projectsupra

After lurking so long I should contribute and show off what my better half and I have been doing, and hopefully this will help some others along the way.

Long story short, I've known this s13 for a long time, so I'm a little attached to it.
When my friend eventually pulled the twin cam for his s14, the thing sat for years, rotting away...

?until he offered it to me, for free, to do something cool with. Originally that meant just throwing in another twin cam and some goodies I had lying around and thrashing on it.

Well, that didn't happen, so I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

And for you lazy bastards that don't want to wait until the end, here's one for you.



I'll keep updating this thread as I sift through the pictures, all this was done over the past year or so.

Pulling this rotting heap out of the woods, brakes locked up, and an interior full of snakes.


New home


Immediately began stripping it down




That's about when I realized this is basically what I brought home














But then, jackpot, this car is in the black!

projectsupra

After the initial tear down I had a choice, part it out and take it to the scrap yard, or spend countless hours and buckets of money that I'll never get back.

Like I said, the car has sentimental value, and I'm dumb, so guess which choice I made...

Time to start hacking it up and making patch panels.
Luckily there happened to be a vert in the junk yard with no rust in the areas I needed, couple hours with the Sawzall got most of the steel patches.





Battery area fixed.
Went ahead and removed the battery tray in the process, and made a nice clean hole for future intercooler piping, although at the time I had no idea what engine would go in this thing.



Now onto the wiper cowl.







But wait, there's more!
Right behind both front wheels, with no fender liners and these rusted open both door sills were filled with 10lbs of Florida sand.







Onto the door hinge pillars, this rust is the gift that keeps on giving.
This was multiple layers of steel that had all returned to the earth.









Same story on the passenger side...

projectsupra

After all that work the car had me questioning my sanity, why didn't I spend this effort on something more worthy? I've seen nicer S chassis drifted into barriers on purpose.

I keep recalling a local C210 Skyline that I passed on years before because it had the same amount of rust, to this day I still kick myself.



Sure there's nicer chassis, but this one is mine, so we press on.
Front end is looking pretty good finally.



Not much holding the taillights on.

S14rebuild

Beautiful work!

projectsupra

Thanks!

I apologize to all that there aren't more pics of the patch panel process and welding, so many little custom hammered pieces went into this thing that I just didn't keep up.

Anyway, this was about the point where I figured I've done all this work, I might as well do it right and piece together what I want, build the S13 equivalent of my old A70 Supra, a nicely tuned 90's era daily/street car, except this time a little more refined.
I knew I wanted a sort of period correct build, lots of rare old tech, something that looks like it could have been locked in a garage the past 20 years.

So I set to work and stripped every single nut and bolt and piece of plastic off the chassis, nothing was left to hide.



More rust! And not just any, this was the most difficult to repair, mostly because I looked for months to try and find the donor sheet metal. EVERY SINGLE 240 I found (that I could cut up) was rusted out in the same area.



You can see below that the best patch panel I found (that my wife and I drove 2 hours for) still needed significant repair, but it was far better than what was on the car.














While I was cutting up the body we decided to fix the irritation I had with the seats being too high and too far off center with side mounts and sliders, because of the hump in the floor brace.

So I chopped it out on both sides, lowered it, beat the entire catalytic converter hump down about an inch and made it look like nothing was ever done at all.

Also built some seat brackets to hold my old Sparco Evo's, with a sub brace for the crotch harness.

shinhed

This is some 240z level of restoration right here!
You're a star!

projectsupra

Now that all the rust is finally gone, it was time to start the fun stuff.

Went ahead and cut, welded, and hammered the front wheel wells and pinch welds to get the most tire room possible without going trailer fenders.

Cleaned and undercoated the whole underside, then restored and painted the subframes.














Now that some parts are finally going back on the car we moved onto the subframes.
I turned some 6061 to lift the subframe as high as possible, and pressed them in for a nice tight fit.








Afterwards we cleaned up and resealed the old j30 VLSD, turned and pressed in a pair of solid diff mounts to match, and to set the correct pinion angle.

JrDarknes

This is what I like to see. Very nice build. Really needed this for motivation. Love the fact your bringing this back to life. I really wish more people would do this instead of just scrappinng or at least cut the rockers, quarter panels and etc off the car before scrapping it. I definetly feel you with being sentimental with the car. I could of gotten a much cleaner shell and swapped my stuff over but I just cannot do that.

Look forward to more updates.

__________________
Instagram: Nismo_Lk

Wknd

That is some beautiful work and metalwork skills, good luck!

tuzzio

This thread is awesome. Some SERIOUSLY solid work here.

projectsupra

I appreciate that guys!

