May 2024 Updates
I had a note on the Redpants homepage and an auto-response email set up, but in case you missed it, I had to rush back to the US for a family emergency a few weeks ago and it caused some delays with email responses and some order fulfillment.
I was there for two weeks to spend time with and help take care of my father, whose health deteriorated extremely quickly after his cancer returned. I was trying to keep up with emails while there, but the entire trip ended up being far more difficult and demanding than we expected. I'm fortunate I was able to get there when I did. Only a few hours after we left, my brother called and told me that our father had passed away. Needless to say, things have been incredibly rough and getting caught up has been slower than I (or any of you) would like.
That’s the very condensed version of the last few weeks. If you’ve been waiting for a response for me, or have anything pending, or just wondering why my tone in general has been less than my usual perky self, please accept my sincere apology for any delays or issues this may have caused. I’m working on the backlog of emails but please feel free to send me another email if you’d like.
Asia and Oceania
I mentioned in my last Blog Post that I’ve set up a separate Redpants company in Japan. I stock basically all the same things in Japan as I do in the US. In order to streamline things and take some of the workload off my US-based shippers, I’m planning to redirect customers in Asia and Oceania to Redpants Japan in the near future.
To give an idea of what to expect, here are some example shipments at current exchange rates, including shipping costs in USD:
V8 Vantage S / Front+Rear Porterfield R4-S Brake Pads / NSW, Australia: $556 Redpants Japan vs $565 Redpants USA
V8 Vantage / 4.3L Oil Change Kit and Door Struts / WA, Australia: $176 Redpants Japan vs $225 Redpants USA
V8 Vantage / Oil Change Kit and Intake Filters / New Zealand: $271 Redpants Japan vs $310 Redpants USA
Keep in mind that brake pads are the most expensive thing to ship, and they have the highest procurement cost for me since I’m bringing them into Japan first for stocking here. Even so, the orders generally even out in pricing given the lower cost of shipping from Japan than from the US. The Japanese Yen is also at a historic low, so pricing is far more favorable now than usual.
I still haven’t been able to incorporate international shipping into the Redpants Japan online store, so I need to do manual shipping quotes and invoicing, but the turnaround is quick so long as the following info is sent to me:
Exact parts needed (including quantities, if applicable)
Year / Make / Model / Trim of your car (this will ensure the parts are correct for your car)
Full name, full delivery address, and a phone number (only used for order fulfillment)
If any of the above information isn’t included, I’ll need to get it first before I can provide a quote or generate and invoice. When an invoice is paid, the shipment will go out the same day or next morning, depending on what time the payment is made.
I can ship worldwide from Japan, but it’s cost-prohibitive and takes much longer for most places, especially the US and Canada, since I already have inventory in the US.
My Car and Other Projects
I did indeed get my car registered here in Japan. I posted a few times about it on the Redpants Instagram account but haven’t published much beyond that. I’ve got tons of video footage, notes, and info that’s been piling up since last summer, and now that things are starting to settle down, I can finally get to work on sorting it all and publishing some info and uploading a few videos.
I’ve already done a few things to my car since getting it registered, like reinstalling my Cobra Nogaro seats, updating my Aston Installations infotainment system with a now-hidden controller, and repairing a few issues that “appeared” while the car was out of my hands for storage, transport, and testing.
If you look closely at the pic above, you can also see that I’ve got a new front splitter and rear trunk spoiler - both from ECPS. These were specially made with a V-weave pattern, and I’ll get some good pics and video of those soon. I can sell pretty much any ECPS product, even if I don’t have it listed in my Online Store - just let me know what you need and I’m happy to help you out with ordering.
The next order of business is to lower my car back down and get an alignment. Since getting my car back, it doesn’t seem to track as well as it did before shipping it, and I think the alignment may have gotten skewed a bit during transport, so that needs to be fixed. I’d raised the ride height to the maximum setting on my BC Racing coilovers so that it would make transportation as easy and safe as possible (and it did), and left it at that ride height to get accustomed to Japanese roads, speed bumps, and ingress/egress angles, and now I’m ready to drop it back down to where it belongs. Easiest way to handle this is doing both the ride height adjustment and alignment in one go, so that’s up next.
After that, the next big thing will be to fully wrap my car in a new color. I’ve wanted to do a wrap with an interesting design for several years now, but I still don’t know what I want to do with it. The only thing I know for sure is that my car won’t be staying Mercury Silver. I love the color, but it washes out all the carbon fiber on my car, and blends in too much to the concrete jungle of the Tokyo Metro Area, so I want to do something bright and fun to make it stand out. As soon as I make up my mind, I’ll get the wrap done.
I have a few other projects in various states of development and progress, and I’ll update everyone on those when the time comes since those are generally going to be products that I’ll be offering in addition to using them for my own car.
Keep Current
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and turn on notifications so you know when I put out a new video about Aston Martins, parts, products, and DIY information.
My second YouTube channel is for Redpants Unzipped. It focuses on events and travel in Japan and elsewhere.
I hate social media so I’m rarely on it. If you want to get in touch, email me or use my Contact page (they both go to the same email address). If you message me on a Redpants social media page, it should say to email me. If you try to message me on a personal page, it won’t be seen.
I notify people when I publish Monthly Updates by sending out a Newsletter. If you’re not subscribed to my Newsletter, you can do so here:
Okay, that’s it this time. I’ll push out Blog Posts as needed in addition to my monthly ones, so make sure you check back if you want to see those.