Even though I don't have the funds to get it started and finished in one fell swoop, I do have all the time I need since winter in already sinking it's teeth into the "frozen tundra" of crappy Green Bay.

I started taking the car apart today.. had a blast doing it. There is nothing better than spending an afternoon in the garage with no interruptions, listening to music and working on your car.

Here's the what I'm starting with today:

What I'm doing:- Silvia front end conversion (stock metal fenders, stock metal hood, dual projectors, etc..)- Vertex body kit - Coupe doors (with seat belt relocation)

Here's a photoshop of what I hope to finish with for next spring:

First order of business is to remove the hood. Not a challange at all. There are two bolts on each of the hinges. Put the prop rod up, remove the bolts, continue to let the hood rest against the windshield, drop the prop rod, and pull the hood off.

In order to work on the front end you really need to have it up in the air and without the wheels.

My thought was that I would be able to pull off the fenders first. There are three 10mm bolts on top to remove. Open the door and you'll find a bolt in the jamb near the top. Pull the screws and snap the plastic retainers and remove the fender well plastic. Just behind the front wheel you'll find another bolt on the bottom of the fender. Inside the fender there is another bolt that requires a couple extensions to reach.. it's on the bottom of the connection at the door. Inside the fender on the front at the connection to the front bumper there are another 3 bolts. On the bottom of the fender there is a small brace reaching from the chassis to the fender secured with another bolt.Damn.. it still won't come off!I found the last bolt.. finally.. It's way up in the front tucked inside the front bumper. I tried forever to reach it.. multiple sockets, wrenches, etc.. no luck. Even pulled off one of the headlights to get at it from the top.. No dice!

I decided I'd have to pull the front bumper in order to get at that bolt.

So, I repeated the very same process on the passenger fender to get to the same stage.

Now to remove the bumper. There are two braces up by the radiator support.. just remove the four bolts. There is a strip of four bolts in the middle of the bumper above the radiator opening facing down toward the bottom. The secure to a metal strip. You've already removed the bolts that attach to the fender. Also on the passenger side you need to remove the windshield washer fluid container. Give the bumper a good tug and voila!

Now we can get that stupid fender bolt. It's just forward of the amber light in the fender. Yeah!! no more fenders!

Glad to have these parts off the car.

The car looks like a wreck!

I pulled the headlights assemblies out completely.

That's about all I had time for today.

Well.. maybe a few more minutes... I took a bit to test fit the rear bumper. Obviously it needs some prep and paint before going on the car for good.. but that takes money.. so it will wait a bit.

It's not quite on straight as the bottom behind the rear wheel is bowed out a bit.. once secured it will not flare out like that.

I like the angle.. I'm pretty excited.

That's all for today. Tomorrow's plan is to remove the USDM front bumper support. It will likely be a little bit of a pain because my intercooler is braced to it. The JDM bumper support is a little different. I need to figure out how to secure the intercooler to the new jdm bumper support.. hmm.... we'll see.

The next thing I want to do is install the new silvia headlights and center garnish. I'm not sure if I can do that before installing the bumper?

Clearly I'm better at taking things apart than I am putting them together. lol.

Heh ... heh.. just got a chuckle out of the "find the bolt" game.. the one that stumped me was the one way in through the fenderwell.. the one by the top of the door was a bit of a PITA just because I couldn't open the doors far enough in the garage.. had to stop and put tires back on and roll it out in drive and then open the doors to get that bolt... much much cursing.. lol... Looks like we're on a similar path with the front end thing tho.. lol... Silvia front ends on Verts are Seeeexxxxyy.. Keep up the good work Seth...

That's a lot of work you did today. I have some comments and Qs for you, Eikon.

