first excuse some bad photos, my phone is past it and the lenses is scratched to hell and is well due an upgrade!!
Right so I have been on here for a while and thought that it was about time I started a build thread on my s14a. I brought it two days before Christmas last year and have loved every moment ever since, even if it costs me a fortune and had its temperamental moments. And it pisses the neighbours off to no end so that’s a bonus to ahaaaa
I have wanted an s14a for years and decided last year that I would save and get one. I worked 70 hour weeks at the bar that I worked in solidly over the summer to build up my budget to something reasonable. Then when I was getting close I started looking for one. Found one that I liked that was reasonable, needed some work to get it to how I would want it but I was looking for a long term project so went to look at it. Long story short I brought it at I price I could not refuse. It was being built as a drift car but as I didn’t want to drift it I was going to have to take all the drift ready stuff out over time. Welded diff, hydro, lower ratios, solid bushed through the whole driveline ETC were all going to go.
Then driving it home I went and got done by a mobile van sat at the side of the road. It was pitch black, pissing down with rain, the speedo was 10mph out due to the diff ratio so was using satnav speedo, headlights might as well have been two zippo lighters taped to the front, one of full beam didn’t work and it was a small unlit back road going down a hill and I only saw the van when I drove past it. I remember thinking as I went past, BUGGER.
What annoyed me more was my mate that took me was right behing me, doing the same speed and didn’t get done, just my luck.
39mph in a 30mph and was offered the course so that’s what I did. £110 later and that was behind me.
So this is how I brought it, it’s a stage 1a with all supporting mods and is ready for stage 2, tho I am happy where it is at the moment. Was fitted with the kouki bumpers, grill, indicators etc and came on standard wheels. Also its bloody loud, 3” straight through turbo back to shotguns!!
Not allot really happened to it over then next phew months as I was only just able to afford to run it with minimal shifts at work it was just being driven, while I made a big shopping list of bits I wanted but couldn’t afford!!!
I never really liked the kouki bumper from the get go, and I didn’t want to spend all the money on the kouki lip etc, I also think the only way to make them look good is running stupid lows so when someone local to me wanted to swap for a standard open that had allot of work done to it I headed over there and swapped. He was willing to spend the money on it that I just couldn’t afford, and he was dropping his on air so could get it low enough to look good!!
Also while I was there we swapped some interior bits so that mine would match up as I was running cream front seats and black back ones. So I had his cream set away to.
Then not allot happened for a while again, I started an apprentership so took even more of a pay cut. Progress was slow and that annoyed me!!!
Then leaving work one night the car had a moment and threw all its toys out the pram!! It wouldn’t idle right, when driving and coming of boost the revs would drop and the car would stall, and the oil light came on. Had a friend bring me some oil to endure that it was topped up, then limped the car home. Turned out the idle air control valve had pretyy much died and a replacement from Nissan was nearly £600 :0
Then a someone on here said that he had one sat in his garage and wanted £20 for it, so that was snapped up as well as some more bits for a full service and some other parts like track rod ends (ones on the car were shot to bits, someone suggested not driving the car they were that bad!!) so all these were replaced and the car was back on the road and running better than ever!!
Then it slowed down again but still had issues with the car. While I was away on a training course for my apprentership 3 hours from home the heater and all air-con died completely. Meaning the windscreen would steam up in seconds as soon as I got in the car. Not handy with a 3 hour home trip looming. So a bodge was made with an in car phone charger and a soldering iron to power the motor just to get me home running the motor of the 12v supply from that. It bloody worked!!!
Next was to find out why the heater had stopped, turned out the arch wiring wasn’t tucked as well as thought and had been warn away some what by the tyres that were on it before my ownership, the salt and crap ate away at it over the winter and several of the wires were broken. So some soldering and heat shrinking later and it was all repaired, hey presto it spring back into life.
Then it got a clean
After some saving and a first pay check from my new job I did a spend. So picked up some new wheels. Ultralight nurburgrings, wasn’t on my radar initially but they came up, went for a look and really like them so picked them, got some new tyres fitted to the rear as they were shot and got them on the car
The weekend after had a car day with a mate doing some tidying up, cleaning and fitting parts on his mx5
Weekend after we went to pick up some more mx5 parts he was buying and turns out the guy had and s14 grave yard as well
Had the front alignment done. Struggled to get it on their ramps at standard height!!
Next months pay came around and it was time for some coilovers, I was determined to get them before japfest as I didn’t want to go being standard height. So some driftworks finance later and a set of HSD monopros arrived at my door. YAY!!!!
There gorgeous.
Then came fitting them to the car, it went surprisingly well, had both rears done in on evening and the fronts went on surprisingly easy as well. Longest but was to get them so they were the right height. On and off several times over but we got there in the end!!
Felt a bit like this after they were done
While it was jacked up we found some rust!!! Getting this sorted asap. Net payday cant come soon enough
While the car was off the road for the weekend I took the opportunity to have a go at paining the front bumper back to red so that it matched the car.
Sanding, sanding and more sanding
Primer
Many layers of paint
Then lacquer
Got it outside and wasn’t 100% with it, needed more coats of paint really as its patchy. Wish I had used red primer now . And has come out more of a satin rather than gloss but it looks ok when on the car, cant really complain considering it was done in a night in the garage . Defo better than the purple anyway.