jkrate buildup thread: Roxy

I'm sorry for sounding like a douche in advance

2009-10-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a loooong summer. This one is gonna get sort of personal and lengthy so settle in. This entry is going to sound as pretentious as they come. It will sound cocky and shallow at times so my apologies if I come off that way. If you know me and I assume most of you really do, you'll know that I mean everything I say with the most humblest of intentions.

When it all comes down to it, Roxy is finished. She is basically at a point where I feel my initial goal has been met. I went back the other day and re-read the entire blog from start to finish and it was fairly enlightening. I started out with a $700 car and little to no knowledge about cars. I had a bullshit socket set from Home Depot to my name. Prior to Roxy, I had a MK2 named Betty for which the toughest mechanical endeavor I had to face was a shifter rebuild. It took Kate and I three hours to do that job. So suffice to say, I was green.

Through Roxy, I learned how to prep and paint a car, do bodywork, hire someone to do intensive work on a car such as reupholstery, custom bodywork, mechanical work beyond my means etc. I learned how to work on engines, I learned about offsets and wheel and tire selection (thanks Ethan). I learned about fabrication and invention. I learned how to swap a goddamn heater core for christ's sake. Even better than these skills, I met friends that helped me realize my vision along the way. They were the ones that I called when I had questions. They picked me up when I was stranded on the side of the road with a blown water pump and took time off on the weekend to paint my car. They were the ones who not only swapped my engine but swapped another one after the first swap went bad. They bought wheels for me in the ghetto and then shipped them to me from another country. They put up with me when I started my period over Roxy and was emo for a week (thanks Kate). Plus, I met all these wonderfully evil people in the MK3 forums who are relentlessly angry yet entirely friendly and downright awesome in person or through lengthy PM conversations.

Roxy also gave me a shitload of hardship. There were A LOT of times when I wanted to quit (and Kate was there every time to kick me in the taint to continue). I tried to be positive about everything and looked at each failure as a lesson to not do the next time and I think that held true. On the good side (and I don't know if this is sad or not), if I were to build another Roxy today, I could build the same exact car, for half the price. If that wasn't clear to you, I wasted MASSIVE amounts of money on this project. I try to rationalize it as the price of education but still, if I didn't understand that I spent far too much money on her, it would be a great disservice to my growth as an adult.

Then there's some of the lessons I learned. There were a few big ones that I took harder than others.
1) Never rely on anyone but yourself and if you have to rely on someone else, expect to be disappointed but be happy when you aren't.
2) Your price calculations will be wrong. Whatever you thought something would cost, expect to double it in the end.
3) Zipties really are indispensable with cars. Who knew?
4) Getting into PVW is every VW drivers goal no matter what they say or how indifferent they act about it. I don't care how much they say they hate the magazine or that it's changed for the worse, everyone reads it and it's the greatest magazine for our culture.
5) Actually getting printed in PVW is an entirely other task all together and I don't want to talk about it for a really long time.
6) When people don't understand that trying to be internet famous is all a big joke to you, it kind of backfires in your face sometimes.
7) Being internet famous is awesome. I don't give a fuck how cocky that came off as.
8) Lastly, and this is really important... having a girlfriend/wife that loves cars and especially loves to wrench is pretty much the radest thing in the world.

There were great moments though. Not only did I have the pleasure to do all these excitingly new projects to a car with my friends, there were some even better experiences than others. I got one of my car career-long idols to work on my car. He was given the right to introduce me to forced induction. Then, with my girlfriend at the time, Kate and I got to ride a train from Florida to Virginia together, an adventure in itself. I got people to actually call my car by her name in public (which is awesome). And I know this is a douchebag statement but I experienced admiration for the first time with Roxy. I'll be totally honest with you, there is nothing better than parking your car at a meet or a show and have people walk up to it and take pictures of it. It's stupid and materialistic and shallow but I'm not gonna lie, it always makes me smile. Maybe it's a form of payoff for the hardwork, I dunno. I'll just shut up now.

It's been a three year journey and for the first time, I am finally not depressed after show season ending. I know she's finished (for now?) and I can finally just relax. I can't say I'm at a point where she is enjoyable to me but I think she will be fairly soon. It has been disappointing that I managed to build a car that is 98% illegal in the town I live in, has seats that will probably give me major health issues in 5 years time, doesn't start when it's below 50º and has an exhaust that wakes up the entire block when I start her BUT, I feel awesome when I get to drive her. When I have a bad day, a 20 minute drive and a few boost runs on back roads always manage to make me feel better. I think that's the biggest difference between a normal person and a car person. It's not just a car to any of us. It's something that has a soul and it's something that we like to spend time with/on; something to covet and enjoy. Of all the shit that she's put me through, I can't disagree with any of the last statement at all.

