Relaxing
Woah! Whatsup everyone. Haven’t been on here for a minute but I do have a little update for you guys. Nothing crazy, just hanging out with the homies. I don’t got much to show but this is just to let you guys know that i’m still alive and kickin it. I have been way too busy over the past few months or so. Just landed a new job at the shop and it’s hectic. I got a lot to learn still and i’ve been way too tired after work to go out and do much. I did however have time today to clear my mind off a lot of things and get together with some friends to just chill and relax for a bit.
Supremacy Car Club had their annual yearly meet and I went to go check it out. There were tons of sick cars from vip, to import to domestic and the best of all, the lowriders and hoppers. It was a great turn out and I didn’t take any photo’s. Mainly because I was lazy and I just wanted to walk around and talk with old friends. Got to see Sphoto, Sean Perez and Timmy Bantolina along with a few more familiar faces. We dipped out on the event early and headed west bound. Mikal wanted to snap some photo’s of Christian aka pimp_cee’s bagged Isuzu Pup. It wasn’t my photoshoot so I just decided to sidebust and snap away some behind the scenes type of stuff. Christian’s truck came a long way and it’s nice to see it get it’s own little photo op.
Sitting on the side is Windle aka _swindlizum’s miata so I took the chance to snap some photo’s of it.
The funny thing about this is that the skates is owned by Mikey G (mikeyfkngee) LOL
Closing out this short post with a photo of Mikey D ( @mikeezzy_ ) coming in hot.
Throwback Thursday! Friendly Encounter
So I have a set of rims for sale and this one dude hit me up. My car is down due to the fuel pump shitting on me the night before so I told him to head over to my crib to check it out. As soon as I got out front he quickly got out of his car and I find out that it was an old friend of mine, Paul Higa! Some may not be familiar with him but here is where my throwback thursday post begins.
Back in 2006-2007 I picked up my first skateboard. I found it on the side of the road and stuck with it for a very long time. So I rode it everywhere not knowing how bad the trucks and bearings were. I didn’t care much about that because it was fun just riding around with a bunch of my middle school friends. I was hooked on to pushing around. In about late 2007 a good friend of mine Gerald Salle that used to skate with me introduced me to his dad, Paul Higa. Paul was a long time skateboarder and used to skate for the very popular skateboarding shop and brand A’ala Park Boardshop. Paul just pushed my fascination for skateboarding even more when he took me and my friends to A’ala Skatepark for the very first time in late 2007. He always skated with us for a short time till we kinda grew up and started going to the parks our self.
Fast forward 6 years later, I don’t skateboard much anymore. I don’t really have much time on my hands because of work and finishing up a few projects that I have on my hands. I put my time and money towards my cars so I don’t really think twice about picking up a skateboard these days. Paul on the other hand is doing the same thing. He had several Honda’s and is currently buying my wheels for his Honda Civic EK he recently acquired. Funny thing is that a bunch of us guys that did skateboard back in the day, are now into cars.
I wish I had pictures for you guys but it would require a lot of digging. Sorry for the read but to close out this Throwback Thursday post, here’s Paul Higa’s part in the APB video called Midnight Mariders back in 1999.
Daniel Domingcil’s 2000 EM1
The name should be very familiar to ya’ll! Dirty Danz is back with a fresh new build to kick off the 2013 year. If you know who Daniel is, then you should already know he can get down. His prior Integra builds have always been a pretty big inspiration to me, being the older Honda enthusiast that I am. He was always known for having some pretty sick 2nd Gen Integra builds thru out the years, and this time he decided to take a different route to avenge himself from his previous EK hatchback build that didn’t go to well… again if you knew Dan personally, you know what happened but I feel like that shouldn’t be discussed here because that’s not the point of this post.
Prior to the yellow paint job and wheels, Dan had already told me his plans for the car. I was super excited and now i’m finally blogging about this yellow beast. Daniel decided to go with the Phoenix Yellow, color from the USDM-JDM Integra and Civic Type R. Different? Yes. It’s hard to be unique in the Honda community but Daniel had the right idea of trying to be different. Mikal Soriano also got to squeeze in a quick video… check it out.
What I really enjoy about this build is the way he did the things the way he did and the parts selection. The exterior and interior mods created such a timeless look to this car. Took me back to how cars were getting done back in like 2006. Everyone knows that the whole low offset trend is taking over, and you and me know that for a fact. Everyone wants that whole look of having 0 offset wheels with ridiculous camber and bent fenders. It’s not my style and I am not a fan of the whole scene, but as a real automotive enthusiast, I give props to people who do that kind of stuff. Respecting all kinds of modifications to vehicles all ties into being an enthusiast because we all share the same passion, modifying cars…
Daniel on the other hand kept it clean and simple with the Kosei K1 wheels and Spoon axle back exhaust. A look he created that would be given a lot of props from the older generation of Honda automotive tuning.
Air Walker Japan bumper.
S2K Push start and digital cluster.
Spoon Sports shift knob.
Closing out this post with a shot of the illuminated city lights on the Civic Type R headlights. Be sure to catch a glimpse of this build at wek’fest this weekend everyone! Aloha!
1AM
I just suddenly had the urge to go out and do some late night photos. It didn’t really happen the way I wanted it to though. Ended up meeting with Jarreth and didn’t do much. But I did capture a few things that night…
It’s been a while since I’ve done these long exposure shots. It’s pretty cool!
Jarreth Arrengo
Sunday Funday
Got together at the usual Sunday night meet up spot, Cherry On Top.
Hein Le’s Wagon
Rare times seeing Shingo’s Audi out. He decided to stroll by and show off the new grille and rear diffuser.
Looking really tough with the new ride height and spaced wheels. Missing the lip but Trey san has been keeping it at home so he doesn’t break it in half.
The yellow duo! Jpizz0 and DirtyDanz
There seemed to be a lot of pairs that night.
Yeah… really.
Closing out our little mini meets with another shot of the dynamic duo. Be sure to check back often for more updates! Kristie got to talk to the management and arranged the Auto Fashion guys to have their first ever Waddup Wednesdays meet held at the Cherry On Top lot. Should be fun! Aloha
Random Outing
Saturday started out kinda slow but in the late evening I got together with Trey and Daniel to shoot some photo’s at this pretty sweet spot outside of town.
Some might remember my trashy Accord lip with the stupid fitment but I got rid of that and it took its place in the trash. I got an OEM lip from the junkers and paint matched it at the Gravel Garage. Also got a chance to put the replica OEM hood bra made by lebra. I would have bought the real bra but it’s already hard enough to find and you can’t beat a $40 deal.
Trey also had the time to raise his car a bit because there was no way of driving around with the first molding lip. He spaced the front a little and i’m sure he’ll be fixing the camber in the rear in the near future.
One thing I enjoy about Trey’s build is that he’s always thinking up of way’s to be different. His car has come a long way but it’s obvious that it still has some to go. I think after the paint and body work, it’ll be one hell of a civic. We’ll see what’s in store later this year.
Excuse my dirty windshield haha.
I’ve been meaning to shoot DirtyDanz’s TL for a while now but I never really had the time to do so. He is also a busy guy with work and building his other project.
You all know Daniel aka DirtyDanz from all his other infamous builds like his old DA9′s and Turboed DB1. Which, I am much inspired by a lot. He really just picked this TL up for a nice clean daily driver but you’ll hear a lot from DirtyDanz this year because he’ll be debuting his Civic Si coupe that he has in the works for a while now. Stay tuned!
Garage JS4KIX
The day started out pretty early. At 10am I headed down to Mikal’s house to get some stuff done to my car. Then at noon or so, our friends from Japan came over to hang out. A few days prior, Mikal had met up with his Japanese connections. Though Mikal is really all into the mini truck game, these fellow truck enthusiast from Japan didn’t hesitate to give Mikal some props that he deserves. Yoshinori Hoshino is a pretty well known lifted truck enthusiast in Japan. He has 2 lifted trucks and runs a shop in Japan called Local Auto. They visit Hawaii often and is inspired by our culture. Surprises me because its reverse in Japan. We are interested in what they are doing and they are interested in what we are doing. Anywho, Yoshi san and his friends Wataru Hasegawa and Sherato Kazukai came through the crib to check out what was going on.
They enjoyed looking at my Integra, the Hilux and the Hachiroku but I felt that it wasn’t enough. Since they had to leave the next day, I decided to give the homie Gary Ganotisi over at JS4KIX Garage a call. We asked if it was alright for us to bring down our new Japanese friends for a visit! He said we are welcome. Once we had got there, they instantly started enjoying everything.
Trust me, it was very hard to have a steady conversation with these guys because they know little to no english. But I don’t blame them. I felt bad a little because I know they really had a lot to say, but just didn’t know how to project it. Yoshino had his translator on his Iphone out so it made things a little easier. One day i’ll learn Japanese and we would all be on the same page. Here’s Gary showing Yoshino san some trucks that he has owned.
Trey Kobatake, my local Japanese friend. hahahaha
While the visitors were on a tour of the shop, I decided to snap some photo’s my self. This is Gary’s 240 just sitting in the corners of the shop. He has Nissan’s everywhere.
Another one of Gary’s cars just sitting in the shop.
Another 240sx that Gary has. With the aggressive fitment and stickers, You can see that it’s a show car but I have no doubts that Gary can get this thing sideways. Some that dont know, Gary competes in the Vegas Pro-am series and has had many success. But due to him buying a house this year, he will be delayed on some stuff. Family always comes first!
Gary specializes in Wheels/Tires, Paint, and just recently got into Street Wear. Gary has a store right upstairs of the garage called Showroom Hi for people to pick up his own street wear brand JS4KIX and also a few other street clothing products made by Freelance, IKandy and much more. He has a ton of new design’s coming out and will be sick once it’s finished. Check it out!
Also on Instagram: @showroomhi
In the printing room where Gary’s brand shirts get done at.
In the back lot where that Hachiroku coupe sits waiting to be built. Maybe i’ll help you sometime with it Gary! haha. Also these bumpers getting prepped for paint.
His passion in street art shows all around the shop.
Wataru Hasegara, Gary Ganotisi and his son, Yoshinori Hoshino and Sherato Kazuaki
Lets back tack for a bit and give a big Mahalo to our Japanese friends from Hitachinaka, Japan for coming over for a friendly visit. Also Mahalo for repping the JS4KIX lifestyle in Japan with the fresh shirts and lanyards Gary handed them. Me and Mikal would give a last Mahalo for the warm welcome and gift’s we have received from you! We hope you come back soon! Aloha!
Facebook.com/GarageJS4KIX
Facebook.com/Showroom.Hawaii
Local Auto! 3527 Higashiisikawa,
Hitachinaka- City,
Ibaraki 312-0052 Japan.
Phone: 090-3105-2109
