⚙️ What This Group Is

A space to document your build journey from rust to reveal, from your first wrench turn to your first fire-up.

A place for motivation, progress, and problem-solving. We’re here to build each other up, not tear each other down.

A community garage share advice, tips, and feedback that help others level up their craft.

A zone for transparency and learning. Show the messy middle, not just the highlight reel.

A way to track your evolution post your updates, reflect on your work, and keep your passion alive.

So having moved from California to Virginia, I have kept my California registration for about 3 years. (Husband is Active Duty) but this year it is time. Registered for state inspection and to celebrate, ordered my first internal mod. 😤 The smell of new Perelli rubber and PRL Street MAF. Will be getting the tires installed on 7/30 and I’ll be installing the Intake this weekend. 🥳

What was everyone’s first mod on their car?

Went ahead and put my old works bell and Slammedenuff wheel/hub setup in the Subi. Both were limited editions that were gifted to me by Charlan from Slammedenuff and Works Bell Japan when I had my Evo build, so now they join me again 🤍

Finally achieved one of my dreams of having Recaros in one of my cars. My buddies at 425 Motorsports got me hooked up with a set and the brackets for the SC. Super comfy and saved a ton of weight from the stock Lexus seats, maybe Ill turn the stock ones into chairs for the shop 😂

Just finished the dyno runs, we made 371HP and 342TQ on 20lbs of boost.

Boy was he pissed as shit when we pulled in and now he’s back to screaming like a demon from hell! On to the next portion of the build 🙌🏽

My tune is set for 10AM Monday with my boys at Moore Automotive. Just got a very reasonable quote on paint for my car including my widebody, so setting that up for next month, and now gotta order tires so I can fit my fat boy wheels on! Guys I’m getting hyper!!!

Decided to stick with my stock 37J Satin White Pearl color, it’s hard to come by and I’ve fallen in love it it.

And my wheels are 18x10 +10 step lipped. With my wide body, they will sit flush to the fenders! 🙌🏽🙌🏽

After 2 years of saving up and acquiring parts I finally got the last of what I needed to get to the next phase of my build. Boost Lab 54x and Overtake Big Tubo Inlet have arrived! So today after work I stopped in at my local Harbor Freight to pick up a small media blaster and some walnut shell media so I can clean the valves and do all the upgrades. Wicked Big Meet is this weekend and my daughters second birthday the following so I won’t be able to get anything done until for a least another couple weeks, but at least I’m closer to my goal!

Don’t mind the awkward idle looping, as he really needs a retune. But the base map is working nicely so I can make sure everything goes well for dyno day. Even charged my A/C at work today, even though it’ll be ripped out the car after boxerfest 🤣🤣. I feel whole again now that he’s back with me running.

Slowly making progress with the truck. All the fab work is almost done I think before I can lay some paint down. Then onto the wiring that I've been putting off lol

I’ll post a video soon, but my car finally started back up, but I realized I literally had NO gas in the tank 🤣🤣 and that I have a small but consistent leak on my dampers on the fuel rails. So gotta pull the rails off just to fix that 🙃

But god damn I squealed like a little school girl the moment I turned him over and he roared through the shop

Don’t mind me lookin awful, my boyfriend just wanted a quick shot of me doing my AN fittings on my new lines. And I appreciate him for rebuilding my fuel pump for me so I can focus on the bay.

Tuner sent my base map to me last night, I was hoping to have the car started but I ran into an issue with my FPR set up and need an extra fitting to finish my lines. But I’m so close I can literally smell it…. Or is that just me high off the gasoline fumes? Lol

I will say, I’m extremely lucky to work for a dealership who values me enough to allow me space to work on my car for as long as I want. I was here working from 9am to 7pm and I stayed after til 1AM knocking this out. Now I’m back here working again.…

Seems like there’s always something but this one made me laugh a little. I switched to a metal under tray a while back which did not require the use of the rearmost mounting point. I was getting a wild vibration sound which I thought was a heatshield… and I did actually have one on the up pipe that had broken loose. After spot welding it back on I was still getting the same metal on metal vibration sound. Well, at least it’s fixed so I guess that puts me back at “Modify” in the cycle!

Not gotta get one more TEE fitting for the fuel lines and then everything else can be bolted in and cars ready to start

Don’t mind my rusty ass housing. I’m running this turbo into the ground til I get a 6466

More weight loss, more carbon! It doesn't fit perfectly though, the passenger side sits a bit high. I think the mold this company used is either slightly off or they released it from the mold too early. Worst case, I get ahold of Seibon or VIS racing and order a new hood from them down the line. The weight difference is significant though, can feel the front end is lightened up as the stock hood is like 60lbs and this one might be 10-12lbs

Finally maxed out my injectors, might go larger, but just an update on the e85 bigger boosted fc rx7. I'll go up 2 more psi, probably, but thats about all they've got! Current are 1300cc primary, 1700cc secondary

Power steering rack on my SC was going out so I finally got around to replacing it and throwing in some poly bushings. Buuuuut while I was at it I rerouted the lines to the factory hydro fan cooler since it's been deleted in favor of e-fans. And for better access to all that I took the bumper off which then lead to the thought "hey why don't I mock up the new bumper so I can get the mounting holes drilled before I paint?"

