here's a few pics of the shell, she's rough, but all paint and body will be handled before the car even gets to my driveway.
The original core support was hosed, and therefore removed
Clean cor support waiting to go on, as well as an OEM JDM Kouki Aero bumper
Rear bumper is getting replaced, spoiler is going away, and the holes from it as well as the antennae will be filled. Don't mind the second spoiler sitting on top of the first.
Only damage to the unibody is on the drivers side, and shouldn't be too bad to fix
Still trying to decide if this will go on the car or not, and if so, to paint it or not....
Sep 25, 2010
The donor car is in my driveway, already has a wired up and running S14 SR20DET in it, along with z32 brakes (front and rear) and a host of other parts. It has the most obnoxious exhaust I've ever seen and heard (come take the cat-back away $100!!), and a completely fubar passenger quarter panel. So all of the good bits will come out of this car and go into the good shell after it's done with paint and body work.
Sep 28, 2010
Circuit Sports Oil Filter relocation kit, walbro 255 (wish I'd known the donor car had one and a brand new spare before I ordered it), and turbo gaskets showed up today, new corner lights are on the way as well. About to order a new thermostat and water pump along with belts now that I know which SR I'm using for this project, and maybe a clutch as well if more of my parts sell.
Sep 30, 2010
Pulled the radiator and intercooler piping today. Disconnected the fuel lines, PS/pump, shift knob, e-fans, throttle cable, and a few other small bits. Tomorrow the ECU and other under-dash harness connectors get unplugged and pushed through the firewall. The motor mounts, trans mounts and carrier bearing bracket will come off, and the SR with trans will come out. My new kouki corners showed up today, and I ordered new turbo lines (since one of the coolant lines is leaking), a new water pump, Nismo thermostat, and new belts. I just want to make sure all of the basic maintenance is done before this motor goes into the other shell. Still trying to make up my mind on a clutch kit, or I may just save my pennies and pick up an Exedy Hyper single later. I had a similar Ogura clutch/flywheel on one of my old 240's and loved it, so I'm leaning heavily in that direction.
Oct 1, 2010
A friend came by and got me re-motivated to pull the motor.
Notice the lack of a thermostat...
Motor waiting to come out
Up
UP!
and AWAY!
In the garage ready for maintenance
The turbo was wobbling on the manifold, almost no gasket left, you could actually see between the flanges.
So it had to come off, both to replace the gasket, and to replace all of the lines, since the water feed was leaking at the turbo.
Turbo is off and here is all that was left of the gasket. New one is waiting to go on once the lines show up.
So, now I'm waiting on parts to show up and for the other shell to get done with paint before I can make much more progress. I will go ahead and clean up the motor as time permits though.
Oct 7, 2010
Circuit Sports Oil Filter Relocation Kit is installed
Oct 8, 2010
Rear bumper/rebar, front rebar and FMIC were removed today to be used on the good car
Jan 4, 2011
Well, looky what FINALLY showed up today.
Jan 31, 2011
Body work progress:
Feb 19, 2011
Pulled the transmission this morning to have a look at the clutch and flywheel. Turns out both are original, so I'll be replacing those and the rear main once they come in. Cleaned up the bellhousing and fork while it was all apart too. Did a little bit of garage straightening while I was at it too.
Feb 20, 2011
Was just going through the donor car to pull the boost, water temp and oil pressure gauges out along with the pillar pods when I noticed a manual boost controller stuffed on the side of the drivers seat, and the HKS turbo timer I somehow completely missed before.
Feb 25, 2011
Pulled a couple of bits off the motor after dinner today, replaced the plugs while I was at it.
Clutch has seen better days....
Pressure plate is done as well
Flywheel is looking just as bad as the pressure plate
Slight leak on the rear main seal
A few drops made it to the back of the flywheel as well
Plugs show that she was running a little rich, but that's to be expected when the BoV wasn't recirculated
Feb 27, 2011
Time to do the water pump, damn wasps
The old pump has seen better days
Lots of gasket removal
New pump!
Pulley is dirty, rusty, and generally looks like garbage
Woops, forgot to drain the oil before I pulled the motor, now seems like a good enough time
Pulley with fresh paint
New pump is on
Time for the Nismo thermostat
Success!
Everything back together on the front
Finally got around to putting the new lines on the turbo as well
Going to try to motivate myself to get more work done while it's so nice out.
