ka24debt

Alright, so this is gonna be a long read so if you dont feel like reading feel free to skim straight through the pictures so here it goes. As we know, every build has a history, a story of how it comes to be so heres my story. In december of 2008 i was just your normal 18 year old kid, a senior in highschool, job, girlfriend, thinking about college yadayada with a pos car whos been into cars since i was born and always wanted to have a car that i could call my own, built and something always admired. I had a 92 maxima, paid 400 bucks it started every single day, had tinted windows, ac and heat just your normal get around car to school/work/gf's house etc. one day in december on my way to my girlfriends house the transmission starts to slip and a few hours later on my way back home the car wouldnt go past 25 mph.. basically the tranny was fried and my normal 35 min trip home turned into over an hour and a half on the highway, fab. upset, annoyed, and short on cash to buy a decent car that would last, i came to the realization that it could have just been a blessing in diguise. i could finally own a car to call my own and actually put together just like my father. i look up to my father alot and the iroc-z that hes owned before i was even born. that car and my father had a bond like no other, modified to his taste and a car that hes owned longer then having me for a son is what i call a true car enthuisast. of course i was brain washed as a kid that chevy was always better then ford and every other car. he always told me would give me the his one day and when i had no car i finally asked him if i could have the keys to the iroc his response was, "NO."
So then began my search to find an iroc. A few weeks in searching and only 1000 bucks.. there was no way in hell i was finding a decent running one for that amount of money. So i gave up on that quest and began to look on ebay for cars, and thats when i laid eyes on it.. a 1992 240sx hatch back that was red and the current bid was $400 with 3 bids on it. At the time it had the original ka with 199k on it, 5 spd, had a apexi n1 exhaust, kyb agx shocks with tein s tech springs, koyo rad, intake, momo steering wheel, clear corner turn signals a tint. long story short janurary 3rd 2009, i wound up winning the bid for $1025 and the car was local. my first thoughts upon physically seeing the car was, "holy shit this car is so low!!(LMFAO.) it sounded nice, it was a hatchback(just like the iroc i wanted) but with flip ups (so i was different and not jocking my dad). and this is where it all begins. W T F did i just get myself into.



So mind you this is my first 5 speed car and my dad drove it home for me, so 2 weeks after snow clears i finally get in my car and learn how to drive it. of course as a n00b, i stall it, i go to start it up again and it wouldnt come back on. and this is where i learned first hand that i was gonna have a special bond with this car(and any 240 because all 20 year old cars have their share of headaches that come with it) dont know why but we wound up pushing it to the gas station and putting gas in. it turned on and i barely brought it back home. a couple of weeks of getting comfortable with the car i finally decide to take it to school and its smoking like holy hell. wound up being there was absolutely no clutch fluid in the car and the clutch is on its last leg. months go by, i begin to learn alot more about my car, modifications.. typical 240 q&a, things to look for (should have researched this before i got the car lol). learning more and more and becoming more hands on with my own car came hand in hand with headaches after headaches. timing chain rattling, foot sized holes of rust under my carpet, frame rails, strut towers and mis matched paint.. sounds like i have a clunker 240. instead of having the joy of wanting to modify whatever i wanted to the car, it seem like instead it knew when my shitty $100-150 pay checks from my $7 and hour job would come in. and by that i mean that my car knew when to fall apart on me. not being discouraged by others i chose to continue to waste my money replacing parts on a total piece of shit car.. why? because i worked hard for it and its something i could call my own and i hoped one day my car would look like this vv



by feburary of 2010.. still replacing every part imaginable the ka clunker decided to knock. 5000 miles of easy driving, it finally let go on the verazano bridge going UP the bridge -_-. i still managed to start right up and drive for about another 1/4 mile before finally coasting downhill.


once again, shit out of luck and 600 to my name, knowing i wasnt going to find another car, i went with the option of finding another clunker ka. turns out my luck could be changing after all. i found a all oem ka rebuild with only 2000 miles on craigslist for 400 bucks.. only con the cam idler gear had stripped on the block. i went to check it out, it was super clean internally and came with paperwork? SOLD! so i brought it to a friends close friend who was mechanically inclined(i def. wasnt inclined enough to do a motor swap) i was shown the ropes and finally for once started getting my hands dirty in my own car.

toodles


new ka


got some love and installed a unorthodox light weight crank pulley, helicoiled and repaired the cam idler gear screw, resassembled the acessories and transmission with an exedy replacement.


