TADO-BEAT

Good god. It's 2011!

2011-04-19T08:37:00.003+01:00

I can't believe I haven't updated this for so long!!
15 months is pretty bad form really. Everything here is all good and well. The beat now has a girlfriend called Carol (1993 Autozam Carol!), and I've been keeping things up to date on my Minkara page instead. Here's the link, as of now I'll probably just keep posting over there and leave this as a forwarding post. Thanks a lot for reading this blog!
Mike

TADO-Beat Minkara Page

Happy 2010.

2010-01-01T22:06:00.002Z

Happy New Year everyone - hope its a good one for us all.

Ho Ho Ho.

2009-12-22T21:41:00.004Z

Oh blimey. 2 months without any posts - thats not good! We've been busy moving house and a bit frantic with work recently. I'll update with some proper posts soon, but for now here's the obligatory snow picture!
Best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a great start to the new year!
Mike and Katie
Ho Ho Ho.

Packard 54 at Dave's

2009-10-21T11:49:00.001+01:00

Straight-8 meets Little-3!

A pic for a saturday

2009-10-10T18:44:00.004+01:00

Washed, clayed and waxed today so thought I'd try and take a half way decent pic...

Honda EV-N

2009-10-02T09:19:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Andy for sending us this link the other day - Love it!! We've always wanted an old N but this would do nicely too.

Interesting S2000

2009-09-26T16:20:00.003+01:00

Front arches are almost beat-like, love the wheels, love the fenders but Im unsure about the back...

E-Moist Mobile...

2009-09-26T16:19:00.001+01:00

Would love to have a go in this :D

Cory's Cube

2009-09-26T10:54:00.001+01:00

Been meaning to get a pic of our friend Cory's cube for a while now. 3 Very silly cars all together:

KKITP 2009!

2009-09-26T10:42:00.004+01:00

20th September was the annual Kei Kars in the Park meet at Kingsbury Water Park - the turn out was really good this year with plenty beats, cappos, a lovely avanzato and best of all, all 3 of the known AZ-1's on the road in the UK. People travelled from as far as Scotland and Cornwall to come and eat icecream and drink expensive cups of tea from the cafe.
It was a lovely day and Emily did a fantastic job of making it a great day for everyone who turned out. Best of all the Beat-club won a trophy for Best Presented Club - woo!
Sadly our pics didnt come out too great but heres a few of em:

The South-Yorkshire mini-convoy met at services on the M1 - it was great to catch up with the Beardo-Family again:

Adam's awesome 'Best Decorated Kei-Car' winning cappo gave many smiles and admiring glances from amazed kids :D:

Good turn out this year:

A famous little beat won 'Best Presented Beat':

Here's its moment of stardom:

Fantastic Avanzato:

More cappos:

Always our fav cappo - looking lovely in the sun!:

There's some great pics on Beardo's site here (including our new fav pic of our car!), and Emilys KKITP album here - both are probably a lot better than ours!

Teggy goes to TDI North

2009-09-26T10:37:00.002+01:00

Speaking of the teg, it was time for its annual service so we popped over to TDI North in Warrington to get it done and fit a couple of bits we had for it as well. Fortuntely all was well and no other work was needed. The Mugen manifold and cat went on, along with Goodridge hoses and a FEELS engine damper. More pics to come soon once the poor thing has had a clean!
The biggest change we noticed was when the engine damper was fitted - the vibrations are felt much more in the cabin but the engine response and general feel under acceleration is really great. At first we were a bit unsure whether it would be ok for every day driving but we've quickly got used to it.

Curborough Sprint Day

2009-09-26T10:30:00.003+01:00

Towards the end of August a bunch of the KKITP regulars headed down to Curborough Sprint Course in the Midlands for a fun day out messing around in small cars. In amongst the scoobys, glanza's and other big fast cars were a couple of cappos, don's AZ-1 and Dave's beat. Sadly Mr Beat-chan wasnt back on the road at this point so we took the teg down and had a few leisurely laps of the course - easily setting the record for the slowest ever integra lap! :D
The day was a lot of fun and certainly wetted our appetite to do it again... but definitely in the beat next time! Thanks to Emily, Tom and all the guys for a brilliant day out.

