Shattered Piston Garage

This project has been incubating for a while now. I needed new fender extensions for
With the SN95 A-Arms, plus the wheel spacers, and then wider wheels, and lowering, the original extensions rubbed badly.

They're not a super common part, and when I started the build the reproductions from weren't available yet. So I didn't want to cut up my originals.

Instead, had a buddy scan one with a 3D scanner, brought that into and remodeled it. Then shortened the design by about 3/4" to work with the new wheel combo.

Printed on my in this lovely shade of pink (it was cheap!) And I'm super happy with the fit and finish of it all.

Now to blast it with some paint and primer to get rid of the layer lines, and move on to the next piece of trim to finish off the fender flares.

Slowly moving forward!

Spotted!! Finally out and about in the wild. This seems like a super basic photo, but it marks the first time in 5 years, and the first time for me ever, that the car has actually driven. And it even has insurance!

A few more small excursions, and then a bolt check, before it'll be ready to head to the MVD for registration.

After that? or bust! This is ready for the

Man I hope this thing does decent burnouts...

I had to bite the and redo the the proper way. I removed the downpipes and cut them ahead of the bends (way easier than cutting in the bends!) And bolted the parts back on, then adjusted the mufflers, h-pipe and midpipes to sit where I thought they looked good.

With all of that done, and the exhaust tucked up nicely where I want it, this is the gap I was left with. Missed on both sides by a little over an inch!

This is an important part of the process for me. A lot of building confidence with these kinds of projects is going into them with the knowledge that you might mess up, but that's okay, and you can just cut/adjust/try again.

I'm not a fabricator by trade, just a guy in his garage trying to build something he thinks is cool, and wanting to do as much as I can myself. I'm learning by failing, and experiencing, and journeying. It's been a good ride so far, and I know so much more than I did when I started.



Parts from:

With the engine finally starting to be stable, I have a couple other must do projects before I take this down a drag strip.

makes these great panels for putting a T5 hump into a non-T5 car. Slamming it in with some sheet metal screws before I mark out the needed cuts to then come back and weld it into place.

The welding might wait a while, but I want to at least get some seam sealer on it to keep water from getting into the interior.

It always seems to get worse before it gets better!

While updating the intake tubes, I'm also taking this opportunity to do two other upgrades.

First, upgraded coils, these were stock on the 2UZ/3UZ, and have a much smaller footprint compared to the 1UZ coils. Plus the connectors don't shatter the instant you try to release them.

Second, to go along with those coils, is a new ignition harness. Pulled from a this harness has significantly fewer splices in it, as well as retains the factory unions for the power and ground feeds. Overall, it'll pull well over 2 dozen splices from the harness, improving robustness, as well as giving me a chance to clean up the harness and finish the wrap.

Man I hope this thing runs well once this is all done. I need to drive this thing. Slowly losing motivation every day it's down.