swimshark J30 Build (lots of pics)

[swimshark]

Thought I would start a thread to go along with the work I do to the project J30 I got to replace my current J.

So far as of this post I have the entire interior out and dropped the headliner to clean out the drain ports on the sunroof. Cleaned off the dirty carpet and painted the inside of the car and started super cleaning it inside and out.

Before


After (sprayed down heavily with purple power and then pressure washed it)


Had some rust spots from sitting water so sanded and painted


Painted the main area flooring with white as well


Carpet drying and seats and interior waiting to be cleaned


Cleaner now


Found this at pull a part for $33. Odd part is that it wasn't a 't' model.

[JDM_J30_tx]

I am still trying to find that spoiler at the Junkers here in San Antonio... Found it in the green but not the pearl.

[jdurrty]

My J30 has a wing on it too, but is not a touring series either. It might have been a factory option I think.

[JDM_J30_tx]

I belive it was apart of the T package but it was also a factory option such as wheels as well.

[swimshark]

im gonna have to say get 90mm for both rings. the 80mm just barely fits on the low beam. ill get a far away pic. up close you dont get the full effect.

[JDM_J30_tx]

ZOMG! I want those so bad. Are you blacking out the parking lights as well?

[swimshark]

Yep. I got one done, just now need to mod it to put the blinkers in them.

[driverdriver]

Nice job swimshark!

[JDM_J30_tx]

Do you have a pic of how the wiring is coming out of the rear of the housing?

[swimshark]

[JDM_J30_tx]

I think that would look so clean with some Amber Paited Parking lights..... SO those are 80mms on the low beams and 90mm on the highs beams right?

[yodawill2000]

Sure looks like it.
VERY nice Shark.

[swimshark]

So here is what got done this past weekend

Dash has been completely removed


Dash support bar painted after being sanded and cleaned


Hooked up the angel eyes for fun to see what it looks like


Started cleaning and then painted the radiator support


Which led to taking bumper off and painting more




Then mounted fog lights to the bumper






Ignition fuse was bad and the terminals are done so replaced those as well




So after getting a new battery and replacing the terminals I was able to get a lot of things to work in the car. ECU says "No Malfunction" (code 55), fuel pump primes, starter relay clicks, climate control works, flashers/blinkers work, headlights work, but car wont crank over. Issue seems similar when I have the neutral safety switch disabled on my current J. I can flip the switch and the car will not turn over.


Sticking a mini jack in the bumper to see how much space I have for big SMIC


Brake calipers removed and car put up on jack stands


Seat/Interior cleaning


Before


After


Smoked the running lights up front


This next weekend wont be touching it much with the Air Show and a few other things to take care of.

[JDM_J30_tx]

Nice updates man! I want those halos so bad but I need to get the car lower first so will PM you on that bro.

[swimshark]

Productful weekend. Got the white J30 running finally. I was correct and it was the neutral safety switch that had gone bad. The shop that looked at it had the dash pulled a part for no reason. Here are pics to show what went down this past weekend. Next weekend I will pull the motor and trans and start prepping for the manual swap part dos.

Here is tuned chip for the ECU. I will keep you guys posted on dyno numbers next weekend to see how much of a whp gain I get from it. For the manual it is a lot smoother start up from stop and shifting gears is a lot smoother.


Carpet cleaned before


Carpet dyed halfway after


Painting the seat rails. They were rusty and were oxidizing from the wet carpet from previous owner.




Last time this thing will be seen in the car...


Buh bye AUTOMATIC!!!!


Running headers only. Will post a vid tonight of it running.


The '93 driveshaft is much different. It didnt have the giant rubber vibration dampners like my '94 had.


Painted the debris shields with a low gloss black plastic trim paint


Carpet 90% done. Need another can.

[innovatus]

hey what are you using to dye the carpet and how many cans??

[Amadauss1]

Very impressive the work you are doing. Really like watching all the changes taking place. Thanks.

[swimshark]

I am using this carpet/vinyl dye: http://www.detailyourcar.com/vinyl-plas ... p-258.html I ordered 3 cans and it will take a total of 4 for the whole carpet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_M9S28ehLI[/youtube]


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzFlTPnqPk8[/youtube]

[colincliff2]

Wow, lookin good swimshark - very meticulous restoration. Can't wait to see her all finished.

[swimshark]

yah this one I have the time to take my time working with it so it gets to look nice once its done.

[swimshark]

Here are the calipers lookin good

Hung and ready for paint



Put on a total of 3 coats of paint. Its brush on so it is thick.


yah i had to improvise and be creative on how to paint the calipers. there is nothing here at these apt except the bar for the shower curtain that i could hang them on and brush paint them.

This weekend is an uneventful weekend for the project. Went to Z1 to get timing belt kit and a few other items for the swap. Also got the gold J30 dynoed with the new chip and it actually made less power. So back to the drawing board with that.

Found out that whoever owned this before me got screwed cause the only thing wrong with the car was that the linkage from the gear selector to the transmission had popped off. So the transmission was still in gear, but the gear selector could be put into P and key removed. So that is why it would not start.

This is what happened last weekend






Newer transmisson, new torque converter, new iacv and o2 sensor. Whoever owned this before me dumped some serious money into it before they got screwed over.






Fuel filter relocated to where the power steering reservoir was


Holes drilled to route the 0 gauge cables for the battery relocation


This is what I got done today. Painting the engine bay a flat black.




Here is what I got at my stop at Z1:



Timing belt kit (belt, water pump, tensioner, 2x vtc springs, 2x vtc seals, 5x oil seals, 2x water hoses, and thermostat)
Oil pan seals where the crank is
Front and reay sway bar bushings
Upper plenum gasket
3qt MT-90 trans fluid

Also got some heli coils to fix some of the threads on my plenum for the coil packs. This motor is gonna be fresh going in with new oil pan seal and timing belt job all done at home.

Today just got parts together and wrapped the engine harness with electrical tape since the stock covers are brittle and cracking.

Had to mod the HID wiring harness to get the H3 3k HIDs to fit into these. Also started getting wires cut to make a wiring harness to connect neutral safety switch, lights and fans to switches inside the car. Used one of the gromets off the HID harness for the new wiring harness. Going to drill a hole in the firewall and epoxy the gromet into it.

[yodawill2000]

Uber nice work Bud !!!
Wish I lived close to ya.
Would love to see all that close up.

[driverdriver]

Nice update!

Looking good!!!

[swimshark]

This weekend will be down time cause Im going up to NC with my Dad to help his parents with a yard sale. They are both 93 and currently still living on their own, but I think they are moving down to GA soon. Debating on doing timing belt job or just crank out a few more things on the project car. Looks like I still have a slight sunroof leak. We had a down pour and there was some water on the floor of the car. So I need to switch lids and sunroof assemblies.

[swimshark]

Debating if I want to do timing belt job next weekend. I got the parts and 2k miles until 165k but I got a list of things to do to the motor.

With full timing belt job, I'm also going to pull the upper and lower plenum. For the upper plenum I am going to heli coil the coilpack holders, since a few holes have stripped. Then put balance tube on and cap off all the ports and fill it up with degreaser and clean it out. Also thinking of sanding down the plenum to be able to get to all the injector bolts easier.

I am also replacing my lower plenum cause back in May I had a plenum bolt snap off in the lower plenum and when I replaced my spark plugs last week, one of the holes for the bolts that hold the balance tube down stripped.

Basically doing a small overhaul on the top end of the motor.

[swimshark]

Thanksgiving week motor overhaul. it was a pain with the rain here in GA since I did it all outside lol.

Here is most of the pieces removed to complete what I will be doing.


Lower plenum then removed since the other one was fubar


Here is the newer lower plenum installed


End Wed night. All 4 cam gear seals replaced, front main seal replaced, front of motor cleaned, new small lower coolant hoses, new water pump mounted, put new lower plenum/fuel rail o-ring and mounted fuel rails, then took the PCV system hard lines off the back of the motor to cut off the hard lines for the throttle body coolant and then redid the looping for the water lines for this system.


Redid all the coil pack mounting holes on my plenum with steel heli coils cause quite a few of mine had stripped out. Here is drilled hole compared to heli coiled hole.


Didnt get many pics while finishing it all up. Put new thermostat in, new belt and tensioner, new vtc springs and plate o-rings, cleaned all the timing belt covers and cleaned out the plenum. In this pic I also did a temp setup for the PCV system with a catch can in line. After tracking my car I had oil in my plenum from the valve cover breathers. Back to running like a champ again. Had drivers side cover off to check things out.

[yodawill2000]

Ahh to have time on my hands.. lol

Good work bud.

[jdurrty]

what is that box the 0 gauge wire is all wired into attached to the fuse box? and did you get my last email?

[nosaint]

what is that box the 0 gauge wire is all wired into attached to the fuse box? and did you get my last email?

My guess is HID ballast

[jdurrty]

ha thats some gnarly wiring for a balast! i thought it was a pre-fuse box, fuse box. but that didn't make much sense unless he doesn't have a fusiable link in the wiring system?