Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

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Tj.
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Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Tj. »

The car has been "finished" for a few months now but i hadn't gotten around to introducing it.

My father bought the car back in 1995 off Carlos Casmiri at Sportsclassic in Castlereagh for $700 (I'm sure some of you here know him, and I still have the reciept! :D).

It was a complete and original auto with a bit of panel damage in the front and it ran!, i remember my old man driving on to the truck, and then down the driveway at home. Apparently it's previous owner tried to drive it though a gate that was about 300mm narrower than the car.
The front guards were creased, the bonnet buckled up (and beyond our capabilities of repairing) and the radiator support panel had a nice bend in the middle.

My father, then full of enthusiasm, set about fixing the body work. He (and I to a certain extent, I was only 11 at the time) hand beat the guards back straight, pushed the radiator support panel back out (i remember standing in the engine bay, with my back against the firewall pushing it out with my feet) and replacing the bonnet.

I don't have any photos of it from when we bought it but i did find some after we had finished straightening out the front end.

Image
This was before the bonnet was replaced.
Note the GD grille. I'm pretty sure that was one we had lying around and dad had just put in for the photo. I've got a story about how we came across a coupe grille, but that's for later.


Image
the repair work before it was reassembled.
Both photos circa 1996-7ish.


The only rust in the car was in the bottom of the passenger side door which dad had repaired but not before buying another door. Something that I'm sure is near impossible these days.

Around the same time dad sent it to Carlos's daughter to have the trim redone. Back then, you couldn't buy moulded floor carpet so it was done it patches. Not as nice as a moulded job, but still a tidy job. He had the original seats recovered but unfortunately the little diamond shaped button-like things couldn't be reattached. All this is still in the car today, and seeing as the car's been in storage for nearly 15yrs it's still as fresh as the day it was stitched together.

Image
Not long after the interior was finished in '96. The vinyl in the seat backs is original and is still immaculate except for maybe one or two scuffs.

The last thing he and I did to the car was convert it over to a manual. We had a 4spd lying about that had come out of my sisters GD sedan (that I later inherited :) ) so in it went.
I remember having trouble mounting the cross member as there were no captured nuts in the appropriate bolt holes. My old man, ever the clever bastard, tacked a nut onto a length of steel wire and fed it down the chassis rail. Took a lot of swearing and feeling about but we got it in eventually.

At some stage during the years dad and i were driving somewhere and we spotted a GD sedan on the side of the road. As we got closer, dad realised that it had the coupe grille (the 4 square openings in between the headlights). Knowing it was the wrong one we pulled up and knocked on the door. Turned out the car belonged to an older Asian lady who used it as a runabout. I'm not sure how but the old man managed to convince her to let him swap the grille on her car for a spare GD grille we had at home. However there was a catch, her car wasn't running well and she wanted him to have a look at it. Turned out it had a blown head gasket so he broke the bad news to her and took off with the swapped grille before she changed her mind. But i'll never forget what happened while he was having a look at her car. Being an ex mechanic, he was going through the motions checking bits and pieces and he popped the oil filler cap off the engine while it was running which, of course, made a hell of a racket and this little old lady jumped about 10ft in the air.

The car sat untouched for the next 10 or so years until my GF was in the market for a car. Dad had been making some noises about wanting to sell it. Naturally I wasn't keen on the idea after forming such a bond with it as a kid. When my GF mentioned to him she was in the market for a new ride, my father jokingly said "I've got one you can buy". To the surprise of both of us she said "Alright".

So the work began again.
I was stumped at the amount of parts that my dad had amassed over the years, and better yet, whenever I told him we were missing something, he'd rummage around the garage for 10-15mins and return with a grin and the missing part (sometimes multiples of them) in his hand.

We set about getting it ready for paint. The only real hurdle my dad and I hadn't gotten up to.

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Ready for paint.

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Not much changed since the mid 90's huh?

We settled on a gunmetal grey colour, and were rather fond of a colour called "Evoke" from the new commodore line up. It's sort of a grey with a hint of copper. However, the little lady's dad, who was painting the car for us, could only use acrylic and Evoke, and every other colour we chose was in two-pack. Dang it!
After at least an hour and a half of annoying the hell out of the bloke behind the counter at the paint shop, he cracked it and went out the back and made his own concoction.
It turned out a little more copper than we'd planned but I love it. It's a very unique colour. in dark light it looks dark grey, in good light it looks a coppery grey, in full glarey sunlight it goes almost dark silver with a pinkish copper undertone. Very hard to describe.