1. Somehow it looks like a model car in the first pic.2. Fender braces. Why don't you get them while you are at it?3. How many fans do you have? Fans usually go between radiator and engine and yours is in fornt of radiator?4. I think you should just cut the pillars and keep the original doors if they are in good shape. Paint should match better that way although black is easy to match. Or did you mean coupe door panels, not doors?5. I rather go with GTR grill than 'silvia' light.6. Someone's gotta get those mud guards. They are very hard to find.7. Exhaust tip looks much better with a new rear bumper.

If you can make your car just like in 3rd picture, it's going to be a killer.

GoinTopless240 wrote:Heh ... heh.. just got a chuckle out of the "find the bolt" game..Silvia front ends on Verts are Seeeexxxxyy.. Keep up the good work Seth...

Yes and Yes. There are entirely too many bolts all over this goofy car. They really hid them in some strange and seemingly unnecessary places. I am a big fan of the silvia front end! Partly because it's different and I'm always doing things just a little different than the crowd. I think i've always associated the flip up lights with European cars and the silvia front looks more JDM. The rest of the lines of the 240 are very japanese.. so I think the silvia front is more "natural". Again.. everyone is has their own opinions..

94_240sx wrote:That's a lot of work you did today. I have some comments and Qs for you, Eikon.

1. Somehow it looks like a model car in the first pic.2. Fender braces. Why don't you get them while you are at it?3. How many fans do you have? Fans usually go between radiator and engine and yours is in fornt of radiator?4. I think you should just cut the pillars and keep the original doors if they are in good shape. Paint should match better that way although black is easy to match. Or did you mean coupe door panels, not doors?5. I rather go with GTR grill than 'silvia' light.6. Someone's gotta get those mud guards. They are very hard to find.7. Exhaust tip looks much better with a new rear bumper.

If you can make your car just like in 3rd picture, it's going to be a killer.

1. - picture is a little older and taken with a different camera so it does look a bit different than the others. 2. - What fender braces are you talking about? Sounds like a good idea, but I'm a noob so I'm not sure what's out there. 3. - Dual pusher fans in front of the rad. RB's are a bit longer due to the extra in line cylinders. So puller fans make for a very tight fit. Not sure which is better for cooling potential.. but they seem to work fine. 4. - I've got this idea in the back of my head that I might not have this car forever.. so almost every mod I make.. I keep the original parts in stock condition so that I can reinstall them for a future buyer. So, I'd like to keep the 'vert doors uncut so that I could put them back on later. Besides.. i got some coupe doors pretty cheap and they are already in the garage waiting to be installed. 5. - I like the plastic silvia center grill.. for some reason it always seems like the gtr grills are a little off center or crooked... They just don't seem to flow very well in most cases.. of course all based on personal opinion. 6. - I'll probably sell those mud guards as they won't go back on the car after the kit is installed. 7. - Thanks! I agree, the new bumper frames the exhaust tip much better than the old one.

very nice, even though me and pops have been trying to trade it apart of us says we want to keep it, im definetly of doing a silvia conversion starting next year i cant wait. and by the way eikon your car is gonna look pimp

Nice keep up the good work! I can't wait to see it finished, it should be sweet!

Eikon wrote:2. - What fender braces are you talking about? Sounds like a good idea, but I'm a noob so I'm not sure what's out there.

Got it, Eikon. Here's the brace.zerothread?id=255621

Wow.. I've never seen those before. But it looks like a fantastic idea, and any extra bracing we can get up front has to help a lot in the 'vert. The Nagisa one's are over $220 though.. not sure if I want to pony up that much dough. I found some on ebay for $130 shipped..

94 - do these look like they are adequate quality to you? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

Thanks for the tip.. I never would have thought to try something like this.

The Vert already has a factory fender brace welded in if you look at yours and that pic and compare you will notice the triangle piece on yours.

Some extra wouldn't hurt though I guess.

Looks good. Damn I need a garage again to get stuff done.

You're right biggie.. it sure does have a piece welded on there already. It actually looks pretty beefy as well. Perhaps the $130 is better put toward one of those triangular front strut tower bars that rotorimp built.

I was already planning that..

