Progress on the S13.4

[DirtyDevo]

Finally things are becoming a little more comfortable with other projects ive had to put infront of my vert to take the time and make a simple build thread from the gecko.

I used to see this vert all the time in front of a friends and tried to buy it 2-3 times off the chick. After years of not seeing it i ran into her and asked about it and it had been sitting in her moms yard after an accident. I checked it out and the plans just started unfolding. Now Ive got the car and cant get the chick to leave me alone!




The tear down began removing the upper rad support in favor for the S14 front end.



Imo this was the best way to cut the fenders and weld them together. I tacked the outer and inner fender then completly stripped the inside of the fender to metal and fiberglassed it to ensure the bodywork would never flex and cause cracks in the final product.



at this time the car had the factory brakes which were pooched and a leaking high pres power steering line. My hatch i built a couple years ago is along side the younger sibling.



Picked up the wheels i plan on running 19x9.5 and 19x9 i think...



removed all the old brake stuff and lower control arms for the newer S14 stuff with 5 lug



New wheels on with stock suspension




Started the enclosure for a single 12" 1500watt rms woofer pushed with an atomic 2200.1
I plan on having 2x grey goose bottles displayed that light up like on my red car.






Time for the widebody test fit.



Got the kit together



Finally some HSD coilovers! i love these coils over any other coilover ive owned. they are so smooth and firm. They don't feel like you just turned your car into a bucked of bolts.



I started cutting and re-welding the stock 1/4 panel to make room for the wheels behind the 50mm widebody.




Then i took a break before the pain began



Molding started by 1st gluing the panel down with urathane, then fiberglassing it followed by fiberglass/bondo then bondo. I did the same for the red car and its stayed crack free for 2 years under harsh conditions!






Heres the interior i did, some of it was originally in the red car which i moved over to the vert.






I started doing the garage with tonnes of outlets and lights. Lots of insulation and cabinets! I even used the upper space to build a second floor to do my upholstery and small lounge to hang out in.








Ive started on the rear interior panels and relocating the seat belts for a comfortable and factory look.









That is all for now, ill try to keep updating as bigger things happen. Its been a thrill working on this vert, im enjoying it much more than the red car as this ones getting more time and more experience. Any questons shoot ill try to help you out with your build

[krash]

O_O you do some AMAZING work. Good freaking job man! You're car is coming along VERY VERY well. did you wrap the dash too?

[cmkelly]

Amazing work DD - you definitely have skills. I love all the custom work. I can only assume you require no sleep and dedicate 24 hours each day to your cars!

[DirtyDevo]

The entire dash and door panels were wrapped in vinyl. Leather would have been big bucks and would have last 10-15 years maybe. I also wouldn't have been able to get those curves with leather, the stitching would have had to look like Frankenstein's face to get it to form to the dash. Door panels were the toughest with the speakers..a good 45 minutes working the material for each speaker.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

Wow! Great work dude.

I wish you lived round here so you could wrap my interior.

Those 19s didn't look that good at first, but you really pulled them off with the widebody and tucking them in. They look great.

More updates!

[Steady_One_S13]

^I thought the same about the wheels. Imho they look good... the ride looks good! Nice fab skills!

[DirtyDevo]

Got my 5mm spacers and ARP wheel studs! The rear coils unbolted in this pic im just toying around with the wheel and my jack to make sure im not touching anymore lol..I had to heat the 1/4 panel up with a heat gun and jack the tire with a folded rag over the tire into the wheel well basicly pushing the 1/4 panel out an extra 1/4 inch. After pouring cold water on the hot fiberglass 1/4 panel then removing the rag it shapes to the wheel perfectly with lots of room to spare Perfectly formed! Remember make the car fit the wheel, not the wheel fit the car.




I also got my kouki eyelids and retro fitted 12 LEDs under the eyelids that reflect into the headlight housing. It came out really slick i wish i had a picture of under the hood because you dont see any wiring or leds.

[Steady_One_S13]

Looks amazingly good!

[-RJ-]

Holy crap that is amazing. I wish I was good at this kind of stuff

[DirtyDevo]

So much has been going on with work and the odd time to get some hours on the vert i forgot to update!

I started chopping up a C-west bumper and parts of a broken bumper i had from replacing a friends bumper to make my own style.







I stopped with this bumper to direct more attention to getting the rest of the car ready for paint with the oem bumper/lip which will see more of the road than this "mostly show" bumper.

I started playing with the drivers seatbelt location and this method with the MDF took way less time than fiberglassing and is solid. Still some work to be done to cover the front portion of the panel.




bodywork time..self explanatory and very boring.





blowing her off and omw to paint!




Ill check back in when i get the car back from paint and put together

[krash]

I like that body line you added. Man, you are one talented dude. This car is going to look amazing.

[DirtyDevo]

Finally! Still much to go..really want these VIP emblems for the wheels unless i get "M3 KILLR" for a liscence plate, after the motor swap of course.

[DirtyDevo]

Forgot to mention

WANTS A TOP COVER! Email me at enzos_lil_schumi at hotmail.com

[DirtyDevo]

New interior for this winters projects with some misc other engine parts for the RB.

Modified Digital cluster with working HUD that will be modified to fit the S14 dash.




S14 Interior. Dash fits without major modification but door panels require lots of cutting to the panel and door requiring cutting to the dash or door panel because the fitment is too tight and wont let the doors close. I chose to cut the dash since im wrapping everything with new material. I dont see a way of fitting S14 door panels into a S13 without major modification requiring upholstery.



