Ricebox Wednesday…. 86 Dayyyyyy

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The guys a Mayday Garage always have a wednesday meet called Ricebox Wednesday, and it just so happened 8-6 day fell on a Wednesday. Just perfect.

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I didn’t have an AE86 but I thought I would still be nostalgic enough to bring my 1992 Miata. That daw was a very hot and humid summer afternoon but Im dedicated and drove topless to meet.

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I arrived late on Filipino time and of course there was no space at all to park in the front soo I just hard parked in the uncool zone in the very back. Oh wells, I wanted to finish “Pumping Iron” on Netflix before I left.

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Houston has a very strong car scene and some internet famous cars are from Houston. Being 86 day, you see cars come out that you would rarely see otherwise.

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Rocket Bunny 86. First time Ive seen this body kit in person and its really aggressive but flows with the lines very well.

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On work VS XX deep dish. Hard parked.

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Ricebox Wednesday got sooo popular now that they have cones reserved for the cool people. I wasn’t cool enough doe.

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Tom’s S2000 was and I can see why. The engine sounded nasty in a good way.

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^^^ The money shot 50mm at its finest. ^^^

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More spots for the cool kids.

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Prime example of clean and simple. Houston always has some legit cars in Texas.

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Legit RHD N2 style hachirochu. A rare sight to see, looks even better in person.

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Ahhh and the old school SSR Mesh wheel match the era perfectly.

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Its like Initial D days with Takumi 10k redline.

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Demon camber, you love it or hate there is no in between.

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Big ballers came out.

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Booty

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Boosted S2000 motor in a Formula D Hachi. I wonder if they towed the car there or actually drove it because I didn’t see tags or registration.

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This Panda Trueno was powered by Mitsubishi, interesting combo and originality too.

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And even had a Rambo knife as the hydro e-brake.

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Mercedes Benz Alphards, I miss those rims back when I was OEM plus. I wonder if thats my old set.

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The classic Toyota Corona. I saw these cars a lot in the Philippines but no where nice as this one. This car is Pinoy owned, Manila repping.

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14″ SSR MK2. Keeping it classy.

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Till next time.

Lam Photography BTS (Behind the scene)

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What all started out as a joke ended up becoming a legit photo shoot. When I got my GTI back from the shop I would joke to Lam to do a shoot of my car because the Miata shoot was soooo bad ass. I recently got my camber arms and dialed the stance on my GTI with the Work Kiwami. My car was looking really good and happy the way it turned out. I gave the GTI a full detail, and noticed she never really got a good proper shoot. I txted Lam that night about shooting for fun and decided to do the shoot that weekend. I never really thought it was going to be serious one till he told me the photo shoot would be for a possible magazine feature.

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When I heard that, I was really excited and hope I can get the feature. I put a lot of hard work and dedication on this car and if someone can also appreciate it enough to be a feature I would be stoked. I literally didn’t drive my GTI for the rest of week until the last day before the shoot. Unfortunately when heading back home, Texas weather likes to play tricks and it rained hard. The wax on the car did a good job beading up the water but it seemed to collect in the rear trunk. Hatchbacks always have this problem.

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The day of the photo shoot arrived and was going to do a quick wash of the car in the morning but I wanted to workout. I went ham on the worked out with my homie Marc but when I got home I was crashing hard on the pre workout. I was laid out, lying on the couch, just waiting for my friend Manny to come over since he wanted to chill at the shoot. On a side note, look for a upcoming feature of Manny’s bagged TSX on the blog soon!

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As usual Im on Filipino time and the last one to arrive at the meeting spot. I just like to be fashionably late.  Then we all headed out to the secret photoshoot location. Sorry Lam doesn’t want to give out his locations on where he shoots.

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My other friend Bun also came to do BTS for Modelsta Mag and his own photography business Invisible Rabbit Photography. Bun came prepared and brought all of his camera gear to shoot. I forgot to bring my camera so I used iPhone.

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Lam is such a playa he even know models. Sally was cool enough to model for the shoot, without being nervous surrounded by guys.

