Sadly I've misplaced the photos of the engine rebuilding process, nothing special just a basic rebuild (new crank, bearings, replaced a rod, and the necessary gaskets).
>Clean title & bone stock. (muddy kitty cat printed hood and all)
>Installed some manual seat belts out of a 96' 200SX (pretty much direct bolt in)
The old driver's seat was bent so I replaced it with the cheapest seat I could find so I found an S15 seat for 180$ shipped on eBay. They goofed and sent me a blue/purple suede S15 Spec R seat on accident. UPGRADE! BTW I hate packing peanuts if you didn't notice.
Side note in this adventure: I wanted another street bike, so I got one.
Life gives you lemons make lemonade right?
One night I got bored. GOALD!
Randomly decided to start restoring some old school 3-piece Enkei wheels I've had for ever as drift spares on my last S14.
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-After-
Scored some crown vic wheels off craigslist for 150$
Replaced the driver's window regulator and decided to man up and clean the sticky goo crap left on the door after the clear plastic covering was removed.
Cleaned these pigs up.
Got some rubber for em'.
Randomly decided I wanted to see what the hood would look like after I clay bar and waxed it.
Mounted.
Getting ready for 5 lug swap I decided to build some ghetto hoodride coilovers. Figure whats the point in buying 500$ eBay coils that will blow out w/in a couple months of daily driving leaving me with basically blown struts with height adjustability and have stiff as hell springs? I can just make em' for 150$...(I will do a write up on this later if any one is interested)
Grind it smooth and slide the sleeve over.
Slap desired spring on there.
Apply dirty old strut mount.
Viola!
The rears were easy at first, then I decided to do away with all the extra junk and make them a little more low profile by running a die down the extra length of the strut shaft so I could axe the unnecessary bushing/spacer and tighten the nut all the way down. (More on this later I'm still trying to resolve a rattling issue the strut mount has because of this modification)
-Before-
-After-
Threading the shaft.
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-After-
(BTW: I would later go on to replace the 7" purple JIC Magic springs in the rear for unknown 5" spring to allow for it to go lower)
The anticipation!
Finally had a day off between work and starting summer classes; I dug in. (might do a better in depth step-by-step write up on how to do a 5 lug swap if there isn't already a ton done)
Pop the wheel off then take off the calipers and the caliper brackets (didn't have a impact gun so I had to improvise. Lifting the entire hub assembly by the caliper bracket bolt that wouldn't break free and the wrench on it, then smacking the top of the caliper with the sledge haha).
Pop off the dust cover then smack the cotter pin out with a screw driver and a hammer.
Loosen and remove the axle nut, old hub slides off and DON'T FORGET THE SPECIAL NOTCHED WASHER that goes between the hub and axle nut. (or you will end up like me having installed every thing about to put the wheel on and realize the special axle nut washer was still inside my old hub and had to take everything apart again because the hub was all wobbly w/out it)
Slap the new rotors on after the axle nut and the notched axle nut washer are torqued down, pop the dust cap back on, re-install the caliper bracket, new brake pads and then the caliper.
Viola! My first wheel on (:
Then did the other side which only took 1/2 an hour.
The rears however...total pain in the butt because of the multi-link suspension back there. Those bolts haven't been touched since the day the vehicle was assembled so I had to get crafty in order to break them loose.
Of course the 240 curse would strike and I would snap both caliper bolts...
Luckily Autozone is down the street and they had exactly one package with the replacements that I needed in stock.
Anyways I monkey with the rears for like 4 hours and finally got it done before dark.
Tonight I clay bar and waxed the roof; came out alright.
Prepped the rear hatch to be nice and smooth for when I put my replica rocket bunny wing on.
After it got dark, decided I'd crack the S14 diff I picked up today, to take the diff out of the housing to clean it of oil and get it ready for being welded...
Until disaster struck!
Smashed my thumb so hard breaking one of the bolts loose on the housing, blood came out from the sides of my finger nail.
Got it done though (: and I now sit here, at my computer, with my 'mummy-thumb' typing this build thread out of boredom. //signing off.
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I do know they are 16x7 unsure of the back spacing or the offset I will need to measure them later. My guess is that they came off a 93-96 crown vic because the star pattern around the lugs isn't fenced in like on the newer 97-98 versions. I'm running dunlop dz101's 195/50/16's and my fenders aren't pull or rolled and I don't rub. Just lowered on coils and with no adjustable control arms either effecting the camber. The paint I also used was Plastikote GM Dark Cherry Metallic. (I only mention this for other people like me who search for pics of wheel fitment options on stock body; hope this helps someone.)