Picking it up in Fukui City, we spent a good two hours driving the Alto Works to the center to handle the confusing paperwork, money then changed hands, and finally, the little kei car was mine. The first thing that I had to do with it, as with any second-hand car, is give it a nice run-through check and determine the condition of the car before we dive into modifications.

The body is in respectable shape. Minor dings and dents are expected, but no major scrapes or deep dents that I could spot easily. The front bumper has “parking lot” scrapes and rock chips and is missing some plastic rivets, sagging the front a bit. The rear bumper has cracking paint and is slightly warped. The door upper frames next to the roof have significant weathered paint damage, so it will probably need to be repainted. (I plan on just vinyl-covering it over later.) The huge side graphics are horrendous and are dried, cracking, and peeling. They definitely harken back the style of 1990s JDM sports cars. I’m hoping they won’t be too difficult to peel off with a heat gun and solvent.

A bit shabby and worse for wear interior-wise. The large steering wheel is airbag-free, so will be an easy change without the need of expensive or hard-to-make airbag resistors. The seats are fairly decent buckets with some bolstering and are tear-free.

Ugh, that transmission lever is hideous. I wonder if I can hide it under a leather boot?

The previous owners had a nice audio system installed: a newish Pioneer Carrozzeria DEH-P650 head unit, rear Pioneer TSX-100 speakers (there are none in the rear panels from the factory), and 2 huge 24 cm (9.4”) subwoofers and tweeters. They’ll be good for waking up the neighborhood. The only way I want to annoy my quiet town is with a fart-can or straight-dump exhaust, not with bumping music. Sorry, Nick, but they have to go, if not for at least freeing up boot space and removing wiring clutter. Adds +1 to lightness.

Here is a shot of the engine bay. So what can we spot here? Dirty, mostly all stock, but overall in fair condition. Some of these hoses will need to be replaced in the future, as they are cracking. There are no obvious signs of significant leakage around the head gasket. The only aftermarket part I can see besides the battery is the recirculating blow-off valve. This would explain why the car has a notable pressure release sound at even 2500 RPM, where my last Alto had little.

The stock all-season tires are in pretty terrible condition, not to mention the rotation is off on two of the wheels. The Taiwanese Nankang Ultra Sport NS-II tires, while not that old, seem to have quite a lot of sun damage and have some cracks, on top of low tread. I will not be able to safely drive on these for very long. Thankfully, the previous owner did include a set of good condition Korean Nexen Winguard winter tires on steel rims, which I might have to switch to using shortly.

The condition of the two sets of wheels are very good and only show minimal curbing. I’m guessing the previous owners took some decent care of the car judging from them. The alloy wheels are the optional Alto Works Limited-upsized and Enkei-made 14x4.5 +45 set. (The stock Alto Works wheels are similar-looking 13x4 +45s.) The steel wheels have no major identifiable markings, but appear to be a 13x4 size. They are thin wheels, basically hilariously the same as some sportbikes. I am definitely looking to lower the offset on them at least or replace them for at least 5” wheels in the future.

Definitely, I have to fix that hideous wheel gap.

Under the car, we can see generally a fair condition car with only minimal surface rust. For a 20 year old car, this is really good in Japan. There is a bit of a leak near the transmission, but it doesn’t appear dire. Other seals and rubber parts seem pretty good. Of course, there are no signs of aftermarket springs, exhaust, or otherwise. The previous owner mentioned a patched exhaust and I was worried it might be the header or catalytic converter. Thankfully, it’s near the resonator, cat-back, so it can be easily replaced with aftermarket when the time comes.

It still needs to be thoroughly cleaned, inside and out. Preliminary check, finished. I have a laundry list of things that need to be done to this car, all on a budget. Follow me along to see how it goes!