We'll see how the money situation turns out this winter.. if I can afford both, I'll do it as the extra bracing on that outside the fender can only help solidify it even more.

biggie wrote:you will notice the triangle piece on yours.

Oh!! I missed that. Yeah, it won't hurt to have it. Looks like eBay one is a copy of Nagisa, so I'd get it. It should work just fine. If you don't install it now, when are you going to have another chance? I'd like to have it too, but I figured it's just too much work, so I won't do it. I'm also afraid of messing up door and fender alignment.

+1 to what Biggie said. I noticed those when I had my front fenders off over the weekend swapping the silvia front on. On top of the triangulated piece, there's also extra bracing on the unibody as well around it. It's pretty stout IMO.

Also, Seth. Pull the front bumper support off. It needs to be swapped with the silvia support when you swap the new bumper cover on. And while you have the front fenders off, go ahead and lengthen the wires for the side markers. The 240 and the Silvia both have the same plug, but the harness is a few inches shy of working right. If you don't lengthen, you can plug them in, but they stretch funny and make it hard to install the marker in.

I didn't get a chance to compare, but it looks like the stud strip that holds the silvia bumper and the 240 bumper to the fenders are the same. If you get a chance, compare them and get back to me. Cause I broke a few studs on mine, and I'd like to replace it instead of just doing the old bolt and nut shtick

i LOL at everyone having trouble removing front end parts. i was there once. scratching my head wondering what's going on.

i've had to remove/change fenders and bumbers so many times that i can pull any one piece off in about 3minutes.

don't sweat it. take your time and have fun.

and of course, pics pics pics.

Awesome Seth! I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Eikon, from one Wisconsinite to another, is there any way I can purchase your mud guards you took off, lying on your garage floor??Hell, I'll be in Madison on the 9th. You could send them to my girlfriend's house and I'll take them back in my suitcase.Let me know! [email protected], Devin

Oh that conversion PS looks great, looking forward to what it'll end up looking like when it's all done.

Looks good Seth, can't wait till the front end goes back on

Looking good so far Seth. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Eikon,Can you take a picture of fender area and post? I want to share with guys in suspension forum.

94_240sx wrote:Eikon,Can you take a picture of fender area and post? I want to share with guys in suspension forum.

What part of the fender area?just a closer view of the brace?

Eikon wrote:What part of the fender area?just a closer view of the brace?

Not too close. Just like this, so we can compare easily.

Well, I had hoped to get more done today. But all I managed was to remove the bumper support. There is a 14mm bolt and a 14mm nut on each of the arms, then it pulls right off. The USDM bumper support is a lot more beefy than the JDM version.

Here's the car without the support.

94_ Here are some pics for you of the fender area.

That's awsome! Thanks!!

thats sweet seth! you need coilovers too. lol to put er on the ground!

Looking good champ, cant wait to see it finished

looking good! Cant wait to see it done! Hopefully it turns out what you wanted it to be.

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Well.. nothing is ever easy.

Ran into an issue already.

I put the JDM bumper core support on and tried to test fit the bumper... no go. Looks like the vertex bumper is just not going to fit around that core support. At least not without some cutting.. which I don't really want to do. Oh well.. just added pounds anyhow right.. and that's what the intercooler is for.. protecting the front end in a collision.

My intercooler is a tad high for the silvia lights.. will have to see if I can reposition that down an inch or two. Or I'll have to cut the bracket that supports the tab on the center garnish.. we'll see about that one as well.

Unfortunately.. until I can get the silvia parts prepped and painted.. I won't be doing much else with the car.. so I'll revive this thread when that time comes.

Eikon wrote:Unfortunately.. until I can get the silvia parts prepped and painted.. I won't be doing much else with the car.. so I'll revive this thread when that time comes.

we'll be waiting...

Love that car, love the plans!

Seth, I have a modded front bumper support that might work, but it'd be a PITA to ship.

wrap it up and send it via greyhound.