Howdy all! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Gringo Grande! A little about me that has absolutely no relevance to the build thread at hand but hey, why not make this a story?

---TL, DR Part---
I was a college athlete and am a fairly entrepreneurial individual. During my formative years (early to late 20's), in between starting various businesses, I enjoyed valid employment as everything from a Nanny to a Bouncer at a Strip Club to a Free Lance Writer to an Options Trader. I transitioned from owning a small web development company to starting another tech company with several partners that went from zero to ten million in sales within two years and then promptly crashed and burned. I currently am a full time real estate investor.

I love making deals and can be often found buying and selling just about anything that makes sense and pretty much every hobby I've ever started ended up becoming a business. My theory is if you enjoy or love something, why not make money doing it?

I've been told I have a fairly strong personality at times. I'm old enough now to understand that people can misconstrue my passionate dislike for one action they take with dislike them as a person. There are truly very few people I dislike and I find most people who think I dislike them have taken one incident where I have vociferously disagreed with an action taken by them as a dislike of them as a whole.
---End TL, DR---

So...I've had my FD for a little over a year now. I originally picked her up from David Jerome and got a great deal on her. I've slowly spent the last year reading and learning. Thank you to all of those who came before me! One of the best parts of the Club has been seeing all of the build threads and the tips, tricks and ideas I have picked up from them.

People whom I have followed via their builds: Theorie, Gordon Monsen, David Hayes (Have to separate him and Theorie even in text ), Lane and his LSx build, MannyKiller, Alex Rodriguez and Ruler Mark (I actually live that thread with him at times). There are more, but those are a few who pop into mind. I'll throw in Dale Clark, Arghx and Howard Coleman just for all I have learned from their posts.

I had originally planned to take the FD off the road for about a month in December 2011 to redo the suspension. Unfortunately, a small off-road excursion has led to a bit more than that. On top of the suspension, I now am adding some body work, pulling the engine and some other goodies.

A list of what I hope to accomplish by the first week of January:

On and around the Engine:
Pull Engine
Have Injectors Cleaned
Install Oil Pan Brace
Reseal Block Off Plates
IRP Motor Mounts
New Turbos
Defined V-Mount
Re-install Engine

Suspension:
All new Bushings: Powerflex + Atomic Rex
Improved Racing endlinks, trailing arms, toe links

Body:
Remove and replace damaged metal
Add new Hood and Fenders (Shine)
Slap on sideskirts
Front Bumper
Misc. Cleanup.
New Headlights

Pending Time (Damn Holidays):
Updated fuel system lines, fittings, etc.
Update Oil Cooler lines, fittings, etc.
Maybe other fun items?

So...here she is post accident, here we go!

 

done by DGRR?

 

That will buff out....... lol. GLWB bro.

 

That's a hefty amount of work Gringo...especially for someone who doesn't seem to have much time for most of it lol....hopefully you get some downtime over the holidays to wrench away. Looking forward to seeing the end product.

 

@Eddie - Entire Holidays with except of 5 days of Christmas with GF and family are dedicated to car. We shall see! Maybe I'll just buy a backup FD as well so I can pretend to be Mark with his 5 or whatever.

@Jon - Definitely will be at DGRR.

 

So no pictures but tonight removed everything with the exception of items under the car in anticipation of the engine pull on Thursday evening. Lucked out and met a welder in the shop across from my buddies shop. He showed me some work and it is going to be a lot easier to fix things where the car is as opposed to towing it another few miles down the road.

My Banzai Oil Pan Brace + Block Off Plates should be here tomorrow. Orders have been made for all suspension pieces + bushings from Improved Racing and Atomic Rex.

Thinking about adding dual oil coolers along with everything else now. Have a bumper coming in on Thursday also. Ugly but effective until I figure out what I will eventually get.

 

Get the dual coolers or just a single big one.

 

I have a set of sakebomb oil coolers coming if you need some

 

Glad to hear progress is being made, tall honkey

See you at NVNC...... not like you can hide, you tower over the rest of us 'regular' humans

 

@Jon - PM Price.
@Rich - Just posted in your thread. Ready to order the Motor Mounts and had a question.

 

Looks like you've got a lot on your plate for the next couple of months. Good luck with everything and keep us updated.

Tom

 

@Theorie - Not to give you a big chub or anything but before I bought my FD your thread and Car Domain page were where I always looked at for ideas. I was going to build my own IC like yours but then lucked into one. Always appreciated the detail you spent on your process.

 

Pictures coming soon...parts ordered in the last 24hrs: Bought RE HID Ducted Headlight Kit from RX7 Boutique, bought motor mounts from IRP, bought suspension pieces from IRP and I'm waiting on price total from Atomic Rex before ordering my bushings.

 

lol...its like a spiraling financial disaster...finally dropping your coin in!

 

:d

 

It took you guys like 18 months to finally get me to get off the wallet and I finally did. Screw all of you! Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew you!

I look at what I just bought and I'm like, "F*** I could have bought another house with that money."

 

CArdboard behind wal mart DOES NOT count man.

 

I thought it was behind your shop Mark..

 

Hey if people will rent it...that is all that matters. Savvy investors don't buy a house with a bank loan. All about 3-5g down and renting those suckers.

 

Congrats on the build thread, take lots of pics.

 

So parts starting to show up. Banzai Oil Pan Brace + Block-off Plates + Nice Christmas Card from Banzai. Also an Oil Pedestal adapter. Can't wait for more parts to show up in the next few days!

 

yuym yum

 

subscribed

Congrats Gringo,

For building and bringing the FD back to life. Oil pan brace yum cant wait till i get mines.

 

So picked up my shell and transported it to my other FD for the transplant. Pics of the adventure.

The final picture is my new track prepped FD. Weighs in at about 940lbls. I think I'm ready to take on Rich or Fritz or Brent Dalton. Might be one or two items missing though.

 

Good luck with the build.