Updates on various project cars take center stage as Bobby and Aaron share their latest garage endeavors. From the transformation of Bobby's 33 GTR with new Nismo parts to Aaron's challenges with wiring and tuning his 32, the duo dives into the nitty-gritty of their automotive projects. They also discuss their plans for upcoming events, including a live podcast at IA and the potential for a local car meet. The episode is filled with personal stories, technical insights, and a glimpse into their automotive passions.
In this episode we run through the projects currently loaded up in Blunt Garage. We also discuss a bit of the future of the podcast and planned events! Please make sure to follow us @RHDGUYS and check out the merch http://RHDGUYS.COM
"...t thing to do some doniesYeah, I think it do some brat brat Donnie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, cuz it sounds cool..."
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Welcome to the right hand drive guys podcast the show for guys who like our hand drives as always I'm BobbyThis is Aaron. Yeah, yo make sure to follow us on the socials at rhd gus
DMS with the questions and check out the merch on rhd gus.com
enjoy episode 60All right andEpisode 60 what are we doing?
Do talking about talking about everything in here talking about the shop doing a little a little blunt garageUpdate what's going on behind us if you're watching on YouTube andJust kind of go through the cars talk about what we're doing with them. Maybe
Discuss a little bit about what we're gonna be doing on the podcast, but yeah, just a general update episodeTell you cool. So I guess I have a few garage projects. So I'll start
And then and then you can throw yours in and we can kind of alternate. Yeah, let's get it
So of course I got the 33 GTR which is directly behind us inThis has been yeah like a work in progress for years so to speak we were just talking about the other day about howWhen I first got the car compared to today, it's definitely like night and day so to speakYeah, it's way better. Yeah, it was just kind of
Rough around the edges was obviously driven so to speak in Japan and had clearly sat around maybe for a little bit andSo you know over the time between sending it to a shop and then what we've done hereYeah, we've really transformed it and and I just kind of keep tweakingLittle odds and ends because at this point, you know, that's all I can doYeah, you know take it. Yeah, the refinement right? Yeah, yeah, for sure
soWhat what's kind of what's going on with it? I just threw down on some
Nismo carbon fiber pillar garnishes nice that was something I didn't have and I kind of had held offon them because I just didn't know how they were gonna lookI wasn't sure if it was like a sticker if it was like a replacement if it was a cover, you know, soAnyways, when we were just in JapanMy pillars on the 34 GTR are kind of like they were just a little faded and stuff right just a little you know
soWhen we were at Nismo, I picked up the ones for that and I I could see the qualityI could see what they were and so when I got back I immediately ordered those because those likeAll right, yeah, these are these are good acts and peace. Yeah, yeah, and dude. Yeah, just say I mean whenever we got back from that
Trips from Japan like it came off that rackYou know it was on there for a while. Oh, yeah, dude it came off and I was like wow
Now yeah, yeah, did you clean the wheels dude? You got it all like shiny. I'm like, oh, okay?
As it moved in months it gets back from JapanMotivated you a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the the gym motivation dude. Yeah, I mean it really is a thing right?
I mean you spend the time over there and you see everybody you know pride with their cars and whatnot andOf course, it's kind of easy sometimes during the winter here. Yeah to kind of let the car go to the way side
Right because I mean can't drive it. So it's like, you know, so yeah, no, I immediately came back did that and then I also ordered the
Nismo carbon fiber mirror cover because you had gotten me that one originallyFor Christmas like two years ago for the 33 butSomething something happened, right? Yeah, so
on trust kykaku is it where I got it from right yeah andyou go and you look at the mirror covers andIt says something like you know, it's for theearly model 33 late model 34. Yeah, or early model 34 some like that. Yeah
andLong story short, it's like backwards like you have to order the one for the 32 for the 33Yeah, and then the one for the 33 for the 34Right exactly. Yeah, it was super confusing. So he gets me this and yeah, I got it for the 33 because it said you know
Early model 33. Yes, like okay. That's it. That's what you got right? I was like got it
Yeah, yeah, and they didn't fit no it didn't fit at all soWe're like, okay, well, this is obviously for the 34. I brought it to Japan with me. Right. I fitted it on there
It looks awesome. It's it dresses up the OEM mirror. Yeah, and so I come home and I immediately order one and I'm like
Go on trust kykaku do the same exact thing he didIt's listed wrong. I buy it for my car, but it's listed wrong and it ends up being the one for the late model 33
and I'm likeI just did the same thing as man didSo then I had to order another one because you're not returning shipping something to Japan from trust kykakuSo I order another one from a different place and if you're looking for one I got it on eBay right now, soBut yeah for the 33 I mean for the most part that's it. I mean, I I'm not like done
You know, I still have some other stuff to do for it. You dig at the tower bar as well. Oh, yeah
How could you forget how could I forget because I don't ever pop the hood?
