Karma's Rice To Riches Build

[BadderKarma]

Hey guys, I'd like to start off my lovely build by stating I'm a noob. Now that that's out of the way we can get to the good stuff. I never thought I'd make a build thread, but now that my investment is somewhere near 20k I was like I think I should. I have no idea how this works so please excuse early errors.

I bought my first 8g right out of high school as a graduation present in June 2011 when I was 18. I loved it in every way:







It was a pleasure to ride, unfortunately I didn't enjoy it for more than 6 months because I fell asleep at a red light at 5 am and floored it into a parked car. (November 2011)







I hated myself for it because even though I put absolutely nothing into the car I had so many plans for it. I promised myself I would get another and finished what I didn't even get to start. Next year April I was 18 and really dumb and found this bitch right here. I thought to myself HEY it's hooked up already I can save money on parts... I couldn't have been more wrong, 2 years later we've seen mountains and we've seen canyons, to almost giving up on this car: here is my build....

[BadderKarma]

I bought this girl right here for about 4k from Queens Auto Auction. I thought she was bad ass and loaded with a body kit and an Ebay 80$ wing. I looked past quarter panel damage and the fact that it had a 3/1 wheel combo going on. She was low & aggressive and I loved it. I saw it as a diamond in the rough, which is what it really is But God. This. Car. SUCKED. But nevertheless I took it home washed it up and had a photoshoot:

My car was so low... My friends block had a speed bump and I had to reverse out of the block....

[BadderKarma]

So the first of the ugly was that the car was tremendously low. I ended up messing up the bumper and it scratched my fenders so I scrapped the TGC Bumper and got a cheapy aftermarket stock for the time being. I don't have any pictures but In the future you'll see me with a stock nose with no fogs.

Quick aside, I worked in Manhattan so I would park my car by the train, jump on the train and then come back and drive home. One day in May (ONLY A MONTH AFTER I GOT THE CAR) I come to find that my car had been hit and the assailant just drove off. I assumed a cab because I saw noticeable yellow everywhere... My life sucks btw.







So I needed to figure out how to fix this mess. It took me the better part of a year, let's just say it gets so bad my bumper falls off and I drive with my ass out... But we'll get to that later, more problems erupt.

[BadderKarma]

After that popped up a new ugly. The car was on 3 wheels of BT sport and one VORTEX wheel on low profile tires:

Driver Front



Passenger Front



Driver Rear



Passenger Rear




Around October/November 2012, I had two separate occasions weeks apart where I was on the highway and a tire just popped leaving me stranded to drive about 3 miles to my wheel shop. after the first occasion I bought a used tire, on the second, my mom was scared for my safety and got me a wheel/tire combo for 800$ which is awfully nice of her. Shout out to nice moms










I can already feel peoples heads shake in disapproval or disbelief in the fact that a car can suck so bad but don't worry it gets so much worse it hurts my feelings.

[BadderKarma]

Just when you thought that was bad, My suspension was completely shot. I'm driving around wondering why my car feels like a trampoline, so I bring it to my mechanic and he shakes it and lets me know that My springs are dead. So I now needed to look into new suspension. And You'll see throughout this thread that something going wrong gives me ample reason to replace it with something incredibly expensive. I use it as a good excuse... It works for me. Being dumb I thought the more expensive something was, the better it was. So being the noob I was I was interested in K Sport Air Ride.... *Face Palm* After some time and spoon feeding and answered questions I picked up TEIN Super Street Coilovers for 1400 New. In Mid November 2012. When they came in I was SO STOKED




After a little more saving my uncle installed them for me:

[Solviss]

Welcome dude!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[BadderKarma]

I've spent so much money in a short amount of time it amazed me. So the car kind of sat for the winter while I pondered how I was going to fix this quarter panel issue. Rather than pulling it and filling. I decided to grab a whole quarter and bumper from a yard for 500$ and throw a new quarter on... Starting to see a pattern? Some good did come out of me going to the yard because I luckily picked up a JDM Replica Rear Bumper For cheap (Which Is Now For Sale BTW) But this is how she sat in February throughout the harsh New York blizzards. I was so low I got stuck often, like this occasion right in front of my house




One thing i forgot to address... I bought the car with no muffler. She was loud and mean as F#@* ! This is noticeable by the hanging exhaust with no muffler above that caused me to receive about 4 tickets. Also a beautiful mod I did myself was ripping off that God forsaken wing which left 4 nice holes in my trunk lid with some adhesive white material on it that I could never get off.