Btw, I decided not to talk shit in this post because, well, it's not worth it. That's another one of the lessons I learned. See? I'm maturing. Kate would be proud.

Recap coming soon =)

2009-09-29T09:02:00.001-07:00

(pic courtesy of Paul <3)

Thoughts?

2009-08-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

Too big? Too blue? Too small? Let me have it folks ;)

Messin around

2009-08-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hot!

2009-08-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

Click me

Which one?

2009-08-02T09:36:00.001-07:00

Shirts

2009-07-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

So I was tossing around the idea of making a super small run of shirts to maybe sell at H20 this year. Probably just one design, on a high quality shirt. Would any of you faithful readers be interested in such a thing? Maybe keep the price down to 15-20$ bucks at the most.

Dunno, I just have a few ideas I want to print and want to see what I can do with it... lemme know ;)

Man, way too many videos lately!

2009-07-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Episode #16: Sunday Shenanigans from krate motors on Vimeo.

Saturday night corrosive chemical party

2009-07-18T19:49:00.001-07:00

Episode 15!

2009-07-15T06:20:00.001-07:00

Man!!

Episode #15: New Wheels Ahoy! from krate motors on Vimeo.

Numbah 14!

2009-07-14T11:48:00.001-07:00

Episode #14: Vakation™ 2009 from krate motors on Vimeo.

To: jkrew@jkrew.com

2009-07-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

From: Simon Jackson
Date: July 6, 2009 12:13:44 PM EDT
To: jkrew@jkrew.com
Subject: 1 set of wheels: £500, 12 rolls of tape: £18…

Message:

petrol to Croydon: £8…Pissing off the whole office all afternoon: priceless.

Can you tell him to stop putting tape on now, he's been doing it all afternoon and it's doing my head in.

Si

OLÉ!

So...

2009-06-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for a set of specific wheels for over a year now. The last set in America was on an Accord that was wrecked and scraped. Fast forward to me doing my weekly google for any FS on the intertrons and I found an ebay.co.uk sale. I clicked the link and it just so happened that the auction ended... one hour prior. WTF? The set were being offered by a breaker who didn't know what he had and sold them way cheaper than I'd like to admit.

So I emailed the winner offering him my soul for them. He never responded after two weeks so I emailed him again. He finally emailed back and so began the process. Took damn near a month to get him to a specific number and that was that. Not really. He didn't want to ship. So I called the most unlikely of likely's and they agreed to go pick up the wheels for me.

Anyways... after a dozen international text messages, a skype call to the UK and a Miami Vice-styled bank transfer later, my wheels were in my possession. Sort of. The deal was made in an alleyway in the shittiest parts of south london by one white dude and two sketchy black dudes. It was straight out of a bad Guy Ritchie movie.

They will be the only set in the united states. Out of stock for the past 5 years and no longer being made. I think there are only 2 sets in the UK and beyond and god knows how many are left in Japan. Now I just need to get them to the states.

It's always an adventure right? :)

So I drove Roxy to work today

2009-06-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

(btw, I work at a very corporate govt. job)

Some HR-looking lady pulls up next to me in her beige subaru forrester, quickly opens the door and says, "my husband used to (finger quotes) illegal race. He should come by and check out your car... do you (finger quotes) illegal race? What's in that red box? Do you have the naws?"

*sigh

Ok, it's not Roxy but it still rules hard

2009-06-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

So a buddy had a VR with a shit auto tranny, decided to just part the car out and before parting, did this:

and then did this: (wait for ittttt.....)

lolz

Lucky #13

2009-05-29T09:39:00.001-07:00

Episode #13: Getting Back to Nature from krate motors on Vimeo.

Updates?

2009-05-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

I've been reluctant to do updates on this blog because I'd like to keep things as a surprise until I get Roxy shot but that sort of goes against the whole point of this blog I suppose. This whole thing started off as something of an anti-vortex build blog mainly because I was 1) banned from vortex and 2) everyone has a build blog nowadays.

