With all Wandering Leopard trips, there is always an F31-centric focus.
In May of this year, I was in LA for my son’s 5th birthday. I wasn’t able to meet everyone I had planned (Ozzy and Koji).
This time, I wanted to see JCCS. My goal was to have my M30 ready for JCCS, but with the 7 month delay, it obviously didn’t happen. JCCS has always been a show I wanted to check out ( along with ToyotaFest and Nissan Jam).
I would also send out messages to people if they were going and if we could meet up. Of course Roger V and Edrik were my guys. But also Ozzy and Koji, who I wasn’t able to meet last schedule conflicts. Also Ashleigh hit me up saying she was gonna be there too, so I had to meet with her!
I’ll cover JCCS in another post, but I wanted to post the F30 and F31s here.
The other mission was getting M30 parts. Ozzy told me that the junkyards in Sun Valley got one vert and one coupe. So I wanted to get vert items.
Friday Night I arrived pretty late, like 10:30pm. I was hoping to arrive earlier so I could go cruising.. but it is what it is.
JCCS was awesome. I stayed at the Westin, which wasn’t that far from Marina Green Parking (location of JCCS).
After waiting in line, which was super long, I start going to the vendors section.
I did this because Ashleigh was there. She works for Hagerty and also is a vert owner!
I then started to walk around and found JDM Carboy’s both. Where Dominik’s M30 was on display for the booth. Randy, owner of JDM Carboy also has 2 verts. I didn’t meet Dominik as he was walking around with Ozzy. Randy and I have talked on IG, so it was good to meet him in person and talk shop.
As I was taking pictures near the Hondas, something caught my eye from a distance between the cars. I see an M30.. so I start to go toward the back and corner of the field and I see a stock M30 convertible! I looked at it and it isn’t someone I know. I then see some guys sitting near the fence and ask. Andrew said it was his car and gave me a bit of back story, which was super cool. It was great to meet Andrew and see a clean vert represent at a show like JCCS.
At this point, I was messaging Koji, Edrik and my wife (with kids). I had to wait for my family to get in since I had the tickets, but also because it was a long line. Once they got in, I contacted Koji who said he also arrived.
He said he was at the Cabe Toys booth, so I went there. It was finally great to meet Koji! I mean he might not be into M30s, but he was at one point the Project Car Magazine M30 owner!
When I first started to go see the cars, I saw Ricky’s F30 leopard. We talk often and I was trying to track down parts for him when I was in Japan. His F30 Leopard is super clean and has been brought back to a backyard car!!! I was happy to meet with Ricky finally and talk about his F30’s back story.
I always say it, but Leopards should always link up.
My little one, Lucas, ate something that caused him to have an allergic reaction (throwing up). So my time was cut short as I wanted to finish up taking more pictures (missed a couple of sections).
I also missed my brother Edrik since I didn’t return to JCCS. Roger V. also had some personal things to take care of (moving), so we couldn’t meet up either.
Since Sunday was my last day, I decided to wake up early and go check out M30 convertible in Sun Valley. It was 45 minutes to get there on Sunday morning. I work up 6:30am and left Long Beach at 7am. Got there 15 minutes before 8am (opening time).
The coupe was in the LKQ pick your part. While the Convertible was around the corner at one of those private yards. The private yard is called, “California Auto Wreckers”.
I was hoping to get the vert rear quarter glass (both sides) while it was here. When the owner/manager opened up, I went in and our conversation went like this:
He asked, “can I help you”.
I said, “good morning, I wanted to inquire parts on a M30 convertible”.
“We don’t have a car like that here” he says.
“I think it says it online and someone told me you have one here”, I replied.
“I will wait for my mechanic to arrive, maybe 20 mins” he says.
I waited and the mechanic comes up to me and asks what car I am looking for. He takes me around the inside yard pointing at a G35. I show him a picture and he takes me to the hold lot and asks which parts.
Once I showed him the rear quarter windows, he took me back in the yard and to a storage unit where he looked to see if he had some stored. There was quite a good stash there!!!
There wasn’t spare vert glass, so he took me back to the office to see what the manager says.
So the same guy, who denied having the car, then mentions to me that I called yesterday (which I didn’t).
I asked him what his price was and he said $200 per window!!!!
Now I’m not saying it’s worth that much, in fact I think it is high end, but I am not that desperate to get buy one. I was just trying to get some of these parts and save them.
But as you see from my pictures, it is a NISSAN parts yard, so a lot of stuff won’t just go the crusher, they dismantle cars and keep a ton of parts stored. After talking to a few people that have went here, they said yes, he does charge high price.
I headed back to my hotel empty handed. I spent the rest of the morning hanging around Long Beach with the family. We ate at a few spots near East 2nd st and went to the beach nearby.
Ozzy and Dominik went to the junkyards that morning, just after I left. I messaged Ozzy saying that if I go that way and he’s still there, I’d stop by quick and meet with him.
So again, I drove up that way (which was the way to go back to SF) and stopped at the Arco on Roscoe. Ozzy was pulling parts all morning, but I was glad he was cool with meeting up! We always talk on IG, so it was good to talk to my dude and snap a picture with him.
Hit some traffic and stopped for food at a few spots. But we didn’t get home til 10pm…
Conclusion – JCCS was awesome and I finally got to meet a ton of good people. While it was a short time, it lays foundation for future meets and hanging out!