S13 Ka Coupe & Hatch ( The project & the donor )

[Pacio]

So here's the summary.
The Hatch (89) I saved it from parts galore before being junked away. $1000 complete car all stock except wheels. But michigans cancer was all over it.
2 years later. After reaching over 335k miles, it finally died.

Then comes along the Coupe (89) purchased it off a guy from Craigslist. $250 for a shell nothing more. Aside from windshields n tail lights, oh and of course the part where it's kinda deformed. Holes n cut ups everywhere. But the good news! No rust. Plenty of work/ thus the idea of using my hatch as a donor, for the most part.

The hatch.



The coupe.




More pictures of progress coming soon. @ work

[Pacio]

So looking over the car, aside from swapping parts over from the rusty 240 to the more cleaner body, pretty much find myself things that has to be done before I even remove any parts. That's indicating all the cutting, grinding, welding etc. working from inside the interior area filling in holes n cut outs from a roll cage it previously had, to the engine bay where it seemed it got beat to hell and chopped up sadly. And eventually the body work. Maybe I'll leave that for last I really want to have most of the parts off the donor so I can. Sadly to say. Let it go.
Garage space is needed.
Sooooo. A few pictures.

Stuff like this. Eh. I like to have it road quiet.
And then comes the bay.
Drivers end.


Passangers end.

That being said, a lot of that cut outs or abuse affected the head light bracket as well.

Sooooo. I did a risky thing. I got trigger happy with my sosaw thingy...

[Pacio]

Now I do have a plan to put everything back together, keep in mind I don't own a shop or a damn professional welder or so, I'm a married "young" man with 2 kids who owns a semi, doing stupid jobs locally to get by. I'm only 24. Soooo Do it yourselfers n all, that's all me all the way. Screw it. So don't laugh at my screw up welds n all lol.

Soo the headlight bracket. Thankfully having my old 240sx, wasn't much to worry to try to measure things out and make sure things were aligned, a good o sharpie, measuring tape, and a few beers. Oh yeaaaaaahhhh.



Now comes the fit.



Sooo just cause it looked straight, doesn't exactly mean it's good to go for a full weld right? I definitely had to make sure it was aligned along with the rest of the body, had to say I was pretty happy with the results for my first try.

[Pacio]

So now that that's out of the way and worry free, it's time I crash into the wheel tubs. Ehh this part is where I'm kinda not sooo proud, but none of this was really laid out with a plan, just grabbing sheet metal, bending here n there and beating the s*** out of the metal for placement. I've seen better but hey. Its something.

What I started with.


And making progress.




So trying to match the drivers end with the passenger side was gonna be tough lol. But I think I kinda nailed it.


I'm guessing once everything is more grinded down and filled in, the finish over it should make it look nice ? I've heard people using bondo gold edition ? Correct me if I'm wrong ?? Or rage? Hmm

[Pacio]

Well, the most recent work I've done and been trying to do little by little is still trying to finish the bay up already, filled in holes, ac holes, tried to smooth things out with the grinder, not to long from now I'll be applying Por15 over the metal before any finisher over it.




The most recent of them all.



Overall. Still got tons of work to do.

Gotta figure out what I'm gonna do with the rear quarter panels. Not liking the way it was left from last owner.