My Intro/Past/Present Build Thread

[slidewayz240]

Well, I have been playing with the s chassis, mostly s13s for a few years, but never been active on this forum. Figured it was time to change that. Since I have a decent past in with the s13 chassis, instead of starting a bunch of different threads for an intro and my past/present s13 builds I would just put them all in one thread starting from the begining.

Before I really start into things, here is a preview of some of the cars I have built in the last few years.

1999 Chevrolet S10
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/DSCF0576.jpg
1991 Honda CRX
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/crx/S7300124.jpg

1989 Nissan 240sx
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/0403011716.jpg

1993 Nissan 240sx
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/dusty.jpg

1993 Honda Civic
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/DSCN0159.jpg

and my current project
1992 Nissan 240sx
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/IMAG0173.jpg

I plan on starting this thread with the death of the CRX, and the purchase of the first s13, because thats what the people here really want to read about anyways. That will all be in the next post.

[canasion35]

lmk if you ever want to sell the red hatch :)

[OBEEWON]

Details on the Caravan?

[slidewayz240]

lmk if you ever want to sell the red hatch :)

I have actually put a decent amount of thought into it. pm me and we can discuss things.

Ok, so this starts off with the death of my crx. The first and last time I ever trust a shop to do anything on one of my cars. I had this car and put it on the road April 27th of 2007, and it was destroyed August 9th. I hadnt even changed the oil in it. Usually I do alignments by myself with an old bubble/light alignment machine. Legit 80's technology, but it works to get things close enough. This time, I was in a rush so I put my alignment in the hands of a local shop. 2300 miles later, this happened.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/0809081826-1.jpg

The passenger's side inner tierod pulled out. The tech that performed the alignment set the wheels straight with the inner rod into the steering rack an 1/8 of an inch. After shifting back and forth and oveling out the end of the rack, the threads finally gave way at 65 in the far left lane of a 3 lane highway. Luckily there was no one in the way as it crossed all 3 lanes and hit the right guardrail. Somehow I walked away, and was actually picking pieces of my car up out of the rush-hour traffic.

At the time this happened I was already in the market for a 240. I had enough money saved up, and after parting out the CRX I was able to fund the next build.

In October of that same year, I found myself a Georgia car that had just recently been brought to New York. Unfortunately it was brought up here by a high school kid that managed to hit everything he came upon. There was massive body work to be done on nearly every panel of the car. The car came with a complimentary blown KA24E, and a 5 speed trans with no reverse. For $450 it was a rust free shell, so I took it. Instantly, the body work was done and it was put into primer.

This is the first picture I have of the car. The pictures from the first day I brought it home, and the process of body work were lost in a computer crash.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/1106081805.jpg

Next, out came the motor.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/n769078832_1846719_5819.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/n769078832_1846722_6712.jpg

Once the engine was removed, I sprayed the engine bay Mitsubishi Primal Red, ordered in some xxr 002's (15x8 et0 front, 16x8 et0 rear) Tien Super Drift Coilovers, Carbon Creations Carbon Fiber Hood, S&W Racecars 10 Point Roll Cage, and some parts to prepare for the motor swap.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/0107092201.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/0127092207a.jpg

After spraying the engine bay, I decided this color was darker that the blood red color I wanted. So I went back to the chip book to find a different color. I ended up deciding on a Dodge Inferno red. I was exactly what I wanted.