It's battery that I'm always struggling with is in the trunkSo yeah, no, I did get the SS activeTitanium strut tower bar to match the 34 GTRsSS active strut tower bar, soVery nice piece. Yeah, I did remove an old school top secret strut bar. Yeah, but that's not for sale
soYeah, so that's yeah exactly yeah, so that's pretty much I mean the 33I'm just gonna try to put some mileage on it this year and just drive it easy and take it easy and thenNext winters when everything's gonna go down I can feel it nice. Yeah, so what's up? What's up with you in the 32?
This thing manNot not too much. I have been going through and trying to make improvements on
Pretty much the engine management side of things cars had EC master stand alone since I've had it and it's been tunedI don't know who tuned it how they tuned it BillyYeah cars never had a wide band cars also never had an intake air temp sensor whichIf you know what that does you know that that's probably a not not a good idea to run a car long term like that soanyway, Ibought those sensors and I've been going through the process of
wiring those into the ECU andThat's no wiringYeah, everybody knows that's listening to this right now is like oh dude, I hate wiring right and I meanI try to go into a positively every timeOf course, you know, I try to keep it positive. Oh, it's not that bad. It's just wires. You got a diagram like you got a
Multimeter like you know what's going on like it's not it can't be that hardbutYeah, that's what you tell yourselfThe truth and then you know the main issue ahead was with the wide band. That's the one I started with and
Yeah, I got it all wired upTurned it on let the car run. I'm waiting for it to start reading. It just never does
Yep, you know the feeling right here. So then I'm like all right. Well, what's going on here?
So I immediately starts searching online and just going through the steps and going through what everyoneSays to check pretty much andBasically what it boils down to is everyone saying you know take it apartCheck everything and put it back togetherYeah, they all take apart and put back to right right and I was so confident myself whenever I was installing it that you knowI'd taped everything up nice had it all back in I was like it was final you were driving that pig right right exactly
so Ihad to you know justTake it all out on tape everything that I just taped up which just kind of annoying andYeah, took it apart couldn't really find anything wrong put it back togetherStart of the car up it worked of course it isI'm just likeAll right, whatever it works now. I don't know why it didn't before but it does now and I'm I'll just take that for what it is
So what are you gonna do to is there anything you got to do to get that thing likeTo work with the ECUNo, I mean there's it's like aTo calibrate it I guess you just you know insert what kind of sensor it is and it has it right in there in the menu because only one type isCompatible I see so it has it right there in the menu or it has like a custom as well, butDidn't my dad bother doing that so just clicking that and then doing like a calibration
andPut in the number there and it was it was done nice what the wiring was you know correct or had all the ghost out of itI guess yeahYeah, I mean yeah, why right? It's just just one of those things but so
What like what else so you've been working on getting your sensors installed you get anyThose are for the ECU not gauges or anything right right and then alsoI've been going through and trying to install some defi gauges I got nice I got andIt's an oil pressure and water temp nice soYeah, I've been installing those sensors getting all that into place andTrying to figure out where I'm gonna put this huge box that comes with all the defi gauges. Oh, yeah
They all linked controller. Yeah, yeah, I'm like what do I even do with it?
