| 1386mario |
01-15-2018 03:07 PM |
Life of 1386
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My name is Mario Pereira I live in West Palm Beach Florida and I own a 2013 scion frs. When the first rocket bunny kit came out I knew I had to own it one day. My inspiration came from James over in Arizona who built a red v1 bunny with white ccw wheels, custom interior etc. He eventually went on to sell his car and built a model A. I remember it took me over a year (literally) to find the right frs for me because I wanted a fair price with low miles. Finally one night this guy Joe from Palm Coast, FL puts his car for sale for 16k flat on one of our Facebook forums. Which at the time that was a really great price these cars were going for easily 20k. Anyways I tell myself that I think I finally found the perfect car- an Asphalt 61k 2013 frs with 20k miles. So my brotherand I drove up at 5pm one afternoon I got a loan for the car and drove it back the same night at 2am with no tags no nothing haha (Scary).
I knew stopped looking back at the car even though it was pure stock. I later on went to add a few mods here and there but nothing series. My first mod was actually a Kilometers per hour white and red cluster. In 2014 I went to a big event to Kendall (South Florida) where I actually got to meet the exterior designer of the 86 chassis. Along came a few guys from a scion racing team who I also got autographs from. It was a really cool experience meeting these guys from japan. It was there where I met my awesome best friend Zach Hill who also has an 86. From then on it was just history- more car meets for money wasted on parts ha-ha. I later on went to meet my good friend from Md Interiors who made a few custom interior pieces for me. I got my very first set of wheels which were work xd9s 18x10s all around. Got an authentic five axis body kit which those guys were so good to me that company is really great they went out of their way to send me these really cool gifts that I still have to this day.I also met this guy with an authentic seibon lip that was so cheap I hope I never break it because that was such a good deal.
I’ve actually done almost everything to my car really, my friend Zach has helped me a lot if I didn’t know how to do something id reach out to him vice versa or we would just learn the hard way by breaking parts or taking forever to finally after hours of fighting and blow torching down a header bolt just to come out so we can replace it with an aftermarket one. Man it’s always a headache but it’s very rewarding and cost effective. By now I had Bc Coil overs and a few suspension components, aftermarket headlights, taillights and a few other things. In late 2015 I went to my first big show ( Wekfest FL) It’s just awesome seeing all these great builds, it’s nice to just talk to people and be inspired by details here and there.
In 2016 I got deployed to Middle East Africa on a combat mission with the U.S Army so my car was just sitting there for a year but my family took awesome care of it. As I was living in another country and well I didn’t have access to my car Zach helped me solve a few things here and there I remember I bought car parts and had them shipped home as time went on( When I got back you couldn’t walk in my room) so that was a pretty cool experience. April 2017 my car really took OFF. It’s still hard to believe how far I’ve come. While I was gone I bought my rocket bunny kit my steering wheel setup my wheels and tires ect ect. I also somehow sold parts even though I was 7,000 miles away from home, crazy right.
It was so awesome coming back home and see everyone make it back safe and sound. Literally the second day from coming home from Africa I started chopping with the fenders and working on my car that has not been driving in over 12 months. The rocket bunny was very challenging because I knew that there was not real manual to guide from. I learn A LOT from cutting my car up and fitting the kit. For example you just can’t cut here and boom your wheels fit, no it doesn’t work that way it required a lot of trial and error. Which then I started learning more on wheel specs. It actually took me two weeks because I learned as I went and I wasn’t available everything or I was missing a tool, just something. Once I finished and put on the proper toyo tires which I absolutely love I took it over to my dad’s friend who’s a painter and he paint matched my kit perfectly by using a paint meter.
I then met the remainder of my awesome friends from Divine where we went to Daytona Beach FL for a Tuner Evo show and that was my first real show with my new look. Shortly after was Stance Nation WPB FL I was able to park next to a show filled with tons and tons of quality cars I truly felt honored so thank you Elvis (Shameless plug) So shortly after with a group of friends we decided to take a trip to north Carolina that’s right 3,000 miles round trip in one week (yikes) but it was soooo much fun I can’t even explain it just driving up there was pretty wild. After that I did a few more modifications which was when I got my sparco seats and my Gloss Storm grey wrap by Divine Customs (Shameless plug again) so hit up those boys they work very hard to do what they like. I also fixed a bunch of small details here and there since I had a version two kit the version one front bumper extensions didn’t really fit well so I ended up buying rally baker ones and fitted it for smooth and almost perfect fitment. I got some RK Titanium hardware bolts for the body kit and it really changed the look. My favorite part of the setup is my aimgain collab with stance nation rear bumper diffuser which took forever to get because that kit doesn’t sell separately. I got that painted gloss black along with v3 and v2 side canards to give it that final touch all the way around.
To finish off my crazy 2017 experience I won my first trophy at Wekfest FL just a couple weeks ago for Scion 2nd place of the festival. So it was awesome being recognized but great people from around the country. I will see them again in Atlanta and Chicago! (Maybe Jersey too lol) Any ways to finish this cool experience off for the year my goal is to get a Voltex Swan wing with a full roll cage. I later on want to find a company to work with for a nice turbo kit and engine work. I’m not rushing my build, I don’t regret anything just because a lot of people have it I just love it because I did it with my own hands along with help of great friends.
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