Waiting to go behind Don:

Onboard with dave:

Waiting patiently behind Andy and one of them scooby-things:

Dave takes Emily out for a spin:

mega-update pt1

2009-09-26T09:33:00.003+01:00

Right, big update time - first thing first, the little bugger is BACK! He went for the MOT on the thursday and went straight through without any advisories. Then it was back for a quick polish before we collected him. On friday we headed down to Hawleys here in shef to get a laser alignment done and the A048's fitted. The tyres have been fantastic and really transform the car (will be sad to go back to normal tyres once the weather turns!).
We're over the moon to have the little chap back and have been having far too much fun driving around to remember to write blog updates! Thanks again to everyone who sent us messages and get well soon stuff for the car - and hugest thanks to John, Matt, Andy, Kaz and everyone else at the bodyshop for their incredible work and help. :)
Here's some pics from the friday after some new tyres and a good wax:

sticker-rescue.

2009-09-08T20:46:00.002+01:00

This is sad i know, but i've just spent 10 minutes rescuing stickers from the underside of the wrecked old bonnet... :)

Getting REALLY excited now...

2009-09-07T21:07:00.001+01:00

It's amazing the difference the new lights make. Hopefully MOT-time very very soon.

Friday update - nearly there!

2009-09-04T19:08:00.003+01:00

Popped in to see how things are going earlier - and things are looking gooood! Front panel has been painted and all the new bits installed in the front. The bumper and bonnet were drying in the booth as we were there. Looks like we'll have a car again by next week!

Sillyness.

2009-08-25T16:01:00.003+01:00

Apparently its a suzuki twin (thanks hothybrids again!). They look very daft indeed and I kinda like em!

I like these but have no idea what they are.

2009-08-24T08:48:00.003+01:00

Just spotted one on the previous video which reminded me of this awesomely ridiculous beastie:

http://www.kc-technica.com/democar/twin/index.html

The man who loves zip-ties.

2009-08-24T08:35:00.004+01:00

Dug up these fun videos of this nutter the other day... lots of fun kei-battles!
Thanks to Hothybrids for the further investigations too.

looks a lot of fun in the wet:

spectators view of the wetness:

DIY Hands-free kit?

And theyre off!

2009-08-20T19:57:00.002+01:00

Major update time.
Thanks to the all the amazing help from Dave at Steels the parts arrived bang on time last week and traveled up to Sheffield on friday.
We went down to the bodyshop this morning to find that the car had already been on the jig, triple checked and that the new front panel had just been welded on. John, Matt and the guys have made amazing progress already.
The race is on to be MOT'd and ready for KKITP on sept 20th!
More updates soon... woo.

Parts building up...

2009-08-05T10:58:00.003+01:00

Apologies for the lack of beat-related updates over the past couple of months. To be honest we've been extremely busy with work and mojo was lost for a little while... However! after a phonecall from Dave at Steels Honda to say that the last parts should be arriving on August 12th I'm getting excited about getting the car back on the road again.

Here's a couple of updates on the parts that are building up in our lounge...

This gigantic box arrived from japan yesterday thanks to Andy at 200bhp.

After a lot of umming and ahhing i decided to stick with the original FEELS bumper and I picked up a couple of goodies from spiegal as well... it would have been rude not to!

Under Body support bars and engine damper:

My 'summer' tyres arrived quite a while ago and have since been a very comfortable stool/poof thing in the lounge. these are just the fronts, i'll be able to order the rears from the uk as theyre a 'normal-ish' size. Not sure whether it'll be worth fitting these once the car's back on the road or just save em for next year now.

hopefully once the last of the parts arrive the guys will be able to get cracking on the car quite quickly and i'll have something slightly more interesting to update with!

not a pretty sight

2009-08-05T10:51:00.002+01:00

ho hum. this doesnt get any easier to look at! mustn't grumble tho, parts are finally starting to arrive! (see above post)...

Sugoi on sale!

2009-07-17T17:00:00.002+01:00

We’re very pleased to announce that our ‘Sugoi!’ posters are now available from the TADO-Shop! Measuring 841×595mm (A1) they’re lovely and huge and printed using a full-colour litho press onto satin paper. Each poster that is bought from the TADO-Shop will come with a special Ramen-Monster sticker and we will donate £5 to the Western Park Hospital Cancer Charity for each one sold! We put our hearts and souls into this giant piece and hope we can raise a smashing amount for the charity. Please pop one in your basket today!

http://www.wphcancercharity.org.uk/
http://tadoshop.bigcartel.com

Visit to Evolution Print...