Mar 05, 2011
Old rear main is out
And in with the new
New Flywheel
along with some new flywheel bolts
On but not torqued down yet
Old clutch fork pivot is off
and the Nismo unit is on
Apr 19, 2011
First two base coats are on, 3 more to go, then clear and buffing. Progress, it's crazy.
21 Apr, 2011
Flywheel is torqued to spec and the pilot bushing is in
Clutch fork, carrier, and release bearing are installed as well
Clutch disc is on
Pressure plate is on
Oh, and the shell is painted.
22 April, 2011
Got a couple of pics with the wifes camera. He's going to buff her this weekend. Then she'll come back to the house on one of my days off next week. Still need to get the trans put back on the engine.
07 May, 2011
A couple of pics since the buffing is done.
I think this was where we left off...
Thanks to some extra hand the transmission is back on
OH NO! It's N/A now!
Not that you can see it, but the water and oil lines for the turbo are all done up correctly this time
Turbo and manifold back on, lines on and done, just about ready to go into the car, which should be happening next week, FINALLY!
12 May, 2011
Not that you can see it, but the core support is FINALLY welded on, she should be coming home tomorrow afternoon/evening. Oddly enough, this crappy cellphone pic shows the color better than any I've seen so far. They're in the process of doing the final polish right now.
04 June, 2011
Had to pull the front tension rods, tension rod and sway bar mounting brackets off of the donor car, as the silver one doesn't have them. They were filthy with a few sections of the paint chipped through.
Got them cleaned up and they look like this
I've painted them too, they're drying right now, but I'll get pics of them tomorrow, and hopefully mounted on the car as well, after that I need to swap over the Z32 brakes, and then put the engine in.
02 July, 2011
Got some work done today, thanks to HumP for stopping by and providing a different perspective, made a world of difference.
03 July, 2011
Valve cover needed the paint stripped and a hole filled, (engine balancer gouged the front of it during install). After the filler is fully cured, it will get sanded down, then the whole thing will get filler primer to smooth our the scratches on the back of it.
10 July, 2011
Pulled off the old crappy single piston calipers with tiny rotors.
Replaced with 4 piston Z32 units, fresh pads and rotors.
Z32 wheels with much better rubber to clear the brakes.
Time to prep the patched VC
I'm a fcuking surgeon.
Final prep
Engine primer
Oh hi there!
First coat of VHT, she got the second and third coats, and is curing now.
11 July, 2011
Crappy cell phone pics
This one is a bit better.
The letters will need a light sanding to be perfect after the VHT fully cures, but I'm pretty happy with the results.
17 July, 2011
That was a fairly productive day. I got the radiator properly mounted, radiator hoses on the car, half of the holes cut for the intercooler piping, one of the Z32/r33 e-brake cables installed, new pads and rotor on one of the z32 rear brakes, 3rd brake light installed, I'm beat. Here's a few of the progress pics.
22 July, 2011
The old gasket has been scraped off of the pumpkin.
The robot face has ears again!
Cover is back on, locked down, sealed up, and just about ready to go back into the rear subframe.
23 July, 2011
Time to put the wrinkle coated valve cover on.
New gaskets
Set on
Locked down
New plugs
Coil packs on a string
Everything up top is put back together.
Braided stainless clutch line from agency power should keep the pedal feel solid
My kingdom for a hoseclamp!
Dear diary, jackpot.
She's starting to sort of look like a car.
24 July, 2011
Getting ready to pull the old rear end out.
Dust, dirty, open differential and tiny brakes, boo
New rear end is in, with the z32 e-brake functional, then I ran out of motivation for the day.
16 December, 2011
FINALLY did some more work on this thing. Passenger door handle is on, I can actually lock the car now. Got most of the front end on, though I still need to sort out the passenger headlight and corner light. I'm very pleased with how the front bumper turned out. I was a little wary with shaving the front license plate bracket, but I think it came out nicely.
18 December, 2011
Got a few small things done today. Pulled the speakers out of the donor car and got them into the good one. Fully reassembled both door interiors. Installed the wiper motor and linkage (F that linkage btw), as well as cleaning up the cowl and reinstalling it. Not pictured is the rear speaker deck cover installed, center console installed, last bits of weather stripping installed, and part of the HVAC system put back in.
28 December, 2011
Got a little bit done today. Properly mounted the intercooler to ensure there are no piping fitment issues, plenty of headlight clearance, and the intercooler shouldn't be hanging below the bumper. I also fabricated lower brackets to help stabilize the FMIC, they're currently drying from fresh paint. Still have to pull the IC back off, put hose clamps on, then do a final check to ensure all fitment and clearances.
