jkrate buildup thread: Roxy

Oh, that's dope

2007-10-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

First issue of lowrider evar. Scanned in all it's glory.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/

Last day to vote folks!!!

2007-10-08T06:13:00.001-07:00

Please help my buddy out =)

His site is here HOOD HYPE DOT COM

And you can vote for him here... remember, hoodhype, not those other bullshit sites that support child molestation: VOTE BITCHES!!!

I have no idea who took this

2007-10-05T08:20:00.001-07:00

But thanks for the fisheye love =)

Been waiting months to take this pic =)

2007-10-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

Flat vs. shiny =)

Some pics from Walt

2007-10-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks mang =)

Living the dream...

2007-10-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

Man, what a weekend. F that, what a month. As you all know, took the last week off from work (thank goodness my boss is badass enough to let me skip out for so long haha *thanks leah!*) to finish the car which turned into a mad dash the few days before the show. Painted Roxy about 3 days before the departure date and then it was all piecing her back together craziness. Sleeping 4 hours a night, getting up at 5am to wrench etc etc...

The day before we left, we got a good amount done but it started to rain, I lost day light etc etc so we had to wake up asscrack of dawn early to finish her up. Slapped the wheels on, finished up the bumper and interior and re-wired the stereo so I could have something decent to listen to on the way there.

The drive down was perfect. Not one flaw with her albiet her cluster took a poop half way through so I had no idea how fast I was going the entire time. We got into town, checked into our little slice of ocean city heaven *gags* and just started the relaxing process for the whole weekend.

It was a little weird this time around as we were sort of split up from our local crew of friends as they were across the bay and we were in the thick of the party, literally 20 feet overlooking the main hangout at the show as (bad)luck would have it.

Nothing crazy really happened at all which I guess was good and bad. Remembering back to past years, I can recall a lot more drinking and stupid antics and this year it was completely devoid of all of them. Not sure if I miss it or not but at least I didn't walk away with too many tickets this year (just one for no seat belt mom. Only 25 bucks!)

We met up with the editor of PVW for whom was an awesome, awesome guy and the crew he rolled with with were so much fun to meet and talk shop with all day on Sunday (including a few MK4 drivers I had never physically met yet who turned out to be the bees knees too).

So yeah, nothing crazy, Roxy drove like a champ, was extremely well received from everyone and kate and I just had a great, relaxing trip which was exactly what I needed =)

On with the pics:

Roxy at the night GTG getting' some love

Then we went putt putting

Then we ran into this nice group of Boston irishmen...

...who showed us what a gargoyle was

I lol'ed

Sunday was showday

Roxy and Burkee's piece looked the part

Oh yeah, then we got married just for shits and giggles.

The internet-ordained minister (Elliott from PVW) reading the vows

Trying not to puke he was so nervous haha

We got married on stage, in front of 2000 people, my best man was covered in tattoos, the minister and I shared a Red Stripe on stage, yadda yadda yadda

Our rings ceremony haha

The kiss =)

"OMG, our parents are going to kill us!"

(thanks for the pics bubba!)

On with the show. I want this shirt. Badly.

Then we got tired so we drove home.

And we just HAD to stop at wendys didn't we?

That's when Roxy's alarm disabler turned on for some reason. Locking the doors shut and when you have custom handles with no keyholes, yer kinda fucked.

Buuut, after an hour of finagling, we got on the road again to come home to a very excited pooch Carson. More pics soon! Man it's good to eat REAL food and sleep in a REAL bed again. I've had enough fast food for a year haha

2007-09-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, we're off!

2007-09-28T06:04:00.000-07:00

And what a coincidence with today's PA! w00t

The rundown from last night

2007-09-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here ya go folks. I'm cranky as shit and in dire need of a nap. Peas out.

Coming together.

6 hours of prep.

Dash is done.

headliner is in.

All hands on deck. (Thanks Nate!)

HUMPSTYLES.

Donald on his fucking knees for Roxy. I love that man.

What 15 hours of labor looks like.

Oh, look who it is =)

Ok, lets spray.

Bam.

Color-matched speedpass. What!

12:30am tuesday morning

2007-09-24T21:35:00.001-07:00

Just got home. Took a shower for 20 minutes and had to soap three times haha. Kate's asleep already so I'm just trying to decompress for a second before passing out with a cold glass of hooch.

