Almost done!!! Back on the road

[AceInHole]

I started off with a front pass. side damage S14 shell, and stripped it first thing (can be found in my thread titled "Spring break fun").

First thing was to fix the front end body damage with a new hood, new fender, and new bumper:
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7729.JPG

I re-wired the entire relay/ main fuse harness already, and wired in all my aftermarket accessories (radiator shrowd and mech fan replaced with electronic fan not pictured):
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7726.JPG

Then I installed the D2 coilovers including the replacement shock I received, along with the mustang wheels i bought for $260 shipped off ebay. They're as cheap as it gets for 17x8 with a decent offset:
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7728.JPG

There was a LOT of extra work to finish the harness, suspension, brakes, and at the same time part out my old car. Somehow we managed to get everything put together in 1 day and 1 night (all night) to make it to the first autox of the season!

http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secretX/IMG_7731.JPG
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secretX/IMG_7733.JPG
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secretX/IMG_7740_small.JPG

We only did the plain necesecities, so no turbo (yet), no swaybars as I uninstalled the front to install the whitelines and never had time (btw, my front whiteline survived!! it pushed everything else over and said "i'm too stiff to bend like that, yo." No VLSD (that one hurt). During the autox I found out my TPS was set incorrectly, and I wasn't able to test the timing. This was literally the first time I REALLY drove the car!! Even then, it wasn't bad (mostly because of R-compund tires and 9/ 7 springrates).


Finally, many thanks to:
MWest
quagabow
fastpace
sykikchimp
Hookedup240sx
SaintlyCharBoy
stealthx32
mbmbmb23
zemus
hurleyboi514
J. Lindseya
bbandit
mrmephistopheles
mad_s13
019
thx1138
thatsmekid
kaje
for contributing to the Rebuild Fund. I've got the magnetic sheeting and I'm heading down to the shop later this week to have a "sponsor board" made up for you guys :) If I forgot your name or you'd like to change your name or whatever, just PM me. I tried my best to match names to paypal accounts.....

[focused]

thats cool you got it mostly together

[ucfz31s13]

sweet! glad things are looking up for you. I remember your post about totally your other s14.

good luck to you!

-Mitch

[kaje36]

I am so glad panda is running, and just in time too, that engine bay looks SOO good !

[the240sxer95]

woot!! haha the stang wheels dont look half bad in black. which model/year is that one on?

[matlock]

That is awesome that you are back on the road again, I can't wait til you get all the goodies switched over. Good luck and keep us posted, because I know I am interested and I don't think I am alone.

[Steeles]

Awsome congrats Ace! Russ is still gonna kill you about that ground wire :p how'd you like the D2's on the autox course? looks like its still leaning abit do you think getting the sways back in will flatten it out in the curves? and you really should leave it panda colored ;)

[Zemus]

Lookin Sweet, I say keep it panda, just get a new white paint job job, and paint the rest nice glossy black

[AceInHole]

Awsome congrats Ace! Russ is still gonna kill you about that ground wire :p

Haha. He yelled at me for passing my tranny harness through a new grommet in the fender well instead of drilling a hole in my tranny tunnel. Then kookz yells at me for the dirty engine bay. Already cleaned up the ground wire and am working on hiding the rest of the wiring better. :duh:

how'd you like the D2's on the autox course? looks like its still leaning abit do you think getting the sways back in will flatten it out in the curves?
The D2's were nice. My camber settings were all messed up since we installed em without setting ANYTHING. The car was VERY unpredictable untill I noticed I had 2.5deg camber on one side and 0deg camber on the other!! After that, it all smoothened out and I had my fastest (raw, as I coned) time of the day by nearly a full second (and was still not focusing on the course due to lack of sleep).
The swaybars should help out a lot. Considering everything on my front end was bent BUT the whiteline swaybar.... it should stiffen things up a lot. I also gotta get rid of this junk FSTB, and install some bushings and TC rods. After that my front end should be pretty set.

and you really should leave it panda colored ;)
workin' on it. Might get a CF hood..... definitely leaving the black wheels :)

[Bbandit]

im glad that you got it running already! took you only 1 day to put everything back in? that beats my record... i did my ka swap in 2 days :(
but good luck with the panda, PJ!

[aznpoopy]

awesome job... from salvage to autox worthy in such a short period of time... i'm very impressed. good luck with the car and the season.

