A Build in the Mitten State...

[SolaraOnBronze]

Yep, that was my solara!

The car is RUNNING now! Had a bad ignitor and a wiring issue, all is well now. A great relief to have the car up and running again. Im going to install the brakes and the 5 lug hubs tonight, as well as the B&M shifter and the NISMO knob. I will have new pics up tomorrow!

[SR20DET.240]

I am going to subscribe to this thread, you have an impressive collection of parts gathered up to install. I cant wait to see how it all works out. I am interested in the Boss harness protector. I have not seen one of those before. If possible I would like to see some pics of it being installed.

[joelrgr]

CamelToe-ge Drifter!!!

[TwoJayZee240]

CamelToe-ge Drifter!!!

[PancerzSX]

WHOA It's damon from xceed! I hope your s13 turns out as well as your solara did. besides being totaled...anyway my name on xceed is nismos14, How you like the car so far anyway?

[SolaraOnBronze]

The car is a blast, I only got to enjoy it for a couple of weeks before the snow hit and I had issues with it, but I love it so far.

I will for sure post pics when the harness protector is installed, I dont even know how it goes on yet, haha.

Well, we made some progress last night. Got all of the old crappy stock brakes removed from all four corners and got the front 4 lug hubs removed. I did not have a large enough socket for the rear hubs, so I will have to pick one up today after work. I started to remove the RUCAs and other alignment parts in the rear to install my SPC components that came yesterday, but called it a night before I finished the removal.

I ran into a snag with my front Wilwood kit that I purchased from a zilvia member. The front rotors look like they were designed for another vehicle and had small metal spacers pushed into the stud holes to make them fit. However, they do not slip over the ichiba hubs and I am afraid they will damage the studs if I try to push them on. On top of that, one of the spacers is missing. Long story short, these are too jenky for me to try to mess with. I will have to come up with another front rotor solution and go from there.







I also installed my B&M short shifter. My friend took more pics, I will get them on here as soon as I have them!

[frapjap]

Nice rim choice dude, I like it!

[roadboy240sx]

where did you get those rims? around here?

[Skilz10179]

Yay another Michigan guy and fellow Xceed member!

Damon, glad to see you're making some progress. I can't wait to see it in person when Spring finally gets here.

[roadboy240sx]

all you guys on xceed and any one on here from mi is coming to the d!ck Nissan meet May 9th right?

[Skilz10179]

all you guys on xceed and any one on here from mi is coming to the d!ck Nissan meet May 9th right?

I'll be there!

[SolaraOnBronze]

Ill be there if you dont whore my thread about it haha

I got the wheels on ebay from a seller in cali. Planning to finish the rear suspension install tomorrow and the rear brakes, then work on installing the carpet.

[mRodiek]

Are you going to drive the s13 every day? Or get a DD for winter etc?More pics of the Solara!

[roadboy240sx]

Ill be there if you dont whore my thread about it haha

I got the wheels on ebay from a seller in cali. Planning to finish the rear suspension install tomorrow and the rear brakes, then work on installing the carpet.

sorry about the thread jack, i just thought there would be alot of Mi owners serfing your thread. ill post it in the genral section

[SolaraOnBronze]

^ haha dont worry about it, I was just bustin ya

I have a 94 camry that I daily right now while the 240 is in storage. The underside is really clean, I think it only saw a couple of winters in its lifetime, if that. I plan to always store it in the winter as long as I have a beater to drive, so far so good.

Here are a couple more solara pics:





(Interior was tan, converted all to black)

[SolaraOnBronze]

And now back to the rat ride...

Made some progress yesterday. Not as much as I hoped, but still not bad. I got all of the suspension pieces broken loose on both sides and removed everything from the driver's side. I am now trying to get the spindle off of the car so that I can remove the old 4 lug hub. The bolts are on so tight that I think removing the whole spindle from the car will be the only way to get the 4 hub bolts loose. All that is holding me up is the balljoint- Im not sure if I can just hammer this off or if I need a specific tool to remove it:



SPC pieces vs. Stock



I threw one of the rear rotors on the front to test fit the wheel... need to do something about the monster truck status and slam those tiens! All in due time...



Im gonna need some more camber too...





Going back at it after work tonight, hope to bet the stubborn stuff broken loose so I can put it all back together. Sorry again about the quality of the photos... my camera blows. Ill have some nice shots like the ones I have of the solara when it counts

[SolaraOnBronze]

I started putting the interior back together tonight, exciting to see it starting to look like a car again! I trimmed the new carpet and got it in along with the dash, carpet is about 85% trimmed (crap pics AGAIN, so sorry haha):

Before the carpet, most sound deadening removed (decided to leave a couple really stubborn spots, got lazy haha)



With new carpet and dash:





If my brother gets not lazy tomorrow he will pull my corbeau seat I bought off of him from his RS and I can test fit that... Im guessing it wont happen though, haha. If that is the case Ill work on the diff swap.

