After 13.5 years of owning my s14a I thought it was time to start a build thread. Have been on this forum for many years reading and lurking:wave:
Just became a paying member
My 200sx is my daily family car, garaged when not in use. Yes i said it....daily!
It’s going to be a bit difficult doing a build thread, so I’m just gonna put up random stuff that I’ve done in the past every now and again. I have hundreds of photos over the years of ownership. I have taken most of the car apart except for the engine and dash.
I saw a black s14a back in the late 90s outside the local Nissan showroom and thought “I’ll have one of them one day”. In May 2008 I finally went and got an unmodified sapphire blue s14a for £2550. A month later I drove it to France, Italy and Switzerland. Which was a total blast! And I’ve had it ever since.
This car was bought to stay standard looking. Reliability and mechanical condition the most important thing. I am not part of the “drift scene”, Don’t have mates with high powered cars. But do know “Raygun” because he is local. First car show I put it in to was Beaulieu simply jap this year. I met p.nicholas and a couple of others. Most of the time people shout "Nice Skyline" at me.
The car only goes to garages for welding, tyres and wheel alignment, everything else since I have owned it has been done by me in my workshop/garage. For a living I build aircraft parts, mostly fuel tank level sender units. I am also an aerospace solder trainer.
I took it off the road in 2013 to clean up the underside. Dropped the subframe and tank and found an absolute mess of rust under there. So, I went and bought a Rover 45 old banger to use while I spent a year on my back in the garage grinding rust. I took the chassis back to bare metal from the rear of the floor pan to the back of the car. Painted it with Bilt Hamber products, hydrate 80, zinc primer and epoxy mastic. Renewed the fuel and brake lines completely. Removed the pointless diff cooler. Fitted poly bushes to the subframe and derusted that too.
I had some shitty welding done during this time by a mobile welder. He plated over the rust holes! No cutting out of the rust beforehand. I didn’t find this out till months after when I put an endoscope in the chassis rails. I have had most of it redone since for obvious reasons.
In the autumn of 2020, (12 years after purchase) I decided to change out the auto box. I did this myself over a weekend, found it quite easy. Two weeks after I put a 1A h-dev chip in and a boost controller. Car is so much better now.
I have found over the last two years that important rubber parts are starting to fail. Engine mounts, suspension bushes etc. I have changed the front engine mounts and all bushes, exhaust hangers etc accept for the the rear hub.
The car has never broke down. only time it wouldn't run was the two flat batteries its had in its time with me.
Current mod list –
K&N air filter
Apex stainless intake
Apex WMIC
3inch stainless turbo elbow
3-inch stainless downpipe
De cat
Mongoose exhaust
Braided turbo lines
Walbro fuel pump
ACT heavy duty clutch
Braided clutch line
VAG r8 coil back conversion
Hardrace street gearbox mount
LD performance boost controller
Stage 1a h-dev chip
Manual gearbox conversion
Nismo s15 s-tune
Whiteline roll bars
Driftworks front control arm poly bush
Front tie arm poly bush
Rear poly bushed driftworks traction arms
Rear poly bushed driftworks toe arms
Rear poly bushed driftworks camber arms
Poly bush subframe
Strongflex front diff poly bush
Power flex rear lower arm bushes
Front strut brace
20mm japspeed rear wheel spacers
Nautilus air horn
Hid conversion
Clear front and side indicators
Crystal side lights
LED tail bulbs
90% of interior switches converted to LED
S15 front seats
Tomei gear knob
Pictures to follow.....