This is my first set of gauges that I've had or that are like the EL you know theSensors yeah, so all the ones I've had before are mechanical and those just obviouslyYeah, I pick up way easier or not easier, but just less involved a little more simple. Yeah, yeah, you could yeah
Exactly you don't have a control box for it. So trying to figure out where to put that and
Yeah, and that'll be pretty much it for that part and thenYou know eventuallyTrying to get get a hold of someone to tune it. Yeah, it would be nice and like just
You'll road tune. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to get someone to do it remotely
I guess yeah, but I got a few people in mind just having it really reached out and rightI wanted to get everything solid and everything hooked up to correctly and know that it's gonna be reliable before I reach outYeah, you don't want to jump the gun and waste somebody's time and then when you are finally readyYou hit them up and then they're like yeah, okay, dude like I've heard this right, you know likeWe'll I'll believe it when I see it, but it's hard because you are like let's just say excited and like you know
You're gonna need themYou're just excited you're hitting them up and then it ends up. Oh shoot. I have to order this
That's back order dang now it's three months later. Yeah, I think so you know, so exactly so yeah
It's it's sometimes worth waiting and maybe just having a little bit of dead time where you do got away for the tuner or somethingBut right you're not wasting his time. So that's probably the most important right enemy realistically
It probably won't be till spring anyway just because of how the weather is around here and I don't really point onYou know trailer grade anywhere right to have itdone soYeah, justTaken my time on thatMaking sure it's all correct and then I also I hadpre-ordered a seat from thrash racing whoalikeLast year sometimeI believe so I got an email the other day that that will be coming wow
So I'll have a new driver seat and I'll move theRecall confetti I have to the passenger wow so major upgrades major upgrade. Yeah, yeah, that's dope
Yeah, no, so the will the seat seat belt still work? It will and I'll probably just keep it for simplicity because I mean
I don't really have a harness bar or anything right now. Yeah, so I don't want to put it harnesses without doing that
Yeah, so I'll just keep this dog seat belt, but have a fixed bucket. It's that's dope. Yeah, thrash reason
Exactly so everything else engine wise wheels breaks everything's kind ofWhere you where you want it. Yeah, I mean pretty much. I mean engine wise. I probably should do a catch can and
Realistically, I need to rebuild the rear differential, butThose are all things I can do you knowWhen when the time comes. Yeah, I'm not not hurry to do either of those. Yeah
I bet yeahSo that's cool. I mean, it's always nice to not have like the
Situation where maybe your car wouldn't be ready to driveBecause you put a lot of miles on your car. So if you get to in depth with something all of a sudden it's June
Right, right. You know two to three weeks left and you're like
Dipping into up here in Maine where we live. Yeah, you enjoy every minute of that season because it is short
Yeah, it is short. So yeah, we try to get out there as much as we can
That doesn't mean the roads are gonna be clean like we have to wait for a lot to really be out thereBut so this guy really puts the miles on once he can for sureYeah, and last year I kind of made the mistake of why I guess I won a mistake, butJust a little later in the season I guess it was late spring early summer. I
Was doing the front knuckle kid and the control arms and all that yeah, and ended up needing wheel bearingsThat's how it goes. Yeah, so the car was down for you know almost a month
Just for that and that was like you know start of the season or you know pretty much prime time soYeah, I'm trying not to make that mistake again this year trying to keep itKeep it rolling, you know even with what I'm doing. I'm trying to make it where it's still driving walk
It's still started still driving around. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because again, you don't want to miss it. We it's so short here
So okay, I mean yeah, I got too many cars to be honest that I reallyNo, there's no such thing I know but we were just talking about how many more we could fit in yeahI know I know putting in another little four-poster, you know getting some more hide up thereBut so I do get this FL5 up behind usIMean I I would like to do an upgraded front mile in like some T-37sYeah, I mean the car is like
Already sweet for what it is being like tuned and whatnot, you know maybeIntake or something like that would be cool, but otherwise like I don't feel like goingYou know the upgraded turbo row even though it's drop-in right getting the tuning like you're talking about it's kind of a challenge up hereBecause we don't just have these tuners left and right that to choose fromWe have to generally travel out of state if we want in person tuningWe're probably going down to Massachusetts maybe new Hampshire wherever something like that Connecticut
Yeah, so we're really kind of limited, but we do what we can with what we got and soYeah, I mean I don't want to mess with all that on the FL5. Yeah, since it is like the four door
I kind of enjoy it more taking my girls out and around, you know because I'm not trying to have them trample through the 33Or any of those cars, you know, so it's a great family carIAlso got that db8Integrity bar back there in 96 bagAlso a four door also a four door which is cool. That's why I always loved him
I've loved the db8 so over the DC to you know, you know, a coupe the whole time. Yeah, and
but I had originally purchased it got a pretty decent deal on itGot it decided. Yeah, we're like, and maybe this isn't the the keeper, you know what I mean?
