Olly

So I thought I would put up a build thread on Zilvia as I still enjoy forums and it's probably one of the most active ones out there.

I used to own this:






Which was the car I was going to have for a long time. Then it was stolen and recovered and I parted it out.



Looking back - I should have kept a few things from the above photo. Oh well. I actually didn't do badly out of the part out.. Not compared to today's ridiculous s-chassis parts prices, but not bad. Then I built a JZX110 IR-V, which I really enjoyed, it was a cool chassis, fast enough and just looked great. I probably should have kept it.. althought the fake Vertex was a pain in the ass.





4 year's went past and to be honest i missed having a car throughout that period.. my son then hit 3 and started to really get into cars & anything with wheels.. I would take him to a track day and he would want to sit in any car he was allowed to.. this lead to the inevitable "Dad we should get a race car" comment.

Unfortunately in that time Silvia & 180sx prices in NZ have gone through the roof, a fairly average condition 180sx Type X is now $20,000 - $27,000... JZX110 are slightly cheaper but most of the ones in NZ are either high km or just average condition and you can't import them anymore. Most of these cars are modified, either in Japan or poorly in NZ, I didn't want anyone's problems, I wanted to build a car from scratch again.

JZX100 however are cheap as chips in NZ! Especially automatics. I knew I wanted a Mark II so started collecting parts whilst keeping an eye out for the right one to pop up.. all my builds have been pretty simple, this one is no different. This is not a drift car, it's a weekend car and I might do an occasional grip day once it's manual.. unlike the 180 haha.



In the meantime I picked up a genuine Vertex Lip Kit from Toyota NZ which I found funny.. There is one Toyota Dealership in NZ that sells Genuine Vertex products as well as Cusco and a few other genuine brands. This kit hasn't been cut in half or anything like that.. the quality is amazing, it's far better quality than the hotroad kit I had on the 180. I also managed to find facelift tail lights and a boot for cheap as well.




I was stoked on the boot; no spoiler, no badges apart from the Toyota emblem and the whole lot was in ''as new'' condition. Check out the back of the corner lights:

I looked at 3 different Mark IIs, a rose red one with 170km, the colour was insane but it wasn't that tidy and had high km (178km), then another silver one with 168km which wasn't that tidy, regardless - I was about to buy that car for nostalgic purposes (Silver / Non-sunroof like the 180) and then this one popped up. Almost the same car but in great condition, certainly for a 22 year old car I couldn't complain at all. When I compare it to the 180sx when I got it, it's far better.






vs.




It's 1996 Tourer V, so 1JZGTE VVTI, One Japanese owner, 90,000km, full service history in the glovebox and overall condition was 9/10, interior is 10/10 not a mark anywhere.. the only modification was a full Kakimoto 3" exhaust (I've always wanted one, score!) and the rear boot was missing the V badge, not that I cared.

I jumped on this right away and then chucked it in the garage and continued to collect parts.

Handling wise I bought BC coilovers with 18kg / 12kg springs (wishing i went higher), Greddy Intercooler & Cusco front and rear camber arms. I want to get an air cup kit later and they work with BC coilovers which is perfect, although - one thing I didn't realise being out of the scene for so long is Stance do a really nice coilover setup for JZX now.. doh. Oh well.



Then I refreshed the whole front end buying parts off Yahoo Auctions with Jesse's help. GX100 grill, Dmax corner lights and I modified some standard indicators (removed the orange inner plastic using a Dremel and then bought some orange bulbs)



Then I needed some wheels, I wanted XT7.. basically to build a Mark II version of the 180.. Silver car / Matte Grey XT7.. anyway, I couldn't find any in NZ, since they've been discontinued they've become quite rare which sucks.



It wasn't the end of the world, I did manage to pick these up, they're re-lipped (threepiece.us) Work VS-KF, 18x9.5+18 square so pretty much perfect sizes, and the centres are close the MGS colour.. I got them balanced by a wheel shop and checked over and then refurbished the inner barrels..

Then it was off to a mates workshop to install everything





We lipped the guards in the rear and I've actually got away with keeping the inner guards up front but this will probably have to go as I do want to lower it a bit more. Tyre sizes are 225/40 & 235/40.

