McKinney's s13 Build Thread

[Tmckinney33]

Hey guys! Well its that time again, the winter is officially over and warm weather is just right around the corner (for some of us). Ive been working on this car for a while now, and I think ive done enough to show a little off to the community. So thanks for tuning in, and dont forget to let me know what you think whether you like it or hate it!

History/Overview

Ever been just surfing the net and run across a sexy 240 like the white coupe from FL or the drift/track cars and just yell out "Damn!" Well for the last few years ive been on a mission to find a "factory stock s13" 240 that gave me that feeling, but I soon realized that there is no such thing as a super clean stock s13, there just not out there anymore. Maybe im just to particular? So I took a step back, and thought about building my own s13 from the ground up. Crunched some numbers and did some research and now I think im ready. Ive owned more cars than you can count on your hands in just a few years, but there's one I just never could got rid of, its an Black 1989 Nissan 240sx with less than 90k on the title. So i pulled the tarp off, pushed it in the garage, and been on full throttle ever since... My main goal is to just build a clean s13 that people can see and have respect for, no body kits or any "honda fanboy" mess (let the flamming begin), just a super clean coupe that might inspire more people to get into Nissans, much like most of the builds here on NICO. =)

Nov 08 - Jan 08

It took me just over two good months to strip the car down completely and document where most everything whent (college sucks), ive taken cars down this far before and I always spend 4-5 extra hours looking up random bolts and brackets, trying to figure out where the hell they came from? So this time around I label all the little things that I know ill loose... One thing ive never messed with wiring before and ive been stressing over putting it all back in the car, so ive taking extra care of labeling the harness's. Taking everything is easy, but I got to be prepared to put it all back in it at some point... So at this point most of everything is out of the interior and ive started on the sound denting. I didnt do the dry ice method because im dumb, I didn't the "torch and scrap" method, which I would not recommend. I spent 75% longer doing this than it would have taken me to do it with ice, and it looks messy. =\ At this point the car is looking raggy and like this;



Jan 09 - Feb 09

So the car was put on a diet, and I was happy with it at that point. So I decided that the old man and I would get started on the motor. I decided to go back with the KA (Whats and SR?), I have many laying around and evan more trannys so why not? So everything was sent off to the machine shops, and most of it was returned withing a few weeks.

Spent alot of time cleaning everything with soap and water, I cleaned everything for hours. I started with the crank shaft witch was polished, machine lightened, balanced, and knife edged. She was looking good! Almost didn't want to evan put it in the bottom end...







Next was the block, it got a major bath before assembly. One thing my dad always told me was the more you clean the better the motor will turn out. I cleaned it heavily and then mounted it up on the motor stand ready to rock! Block was machined, and is 40 over. Still needs new freeze plugs and to be painted a sexy color, not sure what yet...







Took a lil bit to get my rods back but Clemmons Speed Shop (NC) does some awesome work on everything hes every done for me over the years, so the wait was def. worth it. I decided to go back with stock rods because im not going to be hanging RPM's and the stockers are known to hold up. I just didn't see spending the money for EAGLES. The rods were shot peened, and are rocking ARP with Weisco 9:1 40 over pistons. (YUM!)





Once everything was cleaned and prepped I began assembly. Put down the Clevite bearings, and liad in the crank with no problems...

[NISSAN SPECS HERE]











Next step was to lay in the pistons. I needed to put the rings on, so I pulled out the Weisco spec sheet.



I was amazed at how thin the rings were, ive only seem OEM rings and these things are thin in comparison! But it was no problem putting them on, just be extra careful not to stretch them more than needed to get them on the piston's.





Now that all the pistons had rings installed, the only step left is drop those puppies in! But first I like to put a lil oil down in the cylinders. Makes everything smooth on crankup and when putting the pistons down in the block. Slip the piston ring compressor over the piston's and tighten it down snug. Before you drop the rod down the cylinder just be sure the crank out of the way of that cylinder so that when you put the rod down the cylinder the bolts don't scratch the crank. Just be aware of what your doing. Put the piston down on the block, and begin to tap the piston in slowly. Every time you tap the piston tap the ring compressor also in two different location, the main thing here is to not scratch the walls or hang a ring. (YIKES!)











Aight, now I flipped over the block, and pushed down the piston until I got it to where I could manipulate it so I could put on the bearings without it flopping all around scratching things. Put down some oil on the bearing and lay the bearing down on the rod. Now move the crank a lil bit to where you can finish pushing the piston down the cylinder and the bearing will ride up into the crank. Take a flat head and move the bearings until they are flat with the rod, most likely they didn't move, but just make sure the bearing hasn't shifted upward or slip down any. All that's left is to put another bearing on the rod caps and put then on the crank. Now put the bolts back on the way they come off the rod and torque down the rod bolts, now you can do the remaining three rods!









My main invester throwing up the approval, pops is killer!





