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blkaltezza's build

114K views 349 replies 66 participants last post by  TobiasSing 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey guys, I’ve been lurking on here for years now but never really posted anything since I was able to find most of the things I needed with the good old search button. However I think it’s about time I made a “build” tread on here.

My first car was a 89 Saleen Mustang (#95 out of 895) with a 351 windsor swap that me and my dad built together from the ground up. My dad brought the car stock and its been in the family since 91. He gave it to me because he got tired of dealing with it and since I helped him build it I knew all the modifications that were on it. A few months later he picked up a brand new 09 Shelby GT500 from the dealership.






In 2010 the catalytic converters clogged up on the Saleen so it had a lot of blowby and was burning way too much oil for me to drive everyday. Instead of overhauling the engine my dad decided it was better for me to get a new car that saves more gas since I’m a college student and I commute about 50 miles everyday.

In June 2011 I picked up a 2006 Acura RSX Type-S from a used car dealership. It wasn’t in the best condition, but the engine ran strong and the interior was in pretty good condition for 97k miles. However shortly after I got the car “drive worthy” I got into an accident. Long story short, I flipped the car 5 times, driver at fault took off, I only had liability insurance so I had to take a loss. You can read the whole story on my build thread on clubrsx if you’re interested.

Foxbody to DC5 to SXE10? - Club RSX Message Board




The rsx was my first fwd car, and I viewed the accident as a sign that I should stick to rwd cars. My parents used to have an absolutely red IS300 e-shift that they brought brand new in 2002, but my dad traded it in for a crystal white GS430 in 03. I was only 10 years old when we owned the IS300, but I remembered how nice of a car it was and my parents regretted trading it in so I decided to get another one.

After about 9 months of not having a car and asking rides from friends I finally picked up a 2004 black onyx IS300, 5 speed manual, fully loaded except for gps, full black leather interior, and most importantly only 68k miles.







Previous owner was a older guy in his late 30s and he was the 2nd owner since 2005. The car was always garage kept, and he parked under a carport at work. It was completely stock except for the discount tire wheels. Sadly he didn’t have the stock wheels, he said the factory chrome wheels started peeling and he sold them.

Interior was pretty dirty, but from the pictures he sent me it was mint underneath all the filth.




Other than the dust, LOOK! no melted dash :)



The day after I brought it, I spent the entire day cleaning, and detailing the entire car myself.





Around October 2012 I finally sold the K20Z1 engine swap from my rsx so I had a little extra money to spend on the IS300.



I don’t have any pictures, but my first mod was a Figs Hood Prop. Shortly after, I order a set of Stance GR+ coilovers from Nick at THMotorsports. After that I placed an order for Altezza window visors, and a Altezza shorty antenna from Nigel at Nigel-JDMParts.




In November 2012 I was going to class at the University of Houston and when I parked I saw this. Must have been a huge ass rock flung up by a 18 wheeler, darn you Houston construction :frustrate



I decided to put on my replica greddy front lip to cover up the damage for now. Here are a couple of pics from the 2012 ClubRSX Texas All State meet.




Finally found a buyer for my old wheels so I got my front lip painted and put on my new wheels. Sorry for the crappy iPhone pictures.




Also sometime before getting my lip painted I polished my stock exhaust. It took me 3 hours using steel wool, sandpaper, and a whole lot of elbow grease. Finished it off with mother’s aluminum and mag polish.




A photoshop I made for kicks and giggles :rolleyes:



In 2013 I turned 21, but I’m not much of a drinker so I spent my birthday lowering my car some more.

Before, look at that wheel gap :suspiciou



After, much better ;)



During summer 2013 I went to a Fast and Furious Drive in meet to watch Fast & Furious 6 (RIP Paul Walker)




A couple of professional shots thanks to the guys at Automodia







I was satisfied with my car at this point, and decided to apply for Wekfest Texas 2013 just for kicks. They actually accepted my car, I was surprised.
Since I was showing, I took my car to Excessive Detailing here in Houston to get a light polish to get it ready for the show.



A few shots I found from some professional photographers that attended the show







A couple of videos my car made it in

My car shows up at 1:30



A shot of my interior at 1:56 and a outside shot at 4:07



Couple of random shots I took with my sister's 08 Starfire Pearl IS250 in the background





How my car currently sits



Quicklinks
JL Audio 12W7AE Infinite Baffle
Vinylwerkz Meet
Local car meet (Ricebox)
Photoshoot by Daniel A.
SRT kit arrival
Dashboard repair
Complete turbo kit
Wrapping dashboard
Wekfest Texas 2014 acceptance
Wrapping dashboard continued
Dashboard finished
Local car meet (Coffee & Rice)
Tokensolutions engine management arrival
Wekfest Texas 2014
Heat wrapping turbo parts
Turbo installation
Anime Matsuri's "Ricebowl" car show
Air assist delete/curb rash repair
More pictures from "Ricebowl"
Turbo Timer/Datalogging
Painting extra dashboard
Reinstalled 2nd dash/Gas cap replacement
VIS Racing "Vertex" kit arrival and prep
Painting the body kit
Front bumper and side skirts installed
Houston Cars & Coffee
Rear lip arrival, prep, paint and install
Rear bumper damage and repair
Stancenation Texas 2015 roll in
Stancenation Texas 2015 1st place best Lexus IS
Skid plate for Vertex front bumper
Sold the Vertex kit
Pictures from Stancenation Texas 2015
IS300 meet hosted by Badman Forever
Wekfest Texas 2015 Premeet
Modellista Qualitat side skirts and test fit
My 2nd TRD replica rear lip and test fit
THMotorsports Stage II Competition Clutch package
Hot Import Nights Houston 2015 and Clutch installation
Clutch break in, problems, solutions and review
Laile Beatrush underpanel, remounted the rear lip and LED taillights
Added Sti V-Lip, new wheels and new driver's side fender
Stancenation Texas 2016
Installed Greddy Revolution RS catback
More pictures from Stancenation Texas 2016


