project 180sx

[alanjuggler]

recently, a type-s 180 came up on here and driftworks, originally sold by trotter. i missed out on it - i was gutted at the time.

some controversial for sale posts later by the new owner and some PMs - my offer of £2k was accepted.

i've been worrying about my original s13 ever since i did my original welding thread found here because the suspension points (rear subframe pin mounts, front cross member where it meets the chassis rail) were going to need fixing and frankly, i don't think i'd be able to do it in such a way that i'd drive straight ever again

so i decided that when this came up again, it was worth buying

the new car has been in the country since may this year according to the documents and hasn't seen a british winter (or any salt! )

here come some pics..

JDM flare!!!!1111







it's a lovely car to drive, everything is still tight and feels good - the steering wheel is only slightly shiny in the 10/2 position

[alanjuggler]

today, i decided that i was going to do some undersealing, after a lengthy conversion with Petrol (thanks for your time Pete ) he advised that washing all the cack off and putting another layer of stonechip on was probably the best way to go if there was no evidence of anything untoward.

at this point, this isn't an exhaustive restoration, it's a 'stop anything getting worse' job.

up the car goes..



how it looked to begin with..












start pulling bits off and soaping up







and then liberal amounts of stonechip go on..








and it ended up looking something like this ..

[alanjuggler]

unfortunately, before i was completely finished, the heavens opened



for info, i've been using 3m stonechip / spray schutz. (two different products) from consumables express - top shop, v. quick delivery, as the name implies

the BodyGuard is the stonechip (what i've been using mostly) - i've only used the schutz so far in seams, it's far thinner and can be pushed in quite easily spraying some in the cap and using a brush, i've done this quite a bit



tune in this time next week (or maybe tomorrow, depending on the weather) for the next instalment

[alanjuggler]

the full plan is to underseal everything properly, anywhere that has rust bubbles (above the exhaust and at the bottom of the rear quarters) to wire brush to clean metal, zinc prime and then paint.

I'm currently waiting for my order from bilthamber some electrox zinc primer & a load of dynax.

i'll then start wire brushing the areas of rust there are (so far, 4 small patches of surface rust) and zinc priming.

oh and sorry for the hilarious amount of pictures, i've been trying to take as many as i can going along - this is a small selection

[Bumblebee]

You are so so lucky!

I wish I had an S13 shell this clean! would have saved me MONTHS of cutting welding, Blood skin and tears lol

This one is deffo a keeper!!

[Dan@DB-Power]

Flying 180's for the Win

Looks like a nice example, keep it nice

[SM]

Cool, swapping your CA/OSG over I guess?

[Quail]

Thats very nice

[alanjuggler]

i dont know about the engine yet - the initial idea was to put my CA in, but i'm not sure about it now, the car just feels lovely and i'm not sure a rattly CA is really going to do it justice. i'm going to blag a ride in SteAs S14 to see how different the SR feels in comparison. (and i feel dirty for even considering it )

the SR20DE feels like a bag of arse to drive, there's just nothing there. my wife's D16 civic is more fun in terms of engine performance since you have VTEC to look forward to

the bodywork is staying as is - no messing. those momo wheels are coming off once i've managed to get my nismo LM-GT2s refurbed and made pretty

whoever owned this car in japan took care of it - it's already been stonechipped along a lot of the seams and obvious rust places (you can see a lot of it in the pics where i've cleaned back to the white nissan stuff but there's still black stuff there)

i'm so with it at the moment, just got to make sure i do everything properly

[alanjuggler]

You are so so lucky!

I wish I had an S13 shell this clean! would have saved me MONTHS of cutting welding, Blood skin and tears lol

This one is deffo a keeper!!

check my other project thread, i share your pain - i've welded my original S13 a fair bit

[alanjuggler]

i opened a can of worms today after finding the worst bit of rust - at the back of the engine bay where the wiring/washer line goes through from the arch to the engine bay in the seam. it's actual missing metal, so by far the worst part.

this little bit will need welding really to do it properly so in a hasty decision, the front wings, bumper and shockers have come off and i've started wire brushing and deox-gelling. i figure i may as well do it now before it needs welding in more places in 6 months time.

not many pics, too bloody cold. i'm not too optimistic about how effective the deoxgel will be in this temp, but it seemed to start working and changing colour after 30mins or so, might be in for a surprise..

[DREAD13]

clean......& cool

[D1 RWD]

proper minter, so what are the plans ?

[kingj]

Nice looking car fella keep up the good work

[Rubix_Cube]

Looking great buddy.

[alanjuggler]

cheers for the comments chaps

bit more progress - i think you'll see what i meant about the can of worms impressively, the deox gel does seem to be doing it's thing even in ~6-7C weather.





the main problem



this pipe adds at least 30bhp.



when my order of electrox turns up, then i'll wire brush it all again and start priming

[Pete C]

SR20DEs are really shit, aren't they

Mine had an ARC induction pipe on it, and a stupid drainpipe exhaust which made an enormous difference... for the worse, probably

[alanjuggler]

snap on the stupid drainpipe exhaust, it sounds horrendous. wish the cat and the original exhaust were on it tbh.

[Kris C]

Looks good, must say i do love 180's

[John Bennett]

Good to see you tackling it all early on
Mine was holed around those areas too - not a big job thankfully