thefro526

So, I don't have an E46 anymore so I needed a new daily. I went back and forth between older cars and newer cars and I finally settled on an S14 for the time being.

When I was looking for S14's, I decide that I wanted to put together a car on a reasonable budget, so I picked out $7,000 as my number - including the cost of the car. My number one priority was making something that was one color, tasteful and cool.

Here's how I bought it, base model S14, converted to 5-speed, 5-lug, sitting on stance coils with Z32 brakes.



First purchase was a set of LED kouki tails... not sure why I bought them but they're kind of cool.



Then I bought some skirts and rear valances off of a friend of a friend.



Found a Navan Bumper on eBay and scooped it up. Shipped from Japan, only took like a week to get here.



Another shot of the front, I think I took it to compare the headlights pre and post polish.



Bought some Rota Grids and mocked them up on the car. Super Sketch.



Car on the ground after mounting some 225/40/18 Falken 452's to the Grids.



Got the car out of the driveway for the first time... Only took 10 minutes.



POS S13 and the S14.



Bought a clean black hood off of a friend at some point, also tinted the corners amber.



Then I took the car apart for paint.



Creeped by the paint shop one day, saw my car sitting out front.



Got the car home and dyed the front and rear seats black. (not sure why picture is upside down, long hair, don't care.)



Put the interior back together.



Put the car back together and attempted to align it to be somewhat straight. At this point I cleaned up some of the inner fender stuff and leveled out the car. Also installed RUCA's and replaced a worn tie rod end.





Second day on the road, stopped by the mall to buy some pants and sweaters.



Rico at 215 Motoring hooked me up with some tint. 35% all around, awesome job.



Then I washed it and drove it to the FDR meet. (images are hosted on FB, might not be visible to some)







The last two were taken by a guy named Mike Young at a meet. Pictures came out awesome.

Car still needs some work, little maintenance stuff, an alignment, some spacers, etc, but for right now I'm having a blast driving it.

All in all, I think I'm somewhere in the $7500-$8000 total in the car. If I didn't buy things like floor mats, tail lights, suspension arms, etc, I'd have met my budget goal of $7,000 no problem.

I'd like to think that this is proof that some of you guys out there working entry level jobs and already own S-Chassis can make your car into something reasonably cool with $3000-$4000 into the car... Which really isn't much at all.

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Deto International