So as some of you might have seen, Sterling has talked me into taking back my original S12. The so-called "Christmas Car", because of it's green over red paint.
A bit about the history of this car...
In '02, Club-S12 was created and went online, but for Arro, there was no S12 It took almost a year before a car was located. In December 2002 (fitting, eh?), and $300 later, a 1985 200SX Turbo was nabbed, with half the engine in the trunk, a funky 1G Integra seat sloppilly mounted inside, and some mismatched wheels. It was also painted forest green, but the doorjambs, engine bay, and hatch were left glaringly red. Total eyesore when you opened a door or the hood.
Over the course of 2003, I put together the engine, obtained a rebuilt turbo from Ebay, and basically got the car running again. Some minor electrical issues were resolved at an auto electric shop, and a 2.5" turbo-back exhaust w/ Magnaflow race-series muffler were added to the mix, as well as a set of new 16x7" wheels.
And so it sat at Sterling's aunt & uncle's place. And I got disenchanted with S12 from the bad luck. I got away from cars entirely for a couple years, and then picked up the 2G Neon. That car brought my auto enthusiasm back, and I dumped a small sum of cash (hah understatement) to get it up to shape, and then looking good and handling well.
Sterling had been planning to move out to California ever since he'd seen it. He'd been out here a few times at this point... met some of my friends, including Greg.
Then last year, he sent me an email telling me I should check out this guy "Asparagus" and all the cool shit he'd been doing to his S12... Sterling also said that a lot of the people on the forum had been doing more with the cars. So I got curious. And I came back. And I liked what I saw, despite the typical but occasional drama. That was back in January.
It was around that time that Sterling suggested I take back the car. He'd mentioned it half-joking over the past year, but this time I was receptive to the idea.
And so him and I decided it should be a swap. The choice was easy: KA24DE, for all the reasons that have ever been said before.
I sourced an engine from sr20store.com, which some of you oldtimers might remember as the shop that produced that cool as hell burgundy Mark 1 S12 w/ the SR swap (Cesar's car). I sourced the transmission from a craigslist ad. After waiting almost 2 months for the engine to finally be ready to pick up, the swap was green lighted.
But before I got the engine... the windshield had been destroyed while the car was at Premo's, so Sterling used some plexiglass and a tarp for the time being. The old engine was tossed out, and the bay was cleaned up:
The car was basically gutted in the bay, but the rest was left alone. You cans see the Magnaflow dual-wall 4" tip is still shiny like the day I bought it:
In case anyone is wondering, this is the tire size I have on the wheels:
Time to go to sleep for the night...
Zzzzzzz.....