Sleeper MX83 build

[BoristheCat 0]

Yep. I get too attached to cars. Don't like beating them up after all the time I took to build them, hence "sleeper mx83 build". 

It's not gonna be much of a sleeper with the lowering done to it and the giant six pistons though. It should fool most people... it's an old four door and it looks like a Camry, it must be slow, right? 

[ChriSOL 0]

needs “my lab is smarter than your honor student” sticker and kleenex box on speaker shelf in rear window

[Gordo 0]

5 hours ago, ChriSOL said:

needs “my cat is smarter than your honor student” sticker and Golfer bobble head on speaker shelf in rear window

There, fixed....

See, I have an advantage over suckering mustangs into a race, I have gray hair.
(and I also have a Camry badge for the trunk)

[BoristheCat 0]

35 minutes ago, Gordo said:

 

See, I have an advantage over suckering mustangs into a race, I have gray hair.
(and I also have a Camry badge for the trunk)

Biggest factor right there

[BoristheCat 0]

Also came across this about a month ago on ebay.

 

 

The seller originally wanted $500 for it, $650 with shipping.  I called and offered $450 shipped, but he denied.

Checked again a few days ago, and it dropped all the way down to $150. Bought it for $300 shipped.

It doesn't come with the JDM metal bumper support. I know it will fit with some hacking.  On the SerialNine website, they say that their JZX rear bumpers will fit with "heavily modifying the rear USDM bumper".

Time to get out the cutting wheel again.

[Gordo 0]

A lot of cutting & welding.......

I said fuck that shit, and just grabbed one out of Japan.

[BoristheCat 0]

I would have... the whole bumper itself is 100 bucks. 

Shipping is a minimum of 1600 I think? It was astronomical. Most proxy services don't want to deal with it. 

[Gordo 0]

Not through RHD Japan's auction service, BidJDM.

[LUMBERZACK 0]

Nice score on the bumper! $300 is cheeeeap. Just build a rear "bash bar" that fits the contours to support the bumper. That's the main reason a lot of us build custom bash bars. To support the bumper, not necessarily to bash into things lol. Calling them bash bars just sounds more edgy.

 

On the topic of bashing and drifting, FWIW, in the 40k miles I have driven my swapped Cressida, more damage to my car has happened while daily driving than drifting.

I think a lady in a Kia Optima pulling out in front of you last second is almost just as prevalent as having a concrete barrier at a drift event claim your ride.

 

Either way I understand your concern and commend your decision to keep your car in good condition. Excited to see what you do.
 

[BoristheCat 0]

Thanks Zach, yeah it is.

That was my thinking.  I would build a new bumper support to mount the thing. Bumper came in yesterday, but I haven't checked to see how bad the mounting is going to be with the stock bumper yet.

I'm terrified of the bad drivers up here, there's a lot of them.

I'm probably going to only drive this thing in very light traffic and/or on the weekends anyway. I might not even park it at the store or whatever.  I might just drive it around without stopping and getting out, who knows.

 

I also bought this thing for $900.  It has 330k on the 1UZ in it, but the interior and exterior are almost perfect, so I can't complain.  It even came with the user manual, Lexus first aid kit in the trunk, and the 12 CD changer still works. I'm going to make it my daily driver.

 

 

I'll be dumping a little time and money into this thing for a little while.  The cress will be on the back burner for a few weeks probably, but then I'll get back to it.

The 1UZ is kind of a pain in the ass, but I still like it. I've already torn the motor apart to refresh the goopy top end.

The motor is super healthy for the mileage it has, take a look at the spotless cams.  They look brand new.

 

[tuner4life 0]

UZs get a bunch of crap, and they aren't JZ fast, but they consistently hold up better than any other gas powered engine I have ever seen. Yours looks perfect inside! Nice find!

[BoristheCat 0]

Yep, that's why I'm not too upset about spending 2 hours getting those stupid exhaust manifold shields off, or the dumb starter location, etc.

The car is really quiet, the 12 CD changer and sound system works perfect and the motor is super smooth. It has just enough power to be interesting. I actually might keep the auto instead of manual swapping it, since it is a daily. 

Probably will give it a slight drop with some MKIV supra used struts and springs, and then of course some middle of the road enkeis or something. 

[Macintosh Classic 0]

$900 is really good for a jellybean. 

[BoristheCat 0]

Lots of developments lately. Some good some bad.  I made a pretty huge mistake, but I'm going to work with it.

I was cruising the YAJ auctions and came across the set of wheels I wanted.  They were the right offset, bolt pattern, and color. They even came with tires. Cool.