Then it went to paint to get the kit sorted, it took 2 times to get the paint right which was frustrating (silver sucks to paint) Anyway, got the car back and was stoked, we are going into summer in NZ so the timing is perfect.






Couple of weeks later I grabbed a new R154 (again from Toyota) and a second hand Torsen LSD, I was thinking about going for a 1.5 way but in all honesty I think this is going to be fine.





Right now I've just been working on the interior.. I'm halfway there. A Nardi Classic I got of Keisuke which was basically as new condition, but a lot cheaper than buying a new wheel...




& replaced the JDM double din with a new Alpine headunit.



The car is booked in to get the manual conversion and the diff installed early next month, the only other thing I'm keen to do before the end of summer is larger sway bars and maybe a subwoofer in the boot.

Will try to keep this updated as I go.

Thanks for reading.

tricky_ab

Ouuu I've been following this on another forum. Glad to see that you've made it over here!



Welcome fellow Yacht owner!

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Back for round two... 4 doors this time around...

jumpman2334

hell yea. love me some JZX. this build thread is going to be solid.


how are you liking the Cusco front upper arms? thinking about putting the JZX ones on my IS.

Olly

I think JZX are going to be the new Silvia if I'm honest. They're pretty common and therfore cheap to get your hands on (in NZ anyway). They don't handle as well but it's not too hard to fix that (I'm going to grab some Cusco swaybars as well)


Cusco upper arms were ok.. I guess I don't have anything to compare them to.. I had the choice of Cusco or Hardrace.. and I've never heard of Hardrace which were also more expensive. The Toyota branch I mentioned above also sell's them off the shelf with good after sale support, so it was a no brainer.


TBH they don't feel amazing or anything, just standard. Nothing like Ikea Formula. the PBM stuff that I had for the 180sx was nicer.


There was no notable increase in driving noise or anything like that so that's a bonus when you're older haha.

afishysilvia

Baller John Deere tractor for your boy, I work for a dealership here in the states. Nice build!

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gbaby2089

Whoa, this looks wicked.

I loved your 180SX, in for this.

codyzsilvia

This is awesome. Going to sacrifice my Silvia for a JZX90 Mark 2 here within the next year lololol

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CamryOnBronze

Glad you decided to share the car with us here Olly- awesome to have you back! One of the best in the biz.

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hotrodjoseph

Damn it looks so good man! I wish it was being drifted tho would look killer going sideways.

I've always been a big fan of your cars, your 180sx was a big inspiration for mine.

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240sx_sr20det

That Trust knob looks amazing; is it powdercoated?

Olly

I believe it’s fake.

hotrodjoseph

Nope I do not believe it is fake. I have two Trust shift knobs. One is the regular metal one and a plastic white version exactly like yours. To my understanding they made both.

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240sx_sr20det

Joe, please sell me the plastic one!

Olly

Re: Grex knob - that's a bonus! I did not know they made white ones.

3 month comparison:



Few more bits ordered; floor matts, Cusco Strutbrace. Not long now until the gearbox goes in and the car goes off to be certified.

One item that is hard to find is a really good condition manual shifter surround, after 2 months of looking I found something I'm hoping is going to be as mint as the rest of the fake carbon interior and match well.



I had the opportunity to do a bit of a road trip this weekend and some spirited driving through a well known Northern road, I'm really stoked how it went.. no drama apart from eating away some of the inner guards

jumpman2334

thanks for the info on the cusco arms. still torn on what I want to do.


any plans for short spindles? I believe these chassis have the same problem with the FUCA hitting as other Toyota/lexus vehicles.

Gr1mey_Norm

In for updates I love mark II’s 4 in a half years and we can have them here in the states!

Olly

99% there.

So we built a 4.1 LSD with the two diffs (Toyota Crown 4.1 Open + Toyota JZX100 Tourer V 3.9 LSD). The LSD wasn't a torsen when we opened it up, it's apparently some factory option diff above the torsen that you could order from the dealership... If anyone has any further info yell out.



Then I found a deal on some Cusco swaybars with 1000km or so on them, they basically look new.



