The photos you’re going to see today are actually from the month or so leading up to my visit to their shop in January. There are some scattered photos of other Hondas in there as well but they are mostly focused on Atuki’s EG6. Atuki is the boss over at Tactical Art and the master technician and fabricator. He does a bulk of the work over there and all the custom metal work and full cages you see from them are all done by his hands. As a refresher, here is how his Civic look during the beginning and middle part of 2012…
If you’d like to see more, especially if you aren’t familiar with his car, check out this link here for some better photos…
Exclusive Content: Tactical Art Japan…Track day at Nakayama Circuit Coverage…
After their visit to the U.S. in November, they decided to tear down the car and essentially start from scratch. You guys saw his EG6 in mid-rebuild when I paid them a visit during my TAS trip, again, link attached below for reference…
The Chronicles 2013 Japan Trip…Part 9: Our Visit To Tactical Art…
Atuki’s is the Civic with the white Work Meister wheels on it that was on the lift. While I was at the shop, Yasutaka mentioned that he had some photos for me of all the builds. I thought he meant that he was going to continue to document the build from the point at which we were there, but I guess something got lost in translation, because he had been covering the build the entire time. The photos you’re looking at today could be considered a “reverse build” post because it was pretty much everything that they had done the month prior; from the initial teardown to stripping the car, and re-caging it. Atuki had done a considerable amount of work to it over the years but I don’t think they’ve ever been as in-depth as it will be this time around. None of their cars are perfect, mind you, so there was quite a bit of work to do just to get them back to a “bare” state. It would almost be easier to start with a completely new Civic shell but hey, they love their cars so they decided to hold onto them and build them all over again…
I’m going to continue to update you guys with the progress of all of their builds but it will be completely dependent on what they provide me. They are a full-time business and also have customer cars to work on so there really isn’t a time frame for them to finish. Atuki and crew just work on the cars whenever they have time and probably save a lot of the work for the after hours when the shop is closed. I interested to see how they turn out but we all have to be patient. If they send me updates, you better bet I will post them up for you guys. With that said, let’s get into Atuki’s rebuild….
The interior was gutted already prior because it is a weekend track car, but they started by taking out everything else that remained, including his custom fiberglass dashboard. The plan was to strip the entire chassis bare, removing the cage that was there previously, and build a completely new cage…
Weight reduction has always been an important part of their builds, so they picked up some carbon fiber doors while they were out here in the States. Above you can see Atuki getting a closer look at the door…
The inside of the driver’s door getting inspected…
This was the old driver’s door, which had been completely gutted and cut down for weight reduction…The seals will be removed to be used once again on the new carbon doors…
Atuki and a friend taking a break to enjoy some canned coffee while his old parts were scattered all over the shop floor…
The trio of mid-progress builds that you probably remember from my Japan update. The furthest Civic on the left is Yasutaka’s, the middle is Kazuya Kawashima aka “Chibichan’s” Ferio, and the one to the right is Atuki’s. The parts scattered along the floor are his FRP dashboard, Chibichan’s trunk lid, and sections of Atuki’s cage that had been removed from the car…
You can see here how the interior looks with the roll cage removed…
Chemical stripper is applied to remove the old white paint from the interior….
The base plate of a portion of the cage is cut so the bars can be re-used. The old cage was a bolt-on application with dimple-die plates added to give it extra rigidity. Since the cage was removed, the plates were also eliminated…
The door seams spot-welded…
…as are sections of the floor after it was stripped clean of paint…
Atuki doing what he does best in the confined space inside his hatchback…
While that was going on, Chibichan’s Ferio was seeing some fresh air and sunlight after they painted the interior and cage….
With the inside cleaned and prepped, Atuki can finally get started on the new cage…
Beeyan Hamada and friend lent a helping hand by applying paint stripper to the exterior….
Beeyan scraping away at years of old paint and filler….