2009-07-17T16:49:00.004+01:00

We went to see our friends at Evolution Print today to get something very special done.
The poster started out as a recent piece we did for Virgin about things to do in Japan. We then remixed it and spent many days adding in more and more details and memories til we were almost blind!
Proceeds from the sales of the posters will be going to the Western Park Hospital Cancer Charity to help support the incredible and life-changing work they do.
We'd also like to thank Andy for all his help with the grammar-checking!! ;);)

update on the lack of updates.

2009-07-17T09:07:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the lack of recent postings! all parts have now been ordered and are on their way - eta some time in august. Many thanks to Dave Johnson and Andy at 200bhp for their help with everything!
In the meantime we've just been busy with work so not a great deal to report. However, our friend Rhiannon found these this morning which put a smile on my face...

want, need, desire.

2009-06-25T10:56:00.001+01:00

Funny-B Fat Tyre Hyper Bikes.

Superflat First Love

2009-06-13T11:56:00.002+01:00

Saw this today - Takashi Murakami has created a new animation to celebrate his years of collaboration with Louis Vuitton. Very nice indeed:

Here's the original animation from a few years ago too:

Life-Sized Gundam in Odaiba

2009-06-13T09:30:00.004+01:00

This thing is brill.
Full story/article here, - the site is a bit not work-safe mind ;)

insurance update... Yey!

2009-06-13T09:19:00.002+01:00

Quick update on the insurance situation. After a stressful week of arguing with the insurance company and the assessing engineers, we're really happy with the outcome - the beat will ride again!!
Thanks to the help of our friends in the club/kkitp and the guys at the bodyshop we were able to prove the cars correct value which put it over the repair threshold which was great. The engineer was actually very understanding about everything and was very patient with us while we put everything together for him.
The repairs have now been approved and the ordering of bits can start. Parts will probably take most of the summer to arrive which is a bit sad but its a hell of a lot better than having to scrap the little chap.
Hoorah!!

High Kick Girl! trailer...

2009-06-10T10:34:00.001+01:00

awesomeness.
Posted on Toysrevil:

...

2009-05-28T11:02:00.002+01:00

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. Beat-Chan will be that car. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

gutted.

2009-05-26T07:40:00.002+01:00

full story here. of course we're happy and relived to be ok... but feeling pretty damn glum today... :( :(

AZ-1 Porn.

2009-05-19T21:44:00.003+01:00

Yes Please.

From a speedhunters post I came across this morning, more to be found here:

It does remind me slightly of something tho.... :D

Waaaaaaant!

2009-05-17T22:46:00.004+01:00

Looks to be based on the Tamiya M-Chassis... pics pinched from Beat0707

sticker awesomeness.

2009-05-11T14:52:00.003+01:00

First stone chip today...

2009-05-10T22:24:00.002+01:00

Bang smack in the middle of the front bumper. I went home and had a little man-cry.

Rising Sun Show Pt 2...

2009-05-10T22:13:00.006+01:00

Amongst the hordes of impretzas and evos (yawn) at the RSS there were some great curiosities and nice things:

Rising Sun Car Show, Lincoln Showground

2009-05-10T21:51:00.008+01:00

We met up with our friend Beardo, Mrs Beardo and the mini-Beardos somewhere between Doncaster and Lincoln in the early hours of this morning, and then drove down to meet up with a bunch of the likely characters from KKITP at the Rising Sun Car Show.

It was brill to see everyone and great to catch up/swap stories before the KKITP meet in Sept. The mix of Cappos, Beats and Don's AZ-1 certainly generated a lot of curiosity and interest amongst the passing subaru/evo-nuts. Here's some pics from the Club Cappo/KKITP area:

Andy's totally ill, fresh and JDM-Yo Rilakuma install...

100% complete

2009-05-10T21:47:00.003+01:00

having found a rear badge I plonked the front one back on as well - the final piece of the puzzle... this is my new fav picture of the car as well.

THANKYOU EMILY!!!

2009-05-10T21:45:00.004+01:00

Emily from KKITP very kindly let me have her old rear-honda badge after I 'misplaced' ours. Thankyou em, I owe you one! :D

Sticker collection

2009-05-10T21:43:00.002+01:00

The under-bonnet collection is growing...

Dixcel-a-go-go.

2009-05-10T21:39:00.002+01:00

We dropped the beat off with dave earlier this week for a good service and general post-rebuild check over before the Rising Sun show this weekend. It gave us the chance to put the new discs on as well. Theyre still bedding in at the moment but the certainly look a lot better than the old ones and will hopefully offer a bit more stopping power as well.

Federal Bikes - Ty Morrow

2009-05-08T13:59:00.001+01:00

Friday afternoon = slacking off time! :D
Thanks to ridley for this, nice to see shef looking bleak as ever.
Awesome skills and nice editing too...

