Eikon's exterior build thread.

[Eikon]

I'm gonna play with what I have for a bit before shipping stuff.. I'll let you know Greg.. thanks for the offer!

I need to determine exactly what the rub is.. Might be an easy fix to my support or an easy fix to the bumper.. Worse comes to worse.. my buddy has a plasma cutter I can use to modify the one I have.

[homeslicej2]

Looking good. Can't wait to see the outcome. At least you still have your bumper support. The shop that did my swap ditched mine, like most people seem to do. I've heard of, and I'm thinking of, welding in a few pieces of Re-bar behind the IC to connect the front frame rails together. Should keep the front end from splitting apart in a minor impact.

[Eikon]

So here's the bumper and support issues..

Core support. Measures about 5 3/4" from the tip of the ridge to the bottom. It doesn't have a perfect right angle at the bottom and it spreads a bit further down, but that shouldnt' have great affect... and if it does.. can be hammered flat.

Core support main portion. Measures just shy of 5".

Inside of the bumper.

Another view. Notice the lip that extends down vertically from the top. A little less than 1 1/2 inch.

Measurements. Just less than 5" from the top of the bumper to the top of the air vent hole.

So I clearly have an issue.. To fit the bumper over the core support I will have to remove the verticle strip that extends upwards on the core support. I also might have to remove the piece that extends downward from the inside of the bumper.. or both...

I'd like to keep the core support. My greatest concern is that I'm not sure how well the bumper will stay on w/out it. The only other points to fix the bumper to the car will be the screws that attach to the fender. I'm afraid the weight of the bumper and wind resistance at high speeds (at least 150mph.. lol) will be too much for those little screws.. So i'd really like the core support to actually support that bumper.

So I think the first order of business will be to remove the lip of that core support. Hope none of the screw holes are too important.

Anyone have suggestions or tips?

[Hijacker]

Those screw holes, Seth, are there to hold the topside of the bumper cover to the bumper support. Remove that and the cover might flab in the breeze.

From the looks of it, the cover is supposed to hook over the upper lip of the support, but that's kind of speculation.

[Eikon]

I think I'm going to try flipping it over.. I wonder if I have it upside down?

Perhaps then it will fit? lol.

[homeslicej2]

I think I'm going to try flipping it over.. I wonder if I have it upside down?

Perhaps then it will fit? lol.

Worth a shot I guess.

[biggie]

Screw holes are definately at the top. So that's the right way. No clue what to do.

[DeXteR]

i guess it's time to bite the bullet and build a tube chassis...

[240_ESEX]

From the looks of it, the cover is supposed to hook over the upper lip of the support, but that's kind of speculation.

Thats exactly how I did mine. I took this part of the bumper

And slipped it over this part of the supportIDK though if your's will slip over cause of it being aftermartket

Mine was a stock S13 bumper and I modified the support a little to fit it.

But if you need any more pics, or have any Q's LMK, I'd be glad to help.

[Eikon]

Thats exactly how I did mine. I took this part of the bumper

And slipped it over this part of the supportIDK though if your's will slip over cause of it being aftermartket

Mine was a stock S13 bumper and I modified the support a little to fit it.

But if you need any more pics, or have any Q's LMK, I'd be glad to help.

Thanks for the input 240_ESEX. Here's the issue.. and I'm sure it's due to being an aftermarket bumper.

The height of the bumper support with that vertical lip is 5.75" approx.

The height of the gap in the bumper itself is only 4.75" approx.

Sooo.. I don't see any way that bumper support will fit inside that bumper.. it's like a square peg in a round hole. I'm going to have to cut one or the other. The only place I can see cutting the bumper would be the top portion of the intercooler/radiator vent hole... and I think that would look awful. So.. I'll probably just cut the lip off the top of that bumper support.

But then is my bumper going to sit too low??? ugg.. I guess I'll need to mount the lights and fenders first before making an final decision on the bumper.

[madcowvert]

Eikon your car is dammmmmmmm sexy.......

on one of our local fourms there was a guy that was selling this maybe it can help you out.

good luck

[240_ESEX]

Well based off of your messurements, sounds like you're gonna have to hack it up. I know if it were me i'd try cutting the support over the bumper, that way if you need to for whatever reason you can sell the bumper whole rather than cut up. I was looking at the pics carefully and this is just from my experience with my conversion, but when I put it together the area's in red where the cut outs are lined up to each other.





The reason the cut outs should line up is so when you put the turn signals in, the backings go into the support cutouts, otherwise if it didn't have those holes there, they wouldn't sink in all the way.

A few other things to keep in mind in doing your swap is I had to cut these nubs off the support



And lastly and perhaps more importantly, is how much of a gap is there between your IC and support? The reason is cause the Silvia front is shorter than the Chuki front. One more thing I had to do was drill new holes on the side of the support to mount it properly to the new front. It's about a 1.5"-2" difference in length. This is where the factory Chuki bolts go inThis is how I cut the support to allow it to go in further for the Silvia front.

The red circle is pretty straight forward, just make a new hole for the bolt to go through, and I just extended the cut outs on the ends so it slid in more.

If your support is butted up against the IC, then you might have to toss the support, or get one of those homemades, like madcow posted

[Eikon]

I agree 240_ESEX.. I think I'll wind up cutting the lip off the bumper support itself. These vertex kits are pretty pricey, so I'd rather leave it unmolested as much as possible.

