So I’ve been procrastinating on starting a blog for the longest time. I guess the best way to start this is with a little bio on how my life revolves around my favourite pass time, hobby, and rather addiction; automobiles.

Whether your a enthusiast, friend, or family, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as i did writing it.

The building process is half the fun, I couldn’t have worded this following quote any better.

With all the cuts and bruises on their hands healing up after the months of work they put in and then that open stretch on the highway comes up. Then they’ll let loose and its followed by a rewarding feeling that can’t be explained. – Supramania

So on to how it all started. Working at price chopper i opted to make one of the worst first car decisions anyone could make, purchasing a budget Nissan 240sx. I managed to convince my sidekick in crime to make the “investment” with me, my mother, Jill Boucher.

Needless to say we where both rather uneducated car buyers at the time. I will make note that I was re-assured verbally that the frame was in fantastic shape, right to my face. It was an early lesson to never trust the one selling you a product.

Blew it up, changed the motor, lost motivation, sold it. I will say it was probably the worst purchase i have ever made, but it was a good life lesson.

Which brings me into my next car,  I was always in the market for another s-chassis. With the help of Bianca Koutroulakis I impulsively opened up this can of worms, it was my first turbo experience.

The drive-train was solid, unfortunately the frame was hurting (surprise). I sold it to my good friend, Ryan Tatti.

This is the most recent shot I have of her, she’s in a better place now.

My passion for s-chassis cars didn’t end there. Shortly after I purchased one of my most memorable cars to date. With an extensive list of supporting mods, it made for one of the best daily drivers. It too lived a short life with me, and a small part of me still regrets selling that car.

I won’t regret who i sold it too; Ciaran Gibb who did all the right things with this car. Pictures speak louder than words. Unfortunately last time i checked he was parting out, and the chassis was sold.

Fast forward to my second year of college, where I came across an inexpensive intriguing project being sold by a trustworthy enthusiast; Kenji Sasaki.

A 1985 MX73 Toyota Cressida, converted to 5-speed and equipped with a 7mgte. The beginning of my luxury, 4 door, inline 6 obsession.

In the US it’s not quite so easy. For one reason or another, the American market never got many of these upmarket Japanese sedans from that time period.

At the time, Japanese brands in the US were known mostly for building affordable economy cars rather than competing with Oldsmobile, Buick, or Chrysler on the higher end of the market. It wouldn’t be until the early 1990s when larger, more luxury oriented Japanese imports began to take the market by storm.

One of the few exceptions to this trend came in the form of the Toyota Cressida – essentially an Americanized version of the Mark II that hit the market in the late 1970s. While not a smash hit, the Cressida was offered until the early ’90s when it was replaced by models from Toyota’s new Lexus brand as well as the front wheel drive Toyota Avalon.

– Mike Garrett @ Speedhunters

Unfortunately I don’t have to many pictures of this car as I  never thought it was picture worthy. I had no storage and as you can tell from the pictures the body was in rough shape. So i stripped the car down to a bare shell and held onto the drivetrain with the intentions of building on a cleaner chassis in the future.

Upon completion of college, money tightened up drastically. Now I do want to dedicate a portion of this post to two individuals, whom may never read this but its important that I express my gratitude and pure appreciation for the help they had given me, Peter Cripps and Jason Mattinson.

I can’t describe exactly why I acquired this upcoming vehicle, to most it seemed a prime candidate for the junkyard but I saw the potential in it.
A 1995 Honda Civic equipped with a D15 mated to an automatic engine. It had a severely blown headgasket and a far from perfect body and it had that southern ontario rustic character.

Now the head was beyond salvageable, it was extremely warped. I managed to find rebuilt one online for dirt cheap, slapped it on and daily’d the car for a short period of time.

Now I can’t explain exactly what motivated me to installed a D16z6, convert it to manual and slap on an turbo kit. But it went something like this ..

The mod list was extremely basic:
Unknown turbo kit
For safety measure’s I was running a chipped ECU, DSM 450 injectors and a Walboro 255lph fuel pump. Unfortunately it was spiking to 14psi and thankfully i only stretched my headbolts.

This swap was done in one week, in the middle of winter, under a tarp made out of PVC piping and dollar store tarps; never again.

I do want to thank Carolina Michelussi, Victor Munoz, and Shane Ramsden.

This brings me up to April 2011. I followed through with one of the best decisions I have made to date. After almost a year of anxiously waiting, I was sworn into the Forces, Military or more specifically the Air force as an Aviation Technician.

Within weeks of being sworn in, I was on a train to Montreal for a 3-month basic training course which I can say, has been one of the best overall life experiences I’ve ever had. It’s left me with some lifelong friendships and bonds.

After I completed my BMQ I was posted to Borden, Ontario to complete a couple courses not taught in school. In the 6 month span before starting my course I was sent on various generalized taskings, one of which was a 2-month temporary deployment to Wainwright, Alberta to assist in the maple flag exercise. Now your probably wondering why the fuck am I reading this? I promise it ties into my next project..

So as I mentioned earlier I had the intentions of  “building on a cleaner chassis in the future”. It was the middle of October, living in the field, in a mod tent with access to cellular data; I came across a 1986 silver Toyota Cressida located in New Brunswick.