JrDarknes that's what it's all about, the feeling these machines give.
Nearly all of this was done in our tiny garage with basic hand tools.
Sure this ain't my first rodeo but I have no doubt anyone could achieve the same results.

Moving on, now that the subframes were on, there was finally something to bolt the control arms and hubs to. Just to get the car rolling again all the original arms got cleaned up, new MOOG ball joints pressed in all around and new bushings where needed.

Surprisingly all of the once stuck brake calipers were actually in great shape, just needed some cosmetic cleanup and paint, new bleeders, new SS lines and banjo bolts.




Axles looked and felt alright so I didn't bother removing them.
(That would come back to bite me later, the only part I didn't restore)






Threw on some new studs and slotted rotors in the back, should hold us over until I feel like going Z32 rears.






Moving to the front!
Trimmed up the dust shield to fit the larger rotors, clean, paint, repeat.

projectsupra

With the rear in good shape it was time to focus on the front end, next job was the leaking power steering rack.
It was in pretty sad shape but I figured I'd give a rebuild a try first.








Had to bend up a custom tool to pull one of the seals out from the inside of the rack without scratching up the surface, ended up working perfectly.








Freshly rebuilt, new boots, new grease, new poly bushings, and new paint and we're back in business, should be no more leaks

Also fixed the mangled/cracked tension rod brackets, and went ahead and made my own Nismo style brace.




Scored a deal on some SPL tension rods.
(and don't worry, those short bolts were only to roll the car around)






Next it was time to do something about the ancient TEIN HR that came on the car (that I imported over 10 years ago).
We weren't going to run them on the car, but I knew someone else could use them so off to TEIN USA they went for a rebuild.

Turns out they needed more than just a simple rebuild, both fronts needed new shafts and a few other internals, quite a shock.
Once TEIN was finished with that I had them sent back along with a new set of FLEX Z.
I cleaned up the old HR with a fresh coat of paint and new hardware, and now freshly rebuilt, good as new and off to their new home.








Then picked up a GKtech roll center correction kit, and installed the whole lot with some new MOOG outer tie rods, new lower control arms (still needed the steering stops removed), and TEIN inner tie rods




Scored a pair of new GKtech traction rods!




Stumbled onto this set of Autostrada Modena from another S13 down south.
Maybe one day I'll get around to rebuilding them with new wide barrels.




Finally got wheels on, so first time back on the ground in months!
Threw on the fenders and this rep Nismo bumper instead of the pig nose.
That +30mm from the GKtech kit meant I'd have to break out the fender roller in the front for sure, I wanted an all steel original body so the fenders would need some work.








With the bucket seats there was no way I was using the annoying auto belts, I had a pair of Willans LDT6 cam locks, this meant we needed something to attach them to.

Planning a full interior street car I didn't want a full cage to bump my head on, even with the now lowered and more centered seating position, so we fabricated a beefy roll bar, maybe something I can add the front half to in the future, but definitely something removable/bolt-in in the meantime.






Wanting bolt in, the whole roll bar has to come out the front, so adjustments had to be made to the speaker shelf and upper spring perch orientation.












The green strut bar tube is a solid piece of carbon fiber that I've been dragging around for years, turned out to be a perfect fit for the 1.75" cage tubing.
So I cut out the middle steel, left a 2" stub to bond, prepped and epoxied the whole thing together. Saves a few pounds in a low stress area and looks the business once I sanded all the MIL spec OD coating off.

96accordsir

Wow!! This is amazing! Great work!

projectsupra

With that done we moved on to the fuel system, the stock tank was rusted out, new from Nissan was unavailable, and I tried for weeks to find a good used r32 or s13 tank that didn't have cracked baffles or rust inside.

I eventually gave up and picked up this aluminum fuel cell to hold us over.
I know it's not ideal, moving the weight up and fuel into the cab, but I really didn't want to hack up the floor and drop $1K on a fuel safe, maybe another day.
Gave it a pressure/leak test, and ended up having to have some edges rewelded but it's good now.

Yes I know the tank is backwards, but it made plumbing much nicer, and there's 3 run dry pickups distributed inside.










Then found this KOYO w/ FAL fans locally, of course gave it a good chemical bath and straightened all the bent fins.








After that we were on easy street, made some patch panels and filled the rear marker lights and front fender markers, found a rust free hatch and filled the 3rd brake light, and even picked up a set of Works9 sideskirts.

