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Hot Tubbin on a Budget

11/29/2016

Now that I'm more established at the new pad, I finally got myself a b-day present...to myself. Hot Tub of Love!!!!
I didn't want to spend a few G's on a new tub, because...well...why do that when I can fix one up for MUUUCH less.

So I located a very good OLD tub that needed some TLC and did my thing.

First thing first....make it look new.

Rehab'd the exterior wood and coated it in bedliner....thanks to Tough Line LLC here in Boise.
He came out to my pad, and even though we had some power/break issues, he managed to knock this out in an hour!

Next was to get a custom made top for it...as the one that came with it was not the right size. So i went with my usual color palette: Greyscale!
This badboy fits perfectly and after a few good warm days (next year) the sides will not show shipping creases and will look flawless!

Then I made some custom fold-down shelves to hold All The Drinks....because....that's what the Hot Tub of Love is all about...relaxing and throwin' back a few drinks.
Used a piece of walnut (hard and can withstand water better) and found some unique heavy duty lockable hinges and made everything work.

All in all, this tub is a pretty simple renovation...nothing too drastic....but final cost said and done for everything was under $1000....so I can't complain at all!

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Island Dodge

11/23/2016

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Clients from Hawaii called us up looking to make his truck more Idahoan.....so here is what we proposed:

Rough Country 6 inch lift kit
2.5 add a leafs
2.0 Fox coil overs set to +3"
2.0 Fox rear shocks
37" Kanati mud hog tires
1.5" Bora Wheel spacers

Next up for this truck will be some wheels/tires, but for now, it turned out great and the customer was stoked!
This proves you don't necessarily need to do LIFT/WHEELS/TIRES all at the same time....it looks like what Dodge should have done from the start!

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ProjectMonaLiSia Finally Makes an Appearance

11/17/2016

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Wow!

So anyone that's been to my shop (both locations) within the past 11 months has seen this build ongoing and in different stages. Yup...you read that right.....11 months! It's not that it took 11 full months to complete this build...I just didn't want to rush this job...I wanted this to be the best RLX Retro done. In total, I think I have somewhere around 75-80 hours into these lights alone....where most guys would just throw these in and call it a day...I hand fabricated multiple panels and parts to make these look as OEM as possible....not to mention all the wiring that needed to happen to make these truly unique.

Here is what was done to #ProjectMonaLiSia (LiSia....Civic Si.....get it?):

Acura RLX Quad-LED Pod Retrofit (yeah, there is 8 lenses..but only 4 main leds behind)
Baja Designs S2 LED Pod High Beam Retro
RGB Demon Eye Accent Lighting
Customized Internal Panels/Pieces for OEM look/Fit
Multi-Section Sequential LED Turn Signal Strip behind a Smoked Diffusor Lens
Two-Tone OEM Matched Internal Paint
LED 'DRL' Strips on Inner and Outer Section of Shroud
Ghozt Module for Start-up/Turn-off, Show Mode, Parking and Sequential Turn Signal Mode
Morimoto LED Fog Pods

So, the retrofit started out normal......CUT EVERYTHING OUT and start with an outer frame....reconsider life and regret everything you've ever done! Drink Coffee, calm down...start modding!

Mounted the RLX pods with a custom adjustable height adjustment bolt to maintain OEM adjustments.
From there, I figured out that the OEM RLX High Beam pod would not fit without throwing off the low beam pattern...due to the OEM Honda Civic Si Outer Lens having a bump out to it...the last set of pods would have been RIGHT behind it, causing distortion. So, the client upgraded to Baja S2 LED Pods for even MORE brightness and a smaller housing to retrofit.
After that was done, I needed to start modding ALL the internal Civic shrouds to fit around the RLX shrouds...so I created multiple removable panels to cover the internal guts (most would skip this step). The hardest part was the High Beam LED pod....I hand fabricated that out of left over parts from the Civic Reflector shroud and ABS plastic.....it covers everything and looks very OEM.

After all the internal parts were fabricated and ready for paint, I custom fit the smoked diffusor tube to the Civic shroud and mounted multiple led strips to them. They are wired up to the ghozt module for full control. I also install 2 strips behind the custom clear lens above the high beam spot and hidden on the far outside portion of the Civic shroud for running lights.

Everything got a good coat of Matte Black, except the RLX inner shrouds..which got the OEM Red/Orange that the Si has.

I also crammed RGB LEDs into each RLX pod for the Demon eye accents....this was a VERY tight fit...tight tight tight!

Next came the issue of what to do with the MASSIVE holes on the backside that were cut to provide clearance of everything. I taped off what was needed and made custom fiberglass patch panels...then bonded everything with epoxy that can kinda sorta come off if needed. Everything was painted black so you couldn't tell much was done...but once on the car, all that work is hidden.