And the box was converted to a push type clutch and all installed with an exedy heavy duty clutch & light weight flywheel. I went with the fabricators recommendations on the clutch, he's built quite a few R154 shifted cars over the year's so I'm sure it'll be fine.





Manual shifter surround - 99% match which is great.

Interior is basically done now. I picked the car up yesterday and whilst I haven't had a chance to go for a real test drive yet I've noticed 2 things - the R154 shifts like a total dog compared to any SR box & 1st & 2nd gears with the 4.1 diff are amazing! Also it pulls 2,800rpm at 100km/h incase anyone is wondering.

aznkid4now

Where can you get that shiftknob? I need one in my life.

towlie

better then the 180

Olly

Shift knob came from NZ's version of ebay.

Got a call on Friday to say the car is 100% street legal , so looking forward to getting it back next week and getting the rest of this stuff sorted.

I also picked up a set of 'brick' headlights that needed a clean up, they're pretty rare in NZ and keen to see how they look on the car

Before

After

Standard

Awesome build so far, loving it! Details on headlight resto? I do this frequently for customers, I typically wetsand then use compound for polishing only. Any clear coat used?

Olly

All I used was some rubbing compound and a DA.. I probably didn't do that great of a job tbh.

I got the car back on Friday certified, it didn't fail on a single aspect which is great. Once i had it back I gave it a good clean inside and out.




I also picked up a set of XT7 in 18x9.5+12 which I'll try to restore early next year (if they fit)


& a fairly new Zeta 3, I'm going to order some black cushions for this in the New Year



That'll be it for 2018, Stoked I can drive this car through summer and not have to worry about a thing, already took my son to swimming this weekend in it.

tjcbar

awesome car dude!! No engine bay shots though?

Olly

100% stock.



Thanks for the comments, I did a 2 hour road trip before just to check for leaks or problems, no issues at all. I also had a test fit with the xt7's before... it's not looking great

tricky_ab

Those are +12 offset yeah? From what I remember, there's going to be a bit of poke, and a bunch of camber... You can make it work though, but there's a lot of arch work, and fine tuning.

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Back for round two... 4 doors this time around...

Olly

Got a seat rail and the Zeta in.. the graduation has to go. It does sit nice and low though which is a bonus.



Have been driving the car non-stop over Christmas and New Year which has been great.



I tried them on and worked out what would need to be done which is realistically a decent roll or flare of the guard... I'm really not keen on ruining the stock guards, I think so many people completely stuff there cars up by doing this badly.. even with the 180sx I wasn't overly happy with how they came out..

So the XT7 were sold and I put a bit more effort into the VSKF.. one thing that bugged me about these wheels is the water marks and general dirty appearance of the lips.. they came from threepiece.us and I couldn't actually tell if they were anodized or polished alloy.. in the end I found they were the later which is a massive bonus, I picked up some autosol and the results were awesome.. seriously happy with how these look now. I've always owned single piece wheels in the past so the maintenance on these is a bit of a learning curve.

Before / After




Came up amazing. Also after selling the XT7 I managed to pick up a few things I wouldn't have otherwise.

The first is some ganadors.. talk about drift tax! I bought my first set of ganadors for the 180sx brand new in a box for $250. These were... much more... hopefully they show up soon as they're still with Jesse.




I also bought a plate.. I was always 50/50 on personal plates.. I honestly always hated NZ number plates with a passion, most of my photos I would blank them out. I could never justify buying a personal one.. and what would you get anyway?

A mate and I were looking at the website to see what might be available and V OPT came up as untaken.. I thought it was cool, it perfectly reflects the type of car style I like a lot.



And that's everything up to date.. I'd like to promise next update will be a track day and some in-car footage, but I'm pretty similar to Damon with my cars and just like tinkering and doing aesthetic stuff haha.

CamryOnBronze

Updates look awesome man. Love this thing!

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Juucso

Really nice! I like the floor mats, seem to suit the car really well. Gives her a old school vibes and I like it a lot!

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crzsteveo

def looking forward to see how you fit the xt7s! looking for that same size for my 90, but im thinking ill have to roll/modify the rear arch a little.

Romango3

Awesome car and build. Was a huge fan of ur old 180


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