We also liked the idea of the Sport Pack stripe and decided to put a big black one around the windows. We wanted to do something a little different though and tried to fade it out about halfway down the guard. Now that it's done however I don't think it was the best idea.

Once paint was done my GF who's rather handy with a paint brush set about cleaning, polishing and repainting the badges. We were lucky to have a complete set (with a few spares) that were all in pretty good nick. My faves along with the Chrysler badge on the bonnet were the Galant badges on the guards.

Image

The red had faded off completely leaving just chrome which she painted over with a transparent red which over the chrome just pops!. It's more or less the only unoriginal exterior mod we made.

The grille just needed a coat of "plastic and vinyl" paint in a semi gloss black. It looks brand new

Image

Dad and I stumbled across a pristine (almost) dash pad at pick and payless one day many years ago which we promptly snatched and stored. While I had the dash out replacing the original AM radio (which works!) i changed it over and painted the steel cover that goes behind it.
All the interior is factory except for the cd player as you can see in the photo below. The top of which is covered in black leather-look vinyl (which my GF also used to recover the front kick panels and the rear pillar covers which had gone brittle in the sun.)
The part of the stereo install I'm proudest of is the front speakers. They're little tweeters that are hidden in the air vents. I didn't want to cut the door trims.

Image
The stereo isn't covered in this pic. BTW, is that a coupe wheel or is it from some other derivative?
Image

One of the special jobs i did was lining the boot. Although I think my design got out of hand.
Using MDF board, I made the floor flat with a trap door for the spare wheel and another compartment in the floor for hiding stuff. I then boarded up the sides with small doors to access the space down in the rear quarters, great for hiding all sorts of junk.
I also added two led lights up under the rear shelf that run off a toggle switch. I tried to make an automatic switch but it was too fiddly.

Image
The trap doors have small chrome rings to lift them out with. More photos of the finished job later.

It also has one of those jaycar headlight reminder alarms that i thought would be a good idea to build over a 6-pack of beer. One of the modern luxuries I've gotten too used to.

We finished it off with a few final original touches like the chrome lips over the wheel arches and the chrome strip along the bottom of the car. All of which were originals off this car that had been stored deep in the garage for god knows how long. On top of that we had the seat belts re-webbed so we could retain the original buckles and other parts. Expensive but worth it as the old ones were well and truly stuffed!. One of them literally fell apart in my hands when I tried to remove it!!. And the last job was a set of mirrors. Tried to track down some period mirrors but had no-end of trouble and so we settled with a set of $20 square chrome jobbies from Supercheap that were about $480 less than the vintage ones we were quoted on.

Mechanically it's stock as a rock, except for a set of extractors and sports exhaust off my sisters old GD from eons ago.
I do have plans for it tho.

So ends what you could call a 15yr build time!.

The end result:
Image
Image
Image
Not the best pics, more to come.

Sorry about the epic thread but this car has a long history with me and I'm really glad that it got to stay in the family.
1975 GC Galant Hardtop - 4G63 DOHC - Version 3.0 coming soon.
http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=485
C_Fernance
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by C_Fernance »

That looks great. Bet your glad to be able to drive it at last.
tandanus
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by tandanus »

Top work. Really very nice. Well done.
T.
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81GL
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by 81GL »

Sorry for the epic thread? don't be... was a great read :)

& awesome job too... looks great.

Oh... and you picked up well on the steering wheel... its a bit different to the one on my coupe (also a GC... with a GD grill! grr... if you come across another old asian lady with a grill let me know :D )

Nick.
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Tj.
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Tj. »

The only other time I've seen a steering wheel like it is in the thread "is this a rare GD" or something along those lines, could be off a sport or rally pack. I've got another one, it's similar but with a flat center cover. I like this one anyway.
I've also got a really nice SAAS sports wheel but I want to keep this one original.

It seems the incorrect grille is a common issue. I wonder if certain build date cars came with different grilles. I know we didn't get the GD hardtop (NZ did tho) so I wonder if dealers did a dodgy and put GD grilles in them to pass them off as current model??

Nothin sus.