a few days later, cleaned up, kinks fixed we're back on the road



finally relieved, i had a perfectly running ka and still working that shitty $7hr job, i attempted to save up for some parts.. here and there i replaced bushings, got a radio, speakers, subwoofer, crappy arms (typical broke 19yr old kid shit while fantasizing about have a sr and coilovers and being one of those cool gangster slammed car was all i wanted to have my car to look)

Around august of 2010 it finally hit me that this love/hate relationship i have with my red s13 isnt going to last much longer.. the rust is getting out of control and this car is becoming a money a pit im either going to
a. buy a whole other car
b. find another shell and make dreams a reality
i chose option b. make it a reality. so i made a zilvia account named ka24debt.. a crappy s13 i put all my money into with a ka that i wanted to boost since it was a fresh rebuild with arp studs and all.

september 12th 2010, in the cars for sale section i found what would be my new s13. it was a black hatchback with a blown sohc, automatic trans, 131k, NO rust and full interior. on my birthday september 18th i picked the car up for 525 bucks.. happy 20th birthday to me! a black s13 was something i always wanted to own.





impatient and ready to go i knew that this had to gtfo out asap before winter time


removing as much as i could before my friend came with a hoist to remove it


motor was out, a few days of power washing and detailing can make any engine bay look good as new



scrap metal lol


5 months of dreaming, saving i was ready to make it happen. my red s13 finally got to live out its dream.. i had picked up a set of stance gr pro's with swift springs from a friend for a trade of my shock/spring combo and 500 on top


i got to drive my red s13 hatch with the one main goal i wanted to have accomplished.. be "gangster slammed" on some "cool wheels" no regrets, i drove my car home for the last time and before i turned it off, in a sad but optimistic tone i told the car, "thanks for the headaches, im gonna miss you but theres only way to go from here and that is up.. i rubbed my un cracked dash(cleanest thing on that car lawl) and turned it off. i had to stop driving it because my license had become suspended for 3 months starting in janurary.


i became cool with negrosx13 on our forum and he was totally down to help me swap chassis' and thats how our good friend ship began. the winter of 2011 was BRUTUAL. it snowed every single day in nyc and we had passed our snowfall record by almost 3 feet. we got down to business got to work. hours later with jackstands caving thru the car from rust we finally got the ka out with almost 2.5 inches of snow currently falling on us.


with the a actual mindset of where i want to go with this build i knew i wanted i wanted a kouki replication of that black speedhunters s13 but with a slight twist.. a ka-t.

attention to detail on a tight budget my hope of what will set me apart from people with full time careers, homes and these baller builds with close to no budget. mind you im 20, working almost 20 hours a week in a job i hate making shitty pay and still a full time college student.

now down to business. my friend who powdercoats hooked it up with a candy purple valve cover job.


resprayed the intake manifold with high temp paint


changed seals and routine maintence prior to respraying the whole block


woot, back together


parts piling up. got new exhaust bushings, motor and trans mounts, rucas, tension rods, traction rods, rear sway bar, energy suspension full bushing kit and coilovers


installed everything, pushed the car out of the garage, doubled checked that all fuses were good and no electrical issues. seems that everything is good!


get in there! also wound up getting a circuit sports coolant tank, and obx header. emmisions were all deleted before we dropped it back in.


and here we have it, i took whatever parts i needed to complete the 5 speed swap from my red car, all kinks are worked out and we are ready to hit the road!


the day before i got plates


and here we have what was funding any additional parts. i made almost 900 bucks parting out this whole car which i was very excited but sad at the same time. atleast it went to a good cause to help out other s13's!






Good Bye 240sx - YouTube
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tdNKlYu25rg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


so it got to the point where it could stay and i trashed the shell. the next day i got plates for the black s13 and hit the road! but theres always a catch the first time i drive a car for the first time

no idea how the fuck this happened because i triple checked the spacers before i even bolted it on to the wheel and now i have this fucked up fender.. fabolous.. -__-



turns out the lugs backed out and i wound up finding my wheel a half mile down the road.

a few months go by headache free, no issues but all good things come to an end of course. solid motor and tranny mounts were loosening everything imaginable on my car.. vibrations were backing bolts out. my alternator belt flew off on the highway because my tensioner backed out and stripped itself from all the vibrations. fixed all that and 2 days later what seems to be a new trend in my life(you'll find out later why i said that) but driving home from a friends house i smell the firey gross smell on the highway but thought nothing of it. im a few blocks away from home and finally come to a stop at the light. the smell decides to show its face and what i think is a glare from my glasses and the street lights is actually light smoke radiating through the cracks of the hood. i turn my car off, pop the hood and see smoke coming from the engine bay. i make make my way towards to passenger side and im shocked to see that theres a fire. -__- i took my shirt off, tried putting it out and as the wind is redirecting the flames towards the fuel filter. 2 seconds later, smoke goes out, the car wont start so i push the car home and disconnect the battery. next morning i go to re-examine the situation and find this.

