My widebody 98 SC400
01-31-14, 05:39 PM
#1
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My widebody 98 SC400
Hello everyone. I've been lurking on here for quite some time now so i figured i'd make a build thread to track the progress of my car a little better.
I bought my SC400 in October of 2012 from a lady in Denton Texas just outside Dallas who had recently passed away and her husband and son were selling the car. The car only had 72k miles and if i remember correctly was the lowest mileage SC for sale in the country at the time except for a 99 with 68k. The final price paid was 10,500 (pricey for an SC yes but i think i saved some money in the long run with such low miles on it) and it was driven back to Houston.
We had some issues driving back however. The car i guess had a leak of some sort and had dripped onto the alternator. we made it about 3/4ths of the way until we ran out of battery and pulled over and diagnosed the problem. new battery fully charged was purchased and car was run the rest of the way home (~80 miles) on just battery without the alternator in, and thats the end of the buying of the car
fast forward to december 2012. I was really into stance at the time (not that im not into it anymore now, but less so) and the first purchase made for the car was a set of KSport Kontrol Pro's. Excellent suspension and purchased for 1000.
ill post the finished pictures now to show the end result. Keep in mind these pictures are skipping any 'story line' posts. If the car doesn't have GTR wheels, it is a story line post. Sorry for the confusion
suggestions, feedback, etc. is greatly appreciated.
All body work was done by ICAR Houston located in katy texas. they got me one hell of a deal for the paint and body work, and as we all know it is no small task to get an ED kit to fit good. (did i mention its an ED widebody?)
I bought my SC400 in October of 2012 from a lady in Denton Texas just outside Dallas who had recently passed away and her husband and son were selling the car. The car only had 72k miles and if i remember correctly was the lowest mileage SC for sale in the country at the time except for a 99 with 68k. The final price paid was 10,500 (pricey for an SC yes but i think i saved some money in the long run with such low miles on it) and it was driven back to Houston.
We had some issues driving back however. The car i guess had a leak of some sort and had dripped onto the alternator. we made it about 3/4ths of the way until we ran out of battery and pulled over and diagnosed the problem. new battery fully charged was purchased and car was run the rest of the way home (~80 miles) on just battery without the alternator in, and thats the end of the buying of the car
fast forward to december 2012. I was really into stance at the time (not that im not into it anymore now, but less so) and the first purchase made for the car was a set of KSport Kontrol Pro's. Excellent suspension and purchased for 1000.
ill post the finished pictures now to show the end result. Keep in mind these pictures are skipping any 'story line' posts. If the car doesn't have GTR wheels, it is a story line post. Sorry for the confusion
suggestions, feedback, etc. is greatly appreciated.
All body work was done by ICAR Houston located in katy texas. they got me one hell of a deal for the paint and body work, and as we all know it is no small task to get an ED kit to fit good. (did i mention its an ED widebody?)
Last edited by PiXEL; 02-26-15 at 05:19 PM.
01-31-14, 06:21 PM
#2
I think it looks great!
When I first started reading I thought you were nuts even thinking about putting a widebody on such a clean and low mile SC. The end result looks awesome though.
Are those GTR wheels?
Only thing I would change immediately are the eBay headlights and taillights and replace them with clean factory ones.
When I first started reading I thought you were nuts even thinking about putting a widebody on such a clean and low mile SC. The end result looks awesome though.
Are those GTR wheels?
Only thing I would change immediately are the eBay headlights and taillights and replace them with clean factory ones.
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02-01-14, 07:52 AM
#8
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Clean man. kinda a crazy price to buy it low miles or not. (Even paying for an engine rebuild and buying one for 2kwould be half of what you paid). Either way nice car. Same comment about lights but no biggie.
02-01-14, 01:32 PM
#10
If you buy a high mileage SC for $2k and hope that a rebuilt engine is the cure to all your problems then you're kidding yourself. You'll be spending another $5k trying to replace all the worn leather, bushings, suspension, etc etc (list goes on). All you'll have then is a nice $10k car with high mileage.
There's a lot to be said for a well kept low mileage car
02-01-14, 06:19 PM
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I think it looks great!
