Tokyo_black's 180SX becoming EMPEROR TUNING's(Jont) Sil80 Project

Hey guys!

OK I'll start at the beginning. This 180Sx was imported many years ago by my younger brother SXOC tag Tokyo_black. Here is his his old build thread: http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.p...0sx&highlight=

It was quite a well known car in the day and a feature car in Banzai magazine and possbily some other places.

He sold the car I think around 2010ish from memory.

It then went through 2 SXOC members in a year or so.

I then bought it back from a nice chap called Chris in early 2012, I forget his SXOC user tag.

Upon getting her back I did the following immediately. I like to put my own stamp on my cars:

- Fibreglass and plexiglass rear hatch from a nice SXOC chap.
- Full Apex adjustable arms + alignment
- Comprehensive underseal and general clean up underneath that it needed.
- Large Apex radiator + fancy hoses
- Thorough engine check including borescope check. All was good except some evidence of knocking in Cyl 4. I know my bro used to run it on non-premium gass like a cheapskate, so that was probably the reason. Nothing major. 170/170/170/155Psi cold compressions which was a nice surprise.
- Apex FMIC
- General engine bay clean up and simplification (usual SX stuff)
- Moved battery to boot
- Moved washer bottle to back
- re-build front Vertex bumper as it was falling to pieces
- Fitted Skyline R33 Gtst Auto Diff. The existing one was a locked diff and was leaking badly from input seal
- Gearbox & engine oil & plugs
- Changed boost controller, put it back down to 1Bar. Not a fan of destroying SR's with stupid boost levels.
- Stripped interior and painted inside black.
- Fitted sparco harnesses
- Removed Brides and fitted Stock S13 seats. Don't shoot me! There is a reason, I am too tall to fit in the Brides. The new seats gained me about 2" and I just about fit in the car now lol.
- Probably a shed load of other stuff but I can't remember now and don't want to bore you :)

Next thing that happened is I and several friends went to Wales in summer of 2012 for a driving holiday.

I ended up crashing fairly badly on holiday. The reason for the crash was political and I have no proof, so I'm not going to elaborate because life is too short.

I wiped the entire front of the car out. All front panels gone. Fmic. Lights. Also rear bumper and exhaust. Also some fairly minor damage underneath.

Got the car back to Cambridge and fixed what bits I could including wiring damage, exhaust, rear bumper etc. The silver lining is that the shell survived ok.

At this point decided to re-build with a PS13 front end which I have always wanted. Here are the parts that I have added in the last few weeks:
- Aerokit +20mm wings
- EP racing BN front bumper
- PS projector lights from lovely chap on SXOC
- Sidelights and indicators from eerrrrr dam forgotten, but they are on Ebay. Nice guys
- Bumper bar from Darren GDUK
- Tacky bonnet from a nice chap from Driftworks, can't remember his name, he was a mate of Mark from GDUK, that's all I can remember.

The build has gone pretty well so far. No major problems. The EP racing bumper was a about 40mm too wide but managed to counter that by juggling things around a little.

Before I show the pics of the last few week's work just a few thanks to people that have helped in one way or another over last few months:
Damian DI Racing
Darren GDUK
Gavin Driftbitz
All non-trader peeps that have given advice.

Now the pics! I will keep updating as I go:

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psdc9d11ca.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps29e291a5.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8fc14d1e.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5d22d519.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psc080e76f.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psfba1a7a4.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psb335ae1a.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps55ec48ab.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psf2b22542.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...pse8681768.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2acdc604.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...pse61bc637.jpg

Next when I get a break in the weather I need to spray the black top coat on.

Then I need to tackle the Over-fenders. The problem here is that many years ago the over fenders were screwed on(which drives me nuts when people do that). Since then water has got into some of those screws and big patches of rust are appearing around some of the screws. So I guess the fenders need stripping off. Rust and paint fixing. And new fenders fitting. I have NO idea how to do this so would apprectiate any help on this please :)

Longer term goals:

- clean up wheels
- carbon vented bonnet
- nicer seats (that I fit in)
- pro respray in either 1) Midnight Purple 2) Sil80 Blue(from initial D) 3) Bright White

Thanks!