Federal Bikes - Ty Morrow from Federal BMX on Vimeo.

JNC at the Time Machine Festival

2009-05-08T11:48:00.005+01:00

Ive been meaning to post this up all week. JNC posted up some pics from the Time Machine Festival from their recent trip to JP. Soooooooo many nice things its untrue. Heres the link to the full gallery, and some of my favs below.

Kawai Motor Boutique

2009-05-02T21:27:00.003+01:00

I re-made one of the stickers that was originally on the car when we got it. I've never found anything about Kawai Motor Boutique online but its a nice sticker and I was sad to see it go when we put the new screen in. While I was at it I added the first sticker to my under-bonnet collection - more to come soon!

Clay-barred.

2009-05-02T21:22:00.005+01:00

Today I spent the morning going over the beat with a clay bar. I've never used one before and the results were bloomin amazing! after using it the paint feels like glass and the colour/reflection is superb.

tado-rides.

2009-05-02T21:21:00.001+01:00

every now and again you get reminded that the beat is small. very small.

tegs new exhaust is on

2009-05-02T21:20:00.002+01:00

ths weekend...

2009-05-02T21:07:00.004+01:00

we will mostly be bunny-sitting for our good friends lydia and jamie... the animals are in safe and capable hands! :P

umm... please stop doing that. please!!

tax-disc make over

2009-04-26T21:37:00.001+01:00

final pieces...

2009-04-26T21:18:00.006+01:00

finished putting the last bits from the cardboard boxes back on the car today... just about finished really! :D
the only pieces left to go on are the honda badges... one of which i seem to have lost... and cant find anywhere... argh!
i gave the car its first proper wash, polish and wax today as well.

now its all back together there's still stuff to be done:
Big service - hopefully within the next 2 weeks.
Sort out new seat brackets for passengers side so we can have the matching seats back.
Sort out tyres - im looking forward to getting a 185/55R14 on the back to balance things out a bit better with the front.
Bit more drop - once the new tyres are on the car will be coming lowerrrrrr.

But, for now... here's some pics of a shiny car with two seats and a working stereo:

stereo goes back in

2009-04-26T10:08:00.004+01:00

Some pics from yesterdays fiddling - after about 3 hours of grunting, cut fingers and moving wires around i managed to get the stereo/centre console fitted.

Also installed a DAB unit which has had to live in the glove box...

and above that, behind the dash, now lives a pair of crossovers for the speakers.

Slowly but surely

2009-04-18T21:34:00.005+01:00

Managed to spend a few hours working on the interior today. Both the dash and carpets were tasks I was a bit apprehensive about, but when it came to it everything seemed to go back together very smoothly.
The clean carpets have made a huge difference and I'm really chuffed with the alcantara on the dash. I also replaced the bulbs in the footlights with LED versions.
The plan is to have everything back together and a quick service before the Rising Sun Show on May 10th... its looking hopeful at the mo!

Teggy's go faster kit.

2009-04-18T21:16:00.006+01:00

While I was fiddling with the dash, Katie got to work polishing up some treats for the teg that have been sat in our lounge for a good few months.
To match the beat's shiny mugen goodies, we managed to get hold of a nearly-new mugen twinloop exhaust, mugen manifold/cat and a mugen airbox from Andy at 200bhp.
To give a better idea of the size of the exhaust, Mr Pika-beat has helped out to show the beat's mugen-hole compared with to tegs... O_o!

Beating about in sheffields back garden.

2009-04-17T19:00:00.002+01:00

30 Customs by 30 Friends - An auction for the Cambodian Childrens Fund

2009-04-17T12:28:00.003+01:00

Bit of an off topic post, but we're trying to get as much publicity for this project as possible at the moment.
Our friend Nichole from Kidrobot has organised a charity auction of 30 customised toys by various artists and designers from across the globe. The money will be going to help the Cambodian Childrens Fund who deliver simple things like pencils, paper, clothes and other supplies to underprivalaged kids to help them get into schools and off the streets.

You can read more about the auction and the Childrens Fund here, and view all of the toys available on ebay here!
If anything takes your fancy and you're able to bid then please do!!

Quick friday update!