I worked on Roxy for 15 hours straight today. Donald laid down 6+ coats of color, wetsanded in the middle and then laid down a couple thin coats of matte. When we left it was baking and was setting out perfectly. Hoping the white spots don't come back but he strained the matte 10 times so it should be good. Thanks to everyone who helped sand and prep tonight!

Tomorrow we'll do the windshield and hopefully the exhaust. Then wednesday the stereo and finish up my moms project (as if I'll have the mental capacity to do anything by then.)

Fuck my back hurts =) It was so worth it though. Everything. I'm still waiting for something to happen but god willing it will be smooth sailing or something. Whatever, we'll deal with it =)

I think t_p may not be able to make it to H20 but I'm crossing fingers for him. Puilling for you buddy.

teaser

2007-09-24T20:38:00.001-07:00

Holy shit yes!, originally uploaded by ohkate.

It's 5:20pm on monday

2007-09-24T14:36:00.001-07:00

Been at the shop since 9:30am. Working straight. I have never been this exhausted before in my entire life.

Anyhoo, the owner was at the shop today and instead of bitching, he actually taught me throughout the day which was AWESOME to say the least.

I'm heading back now, just came home to feed the dog and regain my sanity for a minute.

• glass guy came out and cut seals for rear 1/4's and hatch. Removed windshield.
• installed A pillars
• wired up actuator, mounted in center console
• installed center console

Been wet sanding the car for 4 straight hours now. This is really where the quality comes through which I wasn't anticipating to be this much of an ordeal but it is, I'm facing it and am trying to get through haha Spent 2.5 hours on the front bumper alone. The rear body work that I did cracked so that set me back. The grille was cracked so I fixed that too.

Removed door handles, trying to sand down the edges of everything now. My back is on fire.

Painting tonight. Will post pics when I get home.

xoxo,
krew

wheels are done finally

2007-09-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

So I love me some american muscle sometimes. Ever since I got my first feel for racing when I was 16-17 on the 1/4 mile at the ghetto 75-80 dragstrip in MD, I really fell in love with the whole lifestyle of that scene.

Since this project has sort of evolved from a very specific idea to more of a general racing theme (for now, as the original idea calls for a very specific eye for detail), I wanted to try out an idea I had one night pulling from racing slicks.

As everyone has seen a set of slicks from hoosier or goodyear with the sidewalls stenciled out with the appropriate logo, I wanted to try it on this project. I'm not sure if it really works or not yet but it was fun to experiment with. Just a lil bit of uniqueness I guess.

The logo and example

So I made my own logo matching the font and what not in Illustrator and had my neighbour cut out some stencils for me on his vinyl machine.

Ready to paint next to my broken planter *sniff*. I just dusted over the stencil because I didn't want it to be laid down too thick.

Lil' finishing touch... genuine 9mm casing valve stem

Viola. Gonna age the stencil a bit so it will look worn in and I think they're ready to go. Kinda neat =)

For those of you who have asked, the wheels are simple beetle steelies. 15x7 painted Mercedes Benz Antique Silver. Simple but unique at the same time.

While I'm waiting for my stencils to dry...

2007-09-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm probably going to write an incredibly lengthy diatribe after this whole thing is said and done with but I'm bored right now, on my 12th wind and have to force myself to wait for my paint to dry so I don't fuck up this project.

Anyhoo, what I've learned so far after taking on a project of this caliber with this kind of deadline...

1) when you think it's only going to cost a set amount or if you have a certain budget in mind, multiply it by five and that's how much it's going to cost in the end.

2) cutting corners and trying to get "deals" are more trouble than they are worth. Now that I'm of the age where I have more disposable income than, say the average 20ish dubber, cutting corners just to save money is a pain in the ass. Just spend the money and have it done right the first time.

3) If you're buying a donor engine, MAKE SURE IT RUNS FIRST. If you can't do that, ALWAYS TURN THE MOTOR. If you can't turn it, WALK AWAY.

4) Setting timetables is great and are a necessity but they will always, ALWAYS break.

4) When you take shit off your car, label each and every single piece. Write down on a baggy where it came from to the exact location of the car. Taking pictures is ideal but for gods sake label the pieces. Also, you will need a garage to store parts. Not a bedroom. Because that bedroom gets filled up and the living room is the next location shit gets stored in.