When the stitching is all done should look something like this. Insert material will likely just be a really rough grain leather with little to no stitching to keep it simple and clean.




E-exhaust cutout for the late night dates.

[nivekgt]

Looking good!

[cole d]

Your car is sick. I have a couple of question/observation about the front end. In the thread you mentioned welding the 2 fenders together. Did you completely remove the s13 radiator support and weld in s14?

Thanks
Chris

[DirtyDevo]

Yes I used the S14 upper rad support. Its about a 1/2" too wide on each end and 1/4" too short on the bottom where it connects to the bottom of the battery tray area on both sides. Easy enough to fold the edges around the sides before welding and folding the edge of the metal on the bottom strait to make up the 1/4" gap.

I found it really easy to get the front end welded on and hood/lights bumpers etc but the fenders were very difficult and lots of bodywork to make them strait. I would defiantly recommend using the S14 upper rad support for a clean/simpler install.

[-RJ-]

I'm curious how you did your seatbelt. How did you set it up so it doesnt get stuck all the time?

[DirtyDevo]

I went threw 2 different methods which im still going to improve upon since my S14 door panels are in the way now. Behind the panel i have a bracket that bolts to the car with 1/4" steel plate and 1/2" round bar coming off the plate that the belt slides over.

The bar that the belt slides over behind the panel has to be positioned slightly higher than the opening of the panel that the belt comes out of otherwise there's too much resistance from the belt trying to slide over the panel and the metal bar inside. You need to use the rear seatbelts vs coupe/hatch front seatbelts because the springs are too worn out and they suuuck at retracting. I was lucky to find a parts car to get the belts out of so i can keep my factory belts in the rear.

Some progress on the exhaust

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6TxRs6wZL4[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8RtXRrlj-w[/youtube]

[speed_demon]

What type/brand of material did you use to cover your seats with? And are those just recovered factory S13 seats, or are they S14/aftermarket?

I am looking to reupholster my torn convertibles seats with something more comfortable and weather resistant that the factory cloth, and I love the clean look your seats have. I will definitely be keeping tabs on your thread, this is one of the cleanest convertible builds I have seen yet.

[-RJ-]

The bar that the belt slides over behind the panel has to be positioned slightly higher than the opening of the panel that the belt comes out of otherwise there's too much resistance from the belt trying to slide over the panel and the metal bar inside. You need to use the rear seatbelts vs coupe/hatch front seatbelts because the springs are too worn out and they suuuck at retracting. I was lucky to find a parts car to get the belts out of so i can keep my factory belts in the rear.

Thats what I used but it still gets stuck. You think using seatbelts from a newer car would work? Like one that can pivot

[DirtyDevo]

I used vinyl for the seats with gucci fabric inserts on the stock vert seats. I changed the stitching a little bit and made listings to pull the edges of the inserts in tight rather than gluing the cover on which is cheap/lazy of nissan.

As for the belts if you can get another cars belt to fit im sure you can make it work. There's hundreds of ways to do it so I cant really suggest the best way. Ill post pics when i get around to modifying mine..again.

I finished the cutout turndown pipe to keep the heat and flames off the underside of the car.



Finished the wiring for the doors as well as handles and the linkages.

[DirtyDevo]

Picked up a yard of 20gauge charcoal vinyl for the rear window. The whole top has to come off for the window to be sewn in...lol sigh..



Starting to make 1/2"MDF 6.5 speaker rings with a 1/2" flush mounted lip. Just a bit overkill for 6.5" speakers :-)




Still more than enough leg room for comfort.





Picked up an upper intake plenum to forward face the cold pipe.




Im off, Cheers!

[itsguyguy]

This has got to be one of the sexiest verts I've seen up to date.








What's the progress on your project, as it's almost been a year?

Anything new going on you haven't told us yet?

[DirtyDevo]

The cars been finished for a while now sorry i haven't updated. Been to a few car shows always top 3, I think in the future id like to get this car sponsored and add a hood, different bumper and a small spoiler etc to make it really aggressive and use it as a billboard.

Things that i will do very soon will be painting under the hood as well as lots of re-wiring to hide wires. Ill be adding S14 front seats with seat warmers and continuing the red stitch theme. Im considering a cage..but a very factory looking one, I dont want to kill the OEM theme. Enjoy!

[omgosh]

Wow. Reupholstry came out great. And I was apprehensive about the front bumper. But after seeing the shot of the car in motion, the whole thing really goes together nicely...beautiful car man .

I am in the middle of an s13.4 myself...I have the dashboard in place without modifying it, but I havent tried to put the a/c, blower, and heater core all in there yet. Did you have much issue fitting any of that? Which are you using anyway, s13 parts or s14?

[DirtyDevo]

The bumper in the rolling picture is the OEM bumper with a lip. Im still not sure abt the fiberglass one im making..it needs a lot of work and is really big and low..might just be a bumper i use for shows.




As for the dash im only using the S14 dash overtop of all the S13 stuff with custom duct work. I used the tin aluminum dryer duct piping for your house and some aluminum foil tape.

[omgosh]

Ah ok...I have the s14 dash bar and s14 wiring harnesses in mine, so Im going to try to use the 14 under dash stuff too. Shouldnt be too bad, it just looks as if the holes for the a/c lines are a little off.

[Glitz]

Wow man you are one busy dude! Excellent work, but I dont think that bumper is even close to being streetable at least not around here.

[DeXteR]

Well, beaten again. I've been wanting to do the S14 interior in my vert for a couple years now. I just can't ever seem to get my hands on the stuff. Car looks super clean.