If you know LJ, then it's a given what color the Scion will be painted. Yellow has become a trademark of LJ and his show cars, and given its attention-grabbing ability, it's no wonder he prefers the crowd-pleasing hue. After some consultation with Metal Art located in La Habra, the brightest PPG yellow was mixed by Bobby Lawson. With a hint of gold pearl added in to brighten the look of things, this won't be your typical one-day paint job.
Engine mods will include a clutch upgrade and, hopefully, a forced-induction system is in the works. GReddy has a turbo kit and Blitz USA has a supercharger unit for the Scion as a direct bolt-on unit. "Whichever one I go with I know it is definitely going to be forced induction," stated LJ.
You'll also need to keep your sunglasses handy, because when LJ chromes out the engine bay, you'll need them to prevent you from going blind from the glare. Plans include coating everything and anything with chrome, including the full undercarriage in glorious bling-bling.
Day 52.... And counting."It's been 52 days of non-stop working on this car as of today, " said David Choi, owner of DC Autoworks and the man behind the shaping of the body kit. The lines under his eyes clearly indicate the lack of sleep both he and LJ have endured since commandeering the Scion. "We just recently sent Scion's marketing director the same images of the car you photographed today," said LJ, smiling.
"And their responses?" I asked.
"Well, they told me if it works then that's pretty crazy! You see, they really wanted to push the concept because the Scion xA is currently considered by many to be a woman's car, it gives off too much feminine aura." My goal, said LJ "was to make a manlier car that gives a more macho vibe to the community."
The final outcome"As with anything I do, I know I'm going to get positive and negative responses, but I'm building the car the way I, and my sponsors, want it to look. There's a certain way I envision the car and I think that's the way it should be," stated LJ.
He continued by saying, "If you don't like it, then don't buy it. But my thing is its cool cause I like it. When you build a car, you build it the way you want it to look, you can't do it for other people. If you start building it to other people's specifications then the car looses its personality.
"You obviously build the car for people to see, but the concept still has to come from what you want, not from what they want. I love pulling into a show with a car and having people approach me, wondering what kind of car it is or having their mouths drop in disbelief. Trust me you'll see plenty of that at SEMA," LJ asserted as he laughed and gave me a big grin.
We at 2NR wanted to give you, the reader, a visual perspective on how a show car comes about; the work in process before it graces the cover of any magazine. You usually see only the end result in our magazine, and not all the mess involved in getting there. It's not as glamorous as we would like to imagine. This article's intent is to show you all that it takes to get there. Just wait to you see the end result.