ウエストゼロのホームページ
Picture of 1993 240sx.  This picture was taken probably around 2003 when my car was in it's prime as far as performance.  Hawaii Raceway Park
This is me driving my 1993 Nissan 240sx at Hawaii Raceway Park probably in 2003 sometime. The car was in it's prime back then and soon after drastically needed the rebuild it is currently undergoing. WestZero is not only about my car. There is a long story behind the creation of the name WestZero and what it stands for. WestZero is my small business/hobby of providing RARE and difficult to obtain Japanese products to my friends and local businesses. It is most definitely not a money making business! It's more like a volunteer service being a middle-man between Hawaii/USA and Japan. WestZero does not import any items that are sold by USA distributors. Only items requested by customers that have not been able to locate the product domestically are purchased. A lot of effort goes into confirming the correct item is ordered and shipping estimates are as accurate as possible. Most items will ship by EMS (Express Mail Service). Items too large for EMS are shipped by Sagawa Express. Shipping is extremely expensive and often times will be the deciding factor whether the product should be purchased or substituted for something domestically available. Surface shipping is not offered for purchases through WestZero at this time. After all, this is a service for bringing in RARE items. We do not bring in bulk to fill a shipping container. Why do I do this for very little or no "profit"? Because I also have the craving or need for difficult to obtain Japanese products. More than half of the products used on my car are from Japan. Car products are not the only things I crave. There are food products like snacks, teas and chewing gum. Japanese eye drops are a very popular item. Not the one's available at Shirokiya or Don Quijote stores. The really eXtreme stuff. Don Quijote really provided a lot more items from Japan that I won't need to worry about anymore.
To accomplish this, I need someone in Japan to go shopping around and purchase these requested items. "JDM-M@niax" or JDM-Maniacs is the one on the Japan side of this service. "JDM-M@niax" is the source of WestZero's JDM (Japan Domestic Market) rare products.
Endless Garage Endless Garage is where my car is being re-built. A project like mine takes weeks and weeks of labor and use of expensive equipment. Thanks to Endless Garage and Marcus, I am not spending weeks and weeks of my time nor am I purchasing expensive equipment that I have no time to use. I am a full-time Realtor so I have contracted the professionals to manage my project. I drop by Endless at the end of my work day and put in a couple of hours here and there as often as I can.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Update on my Nissan S13 Silvia project...


www.RickNakama.com Endless Garage S14 Silvia Drift Car
"After"... hmmm, well not quite, but eventually, my car will be finished with the refurbishing and I'll put my own car's picture(s) up. This is my friend's car that was done at Endless Garage. It was there for some additional touch-ups last night so I snapped a shot just to give an idea of what a finished car is supposed to look like. It's not the same model year as my car, but pretty much an example of a completed car.
www.RickNakama.com Endless Garage S14 Silvia Drift Carwww.RickNakama.com Endless Garage S14 Silvia Drift Car
Well, these are actual pictures of my car as of last night. I was only there to make sure my seat positions were in the correct place because the safety bars will be welded in as close to the areas as possible so this might inhibit the ability to move the seat further back, etc.

Friday, May 25, 2007

G35 Update










2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe WestZero Project
The G35 test drive!
I drove it out of the garage for the first time ever! It's not perfectly completed, but it is driveable. A few squeaky sounds needs to be addressed, but now I know that it actually runs and drives almost like a 2004 Infiniti G35 should.
2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe WestZero Project

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Japan shipment... Shipping soon!

A WestZero supply is being shipped out from Japan soon. JDM OEM parts and Billion brand products will be part of this shipment. If you are planning to purchase something soon, let me know. More items in the shipment mean a better distribution of the ridiculously expensive international shipping. I can re-distribute the items from Honolulu and add the domestic shipping if required.

Monday, May 21, 2007

My "other" car project... Infiniti G35 Coupe 2004

Rear view of my G35 projectThis is another car project that I've had sitting in my garage since late 2004! It is a salvaged title 2004 Infiniti G35 Couple. I bought it at the time thinking I'd have this on the road early-mid 2005! Hahaha! Yeah right. Real Estate was pretty busy in 2005. The car ended up sitting in my garage for almost a year at an almost ready to roll stage! Because of all the time being wasted with this 2004 car with a little over a thousand miles just sitting around, I asked Robert from Sonic to help when he had some time. Robert ran around looking for miscellaneous parts to get this car back together. It took him some time because he was working at Sonic and Hobbietat for a while at one point, but he's got it almost all done now.

Front view of my G35 projectWe were working on it a couple days out of the last couple weeks and got a lot accomplished. The car actually starts up now! Why is this a surprise?? Because I bought the car from someone who purchased it from an insurance auction. The car was totalled and was sold without keys! I managed to order the keys from the Infiniti Dealer, but these new cars come with security keys that require the computer in the car to be programmed for the key. Will from the lock shop on Republican Street down the road from Sonic came up to my garage and took care of the programming! Awesome. Sure beats towing it to the dealer before even driving it just to get it started up. Need to get the car aligned, registered, insured and then it will be on the road. This should be soon! Hopefully!!!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Frappr Map

I'm not quite sure what the use of this Frappr Map is, but it seems interesting as it tells me what area people that viewed the map are supposedly viewing it from. For some reason though, I seem to be the only one who registered. If you come across this, please let me know what else this is useful for and actually register so it looks like a real person really viewed it... :p

Friday, April 13, 2007

They are practicing for vegas!

At dave and busters.

Tantalus

A view from Tantalus. Haven't been here for a while with the road closed!

After dinner at Waikiki Beachwalk.

This is my cousin Sayaka and her hurband Takeshi after their honeymoon dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Waikiki.

an empty Hanauma Bay.

The beach is empty due to the jellyfish invasion.

at Hanauma Bay with my cousin-in-law.

teddy's bigger burgers

I took my honey mooning cousin from japan to have a burger for lunch today!

Thursday, March 1, 2007

WestZero Pictures of my project.

ウエストゼロ ホームページ

picture of S13 Silvia interior chassis work


My S13 chassis is now just a skeleton. These are some pictures of the S13 skelton being reinforced with steel plates to box in critical areas of the chassis and chrome moly tubing to triangulate the rear suspension. The rear shock towers are now supported by addtional traingle plates boxing it in to the rest of the body. The chrome moly "X" is tying in the strut tower to an area above where the front of the subframe is mounted to under the car. Hopefully, by doing this, the driver will experience an improvement in road feel and steering response.




picture of S13 Silvia interior chassis work


picture of S13 Silvia interior chassis work


The "X" is still a "Y"?

picture of S13 Silvia interior chassis work


picture of S13 Silvia interior chassis work

WestZero Videos of my project

Video Clips



3/19/07 - View a video of some of the interior suspension & chassis reinforcements. 25 seconds.




View a video of what my car looks like prior to the "Version 3.0" modifications. 30 seconds.




View a video of my car after it's been "degreased". 33 seconds.




View a video of plasma cutting. 3 seconds.



I found this link on Edmunds.com about an article called Inside Line. It caught my interest because it was on the right column of my page where I have the Ads listed. It said something about the "Best Drifting video". I clicked it and started watching it. The reason why I'm posting it here is because there is a couple minute segment with a long, long ago friend of mine (and the rest of the Speedtek crew). His name is Alex Pfiefer. Anyway, check it out.
www.RickNakama.com - Rick Nakama, REALTOR-ASSOCIATE GRI - East Oahu Realty, Inc.
Read Disclaimer