Family Racer and Dream Garage Build
 

I’ve been on the Board for a while now, but never started a build thread. My car progress hasn’t been fast, but methodical to fit my goals. I also just recently purchased a house with a 3 car garage that has a lot of potential, and thought some of you might like the direction I’m going with it. It’s an 800 sq ft (interior measured roughly 35x23) garage. I grew up tinkering in my grandfather’s shop, and will continue that with my girls and their kids (someday) in this very building.

Here she is the day I got the ISF from a former forum member. A one owner 13 with 20s, swift springs, headers, exhaust, and Toms body kit. It came with all original parts but the exhaust. It had like 28k on it I believe. He kept it mint, and was a very nice guy to work with. I flew to Florida with the lovely wife and drove it home. May have been one of my funnest weekends.

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Here is the shop as it was the day I took delivery (just last month).


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The house was very nice, but the garage was heavily smoked in. I have big plans for it, with work under way. A nice garage has actually been more of a life long dream than a cool car, so I’m excited and fortunate to have finally acquired both. Now it’s time to make it all my own style.

Ill update this thread soon to bring you all up to speed on the car and my shop, and the direction I’m headed with both.

Oooooh NICE. This will be a fun watch

Congrats on the house! Looking forward to see progress pictures of the shop/garage!

I quickly started playing with the car when I got it. I put on a set of 19x9 et 40 square Forged Fsport wheels from my daily IS350, and started hitting the track and car shows.


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However, this wasn’t really my style. It rode rough on a 30 series tire, and I hated the springs, so you see the ride height increase in these pictures as I went back to stock springs.

I have proven to myself many times that rotational mass matters, and I also prefer taller side walls, so I went to some Volk TE Sagas in 18x9.5 et 45. Here she sits on OEM suspension with drag radials in a 285 rear.

Weight reduction is expensive, but the benefits are profound, usually.



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Some of 2019... right before life slowed down a lot.


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Date night with my oldest girl. If you have girls, teach them how a man should treat them!
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I found a local ISF at the gym.
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Time to fix an exhaust leak!
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Drag night with my 707 whp buddy.
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Picked this up, but still haven’t installed it.
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Made a very fun commercial with my local Lexus dealer. The video is on my Instagram at Isfolution. I don’t really care for social media, so I fail to update that account much.

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I bought and installed Tillet carbon seats. I read they were comfortable. I sold them already, and my backside appreciates it.
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This shows how much legroom the oem seats steal. I’m 5’9, for reference.
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Random pic, but I built a virtual race car which has been a savior during COVID. A very fun and, ironically realistic, hobby!
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I personally hate the oem muffler design. My JoeZ exhaust was filling my cab with exhaust. Problem solved. I know many of you don’t like these tips, but i like them a lot. It has the added benefit of being very different. Granted, it doesn’t have the ISF look from behind anymore.
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The new seats arrived. I wanted to keep carbon but go comfortable. These are out of a euro spec Porsche, but they are really just carbon Recaro pole position ABE seats. They come oem in some merc, bmw, and I believe Porsche track edition cars, usually to the tune of 10-17k per set. I got these from an upholstery shop. Someone bought them and had custom leather done. He installed them, his wife hated them, and somehow the upholstery shop Owner ended up with them in storage.
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He gave me a very low price, and I happily paid it. They need a final adjustment, they are laid back a little to far. That said, they are very comfortable, and extremely supportive, yet they have plenty of room. They hold me well, and my very large friends love them too. I’m talking like 6’4, 350 pound guys. I drove all summer with these, and decided they are staying in my life forever. I weigh about 165, so I’m not sure how Recaro built a bucket that fits everyone... but they did.
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Ignore mess. I had no garage at the time. We will get to that later.
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I’m a bit tired of the Toms diffuser. It’s on seemingly every ISF.
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So I took it off. It was held on with gasket maker... so thanks to whoever did that.
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Oh wait... the paint is ruined from the gasket maker. I will be reinstalling the diffuser.
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Don’t ever forget to teach your kids how to mix E30... it’s a necessary life lesson. This kid loves tools, cars, and driving fast. See my Instagram for a great video of her while I’m accelerating.