2009-04-17T12:12:00.002+01:00

Not too much to report here at the moment in terms of Beat-chan progress as we've been a bit snowed under with work. However, we dropped the little chap off at the bodyshop on wednesday for his final tidy-up. Once thats done, we're hoping to get the interior back in... maybe even this weekend..!
Oh, and i've also ordered some nice new tyres for the summer - advan 048's.
At the moment the rear tyres are 175/60R14's which look a bit too tall/bulgy for my liking compared to the nice profile of the 165/55R14's on the front.
Of course, being the beat nothing is ever simple. The 185/55R14 rear tyres can come from the UK, but i've had to order the 165/55R14 front tyres from japan - ho hum!
These are coming by sea so it'll be a couple of months til they arrive but hopefully they'll be worth the wait and I'll be able to drop the car a bit more then. Must... go... lower...

Sunny Sunday = Tado Car Day.

2009-04-06T08:53:00.005+01:00

With all the attention the beat's been getting, the poor teg has been a bit neglected recently... so with the sun out it was time for a good wash n wax.
We fitted the first bits of a bunch of Mugen bits we've been hoarding for it as well!

Made some progress with the beat too, but nothing very exciting. Just going through the list of seals that need adjusting, bits that need satin-blacking, and finding homes for left over bolts! ;)

Ouch.

2009-04-04T23:20:00.002+01:00

This got squashed between a brick and the floor. :(

Out for a spin!

2009-04-04T23:13:00.007+01:00

After checking everything was tight 15 times I decided to head out for a quick spin in the car to check for any rattles and more importantly to show 'The Boss' the days progress. After driving round the block a few times to make sure nothing was going to fall off I headed down to our house. It's great to hear the 8500rpm howl again! :D

update part 3 - Honey i shrunk the CRX!

2009-04-04T23:02:00.007+01:00

Started off this morning putting the lights back in and then the enkei's back on. Suddenly things started to look a lot like a car!

After that I sat and sorted out the front plate mount and wheel arch liners... then put the front bumper on.

This was a pretty big moment as we'd never seen the bumper on the car before. The only guide we had was the FEELS catalogue pic which showed a silver car, so it was always kind of hard to imagine how things would look. I'd managed to resist the temptation to try it out before now!
Suffice to say its even better than I imagined. I'm really happy with the way it looks - different and more aggressive but still instantly recognisable as a honda and not too over the top. It certainly has hints of Prelude and Del-Sol about it!

update part 2

2009-04-04T22:51:00.007+01:00

With the time-consuming spraying and squirting finished I could finally start bolting a few more bits back together...

Cleaned in here a bit as well:

Freshly painted scuttle panel cover with the new seals and clips went on:

By the end of the day this is where I was out - back end pretty much together!

Big Saturday Update

2009-04-04T22:39:00.007+01:00

Apologies for the lack of recent updates! We've managed to get on with a lot of stuff in the past week though so here's a jumbo update:
First off - spent 2/3 days doing cavity wax and underseal. Probably the worst job in the entire world ever. I now see why I read so many people grumbling about doing this - cavity wax is like a stinking putrid custard and underseal makes you look like david dickinson. The results are very nice though and hopefully it'll protect things for a while to come:

Saturday Progress

2009-03-10T21:55:00.007Z

Finally got to spend some time getting on with some rebuilding at the weekend. First up was to make the car water-tight again - the restored seals and new wiperseals went on.
Old and new:

I then spent a long time under here with a toothbrush and some degreaser - next time I want to get in there with some black paint or waxoyl and tidy things up some more.

Here's how things looked at the end of the day, no lights or bumpers, but definitely looking a bit more car-like!

Rear Lights cleaned

2009-03-10T21:52:00.002Z

Before:

After :)

Driving lights

2009-03-10T21:49:00.004Z

My new driving lights arrived from the US last week, here's some pics of them bolted into the bumper:

On My Beat .jp!

2009-03-02T17:35:00.002Z

I'd not come accross this site before until today - there's some great pics and info on the owners car :)
www.onmybeat.jp

Fit Trails Tour

2009-02-27T15:46:00.001Z

This made me smile, smile and smile some more today. So frickin big and so smooth.
Many thanks to ady for the link and brightening up the afternoon with this.

Back from the bodyshop!