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Umbrellas are not just useful in the rain but also when using flash on your photography

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Tony and Manny were mainly the human tripod, better flash angles.

 

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It was a good day, chilling with your friends and just doing cool things. Even if I don’t get the magazine feature, Im still going to take the photos, make it into a collage and frame it, because memories.

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Natsukashi Garage repping.

Tire Shop Needs: USA Tire and Wheel

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Living in Houston, the 4th largest city, it wasn’t hard finding tire shops but the problem is would you trust them with your expensive wheels. Or if you are about that stanced life, who would be willing to stretch your tires and not bitch about it.

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When I first moved to Houston, I took my tire needs to NTB and the guys there took 4hrs to stretch 205/40/17 tires on the 17×9 rims. Then I took a my tire needs to local mexican shop and they stretched my tires no problem. BUT messed up my RPF1s while mounting the tires.

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When I used to live in Humble, because the hospital I worked at was 5 mins away. I found this little tire shop called: USA Wheel and Tire located at 2415 FM 1960 Rd E Humble, TX 77338. Unfortunately one of my rims debeaded on my GTI and I took it to that little tire shop.

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The guys at USA Tire and Wheel did a great job with my wheels. I found out the tire had a small leak on the sidewall, which was unrepairable. I ordered new pair of Federal 595SS tires from the shop, and arrived in the afternoon. Gabriel is the guy that mounted and stretched my 215/40/18 tires on a 18×10 rim. He made sure not to scratch my rims and stretched the tires no problem at all. I told them not to go too hard on the impact gun so I can torque the the lug nuts and they did just that.

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Satisfied with the work, I take all my tire needs to their shop. When I brought in the Miata, they stretched 205/50/15 Nitto Neo Gen tires on my 15×10.5 BBS RM! I wouldn’t really trust anyone to mount my rims except for them.

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If they don’t have the sizes in stock they can usually get you one by the afternoon or if they cant, it would come in the next morning. They are really chill people and they hook it up on the prices, especially if your ride is nice.

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They even mounted the tires on my Advans SA3R rims back when I was squared and fictional fitment.

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I recently had my tires replaced on the my Work Kiwamis. I was still rubbing when I had 4 people the car even with the camber. I was embarrassed with all the rubbing and my friends making horrible noises when I rub that I wanted to change my tires. I had 225/35/18 tires which did better then the 225/40/18 but the 225 tire width was a tad too wide. I called up Gabriel in the morning and was able to get a pair of 215/40/18 tires and would arrive in the afternoon.

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Now that I live in Houston, driving to Humble was kinda of a distance, a 45 minute drive without traffic to be exact. But other tire shops near my place was charging me an extra $100 just to mount my tires because of the stretch. Not worth it, since Gabriel is real homie, and can stretch my tires with no complaints. He actually enjoys the challenge.

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Getting the tire to bead to the rim did take a while because its was an aggressive stretch. More than I had done before or even driven on. We were mounting 215/40/18 tires on the 18×10.5 Work rim. After the 7th attempt we were able to get the tire to bead on the rim with the help of me and the cheetah. The 2nd wheel we got on the first attempt, since we knew what to do. Also the Delinte Tires are really easy tires to stretch just like Toyo, Nankang, and Federal. No sticky, gunky bead sealant was used, just good ol tire lube. I kept the tire pressure to 50psi because with this amount of stretch the last thing you want is the tire to debead or deform. I like the look of it, is just cool in my opinion.

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I only paid $150 for everything and that is really cheap for those tire specs and what we did to get the tires to set on the rim. I don’t rub anymore with a full load!!! In matter of fact, I think I can even go lower.

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I like to keep the stickers on tires just to show the camber. I like it, and I think this trend is going to catch on especially with the stance cars. Any of you readers are in Houston, come to USA Tire and Wheel in Humble, Texas. They stretch tires, or do track fitments, or 4×4 truck fitments and can get you any size tire by the afternoon or first thing in the morning. What matters the most are, the people are chill and laid back. Check em out next time you need tires.

Shop info:
USA Tire and Wheel
2415 FM 1960 Rd E
Humble, TX 77338