The American Dream—coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931—is defined in part as “the dream of a land where life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” America has long been touted as a place where you can be what you want to be, and achieve whatever you want. What we have here is the story of just one tiny facet of that dream and how one man has made it his reality.
It began for William Galan of Santa Ana, El Salvador, when he was just a boy. His father worked on cars, so William was surrounded by automotive-related sights and sounds from such a young age that it was only natural it would directly affect his perspective. “I’ve always had a passion for old-school cars, especially imports.” As a teenager, he bought his first car, a 1980 Honda Accord. His father owned a shop, so William spent the majority of his time there watching and learning what he could. His hands-on approach started right from the beginning, and he learned by tinkering with the vehicle, taking apart the motor, cleaning parts, polishing others, and reassembling it all. It was only a matter of time before that simple process, and the OE parts that he was applying it to, would become insufficient to satiate his growing hunger for knowledge and experience. The search for more power was a natural progression. Unbeknownst to William, that search would take him much further than he imagined.
Custom-built BBS RS rollers complement pristine paintwork.
Some things go according to plan, and some things don’t. I’m sure all of us in retrospect can think of more than a few situations in which it was actually better that our original plan didn’t quite pan out. Well, William wanted to source a larger replacement motor for a ’80 Accord he was slowly working on, and he decided to head from El Salvador to California in order to pick one up. That was the plan, anyway. “As it turns out I still haven’t bought the engine and now I live here! I just purchased my first home.” While in California, William found a good job and decided to stay. How’s that for a little change of plans?
Not only did William find a good job, he found a great car. His old friend Mario happened to have a car just sitting around collecting dust, and William saw right past the dirty exterior and knew he wanted to build the car. “It ran fine and it was clean—that’s what I really liked about it. But it needed customization!” So William purchased the vehicle and quickly went to work on a B16 he’d picked up just one month later. He also sourced all of the parts needed to convert the vehicle to a manual transmission and did the swap and conversion at home. Additionally, he undertook the time-consuming and tedious process of learning to create and install his own “tucked” harness. With newfound power came a newfound need to brake adequately, so Integra GS-R calipers and discs were placed up front and a rear disc conversion sourced from a “DA” Integra was done in the rear. William also picked up a set of KSport coilovers to drop the car, and a set of Skunk2 Pro Series front and rear camber kits to assist in dialing in his perfect suspension settings.
A classic B16 swap and removal of unnecessary clutter transforms the 20-year-old engine ba
With the motor, brakes, and suspension bases covered, William turned to the exterior of the vehicle and soon found that digging up 20-year-old Japanese body panels would be no easy task. “The hardest part of building my car was finding the JDM front end.” Additionally, he was unable to find a front lip that he thought would look good, so William made his own. He took an ’86 CRX Si front lip and extended it to match the EF2 front bumper.