Cuore l7 Costa Rica build

Hello! My name is Cristopher, I’m from Costa Rica and English is my second language (my grammar is not the best).

Well, why a l700? It was the car were I learned to drive long time ago. Recently, I met the new owner and this is the current state of that Cuore (exactly as I remember it 11 years ago

Anyway, on feb 25, I purchased the current daily. As you can see, it was well maintained except for that bumper quick release…


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Found this seats on marketplace for about $40. They were super cheap and I couldn’t miss that chance even they are kinda big


First mod, haha. Wheels paint were messed up

In order to make them look cleaner, they got a fresh coat of paint, color is from my dirt bike engine, I got some in a can, so that was the chosen one

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Since I removed the wheels, I also paint the calipers. I’m not a big fan of blue with red, so I took the “yellow route”, haha

And the final result🥰 (hate that bumper quick release)

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Next day was the valve cover turn. As you can see it was kinda clean

But not for so long😏.


And of course I’ve used the same caliper paint because #racing :joy:

A few days passed until I decided to start with the seats.

On the meantime I’ve cleaned the interior since it was dirt af. Unfortunately I didn’t take a lot pictures, because I wasn’t planning to publish it

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After some hours, driver seat was installed. Seatbelt system got pressed by the seat side wall, guess now I should modify the seat and make it thinner. Aside from that, new seats are super comfortable

I reused the seat rails from the factory seats. Of course I’ve made several modifications to make them fit the new seats.

Didn’t know the seats come apart if you remove the rails🤣

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Great work. Looks incredibly clean and tidy. Love the blue and yellow combo.

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@Mr_Gormsby Thank you! I wasn’t sure about that color combination at first, but once the wheels were back on the car I instantly fell in love, haha

Welcome! Do you have any other plans for the car? Looks really nice as it is right now

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Hi @Mophius! Thank you.

Yes, my plan is to build a daily driven track capable car! I have a spare EJ-DE to build a turbo engine (I’m gathering as much information before starting the re build). But first I’m saving for a set of BC coilovers and 4 pot “micro” brakes

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Passenger seat installed!

It was less complicated than the driver one, since it doesn’t have the height adjustment mechanism underneath.

First time using a tig welder and a welder in general, haha. I hope that piece holds up well


Both seats installed! Gotta purchase a set of headrests since the passenger was damaged. I’d like to install something similar to recaro’s fishnet

After almost a month I finally got this from Malaysia.

They are made of fiberglass, since the plastic ones are nearly impossible to find alone and shipping the whole hood to Costa Rica is super expensive. Anyway, the scoop looks amazing (it was placed on the hood just for the picture, haha

First step, add filler on those little imperfections to make it look “perfect”

Then a coat of primer and more filler on the remaining imperfections

To be honest I was scared about messing up the hood… So, i measure like 20 times before drill any hole, haha

I didn’t cut the air intake that big since we have a heavy rainy season and I’d rather wait until the intercooler gets installed.

Test fitting it, love how it looks😍

In case you were wondering, that’s how it looks underneath.

I painted it by myself using a spray can, but looked horrible.

Fortunately, my neighbor has a car painting shop. So, he helped me with repaint job, and it’s like a day and night difference from my previous “paint job”:rofl:

Those are some pictures from yesterday, those were taken with my phone. I did the best I could, haha

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Today, I finished the scoop installation. Since it is made of fiberglass, it didn’t fit as flush to the hood (bonnet) as the OEM and I want to seal it to prevent rust underneath.

Got some inspiration from Nakai. The owner of RWB

As you can see the polyurethane act as a rubber seal and in my opinion, looks factory! As they said, the magic is in the little things

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It’s been a few weeks since my last post.
Currently I’m saving money to rebuild this mf. Engine blew up :+1:t2:

Anyway, a few updates. I got clear side markers from Nissan navara D40. They fit with some minor modifications

part number in case anyone wants it.

I’m part of a Cuore enthusiast group here in CR and we had our first trip together to the beach. Hopefully, next time some additional members could participate in the following trip

Next, my right taillight were broken and I got this bad bois for $40 (both). What a steal, haha.

IMHO, they look awesome

And finally, I got this headrest since the passenger one were missing since day 1.

I like the look of the recaro Halo, but those seats are quite expensive and that’s not a priority right now.

What do you think about them? Aside from the fact that their colors don’t match, haha

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The look awesome. Nice upgrades. Shame the colour doesn’t match but you can’t win them all :wink:

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@Mophius Thanks pal! I’m trying to keep it “clean” with subtle mods. Unfortunately the headrest color is not the case, haha. I’ve been looking for ways to “fix them” and I found leather and vinyl dye, I’m not sure how it works, but I’ll find out soon!

Only one way to find out! Let’s hope it works :slight_smile:

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Nice L700, I love the TR front bumper - it completely changes the car from how we got them here in Australia.

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@Mophius we’ll see! I’ve been trying to find a decent dye kit here. We have the dupli color vinyl dye, but I’ve read that it left the surface a little crusty.

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@DaleJeffree thanks man! I love it too, it makes it look a little sportier, even though it has the mighty EJ, haha