[Zemus]

Any other lil things you liked or disliked after pushing those D2s, HQ? easy to use, some more likes and dislikes? Any more info you can give would be great

[Steeles]

Haha. He yelled at me for passing my tranny harness through a new grommet in the fender well instead of drilling a hole in my tranny tunnel. Then kookz yells at me for the dirty engine bay. Already cleaned up the ground wire and am working on hiding the rest of the wiring better. :duh:

yeah after watching him wire heydens car doing mine less than that is gonna make me cry. I gotta move the fusebox now while i've got everything disasembled. :) and screw kookz he's ghey anyway :hahano:


The D2's were nice. My camber settings were all messed up since we installed em without setting ANYTHING. The car was VERY unpredictable untill I noticed I had 2.5deg camber on one side and 0deg camber on the other!! After that, it all smoothened out and I had my fastest (raw, as I coned) time of the day by nearly a full second (and was still not focusing on the course due to lack of sleep).
The swaybars should help out a lot. Considering everything on my front end was bent BUT the whiteline swaybar.... it should stiffen things up a lot. I also gotta get rid of this junk FSTB, and install some bushings and TC rods. After that my front end should be pretty set.

awsome! spork was wanting a review of them. I might be geting a set of those. I still need sways though. Russ laughed at my poor stock ones :(


workin' on it. Might get a CF hood..... definitely leaving the black wheels :)

awsome!

[RanciD]

Looks awesome! I went to the rookie day saturday but had to co-drive a friend's car because the night before one of my calipers seized and I may have a blown head gasket so I couldn't make it sunday. :( Good to see the new car is coming along.

[KiDyNomiTe]

Nice to see that it is finally getting through. It would have really sucked if you went through all that work to get the coils and couldn't participate in the first autox. Glad you made it though. My friend got those wheels too, really cheap and wide. Good luck this season :)

[BlackS14]

Looking good man.....the engine bay looks so much better without the damn fusebox in there. I asked Russ if he would do mine and hestated he wasn't doing anymore unless payed REALLY well......bastard.....as much as I would love to tackle it by myself, I'm no wiring guy, so I'll have to wait until the real fun starts in a year or so....

Congrats again man...

-Bill

[AceInHole]

lol. can't you pay russ with cheap beer and women??

As far as more reviews on the D2's.... they'll come after I get the swaybars on. I can only say the car felt more unpredictable than I'd like, but that really can be fixed with the addition of sways. As far as dampening adjustment, I didn't play around with it at all. The car felt fine at 3.5F/ 3.0 turns from low (techincally 21/ 18 settings out of 36). Gonna go down to the shop today to schedule some time to make the intercooler piping, corner weight the car and set sways to 0- preload.

[HyperTek]

Sorry I havent followed up, but where exactly is the fuse box relocated?? Man those stang wheels look pretty good, I wanna get some now.. =)

Oh, by the way, did your insurance pay for ur wreck? Or did you plan out and pick this one up?

[Steeles]

lol. can't you pay russ with cheap beer and women??

As far as more reviews on the D2's.... they'll come after I get the swaybars on. I can only say the car felt more unpredictable than I'd like, but that really can be fixed with the addition of sways. As far as dampening adjustment, I didn't play around with it at all. The car felt fine at 3.5F/ 3.0 turns from low (techincally 21/ 18 settings out of 36). Gonna go down to the shop today to schedule some time to make the intercooler piping, corner weight the car and set sways to 0- preload.

hmm well I did promise to take him to hooters to see this one waitress.... but he has to spit his own game lol.

[sykikchimp]

looking good man! Glad to see it running already, and competing non-the-less. Awesome.

Your my hero. :)

[AceInHole]

progress is good.

http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7763.JPG

need to find someone with a steam cleaner though.

[Powashiftin]

where did you put all that wiring? Was it difficult?

[AceInHole]

the wiring is all under the dash:
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7761.JPG

it's a big pain in the ass. probably isn't worth all the hassle.

[Steeles]

nice... is that the turbo goiung back on I see? sweetness!

[aznpoopy]

ace : cool work with the fusebox... that looks like it was a giant pain in the ass. battery -> trunk? engine bay look so roomy @[email protected] what kind of electric fan did u use?

from salvage to ka-t in such a short time. now i feel like a shitty owner. :P

[AceInHole]

yup. battery is bolted down in the trunk. using an electric fan i got from autozone. single 14", as the other one was busted up from the accident.

[240Driver39]

so are u just putting your turbo parts onto the engine that came with ur new chassis? what are u doin with the other engine?

[the240sxer95]

ACE, can you show some pictures on the battery in the truck and how you bolted it down? haha mine kinda moves a bit :(

[Powashiftin]

did you guys buy a battery relocate kit, or you just did it without it?

ACE: any tips on rewiring all that stuff?

[AceInHole]

i just drilled 4 holes through the box and trunk and bolted it down, then drilled 2 more holes and slid the battery tie downs up through them. battery is actually bolted down to the floor and not the box. makes everything much mroe secure.

[the240sxer95]

yeah i was thinking about doing that, but i r scurred to do that :) if you can get pix post em =P

[drift into a curb]

That's such a clean set up once you get everything done. I was wondering, have you done wiring work before tackling your own car? I've been wanting to relocate my fuse box to my passenger airbag dash position or the glovebox, but I'm skeptical.