Currently my car is boosted with Swift Racing Technologies' turbo kit and its managed by a Greddy E-Manage Ultimate. Self installed and self tuned, I'm not sure of the numbers since I street tuned it but it should be putting down anywhere from 250rwhp-300rwhp. It's not the fastest thing in the world, but with this amount of power it makes the car very fun to drive. Future plan is to drop in a Aristo GTE, do a AR5 transmission swap and turn up the boost to get around 450rwhp.

Anyways I hope I didn’t bore you guys, it’s still a work in progress but hopefully it kept you guys entertained :p
 
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#2 ·
looking good, man.

ONLY a heads up, be patient for your kit if you go through SRT. it'll be frustrating...
if you plan on selling some of that stuff off, you might be better off putting your own kit together... just my thought tho

other than that, keep us posted :approve:
 
#4 ·
I went with SRT as well, and you're right, it was worth it haha. the only thing I wish it came with was a flex coupler in the down pipe. not sure if being solid mounted contributed but my turbo was loose when I took it off :jawDrop:

good luck, man. I'm tuned in
 
#6 · (Edited)
So last weekend I decided to ditch my 2 10 inch subwoofers for a JL Audio 12W7AE. I know it's not recommended for a infinite baffle setup, but in my opinion it sounds pretty darn good. It blends in with the stock system so well, I think it sounds even better than the mark levinson system in my mom's GS430 :p

I built the baffle myself with 3/4 inch MDF board and got some carpet from a local audio shop to make it look factory. Please excuse the messy wiring though, I didn't have enough wire to tuck it behind the panels, so the wires connecting to my LLC is just dangling there :erm:




 
#9 ·
True that, the infinite baffle sounds so much cleaner than the 2 10s I had in a sealed box :approve:

Those SBC RPF1's look beautiful!! What are the specs on those, 18x9 all around or are they staggered with 9.5 in the back?
They're 18x9 +35 all around with 225/40/18s. I got the same size all around so I could rotate the wheels to get the maximum life out of my tires. I'm planning to switch to 245/35/18s when I finally boost it though :p
 
#11 ·
Thanks! glad it kept you entertained :bigSmile:

As for the detail, I could give it a shot but I can't guarantee anything. I was lucky that the previous owner had the car garage kept, so I was able to get alot of imperfections out with my porter cable. All I did for my detail was wash, claybar, rewash, polish, apply paint sealent, and apply wax. If your paint needs alot of correction I would recommend taking it to Koshi at SSP/XSXV he does amazing work :p
 
#12 ·
Not much of a update but I'm about to order the SRT Turbo kit in a couple of weeks. Mo is having a group buy for a "budget" turbo kit and its almost $2000 off the original price of the Stage 3 kit. So if you've always wanted a SRT kit now is the time to get it.

As for the kit itself it's pretty similar to the Stage 3 kit except it doesn't include the 2.5mm head gasket, ARP headstuds, walbro fuel pump, boost gauge, and wideband. Also the turbo is replaced with a Precision MFS 6152 and the injectors are 550cc.

As you guys recall I said the 1000cc injectors were too big for my plans, and I didn't care for the Haltech Sprint 500. Mo was able to work with me and not include the Haltech, and I asked him if I could upgrade to the Precision CEA 6262 for a extra cost and he said of course. So basically this is all that I'm getting with the kit.

2JZ-GE Tubular T304 Stainless Steel Exhaust Manifold
SRT Spec'd Precision Billet CEA6262SP T4 Turbo
Large 50mm Wastegate - No boost creep at all
Tial Q-Bov 50mm
Stainless Steel braided oil supply line with SRT exclusive oil supply tee
High Temp oil drain line
Oill drain line heat shield
4" High flow AFE lifetime cone filter
SRT 550cc Injectors High Impedance injectors
(Upgrade to 1,000cc for only $150.00 Group buy special)
SRT Plug and Play harness for injectors makes installing injectors a snap
All Mandrel bent FULL POLISHED aluminum intercooler piping w/bead rolled ends
(Polished is standard equipment for a fantastic show car quality)
Huge 22.5"x12"x3" Front Mount Intercooler rated at 650+HP
8-9PSI Maximum Boost Pump Gas
(installation of optional value added items: Head Gasket and head studs required above 9PSI)
High Temp 4-layered silicone couplers and connectors
(4 layers for added reliability and durability)
Stainless Steel High Grade hose clamps
NGK Performance Iridium Spark Plugs, 2 steps colder
(Iridium for longer life and better performance)
3" Mandrel bent T304 SS race downpipe
3" Mandrel bent T304 SS front midpipe
All necessary hardware for a complete install is supplied
(every single nut, bolt, zip ties etc. is supplied)
Complete Step-by-Step Installation Instructions with High Quality Color
Pictures provided.

