ekliptik's Nordic rx8! great find!
 

so i was looking for a new daily driver a few months ago. ran across a 04 nordic green rx8 6 speed on craigslist here in las vegas. it was always garaged when at home and covered most of its life while sitting at work. had a brand new set of kdw tires on factory 18's. the guy was asking only $9,300 which is way below kbb so i went to go take a look at it. the owner was in his mid 50's and he and his wife were about to move out of the country. i took a brand new cherry pie that i had got from M resort cus i dont eat much sweets as a friendly gesture. turns out that he loves pie and cherry is his favorite. so him and his wife took a liking to me and my wife who was with me.

test drive was smooth on the freeway unlike a previous 04 rx8 i test drove a few days before. the next day i called the dealership with the vin and was told that there were no open recalls on the car. everything was taken cared of. also that he was up on all the maintenance. so i call the guy back and make an offer of $8,000 even cus thats about all i had cash at the moment. and he accepts since he knows i'll take good care of the car and wants it to go to a good home.

score.

i never thought i would own a green car before. never was a fan of the color. but the nordic green is growing on me day by day. only some times when the pearl is not reflecting and the car is super green looking do i go... yuck.

although the previous owner was up on the maintenance and dealer visits. he did little to nothing on keeping the interior clean. the whole interior smelt like a lube shop. he also kept a car cover on it while it was parked at work everday so it has pretty bad cover rash on the front fenders.

my wife and i spent about 15 hours divided into 3 days straight cleaning it up when we first got it. cat hair everywhere!!! pics to come.

pics of the car when i first brought it home.

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pics of filthy interior

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cabin air filter was dirty! i replaced with a brand new one. :D

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cleaned the seats

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cleaned up

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engine bay before and after

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Nice ride. You should have made the big WHIV meet :) Ouch, that interior is dirty. Nothing some elbow grease can't fix.

cleaned up the body and waxed. still needs a good professional cut and buff.

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shift knob before and after. was all scratched up.

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You need to clean those...

Anyway, drop it baby!

Good job on the cleaning. I will have some basically new Tein S tech springs for sale soon so keep and eye on the for sale subsection if you have plans to lower it.

i turned the rx8 into a wagon

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micro machine!

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car had some coolant leaks. so i replaced the hoses with silicone and added water wetter.

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forgot to take pics of the finished work.

then i removed the front bumper to install some factory fog lights, hid's, and led corner lights. while i was at it i fabbed up some oil cooler and a/c condenser screen. toook for ever picking out all the rocks and straightening all the fins. much thanks to my wife for alll the help.

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got the windows tinted for $120 all around. went with 35% so that i can see out at night without problems.

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couple pics at whiv 2011. candid of the wife. i temporarily covered the side markers in some left over cf vinyl to hide the ugly clashing orange. plan on eventually smoking it dark but this will do for now. actually doesn't look that bad. seems to be my fix for everything. also i installed some hood shocks.

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next on the list is plastidipping the emblems to black. i already wrapped the rotor accents in the cf vinyl also to make them more stealth.

What part of Vegas are you at?

pics

i live on the east side of vegas. all the way up by sunrise mountain. hollywood st.



i was at the whiv on friday but had to leave early around 6:30pm.


im planning on getting full coilovers eventually so i'll probably just rock the stock height for now. thanks tho!


thanks guys for the compliments also. was good meeting alot of you at whiv.

wow really nice work!
Always nice to see some TLC/ elbow grease put into great restoration.
Beautiful results :bigok:

I thought I was OCD enough until I see this.

haha man i left out alot of pics of the other dirty spots in the interior. the overall feel of owning the car felt 100 times better after cleaning it all out. also it doesnt smell like oil inside anymore. replaced the dirty dirty cabin air filters and whipped everything down.

there was even oil film all over the interior windows! anyways. its very clean now.

just installed led 3rd brake light today. also replaced every interior light with leds including the vanity lights.

working on covering the stupid useless holes on the sun visors with once again.... cf vinyl!! hahaaa fix for everything. looks pretty good actually. i'll post pics of that soon.

future mods are, coilovers ( probably stance, or powertrix since im half korean and the car is green), 19 inch piano black forgestar f14 rims, painting the calipers the "project mu" teal color, slotted rotors, many more...

Looks great man and congrats. Looks like you're treating it right. How many cats did the guy own? That was a lot of cat fur.

i think they owned 2. funny thing was he said they dont let the cats into the garage! haha suuuuurrre. i should have taken close up pics of all the hair on the seat cushions. that took forever to get clean. lint roller was our friend that day.

only other problems with the car right now are motor mounts are getting weak and tired, and the front passenger shock is starting to loose fluid. the shock still works perfectly fine but it'll live till i get the coilovers im sure.

also the damn aqua tail lights, both sides. will have to pull them out and try sealling them with some silicone.

Damn you did lots of work to it, I really need to buy or make some oil cooler screens myself, mine look as beat up as yours did.

To bad you didn't make it out to get that compression test done, I thought for sure you were gonna be at Phils but maybe you had to work or something.

I absolutely love that color!! Nice work on the restoration, and lol at cat hair en masse.

wow, excellent restoration. great work.

