a softer clutch. I had ordered a magnaflow cat back exhaust and had that put on the night I got it back. Looked hot and sounded incredible. Same night I swapped the plugs for some TR6s (good in high comp. motors) and some new MSD wires.
Went pretty good, got it done in about 6-7 hours...pulled an all nighter. Took the car to my sister's graduation the next day and it started acting up with the idle and seemed to have lost some power. Cruising in 6th didn't have too much pull like it used to. I thought it was the plugs, turned out it was the PCV valve (see other thread)
Despite idling weird and feeling a little loss of power, I went ahead and changed the oil with some Castrol 5w-50 synthetic (It had ran this it's entire life, found oil change stickers in the dash 8) )
Next was the headlights. I did the smoked mod and painted the non reflector parts black. Was a real job, ending up putting some serious chips in my headlight housing seal (the green plastic thing) but still sealed it up and put it all on. It looked great even though the paint had ran about 1/4 of an inch in about 2 places. Took 4 hours total.
I then did my ghetto wheel painting w/o taking too much care into taping. I left the lip silver, it would have looked a lot better and less messy had i just painted it too but hey.
Finished it all up and snatched some pictures...I LOOOVED the way it looked. My neighbors told me I ruined my car, and that it looked like total shit. That was cool :roll:
I went and showed off and the meets...everyone thought my car was slow :mrgreen:
Got some new long tube headers and ORY 2 weeks ago, none of you clowns would help me put them on :evil: so I was forced to sell and then get some in the near future when I had some people to help me put them on
While the car was acting up I barely went WOT and never ran it too hard, didn't feel right. The leak got worse and I eventually got that PCV valve fixed last week and it made a REAL difference. MUCH stronger, real smooth too.
It's getting dyno'd within the month (with stock exhaust manifolds :cry:) and i'll get it all on video so I can show all the haters who called BS, or allow for each of you to kick me in the nuts for buying a near stock car...heh
The car is currently back in the shop getting 4.10 gears put in (it had 2.73s off a 98 - another story)
Anyway, here's what I got of it. Took these from my girl's camera phone...the final few are from a much better camera (before painted lights and wheels). I'll get many many many more after I get the door matched better and the hood tightened on. No engine bay shots cause I still have yet to clean it down with some simple green. It will look like a brand new car in my next post...I promise
Enjoy...
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/cam3.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/cam2.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/cam4.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/reargarageZ272.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/skunkwrx.JPG
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/garagedzfront272.JPG
And that's all. I will update asap, but no word on mods yet. Still up in the air whether or not I want to dump ALL my money in this or save till next fall/winter for a C5 when their prices drop because of the C6. Maybe a Supra? Or a bike? :shock:
We shall see. http://www.ls2.com/forums/images/smilies/3gears.gif