Once your all done you'll get something like this... Looks good just needs to have the deck buzzed. All that was left at this point for me to do was wrap the motor up good and tight, and hide it in the garage until I get my head back from the machine shop.




Modified by Tmckinney33 at 6:20 PM 3/20/2009

[Tmckinney33]

Feb 09 - March 09

Ok now its time to show my baby some TLC! I washed the engine bay out real good and then began buzzing the bay, yes I said buzzing. I buzzed most all the paint off then I sanded everything thoroughly, leaving nothing untouched. It turned out looking horrible, I was a little bummed but I knew it would look better soon. Ive got about 6-7 hours on the engine bay.









Next on the list is to get materials to primer the bay and I still got to jerk the doors off and get the door jams sanded.
Modified by Tmckinney33 at 3:11 PM 3/20/2009

[Tmckinney33]

March 3rd 09

So I took my driver side door off and got to sanding, it turned out awesome. Theirs still more work to be done and I cant forget the passenger side.

[georgegto]

That looks like a lot of work...will it be ready until the summer?

[Ghast]

Aweeeeeesssssoooommmeeeeee!

Keep it up!

One Love,

Ghasty

[Tmckinney33]

Im going to say it will be ready by summer... the motor will be 100% by end of April, so will the body work.

[Tmckinney33]

March 14 09

Well it was time to do some body work, so I had a friend of pop's to come down and help me on a few small places on the car. He did a great job, hopefully he's going to swing on back next week to block my doors...



Once we worked out the few places that needed some attention we fired up the spray gun and went at it! Laid a few coats down in the front, but it was too cold and it ran some.







We sprayed some black paint so we could tell where the runs are at, so that later when I sand it down I wont miss any runs. Evan though its the engine bay I want it to be as slick as I possible can, all I got is time. BTW Thanks B!







Modified by Tmckinney33 at 5:16 PM 3/20/2009
Modified by Tmckinney33 at 5:19 PM 3/20/2009

[eidk]

You make me happy! This thread makes me happy!

<-- my current facial expression

[Tmckinney33]

March 15 09

We didn't get done doing the body work until later that afternoon, by the time I ate and got settled it was about midnight. I was bound and determined to get the engine bay's first coat sanded down. Needless to say I was up till around 3 AM until it was finished, here's what it looked like when I hit the hay.







My factory seams looked like a blind man put them on, so I took about 45min to fix them. How do they look?


Modified by Tmckinney33 at 8:42 PM 3/20/2009

[gregfarz78]

wow 2 thumbs up on this build, this is the way to do it from the ground up don't skimp on anything

[Tmckinney33]

Thanks man, your builds looking good too.

[Broadfield]

Looking good so far man. Keep at it.... I know what it's like to have a billion hours of labor into a car.

[Future_gohan]

omg!

Looks so good right now, I'm so glad there is someone out there as anal as me about having a clean engine bay, my dads like why the hell you doing all the work to make your bay look good, I'm like..It holds like 70% of the money, so it'll look good. ha

But I love it, and making sure your getting all the rust and protect it for years to come, that's one reason i'm doing it.

Also, you just tore the sound deading out? thats what i did, a hammer and chisel. like 8 hours of work lol

[Tmckinney33]

March 17th 09

Put down another 2 thin coats of primer on the bay to cover some places that I fixed with some small filler putty. It turned out awesome but it has a click of trash in the primer and im not sure where it came from? I blew everything out very well. So I had to sand the trash out in a few places, a buddy told me to not worry because your going to get trash in your primer but I don't want anything anywhere. I want that thing to be slick as hell! So I sanded for a few hours and it was perfect again!

Not sure what im going to do with this glob yet? (Image that mess all down toward the firewall, wow!) Probably just going to leave it how it is. There was a huge mess right above the rail, you can still see where I didn't shoot enough primer to cover where I sanded it the first time.



There was a glob of seal here, and I buzzed it off and behind it was a buddle of small welds, what to do? I'm prob going to putty it and then lay down a new seal seam. It doesn't look bad I guess, there's no rust anywhere around there, but man its an eye sore in this nice bay! Its got to be fixed... update on that shortly.



Here's the major problem with the car... tell me how can a car with not a stitch of rust no where have a rusted out tray in the front? Wow, you should have seen it, it was horrible. I got it covered though, heading out this Sunday to get it fixed. Ill keep this problem updated...


Modified by Tmckinney33 at 9:22 PM 3/20/2009

[gregfarz78]

Battery tray is always first to rust in the engine bay b/c everytime it rains water just gets up under there and gets trapped under the tray.

[Kalypso]

looking great

[Encryptshun]

Looks great, man! Glad to see someone taking time and doing it right. Keep the updates coming!

[wynnEZ]

Well this looks like a promising build, you've got me subscribed.

[mattblancarte]

Will be watching this thread. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

[stone184]

Subscribed!

[shift_240]

great work alot of hours spent on it.