When I first started reading I thought you were nuts even thinking about putting a widebody on such a clean and low mile SC. The end result looks awesome though.
Are those GTR wheels?
Only thing I would change immediately are the eBay headlights and taillights and replace them with clean factory ones.
When I first started reading I thought you were nuts even thinking about putting a widebody on such a clean and low mile SC. The end result looks awesome though.
Are those GTR wheels?
Only thing I would change immediately are the eBay headlights and taillights and replace them with clean factory ones.
If you've been lurking, have you not noticed the distain for Ebay crap lights by basically everyone on the SC forum??
Your build would be amazing with the factory taillights swapped back in, and some clean factory headlights. It completely CHEAPENS the whole build by using Ebay circle taillights and headlights... It screams knock-off, and secretly you have many people who are snickering at those ricer junk lights. Don't mean to be rude at all, but telling you like it is, because you need to know-- and the rest of your exterior looks GREAT! Even the GT-R rims fit nicely enough!
Step into 2014 by changing your lights back to some legitimate originals. The car Gods will smile down upon you.
*Side note, you could leave the high beam projectors and it'd be ok by most peoples "standards"- (and you wouldn't have to remove the bumper(- but then please swap the clear lenses from those Ebay low beam housings you already have onto the factory inner lights which I hope you still have stored away, so it'll match and look 10x better. (*and make sure you seal them well if you do this.) But the tails especially... are ruining everything.
I'm rooting for you.
*Also, it'd look nice with some JDM bump clear corner lights.
Your build would be amazing with the factory taillights swapped back in, and some clean factory headlights. It completely CHEAPENS the whole build by using Ebay circle taillights and headlights... It screams knock-off, and secretly you have many people who are snickering at those ricer junk lights. Don't mean to be rude at all, but telling you like it is, because you need to know-- and the rest of your exterior looks GREAT! Even the GT-R rims fit nicely enough!
Step into 2014 by changing your lights back to some legitimate originals. The car Gods will smile down upon you.
*Side note, you could leave the high beam projectors and it'd be ok by most peoples "standards"- (and you wouldn't have to remove the bumper(- but then please swap the clear lenses from those Ebay low beam housings you already have onto the factory inner lights which I hope you still have stored away, so it'll match and look 10x better. (*and make sure you seal them well if you do this.) But the tails especially... are ruining everything.
I'm rooting for you.
*Also, it'd look nice with some JDM bump clear corner lights.
Plus i wouldnt have modified a low mileage clean car like that with knockoff kits and cheap ebay lights!
Its dosent look bad tho but you could of done this probably for half the price.
Should black out that chrome trim it would look sportier
Any plans for the engine?
02-01-14, 07:38 PM
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I dont think thats a crazy price at all. For a mint car with 78k miles $10.5K is very reasonable imo. I paid $9500 for my old '99 with 95k on it. Biggest selling point for me was that the maintenace was kept up to date and it was in better shape than my '99 now with 80k (and if I was to sell it I'd be asking a bit more than $10k as well).
If you buy a high mileage SC for $2k and hope that a rebuilt engine is the cure to all your problems then you're kidding yourself. You'll be spending another $5k trying to replace all the worn leather, bushings, suspension, etc etc (list goes on). All you'll have then is a nice $10k car with high mileage.
There's a lot to be said for a well kept low mileage car
If you buy a high mileage SC for $2k and hope that a rebuilt engine is the cure to all your problems then you're kidding yourself. You'll be spending another $5k trying to replace all the worn leather, bushings, suspension, etc etc (list goes on). All you'll have then is a nice $10k car with high mileage.
There's a lot to be said for a well kept low mileage car
. I dont disagree about maint dates, and a well kept low mile car. But id still rather put my work into and apend less.I will be posting my build here soon in about a month (as long as i can make a deciaion on wheels and a couple more pieces can be found. I bought my sc3 for 800. Was two colors, no rear seats or passenger. Tons of oil leaks, a failing torque converter. But everything else works fine. 176k
In under 6k my build is complete (this includes boost *except ems*, and 5spd conversion) so add another 2k between wheels and the standalone im buying. 9k build restored, boosted and manual. Im stoked to post it.