I don't really love silver anyways, butSeeing it in person. I was like, yeah, maybe we just clean this up really really nice and then
Flipping on to somebody that can appreciate the car and maybe that's where they're at with it. You know what I mean I
I personally would rather have something, you know the champ white97 spec, right, you know, so oh, yeah, I mean still cool to have it come throughWe put a new valve cover on it did some maintenanceCleaned it up super nice. There's a set of SSRs on it that we're all like grubby and stuff like yeah, dude
They're meant. Yeah, they're there's not even a curb rash on them at all. So they're new stickers on them, dude
They're awesome. Yeah, so
Yeah, I mean that'll come up for sale pretty soonI got to clear some of these out and and maybe get some new stuff in thereWe still got the S14Yeah, that we got a great deal on and we got it and it's meant if you haven't been on the InstagramCheck it out if you have then you've seen us doing some doni balones in it. Oh, yeah, dude. She rips. Yeah, it really does
Like that you that took me backInstantly just a fill that SR power. Yeah, I don't know dude
It just starts spinning tire immediately and whips you and yeah, it's it's a very well set up carIt is and so I'm really struggling on do I keep it do I send it offIf I'm gonna be doing something to try to skid in like I don't feel like that's necessarily it, you know, especially where I'm notExperience maybe that would be good for you where you have experience, but like for meI need something a little more low low volume low low, you know, soYeah, but I don't know so maybe that'll come up for sale. We're gonna raffle it, but that shit's played out and we didn't it's
It's not gonna work outWe're not doing that, but if you do listen this podcast and you do have the means of purchase itI would hook you up on the price because we did talk about raffling itSo if you were interested in the S14 and you do got some cash hit me up and we could talk about itYeah, but otherwise I'm gonna keep skidding in the drivewayYeah, you will and soYeah, and so basically that's it for these cars hereOf course I got the 34 in Japan, but I'm not I'm not doing nothing to that besides fixing everything that we messed up on the track day
The MFD we got a weird electrical issueBrakes weren't squealing as much so that was good. Yeah, those are those are broken in
andAnd then the motor was making a little kind of a weird noise, butThey're checking it out. They'll check it out. Whatever. Yeah, it's a good hands. Yeah, yeah, absolutely
They have treated me really good. So if you're watching YouTube you'll notice behind us
There's this like blue thing out out in front of Aaron's car andSo I'll try not to ramble on and get too crazy, but we have a buddy named Nick Barney and he owns a few car dealerships including a Mazda dealershipYeah, andYou know, we always get our vehicles from him and he was is our age range and was always into these type of cars as well and soBeing that their family owns a Mazda dealership when he graduated high school in 2004
What was the hottest car Mazda just put outDude the RX a the RX a dude the RX a and so Nick bought an RX a andIt's really hard, you know if you think about the RX a and likeIt's introduction to the market and you know trying to be the predecessor to the FDRSeven. Yeah, those are some big shoes and they
They couldn't they couldn't fill it they they couldn't I mean sales numbers would tell you that you know and everything rightIs it a bad car? I don't think it's like a bad car. I just think
It's not it's not like an up day upgrade so to speak. It's a completely different. It's a different thing. Yeah, I mean
Yeah, I mean it has those half doors on the back like yeah, it's a four doorYeah, it's kind of crazy to think that I believe they stopped making the RX 7 and what 2001Yeah, maybe you two but that's an 04 that's only three yearsThat's so true that'sTo think that in that short period of a time they went from the RX FDR X7Yeah, to the RX 8Yeah, I would be pissed too. Yeah, so but if you own a dealership and that's the hottest car
Your dad's gonna be like this is what you're getting. Yeah, I thought they were cool
Yeah, me too a buddy of mine had one, you know besides Nick and we ripped around in it and it was sweet six feet like love it, right?
SoYou know Nick being like a tuner type guy. He started modifying it and
You know he turboed it and he gave itYou know Mazda speed body kit and he had it tuned on special Mazda ECU stuff, you know Mazda stuff, right?
Mazda rotary stuff. Yeah, and then he threw some 19 inch T37s on it
Yeah, with the BFGKDW's you know those aggressive tiresAnd the thing is men in a sense, you know, it was cool and they ran good thenTastily modified. Yeah, but to get to that point
He went through like multiple shops and one of the shops kept it for like well over a year andBoy, come and didn't get the job done and gave him back a car that you know, he's he's blowing stuff immediately andSo he finally he found a reputable one. It's like Maz sport or Maz
Sport right?