[ca20det]

hey were is the update!!???

[Tmckinney33]

Updates are coming tonight, ive done lots of stuff over the last few days. Ive been so busy doing work that I havent had a time to sit down and put together and update. So check it later tonight!

*Also thanks to everyone who is subscribed or bumped my ego up! You guys rock.

[Tmckinney33]

March 21st 09

Well I woke up with a mean a** cold that had me mopping around all day. All I was able to do was was go pick up the trailer from David's house, and load the coupe up. I had big plans of getting all the body work done on the car, but you know how that goes...



March 22nd 09

Big day today fellows, im heading down to David's to get that nasty rust spot patched up! I did some cleaning so we could see what was going on and to make sure the welds hold up good and solid. Man it looks nasty! Here in the next few weeks ill have it looking so slick you would have never guessed there was ever a problem.



Aight, so fast forward about a two hours later and 30 degree's higher (Man its cold in the mornings here! Damn..) and that rust hole is looks loads better.



So we get the car off the trailer and start getting the Rage Gold out to do some work. I started sanding the interior all down while pop's started spreading and working the bondo on the rust spots. He worked about 2 hours until the race started lol, from there I took over and started working all the round edges trying to get them the same angle's as the factory had it. When I quit they where are almost identical to the other wheel well's contour. So him happy with that, but from the frame railing up looks really messy, but about 4-5 more hours on this corner and ill be done. This is as far as I got when I stopped...



There's still so much work to be done here, so try to look past how s***ty it looks now, just wait for the next update on this issue and it will relieve alot of your faces. Promise...

Now ive been avoiding cleaning up my spider webbed interior for a long time now, so I finally got to it in the afternoon. I took some lacquer thinner and applied it to the floorboards and that mess just rubbed right off with little to no elbow grease, I was so happy! Here are some pictures, now its starting to look better!



Aight, so once I got the spider webbed denting out of the car, I started sanding the floor boards. I used 180 grit and just went over as much as I could before it got dark, see what you think. There's still so much more to be sanded but its a start. Ill have it knocked out the next full day i get to work on the interior.









Ok so once my arms where jello, I stopped only to grab a bite to eat and wait on Tang to get here so I can get some help pulling these windows out. We went to Harbour Freight to get a cheap $25 window removal kit, it actually did the job alot better than we where thinking. The front glass come out super easy. We cut and pulled it in about 30 minutes.



Same thing for the back, they just come right out once you cut the seal. Now it was on to the side glass... From what ive been told they are expensive if you break them, so I wasn't going to take them out but somehow the front and glass come out much easier than we all expected so we said what the hell and we started taking out the side glass.

Ok so I checked the manual about removing the glass, and there's nothing too it. All I have to do it stay away from the clips so I don't cut threw them, cause the clips are bonded onto the window and as far as I know you cant get these clips. So we get going on this window and right off the bat where having all types of problems, then i soon discovered that the side glass molding has metal built into it which I found weird because the manual didn't say anything about that. So needless to say it took us about an hour and half to take out one glass. It was horrible! So I still have to do the passenger side soon...

So with all the glass but one finally out, its time to clean it up which is going to be a mess and a half... ermmm! This is going to take me a while and will be on the next update.



Well look who it is, pops putting in that work!



Some next morning shots...





There's still so much work to be done its unreal... i'm at the point now of no returning. Keep an eye out for the next update...
Modified by Tmckinney33 at 9:44 AM 3/28/2009

[gregfarz78]

noice...whats the plan for the interior just prime and paint?

[slow40]

I see you want to keep it dericed any idea on what it will be when finished? silvia front? all this work has me wondering when you will put it on the rotiserie.

[brandonDavid]

kudos to you sir, i wish i had that time, and funds. it's looking absolutely amazing man. keep us posted.

[Tmckinney33]

Aight guys its been raining murder around here, so I haven't done anything much. I'm sitting down to finish updating right now...

[Tmckinney33]

nice...whats the plan for the interior just prime and paint?

Its still up in the air what i wanna do, I still haven't 100% decided on a color yet. I do know i'm not going back with carpet or anything, just some sort of mat that wont scratch my floorboard paint. Thats still a long ways away so I haven't put in much thought about what im going to do.

I see you want to keep it dericed any idea on what it will be when finished? silvia front? all this work has me wondering when you will put it on the rotiserie.

My goal is to get it done by end of summer, which could be done but I dont have the time I want to spend on it with school and all, but one thing is sure im not running RC car's this season so I will have loads of free time once school is out for the summer sometime is May.

Silvia front is definitely been in my mind, I love the way they look but its hard to swallow $1200 for a front end when I could do so many other things, so we will see.

As far as the rotisserie... we've been joking about that for a while now, ill prob have it up on one before its over to get the undercarriage.

[s13 iDRIFT]

im staying tuned...

this thread is looking good. cant wait to see it finished!