DEGUZZI

Don't project car your daily!
A daily driver S13 build (PICTURE HEAVY)



This is my 1993 SE coupe that I've maintained, upgraded, and painted myself




ENGINE

• Stock KA24DE
• Koyorad Radiator
• HPS Hoses
• NGK plugs and wires
• K&N Air filter
• HKS Hi-Power Exhaust
• Tomei FPR
• Fidanza Flywheel
• ACT Stage 2 Clutch
• Xcessive Engine Mount
• Nismo Trans Mount

SUSPENSION

• Stance XR1
• Carbing Strut Brace
• S14 FLCA and knuckles
• P2M Traction Rods
• ST Suspension Front Sway Bar
• ES Bushings
• GKTech RUCA and Toe Arms
• Voodoo13 Traction Arms

EXTERIOR

• Silvia Aero Bumper
• Origin Type 2 50mm Rear Overfenders
• Bricks with HID Projector retrofit
• Circuit Sports corners
• P2M Signals
• Circuit Sports LED tail lights

WHEELS

• MB Battle 17x9.5 +15
• Advan S Drive: 235/40 (+5mm spacer)
• Advan Fleva: 255/40 (+18mm spacer)
• Z32 Front and rear calipers/drum brake
• Z1 Motorsports rotors

Now, to catch you guys up:

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

SEPTEMBER

This car has been within the family since ~2013, bone stock; my mom daily'd it, my dad daily'd it, and when my hatch became too unreliable, I started dailying it.




The coupe was down for a few years with coolant leaking issues prior to me taking over ownership of it. A hole had developed somewhere in the intake manifold where it rusted through, so it had to come out to find where exactly it was at.

While I had the manifold out, I decided to freshen things up with a FPR, new OEM injectors, O-rings, insulators, hoses, gaskets, thermostat, hoses, and hardware.




I also took the time to paint the intake manifold and fuel rail since I probably wouldn't have another chance at it.




To continue on returning it to daily-worthiness again, I swapped over almost all of my suspension from the hatch (tension rods, traction and toe arms, S14 knuckles, rotors, pads, 5-lug rear hubs, and wheels). I had some S14 FLCAs with fresh Moog ball joints and ES bushings that I put in instead of S13 FLCA






Got an alignment and the coupe was officially my new daily!






Continuing on the streak of refreshing things, I got my A/C converted and recharged, and got new spark plugs, O2 sensor, and dizzy cap and rotor.




OCTOBER

With the wider track from the S14 FLCA, I put on the Origin fenders I had in storage.




I had 255s fitted onto the rears that were rubbing, so it was time to widebody the car with the Origin Type 2 rear overfenders.




When I was happy with the fit-up, the cleco pins went on.




These overfenders had mediocre quality, so I tidied up the edges.




I found it best to cut the final arch on the outer panel, then stretch and shape the inner panel to the new outer lip. But if I had to do this again, I would weld the panels first, then cut the excess off the inner panel to minimize weld blowout.



I then painted the bare metal with etch primer and waterproofed the inside and out with seam sealer.



-------------

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

JANUARY

The valve cover looked really out of place with a freshly painted intake manifold, so I bought a spare from something_offensive and painted it Toyota 219.

A new oil cap was expected and I picked up a P2M oil cap, along with replacing the valve cover and spark plug gaskets.








FEBRUARY

Since I went widebody, the factory wing was lacking the width to match the silhouette of the rear end. I bought a very clean 3rd brake light and a wingless deck lid on OfferUp to put on.



The decklid had one major low spot, but after separating the skin from the skeleton and redoing the glue, it straightened out quite nicely.






MARCH

My gf talked a lot of shit with widebody cars lacking a proper fuel door, so of course I had to make my own. The one that comes with the kit was absolutely disgusting, so if you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself.




The shape was particularly tricky considering where the body line sits, but in the end it was managable. At this point however, it wasn't fully mounted and usable, and the worst has yet to come.










MAY

I picked up some GKTech rear arms to finally have a matching set of arms, but they were a little boring for my taste...



The color is simply a red pearl toner, sprayed over black and faded, then marbled. This was a technique I've always wanted to try and finally had something to do it on.



They replaced my PBM and Cusco arms that would go back into my hatch.






JUNE

Was never much of a fan of the chuki front, so I finally changed the bumper to AIT. Surprisingly fit great, and I just needed to extend the bits that wrapped behind the fenders.



The rest of the car needed to match the new silhouette, and I could finally put on the G-Grow style valance I got from Driven08; the fit of this piece is phenomenal!



Car had full aero for the first time!






While I was still in the marbled paint craze, I painted the shifter bezel as well.



-------------

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

JULY

Alas, it was time to finally get the fuel door mounted. From when I first made the door back in March, I was researching hinge solutions that I could possibly use. I tried retrofitting an entire hinge assembly from the junkyard and aftermarket hinges that hot rod guys used, but they just didn't work out for me.



My eureka moment was from watching a Chronicles Vlog that I knew exactly what to look for:



I asked around, and Varis doesn't supply the assembly by itself, but I did find cabinet hardware very similar to it--I now had my hinge decided on.