2009-02-23T14:47:00.009Z

We got the car back on saturday and he's looking fan-bleedin-tastic! We've both been over the whole car several times with a fine toothed comb and cant find any faults with the paint at all - no runs, marks or other nasties.
We couldnt be more happy with the result and the colour looks incredible in the flesh so to speak. Can't wait to put the white wheels back on again to see the full effect.
The front bumper isnt on at the moment to allow me to put the new lights etc in without the risk of scratches!
The next task is to start rebuilding but we wont be able to do that for a few more weeks as work is pretty crazy busy at the moment. Once he's back together again it'll be back to the bodyshop for more polishing, tidying and any final bits that need doing.
Here's some pics, apologies for the crap light, it was getting a bit late in the day:

Love the new look back end:

The new look vent/rear panel - think we might need to think about wider rear wheels or using a spacer of some kind. We'll see how the proper wheels look first tho:

New screen and surrounding trim/seals makes a HUGE difference!

Rollcage is all sealed up and underneath the car is undersealed:

Inside needs a bit of dusting now tho!!

Almost ready to come home...

2009-02-19T19:12:00.003Z

Underseal has been done, just waxoyl and then the new screen to go in. We're hoping to have the little fella back on Saturday!

Stroopwafles and Honda Beats!

2009-02-19T19:06:00.002Z

Thanks Meffi!!!!! :D :D Stroopwafles.. MMMMMMMMM!

Chav-Beat??

2009-02-18T09:49:00.001Z

via Yukibeat :)

New cozylights goodies

2009-02-17T20:32:00.004Z

Cozylights have just updated their site with these rather well-snazzy-nice dash covers and b-pillar covers (no pics on the site yet).
We saw these at Meet the Beat back in may and they looked really really nice both in looks and quality.
Go Go Cozylights!!

YOU'RE DRIVING TOO SLOW MR POLICEMAN. Noriyaro!

2009-02-15T09:44:00.005Z

This kind of stuff is what the interweb was made for. Noriyaro is a great blog which is updated almost every day with news and pics from japan.
One of the recent articles was about a visit to a guy named Daisuke who it seems runs some sort of boso/shakotan dream-shop. If you are a seedy kind of guy and have the money, Mr Daisuke can make it for you! Theres some fascinating pics and info:
Part 1 Here
Part 2 Here

Weekend update

2009-02-15T09:37:00.002Z

No pics of the beat this week I'm afraid!
We called in on wednesday to see how things were coming along. The roof and scuttle panel are now lovely gloss black, but it was a bit cold and dark to be taking pics!

John and the guys had hoped to have everything finished this week but we're still waiting for a gap in the jobs so the little fella can come out of the store and back into the main workshop for the final polishing and paint finishing. After that its waxoyl and underseal, new screen and we should be done... maybe this week!
Sadly it looks like when mr beat-chan does come home, he'll be sat in my mums garage for a while as work has been really hectic for the past month or so - no time for rebuilding little cars! :(

Oh - on a side note, I received another honda-box of greatness from Dave at Steels Honda in Herreford. Clips, clips, seals, rubber things and more clips - all of which will be a huge help and improvement to the car when it goes back together again. Many thanks for your help and great service Dave!

Interesting things I've seen this week.

2009-02-15T09:30:00.004Z

We're doing a photoshoot for a project in the next week or so and popped down to see a friend of a friend's studio the other day. The place is pretty remarkable, tucked away in really dodgy area of shef, between a van-hire company and a sandwich making factory! I should have taken more pics but it's pretty tardis like inside - thats the owners 71 911T as well.

This also appeared over the road from our house this week. Street poetry in S3... :D

New Beat??

2009-02-09T19:19:00.002Z

" Following the suspension of the Honda NSX, after developing a new generation, S2000 follow-up cars along with the development might also be aborted. Unfavorable economic conditions, the auto market have gradually shifted the focus of the demand for energy-saving micro-fun car, the Toyota IQ, Fiat 500 and so is the successful example. In view of this, Honda plans to classic open-top car BEAT new models. According to the latest one, “ベスカート” magazine reported that a new generation BEAT or abandon the traditional MR-driven layout, replaced by the use of FR-driven form; powered in part or entirely new line will carry triplex naturally aspirated engine and equipped with electric folding soft canopy. The new body BEAT lasted classic compact design, pre-face style will work with the upcoming CR-Z sports car similar to the rear of the design will be retained classic rounded-style brake light design. Honda most likely will take the lead in this year’s Tokyo Motor Show BEAT concept models on display, of course, Honda will ultimately lead to the implementation of new production BEAT, need to look at the extent of the market response is overwhelming."

Pic pinched from flickr:

More Fixie stuff.

2009-02-06T17:12:00.002Z

Still on the topic of fixies... just got re-sent this email which made me smile... all very tongue in cheek of course... ;)

Dixcel arrives

2009-02-06T15:23:00.002Z

Just as we came home our friendly UPS man arrived and dropped these off. Many thanks to Dixon for sorting these out for me, cant wait to see them on the car - no more rusty rotors!

