It all started in my junior year of high school after I got my first car, a stock 1994 Acura Integra 4 door LS. I did some modifications to it, like shaving the side moldings and painting it black at a one day paint job. The car had Eibach springs, black 5 Zigen fn01r-c rims, an AEM intake, JDM side markers, a Viper alarm, and a Rockford Fosgate sound system; I thought I was badass. I did most of the work myself, except for paint and alarm installation. The only photo I took of that car was after it was primered and I wished I had taken a picture when it was complete before I sold it.
I got more into the Honda scene and wanted to level up so I sold my 1994 Acura Integra LS after graduating high school in 2004. I wanted an Integra Type R but I couldn’t afford it because during that time I was only making a couple hundred a month working at the swap meet. A few months later, I picked up a red 1995 Acura Integra GSR Coupe and drove it the way it was for a year. I signed up for an auto body class in 2006 because I wanted to do the body work myself on my 1995 GSR. I shaved the side moldings, antenna hole, rear emblem holes on the rear hatch, rear garnish dip handle, removed the dings, shaved the front license plate hole, and custom retro fit a 1992 Lexus ES300 front grill and fog lights onto my 1995 GSR front bumper. Once the body work was done, I applied one last coat of red primer.
During that time, I made a connection with someone who imported JDM Honda parts from Japan. Once I made that JDM connection, I invested all my financial aid money into JDM OEM Honda parts. I posted those JDM Honda parts on Craigslist under Orange County and Los Angeles and was getting calls and texts all day, meeting up with people at Super Auto Bacs daily. I wanted to increase my sales so I registered on the Honda-Tech forum, eBay, and started a website. On Honda-Tech I was registered as JDMRobot714. On eBay my user name is JDMRobot, and my website was www.JDMRobot.com. After I had those three up and running, sales went up even more. I could barely keep up with the orders because I had to deal with sales in four different marketplaces, not to mention keeping up with my personal life as a student at OCC, having a girlfriend, a job, and wanting to party. My car was put on hold because I had no time. I was a one man team running the whole operation when I should have hired some employees to handle the back end.
Sales were going well on eBay until I began having to delay shipments because my time was tight. Customers weren’t getting their packages on time and I ended up with negative feedback, so the eBay account was locked. I was bummed, but now I had a little time to work on the GSR. I was surrounded by JDM parts so I ended up doing a JDM front end conversion on my Integra and sold my USDM front end. I also wanted to do something a little different so I added rare JDM optional side lights on the JDM front bumper and shaved the front license plate rectangle holder.
It wasn’t enough for me so I made a connection with someone from the UK and had some UKDM Integra Type R parts imported over to me. So I ended up doing a UKDM Integra Type R rear end conversion, UKDM Integra Type R cluster, and UKDM Honda Access pedals with a Nardi steering wheel. I was getting a lot of compliments on the rear end conversion and cluster. I noticed no one was providing UKDM parts in the US so I ended up importing a shipment load of UKDM parts and adding those parts to the website.
After doing the UKDM rear end conversion I re-primered the car one last time along with the new JDM front end. I drove the car around primered for a few months because I was waiting for the right time to spray it. The color I wanted was Matador Mica Red, from the new Lexus that came out during that time. The color caught my attention because I liked how it changed as the light hit the car from different angles.
Once the car was painted I wanted to take it to the next level so I ended up slapping a turbo on but I wanted the turbo to look stealth by painting the intercooler black. I wanted my car to stand out so I chrome dipped my SSR Type X and added chrome spikes that went over the lug nuts. The car was now complete, exactly as I had planned.
The year was 2009 and the Honda scene was big. It was the perfect time to show it off at the Eibach Summer Night meet to represent JDM Robot. I wasn’t sure what time the meet started and so I ended up going at 5pm, only to find out I was late. A few months later, I was driving the car the day before Thanksgiving and got into an accident- the car was a total loss. I was bummed because after all the work and time I had put into that car, I hadn’t even been able to fully enjoy it by taking it to car meets and shows. After completing it, I barely had the chance to drive it for a few months before the accident. I ended up parting out the car, posting the parts for sale on my website, and sold my JDM front and UKDM to one of my local buddies. I was still selling JDM and UKDM Honda parts at the time all the way up until 2012. I ended up working for DirecTV for a few years and gradually stopped selling JDM/UKDM parts towards the end of 2012 because I had no time to run JDM Robot when DirecTV was my full time gig.
After a few years of working at DirecTV, I started a printing business with a few friends and opened up a printing shop in 2013.
One weekend in 2015 I went to Wekfest in Long Beach with a buddy who was still in the car industry. It was a great show because it brought back some good memories of me building my Integra DC2 and providing JDM/UKDM parts to people who share the same interest. I wanted to get back into the industry but also run my printing shop at the same time somehow. That’s when I decided to start an automotive street wear company called R Built and picked up my 1966 Austin Mini.
I see R Built as my hobby because it’s my passion that I’m putting into the design of the apparel. I also made sure the R Built apparel is good quality and taking the extra step by adding the little details on it. The feeling is priceless when I see someone wearing an R Built design at shows or meets because I know that person shares the same passion I do- I believe the design is what represents the person rocking the shirt. The feeling is also fucking awesome, knowing that the apparel was printed in-house and shipped directly from my warehouse because I know the exact process it had to go through. I started R Built to continue to surround myself with people who share the same interest in this automotive industry and print custom shirts for the automotive community. That is what R Built is all about.