[SNWFLK]

Nice man, can't wait to see it all come together. Can you PM me info and pics of the bumper? also interested in how that quarter came out

[BadderKarma]

I waited until the weather was a little nicer and I saved up enough so I wasn't broke to throw on the new quarter and rear bumper. I dropped the car off March 2nd and for 10 days I was taking the bus to class. I managed to get some pictures when I dropped by to check progress. I didn't get a picture, but my body guy fixed my trunk and also installed my JDM side mirrors, which opened up a new can of worms with RHD side mirrors -_-







And when I got the car back it blended in as if it were never hit, I actually got it confused with another Galant in my schools parking lot, if it weren't for my TEIN decal and tinted tails.

[BadderKarma]

The New York winter was so long in 2013, it snowed into March, when I got off of work one day, I had a spontaneous urge to take picture because it I felt it looked great in the snow. Here you can see the trunk and JDM Side mirrors, which was my first step into a complete JDM conversion. ( I Edited These Next Pictures Because Visibility Was Pretty Crappy )

[BadderKarma]

A few weeks later, I decided to take on my one of the few projects I ever do myself... And this is because I could find absolutely no one that wanted to do it for me. I installed the reverse glow S7 gauges. I completely botched my ODO and did a mediocre job, but I got it done. My Gas never goes up to the last bar, my Speedo drops weird when I come to a stop, and My temp is always right below half way rather than regularly center in the middle, and there is some space on the sides... to this day it's still like this. I'll probably eventually fix it I guess Lol *Facepalm* This is also why I don't do things myself. I'd rather a professional do it professionally than me and it's crooked or something. I feel it's a reasonable ideal. It's still built rather than bought *Shrugs* but here's the end product

[BadderKarma]

In early April I took advantage of a R1 Custom sale and picked up a set of cross drilled & slotted rotors with break pads for the car and when I received them they were installed April 12th pretty simply and pain free unlike everything else I've ever done to modify my car -____-

BEFORE


AFTER

[BadderKarma]

Okay, now this is where things get negative, and I mean no disrespect. I feel we are a community and despite the fact that we may have little differences we are all working together to move forward with our cars. But this one individual was a complete asshole who tried to make out with a large sum of money and gave me shitty product in return.

I was on the look for a new exhaust because mine currently... wasn't even an exhaust, but just a pipe that air came out of lol; no resonator or muffler. This caused me a few tickets and I needed to get it fixed. I found the Greddy Spectrum Elite Catback Exhaust and I fell in love. it was 620$ brand new, shipped, and back to my mentality being that it was the most expensive exhaust I found I also thought it would be the best. I came upon a fellow member that is well known by the name of Greddy also known as Martin selling the exact exhaust. His price was 600 used. He said it would bolt right up and I don't need to modify it like I would with the new one for 20$ more so I bought it. After purchasing, about a month went by and still no exhaust. He gave me a song and dance about how he was busy with school and how he shipped it and it was returned back to him, or how he was getting it cleaned and polished for me... but I never got the tracking number ever. Being the understanding person I am, I gave him more than ample time. after his 6/7th excuse, I opened up a case with Paypal. That day I received a tracking and proof of shipment. When i received it, this is what I got. I do apologize for the long pictures, it was the best way to capture Greddy's Bullshit. This is what I received April 29th