the clamp broke off and must have been making contact with other wires.



i was tired of getting pulled over every single day for my apexi n1 so opted to sell it to go with a low profile megan type 2 exhaust which worked out very well(past tense)


now why i said past tense.. never buying crappy parts again. 2 months worth of usage and sick of these solid mounts breaking everything, i sold the mounts, rewelded this shitty exhaust sold it and bought my old apexi n1 back from the guy i sold to. lucky for me the guy never mounted the exhaust on his car and his s13 got stolen, so i bought it back cheaper then what i sold it to him for! score :]

finally i got a much better job work a block away from a local diner. he knew i was into cars and his brother in law has a 240 with a built sr so we had a brief conversation how my project isnt going anywhere due to making crappy money. he offered me to work for him, i said yes, the money was rolling in nicely and i was finally making some decent money!

now its time to have fun :]

this build is up to date as far as april 2011. when i come back from work im going to continue to update where the build has gone from then till as far as today and what will be going down this weekend. hopefully you guys are enjoying this build from where it all began, to the state that the car is(as far as inside this build thread) to what i have done since april and the direction im aiming for 2012

delado

haha cool story man. I dig build threads like this. Sucks about your wheel flying off and ruining a perfect fender. I've had that happen to me. Scary shit. Oh well, GL mate.

ka24debt

Haha thanks. A few weeks later I got a mint fender and sent it to maaco to get painted. It only lasted being clean till about a month ago. Bmw x5 cutting me off plus stock brakes = the fender looking exactly the same like when the wheel flew off lol. I massaged the dent out and it looks pretty good except for a minature dimple but whatever, that's life of a daily driven car

n8RPS13

Not bagging on your build or anything man, but incomplete build threads are NOT allowed. I do appreciate the fact that you are broke and have done as much work with the little time and money you have keep it up, but wait until this build is completed then post the entire build

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WASTED I AM!

ka24debt

Thanks but the build is more or less complete, I got billions of more parts and pics to share when I get back home. I just posted this so I could atleast store it somewhere. No disrespect but when they say incomplete build threads aren't allowed, it means that builds that start and never check back to the site to update. There are plenty of threads on here that are far from complete but are constantly updated which I'm going to do. The main focus of this thread is to show how the beginnings of how this build has come to be, where its currently at and what's in store for 2012 which I will be sharing with everyone through this thread. I promise you this thread won't disapoint


Lol you mean I WAS in the same boat as you but don't stop dreaming. Time and paitence is a virtue. A lot has changed since april and I'm excited to post what's been done since but I'm at work and all the pics are on my computer. Ill be updating once I get home in a few hours

harrypotter

Actually only rules I can find is no posting in a build if you are not the builder is the only rule, but that's for the prem section.

Anyway looks decent so far, just keep your nuts tight!

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n8RPS13

Well you don't now how to read then....Found in the "Rules and Guidelines" section....In the interest of keeping the Chat forum clear of three hundred 'Install SR, ziptie aero, rattlecan paint' threads, incomplete, or in-progress build threads are not allowed. If you have completed your build, wrangle all those pictures into a post and tell us about it, but make sure the build is finalized. If you insist on having an in-progress build, Premium members have a specialized subforum for that specific purpose.

Says it all right there in simple plain english......

Nevertheless....I just read some more of this build its going well man! Keep up the good work!

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WASTED I AM!

qwikspool

thanks for sharing and it is well worth it for the stuff you went through with your car. You have some patience in you and that is good. Keep up the motivation and keep us updated. Good luck.

Enrique909

Your in the same boat as me. Im 17 and im just dreaming about sr swapping my car. Good uck with your build!

rob22

good stuff man.

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wtb s14 roof wing/spoiler! pm me

sash_ak21

Nice write up. With your patience, persistence and hard work im sure this s13 will one day be the gangster drift machine your dreaming off.

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negrosx13

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MORE BACON STRIPS

ixfxi

forget the car....

post nude pics of your girlfriend. that will do this thread some justice


or will it? dunno. shes a bit skinny, but....

