Issues With the Economy and Cars

Well as the current economic crisis continues to deter me from expensive projects, I've found a cheaper alternative for the time being. Rather than dump 50k and then some into a completely scratch built car, I've decided to make some additions to my current vehicle.

If you don't know already know, my first and current car is a 1999 Acura Integra. Most car enthusiasts know what a fun car this is to drive. It may be just the SE model, but it's still got the handling of the Type R. I've decided to start by purchasing a good set of 16"x7" Rota Torques with a set of Yokohama Paradas. The new wheels and rubber should make driving what I have much more fun especially in the corners. I've also been sourcing out a type R style spoiler, and a lip for the front. The car is silver and it should look good with Gunnmetal on the wheels, a black spoiler and a black seibon style front lip.

I'll post some pics once I've received the parts and installed them. My next holiday isn't till the 9th of February, so till then.

Dave

It's been a number of months since I've given any updates, but frankly there isn't anything to report at this point. Building a car is an expensive project, and currently I'm just getting money for the project. I can't really give an estimation on the time it'll take to get enough money together. As most of you know the world economy doesn't look too healthy and I'm thinking a healthy positive number in the bank would be a good idea......Although maybe the bank isn't a good place to store it either. Who knows what will happen, I suppose we'll find out.

Interior designs

Well I've added a new link to my blog, for the pictures of the Interior. For the longest time I hadn't done much work on that aspect of my design. I'm now presenting an almost finished product, or rough model of what the interior is going to look like. As you can see I've taken the Digital Dash from the new Honda Civic Type R....Unfortunately if I'm going to use those parts I'm going to have to import them from Europe because they never brought it here. Then the rest of the interior is basic molded carbon fiber skins. I'm still not 100% certain of whether I'm going to use a manual or tiptronic. I know it's a sports car, and any real enthusiast would tell me that it's gotta be manual. But for all who are thinking that, would you rather have a really crummy shifter or a tiptronic auto. The reason for the crummy shifter, is I would have to design my own shift linkage. This could pose to be fairly difficult as the transmission is behind the engine, and access is very limited. Plus the stretching and contracting of cables over that distance would be horrendous.......The only other option is for someone out there to get me an amazing price on a sequential manual transmission....when I say amazing price I mean somewhere in the realm of free or under 2000 bucks

new stuff

so I did some more work on the front end of the car, I shrunk the headlights slightly and widened the intake, I think it looks better over all. I also added some taillights, keep in mind that they're just an idea, let me know what you think, as feedback is always appreciated. Personally I think the design is really coming along, not much left to improve on whithout changing the design completely. I've started working on the interior, I haven't quite decided what I want in there yet, so I've designed a dash, and I've decided to go with the new honda civic display etc.

Updates

If anyone has been attempting to follow my blog, my reason for the lack of updates is due to the lack of computing power. My previous computer couldn't render or run the viewport properly let alone new versions of 3DS Max.

I'm currently working on an interior design for the car

I'm still trying to think of a cool way to do the dash. I will have to design and build my own seats for the car because of an interior space issue. Since it will be considered a kit car I can probably get away with it. Plus it allows me to make a custom seat that fits me.
I was thinking of using some styling cues from the new Toyota FT-HS Hybrid Sports Concept. I hope that by looking at the Toyota's interior it will give me some inspiration to create my own.

fixing my car, and other advancements

Last weekend I finally had time to fix the damage on my 1999 Acura Integra. The front bumper had a tear, as well as some scrapes to fix. As I've come to know, all accidents are worse than they look. It turns out that the lower rad support was bent beyond repair, and I had bent the passenger side structural rail. Lucky for me my father is an auto body repair technician. I'm still trying to figure out if his boss is going to charge me anything for the parts and paint. The bills from our families car accidents have a way of disappearing. The last 2 bumper repairs and wheel repair bills have never made it too us. I may have just been spared a $1000 dollar bill.

Having my father around will be very useful when it comes to building my car because of his knowledge of how cars are put together, as well as his very good eye for body shape.

I've gotten the go ahead for fixing up the barn and building a workshop there, so in a few months that should be ready for me to move in and get down to the car building part.