To secure the door, I planned on using a magnetic pop latch, which is also found within cabinet hardware. To utilize it, I panel bonded sheet metal to my fiberglass fuel door.



Next, I mocked up where I wanted the fuel door to sit and taped it secure from the outside. From the back side, I located where the hinge would mount, and where it would attach to the fuel door.

First I bonded the hinge to the fuel door. After that, I mounted the assembly back onto the overfender, positioned it and secured it with tape, then drilled holes and cleco'd it so I can easily adjust it as things went on.



The same mounting process went for the pop latch. With everything fastened with clecos, I had a working fuel door!



BUT WAIT-

The pop latch needed to be pushed in before it popped out, but the hinge I used closes at a hard 90 degrees and didn't have the pivot I needed--I couldn't use my pop latch.

Another trip to a woodworking store and I grabbed a magnet latch and a ball-catch latch. The magnet latch was ugly, so it was my last resort. Thankfully the ball-catch was adequate and still pretty stylish!

Victory.

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

AUGUST

The car was still an open diff, so I picked up a VLSD that reused the factory 6 bolt axles.



Up until now, my A/C had been working great. On a few occasions, however, when the A/C clicked on, the car would stall. I assumed the compressor was seized so I had the refrigerant drained and I took out the compressor.

Since the sway bar was out, I put in the ST Sway bar I had, along with fresh hardware and ES bushings.






SEPTEMBER

My all-time favorite side skirt is the Type X, so I had to put it back on. The car didn't look as aggressive, but it paired very nicely with the G-Grow valence.



I also had the lingering worry of the car catching fire, so I finally picked up an extinguisher and built a bracket for it to sit just in front of the passenger seat. I don't have a picture, but it clears the factory seat sliding forward.






OCTOBER

By some miracle, I had a coworker with a Sileighty ask me if I wanted to trade front ends so he can get a Type X front--I didn't hesitate for a moment.

We traded cars for a weekend so I could swap front ends: my hatch's pop ups onto his, take his front end off to put onto my coupe, then put my coupe's front end onto my hatch. Follow? lol





This was an amazing moment:



...Until LITERALLY my first drive with it , I sprung a major coolant leak getting onto the freeway--just my luck






NOVEMBER

The car was out of commission again, so I had to daily my hatch. Despite both being 240s, driving the hatch felt different, in a good way, and very nostalgic for me. Maybe because it was my first car and everything, but I just felt so at-home driving it again.




The culprit this time was a hose that was missing a clamp completely. No idea how the car lasted a whole year without it if I did indeed forget to put one on during reassembly.

Thankfully that was a simple fix, but I drove the hatch some more so I can keep working on the coupe to sleeve parts engine harness to renew some of the components.

Ordered the Wiring Specialties kit and sleeving of every diameter available, and got to work.



Only a portion of what I did are pictured, but it's a nice closeup of my sleeving:



The coupe was back in action






DECEMBER

Just daily driver things



R.I.P.

I drive the 605 freeway a lot in the early mornings that have a lot of gravel trucks; I assume it was a rock that came hurling onto my windshield, but from my dash cam video, it came from WAY up--very peculiar.

Luckily a buddy of mine had a new windshield on-hand and hooked it up with installation that same day.


You would think a California car would be relatively rust-free but...



I originally planned to paint the car at the start of the year, but the pandemic hit and that plan fell through. Now I absolutely needed to paint the car ASAP.

On the bright side, the HUD still works even with an aftermarket windshield




The grille I had was pretty beat up: lots of chips, runs, and some parts were flaking off.



Prepped and painted it a metallic grey from Hyundai, and finished off with matte clear.



It was a little unique and almost OEM-ish

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

JANUARY

Alas, the meat and potatoes of the build so far: paint.

My original plan was to only spray the exterior to get the car in and out of paint ASAP, but a coworker said to me, "why would you make the outside look so good, but have ugly jambs?"

Okay... He got me.

The color was gonna be two-tone: 3P2 Black Cherry Pearl from a Prius Persona as the main color, and a black roof, either solid or something fancy.




First thing's first, detrim the car.






The doors were pretty dinged up over the years, so I marked everything to be repaired that primer wouldn't be able to fill.




I had previously started body work on the right overfender, so when the car was in the shop, I was able to focus on the left side.



The body line is awful to work on, on top of being so wavy everywhere.




You're wondering why the front end is still blue? Well, the paint was literally starting to lift off the panels and repair rings were bleeding through. Before I started prepping the front end I decided to take a paint thickness gauge to them and...



That's a no from me, dawg.

For reference, typical factory 2-stage paint is roughly 6 mils. In some areas, I measured up to 21 mils; a couple sections on the fender didn't even give a measurement!

I was not willing to open that can of worms of prior work, especially considering I planned on getting wider fenders and a different bumper so the front end stayed untouched.


I got the overfenders into some high-build poly primer and they were looking good!



