Teaser

Posted on June 15, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

ruh roh! it’s that time

Posted on May 22, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

Here’s a sneak peak of what i’ve been up to for the last 5 hours…

Introducing Natsukashier Vinson

Posted on April 25, 2012 by brandenc

Vinson has always sort of been the big brother of the group. He was the first to graduate college and has been into cars as long as I can remember. His first car was an old first gen VW bug which was rat rodded out and extremely cool. Considering his family has a long history of Euro tuning it’s no wonder why Vinson opted for a new VW GTI as his car of choice. This car started out stock and from there has grown to be, arguably, the best GTI in Austin. My personal favorite is the cross platfrom Mercedes rims that fit so perfectly on the little hatch. Adding Vinson to the group is a great honor and seeing as he now resides in Houston, we will be offered with the pleasure of following some of the Houston scene as well as more Euro things for the Euro guys. Like the rest of us though, Vinson has a love for slammed, loud, and all around sexy cars. Welcome to the team Big Brother Vinson.

The GTI at night. This car is seriously low

The Glory that is

Introducing Natsukashier Cody

Posted on April 25, 2012 by brandenc

As a lot of you readers know, Cody has been one of the first followers/friends of Natsukashi Garage. This guy carries our mindset, love for cars, and builds some of the best damn Honda’s known to ever hit Austin streets. When we first met, wayyyyy back when, he picked up at 1987 Honda accord LXI hatch back. To most people, they would write off the car and build something more viable and new but that’s not Cody. He always builds cars out of the ordinary and does so with the best parts (mostly OEM) to date. He happens to also be probably the main reason why I love Honda’s so much. I owe a lot to him and his expertise. If any followers need any help/advice on a Honda I’m sure he would love to help, and really…. this guy is a walking encyclopaedia. It’s great to have him on the team officially.

As of right now he owns a late 80’s model civic wagon that is near perfect. I love this car!

The man and his wagon. When you own a car this old you have to get very creative on your mods. Check out those fog lights and that lip!

Wagon shirt + wagon = love

Welcome fam!

The OKC Journey

Posted on April 20, 2012 by brandenc

Tomorrow starts our trip to OKC. Thaison and I will make sure to keep you all updated as we go with a few friends. Going to be a great weekend! (For more frequent updates follow me at NSKG_Branden on instagram!)

Hatch Progress

Posted on April 12, 2012 by brandenc

Well it is time to take the motor out of my hatchback. Over the years I had gone through many motors (5 to be exact). This time, I plan to do things right. I’m not sure exactly what I’m set on, even though my heart has always been with the b16b out of the ever famous Civic type R. These days people have moved on to bigger and better things such as K swaps and even J swaps these days. Yes these motors may be bigger and fancier, but I will always have a soft spot for anything from the 1990’s through the 2000’s. Enough Babble, lets show some pics!

Here she is on the last day with a running motor. I can’t wait to turn this car into the car of my dreams.

No shame in my single cams. For the kind of driving I love to do these little motors have been more then enough to make me happy. Yes my car is still complete with air conditioning.

Cody and the Big Biss powering up before an afternoon of easy work. Yes my bumper really is drawn on with paint pens. It’s been that way since high school way back when. That’s the thing I love about this car, I build it for me and do things that I think are fun. Rather then paying for new paint that is likely to get destroyed I decided to do this instead and let people leave a little memory on my car. Love it or hate it it’s the fun that matters. I guess this is why I’ve always had tons of respect for the drift community in that their main priority when it comes to their car is driving it, which is how it should be.

Cody and Biss have trouble tackling the evil coolant hoses. Of course, I had to step in and handle it, but for the most part it’s fun to watch Cody with his boneitis struggling with things like this (Especially since he has it easy over there at Acura). Note to self: Don’t allow oil to leak all over your hoses for years, they swell up and can explode!!!!!!!!

Luckily fr you guys, I dress to impress when working on my car (Crocs, BBall shorts, and cut sleeve t-shirt)

When you don’t have jack stands that are low enough for your needs, you result in using bricks (Which is exactly what my car is sitting on right now)

No engine hoists needed, just drop it out the bottom. This is what we like to call good old Texas ingenuity.