Pinggg

i'm with this guy

blueshark123

damn what rock were you hiding under.... I haven't seen you post in awhile

scott883

we have the same birthday how cute hah, good luck man!

fallen_51

awesome build ! cant wait to see more updates !

koukisilvia123

Kind of sounds like what Im going through, I sold my prelude to get my s14 when I was 17, turboed ka, dented oil pan = blown motor, went through so much shit, from getting tboned to blowing turboes from shitty mechanic fuck ups. Now after 8 months my car is still not running, but hopefully emance can tune my car next week! Good job with this build, its nice seeing a build that is not rediculously baller and makes me feel poor lol

illvialuver

I will be awaiting your update. stick it out. Glad to see someone go through similar things that i went through and currently go through with work, and building your car on a budget but not wanting to cut corners. Good work.

Dreambuild808

same boat bud 19 years old and broke but is it worth it?....hell yeah

fatduece

For some reason...I find this build far more entertaining then all the high budget builds. Keep it up! xD

S-Nation S13

this by far is the coolest build..nice, slow pace, and straight to the point..keep it up, i love what you did with the engine..

ka24debt

glad i just wasted 2 hours of typing up what i just was gonna post up to you guys, it said i needed to sign in and i lost all my info LOL. ugh. gonna retry to do this again. and thanks for all the positive comments guys!

Pinggg

This thread will received two thumbs up if you would have put a SR in it (just saying)

ka24debt

mhm.. theres another long journey that you could have been reading right now if zilvia didnt sign me off -__- guess youll have to wait just a bit more to see

blaaq

its good to see a build threat that many people can relate to.. Keep up the good work man! Hope ur build turns out great

ka24debt

thanks guys, this is EXACTLY why i wanted to put this up and i should have done this a long time ago but i never thought i would have got it to the magnitude that it has now and i didn't wanna be another build ditcher. of course we love those where people build the cars we wish we could but we only have them put together in our heads of how we want our car to one day be.. and it honestly sucks. if you will it, it'll happen. maybe not overnight but eventually it'll happen. you just need a strict game plan of how and when you want things done.. and you might suprise yourself with what youve done in between to get there which is what i guess will set my thread apart from the other builds on here. with how my red s13 was, the stuff ive done to my black s13 now seemed more of a fantasy than anything else.. but as promised the updates are coming shortly. sit tight lol

illvialuver

you just learned another leason.
if Zilvia asks you to log in, then just highlight everything and copy it. So then if it does do that, you wont be dicked. I will still be waiting.

ka24debt

im just gonna do this little by little so i dont get fucked again. i got lucky the first time posting but not the 2nd so better to be safe then sorry.

so yeah back to the story. the megan exhaust was a complete piece of shit, the hangers ripped right off and all the supporting brackets fell off to. i cut my losses, repaired it, sold it and got my apexi n1 back. good for me is that i got the same exact one back cheaper then what i sold it to the dude for.. bad news is that he never got to mount the exhaust and never would have because his car got stolen


yay!


ka is in and happy running reliably


decided to keep the spirit of my red hatch somewhat alive and keep the sparco steering wheel, the nismo shifter, the "drift" knob and my old radio :]


after that i finally figured its time to part with these wheels. they just werent cutting it anymore. around march early april, NOBODY had these yet and for the price i wasnt complaining. so i picked up a set of 527's and mounted em on


a few days later came kouki skirts from smellslikecurry for cheap since he was prepping for his s14 ls1 build that you guys im sure have prob seen.


test fit spot on and sent off to maaco to paint. my friend works there so i knew he would take care of me and make sure they blend with the car


that "cool" gas station pic everybody takes lol

ka24debt

and so the summer came. it was pretty awesome finishing up classes, being able to actually enjoy the car for once. meets meets and more meets, far and wide, i wasnt worried about whether or not i would make it.

back when i first starting hearing "y0 s0N! wH3r'd yU g3t d0$3 r!M$z!" or "wtf ive been waiting since october for mine to be shipped to me and its practically june!"


and so for the month of may, not much had went on.. i was making pretty good money and i was just saving up. only modifications where front and rear strut bars and a gt spec strut bar. i was too busy just having fun and driving the car!

after 2.5 months of having the n1 exhaust back i had already had 4 pending exhaust tickets for that thing.. i finally sold it for good this time, ran over to my friends house and picked this up for the same price i sold my n1 for. i have nothing but good things to say about this exhaust. ive still yet to get pulled over for this exhaust.. its super d00per quiet and def low profile. my thing is if you can manuever in nyc with this then your guarenteed to get by with this anywhere. i swear you can probably getting a ticket for breathing to loud out here smfh.


2 days later, scored a killer deal on these :]


back to enjoying the car again, driving this car everywhere with my spunky little ka, no cares no worries just having fun
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