After about 6 weeks of stalling this is what i received. a dirty exhaust that's been cut into to fit inside 4 wheel boxes that were taped together poorly. There was no packaging and the exhaust was in shitty condition either from the unnecessary cutting into it or the lack of protection. I immediately contacted Martin to return this when he responded by blocking my number and Facebook (I'm still blocked to this day). I spent the next 6/7 weeks contacting the UPS in Oregon and Paypal to try to get my money back. When UPS finally picked it up to inspect the exhaust, they lost it in transit. After the hassle of showing them proof of initial purchase, return and value I managed to get refunded from Paypal and reimbursed by UPS. So due to Martin's shiftiness I ended up with more money than I initially started. I personally think he's a Dick and should be black listed from selling anything to other users due to this incident. The only reason I didn't report his bullshit sooner was because The community knew through Facebook and I didn't want to go through the trouble. Now on to bigger and better things with my money

[BadderKarma]

Back into the good stuff :)

Amidst all of the Shenanigans with the Greddy Exhaust return, I picked up some 3rd generation tails and installed them at my Uncles shop, with all my lacrosse gear in the trunk haha.

[BadderKarma]

Back to yet again, another set back -__- the difference is, this was my fault entirely. In early April to late May I enjoyed doing little drifts on specific turns I was familiar with. I had been doing it for a few weeks and was having fun. One rainy day I drifted on my way to my Girlfriend's house and oversteered and Hit a curb horrifically. It was really bad, but I thought I would be able to drive to a near by pep boys... I didn't make it very far at all before completely ripping out the axle; I'm stupid, I Know. Worst thing was it was Sunday and every mechanic ever was closed. I managed to get a 40$ Pep Boys tow to Pep Boys and leave it there overnight.

A quick aside: if you ever get stuck, and need a tow and don't have triple A. I highly recommend that. Pep Boys has a 40$ towing service where it will tow you to the nearest Pep Boys. If you talk to the Tow truck driver he may be able to take you somewhere that isn't Pep Boys. This is how I got from Queens to the Bronx on a 60$ tow Monday Morning. My uncle managed to fix my Axle, control arm, tie rod, and various other parts I completely wrecked for 650$ Again, my stupidity at it's finest...









Even though everything was fixed, it still left issues with the fender being that the wheel was pushed all the way into the back of the fender wall, which is something that I had to live with for about a year. You can believe I never fucked with drifting ever again.

[SNWFLK]

I was hoping you somehow got it pulled or something instead of replace cause this is what mines looking like

[Black8GV6]

That sucks, I don't know why Martin is still doing this to people, you are probably the 5th person he's tried rape.

[BadderKarma]

As a early Birthday present from my awesome Girlfriend she got me the Greddy Spectrum Elite exhaust. Shout out to Monika for being awesome. When it was installed, as expected it needed to be extended because the body of the Eclipse is shorter than the body of the Galant, but after the long wait... My new exhaust was finally on the car on May 25th.

[BadderKarma]

Happy Birthday to me, again from my awesome Girlfriend. She got me an Italian Leather MOMO Steering Wheel that we were looking at. The MOMO Gotham installed with a Matte Black NRG short hub



Funny thing is being that I had to remove the clock spring I didn't know how to install the horn because it seemed complicated. I still don't have a horn to this day lol, I also picked up a 2.5 NRG Quick Release in Matte Black with Carbon Fiber but It wasn't installed yet.

[BadderKarma]

Thanks to Martin's shitty actions I had spare money laying around, Despite not having pictures I managed to get 90% of what I needed for my brembo swap in 2 weeks in June

Although I have no pictures I had been searching for a set of Brembo calipers for the conversion and I saw an ad on Craigslist for a front set. When I went to pick them up June 15th it happened to be another member from The Galant Center. Thanks Angel aka. SleeperVR4

Then 2 days later I saw R1Customs was having a Father's Day Sale for 40% OFF!!!! So I definitely took advantage of that and picked up Front, and Rear Cross Drilled & Slotted Rotors, Stoptech Brake Pads, and Stoptech SS Brake Lines for 550$

And finally In the next 2 weeks, I purchased my rear set from TaeUsedAutoParts on Ebay and I now had a Brembo conversion just laying around.

This triggered my long search for rear backing plates So I could get rid of my ugly drums.