Screen finaly going in

2009-02-06T15:19:00.002Z

Once again the teg has been swallowing beat parts whole - it's boot seems almost tardis-like!
This time it was the new screen that's been sat up at my mums house for ages - it'll finally be fitted early next week. We've just dropped it off at the body shop where the remaining small parts have just been painted. All being well the little fella should be home next week some time!

Bodyshop update

2009-02-05T17:31:00.003Z

We bravely battled through the blizzards to go and see how things were coming along this morning - it looks like we're almost there now! all the red is finished, next up is black...
Sadly no pics of the car today as its back in the storage area behind lots of other ones, but the doors are back on and its looking fantastic. It should be heading back into the main shop area soon for finishing work to the red, then we can go over everything with a fine toothed comb. So far so good... brill infact!

Girls + Bikes + Tricks =

2009-02-01T21:38:00.006Z

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!
Even tho I don't really like the whole trendy fixed wheel thing thats going on at the moment... these are still ACE!
I used to ride leeds skatepark/street pretty much every day and never saw anything like this happen!

Bonnet found

2009-02-01T11:28:00.002Z

Many thanks to everyone who let me know about the beat bonnet that appeared on ebay last week - it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.
I got in touch with the seller and quickly arranged to pick it up yesterday. The bonnet is from a version Z but its exactly the same as mine (apart from being green!) and has saved me at least £300! Its in perfect nick.
Sometimes you're reminded just how small the beat is - the bonnet dropped easily into the back of our dc5 with plenty room to spare.

Many thanks to graham for his hospitality and letting us check out his amazing collection of beautifully restored hondas - think you've given us the monkey-bike itch again!

dash done

2009-01-28T14:01:00.003Z

We called in to collect the dashboard pods from Mr Clayton on monday - hes done a great job again with the alcantara. I rebuilt the dash on monday night and its all gone back together very nicely. I've got some tweeters and crossovers to get in there somewhere before it goes back in the car tho...
In other news it looks like we might have found a new bonnet for the car... fingers crossed!

VERY VERY VERY.... red.

2009-01-26T18:14:00.002Z

We popped in to see john and the guys first thing this morning and were greeted by this object glowing from a corner of the store room! I'm not sure what I was expecting but I cant quite get over the finish on it and the pure REDNESS of it! The car looks like its coated in soaking wet paint - its so shiny its untrue. And apparently there's still more to do. The colour looks perfect - it should contrast beautifully with the white wheels and black roof.
The doors etc were being prepped while we were there, and we're hanging fire on the bonnet at the moment as there may be a replacement found in the uk... fingers crossed!
I cant wait to see how it looks when all the masking comes off and the black bits go on...

Dunny-Zilla finished!

2009-01-24T16:31:00.008Z

We've just come back home after a week in london painting the beastie in the previous post. His name is Big Bertie!
We worked on him tues-thurs from 7am to 7pm, both in a studio and in the Selfridges store on Oxford Street. We put the finishing touches to him live at a big party on thursday night to celebrate the opening of the new Kidrobot concept store inside Selfridges. It was a pretty crazy week all round!
He's available for sale from Selfridges now, with all the proceeds going to charity... the price is... *cough!*... 12 grand! Any oil-rich sheikh's fancy a new pet??

Apologies for the lack of beat-updates, we're excited to get down to the bodyshop on monday to see what's been going on. Updates on that asap!
Here's a quick video and some pics of Big Bertie for the time being :)

Dunny-zilla

2009-01-21T05:36:00.004Z

This week we will mostly be locked in a secret london warehouse with this...

KKITP logos

2009-01-16T22:47:00.004Z

New logos for KKITP.com - we had a lot of fun making these, thanks a lot for asking us Emily!
These are now available as tees, polos, hoodies and other goodies from the KKITP shop-page. Yey!
Many thanks to Korai as well for his help with the japanese characters! ;)

Carpets = Loads Better.

2009-01-16T22:10:00.002Z

Scrubbed up nice in the end! :D

Jungle Panda Gonna **** You Up!!

2009-01-16T22:09:00.002Z

Just to add another random post with a crap phone pic, here's something amazing we found at our friend's house on NYE...

Wasabi Crisps?!