Jon

I'm kind of feeling my way through this build as I go so any cool idea's/suggestions welcome :)

Looking forward to seeing it finished!

Welcome mate. You've some sizeable shoes to fill. Your brother's car was possibly the best 13 in the UK a few years back.

Progressing nicely though. Looking forward to the finished article :)

Wow i remeber this car from back in the day, went up to silverstone in a convoy with tokyo black. Had epic wheels from what i remember. Glad to see its still going and am in for the updates.

I think he was one of the first running the dishy chrome SSR Profs. It really was pure JDM goodness :)

Cool cheers guys. I will do my best to uphold the legend that is L536SES.

Yeh I remember the SSR's and that look. Was awesome, but I am straying away from that, at least for first year or so.

I am ill at the moment, but once I am back on my feet in a few months I hope to use her more or less exclusively as a track car for various track days. In that sense she is going to be more focused on function over form. IE crappier lighter wheels, no interior, not slammed etc. Then after some fun track time, i'll refresh car completely, engine refresh, new paint, new wheels etc for road use and more of an agressive JDM look. That's the plan anyway. We'll seehow it goes :)

Nothing wrong with that plan mate. No point copying what's been done before.

OK paint on. Not bad for a £27.40 paint job lol. Colour is ok but doesn't match the main body, will have to try adding some laquer and polishing to make it shiny like the rest of the car. Now time to address over-fender problems.

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9585a953.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps504939ad.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psb6e8ec83.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psaa093237.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psf9ed364a.jpg

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http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psce36d900.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps41244ea3.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psa050d5e2.jpg

I remember this car well. This and Carter's were my favourite 180sx's back in the day.

Hiya Chris



Not sure what to do with front grill. Looks a little tat as it is. But the proper PS grill doesn't let air in obvously, and really want to get as much cold air in there as possible.

It's looking great bro, what about this grill? The huge bumper mouth should allow in plenty of air..

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/1039/y0705d056.jpg

Looking good so far. You going to rivet the new fenders on?

Yeh grill looks great good find! Where can I buy it plx?

OK guys. Attacked over fenders today. You can understand why I am pissed of to take the first one off to find this: (bearing in mind they were fitted by a pro bodyshop, and the car was not rusty before it went into the shop)

So I would say that they have well and truly balls'd it up... I would never let a car leave me in a compromised state like that :(

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...pse09a7b6d.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps440304eb.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psda1ee7d4.jpg

OK so I have taken a 2 inch strip of the steel off to get to fresh steel. The problem is now that the 2 layers of steel that make the car body are no longer connected to one another, and there is a large gap all the way round where you can now see into the car. So I will get the welder out tomorrow and build a new arch.

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4ce5d649.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8fc7ff19.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps90be1a3f.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psba46d92f.jpg

Sean - no not going to screw or rivet the fenders on. Just going to bond them and that's it. And leave some vent for water escape. When I took these ones off they were full of water between the fibreglass and steel lol. So annoying. Thats what did the rust damage.

Ok today first welded up the nearside arch. Nice and solid now. Can't see much of it in the pics.

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps530123ed.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psb9ef31f6.jpg

I have a stupid nerve disease so I can't feel a lot of things. When I rolled my sleeves up I realised that I forgot to wear my welding gloves and my arms were covered in burns from the welding. LOL

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps73fbbf81.jpg

OK - Holes plugged. Paint taken back to bare metal. Ready for paint.

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps30a6edb7.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psd42ee571.jpg

Good work Jon, glad to see it back in the family!

Cheers yeh.

This rear end work is boring as hell. Can't wait to get it over and done with so can get on with some more fun jobs lol :)