Kel's CW DC2R

[kelezzay]

Hey ClubITR!

Been a member for a while, however I felt the need to make a car diary for a car that I recently acquired. Will be hoping for some feedback and assistance I need if possible, and felt that ClubITR has the people that are willing to assist 

I’ve had a number of cars that I have owned over the years (EG, CL9, FD2) and wanted a change really. I was ready to hop into the world of turbo/luxury but felt the need of a FWD again before I do so. So then came the search for an exciting new car that will fill the void before going to turbo!

I was in the market for EK’s, EG’s, ED’s mainly those with an equipped B18CR/7, K20, K24 or K20/24 already. Most of the one’s I viewed were either battered, not looked after or dodgy. I was willing to even pay premium for something looked after, however only the pictures did the justice for the cars that were for sale.

So I decided to give up! I couldn’t find something that was hardstone that I would be happy with which was frustrating. I decided to go overseas relax a little and hope that when I come back the right car will be presented to me.

When I came back from the trip, one of my good mates linked me to a DC2R is Championship White. First of all, I wasn’t set on a DC2R yet due to insurance costs, most of them being battered, trashed by young drivers which stirred me away and me being a relatively big/tall guy – I didn’t see that I could fit into it really.

However having a mate wanting me to get a DC2R for a while and letting me be the passenger/driver of the car at times, I thought that, I should give this car a shoot.

Soooooo, I contacted the owner of the car and made an appointment to inspect it over the weekend. Weekend came and upon arriving at the owners place, his house was positioned at the bottom incline of a hill, so upon driving up the street to locate his house, I saw the car parked right at front of his driveway and at that instance I knew I had to have it. It was something about the Championship White that I made me buy the car hah!

Negotiated a price we were both happy with and picked it up a couple days after. Here are the pictures of when I first inspected the car:

12021992_10153619183859289_702964862_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12016702_10153619183814289_148530404_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr
12025433_10153619183819289_1532382083_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12026462_10153619183824289_920347284_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

As you could see, the car needed some TLC and I was willing to go ahead and freshen up the car. The owner of the car advised that the car was used as a daily driver until he bought another car. He really didn’t want to sell it – however due to his circumstances it had to be sold.

To be continued…

[KennyBKT]

very clean!

[felixR]

Congrats on the purchase! Already representing.

[kelezzay]

Now, since I acquired the car 3 months ago, I tidied up the exterior of the car.

First of all, I took off the stickers around the car as preferred it sticker-less, took off the daytime running lights from the previous owner and replaced the gunmetal 16’s with the championship white stock wheels:

12028950_10153619184039289_1765500787_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

Also tried out amber corners (for the USDM feel) however didn’t like the look of it and sold them straight away:

12032326_10153619183999289_91730958_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

Now, body wise, the paint was really rough as the car was exposed to a lot of sunlight and the exhaust fumes had stained all over the rear bumper. Went out looking for a quality detailer and found a business called ‘Smooth As Detailing’ which was owned by a current CITR member, Phillip Russo (you may remember his Silver DC5R and Honda S2000). I didn’t even hesitate and booked in a major detail (given his quality into his builds and his love for cars – as well as detailing other CITR member’s cars).

Dropped it off in the morning and it was done by the afternoon. They did an excellent job! I would recommend their services to anyone!! Here are a couple photos of before and after:

12023081_10153619186824289_1307955652_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12028974_10153619186879289_1865136404_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12029124_10153619186869289_1154254742_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12016631_10153619186934289_281851631_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12026475_10153619186939289_126520733_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12016679_10153619186949289_177414844_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

From then I was quite content with everything and decided to leave it as it was.. But then again, that’s another story. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the pictures so far, and hopefully Phillip didn’t mind me using his photos

[kelezzay]

Alright, so the modding bug hit (it was expected). First of all, I wanted mods that where subtle and effective. First thing I did was re-tint the car, as the tint was showing signs of age and for some reason, the driver’s side had no tint (possibly the previous owners preference).

Then, I bought some Tein Flex coilovers, which are extremely good and was super happy with the purchase. Bought them at night and installed it the following day – and what magic happens when you lower your car!

12022996_10153619186994289_1194187909_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

I stuck with it for a good two weeks, and raised up the rear a little, because it was kinda ‘habib’ spec by the time the coilovers had settled.

12025280_10153619186984289_1167700167_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

Now, as you can see the front bumper has seen some better days and was literally hanging off. So I bought a cleaner front bumper (with all tabs intact) and decided to do the swap and respray it later down the track (as the white on the new bumper was much whiter):

12025301_10153619190769289_1472138521_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12033532_10153619190779289_648978098_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

Result:

12025334_10153619190719289_809709072_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

It’s still not a perfect fit, but I’ll get it fixed up soon.

Now, I needed to upgrade the stereo system in the car, as it had a majorly old double din (probably one the first ever to be designed) and the rear parcel shelf consisted of these massive speakers. Bought a new alpine unit and got rid of the speakers on the parcel shelf and replaced it with another one:

12033267_10153619184079289_1046463796_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

If you can see the previous double din in above photo. It waaassssssss super old.

12007068_10153619184074289_1630934195_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

The kenwood speakers would actually illuminate the word ‘Kenwood’ in blue at night. Thank goodness the speakers didn’t work anyways.

To be continued…

[kelezzay]

So now, three weeks ago, I wanted new wheels to replace the JDM ITR stock wheels. Don’t get me wrong, they were awesome, however after being a wheel whore ever since my first car, I needed something tough, forged and light.

My first preferences as well as anyone is Ray’s, Work’s, Enkei’s etc.. but I wanted to be different. I guess, I’m an old schooler when it comes to wheels and really wanted Sprinthart CPR’s in 16’s in a set. I actually found a set in New Zealand but after continuously asking the seller to ship it over on numerous occasions he didn’t want too, and I couldn’t get time off work to go down to New Zealand (which I was going too really lol).