2009-01-16T22:03:00.003Z

MmmMMmmmmmMMMmm!! Thanks Kipi!! - Seabrooks online - Nice to see they still do tomato ketchup flavour as well! :D

Bodyshop visit wednesday

2009-01-14T11:13:00.007Z

Couple of quick pics from this morning's visit!
The car is almost ready for paint - hoorah! the bodywork is all finished and the new rear panels are all smoothed in and looking awesome. The bumpers are just taped on to get an idea of how everything is looking. I'm really happy with the progress so far... and i keep thinking how nice it looks in white! haha..
Apologies for the crappy pics, the little fella is in the store awaiting his turn for the spray booth and it's a bit dark!

Tokyo Auto Salon Kei-ness

2009-01-12T09:36:00.018Z

Cozy-Lights blog just posted up these pics of some of the kei cars from the Tokyo Auto Salon. After last years mini-NSX madness it seems more have followed suit with a mini GT-R and Porsche... hmmmmmm and as for the poor AZ-1 :(
Love the Factory Blow pick-up tho!

Greatest Movie Trailer Ever?

2009-01-12T09:29:00.003Z

Its only 9:29am and Im already pretty sure this is the greatest thing I will see all day.

More info here

Steaming Clean

2009-01-11T19:47:00.002Z

Today we shampooed and steam cleaned the carpets... the colour of the water that came out was pretty eurgh!!

Friday night in the tado household...

2009-01-10T10:25:00.005Z

We like to live it pretty large here on a friday night and last night was no exception. It was a heady evening fueled by GUNK de-greaser, Meguiars plastic polish and rubber-reconditioner... and a bit of cotton bud action. Phewf!

Here's how things started out - 18 years worth of dirt, scratches and awful over-spray...

After a couple hours of cleaning crevices, celebrity big brother ignoring and frantic polishing this is what resulted:

I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out! The lens polish especially is pretty remarkable stuff, tho it doesnt really show in the pics.

Saturday night is looking almost as wild with the right hand one to do next!
Last night was the third successive night in a row of this kind of excessive living. So far we've also seen a dashboard in the bath and a whole evening of rubber-reconditioning... Live fast die young.

Ouch...

2009-01-08T22:03:00.002Z

Mr Beat-chan is sharing the bodyshop with some seriously high end beasts...
Ouch....

Bodyshop Day 1...

2009-01-08T21:28:00.010Z

We had a call from John at the body shop today saying he had a few bits to show us... needless to say we were very excited to see what had been going on!

When we arrived there was some good news, and some pretty much expected bad news!
The bad is that the bonnet is pretty much fubared. It looks as though the car has had some kind of vandalism or several hits of some sort to the middle of the bonnet! There's no sign of impact damage to the front and nothing else on the rest of the car - it looks like the poor little fella spent some time in a back alley with a drunken hammer-assassin! This was something we'd always suspected as there was no other reason for the car to have seen paint at some point and the original rear screen had some odd scratch marks in it that looked like they had been done maliciously...

John said that he could sort the bonnet out to a standard but he would be much happier to work with a new one. We totally respect his experience so we're now on the hunt for a new one, which looks like it might have to come from japan.... groan! this could take a few months so it looks like we may have a very shiny beat with a skanky bonnet for a while.... :D

On to the good news tho - everything else is fantastico! The guys have made amazing progress this week. They've fitted the rear wings and moulded them into the body/skirts. The rear bumper has been test fitted and the front bumper is hanging on for effect as well! The boot looks like it will need some spacers/adjustments to meet the over-sized wings properly. We've been looking at the catalog pics of the FEELS beat and it seems they have done something along these lines... anyhoos, here's the crappy phone pics... looking a bit dusty and sorry for itself after all the work but we have faith! :D

Bonked bonnet (the cream coloured patches are filler):

New rear view - wide(r)boy!

Side view - the old original wheels looking a bit feeble at the back now:

And here's something to remind us what it should all look like one day...

And we're off...

2009-01-05T18:40:00.002Z

Bit parky today like...

dash deconstruktion

2009-01-03T17:11:00.003Z

I gave the car a final wash down today and got into some more tight corners with a toothbrush. Think we're all set for the little fella being carted off now!
With that all done I've turned my attention to the fun job of getting started on cleaning stuff. I want to get the dash panels off to be re-trimmed asap so I brought the whole thing home and got stuck in un-screwing. Next it'll be bath time for all these bits... I hope I can remember how this lot goes back together again!

Something I forgot to mention was a package from Honda that arrived just before xmas full of useful stuff for when we put the new windscreen in and a couple of other bits. Thank you very very much to Dave J at Steels Honda for all his help in sorting these bits out for me!