Hung the doors and found out I had to shave over 1/4" from the bottom of both doors so it didn't rub the sideskirts. Rewelded the entire bottom seam, put them back on, fixed all the gaps and made sure every panel lined up nice and straight.

Then we went over and put a good pull on all 4 fenders with the eastwood roller, and hammer and dolly to make sure everything was perfect, no rubs.

After a little pre-body work it was off to the paint shop for some color.
Little did I know the car would be there for nearly 4 months.

Krusty_s13

Hey! Glad to see the build thread is up. Can't wait to see this thing in person!

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silviamang

Holy crap dude.... this is awesome. Very nice work.

Dolph_KYAS13

Nice work. Makes me feel a little better about the rust I found on my car haha.

I would get far too distracted with that arcade game in the garage tho..

__________________
-Jordie Lewis
'93 Skyline Type M

brndck

wow awesome build thread! quality through and through!

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http://outslidersandsmokeproduce.blogspot.com/

mechanicalmoron

Good stuff.

What's the kei truck?

projectsupra

Thanks everyone! It's been a long journey but we're almost to the end.

Dolph_KYAS13 it definitely is a distraction, I actually loaded it with Initial D Arcade Stage 4, always a good time killer.

Kei truck is my 1973 Daihatsu Hijet, 360cc 2 stroke, thing is a riot to drive.

So with the car off at the body shop I was free to fill up the now empty garage with more car parts, and another S13.

Got a deal on this thing, but only because it was undrivable. Turns out the pilot bearing, throw out bearing, and fork were destroyed causing a horrendous input shaft wobble. All that on top of a thousand other things wrong with the car, air bleed for the IACV was just a random SAE bolt, leaks everywhere, this car had a hard life for sure. But the comp test was good and the motor sounded healthy.

BTW if you want to see scary, check out the broken power dist block millimeters away from the mounting bolt into the chassis, with no fuse.







That's ok though, I got what I wanted out of it. I kinda planned to throw a JZ or VQ in here, but looks like the car would now be getting the redtop SR.
Picked up this Apexi AX53b70 and manifold, along with a few other parts on a road trip.






Gave it all a good power wash then proceeded to replace the old Nismo clutch with the new CC.
New rear main seal, pilot bearing, throw out bearing, P2M pivot, and fork.
















Picked up this super sweet Fujitsubo Giken exhaust, cleaned up good right Krusty_s13?






Then continued to clean and restore every single tiny part I could find that was going back in the car.








Picked up some new OEM window/door seals






















Steering column got a rebuild as well, with a new solid bushing.




The car was in the body shop for over a month now, giving me plenty of time to collect the parts I was missing, and then some.
It was this point in time I realized I had a parts hording problem and really needed the car back to start putting things back in.




Body shop was slowly making progress though, slowly....

TheRealSy90

I commend you for putting the effort into repairing the rust on this chassis. It saddens me to think of the thousands of S-chassis that got scrapped and crushed due to sheet metal damage that could have been fixed with some labor and love. It's really sad. Good job dude.

__________________

projectsupra

With the car still at the paint shop we continued restoring parts, starting with the newer model R134 HVAC boxes, ducting, and lines I pulled out of that red convertible.

Lots of cleaning, and replacing foam where needed since most of it has disintegrated after 30 years.














Next I pulled apart the SR20 transmission, since I'd never actually driven the thing and I wanted to reassure myself the clutch was the problem from before.

Everything checked out inside, so after a good scrubbing and some paint on the steel, new gaskets and seals, it was just reassembled.

















After that it was time to tackle the wiring, since the parts 240 was a full option car and mine was a base manual window model, I pulled everything from it.

More cleaning, unwrapping the entire harness to check for visible breaks or damage, checking continuity, repairing, then rewrapping the whole thing in new TESA tapes. I didn't want any electrical gremlins when this car went back together.




















Then finally, some progress from my painter.

projectsupra

With the car finally back in our hands it was a simple job of remembering where the hundreds of parts and individual bolts went.

First order of business was to get the wiring harness back in.
Then the HVAC boxes and some heat/sound insulation since the original firewall mat had disintegrated.








Original single cam carpet came out looking like new after my wife spent hours scrubbing it, then we let it dry and cut and glued new jute padding to the backside.






Then came time to put the steering column back in and I could not find a new or suitable used replacement for the original dry rotted steering boot.
Ended up using a 45 degree silicone elbow that worked nicely.




Now it was time to drop the engine/trans in on the new Kazama mounts






We hacked up the old ruined master cylinder to get the flare fittings from for the new Z32 master.