In addition to the kit I plan to purchase these parts separately.

Tial 44mm Wastegate
Walbro 255 LPH Fuel Pump
Fuel return kit
AEM TruBoost gauge
AEM Wideband
Greddy E-Manage Ultimate
Tokensolutions E-Manage Plug and Play harness
Tokensolutions Plug and Play O2 Sensor Delete
Custom 3 inch exhaust with stock muffler tip

As for now I plan to run low boost, around 6psi max until it's time to do my timing belt. Once that time comes, I'll get a thicker headgasket, ARP head studs, and maybe port and polish my cylinder head. I'm not aiming for crazy horsepower, actually I'm trying to keep it under 320whp so the torque doesn't destroy my w55 transmission.

That's pretty much it for now, and so far Mo has been really helpful and has responded to all my emails in a timely manner. I hope that doesn't change once he gets my order finalized and I make payment :erm:
 
#16 ·
That's pretty much it for now, and so far Mo has been really helpful and has responded to all my emails in a timely manner. I hope that doesn't change once he gets my order finalized and I make payment :erm:
Mo is pretty good with group buys... you shouldn't have much trouble getting your stuff. Supposedly, he hired two more fabricators as well :)

Good call on the purchase :approve:
 
#20 ·
Pm'd you the link :)

Haven't been on CRSX is a long time. Your making me miss my DC5 even more (had an 03 Type S.)

Love the RPF1's!
I miss my dc5 too, but after the wreck everyone told me to move on to something else. Also at the time I couldn't find a stock 05-06 type-s that wasn't beat on, or insanely overpriced. I'm glad I got the is300 though, it'll never match the rsx in gas mileage or nimbleness but I enjoy the ride a lot more in the Lexus :bigSmile:
 
#21 ·
love the paint. so much gloss in the black .
but not seeing the vip maybe some vip wheels or other vip accessories.

but then again im no one to talk . my vip build pretty amateur but steady getting there
u got some fresh paint uses that to ur advantage add some chrome .
 
#22 ·
The IS isn't a VIP platform so it'll be hard to make it give off the VIP feel like how a LS or GS would. I just took a little VIP styling and added it a little here and there. All I have right now is Junction Produce curtains and neckpads just to get it started. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm building my car how I want it, not to impress anybody :p

Hopefully in a year or two I'll switch over to air suspension and get some new wheels that give off more of a VIP vibe. I was looking at the new Work Emotion D9R, those will probably give more of a VIP feel than the RPF1s I have now.

 
#23 · (Edited)
Finally placed my order for the SRT Turbo kit today. Mo made a customized order for me so this is what I'm getting so far.

2JZ-GE Tubular T304 Stainless Steel Exhaust Manifold
SRT Spec'd Precision Billet CEA6262SP T4 Turbo
Large 50mm Wastegate
Tial Q-Bov 50mm
Stainless Steel braided oil supply line with SRT exclusive oil supply tee
High Temp oil drain line
Oil drain line heat shield
4" High flow AFE lifetime cone filter
SRT 550cc Injectors High Impedance injectors
SRT Plug and Play injector harness
Walbro® 255lph High Pressure intank fuel pump
Fully polished mandrel bent aluminum intercooler piping w/bead rolled ends
22.5"x12"x3" Front Mount Intercooler
High Temp 4-layered silicone couplers and connectors
Stainless Steel High Grade hose clamps
NGK Performance Iridium Spark Plugs
3" Mandrel bent T304 SS race downpipe
3" Mandrel bent T304 SS front midpipe

Once I let my wallet recover a little, I'll be purchasing the following to complete the kit.

Tial 44mm Wastegate (to replace the no name SRT wastegate)
AEM Failsafe gauge (boost/wideband)
Greddy E-Manage Ultimate
Tokensolutions E-Manage Plug and Play harness
Tokensolutions Plug and Play O2 Sensor Delete
Custom 3 inch exhaust with high flow cat and stock muffler tip
PTP T3/T4 Turbo Blanket
PTP Exhaust wrap

I'm also planning to polish the intake manifold, throttle body, valve covers, and the cold side of the compressor once it's all finished. It'll basically look pretty similar to arizonaturbo's setup. I hope he doesn't mind if I steal his pictures :p







Once the install is finished I plan to keep it that way for a year or two. When it's time to do my timing belt I'll get the ARP head studs, and thicker headgasket. Later down the road I also plan on getting a aristo FFIM with a custom lower intake runner to mount it to the GE head. I'll also get the GTE valve covers, and coilpack cover to complete the deal.

That's pretty much it for now, hopefully it'll be up and running before StanceNation Texas which is coming up on June 29 :bigSmile:
 
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