Thanks for all the compliments too. I'll make sure naomi has a read as she put just as much work in as I did.
1975 GC Galant Hardtop - 4G63 DOHC - Version 3.0 coming soon.
http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=485
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77GDWAGON
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by 77GDWAGON »

Nice hardtop. Great pics. Yes the steering wheel is of a GC/GD sports pack. Here is a pic of a hardtop wheel
[img][IMG]http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6997/gcdash.jpg[/img]
[/img]
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GC75
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by GC75 »

im so jealous :lol:
Previous owner of a GC Coupe, a few GSRS and random Sigmas.
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kodos
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by kodos »

Looks awesome mate, nice work. Love the colour too man :mrgreen:
Needs GA or GB galant front cut to resurrect a GTO. Please help if you can :mrgreen:
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by kodos »

77GDWAGON wrote:Nice hardtop. Great pics. Yes the steering wheel is of a GC/GD sports pack. Here is a pic of a hardtop wheel
[img][IMG]http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6997/gcdash.jpg[/img]
[/img]
No thats a different wheel than this one. The only place I've seen these particular wheels is on early GTO's, pre 1973.
I am not aware of them being fitted to any other model from factory. Although the later GTO, Lancers and other special galants had similar style steering wheels.
Needs GA or GB galant front cut to resurrect a GTO. Please help if you can :mrgreen:
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Sideways
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Sideways »

Fantastic, love the colour!
Nice to see another Coupe being well loved (and don't apologise for the long thread :) ) - most here love reading stuff like that!
Obviously a bit of a 'rally' connection with the family perhaps? (stickers on the fridge :D )
Good drivers have dead bugs on the side windows.....
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Tj.
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Tj. »

Sideways wrote:Fantastic, love the colour!
Nice to see another Coupe being well loved (and don't apologise for the long thread :) ) - most here love reading stuff like that!
Obviously a bit of a 'rally' connection with the family perhaps? (stickers on the fridge :D )
Very much a rally family.

My old man used to ride in the silly seat with my god father in an early Colt Galant and later an LA Lancer that ran an Ex MMC Works engine.
The story goes something like the works team ran out here one year and stuffed their car into a post. Rather than fork out a small fortune to ship a wreck home, they sold it off for bits out here. The bloke that famously pushed his LJ torana into the pits after running out of fuel at Bathurst (Doug Chivas?) ended up with the engine and then later sold it to my father.

Man I would love to get my hands on some of the bits they had back in those days. i don't know what exactly was done to that engine but I do know when it was in my godfathers car it ran dellorto's and a works #4 cam.

The old fella doesn't rally these days but we do get out to motorkhanas, khanacrosses and the odd rally sprint, hence the old 1600. My sister however has been bitten by the bug and she runs AMSAG and some state suff in an early model Commodore with a worked 308.
1975 GC Galant Hardtop - 4G63 DOHC - Version 3.0 coming soon.
http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=485
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mbrallying
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by mbrallying »

Very awesome mate..great job.

I run my white GC coupe in amsag too, great rallies.

Just another story about the ex works lancers and the team not wanting to fork out the big tax to take them back into japan, apparently heaps got chucked over the side of the ships on the way back over.

Wether or not thats where a bit of the works stuff that was around came from aswell or they just hoiked them over complete, not sure.

Still a bloody shame they didn't end up leaving them over here. There could be some real great historic rally cars here if that was the case.

Might see you at some rallies soon.

Mark...
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Tj.
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Tj. »

Possibly. I don't get to em much. Usually straggle along with Kelly's service crew.

I think I've heard you mentioned. Well at least over hearing a conversation about "that guy in the Galant coupe".

Can't be too many running.
1975 GC Galant Hardtop - 4G63 DOHC - Version 3.0 coming soon.
http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=485
kodos
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by kodos »

Just a correction of my last, those steering wheels were also found on the older A71/A73 galant hardtops or 16L's as the Kiwis call them, so perhaps they could have been getting rid of extra stock on the early build GC hardtops? who knows :mrgreen:
Needs GA or GB galant front cut to resurrect a GTO. Please help if you can :mrgreen:
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Sideways
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Sideways »

Interesting, we're hearing more about the AMSAG stuff down here as there are a few people (myself included :D ) who want to run more relaxed events and cars with some more 'freedoms'. Once the GC coupe of mine is finished, might have to venture north o' the border for the odd event. :)
Cheers, S
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mbrallying
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by mbrallying »

Yeah mate come and have a run you'll be welcomed with open arms

Its the most friendly, easy, stress free rallying you can do

And the more mitsis to stick it up the datto boys the better

Mark...
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Sideways »

No worries, anything that's fun, loud and sideways! :D No-one in Victoria wants 2 litre (or 2.6) GC's :roll:
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Rally_2.6LC »

hey mbrallying, how did you guys go in the AMSAG Jenolan rally a couple of weeks back? I was servicing for the red 4 door LA and red/blue/yellow 2 door LA......saw your car and was very jelous, Ive got a 4 door GC but will hopefully be in the AMSAG series next year with my 2.6L LC

Cheers Matt
'75 GC daily (slowly dying)
'80 LC 2.6L rally car (generally something broken until 2 weeks before an event)
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mbrallying
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by mbrallying »

Yeah we were stoked with our best result ever. We got 5th outright and 3rd outright classic.