Then more harness routing, including the new 0 gauge for the remote battery.








Pulled the manifolds since the engine was getting most of the gaskets and seals replaced, and to tap a temp probe for my HKS VPC.
As well as fabricating the heater pipes to fit with LHD.








Picked up a real SSQV to replace the phoney that came with the parts car, and my better half found the rest of the door/window seals and door moldings new from Nissan.


















Also, if you're door windows are getting scratched up, this is why.
These little fuzzy guides were jam packed full of sand.
Managed to carefully restore them with a wire brush and the air blower.

RedSled

Nice progress and some great tips especially with the small part that scratches the glass ,can you send some more pics of what you did with steering column ,the rubber part that looks so old and out of place in the engine bay

projectsupra

The one below?
Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the firewall steering boot install, but I can tell you I did cut the first one too short, it's there in the background.
Luckily these things were only $5 each or something.
It was a 2.5" - 3" 45 elbow.

G33kin

That patch work is super nice!

projectsupra

So the list of things to do was slowly getting smaller, now it was time to tackle the SR20 wiring. Sure I could have bought a premade conversion harness but where's the fun in that.

Huge thanks to whoever uploaded the SR20 FSM, saved me so much headache.




This is what I had to deal with from the previous owner, so many pins were in the wrong location, and so much just snipped.
I'm honestly surprised it ran at all.





Once I was reasonably confident the ECU wiring and engine harness were fixed we fabbed up mounts for this nice remote battery block from an E36, threw a battery in the back and started plugging fuses and relays in one by one.




And after so many years rusting away, it's alive!




Then my wife surprised me with some new kouki tails.
Snipped the plugs from the old lights and soldered them on the new lights.






Had to deal with this mess, making a subharness for the NX cluster.
But of course that was no big deal.






With the NX cluster in, I had to throw in my Apexi ELII's, but they were pretty dim and had issues after so many years of use. Luckily Apexi USA is amazing and hooked us up with some spare parts, pulled them apart and got one super nice set of gauges again.






Built a bracket for the Bosch 044, ran some lines and plumbed everything front to back and a new Fuel lab FPR.







While I was under there I modded the exhaust brackets to really pull the exhaust up tight to the body, didn't want to crush the FGK can.




Starting routing temporary lines to make sure everything was working.




Made some brackets to properly mount the FAL fans to the Koyo.








We chopped up the original S14 PS reservoir bracket to fit the S13 bolt holes, and threw in some new bushings.






Threw the seats and harnesses back in.








Welcome to the late 90's










Checked and double checked all the fluids, fuel, brakes, coolant, suspension bolts, anything I might have missed.
Cranked the key and it fired right over, no overheating, no issues.
After what felt like an eternity fixing rust and repairing every single part on the car, we finally got to drive it.




Finally after months of searching for 180sx quarter windows with good rubber trim under $500, I gave up and just tried to find any windows with good trim.
Eventually found a pair, and some really nice hatch glass, and got them glued in.






Wife and I finally getting to enjoy the 240 and it's first night out on the town, few things compare to that feeling.

S14rebuild

Congrats on take it on its first drive! Nothing beats that first drive

brndck

oh man such a good update!!!

also, does that arc temp thing act as a temp gauge or a fan controller?

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http://outslidersandsmokeproduce.blogspot.com/

projectsupra

Thanks!

ARC SMFC does both, mainly it's a radiator/differential fan controller, IIRC 4 separate programmable outputs, lots of triggers, warnings, and things you can do with it. I got it and a bunch of downforce meters NIB when ARC went under.


After we got the car running and driving pretty nicely it was time to finish up the A/C system, new dryer, O-rings, oil, flushed out the old compressor and evap/condenser core a few times and filled them up.
Got it charged perfectly and blowing ice cold but turns out the system would overpressure and shutoff without the rad fans running at a stop, so we had to find an original SOHC condenser fan to restore. It's all working perfectly now, just needed a little airflow on the condenser.








Made this bracket for the pressure sensors and EBC solenoid.




Had to modify the FPR bracket I made to also hold the sr20 ignitor.






Added some more heat shielding and thermal sleeving around the A/C line.




CAD and ABS printed this little bracket to hold the catch can so it would be easily removable if it needed drained.








Got all that buttoned up just in time for a Cars & coffee show, so we hopped in the car and headed south to check out what everyone else was building.

No lie right when we parked this guy pulls up in a purple Silvia at the same time, of course we were good buds after that.
When we picked the color I only knew of one purple S13, now I've seen 30
No matter though, I still love the color.