So, whilst browsing on facebook, there was a fella wanting to swap his Advan RG’s (Gold) in 16’s for JDM ITR 16’s. We met up and decided to exchange wheels that night. Things didn’t go according to plan, as the wheels were scrubbing against the inner guard (because of being too low). So I made arrangements for help! My good mate, came by lent me his Regamaster Evo’s and a pair of JDM 16’s aswell. So I was rocking this look for a bit, until I got camber arms to fit the RG’s.

12000079_10153619190819289_2060182761_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

So I managed to obtain hardrace front and rear camber arms, got them installed to get them ready to fit the Advan RG’s.

So the tyres on the RG’s where already on the wires and had to find some replacements. Looked at every tyre that would fit the wheels and opted for 205/45/16’s. The size of the wheels as provided by the seller were 16x7 +30 and 16x7.5 +28.

I really wanted to get some good rubber on the wheels and managed to get a set of Yokohama Advan AD08R’s for a really good price. So I booked it in with Bob Jane one morning and got them installed. However, something really funny happened when fitting the tyres on the car that morning.

When the tyres had been fitted, as what I had presumed the 16x7’s on the 205/45 fit very well, however upon the tyres being fit on the 16x7.5’s there was quite a bit of stretch and I wondered why that was the case. So I just had thought it was normal and was kicking myself for not getting 215/45’s for the 16x7.5’s. So when the time came to fit the wheels on the car, the fella asked which ones to put at the fronts, and had told him to put the 16x7.5’s at the fronts and the 16x7’s at the rear.. So whilst get the fronts ready and the tyre technican advised – ‘Mate, this isn’t a 16x7’ and I replied ‘What.. No way!’ at that time I got reaaalllllly nervous..

He advised that the tyre was a 16x8 +30!! I had mixed feelings, however was even happier to have a wide rim! Now I know why the 205/45’s had stretched out more on what I had presumed was the 16x7.5 lol. Now I should have gotten a 225/45 – but lesson learnt, always check the inner bore for the wheel size if applicable.

All in all, managed to have all four fit and was away driving happily

12032564_10153619192904289_1811506135_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12025280_10153619191134289_131299808_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12033495_10153619191094289_550978817_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12026711_10153619192884289_1473601482_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12025577_10153619192984289_1872700964_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

So.. I love the AD08R’s and was even cheering that I got some pretty wide wheels! Also the plus was, the tyres were made by Advan as well as the wheels (brandwhore).

Now, since being a relatively tall/big fella, I needed some lower rails so that I don’t look like donkey kong while driving (had another mate mention that to me). So I began to do my research. I found that the Bride Ro Type rails sit around 40mm lower than factory rails and they are compatible with the Recaro SR3’s! Rang up Garage88 placed, placed the order and after 3 weeks they came in and got them installed.

The seating position is awesome, and I have a lot of headspace now!

11992198_10153619192959289_1412443122_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

12016552_10153619192964289_1233014930_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

[kelezzay]

So fast forward to last week, I kinda got over the RG’s and the stretch on the 8 wide was killing my OCD levels. So whilst browsing on Gumtree, I saw a set of Ce28’s which is a wheel that I’ve always wanted (but could never come across) second to CPR Sprintharts. Messaged the seller, and asked whether he’d be up for swaps. He agreed to swap for my RG’s (primarily for the tyres) and at the end of the week, the exchange was made and I was go glad, until… I got them fitted on the car..

The Ce28’s were 16x7 +48 which is very weak, sorta close to JDM ITR stockie sizes. The wheels came with 205/45/16 fitted and it sat like this for a couple of days:

12029208_10153619193129289_547381230_n by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

So on Tuesday, I need to fit wider tyres to help fill in the gap and have the wheels sitting tougher. Went to bob jane, got quotes on a couple tyres in 215/45/16’s (which are quite limited). Opted for Continental ContactSport2’s and was over the moon on how they fit on the car now!

IMG_3400 by Mark Liwag, on Flickr

So this is how the car stands as of now..

Bought a Carbing 3 point strut a couple weeks back and will be fitting that on when I have time. Brakes are due to be replaced, opting for DBA T3’s or Dixcels, need some braided lines and pads.

Now for the future.. The B18C7 is an amazing motor and love it a lot! However more power is needed, and I have opted to conduct a K SWAAAAAAAAAP at the start of next year. I have some parts gathered and will need to a couple more things. I’ll update this thread as I go!

Thanks for reading, hopefully I didn’t bore anyone too much. Enjoy!

[kelezzay]

very clean!

Thanks man! Was following your build the other day, yours looks amazing and clean too!

[kelezzay]

Congrats on the purchase! Already representing.

Thanks Felix! I sorta removed the original Club ITR sticker there! So that means - I'll need a new one

[IbbyDC2R]

Always good to see a dc2r [emoji108]🏼

[kaze]

won't lie I also wanted a cw dc2r for ages, right after I got mine then they all appeared out of no where for sale xD, btw how tall are ya?

[kelezzay]

Always good to see a dc2r [emoji108]🏼

Thanks man - appreciate it

[kelezzay]

won't lie I also wanted a cw dc2r for ages, right after I got mine then they all appeared out of no where for sale xD, btw how tall are ya?

That happened to me also! Most of them had some goodies too, but oh well..

I'm around 5'11/5'12, but I'm more on the larger side lol!

[ken_twolves]

wow, car looks great! What size and offset are the pair of regamasters?

[jv-st]

wow, car looks great! What size and offset are the pair of regamasters?

+1, and would he be interested in selling Grats on the pickup man! Hope to see you around sometime