5) Plan ahead. This is the biggest issue I faced. Make sure you plan shit out ahead of time. Make sure you get everything done on the car before you paint. Fabrication and installation is first, never last.

6) You will ALWAYS have fourteen thousand things to do the week before the big show. It always happens and I always get sick because of it. Just wait, saturday night, I'll be running a fever and kate will be telling me that I always get sick and we'll laugh about it afterwards and tell ourselves it will be the last time but it never is =)

7) If you plan on having a girlfriend at the same time you have a project, you better make damn sure said girlfriend is interested in the car and doesn't mind not going on nice dates for the entire summer. It also helps if she wrenches (xoxo boo *swoons)

8) Build it for yourself. If you start building it to impress people, it will never be as good as you want it to be. That being said, the amount of haters you start getting directly coinicides with how fucking badass your car is going to be ;)

Well, that's it for now. I'm EXHAUSTED and I've really work out my caps lock key with this one but whatevs. Paint tomorrow. Exhaust and wheels sometime after.

Man I need a beer. Thanks again to everyone cheering us on. It's a great stress relief to come home and see so many positive comments. I hope to meet everyone of ya soon and for those going to H20, the beers on us at the show =)

Sunday, September 23rd

2007-09-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

• wired up the gauges
• custom fabed a hatch soleinoid out of a vacuum reservoir to pop the euro hatch lock
• installed the LED lights
• installed the lower dash pieces including the lower glovebox
• installed new cluster lights and bezel surround
• wired up actuator and ran wires to center console
• installed door hinge stops
ª painted new radiator trim panel

Oh and...

• wet sanded entire car for paint on monday (thanks bubba!)

Saturday, September 22nd

2007-09-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

• spent 2 hours looking for 0/1 gauge battery cable in Tysons. Gave up.
• drilled holes for LED license plate lights, wired them up
• buttoned up linear actuator mechanism. Works perfectly now
• wired up air/fuel gauge
• installed headliner
• installed black oh shit handles and cabby 3.5 sun visors
• cleaned all glue mistakes on A, B and C pillars
• dyed sunroof surround piece black
• painted front and rear strut bars
• fixed taillight and it works now
• disabled DRLs

gimme teh stickers!

2007-09-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

any of you kids want stickers?
I'm actually going to mail them out this time, either today or monday.
send me an email with your mailing address to: info@jkrate.com

go! go! go!

Pics as promised

2007-09-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

So last night was the night. Finally. I literally flew home, fed the dog, squeezed the poop out of him, grabbed the missus and took off to the shop. It was perfect. Donald had caught up with his paint jobs that day, the weather was just right, the sun was setting.

We decided to prime the areas where the bodywork had been done so we masked off the entire car first. It took us close to 20 minutes to mask which even impressed him and he got straight to spraying.

After that, kate and I jumped on Roxy like a Pekinese to a couch leg and stripped her bare. The doors, hood and hatch all came off and were laid on saw horses to be masked. Then I started scuffing off the first layer of botched green and got everything ready to be sprayed.

It was now 9. Three hours after getting there and we were ready to paint. First Donald painted all of the spare pieces in the booth as kate and I stared on with smiles. Then he sprayed down the inside of the car and all of the jams.

While he was spraying, Kate and i sat in the office in safety from the fumes. I couldn't sit still so I stole Bubba's helicopter and started flying it around the street out front. Mind you, here I am, a 6' 3" white boy in a predominantly hispanic industrial complex at 9:30 at night... flying a helicopter. Yeah.

Anyways, I go back in the office and in walks Donald. "You want semi-gloss or eggshell?"

Fuck. This is exactly what happened last time. The color was perfect and then the clear went down and fucked everything up. I took a guess and just said go with semi-gloss as I would rather the car be glossier than too flat. The best thing about sitting in the office was that Kate and I started talking about random shit and then the conversation turned to memories of family members and it was just really nice to have a great conversation like that. Especially with the gal I was planning to marry. It always seems like the deepest, most meaningful conversations pop up in the most unexpected locations and times.

30 minutes later the gloss was down and it all looked perfect. 10 minutes after that, I noticed white specs showing up in the paint. The fucking matte coat chunked up even after being strained and left lots of little white bumps in the paint. Ugh. The curse continues.

We left for the night as it was now 10:30 and I wasn't too stressed. The coat was perfect albeit a little too flat but it was good nonetheless. I was happy.