With a 350 price tag, 98,xxx kms and a blown head gasket it was a perfect candidate! Impulsively I bought it, three months later and a 650 uship.com bill it was sitting in my driveway.

Now I didn’t know what to expect upon receiving it but I was rather impressed. The interior, trim, paint, and underbody exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately this car once resided in southern Ontario and had minor cancer forming around the rear mudflaps, front fenders and the body molding running the length of the car.

My goal for this car is to produce a menacing looking car, one that attracts looks for its extreme style and of course sound.

Big shout out to Jesse Bentley for providing a facility to start this project.

One of the biggest perks to the military, especially on a bigger base is the support for hobby clubs; my niche was the automotive club. In Borden it was a 12 bay, 4 hoist shop layout equipped with extensive tools and support.

Temporary rear wheel setup, 15×10 -12 (notice damaged from shipping, avoid UPS)

This brings us up to April 2012 when I had pretty much abandoned the civic, thankfully I came across a clean shell that had re-kindled the project and motivated me to complete the swap when I had some down-time on the Cressida. Now I hadn’t seen the car in over a year, and the best way to describe it was like reuniting with a hot ex-girlfriend that let herself go .. the quarter panels where kicked in, it had been vandalized (spray paint) and there where parts missing.

This is how the donor looked..

To be completely honest, I was exceptionally excited about completing this project. I had every piece to the puzzle, it was a simple job and the final product was easily attainable. Unfortunately.. on the first day of tear down bad news was brought forward; the shop was being audited and the doors where being locked.

This became a huge obstacle, I received my posting message a few days after and was left with a time-frame of a mere month. I had come to the realization that the shop won’t be re-opening and to arrange a back-up plan.

With alot of down-time I spent a majority of my spare time collecting parts, or in the case of my next purchase; a trailer.

Now I needed something to tow it with, while the market was terrible and I was days away from selling the trailer when i came across this ..

The truck needed some TLC but it was exactly what I was looking for, and I had faith it would make it across Canada.

Unfortunately the shop never opened up before my departure but I managed to convince the staff to let me in for a full day to get everything back together.

The pictures following where all documented over the span of 8 hours. Two motor swaps, a head gasket change and a clutch change. Words couldn’t describe how I felt post-completion as it was a “high” which still remains a mystery to me.

We had to wrap things up at this point, and I made the decision to leave the car in Ontario. I do have big plans for this car in the future so stay tuned.

I would like to mention two individuals who were not only a motivation to these builds but a true assets and have been truly missed, Andrij Coba and Connor Dupont. It’s unfortunate that a final product couldn’t have been experienced but the future is promising, I build these cars to experience them with others, my door is always open.

I initially started this blog to focus primarily on my cars, but there is definitely a personal biography attached to it. I’m definitely going to gear away from cars for a brief moment and discuss a big step in my life. I’m all for change, that fear of not knowing and pushing from your comfort zone is so rewarding. I generally express little emotion but that moment when I drove off my mother’s driveway, officially leaving the nest, is when everything sunk in.

I did take photos of the trip, enjoy;

One of the most disappointing things about this posting was the understanding that there is no automotive hobby club available. To be completely honest there was a lot of biased hate for this province in general, it was a huge culture shock.

It’s been about 4 months since arriving and it has grown onto me, I have accepted it for what it is and am making the best out of it..

In that 4 months my life drastically changed, I became slightly obsessed with painting abstractly in the nude, using a large canvas and no brushes. Come dark time I would bust out movies from the 1980’s and resurrect those dance moves.

Automotive related I picked these up, but I won’t go into to much detail just yet, so stay tuned.

Now 95% of people’s first reaction towards the Cressida is rather disappointing, or better yet clueless. My goal is to change that.

I was given the honour to focus, or better yet complete the Cressida by an individual whom I’ve grown alot of respect for, Reid Bellamy. I’d like to take the opportunity to acknowledge some admirable fabrication skills as shown in the upcoming photos. I am truely inspired not only by his presentational goals for this bike, but his willingness to tackle the unknown.

That pretty much brings us up to date.

Full mod list:

7MGTE matted to R154
ARP headstuds
Cometic headstuds
Waiting on the head from the machine shop, 3 angle valve job/resurface
550cc injector
57 trim CT26 turbo
Lexus AFM
Walboro 255
2.5″ Intercooler
3″ Exhaust
AEM truboost/oil pressure/wideband

BC coilovers
Technotoy RCA
Energy suspension bushings

Temporary wheel setup
15×10 -12 wrapped in 205/50/15
15×8 -25 wrapped in 195/50/15

Fender mirrors
Dildo shift knob
Broadway mirror
Ray’s wheel lugs
Unknown wood grain steering wheel
Full interior .. 🙂

I’m going to end this by saying I essentially mentioned the names of individuals whom were there day in and day out or had a huge impact on the success or progression of my life or a vehicle. For those that I didn’t mention, drinks on me.

And last but not least this post spent weeks in the drafting phases, putting in the time when it was available. Each portion really reflects various aspects including, mood, mindset and drunkenness and looking back on it there’s definitely some funny, pathetic and sporadic paragraphs.

But your reading this because of my passion,
I’m Sebastian Boucher and this is the beginning.