jbcm12

We've been working on the car like crazy and I've been posting updates to my IG @buuudoy, but a lot of people recommended me blogging. With the plans of doing vlogs and finding out that photobucket figured itself out, I figured it was time to update this.

Around February of 2016 I started searching for an S14 because I wanted a project car and I was dallying my 2016 STI 72 miles one way to work. Originally I found a "clean title" white Kouki but ended up returning the car for all my money back. A little bummed, a seller on craigslist hit me up who I had been trying to negotiate with and gave me the deal I was looking for.




After returning the white 97 I found a 1998 Clean title Kouki S14 with 108k miles, no accidents, base model, automatic, and almost flawless inside and out. The price was steep but after a weeks he hit me back up because he wanted it gone.

jbcm12

On the way home from Sacramento, the first fill up

And the first time taking her around



Almost immediately I ordered a new radio bezel, 5 lug swap, and locally found Z33 wheels





Two weeks later with some time off from work I was able to get the 5 lug swap on with the new wheels and found an OEM set of Navan sides




With the new wheels the setup was nice but sitting way too high, at the time PBM was sold out so I sourced a set of used coils


Coils are in, photo at work

rawgarage

Nice... had no idea Z wheels fit on stock suspension..

2muchboost

Very clean car bud. For the love of God please dont do what the rest of your generation is doing to these cars hahaha. Simple, effective, and attention to detail will make this old man very happy to follow your thread.

jbcm12

Thanks, yeah it barely fits. I'm working on the lowering springs today and I'm afraid the wheels will hit the bottom of the front strut.

Thanks, but I'm very sorry. I didn't mean todo it, it just ended up that way. Hopefully I can still redeem myself.

With that being said, on the way home from that last photo posted the passenger rear tire popped on the freeway. I did a 180 through three lanes of traffic into the freeway barrier which helped me control the car straight and away from everyone. Someone actually got it on video.


Fresh off a 12 hour shift at 6AM, towing company told me they wouldn't be able to get to me for 3 hours. 680 has a freeway service that helps accidents but wouldn't take me home, so they came and checked on me and got me off the freeway. The car would be drivable at this point if I had a spare wheel but the two in the trunk didn't fit because they had the wrong bore. A good friend of mine woke up drove down with tools but took me back to his house to grab g35 wheels when we realized my spares wouldn't fit.

When I finally got home 6 hours later, I inspected the car and looked at everything that was damaged. Quarter panel, rear panel, rear under panel, bumper support, trunk lid, wheel, and tail light were smashed.

RalliartRsX

Damn..........busted without even trying to drift
Sorry bud......

onehundredoctane

Sad panda.

Fix that Kouki.

lunchmeat

Damn...my heart. Got a soft spot for green koukis.
Don't know about z wheels fitting, but I know g35 17" 6 spokes won't fit the front with stock series size(50) tire. My car's previous owner slapped on a set and the shocks ate the front tires.

2muchboost

Damn that sucks man. Glad you are ok thats the important part. Fix her back up and bring that beautiful color back.

travon47

Sorry to hear and see your car wrecked )-: If you are planning on rebuilding it I could sell you a right corner rear kouki light that is greyed like yours are so they match. I think it has a small chip but works fine. lmk if you ever need it

jbcm12

Oh but this isn't the end. At this point, depression was starting to kick in. After considering my options I knew that it had to get fixed one way or another because I wasn't going to scrap the car, so the ONLY way todo it is the right way. I got quotes from two shops in the area and I started sourcing all the parts they would need to get everything straight.

Found a guy down in Stockton who got t-boned and was parting the car. Threw him an offer for what I needed, told me less if I cut it myself. And after 2 attempts I brought it home. With the deal I grabbed A-Pillars with tweeters, mudflaps, bumper support, rear panel, rear under, and the tail lights for a zenki.







Car still looks good at certain angles haha

jbcm12

I drove the car around for about a month while waiting for parts and saving, at this point the car had only been in my possession for 2 months so things were moving rather quickly. My goal for parts while it was in the shop was to only buy what I needed, but the shop I chose took about 3 months to complete my job only because he was pushing it off to the side. In this time I stripped the car for the shop, sold the PBM coils, and picked up JDM front and rear Kouki bumpers, USDM Kouki lip, Z33 wheel to replace the smashed wheel, PBM rear arms, Recaro CL9 seats, and Wedge brackets and sliders.

bataangpinoy

Budoy is the most pinoy nickname i have ever heard . keep the car tidy

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rawgarage

Lemme buy thT usdm lip when u slap on the JDM front

AscendaShogun

Sell the Z33 wheels and buy my Nismo LMGT2s 17x8+35

I know your pains tho. Wrecked my kouki last december. But it was only subframe and suspension. Had it back 3 months later.

Keep your head up. If you plan on drifting it, learn on that KA till it blows.

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SuperRadDriftyFranz
'88 S13 Silvia

jbcm12

I changed out all the arms, but its still not sitting properly. Its pushed towards the rear bumper as if caster was off. I need to pull the sub frame but my STI is going back to shop so i can't afford to lose both cars.

Forgot to add the photo of the PBM arms.



