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.

 

pics of filthy interior





























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

 

cleaned the seats







cleaned up










engine bay before and after

 

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.













shift **** before and after. was all scratched up.

 

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





micro machine!



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









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.

 

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









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.









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

 

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?

 

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.