I had a wiring issue I figured out with the help of the forum.

I added an intake, tune and catch can. I think I deleted most of those pics. My car now runs the oem tune with oem intake, and no catch can. I have a completely unsubstantiated theory that the 12 plus ecu is different somehow. My car didn’t like the tune or intake, and held back some timing. I could never figure out why. With the oem stuff, it runs more timing, with KCLVs in the 24s and 25s. I sold that stuff to another member that loves them (with full disclosure)... so who knows. His car is faster with it... mine was slower.

My overall goal is a weekend, family friendly, but pretty serious race car. I have a ton of interest in road coursing, especially after hrdiven let me ride along with him this summer. Hold tight for coils and track mods, as well as watching me learn how to drive. I drag race, but have bored of it. A whole night of sitting for 5 runs in a 12 second car is fun with friends, but it isn’t much speed overall.

I almost bought Ohlins TTX from figs, but most car mods went on hold this summer. With so much time at home, we decided it was time to buy a house we really love instead of a garage-less condo that was cheap. So I spent the summer getting the condo ready, and saving all my Nickels for a house. We closed last month, and I now have the blank canvas of a garage you see above.

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The yellow is a nicotine stained ceiling. The white is basic Kilz primer. I wouldn’t even move in until I primed the garage. It smelled terrible. He mostly smoked out there.
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Ceiling picture.
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I tore out pretty much everything he left. I only kept the TV.
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This was not easy, since we only had 4 days to give our condo over to the buyer. I drank many Red Bull during that 4 days.
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HVAC before cleaning. House was scrubbed, carpets cleaned, and HVAC system cleaned. House smells nice and clean now.
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My commercial grade armorproxy supratiles came in. Hit them up for overstock deals. I wanted dark grey and black checkerboard flooring. They didn’t have enough from overstock commercial jobs for the garage, but they did have enough if I would take 1/3 black, 1/3 dark grey, and 1/3 light grey mix. This stuff is pretty cool, and you can drive a fork light on it, so it’ll easily take my auto shop abuse. I won’t put this in yet, but I already have a layout plan.
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More cleaning... this has been the worse part.
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Glad you finally got the garage you've been wanting! Worth the wait. If you want to join us on road course, DM me. A few of us have signed up for NCM and Mid Ohio already with more to come. Hrdrvn's said his schedule may not allow for ISF runs but hopefully he can join us.
Enjoy the new home and of course the F.
Rick

Congrats on the new house and garage! Hope you can find a way to get a lift in there too.

Thanks.

My brother and I are hitting Putnam this year. We considered mid Ohio, but we just built his engine, and If it kabooms on us, we want to be closer to my house and not 3 hours away. It should be fine... but we aren’t pros by any means. He’s a farmer and I work in hospital administration, so time will tell :).

A lift is going in for sure. The ceilings are 9’3”. I’m looking at the bendpak 2 post lift designed for 9 ft ceilings. Overhead work can be done on a gliding stool for someone that is my height. Some 12 ft ceilings would have been nice, but 3 car garage homes that aren’t in vinyl villages are not plentiful in Indy. I prefer craftsman custom homes from the 80s, so was super limited in options. Since a lift would fit, I pulled the trigger. I need to drill a pilot hole to see how deep the concrete is. I only need 4.25 inch depth, so I think it should be ok.

Beautiful work! Can’t wait to see it finished.

Congrats on the house purchase. Garage space is critical. Coming along nicely it seems. That cig residue is naaaaaaasty.

Is your '13 Nebula Grey Pearl or that Meteor color?

If it’s an event I can commit to hitting, let me know and I’ll bring the trailer. As long as only one of us has issues, we can figure it out.