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!)

blacktop swap progress

Posted on April 15, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

So the blacktop swap into the 86 is about to go full swing. I’m waiting on a couple parts to come in from the mail!

I found a deal on a harness that I could NOT pass up. So I ended up buying this harness from a gentleman on club4ag, rather than rewire the aw11 harness that currently is on the engine — I’m just gonna sell that harness instead.

I’m also waiting on some exhaust parts — a jsp header and a buddy club spec ii to be exact. Meaning, this car is going to make babies cry and your ears bleed from exhaust tones. So my set up will be 110 mm velocity stacks, jsp headers, straight pipe, buddy club spec ii.

jsp header

My parts should all be here tomorrow! I’m excited to get started on this swap. Should make for a completely different car

salted, unsalted, or honey roasted?

Posted on April 12, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

I like my peanuts honey roasted. At least, whenever I’m eating them alone. We use salted peanuts a lot in Vietnamese cuisine. It adds a little extra crunch and a slight toasty-ness to meals. Growing up, sometimes I would just eat rice with crushed peanuts. nom nom nom.

And in case you are wondering, no this post isn’t really about eating peanuts/peanuts in food… haha

So the “slang” or nickname for the second generation corollas are “mango” and “peanut.”

The mangos are supposedly the sportier ones also known as chassis code te27:

mango (te27)

The peanuts are the “sedans” or family cars also known as chassis code te21:

peanut

To this day, I still don’t see the resemblance to a peanut, buttttt… meh, it is what it is.

I’m getting deeper into the 5spd conversion for my peanut. I called BRD Racing to talk to them about lightening my flywheel and making a custom clutch for me. They said the product they offer is good for up to 500 hp. YES, 500 HP. Did you know you can crank out this kind of power from the single cam 3tc engines? (if you don’t know, the 3tc is the big brother to the 2tc, the engine I have in my peanut)

Here’s a taste of some 3tc power in this 86:

I’m hoping to get my flywheel shipped up to BRD Racing on monday and then waiting for the pieces to fall together. I still need to pick up a clutch master, clutch slave, make a hardline, order a soft line, and make sure all the crossmembers fit. Then…custom driveshaft etc etc.

Gotta lotta work ahead of me!

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!

peanut is alive and kickin!

Posted on April 4, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

So, sometime towards the end of last year, I parked the peanut and put it on jack stands and removed the front brakes (because they were the 86’s brakes). The torque converter was going out (yes, it’s an automatic). I could only use 1st gear out of the 2 gears this transmission has.

after one hour of ownership

You may be asking, “Thaison, your peanut has a 2 speed automatic????” Yes…oldschool technology. I’m pretty sure this car was marketed to be sold to people driving around in the city. But regardless, the gears are super long. 1st gear can take me almost to 50 mph! haha, I have no idea what RPM’s it’s running at though — there’s only a speedometer. I parked it because, I was working out in Lakeway, so that was about a 30 minute drive through the hill country. Sooo….needless to say, the peanut couldn’t get enough speed for the hills because the gears were slipping. So it sat in the driveway.

lowered the car and the wheels were too wide -- open wheel it is!

As of recently, I’ve been getting the itch to drive it again. I just get this feeling when I’m driving it that I don’t get with my other cars. The chasis is super light (curb weight of 1,600 lbs). It’s got a peppy little 2tc engine in it. The 40-year old seats are SUPER broken in. I added some asian-style “comfort beads” which are quite comfortable. It wreaks of gasoline. AND it sounds like a cammed big block.

made the trip all the way to houston for the nostalgic meet -- toyota reliability right there!

My little brother helped me bleed the brakes last night and after hooking up the car to be jumped and priming the ISH out of the carb, it started right up. So today, I threw some wheels on it and drove it to work — I work closer to home now, so I don’t have to worry about too many hills.

MAN, did it feel good to be riding around in the peanut. The brakes are still a little spongy, so I’m going to have to look into that again. But other than that, it was amazing. I’ve removed all the seats, so there’s only the driver now. Half of the car, I’ve removed sound deadening. So boy, it’s even lighter.

So now, I’ve sourced almost all the parts, I’m going to start the 5-spd conversion. Using a T-50 from an ae86, a T-40 bell housing to match the 2tc block, ae86 clutch slave, custom drive shaft, and maybe a spec racing clutch. And maybe a stock clutch master cylinder? I read on speedhunters, where a guy used a wrx one — which leads me to think that maybe the te21, stock ones are hard to come by? Who knows…. more research for now and updates to come soon!

So it begins

Posted on March 29, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

So it begins…my blacktop 4age swap into the 86.

Just last week I finally got my engine on the stand to really start converting it from fwd to a rwd configuration. This means rerouting the water lines, etc. I decided to go with the sq engineering kit based out of Australia. He makes some really high quality parts for the 20v 4ag swaps.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a 20v 4age is — to put it short, it’s the newer revision of the 86’s original motor. Higher compression, stock individual throttle bodies, 5 valves per cylinder (as opposed to e stock 4 valves per cylinder.

Here’s my workspace:

Tonight, I decided to start taking apart my harness. The motor and harness I picked up was being run in an aw11 mr2. So I need to rewire the harness to fit the ae86 chassis and also to mate up with the ae86 harness. Spent a couple hours on it and decided it was time to go to sleep. I’ve got a lottttttt of work ahead of me…

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

track day — more to come!

Posted on March 26, 2012 by thaisonnguyen

So this past Saturday, Branden and I went down to Harris Hill Road for the “Mazda Raceway Outlaw Autocross.” Essentially, a higher speed autocross, where we got to run a section of Harris Hill Road with a couple slaloms down the side straight, back straight, and before the dam turn.

Here’s a look at the track:

A really fun, technical course with elevation changes. There was a slalom between 3 & 4, 5 & 6, and 7 & 8. Gridding was in the pit and the finish was right before turn 9. Needless to say, it was a suuuuuper fun day.

More to come on this event soon!

tearing up the slaloms!

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.