Which then lead to "well the bumper's off, why don't I mock the new fenders up?"

Luckily I ran out of time before getting that far but the new bumper is gonna be real nice once it's painted!

Finally got fuel injectors and rails in after gasket refreshing the motor and now motor can go back in on Monday!

Went with ID1050x injectors, with some beautiful IAG rails, deleted my fuel lines for some braided ones that I’ll cut and place when motor is in. Also resealed/wrapped my engine harness and deleted some connectors that weren’t needed (2nd air pump BS). Cleaned up my intake manifold so it’s all shiny now.

Next is motor being put back in

Clutch replacement

Fuel line upgrade

New FMIC piping

I just uploaded another video guys check it out when you get some time.

Just uploaded another video to YouTube. This time painting areo parts!

Finished up the exhaust last night, 2.5" dual all the way back to a magnaflow X muffler. Can't wait to hear how rowdy this is once I get the truck running again.

Finally got my FMIC for my subie. Wasn’t a fan of the black pipes and gray intercooler. So I went chrome. Now I just need a day to install it

Just recently ordered the Berk Tech Resonated Test Pipes for my Z. I have heard what they sound like on other 370s so I'm hoping that one they fix my Check Engine Soon Light (passenger side cat is busted internally) and two they pair nicely with my Stillen catback exhaust setup, won't know until mid May.

Got the new wheels home and popped one of the center caps out to take a closer look. I THOUGHT they were generic black plastic caps or had the original TRD badging torn off. Nope! Under a thick layer of black spray paint, the original gold foil TRD logos are still there and in good shape. I just need to sand the paint off, smooth them out, and polish them. I'm pumped not to have to go on another wild goose chase to find factory center caps!

Just uploaded another video if your bored check it out! Nothing too exciting just another quick cosmetic mod.

These may not look like much, and they definitely need refinished. But like the title says, I've been looking for a set of these wheels for a year now.

These are a TRD option wheel that was briefly offered for the Scion xD, tC, Toyota Matrix, and Corolla Sedan and, as far as I can tell, they were discontinued in 2011. Digging around the internet for information turned up a few ancient forum posts with broken photo links and one article from 2008 stating in no uncertain terms how silly it would be to buy the $2000 "upgrade" TRD wheel option for that year's Corolla. And that seems to have been the general consensus at the time. Good wheels, but why would anyone buy them for the cars they were offered on? As a result it seems like demand was low and very few of them actually made it into…

Nothing crazy just another little video adding a couple more personal touches to my WRX.

Another little video for whoever is interested. Just a couple little things, adding those little personal touches to my WRX.

Hey guys just wanted to follow up and share a pt 2 video of installing the shifter plate and brass bushing from the billetworkz short shifter kit on my WRX!

Had a little time off this week and took the opportunity to do a couple more little upgrades on my WRX. I installed a billetworkz short shifter, shifter plate, and brass shifter bushing. Also replaced my oem Shifter boot and shift knob with a really nice Bride boot and HKS weighted carbon fiber shift knob as well as adding a Blitz rear strut tower bar. I do have one for the front also but holding off as other upcoming projects will require me to remove it and don’t want to bother putting in on just to have to remove it and reinstall it. Here’s a video of the short shifter install for anyone willing to watch. Still editing videos for the other stuff will share them when they get uploaded.

Enjoy this snow day photo 🤣

So after pulling my motor months ago and watching my fuel injector just fall apart completely, and waiting on the IRS to give me my tax refunds, WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS NOW!!!

Finally going to tear the heads off and reseal the motor completely. Checking my pistons before I seal him back up for the new fuel system. Hopefully by Friday I’ll have all the rest of my parts ordered. The goal is he’s back on the road by the end of the month. Then gonna start repairing my widebody (I hate fiberglass), mount it and wrap him for the time being. I’ve also been redoing my engine harness at home, so that it’s a lot cleaner looking

Goal power is roughly 420-450. My Tuner is super confident I’ll make that safely on stock internals. Then start saving for the IAG 750 Long Block…

Really starting to get traction (😏) with parts I've been wanting!

Well after a long time of just accumulating parts and waiting I finally installed a couple things! First I tinted the top strip of my windshield and put on a windshield banner with the logo cut out so u can see the glossy black tint through the banner and put on my midnight pretenders banner on my rear windshield. I swapped out my oem intercooler and charge pipe for a Subispeed tmic and Grimmspeed charge pipe. While I had the intercooler out I also replaced my tired oem pitch stop mount with a new jdm sti one, put in a new pcv valve, and installed radium engineering dual catch cans. Also added the plastic ducting I was missing that attaches to the hood to direct the air through the intercooler. Drilling into my carbon fiber hood gave me a little anxiety but it went smooth and came out how I…