The wheel and tire combo I want is roughly $3500.  I found these for 158,000 yen, or roughly $1400 USD.

I went ahead and bought them, and the importer told me that I had to have the tires unmounted or he couldn't ship them.  That was my fault, since I failed to read the shipping do's and don'ts on his page.

He asked the seller to unmount the tires.  After shipping, the grand total came to around $2400, which is just $100 shy of brand new wheels in better widths that I could have bought here in the states.  One of the wheels has some decent curbing on the outer lip, but it's not the worst I've seen.

 

Probably a massive "no shit" to all you experienced people on here, but in case it wasn't obvious already, shipping from Japan is an arm and a leg.

I learned my lesson, and don't plan on ever buying wheels from Japan again unless they're some super rare ones that I can't find in the states.

 

Anyway, here's fitment and mockup pics. Stats are 18/9.5/+35 all the way around.  The CTSV calipers fit great, with plenty of room to spare.

 

 

Should be fine lol.  This is after spacing the wheel 7mm forward to account for rotor thickness.

 

Lots of poke in the front, but I'm anticipating the wider fenders that are in the mail will account for it. They're sitting a little funny in the front since I haven't hooked up the tension rods.

 

The rears fit almost spot on.  Only a little bit of poke. Hopefully a slight pull or only a minor amount of inner fender cutting and welding will get me there.

[Gordo 0]

'tis just a bump in the road....
The costs over purchase price seems steep, just a few months ago picked up some SSR 16x8s that final price was about $450 over purchase price.
Typical price to have tires removed has been less that $100.
Did you have them flown over, or a boat ride?

Nice wheels though.

[battleaxe 0]

boat vs plane is double or half, depends how you look at it lol. during high season you'll see the wheels in a month, low season, 3 months tops.

think of it this way, if you were canadian, that 158000 would have been 1917 at current rates, minus the banks take, vs your 1400. we lose SOO much...so when you see nice cars in canada, we paid for them...a lot. dont even get me started on the cdns and americans fucking up the car and used car part market.

 

also for 1500, you could have priced out NEW advans in japan for that much, they're not terribly expensive.

who did you use to ship?

[BoristheCat 0]

I had them shipped via air through EMS. After the importer gave me my $620 shipping quote, I asked him if he could ship them on the slow boat for a cheaper price. 

He said he couldn't, because the packages exceeded the size or weight limit. I think that's bullshit though, since anything large and/or heavy is nearly always shipped freight by boat. 

Either way, what's done is done. 

Don't worry battleaxe, you've bitched in detail about the Canadian exchange rate in every thread I've seen you post in, including this one. We get it, you're unhappy about it

[battleaxe 0]

who ever shipped your shit is a liar, ive shipped countless wheels via boat, even shipped seats and tires. your shipper is the issue, not buying stuff from japan.

but also like, dont bitch about your exchange, you have the "world dollar"

[BoristheCat 0]

Yep, I got my seats from Thailand via EMS in a big ass box that probably could have fit eight wheels for $300 flat.

I'll go through a different shipper from now on. This one occurrence is enough to lose my business.

I've never bitched about the exchange.  Our exchange is great, I'm just mad that I got dicked on the shipping price.

[Gordo 0]

Care to name said shipper ?

[BoristheCat 0]

Hmmm... honestly I'm not sure if I should out him or not. Previous dealings with him have been good. Shipping smaller stuff like lights or grills has gone well. 

Most of this fuckup is related to me failing to read the shipping section on his site.

He doesn't have the resources to ship multiple large items in a container. I think he deals in very small quantities. He is a one man operation who ships everything in Japan, not just car parts.

[Gordo 0]

That's fine, let someone else get fucked over then.

[BoristheCat 0]

It's a pretty small operation, and anyone (obviously not me) with any idea of the shipping costs of large items will know better, so I think outing him is unwarranted. I don't think any other jzxp members have used him. 

I'll stick to buyee for any large items in the future

[LUMBERZACK 0]

those 6-piston calipers look sooo good! Glad your build is still progressing.

You can get a good 1"-1.5" of more front fender clearance on the factory metal fenders with a roll/pull. 
@AcidTrip was telling me it's almost better to just stick with factory fenders because the "+50mm" front fenders a lot of these companies sell hardly give much more clearance than what can be achieved on a factory fender. Then you have to deal with fiberglass which doesn't like any sort of rubbing/flexing

[Jason 0]

Man you apparently didn't learn your lesson. Stop jumping into puddles of dogshit face first.