Dilemma - 180SX / Chaser / Mark II

[zeppelin101]

I've been trying to work out what to do with the 180SX for a while now and really struggling. So thought I would ask for some opinions!

Currently my 180SX is sat on my drive with no engine and full of its own bits. I would dearly love to get it back on the road now I've decided to part company with my V8 conversion but, for the same reasons I'm selling the V8 fixing it will prove tricky. I've got two young girls now so finding the time to really get stuck into it is not so easy unfortunately.

I am really liking the look of Toyota Chaser's / Mark IIs in JZX100 flavour. They tick the box for fun potential and with 4 doors I can take the family out and about at the weekends rather than having to rely on my partners car for everything family related.

Problem is that I love the 180SX to bits and I kinda hate seeing it sat there in bits looking sorry for itself. Condition wise it's in very good nick. I stripped the front cross member down a while ago expecting to see it needing loads of work and it was absolutely spotless. I poke around it periodically and the money I spent getting it protected 4 years ago seems to have been worth every penny. The bodywork is a little beaten here and there but this is largely due to my somewhat careless elderly neighbour I miss driving it an awful lot but at the same time it's been off the road for nearly 2 years now!

Question is, if I were to move it on how much is a good rolling shell worth these days? Might it actually be more cost effective to try and spend some money on it getting it into a running condition by sourcing a red top SR etc? I'm not particularly in a hurry to make a decision but I've been wrestling with this one for a couple of months now and no closer to working out what to do. All I know is that I would love to drive it again but it's pretty impractical to use with a young family and I don't get a huge amount of time to myself to go and just drive it these days with work commitments etc. It seems like a waste to hang onto it just for the sake of it if you know what I mean when it could potentially be in someone elses hands getting used. At the same time the kids won't be little forever but this circles back to just having it sat there doing nothing for years.

As far as the car goes at the moment:
93 180SX chassis
OEM Kouki bodywork with Fibreglass front lip
OEM Kouki rear lights
Bushed alignment arms front and back
Solid riser bushes for the subframe (not fitted yet)
R33 brakes front / back

I've rambled a lot Probably without really getting any kind of point across Thoughts? Ideas?

[ANDY black s13]

I think I'm at were you are at,as I've debated the get the 4 door/big saloon/coupe with a straight six from nissan and toyota
and is one of them better than an s body? and that comes down to what you want from the car and your likes or dislikes in a car really
I'm still tempted to do a swap with my 14a for something c31/32/jzx or sell it for cash and go nuts on my 13 build
much higher running costs tax insurance and fuel especially, the novelty of sliding a big car may wear off quickly,
parts are a lot harder to get and dearer to buy , they are my 'being sensible' reasons for sticking with the S body


I would go with the 180sx you have is a very nice example from the description and as a complete turn key running car worth a lot of money
but in it's current form it's a lot less appealing, we sometimes overlook potential buyers have zero mechanical skills and a car in bits is not on their list
If the 180 is put back together even with a CA it's worth a lot more than what a rolling shell with no engine etc will fetch

and If the 180 goes it will be near impossible to get another without paying good money,
unless you get lucky and another 180 like your's currently comes up for sale

chance you may get into getting the car built back up to make it more valuable/sellable
and that prompts you to keep it and you disregard the 4 door gas guzzler idea ?

[lewys14a]

I hate to say it mate but i think without a engine in it i think you be lucky to get much more than 2k if that for a rolling shell without knowing your full spec. Looking at prices these days of 180's , minimum spec ones are 5-6k and even seen people wanting 5k for N/A cars i think its worth banging a SR in it and doubling your money. You may want to keep it if not your most of your way to a JZX or what ever big 4 door bruiser you go for. My 2p's worth

[skyshack]

Put it back to together.

S13 will take 3 teens in the back with a lap belt from a Sunny. (Though some will say fitting a part from a Sunny makes the car worth the same as the Sunny)

For a short trip down a private road I got 4 in the back, though one was only 5, another in early 20's was well fed. As a student we found that old Mini was a 7 seater for a trip to Dovedale.