Yeah, yeah, I'm on sport. Yeah, so
anywaysLong story short as he kind of gets older and you know gets married has two kidsRight the car falls to the way side right and it sits in a warehouse and it just sits there and sits thereMoves to a different warehouse or like this old body shop under his dealership sits there sits thereFinally and calls me up and he's like dude. I just need you to get this thing out of my face and I'm like
All right, I don't know what that means and I'm not even sure what you're talking about your faceBut you know, and he's talking about the the RX 8 and soI was like, you know dude. Yeah, I guess we're bringing over this shop. We can clean it up
Figure out kind of what to do with it and because he is every single stock party as two spares at the wheelsHe has you know everything he kept pretty good can and door mirrors on it's got you know it and he did it right and it's likeNice, but it's all old kind of right. It's all period correct. Oh for sure because it was all done then and then sad
That's 20 years ago. Yeah literally so
Me and Scott carbon fiber hood carbon fiber trunk carbon fiber air ducts like all kinds of cool little bitsYou know like he knew what he was doing, but now he's kind of just ready to like let somebody else deal with itSo yeah, we're not sure what we're gonna do with itHe's like dude engine swap it sell it stock sell it how it is cleaned upWhatever just give me my cut and like hmm. This could be a fun
Fun thing or you could at least be something to keep us busy. Yeah, I know what I'm saying right
So yeah, I mean that's kind of that's kind of what's going on in the garageWell, I'm sure we'll post some pictures of the Sarac's animeIt's not right hand drive, but since he's a nice guy and a good for 30-37sIt has yeah that in in the seats with the Takata harnesses that are expired by 14 yearsThat's the reason why I said yes that was it right there. I saw that expiration date and I said dude absolutely
Dude yes, yeahSo yeah, maybe we'll try to get that thing to do some doniesYeah, I think it do some brat brat Donnie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, cuz it sounds cool
But it smells really cool - yeah, I think he's got some pre-mix and he's got some probably you know thoseRotary dudes in there a little truck smells like a weed ear. Yeah, yeah, yeah sounds like
But yeah, I mean so that's what that's what's going onThat's that's the deal in the Blunt garageFor this part of 2024. We're gonna try to keep it moving. Yeah, I'm moving
So as far as the podcastIMean obviously we just got back from Japan no no real tripsPlan until the later half of the yearWe go what are you gonna say? Are you gonna say something? Are you sure?
So we're we're gonnaGo down to IA, you know last year I wentAaron didn't get to go we had a whole year to make sure that he could go this year and we think that we've accomplished itYes, yes, soAnd again if you don't know like IA what's IA or why do these dudes so hard on for IA?
Well go back and listen to you know those last IA episodes and you'll just find out thatIt's a part of like what brought us up in the car world. So yeah, it's the nostalgia
Yeah, for sure and just the whole vibe and the even the venue down to the venue, you know, yeahOh for sure. It's a whole thing and so you know, we were there in 08 no 9 and other years and announced
2023 and 24 and and we're back there so we'll have a booth again. We'll be
Recording live from the event and we also plan to haveAt least two of the cars out of the garage down at the event soWe're pretty pumped for thatWe also we're trying to organize our ownvery small eventwe'reLooking at different venues for location right now. We're inquiring just trying to see how
Car friendly they're gonna be and see if we're gonna be able to use them. So we have a ton of people that do ask us about this
Yeah, especially locally here in Maine and soYeah, we're gonna be trying to hold something this year and then if we can get a feel for it and it works outNext year we'll go ham. We'll go hard on it to make sure it's a really good event
But yeah, we'll go ham. We'll go ham. We'll go ham. Yeah, so
And then otherwise of course we got some more guests coming up trying to keep you know everybody in touch withjust the culture period you know and kind of bounce back and forth between different types of guests andI'm pretty pretty excited about that. So
Yeah, I mean I think we I'm pumped. Yeah, we got some good stuff coming up. It's just time right time is like the hardest thing
Of course we all know that you can't buy it and it's the hardest thing to get back. So
Yeah, I mean we're gonna we're gonna do our best. Yeah, we're gonna do our best but
Today we just busted out episode 60There it is. Yeah, and we appreciate you listening in the support as always it means a lot to us
two guys justFalling the dream doing their thing. Yeah, yeah, all right
So for the for the big 60 I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See ya. Peace
Peace.
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