Matt's White 97

[Mpls24]

I've always been a fan of 90's Japanese cars, I suppose I'm part of the Gran Turismo generation and my favourite has always been the RX7 so I have always known I wanted to get one and I wanted to import my own.

So skip forward to 2012 when I absolutely was not in financial position to afford on I decided to import one anyway, for this I used Autospecs who were very god every step of the way and despite my paranoia and fear of wiring all my savings to an unknown bank account in Japan it all went very smoothly. To get the car through customs I used Kleerfreight and for something small like £86 they processed it all as soon as the ship was in UK waters meaning that the light fingered dock workers in Southampton had far less of a chance to help themselves to anything on the car that could be easily taken.

Anyway this is the car I ended up choosing and bought:

Despite engine wise it being relatively stock it had some nice parts including a twin plate ORC Ogura clutch.

 

[Mpls24]

I spent a while just enjoying the car despite already knowing a few things I wanted to change an having an ultimate vision for the car for a long time in the future. The car had a health check during this time and all was well with everything.

Even if getting on and off the drive required some ingenuity...

Went to various shows and out and about with the same group of friends, all into cars, predominantly Japanese.

 

[Mpls24]

However during all this fun on a cold November evening before I put the car away for the winter I decided to go out for one last drive......

I had a small mishap that although I was devastated at the time ultimately caused no underlying damage to the car but the all fibreglass body panels took the brunt of it and were ruined. After much depression I gave a friend of mine who owns a quite well renowned bodyshop to come and take a look and get the car taken down to him for repairs. As I mentioned previously I had ultimate plans for how I wanted the car to look and decided now would be the time to do it and get a full respray of the car at the same time as almost 20 years of Saitama sun had turned it to a shade of Chaste Cream.

The transformation began with an order in with Ed for some Shine Auto body panels:

 

[Mpls24]

The car spent quite a long time in the bodyshop and was a very gradual transformation, mainly because my friend had agreed to do it when he had spare time from other work to try and keep down costs, unfortunately as I mentioned previously it is a well renowned bodyshop so quiet times are very few and far between. Luckily one of his better guys took a particular liking to the car and made it a labour of love for the time it was down there and did a really good job of the car and the effort to go the extra mile was apparent during my weekly trips down there to have a nose or drop off bits for them, to be fair a goo amount of time was spent waiting on parts from me as well.

Anyway here's the progress:

I originally wanted to replace the Sexystyle bonnet like for like but in the end decided on an RE-Amemiya AD09 bonnet and can honestly say it is my favourite part on the car, the quality is outstanding.

 

[Mpls24]

Got the Bonnet down to them in a mate's van so they could get on with lining up all the new panels at the front of the car.

I decided I wanted to replace the front bumper with the same Sexystyle one as before as I loved how aggressive it looked whilst maintaining nice curvature.

 

[Mpls24]

Next was the work on the rear overfenders, it was a difficult decision because I definitely wanted them but that obviously means cutting into perfectly clean arches. I decided that rather than rivet the arches on as normal I wanted to bond them and blend them permanently to give it a smoother cleaner look, we decided that in doing this we would make as much room to play with as possible and cut up to the swage line for maximum clearance.

A length of plate was welded on as well to act as a bridge out to the overfender adding rigidity and allowing a better finish underneath.

The arches were blended in at the bottom to make it look smoother.

 

[Mpls24]

The next step was to prepare everything for the respray.

All door shuts etc were pre sprayed

 

[Mpls24]

The car shared the bodyshop with some really cool and interesting cars whilst it was there due to the reputation they have there is a diverse clientele. They were doing an old Citroen of some type when my car arrived that was expected to sell for £100,000+ once completed. The location here in the Welsh valleys means that they also have a high number of road rallying cars in for repair including a mark 1 Escort that had taken quite a hammering from a particularly large tree. They also have contracts with some high end car garages and manufacturer showrooms so always some nice things knocking about down there.

A highlight was when one of the guys who works there brought down his rally prepped Mark 2 Escort for some work.

And of course not to mention this badboy bodykit on a Megane....

 

[Mpls24]

I then went off to the Nurburgring for the following week and came back to this:

Taped up the diffuser and spoiler to test fit

It was then flatted and polished ready for collection after the spoiler, diffuser an skirts were permanently attached.

We transported it back to the unit I share with a couple of friends and had to manoeuvre it into there...

And in

So Bodywork all sorted but the engine bay still looked like this...... TBC

 

[Spendyrx]

Looks awesome matt ? I'm in Brynmawr today! Clydach street lol.
It's alot warmer down swansea I can tell you! Had my Russian hat on up there lol.
That mk escort looks bloody awesome too!

 

[Mar71n]

Good wright up, car looks good in White.

 

[cib24]

Really glad to see the car saved and improved with some fresh paint. the 99 spec lights look better than the RE-A covers that were on it before. Can't wait to see what engine you put in it so long as it's a rotary.

 

[Mpls24]

Looks awesome matt ? I'm in Brynmawr today! Clydach street lol.
It's alot warmer down swansea I can tell you! Had my Russian hat on up there lol.
That mk escort looks bloody awesome too!

Cheers mate.

Haha brynmawr is colder than anywhere, I worked all night last night down Newport and came home this morning and it's like walking into the tundra when you open the car door ?

 

[Mpls24]

Really glad to see the car saved and improved with some fresh paint. the 99 spec lights look better than the RE-A covers that were on it before. Can't wait to see what engine you put in it so long as it's a rotary.

Yeah I always wanted to uncover the lights but liked the spoiler part of the cover, closest I could find was the concept 7 lip on there now. It's actually a sexystyle cover like the rest of the previous bodywork, you don't see many of them.

If you look closely the engine is still in there, that gap is how much space the radiator, intercooler, airbox, battery etc take up at the front ?

 

[cib24]

Oops! I looked at the engine photo too fast! You're right! haha

 

[deanflowers]

Autolaque painted it? looks tidy

 

[Mpls24]

Autolaque painted it? looks tidy

Yeah Autolaque did it ?

 

[Toshfd]

Love the wheels mate whats the specs on them?

 

[Mpls24]

Love the wheels mate whats the specs on them?

Ah they're gone now and been tweaked slightly but I'll update that as I get there, we're upto a couple of years ago here haha

These were 8.5j fronts and 9.5j et35 rear, rears were on the front in the last few pictures, hence the massive gap on the rear.

 

[Toshfd]

Ah they're gone now and been tweaked slightly but I'll update that as I get there, we're upto a couple of years ago here haha

These were 8.5j fronts and 9.5j et35 rear, rears were on the front in the last few pictures, hence the massive gap on the rear.

18 inch I take it? Car looked well with them mate!