Parts of the new cage mocked-up inside the car…
…mock-up from a different angle…
New dimple die plates welded in place…
Definitely a far cry from how it looked before with the dark blue paint and Tactical Art graphic…
The rear section of the new cage added along with more dimple die plates…
The front and rear bumpers being stripped of its old blue paint…
Some work being done to strip the underside of all its coating while Atuki continues to work on the rear quarter panel…
The driver’s side section of the cage completed with gusset plates to brace for impact. You can see here how the passenger side of the cage is much simpler because there will never be a passenger or seat…
Gusset plates added to the base of the cage and floor…
The driver’s side revealing a different style of plating…
Everything is being redone, including overhauling of all suspension components…
The underside of the Civic chassis after it’s been stripped of coating and a shade of grey re-applied…
Atuki’s EG6 will see many more sunsets before it is ready for the track again…
Ample lighting is provided in all areas for when metal work or paint needs to be done…
Here you can see how naked the cabin looks prior to paint…
The cage extends also from the firewall to the front shock towers…
A shot of the firewall where you can get a better look at how the cage extends to the bay on both ends…
With the underside and wheel well re-coated in grey, it was time to start paint work inside….
The cabin primered with areas of the cage already with a coat of paint…
Paint applied and fans in place to help with the drying process…
The metal work and paint for the interior of Atuki’s EG6 completed…
The shell is placed on the lift and out of the way so Atuki can continue to work on other parts of the Civic like the steering rack….
Paint stripped off of the front bumper…
Atuki rebuilding the steering rack…
The EG6 shell hovering above…
New wheels for the build: 16×9/16×8 Work Meister S1s and Advan A050 rubber….
Tire and wheel mounted….
The motor is dropped back into place and you can see the addition of the carbon fiber headlight ducts…
B18C block/B16A head combo with individual throttle bodies from a Corolla Levin…
Rear wheel test fit with the beefy Yokohama Advan A050 tire…
Crux High Capacity Damper B coilover re-installed…
A random shot of Yanagi’s ITR…
He bears a lot of USDM styling elements with the aggressive stance and CCW wheels, along with the Function7 braces and little things like the U.S. plate frame and Benen tow hook. Nothing crazy, just a simple 4-door cruiser. Maybe with the new cage it’ll slowly make the transition over into being a more circuit-specific build…
Atuki seated inside Sasaki’s Civic preparing to transform it into his work space…
Front windshield removed safely…
Dashboard and interior pieces removed…
Posted next to Taku Kusugami’s EK and Atuki’s EG up top…
Cool to see that parts like the K-Tuned adjustable shifter have made its way over to Japan…
Practically everything removed from the interior to prep for the cage…
Even the trunk area was stripped clean…
Rear windshield and all panels removed…
Mock-up of the rear section of the cage that is unlikely to ever see passengers again…
Dimply dye plating for the A-pillar….
Atuki applying his craft…
Hondas seem to be taking up a majority of the space at the shop these days. Hard to imagine that this is actually a car audio shop normally…
Atuki working on the base of a section of the cage in Sasaki’s sedan…
The cage slowly coming together…
Loved this shot that Yasutaka captured of Atuki…
The section between the front and rear doors prior to gusset plates being welded in place…
Rear half of the cage completed…
A rear through the rear passenger door area. Definitely not going to have visitors in this 4-door anymore…
Plates being mocked-up along the frame…
That’s about what I have so far from that build. When I get more I’ll be sure to get them up for you guys to see….
Meanwhile, let’s take a trip back into time, back to January of 2013, when Super Street stopped by for a visit….
The morning of the visit with a peek into their shop. Here you can get a glimpse of Yasutaka’s EP3 Civic that is probably going to see some more work after his EG6 is completed…
The regulars at Tactical Art, Taku Kusugami’s Civic, which was on the cover of last year’s Super Street Honda Issue, and Toshiyuki Yanagi’s ITR, which will likely be featured (not on the cover though) in this year’s Honda Issue…
Also parked outside was Atuki’s DC5 Integra Type R that has been converted to full U.S. Acura RSX spec…
Packed to the brim with Hondas….
Atuki killed some time before the Super Street guys arrived by working on his Civic…
Yanagi cleaning his R and getting it ready for the shoot…