The one drawback with this blog is that it lacks the banter and idea sharing that a fast-moving vortex page would get but with the addition of the comment box over there ---> it's almost as good. Even better I guess as it filters out the knuckleheads by not being in the limelight which attracts such a viewer. It's my own personal way of saying, "hey, I'm trying not to be that much of a whore by making my own page and not asking you to look at it if you don't want to." Plus, I think this will be really fun to look back at and read when the car is all said and done with. I'll be able to re-read all of the whiney emo rants as well as all of the times that made this project as fun as it was to build.

ANYWAYS, here I am sort of getting frustrated with the car because essentially, she's done. All of the major projects are complete. My goal has always been to get into PVW. I remember back in the late 90's when I had a piece of shit MK3 and dreaming of getting into the magazine yet full well knowing I didn't have a chance in hell to do it and now that I have a good shot at it, I want it for different reasons. Not really for bragging rights but to just have a way to capture Roxy in a completed state so I can close this out a bit and just enjoy the car.

So, going back to my frustration... I have a 90% complete car on paper but looking back at my initial vision of the car, I'm far from being done. It never ends. And the funny thing is that it has gone through so many phases of being a balanced car. In the beginning, the paint was the main focus, then it was the fuel cell, last summer it was the metal seats, now it's the engine bay but the paint isn't that cool anymore so I need to re-level the exterior out to balance with the interior.... it goes on and on and on.

Going back to the first entry on this site in March of 2007 (fuck!) I said I wanted to design the car in the style of Kimura.

In a nutshell, function follows form as well as vice versa in this case. Although the final solution of this build will not primarliy focus on showroom shine, I would like to attempt to create a rough overall vintage look to the car giving it a dated and very mechanical feel. No frivolous items that won't really give anything to the whole yet when everything is looked at together as a single unit, only then will you see how everything will compliment eachother.

Now is where it should get fun for me and obsessively frustrating at the same time. It's allll in the details now and that's when I can literally ruin the car if I'm not careful and that's what I'm most afraid of. Case in point, I've been wanting to patina the paint for 3 years now. I know how to do it, I've talked to a dozen hotrod artists on how to do it but I just don't have the balls to take that 600 grit to the paint yet. Maybe I never will.

I was talking to the makers of my shifter the other day and asked them if I could get replacement parts if I ruin it by accident and they asked me what I was talking about. I told them that I wanted to take some ferric chloride and dip the parts in it to age it and they started getting really pissed over the phone (which was AWESOME btw).

I found this dude on the intertrons who had some new-old-stock vintage hotrod track winner stickers from the 50-60's and after cutting them out and slapping them on the windows at 10pm, I didn't like how they looked so I ran downstairs, peeled them off and put them on top of some white vinyl sticker sheet so they would have a white background to make them pop more. Now I think I should have left them clear but it's too late and they are there for all time. Did I fuck up? Does it look better now? etc etc. It's shit like that that keeps me up at night which I love but hate. (But love.)

This got lengthy. Sorry. Anyways, more fun stuff coming in the next few days. I've been working on ruining a perfectly good euro valve cover, gonna age the piping this weekend, hopefully age the fuel cell box, if more of my nasty chemicals come in the mail today, I can make an engine plate out of some brass stock. see figure 1

figure 1

Stay tuned...

Trying to stop sweating update...

2009-05-09T12:30:00.001-07:00

Man it's hot out. More like humid. Anyways, been a rough week I guess. Every single time I go through a bad patch with this damn car, I feel like hell during it and finally when it's fixed, I feel it was worth the wait. I hope one of these times I'll learn to just stop being so emo about shit and take it as it comes.

Anyways, picked up the car from NGP last week, drove it straight to a local shop where a buddy of mine works to replace the alternator and a few odds and ends i.e. tie rods and the such. Hell, she even went through a safety inspection and passed.

Without me paying the dude off! (haha)

I drove her home yesterday and she sounded like absolute garbage. Not really misfiring per say, just sounding like a gurgling STI. So in a fit, I almost lost my cool and walked away. It was dinner time, I had to meet a client downtown and so Kate dragged me away from Roxy for a few hours. Of course I was thinking about what could be wrong the entire time... so after a few beers later I was calm(er), dinner was over and on the way home I decided to go to the parts store at 10pm (I don't know how I ended up with a wife that puts up with me pt1) and got some spark plugs.