From there...everything carefully went back together like a giant puzzle.

I had 12 hours of custom re-wiring to do on the car itself just to make these as plug-n-play and troubleshoot-easy as possible....but it's all worth it once the lights can come out within seconds and you'll never confuse which plug goes where.
I did my signature RGB Demon Eye Display Interior Vent lighting as well...so client can see what his headlights are doing just by looking at his HVAC vent

The client was suuuuper stoked with the final outcome...."Better than I could ever Imagine" was dropped at least a few times.....which makes ALL the hours of work and lost sleep totally worth it.
I have a feeling you'll be seeing more of this car in the future...since this is his first exterior mod to the car....we've got tons planned already!

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Silverado gets beefed up

11/14/2016

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Good buddy of ours brought in their 2012 Chevy Silverado 2500hd for a few upgrades and we think it turned out pretty damn good!

Here is what we did:
Rough country's brand new 3.5 lift kit
305/55/20 amp mt2 tires
Mayhem warrior wheels
3" stainless steel steps
Tint match front windows

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Volvo Semi Needed more Lumens

11/10/2016

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This was a quick one......past client wanted to upgrade the fog lights on this pop's Semi.

OEM housings on these come with a Single bottom Halogen foglight and a 'dummy' section up top....so he purchased and OEM Upgraded housing that had the top section as an option as well.

Then I cracked those open and retrofitted a Baja Designs S2 LED Pod in there.
This will be 100% independent from the Volvo's gnarly can-bus system...so it won't even know they are on the truck...which is a good thing...

They'll also provide the driver with an additional 4200 lumens! That'll do the trick!

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SEMA 2016 GMC Sierra Headlights

11/1/2016

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Did these lights for a local Dealership-Owned Demo Vehicle that traveled to Las Vegas for the 2016 Sema Show.

Other sponsors involved with this specific build:
The Retrofit Source..........E46 Projectors with etched lenses and HID kit
Diode Dynamics...............Switchback DRL LED Boards and RGBW Demon Eye Boards
Rigid Industries................LED Pods for the Headlights and Taillights
Recon Lighting..................LED Taillights
Ryan Lewin......................Painting....everything

This build was fairly intense, but pretty simple compared to what usually goes down at Trax Customs.

First off, I swapped the projectors....the OEM projectors are junk (as you can see from the comparison pics)....but the new 2016's Do come with OEM HID lighting...so that's a plus.....but it's no match for a proper E46 projector with 50 watt Morimoto builbs. I had to custom make brackets to make these buggers fit, as the 2016's have a different bolt pattern than the 2015's apparently.
I also modified the bracketry on the DD Demon Eye boards to fit the tight confines of the OEM Sierra mounting bracket...so the LEDs hit the perfect spot when activated.

Next up was the OEM DRL boards...those had to go. From stock, they are simply just White LEDs....no turn signals.....but since we are cramming in an LED pod where the OEM turn signal was, we needed Amber somewhere....so I replaced the OEM boards with the Diode Dynamic LED Switchback boards and WHAMMMO....turn signals are now relocated.

Since we no longer needed the OEM turn signal location, we decided we are stuffing the massive D2 Midnight pod in that location.....we were constricted both side-to-side placement as well as depth (due to the trucks frame being RIGHT behind the headlight in this location). So the dealership's techs fitted the headlights to the truck and placed an aluminum plate with as minimal amount of clearance as possible so I could mount the pod to it and hope for clearance on the front lens. This pod is about 1/8" away from the front lens...it's close....but we got it. Other builders/owners have done something similar but they simply cut a hole out of the OEM reflector and flush mount it to that....no problem.....minus the fact that now you LED pod is shining off to the sides of the truck.....which is kinda pointless.....with this setup, the lights are shining straight forward and a 'tad' about the cutoff line of the amazing projectors!
Then I trimmed and fit and trimmed and fit and trimmed and fitted the OEM lens for precise clearance of the pod.
Once that was done....then I had to rebuild the entire back side of the turn signal area, as we basically dropped it an 1" from where it originally was....so fiberglass/filler/sealant was used to achieve this task.

Then ALL the parts went off to Lewin for paint!

Moving on to the Taillights, I cracked the GoRecon lights up (teeeeeeeedious) and started cutting out plastic panels and whatnot to fit the Rigid Industries mini LED pod in the OEM Backup Light spot. This little light is a fun little thing and is very comparable to a higher powered LED Bulb that one can replace via the OEM plug....but it sure does look cool stuffed back up in there.

After this, all these parts were also taken to Lewin for paint.

Here are the build pics for this project....I was hoping for some up-close shots of them finished on the truck....but since this is a sponsor build, I'll wait until there is some professional photos taken for some better shots.