Throughout this project, and really all of them from my s10 build to the current 240, I have been fortunate enough to have a great amount of help from my friends and family. Firstly from my father for putting in extra hours at work, and allowing me to take up bays in his body shop while doing paint and body work. Secondly to my good friend Rob for all the time he has put in helping with fab work, welding, and dealing with all of my crazy part ideas. I honestly don't know how he puts up with all the ideas I come up with, and no idea why or how he always manages to bail me out when I try to do them anyways. But anyways, when we put the cage in this car, it was the first project of its kind that either of us had undertaken. Since this cage was done there has been a lot that we would have changed and done differently. But anyways, here are some pics from the install.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/l_fa74f0b3de134197a6ed1cd089a051f8.jpg

The pic below would be one of the largest things I would change. Not because I feel it is unsafe, but because it is such an inconvenience to have the entire hatch area taken up by roll cage. At the time we did this install there weren't many pictures of s13 cages in cars, so we just kinda went at it with our best knowledge at the time.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/l_d9eb32f52b2e45d5b08811496e43a718.jpg

The cage in, and the seats mounted
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/0329092321.jpg

This build thread made that seem quick, It wasn't. We had about 2 weeks of working from midnight (when he got out of work) until 3-4am every night. Hours measuring, cutting, and measuring again. Tacking things together and taking them back apart. This is not an easy task if you haven't done it before.

Next time: a motor choice, and paint.

[dreamin240sx]

ive seen alot of cages but ive never seen one like that before.. is it legal?

[vas570sx]

ive seen alot of cages but ive never seen one like that before.. is it legal?

no chance at all

[slidewayz240]

Totally not, but at the time of the build there wasnt much in the way of legalized drifting going on that we were aware of. It was put in more for street safety, especially since it had only been a few months since the crx deal, still had me a little shaken. I always figured the car would get destroyed, or id move on to another chassis before that car ever saw any real competition. If i did ever get to that point, I'd cut that cage out and put a legal one in.

[slidewayz240]

its been a bit, with the holidays, work, and life in general being busy the last few weeks its been difficult to get much forum time. anyways, here is the next section.

I have always had this issue with wanting to be different and unique with my builds. This usually puts me in positions of reinventing the wheel simply to make things my own. Stupid, I know. (insert bent fork demotivational poster here) This stupid mentality is what drove me down the road to my motor choice. At the time a few sr20 swapped 240s had shown up in the area, and I needed to be different. I had set my sights on a rb20. No reason or research done other than it wasn't a ka, and it wasn't an sr. After some discussion with a friend, he convinced me if I was going to be stupid and go with a heavier inline six I might as well get one that had more power output that the much lighter sr20. To finalize my decision i decided to order in some parts, I knew it was the only way i was going to stay firm in my decision. Did some research, looked at pictures of different mounts that were offered (at the time there were only 2 companies) and made a decision. That night I ordered RB25 mounts from McKinney. HUUUUUGE mistake. Purchasing mounts from that idiot was one of the more frustrating mistakes of this build.

While waiting, I decided on a color (Mitsubishi Primal Red) and painted the engine bay. This color sprayed darker than the paint chip, so i changed the color on th e exterior.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/0127092207a.jpg

A week or so later them mounts arrived. I opened the box, cool... motor mounts, and I put them on the shelf. A few weeks later a friend (also doing an rb25 swap) and myself took a trip to JDM Engine zone, walked through their ware house and picked out a rb25. turbo was in good shape, came with a harness, ecu, trans, everything for the swap. We loaded up, and headed back from New Jersey with a pair of RBs.

This is where I run into the first snag. Went to put the motor down into the bay, and the mounts were wrong. In the same week that I had this problem, my buddies mounts arrived with absolutely no hardware. (Thumbs up McKinney) So, I called to figure out where the problem was. Turns out that just because you buy rb25 mounts, that are pictured like rb25 mounts, doesn't mean that you actually purchased rb25 mounts. McKinneys response "Who orders things out of a catalog based on the picture? You don't order a couch out of a Sears catalog based on the picture in the booklet" I couldn't make that up. Anyways $125 later and the correct mounts were being shipped. Before I returned the first set, I gave my friend all the hardware to make things simpler. A month later I received an email asking why I had returned a motor mount set... Simply amazing this guy is still in business.

Pic of the motor finally in the car
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/0408090120.jpg

and a startup video
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/champish/?action=view&current=0407092357.flv