We had such a good run and our car is finally getting there, (after about 4 years build and developement) so we're real keen for bathurst.

How did your guys end up??
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psshhhht
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by psshhhht »

Mate, this coupe is bloody awesome! Seriously inspiring, given me some good ideas too. Any more photos? Cheers!
looking to start an mechanical apprenticeship, if you know of anyone in Melbourne or Gippsland who's looking for a first year, let me know!
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Tj.
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Tj. »

Not yet. The weekend we planned on getting more photos, the weather turned shite.

Hopefully soon.
1975 GC Galant Hardtop - 4G63 DOHC - Version 3.0 coming soon.
http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=485
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by A112H »

kodos wrote:Just a correction of my last, those steering wheels were also found on the older A71/A73 galant hardtops or 16L's as the Kiwis call them, so perhaps they could have been getting rid of extra stock on the early build GC hardtops? who knows :mrgreen:
My 1975 GC Coupe is 100% stock and this is the wheel it came with.
Image

Great job you are doing on your car, can't wait to see more pics.
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by kodos »

Yeah, thats one of two kinds I've seen on hardtop gc/d galants, but different from his (and my GTO ones)
Needs GA or GB galant front cut to resurrect a GTO. Please help if you can :mrgreen:
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Tj.
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Tj. »

I've got one of those wheels lurking somewhere in the shed.

Prefer the one that's on it tho :D

Might be worth a question over at japanesenostalgiccar.com Those guys have a huge knowledge base.
1975 GC Galant Hardtop - 4G63 DOHC - Version 3.0 coming soon.
http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=485
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by kodos »

They are freaks :lol:
Needs GA or GB galant front cut to resurrect a GTO. Please help if you can :mrgreen:
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Rallyant »

Love it!, thats pretty much the colour I have been planing on painging my coupe for the last 7 years too!
I guess it will end up a 15 yr project for me too :(
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by driftforlife »

this car is beautiful man, I've seen it around a few times now.
the colour is amazing :shock: :D
so is the car your's, your dad's, your girlfriend's, or some other relative's?

it's a freakin awesome car man, i can only hope mine gets like that. :D
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Current
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Past
95 Honda Civic EG VTI - blew up :D
75 Chrysler Galant Sedan GC - :/
98 Subaru Liberty 2.5L RX AWD - old daily cruiser
91 Nissan Silvia S13 SR20DE - filthy drift pig that was a mistake to try have as a daily
76 Chrysler Galant Sedan GC - sadly missed ;(
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by oldcolt2 »

looks real nice man!!!
really dig the front bumper too with the lenses on it.
awesome.
cheers
-rick 8-)
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Tj.
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by Tj. »

It used to belong to my old man, but my girlfriend bought it pretty much as you see it in the first photos, and together we finished it.

Were you at the woolies servo in Kings Park/Marayong at about 5:30 tonight? i saw a blue 4 door GC at the pumps. I pulled in in my Focus but pretty much turned around and high tailed it outta there, it was crazy in there. Did you only just get your license? because i've seen an identical GC getting around my area with a set of L plates on.

And Where abouts have you seen it? my GF says she sees an orangey red GD sedan around her place too.
1975 GC Galant Hardtop - 4G63 DOHC - Version 3.0 coming soon.
http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=485
driftforlife
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Re: Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

Post by driftforlife »

yep that was me, and it was my when i was on my L's too. :D best car to learn on, can feel everything that's going on. :)
i've seen it a couple of times at what i'm pretty darn sure is your house, and a day or two ago going through the Sunnyholt and 3rd ave intersection, and i really thought she saw my car but i don't think she really noticed what it was :( well she definitely heard it, it's pretty loud now :D
i'm going to start painting my car soon, hope it looks as good as yours ;) , such glossy paint :o , need to get rid of my flat flaky paint :roll:
i haven't seen a orangey GD sedan around, but there's a orangey toyota something near the station that looks pretty similar to one. ;)
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Current
Nissan S15 Silvia Autech - stanced and low daily/drifter

Past
95 Honda Civic EG VTI - blew up :D
75 Chrysler Galant Sedan GC - :/
98 Subaru Liberty 2.5L RX AWD - old daily cruiser
91 Nissan Silvia S13 SR20DE - filthy drift pig that was a mistake to try have as a daily
76 Chrysler Galant Sedan GC - sadly missed ;(
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