The work went by fast and kate and I drove home to pass out holding hands while we slept.

The next day, the alarm went off at 6:15. I woke up like a bolt, all excited to put her back together and I look over and see a passed out and grumbling kate. "Come on come on!" "grumble grumble grumble..."

We slapped on some hoodies, rolled over to the shop and Donald is already there. "I did something that's gonna make you happy. I sprayed it again." And fuck if the spots were gone. Donald had come in an hour early and sprayed the whole thing over again just because he wasn't happy with it.

I love that man.

Anyways, she's home. All put back together and is now green. This weekend I'll button everything up on the inside and hopefully will be adding a custom exhaust into the mix. Monday we'll paint the outside and then this lil project will be done for the time being. Well, at least done for the show. I'll still have a billion little touches to add to make it 100% but that's what next year is for =)

Finally

2007-09-20T06:34:00.001-07:00

Pictures coming soon...

Help out the blackest white guy I know...

2007-09-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.vh1.com/shows/events/hip_hop_honors/_2007/sites.jhtml?id=hhhsite_7

My buddy jmack runs a sweet-ass hip hop site and it just got nominated for a VH1 award. His site is called http://hoodhype.com/ and it's pretty sweet. If you help him win this award it will do three things:

• cement the fact that he just won something from VH1. Making him old so I will have something to bust his balls about.
• make him rich and hopefully I can get an Escalade out of the deal.
• quite possibly get him a threesome with some rap video hos, making his dream of having a threesome with some rap video hos a reality.

Thanks and god bless.

Aww man =(

2007-09-16T18:33:00.001-07:00

RIP =(

Colin McRae and his son died in a helicoptor crash this weekend.

Damn man, that's horrible =(

This is totally legal. Right?

2007-09-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

Well, being how Roxy has a UK hatch and on that hatch has a recess for a UK number plate, US ones just don't fit without looking goofy. So I broke out the cut off wheel and defaced some government property tonight. Don't worry though, when the plates came in, I ordered a new set just in case I get pulled for these =)

After 30 minutes of some fine sanding on the grinding wheel, we get a perfectly straight cut. Viola.

New intake mani

2007-09-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

So the 2.9 manifold sucks. Hard. So we replaced it.

We have upgraded the kitchen floor shop area with a new rug. Classy. I'm still counting the days until kate realizes that we shouldn't be working on car parts in the kitchen and yells at me =)

And I took this pic to show my kids that I was also allowed to wash parts in the kitchen sink. (I do scrub it down afterwards of course =p )

What I thought was an easy job turned into a more involved project due to some bolts being a pain to get out so the whole front end came off. Good thing we did this waaaaaaay early in the morning when people were sleeping haha This will be the last job of this kind now that I'm a homeowner and we really do need to stop working on projects in the carport. *polishes halo*

Finally got her buttoned up and I took her out for a spin and damn if you ever need a reason to gut your GTI to see some speed gains, feel free to take Roxy for a spin. I really missed chirping gears. Poor Dara is just too damn heavy as a MK4 to do it anymore haha

Going to NYC

2007-09-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

So we took a day off from work/Roxy/everything and went up to NYC to go see Underworld (the group not the movie).

Upon leaving the house, we found a CD on Kate's windshield. Oh? Macaroni made us a sweet-ass mix CD for the trip! Dope!!!

And we got some Roy Rogers *drools*

And we drove for like forever.

And drove some more.

Then we got to walk around the city and stopped to hump on this little number.

We went to the show and had to park so we went into a lot that was going to charge us 50 bucks for 4 hours. We said fuck that, backed out and just as we were doing that, this spot opened up the street. I took a picture because this could very well be the first time something of convienence has ever happened in the city before.

The show ruled hard.

We drove home through times square just for the fuck of it.

Putting the cabrio dash in

2007-09-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

So remember that cabrio dash? Well, I put it back in finally along with the Italian Momo wheel as well as the linear actuator:

Kinda daunting looking eh?

With every project, you are allowed a ONE TIME use of duct tape to jerry rig something together... this is that one time =)

Had to fiberglass in a tunnel for the actuator to slide up and down through because I wanted to keep the functionality of the air duct.

New plates. Thanks turbo_pumpkin (jason).

Ooh la la. Got that gauge to fit like a glove too. Ballleeerr.

Classy.