I got my fenders back from my buddies place (he's helping me with the body work) so that I could test fit the lights and bumper and fenders together.

Here's some test fit pictures..

You can see that the fenders are basically just hanging there.. they are not properly fit. They need a little more pounding and shaping.







It's still just a test fit.. so nothing is quite as secure or tight as it should be. But.. i'm not happy with the fitment of the lights between the hood and bumper... there is way too much gap.. Why are the headlights a smaller height than the corner lights? Why so much gap between the lights and the bumper and hood? From a distance, I'm sure noone will think much of it.. but I am not thrilled.

Am I missing some weatherstripping for the bottom of the hood? Something is just not quite right.

[Eikon]

Oh.. and I would have fit the other light and center garnish, but I need to reposition the intercooler just a bit first. It's a couple inches to high. The top of the intercooler gets in the way of the brackets on the bottom of the lights. It's so close to fitting as is.. in fact, I could snip off the brackets at the bottom of the lights and garnish and just use it as is.. But.. I don't think it will be too hard to bend my i/c brackets down just a tad to give me some more room.

[Hijacker]

Seth,

here's my fitment with stock equipment. The hood has no weatherstripping on it to close any gap between the lights and the hood.

I can only account that your bumper has a gap below the lights because the support needs to be adjusted. Loosen the bolts and nuts holding the support to the frame and you can tap it up/down to achieve a better fitment.

Does the hood line up with the fenders? You may need to readjust the hood bump stops on the top of the frame rails to lower it down to the lights.

It could also be an issue that your frame has settled in a particular way which is causing weird gapping issues. When I swapped my body parts, neither front end lined up very wall on the opposite car because of the way things had been tweaked/settled over the past 14-15 years.

[Eikon]

More about the headlight fitment of the headlights..

Here's shift_oversteer's car.



I'm pretty concerned about the fitment of the lights.. any ideas on how to remedy this before I get too far into this build?

[Eikon]

Thanks Bart,

I don't have the support installed yet as I still need to modify it a bit.

So hopefully having that support will help push the bumper up further.

[biggie]

The bumper support is the main (and only thing) holding up the bumper in the middle. Its common for those with out the bumper support for the bumper to sag in the middle. Finding a good way to attach your bumper to the support will help (assuming you can't use the OEM bolts/nuts).

My coupe for reference:

[Hijacker]

biggie, I like that bumper. Who makes it and where did you get it?

[biggie]

biggie, I like that bumper. Who makes it and where did you get it?

It was on the car when I bought it. Its the Bomex AD-026 bumper. No clue where the previous owner got it. If I keep my coupe I'll eventually sell it, its been cracked/repaired a couple times and I keep hitting stuff with it, but also want a full kit.

[Hijacker]

Fiberglass I take it?

If I do a new bumper cover, I'm looking for FPR instead. I'm bad with parking lot spot stoppers. And curbs.

[biggie]

Fiberglass I take it?

If I do a new bumper cover, I'm looking for FPR instead. I'm bad with parking lot spot stoppers. And curbs.

Yeah Fiberglass. And the parking lot stoppers are what are getting me.

Old owner ran over a couch cushion and broke it in 2 places before I got the car.

[S13xCrazy]

I'm loving what your doing here! definatly will be watching along.

finally, a wisconsin build!

[duffman1278]

This is coming out niice, keep us updated!

[Eikon]

Spring is supposed to be here one of these days in the frozen artic tundra of crappy Green Bay. I'm not sure when that's going to happen though. We're supposed to get 3" of snow tonight. Could be worse, an hour or two north of here and they are getting 20+ inches from this strom. It's freaking half way through April already..

AAAARGGGHHHH

Sorry.. better now.

It's been a while since an update. So here goes...

I picked up some supplies yesterday. 1.) 7 peice auto body hammer and dollie kit. 2.) HVLP paint kit with one gun for large surface general paint, and one detail gun. 3.) wire wheels, sandpaper, etc..

Later this week, I'll be picking up the rest of the supplies (for sanding, bondo, blocking, etc...)

Then within the next week or two, I'll get the paint. Staying with Nissan black paint since that's the original color, and I like it!

Now if only spring would come so that I can actually start working on the car..

[Hijacker]

Could be worse, Seth. Your car could be tied up in a paint shop for 2 weeks because the owner decided he wanted to move houses and hasn't done crap at the shop. -_-

[DeXteR]

I picked up some supplies yesterday. 1.) 7 peice auto body hammer and dollie kit. 2.) HVLP paint kit with one gun for large surface general paint, and one detail gun. 3.) wire wheels, sandpaper, etc..

Sounds like someone went to Harbor Freight...

Yup, it's getting to be about the time when all of us Northerners get our verts out of hibernation. We're supposed to have mixed rain/snow Sunday, but I'd like to start getting the vert out this weekend. We're looking forward to seeing some progress. And by "seeing" I mean you better be posting some pictures.

[Eikon]

Sounds like someone went to Harbor Freight...

Damn.. you're good!

[S15nS13vert]

i hope my s14 front end fits tomorow lookin nice EIKON

[GoinTopless240]

LOL... Eikon, know the feeling ... think I own stock in them and Northern Tool.... Car is looking good... still have to line mine all up, but looking at bodykits to work with the flares.. Hoping to see yours this year at NOPI.. nudge, nudge, right? Maybe I can share some of my weather with y'all.. already getting hot here.. hit like 80+ today.. humidity starting..lol.. beats snow tho..