Apparently Texas Ingenuity runs into problems sometimes, this one being the car wasn’t high enough

After much tugging and pulling on the rug we were finally able to get it out.

It seems as though some things never change. I love my life

Now my car sits in the garage on bricks, no really bricks, without a motor and wheels. I’m not sure when I will be back at it again with this car, but it’s only a matter of time. When Jeanie sees the streets again she will be better then ever. After all that’s what life is always about right? Progression is key.

Stay updated Natsukashiers!

Track Day

Posted on March 27, 2012 by brandenc

The wait is finally over. Thaison and I had been waiting months for this event to finally come. For me this was my first “official” track day, but we all know the streets is where we play most of the time. The day was full of fun and excitement, and may I say a little competition? Tons of amazing cars showed up from BMW M3’s to 1989 Honda CRX’s. Though the cars and their price range were drastically different everyone was brought together to have fun and enjoy the motorsport known as autocross. The best part of the road race/ autocross community is that everyone is extremely hospitable and wants to help anyone in anyway possible. I’d personally like to thank everyone I had the pleasure of meeting for making my first road race / autocross experience one I will never forget. On to the show!

Early morning at Harris Hill (Sad that Jack was not able to run)

Thaison testing to see if his bumper is still falling off (which it was)

The boyz in da yard

Scoping out the competition

Guilian approves

A man and his machine

Checking out the track

That M3 was beast

Daniel tearing it up

Cooling off

Daniel's 50 dollar driveway paint job

Thaison enjoys breaking exhaust hangers. Solution: Huge zip tie

Work work

That rat tail

Fryer staging

Thaison excited as ever

Ready to roll

I'm pretty sure that ever time Thaison lined up this gentleman asked himself what exactly Thaison was doing driving that car

Starting off correct

Inside the club house, Daniel and Joseph getting ready for some grub and relaxing in the nice air conditioning

Our chef

In case you didn't know, Thaison and his family own a chain of restaurants known as Pho Thaison (Yes they are named after him). Here he is showing off his cooking skills

The garage at Harris Hill (I probably wasn't supposed to be back there

Finishing up the Stir fry

2nd heat!

Intimidating competiton

My personal favorite car of the day. This gentleman (My apologies for not remembering his name) bought this car from California for $900 after seeing it on craigslist for $300. When he contacted the owner for the $300 offer he found out it was sold to another person and soon after tracked him down and had to pay $600 more. I would say it's still an amazing deal. The best part was that he was still running the stock motor and had just done some amazing suspension mods. (Props to the Bisimoto header)

GET BACK IN LINE

The CRX at the start

I'm all ready

That way sir

Downhill sweeper. Most exciting turn of the course

Rolling back in

Those tire marks are ALL from me

2 boys in the hood

A day well spent with the Natsukashi family

clutch job — still not finished

Posted on March 21, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

So…the clutch job still isn’t finished. My slave cylinder decided to blow up. So it is permanently stuck with the clutch “fully depressed.” But luckily, I made it all the way home from David’s place — a good 20 minute drive.

I spent tonight with one of my 86 buddies, Joseph, (which I soon will do a feature of his build) and he helped me clean out my garage. I really should’ve taken before and after pictures. But…those of you who’ve been to my house know that the before picture was just tons of trash and junk piled into our garage.

After a solid four hours of moving things around, cleaning, and hosing — we got the dead fish/poop smell out of the garage and cleared enough space to fit my 86 in there. This way, I won’t have to continue working on my gravel driveway…

The car hadn’t been in the garage for about four years — the last time it was in there was when I did my first motor swap, winter/spring of 2008.

Hopefully I can get all my parts in and swap everything in for Saturday.

And in typical Thaison, always doing things last minute. And then everything blows up in your face, but somehow I (usually) get it done in the end. Hopefully I can get my 86 up and going for Saturday’s track event.

OEM Freshhhhhhhhh

Posted on March 5, 2012 by brandenc

The SI got a major overhaul this weekend. My main mechanic, whom I always tackle intricate car projects with, helped me with pretty much rebuilding my motor. We replaced almost every needed part/gasket that is needed of a car that has over 100k+ miles on it. The cool thing was, was that the parts that came off it were all OEM as well. I always get excited when I see nothing but the best on cars. Here are some pics!