It was an ordinary California Monday morning August 6th, 2018. The sun was red from the state in it’s most natural form, engulfed in flames. I get up at 6:30 am (okay, 6:52am) to get rea(FINE 7:01am, are you happy?)dy for the following work week. Roughly an hour later I arrive at work and per usual, I check my emails – LinkedIn Connections, Udemy updates, Quora Digest, Wolfreign Motors, Palmetto State Armory, Payp- wait what the fuck? wOLFREIGN?! WHAT. WHAT?! After nearly half of a whole calendar year, dating back to February 23rd, when my entire life led up to me placing an order of $1500 for beautifully manipulated and shaped fiberglass meticulously crafted by a fine group of Japanese gods amongst men who’ve blessed the universe with Uras, I receive an email that injects a breath of fresh air into my lifeless collection of bones:
THANK YOU @WOLFREIGNMOTORS, I CAN’T WAAIT a second hold on. MY CAR ISN’T EVEN READY. Queue the mini montage!
So Ian(@longboi.wav) found out that his T3 Front Lower Control Arms (FLCAs) on his S13 were actually for an S14 which is incredibly unsafe as the balljoints on either chassis are completely different. Since my car was already on jack stands we agreed to swap FLCAs if I paid for the necessary balljoints to press into my OEM pair. $70 for extended LCAs? Sign me up!
I then took a short trip down to LA with the wife (@the.rizzamejia) and picked up some BN +30mm front fenders. I am a bit sad how BN isn’t as popular as it was a few years back but I guess change is vital. Still, BN is flames. Funny story with this is I had my eye on these fenders a month ago but I was already making the journey to pick up a hood for Sal (@sg14k) and some fenders for myself, in great shape, for $800. Now this isn’t the best deal but it isn’t a bad deal at all. Anyway, I message this guy, everything is cool, all set with the truck and I make the 12 hour total drive day trip. Literally almost the minute I get into LA, this guy messages me and says I was outbid. Wonderful. I didn’t want to shell out the extra $100 so I politely informed him and decided to collect my losses and go home. If in the unlikely chance you keep up with this blog, I wish you the best in this ever changing world. Nonetheless, the omniscient forces of this universe took pity on me and I was able to grab these cool vented fenders for $360 off of @drews14 a month later. Moral of the story: L’s are inevitable when it comes to any and every aspect of cars. Get used to them, embrace them, nourish them, maybe sometimes you get them for a reason!
I have a really bad habit of spending my down time on Craigslist and Zilvia. I came across a pretty cool Zeta 1 for relatively cheap, $460, off of @originaldonjosh and jumped right on it. I “needed” a passenger seat anyway! As much as I’d like to, I can’t keep secrets for very long when it comes to new parts so I let a bunch of my friends know. Justin (@justinzenki) really liked it so he asked if I wanted to trade for his Zeta 3, I agreed without much hesitation. Since Rizza(@the.rizzamejia) is going to be spending the most time as my copilot I wanted to have the nicest possible passenger seat (within my budget of course, whatever that is).
Longer lower control arms requires longer inner tie rods. I was looking at some more expensive options such as PBM until Pedro (@lowborghini) recommended OEM tie rods off an 03-08 Altima/Maxima which were only $50 with outer tie rods compared to $100 for just aftermarket inners. I bought some aftermarket dust boots off of Amazon ($30) and slapped everything on. The combination of LCAs and extended inner tie rods extended my track width substantially, you’ll see! Total Cost: $16,366 + $70 + $360 + $460 + $80 = $17,336. My mom would obliterate me if she knew exactly how much I’ve spent!
1997 Nissan 240sx 