We get home at 11, kate is passing out on the couch because she's so tired and I went down to the car to start pulling plugs and wires until I finally found plug number 2 was covered in what looked like carbon or oil. Ugh, just what I need now is a leaky ring or valve seal. Kate even came down to hold the light for me while I worked. (I don't know how I ended up with a wife that puts up with me pt2)

Popped in a new plug and took her for a test drive. I'm sure I woke up just about every neighbor in town going back and forth down the quiet, dark main drive behind the houses at 9 psi. I totally forgot how fast she was though =) It's just stupid fast now even at low boost that I got out of the car and my arms were still all jittery and I had a smile wide across my face.

All seemed to be well so I went to bed. If it's a bad ring or seal, fuck it. I'll drive it and keep replacing plugs until it dies or I'm ready to rebuild the engine. Hopefully it will last until winter *crosses fingers*

Woke up this morning and re-installed that little piston doodad that came on OBD1 throttle bodies to hopefully slow down the deceleration of the idle so she wouldn't stall out on me when I went into neutral. I adjusted the idle a bit more from 900 to 1050ish and she seems to keep idle fine... once she's warmed up that is. Oh well, guess it's the price ya pay when you start removing niceties in the engine bay such as the idle stabilization valve.

Funny thing happened on a test drive this afternoon... I didn't tighten the set screw for the idle that well and I guess it shook loose and bumped the idle to 2200. So I was at a light on the way home and it just kept revving really high and some old lady pulled up next to me and gave me the worst look (oops).

So yeah, lots to button up. Need to get front turn signals working, front plate attached, need to add all the goodies to the engine bay I have saved up and somehow get the center console back on and around the rallye shifter since it now takes up my entire trans column hump in the car (doh).

Good to have her back in the carport.

Episode 12 bitches!

2009-05-05T08:46:00.001-07:00

Episode 12: Subarus, NGP and Scuba Steve from krate motors on Vimeo.

oof

2009-05-03T17:28:00.001-07:00

So disappointing

2009-04-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well, after spending what was my entire budget at Schimmel, my car (that was running just fine before going there mind you) now can't get past 6psi, the piping keeps blowing off because it was put together in a manner that was below standard and now, while at NGP, they can't figure out why it isn't getting fuel past 9psi.

I'm waiting to talk shit. I'm waiting to fucking go off and just call bullshit on every shop I've ever gone to so far but it's fucking unprofessional and at the end of the day, it' doesn't help anyone out.

The number one lesson I've learned which, funny enough was the motto of my friend that I met when I first got back into seriously modding cars...

NOTHING BEATS DOING IT YOURSELF.

And the worse part is that it was an extremely expensive lesson. One for which I should have learned many summers ago.

Some people, and more than not, simply don't take pride in their work. Double check your god damn installation. If someone comes into your shop and spends multiple thousands of dollars, would you think it would be wise to maybe make sure the car gets boost? Fuck, maybe just test drive the fucking car for more than .5 miles in the first place?

I am no longer going to bring my car to any other shop that I don't know personally for the rest of my life from here on out. If I can't fix it myself, then I'll learn. Plain and simple.

So, where it stands now, if the current bill gets past a set point, I'm pulling the plug and parting the car. That's it. I'm fucking done with this project once and for all if it gets to that point.

Weekend antics...

2009-04-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

Episode 11: Weekend Stuntin' from krate motors on Vimeo.

haha sweet

2009-04-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Dynamat just tweeted (I'm still getting used to these stupid new intertron buzzwords) about Roxy. Thanks for the mention dude(s) =)

Episode #10: Just sayin'...

2009-04-21T08:08:00.001-07:00

Episode #10: Just sayin'... from krate motors on Vimeo.

This one is lengthy and ranty and emo-y. I promise I'll be funnier when I stop wanting to kill people.

(hd version is at vimeo like always blah blah blah)

p.s. On a personal note: This video isn't calling anyone out. It's me venting about anything and everything. Measures have been taken by involved parties to help me out as much as physically possible with the current situation and I am sure I will be more than satisfied when everything gets sorted. It's probably just a stupid boost leak and I'm crying over nothing. No hate, everyone's cool et al.

Was that vague enough for ya folks? (lawls)

p.p.s. Bubba alerted me that certain areas in this video may seem like shit talking towards Jason or anyone else. It is not intended. I was merely shit talking about engines with bad head gaskets. I heart Jason. You see what happens when you vent? It's getting damn near impossible to properly shit talk on the internet nowadays without offending someone (lawls pt2)

Some more updates!

2009-04-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

Episode #9: Drop and Some Rollers from krate motors on Vimeo.

HD version on vimeo site blah blah blah