Good grief, did the previous owner use the car as a dog house?:SHOCKED:

Could be my imagination, but I think your car looks happier in the "after" pictures.

hahaa thanks all you guys! i got some more pics coming soon.

i've already replaced glove box for a newer one with less scratches. also picked up a new sliding arm rest release button from the dealer for $14 brand new.

i also tried out the takeda ram air intake and tho it did give me better gas mileage a bit i felt it robbed hp at the top end so i went back to the stock air box with k&n filter.


here in the next couple of weeks i'd like to get the little dents here and there removed and then have the paint restored.

man i love my wife. she even hand cleaned my fender well liners and under trays till they were clean enough to eat off when i was installing the home made screens and hid's.

def. happier. its funny you say this cus the wife and i notice that the car tends drive smoother after we spend time cleaning it. we both are beginning to think that the rx8 has feelings!

i new erik was going to be busy so i just ended up coming later when he was done working on phil's car to hang out with him for awhile before he left back to az the next day.

im going to go do my compression test myself at phil's next time he has a open garage day as well as do a seafoam to the motor.

congratulations, and you are damn good for going through all works to make your 8 shine.

Ah I just told him to tell me a time he was ok with and he wanted me there at 8 am. The test is very simple, just remove a spark plug and screw in the thing for the tester. The most annoying part was connecting the thing that goes into the spark plug hole with the rest of the tester, it has about a 2 or 3 inch cord and its a 3 pin connector so it only connects a certain way. You would think in designing the tester they would have mad both sides of cord long so it was easier, but no.

nice, a twin minus that im auto and have the sport/aero package

i just cant get enough of the green lol

Man, I really like seeing this... you took a car that wasn't destroyed, but just hadn't been cared for correctly, and you're doing all the things to bring it back to a nice condition.

I'm really impressed. Nice work.

just wanted to post pics up of my beautiful wife. she's the one who helped make it all happen. she's always asking me if she can help when im doing something on the cars. she doesnt care if its crazy hot outside and if she is sweating like a whore in church. i never hear her complain.

she has helped detail the interior, pick out all the rocks in the coolers and straighten out all the fins, she scrubbed my fender liners and undertray's, she helps me install parts and everytime i wash the car she is there helping out.

she is my best friend and i love every moment with her. even when we are working out together down to her just sitting next to me playing final fantasy 12. ( i help her beat the hard bosses)

anyways this is her.

our first date

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r..._4643610_n.jpg

her graduation from unlv

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...7/SAM_0027.jpg

just us at our favorite sushi place in the world yamasushi!

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...7/IMG_1407.jpg

Congrats, you're a lucky dude :)

finally!! after driving around to all these places like homedepot, lowes, walmart, etc... to try and get them to cut my new 05 switch blade key with no luck.

today i went to a little post office place who cuts keys by hand and had it cut. they only charged $.60 but i tipped the little girl $3.

at first she was not wanting to do it also because it has a chip but i told her that as long as it is mechanically the same cut i can program it to work on my car. so she did it.

it is sooo much nicer to hold and keep in the pants pocket.

Im impressed!! very nice work!!! I wish i had girl friends like your wife!!!! im not that lucky =/

Awesome noobs do exist. Is that your MR2 with the Volk GT-C's?

Your one lucky dude playing Final Fantasy 12 with her, congrats and good luck with you guys. Go Runnin' Rebels!!!

Wow man, awesome job with everything. +1 for having a badass wife.

yeah thats my 91 widebody mr2 turbo. not sure what ur referring to as being a noob.

Job well done!

Hard to imagine how you and your wife managed to turn that 8 from a ZERO-----> to a HERO. :bowdown:

By the way, I can relate to your appreciation for your wife. My lady is actually the complete opposite when it comes to my hobbies and interests, but she always backs me up and supports me when I need her most during the trials and tribulations of my life. :love:

Enjoy your 8 to the fullest, and I wish you and your spouse the very best future together.

^ thanks so much! really nice things said and it is taken to heart.

you guys are great. can't wait to add more pics up as things change as they come. even the little things i do i'll post pics.

Nice job! Congrats!

Nice job man, the car is coming along nicely. I hope to meet you and your wife next year at the 5th "What Happens in Vegas" Meet.

^ def! i look forward to it. i'll hold u to that so make sure u def. com.

by next year i should be sporting some piano black f14's also so that would be cool to park next to ur car!

:D: All the best!

I'll be there, this year was the second year I attended, it's a great meet. My wheels are not F14's but my buddy Hoss-05's will be there and he has bronze F14's :) Piano black F14's are sick.

This is a shot I took of Atilla's car from this year, he is rolling piano black F14's

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9krpmrx8/5761001846/

What did you use to straighten out the fins?? =)

we used a straight pick tool. like this one


http://www.amazon.com/Tool-Aid-SGT13.../dp/B000X1E5PC

was able to pick out all the tiny rocks and pebbles also with it. there were looots.

my wife says she thinks you and her would be great friends if you guys lived in vegas.

i said, i wish! my wife could use some good "real" friends and even better if she likes cars!

Nice 8 and your wife is gorgeous !!! Whats her background if you dont mind me asking :)

youre a lucky dude man. Your wife is my ideal wife.

she is full filipina. maybe part french to? what filipino isnt part french or spanish?

awesome thanks. i was messing with mine today while i was doing a coolant flush to pass the time... was pretty difficult using a flat head screw driver :) LMAO.
ill order this!