After three months of delay, longer than I owned the car, it was time for pickup and my best friend helped me out. Rear wasn't 100% lined up, I assumed it was the trunk being messed up but i was happy.

jbcm12

It was great to have the car back again, could finally get all those parts out of my room. First thing i tackled were the tires, but I had a trip planned to Japan so everything else was on hold. After Japan I got the PBM arms on and alignment followed.



Wedge made my bracket and sliders so I could get my Recaros in. Pulled the rear seats and door panels for space and eventual cage. Seats, panels, and bumpers sold for cheap but it helped.


I believe this was my car after tires, PBM arms, and alignment


Around the same time I scored an OEM JDM Kouki lip for about $400. When it came in I started cutting up my JDM bumper for the shaved look.



And heres where the big things start to happen. I tried sourcing the 5 speed swap piece by piece, but I had no idea what I actually needed even with the guides. Locally there was a dude selling a whole swap for $950. After debating and another sale falling through I picked it up from Brandon who was going LS and had his car at Drift Cave.


Sold the motor for about $500 and got a S14 transmission with ECU, drive shaft, Exedy clutch, Greddy shift knob, Mishimoto radiator, and AEM intake for about $400. Threw the intake and radiator on as soon as I could.

rawgarage

Nice come up... JDM grill next

AscendaShogun

You only REALLY need a few things for an S14 manual swap.

If you want it OEM / Perfectionist as fuck sure, theres a lot more, but you can get away with the basics, clutch pedal, slave, line, clutch, flywheel, transmission, shifter, subharness.

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SuperRadDriftyFranz
'88 S13 Silvia

jbcm12

It's on the list, there's so many small things I need that I'll get to it eventually.

Thats the thing about most guides is that it's only the basics. The 5 speed is in and has been running for almost a month now. But a manual brake pedal was a must, every single one of the boots is what I'm gunning for now but those are pricey, and I did bare minimum with wiring so I don't have reverse lights.

95_S14

If like to know how you got a oem jdm lip for 400

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Www.PowerAutosports.com

AscendaShogun

I forgot about the reverse lights. But that's part of the subharness and such if I recall. I didn't have reverse lights in mine either. And yes. It is. I think an R33 or S13 brake pedal should work fine. Go on AZ 240sx (Facebook) and inquire there.

Again. Selling some Rays Nismo wheels if you're interested. hahaha

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SuperRadDriftyFranz
'88 S13 Silvia

spooled240

Looks like it's all coming together nicely.

How are those wedge brackets with the Recaro's working out for you? I heard they sit a lot higher than stock seats.

jbcm12

Being a nice person. Seriously LOL. There was a guy asking for help identifying the lip. After three days I was the only one to respond and ask him to find markings. I made him an offer and he accepted, even after people started offering $600 and $700 because I came through to help and I told him to sell but he wouldn't.

Haha, I can't afford it right now but those are clean. I found a s14 brake pedal before I did the swap.

I had todo a lot of cutting to get the seats to slide properly, was disappointed at first that I had todo that but it all worked out. As far as sitting high, it was super uncomfortable at first strictly because the OEM seats sit really low. But I found that no one really makes low brackets unless they fab something up. I kinda just learned to live with it, I was getting dizzy at first but now it puts me in a good position to drive.

So the 5 speed is done, it sat for about a month because I developed tendonitis when I over worked my body working 2 weeks straight, 12 hour shifts with little sleep and food. Didn't get very many photos because of this, but I did receive a lot of help from Facebook group members such as Jamar Alexander, Jonel Apilado, and Rick Crosby. Also picked up goodies such as OEM S14 wheels with 10 tires for $150, OEM JDM rear valences, and a cheap short shifter.

Photo bucket isn't working, so I'll edit this post with the photos later
*Edit in

spooled240

Well if you end up getting tired of them being so high you can get the Bride MO rails. They are meant to be lower than stock, but with the higher Recaro's they sit around the same height as the stock seats.

check out this guy's write up: http://sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?5...-Diy-Reference

jbcm12

Edited photos in. After installing the JDM valences I started to hear the passenger side hit. Pulled over for gas and began to investigate. Turns out I finally found the problem for why one wheel sticks out more than the other. Passenger rear where I hit is all out of whack, I plan to pickup some subframe risers, pull the subframe in investigate.

AscendaShogun

Potentially just caster.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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SuperRadDriftyFranz
'88 S13 Silvia

jbcm12

I'm hoping, but I got my alignment done and the numbers were close to OEM. Going to check it out as I do my coils so I don't have to keep messing with it

jbcm12

So I've been out traveling and when I come back i like to come back to goodies. Before I left the clutch line got caught on the exhaust manifold and it burnt it out so I had to come back for my car a week later.



The day as I was leaving these came in, rebuilt them when I got back. Didn't realize that we loose the e brake unless you grab the assembly so I ordered those and conversion lines at the same time.




Fortune Autos came in while on vacation, and my package from GKTech was held at USPS.



After the install


Wasn't sitting properly and was rubbing so I rolled my fenders and picked up some PBM spacers locally. Aero is currently off for repairs and I still need to figure out whats wrong with my alignment.

jbcm12

Over the next few months I would slowly address small little issues and driving the car daily to work from Fairfield to Fremont.

One of those small fixes was the chrome inside the headlights, they started to peel and it bugged me. So I baked the headlights, opened them up, and hit the chrome with easy bake to remove any chrome.