Im getting some momentum now, need this car back together!

[SolaraOnBronze]

It's been a while, time for some more crappy pics!

Havent had much time to work this week as I have been spending a lot of time with the lady. Going to work on it tomorrow night though!

Bumper mocked up, going to fit lip when I can borrow a sawzall:



Corbeau FX1 Pro with Nagisa Low Rail:



B&M Short Shifter, NISMO knob, Defi Gauges and Vent Pod:







Subframe and diff dropped, bushings destroyed haha:



Hole and wiper free hatch I am installing (going to spray bomb for now before I install it):



JDM Kouki Tails:





Obligatory "Pile of Parts" build pic:



Rotora Q45 Slotted Rotors with the Gram Lights:





Not as baller as Wilwood or Stoptech, but better than what i had:





Gonna get some work done on the car tomorrow night. Valve cover is all powdercoated, just have to pick it up. Im gonna keep the camera there and start posting pics more often as it comes together, w00t!

[Chris28]

Looks great man, it's really coming together. As for the ball joint, not sure if you have gotten the assembly off of it yet, but you can thread the nut on it a little bit and hit that with a rubber mallet so you don't damage the threads.

[Dazzla]

great build keep up the good work bro

[SolaraOnBronze]

That's what i ended up doing and i

Looks great man, it's really coming together. As for the ball joint, not sure if you have gotten the assembly off of it yet, but you can thread the nut on it a little bit and hit that with a rubber mallet so you don't damage the threads.

That's what i ended up doing and it worked great, thanks for the advice!

My friend is going to canada today and is picking up my seatbelt conversion, so I should button the interior up sometime next week.

[SolaraOnBronze]

I dont think anyone cares here, but a few more pics

[roadboy240sx]

nice to see its coming along good, wish i wasent sick our id be workin on mine, finally we are getting some decent weather up here.

[wynnEZ]

Looking good man, everything is finally coming together.

[Ghast]

I dont think anyone cares here, but a few more pics

I CARE! ! !

It looks good man, coming along nicely!

I really like your taste!

I need a better job for the type of cash flow you guys have, to update so frequently.

Anyways, good stuff.

One Love,

Ghasty

[Bumnah]

If you've dropped the sub frame, put in the SPL aluminum sub frame bushings. Cheap too.

How hard was it to drop the rear sub frame?

[SolaraOnBronze]

If you've dropped the sub frame, put in the SPL aluminum sub frame bushings. Cheap too.

How hard was it to drop the rear sub frame?

It was pretty easy bro- with the work you have done, you could for sure do it no problem. I had never done anything like that before and it wasnt bad at all. I was very fortunate that the car has only seen two winters to my knowledge and all of the bolts broke free easily without air.

The hard part for me was the metal inserts on the front two subframe bushings were rusted to the studs. To get the subframe to drop, we had to jump on it with a huge pry bar. Instead the bushing inserts breaking free, the bushings ripped themselves in half. Now the insert and half of the rubber bushing is stuck on the stud... not sure how I will get those off of there yet.

I went with the energy suspension poly subframe bushings (i.e. pineapple bushings) since I thought the aluminum might be too much for daily driving. They would probably have been fine, but better safe than sorry.

I am going to try to get the interior done and all back together tonight, then work on those damn bushings all weekend. I am doing the spindle bushings, subfrmae bushings, and rear suspension arm bushings with energy poly bushings. Ball joints are also being replaced with megan roll center adjusters. After those things are in, the whole rear end will start to come together and I can get the car back on the ground.

[EW]

Gauge plate looks much better black. Are you happy with that A frame press? Did it work for doing the bushings?

[SolaraOnBronze]

Gauge plate looks much better black. Are you happy with that A frame press? Did it work for doing the bushings?

I actually borrowed it from a friend and it kind of sucks, haha. I think it has the potential to work, I just havent figured out the best way to use it. It is hard to position the spindles and arms in there well enough to get them to pop out. I might end up burning them, even though I would much rather press them. I got two spindle bushings out just using sockets and a table vice, but I havent had much luck with the press so far.

I should add that this is my grandpa's garage, so that is why there is so much random stuff in there Props to pops for giving me a place to store my car!

[SolaraOnBronze]

Here is some crap I did tonight... drained both diffs and pulled the covers (pretty sure I need to use the open diff cover to run the vlsd, but I am not positive.) I also had the kind of fun but very smelly task of burning the bushings from my subframe, arms, and spindles. Tomorrow I have to cut out all of the metal inserts and prep everything for paint, maybe spray some if we get time.

fire!!!:

All Burned out (subframe not completely yet):

Diffs drained:

ZOMG VLSD:

A bushing burned out... need to cut out the metal sleeves still:

Spray-bombed hatch, needs clear and wetsanding still... if I feel it is worth it, haha: