S13 reshell/rebuild

[matthew]

As some of you may already know I recently bought a new S13 because mine is riddled with rust!!!

The sills are rotten, the doors are rusty, the drivers side floor where it meats the sill is completely rotten, the chassis rails are mostly holes, and passenger side wheel can be seen from the engine bay. Any s13 owner knows what I'm talking about...

In addition to the above, I had a record of how much rain fell the night before by how wet the rear seats were.

Basically I realised that it was never going to pass another NCT. But TBH I know that it shouldn't have passed the last one either so it was already on borrowed time. It just goes to show how much of a joke the NCT is...

I was keeping my eye open for cheap S13's that had blown engines. I came across this in donedeal:



It was sold as having no engine, smashed windscreen, rusty boot lid and requiring a paint job.

Anyway, having a look at the shell I decided to buy it. For an S13 it had very little rust.

Also the number plate is in the following format: "YY L 200" which for an irish shell is very rare, the only other one I've seen was JP's.

I went to have a look and saw that the interior needed changing too.

The other day I decided enough was enough and that I should probably make a start on stripping the shell. Unfortunately the dash had previously had a gauge fitted to it and had been damaged. The ashtray was badly scratched and the steering wheel was mouldy, the rear seats were soaked and the front seat covers were worn. Suffice to say my interior is in a much better condition than the one I bought so I decided to swap them out.

To start with I went at the engine bay and wanted to strip out anything that wasn't gonna get painted with the rest of the car.

Oh yeah in case anyone is wondering I won't be keeping the car white, I'm probably gonna go with gloss black, I haven't made a final decision yet.

Then over the bank holiday weekend I went at the interior and stripped the seats, dash, carpet, roof cloth and the entire boot. Took no time at all. I thought the dash would take a day in it's own right, but there easy in the s13's

During the work I did, I also noticed that the wiring loom has had a few items such as radios and allarms added and removed in the past, so thats gonna go too.

Since I'm going to be swapping my dash, engine and interior I may as well bring the loom, alarm and other accessories along too.

Enough chat, time for some work to date photo whoring:





It started raining so I moved into the car and started the interior... Move of the finished engine bay later...














Comments and suggestions are welcome.

[joshua200sx]

if you need a new boot i gpt one for sale pm me thanks

[CillianS14a]

Looks like a good start to the project Matthew, i didn't think your old shell was bad at all, this new one looks very clean, especially those strut tops

Good to see your doing it all yourself too

[matthew]

Looks like a good start to the project Matthew, i didn't think your old shell was bad at all, this new one looks very clean, especially those strut tops

Good to see your doing it all yourself too

I kept the rust well hidden TBH I wouldn't jack the car anywhere except the sub-frames and tow points. I had one jack disappear into the sills...

if you need a new boot i gpt one for sale pm me thanks

Thanks but your in England I'd imagine p&p would cost a fortune but thanks for the offer. I also intend on using the boot lid off of my other car.

[matthew]

Well an update so far...

My make shift axle stands, I knew there was a reason I kept all my standard wheels!!!


I finished stripping out the main wiring looms:


I've stripped the rest of the engine bay: The crash bar is getting swapped with the one on the other car


Steering rack, and front subframe including shocks, hubs and callipers.:


Differential, rear subframe, shocks and discs:


I managed to take a few photos of the rear wheel arches to show off how little rust there is on the shell!!!




So far with everything that's been stripped I've only snapped 3 of those small bolts that holds the bumper on.

[CillianS14a]

That looks immaculate matthew! It must be a genuine irish shell, a friend of mine has a 93 one and there isn't a spec of rust under it, just goes to show we weren't worse off before they started salting the roads last year Keep up the good work

[jay20]

looks relly good under there wasnt expecting that.spot on keep up the good work

[JP]

Wow! Nice project Mat! Looking forward to seeing the progress on this. As for the colour, what're the options you're considering & are you not tempted to go back to Champagne Gold?

[Tetra]

Just seeing this now Matt, loving the "200" plate and the unbelievably clean chassis

[Pete C]

That looks immaculate matthew! It must be a genuine irish shell, a friend of mine has a 93 one and there isn't a spec of rust under it, just goes to show we weren't worse off before they started salting the roads last year Keep up the good work

Just goes to show they should stop salting the roads over here - I've been saying this for years though and I don't think it'll happen

[chrisdsx]

dude your making stroming progress glad to help when i can sure let me know when u need more help with stuff u know me cant get enought of the brute force and ignorence thing that and i miss my car lol

[davekeogh]

Matt if you ever want some help over a weekend or something let me know. I'll come with tools, gods knows I got stuck into JPs car enough at times. Wouldn't mind doing something similar to this if I could find a good s13 shell. Would have to get caged though. S13s are just coffins on wheels if you crash em.

[Sideways Simon]

that looks like a good clean shell you got matt, the number plate is a nice touch!!! you gonna polybush it while you've the subframe and suspension arms out???

[Muttly]

It does look mint but are you 100% its an Irish shell. Don't forget no Irish reg except mayor cars and special order cars have any plate lower than 250.

What I mean by that is it could have been imported at any time and still gotten 200.

Anyway, back to the point. S15 pewter grey would look very nice. Are you leaving the outside standard or would you consider an update? I don't mean big drift kit, but maybe a face lift bumper or even a kouki make over?

[T.J]

i prefer the pre facelift bumper myself ps martin you got a pm coming your way
only spotted this now looks clean matthew hope all goes well with it

[JP]

Any updated pics?

[Col200sx]

Only spotted this not Matthew, looking good

I knew you had a small bit of rust in the old 13, but didn't realise it was that bad

Are you still using it to tow the car-be-que?

Still though, looks a good project, looking forward to seeing the progress on it

Oh, and loving the reg too

[gofaster_s13]

i prefer the pre facelift bumper myself ps martin you got a pm coming your way
only spotted this now looks clean matthew hope all goes well with it

Prefacelift

[JP]

Prefacelift

FTW.

[gofaster_s13]

Seen this car in the flesh last night, its a very clean shell, needs pics of all the suspension arms, subframes, heatshields etc stripped, debushed and painted and hanging up in the shed added, lots of time and effort gone into this already