[SimpleS14]

damn....very nice PJ.....I'm impressed with your progress. :)

what black rims are those?

[SilviaDriver]

what black rims are those?


along with the mustang wheels i bought for $260 shipped off ebay. They're as cheap as it gets for 17x8 with a decent offset:


sdafdsfgsdgfsdfgs

[AceInHole]

yeah i was thinking about doing that, but i r scurred to do that :) if you can get pix post em =P
there's a pic on the last page, but this shows all the relays i used. on the right is the fuse box relays, left is extra stuff i added.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7762.JPG

[mrmephistopheles]

PJ - glad to hear you're killing cones & tires again.

[SimpleS14]

sdafdsfgsdgfsdfgs

Thank you...but I was hoping to be more info about them...such as what type of stang wheels they are (what model it came from)....since I've never seen black stang wheels.

[Bliss]

he painted em black. they came on 93-98s, not sure which ones. they may be on the 99+ too, but im not sure.

[the240sxer95]

i think they are GT wheels

[-E-]

http://i18.ebayimg.com/03/i/01/96/fd/ef_1_b.JPG

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43957&item=2470732100

[Maeda]

I'm picking up my SA3 wanna-be stang wheels today!

LOOKS GREAT ACE!!! I attempted to clean up my engine bay this past week. The turbo really makes a mess of things... =\

[the240sxer95]

are all mustang GT wheels of that style.. (like ace's wheel) 17x8 +30? or did they make other size and offset of the same style.. like the 300zx wheels and wha tnot..

[SimpleS14]

http://i18.ebayimg.com/03/i/01/96/fd/ef_1_b.JPG

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43957&item=2470732100

Thank you. :D

[Maeda]

I think ALL the GT wheels are 17x8 from 94+

If your lucky other "mustang" variants have 17x9's too...

[AceInHole]

http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7766.JPG
boost is good. just need to install my z32 fuel pump so I don't lean out up top. don't mind the coolant tank. just did that so I could get home.

http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~corrales/carsIM/panda/secret2/IMG_7765.JPG
and just something that was lying around.....

[KiDyNomiTe]

Nice to see the boost is back :). Your datsun emblem reminds me of when I went to get my exhaust piping done my car first was a 96 240SX , then became a Datsun 240Z, then it finally was a second gen 300ZX...:confused:

[the240sxer95]

dam good stuff ace :) list of mods? suspenion and motor?

[AceInHole]

dam good stuff ace :) list of mods? suspenion and motor?
oh boy..... here's the basics

Suspension:
Ebay rear STB
bent CUSCO STB (soon to be unbent and replace the chitty Ebay FSTB)
CP TC rods
D2 coilovers (9/ 7 kg/mm springrates) w/ camber adj. pillowball mounts
Whiteline swaybars
JK Motorsports subframe bushings

Drivetrain:
ACT Stage 2 clutch
J30 VLSD
Pilot Short shifter

Engine:
14" electric fan
SS autochrome manifold (custom modified for KA)
T25 SR turbo
modified NPR intercooler
WRX BOV
248deg intake cam
370cc injectors
hacked MAF/ maxima MAF
Apexi S-AFC
Greddy turbo timer
Greddy Profec B

Wheels:
Daily: Mustang GT wheels w/ random tires
Race: z32 NA wheels w/ 245/45/R16 Victoracers

[the240sxer95]

ever dynoed the car? and did you get a chance to test out the d2's yet?

[BadMoJo]

Lookin good Ace. Keep the Datsun in the grill it looks badass.

[AceInHole]

ever dynoed the car? and did you get a chance to test out the d2's yet?

old engine dyno'ed at 233rwhp at 8psi, but i had boost leaks EVERYWHERE!! 3 of my nitrile hoses had holes in them.... found out when cleaning them installing the new piping. the new setup sounds SO much nicer!! boost is creeping right now at 8psi instead of dropping off (profec B might be to blame though).

D2's were tested but w/o sways. my suspension is almost done now though so tomorrow at autox i'll have a better review

[CoasTek240]

Ummm...did You Get The D2 Coilovers Off Of Ebay?...b/c I Have Been Looking @ Them. Do U Guys Know A Diff Spot To Get Them. Also How Much Did You Pay? (if You Dont Mind Me Asking)...disreguard If You Got Some Sort Of Sponsorship Deal Worked Out With Yours.
-thanx

[Zemus]

I think he got his shipped express mail, cuz all of us who orded them are still waiting on them, I did express mail but mine should be here in a few days, we will see.

[AceInHole]

Yup. Mine were shipped straight from Taiwan. So was the replacement shock. Total cost so far is something like $1100 including express shipping the replacement shock.