[zeppelin101]

It might take 3 teens, but up to 12 or when they are under a certain height they are legally required to have car seats. My youngest will have an enormous rear facing seat until she is 15 months.

Lots of good points, I think it's nice to hear that these are worth selling on in one piece now-a-days. Doesn't seem that long ago everyone was breaking any and all S bodies to get the cash out of them...

The logic behind a Chaser pretty much extends to being able to use it more of the time than I might the S13. Also good engine noises. Sticking an SR back in the '13 is all good but half the reason for a daft V8 build was to make it a bit more theatrical and musical

I'm leaning on the side of hanging onto it and fixing it up at the very least. When I'm no where near it I can imagine not having it, then I see it on the drive when I get home and I can't again I bought it because I knew I shouldn't have sold my last one on. Circumstances are different now but S13s are in my DNA now I think so I can't imagine I'd be without one for long again.

[green_rs13]

personally I would just build it up to a fairly mild spec with an Sr in the front and use it for jolly's
S13's don't seem to be going down in value so its not really costing you money having it sat around. (ive done about 150 miles in mine this year) even sticking a VVT engine in the front wont really hurt the value.

[piman2k]

Put it back together and move on.

[Rubix_Cube]

It's all about preferences and what you want from the car. I didn't want another 180sx as my last one burned the shit out of me with multiple engine rebuilds and general reliability issues. I've been driving my Chaser for a year and it's fully awesome.

The car runs stock BC Coilovers and on full soft, the car is a perfect family wagon, rock them up and it's pretty fun on track. I could go stiffer springs but it'll compromise the fact it is a road car first.
As for the running cost of the chaser, it's no heavier on fuel than my 180sx. I get about 20mpg as I drive 3 miles through the town each day, I give it some stick on the road home too. A long drive at 80-90mph gives me 28-30mpg. Bringing the speed down will easy get you over 30mpg on a motorway run. My car has a decat exhaust system, a filter and it pushes 286hp to the hubs making it just over 300hp at the flywheel. If you get an ECU upgrade and a decent map you'll see higher mpg. I've left mine pretty stock for now as I need it day to day.

Parts are pretty easy to get now as they are getting more common. Coilovers/Brakes/Arms etc can all be got in a few days. Unique tuner items can be get RHDJapan or Jesse Streeter. Also, your local Toyota dealer can get anything or you can sometimes buy from a Dealer linked to a NZ forum for less than you can in the UK and it arrives inside a week (I saved £200 on a massive service kit).

If I could go back 1 year however the one thing I would change is I would buy a JZX110 Mark2 instead. The JZX110 chassis has ISOFIX car seat points, the JZX100 does not. Having those would mean I could get safer car seats for my wee one.

If it's important to you the JZX price will likely be more volatile compared to the 180 price which is only going up right now. My car is a 2001, Pearl White and I imagine worth between 9-10k. It's went up since I bought it due to Brexit (I bought it 2 months before thank ****).

Happy to answer any JZX related questions

[zeppelin101]

It was looking at your car on here funnily enough that set me off on a Chaser Rubix!

All the problems I've had with this 180 have been of my own making so I can't blame the car for where it's ended up at. I was looking through pictures of my old black car on RPF1s and the current 180 a couple of nights ago and I just can't see myself without one, regardless of the impracticality. Seems daft to be so attached to a 20yr old middle of the road semi sports car but there we go...

I'd still love a Chaser, they are cool as shit. I can't get over the hill on a 110, they might be a bit newer and a bit posher and with ISOFIX but they just don't have the presence of a 100. What I have seen is that prices for anything JZX are all over the place, I don't think people who already have them over here know what to ask for them and the ones in Jap land for import seem to be anywhere from 7-15k landed and it's not clear where the price barrier begins or ends for a stock or heavily bastardised one

Chaser is on the list of things to own I reckon, but I don't think I would be selling the 180 to have one