new site

We've got our own domain now. Follow us at:

http://www.natsukashigarage.com

Sorry for the spam of posts, but here is a quick shot of my Saturday morning work.

Enjoy Natsukashiers

-BChaisorn

It's always hard to say good bye.

For over the past year I have owned a 1997 mazda miata that I bought from one of my best friends. The car was amazing and pristine in every way. It really felt like a luxury car with the power steering and air conditioning that were two commodities that I at one point had neither of in my 1998 honda civic. So after a year I managed a few small mods (two suspension changes, few outside cosmetic things, and some nice interior adds), that really made the car feel like home.

Well, as the story goes I came across a great deal on a 1999 Honda Civic Si with 120k original miles. Now to any honda guy they understand me when I say this car made me unbelievably excited. Needless to say I, the broke college student, couldn't afford 3 cars and had to make a choice. If you know me well enough you'll almost immediately see that I will never let go of my hatch back, no matter how big of a pile of junk it is. So the next option was the Miata.

Now, at least, the car with a friend who I hope will take care and love it as much as I did. Note, I will own another one day when the time is right.

lone star state

so, i've been working on this flag design for branden and I to rock on our cars and rep the great state of texas. It's a redesigned version of the flag from the Battle of Gonzales. Not sure if i'm going to mass produce these or not yet. But I need to make a stencil so I can get these flags finished up!

If you know your Texas history, you know what I'm talking about. If not...here's a link

For those of you who don't know, I rep Texas like no other. It's the greatest nation in the United States.

If the Battle of Gonzales teaches you anything, it's that Texas goes HARD TO THE PAINT.

-T

a poop brown peanut

What you see above is my poop brown peanut after it's first oil, spark plug, spark plug wires, and fuel filter change in like 5 years. I want to thank my girlfriend, at the time, Leah for putting up with me and supporting me on my crazy endeavors. We left Austin at midnight on the first day of Spring Break, 2010 because I was too excited to wait until 5am to leave...and drove all the way up to Oklahoma City. I drove first, then she drove, and before I knew it, we were in Oklahoma City, picking up a beautiful car. On the way back, we ran into some unforseen complications. After a couple hours in the ER, calling her parents, and a surgery, Leah was in recovery. Needless to say, her and this car have a history.

And from that day on, the "peanut," as I call it, has made countless more stories. Long road trips with fluid leaks (coolant, oil, and GAS...yes gas) to mention a couple...

As of right now, it sits on jackstands in my driveway, waiting for me to replace the worn 2spd auto transmission with a T-50 manual transmission from the ae86.

After a year and I half, this is how she looks now:

As some of you may know, I recently acquired a 99 civic si. During my morning routine of wake up, shower, eat, and comb my favorite car sites, I came across this beauty a few days ago and it's been in my head ever since.

A little intro

Welp here's my baby Oksana. Pictured above is the very first day of the car in my possession. We had just driven it back from Houston and gave her the very first wash. And to think, I didn't know how to drive stick?? Few people know this, but when I went to check this car out, I had no idea how to drive a manual transmission car. My dad test drove it and HE was the one that drove it all the way back to Austin.

I had been saving up money since the 6th grade. It was the summer before my senior year in high school and I just KNEW I had to get my own car. After months and months of searching, I finally found a car that I thought was worth spending all of my "life savings."

One of the biggest reasons why I bought this car was because it brought back many fond childhood memories of my dad's old '87 Corolla FX-16 GT-S. My dad had bought this car brand new back in '87 and drove it everyday until sometime in middle school - he some electrical problems, took it to a shop, and that was the last I saw of the car. There were so many memories tied to the car. I remember playing outside afterschool on the weekdays and hearing my dad's raspy exhaust echoing through the trees a couple blocks away. It's how my siblings and I knew dad would almost be home and we would run around in sheer excitement. It was sad to know that it would be no more.

My 86 has been in my possesion over the last 6+ years and countless different memories have been made. I hope to be that 70 year old man, who's romping down the highway in a 70 year old car. I hope to be that 70 year old man telling my grandkids of my "early life" car experiences.

-T

Meet Jeanie. This is my 98 Honda Civic DX hatch back that I have had for almost 6 years now. This car is everything that I am, and experiences changes as much as I myself do. For those of you who don't know I love the old fashioned touge runs through roads less traveled, and this car is my key to that gateway. This car spends a lot of time like this as I am constantly changing something in the pursuit of the ultimate road race monster and will once again be looking like this as big changes will happen to her in the next coming months. Lets get this ball rolling.

Drive hard.
-BChaisorn

P.S: the blog will be undergoing a few aesthetic changes over the next couple of weeks until Thaison and I dial in on what we want. Stay tuned!!!

Welcome. It's been a long time coming that my friend Thaison Nguyen and I, Branden Chaisorn, have been thinking about creating a blog / team of our own. Lets first talk about the name. Natsukashi in Japanese is short for "feeling nostalgic" or "fond/sweet memory" and that is exactly what the both of us look for when it comes to our outlook on cars. To us cars are more then just machines that we use in this automated world to get us from point a or point b. Cars, to those who understand where we come from, are extensions of ourselves and what we stand for. It's easy to look at someone's car and judge based on parts and modifications that you either like or dislike but what we try to preach is that there is much more to cars then just superficial glorification. Cars create memories, some good some bad, but regardless of the outcome to most car people these memories are something that we will never forget and would never trade in. As vehicles come and go we remember all the great times we had in them or around them with the amazing friends that we make along the way.

So this is Natsukashi Garage, the start of a diary of our lives journey and a display of how our cars help to define who we are.

-BChaisorn