I was very excited to finally see the fuel door and the overfender in one color. The body line still needed tweaking though.




The sight of the rust around the windshield dam traumatized me, so I for sure had to epoxy the car.

I started with the roof so I could get a glimpse of the car two-toned.




Man, it looked pretty cool if you squinted, lol.




I continued with prepping the rest of the car for epoxy:







The car was now fully black in epoxy primer and it was at this point I had a change of heart: I'm gonna paint the car black instead.



A few reasons reinforced my decision:

1. The paint is cheaper
2. I can panel paint the car
3. When I spray the front end separately, I don't have to worry about a color mismatch

HOWEVER, my body work and blocking had to be top-notch. I was ready to showcase what I've learned over the years.

-------------

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

FEBRUARY

After blocking the polyprimer down, I then shot some urethane primer on the roof and left overfender in case the polyprimer left any pinholes.



At this point, I needed a change of pace; I couldn't wait to get the rest of the car in primer, so I started final prep on the roof for some COLOR.



You love to see it.



Flash-off before clear:



Winner winner:



When I finished the roof, I had the roof sanded, staged, and masked around 6:30pm that night, having started right after I clocked out from work.

To beat the hustle and bustle of the shop, I came in at 5am and was shooting by 5:15. I kid you not, as soon as my last coat was done, my my body immediately was like, "we done here??" and all the exhaustion hit--I was ready to collapse lol.

It was only 8am with a full day of work ahead.




With color on the car, my motivation picked up again, and I wanted to see more of the potential final product of my car.

I blocked the primer down and shot a coat of my black epoxy primer over it.



Things were getting good!






MARCH

I wanted my jambs candy. Why? Just because.

I was impatient again so I shifted my focus on getting more color on the body.

The body repped and staged, with the gravel guard applied to match the factory rear body:



It was on the fly that I decided to fade the candy to black, so it looked seamless as it transitioned outside to the body--it added even more flair to my jambs!





When the sun hits just right...






I've been shooting PPG EC550 clear, but I'm realizing it doesn't play very nicely with the HoK kandy basecoat I'm using.

HoK's Show Klear is pretty much the same price, so I figured I'll try it out and wow... It is pretty amazing.

It's a clear that I classify as "what you spray, is what you get." Meaning if you spray it with texture, it's gonna keep that texture, and if you really lay on, you can get a glassy finish off the gun.

It's pretty hard to run it, too-it holds on so well.

To test it out, I shot my rear reinforcement beam and a friend's tail gate panel; I really hammered it on to see where it's limit was, and... I don't think I reached it:



I never went back to PPG's clear.


All the jambs were done, so now it was time to suck it up and finally block the right overfender.

I really dreaded it because it was extra wavy from the fuel pocket, and I had to block the fuel door with it to try and get as close to a seamless finish.




Uhm... I'll just thank Lee's Coffee for being so delicious and cheaper than Starbucks


It was time for the final coats of paint for the body.

The process of spraying clear over prepped clear is flow coating; it leaves even MORE of a glass like finish (because I don't want to polish this thing lol)

The roof the blocked, and the jambs were carefully hand sanded to not burn through to the color.



This would be the last time the car would be in the booth:



The paper in the jambs were to minimize overspray when I shoot sealer and color from painting the quarter panels.

When I had coverage, I peeled it off, faded some black base into the jambs, and it was ready for clear.


I have a clip of me shooting a coat of color on my IG, but I'll put a screenshot here:




The result? A painted body with no visible masking lines:




Fast forward to the deck lid finally getting paint and installed, and I could almost cry.

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

APRIL

From here on out, things were honestly smooth sailing; the body is done, and as parts get finished, they're going on and no longer lingering about the shop.

When the overfenders finally went on, I couldn't stop smiling!



This was the home stretch



As you've noticed, my focus changes from different parts of the cars, so I actually got the passenger door jambed, painted, and installed before the overfenders were actually painted.


But each door got a coat of epoxy primer inside and out, body filler, 2 sessions of primer and blocking, and of course paint.

The initial step of black epoxy primer really helped highlight the dents:






When the last session of primer was put on, that's when I jambed the doors. That way, any overspray that lands on the outside will be sanded off before paint.




Thankfully Nissan still sells brand-new door hardware; I picked new strikers, door pins, weatherstrips, and sensor boots.



I'll be replacing the belt molding and door opening weatherstrip later down the line.


All that really remained for me to drive it again was to paint the door handles...




...YEAH RIGHT! I threw my plates on and took it to get some gas!




Of course, I did it while the door handles were flashing off before clear--they got painted that day:




My recommendation to anyone getting their door handles painted:

ABSOLUTELY GET CLEAR BENEATH THE HANDLE!
- You have no idea how good it feels to open the door when it's silky smooth on the inside

MINIMIZE PAINT BUILD-UP AROUND THE KEY OPENING! (or carefully sand down)
- When you reinstall the rubber piece, the clearance is so tight it can actually start to push the paint film out


But wait, where's the bumper??

I hate prepping bumpers, so it actually didn't get prepped until almost 2 weeks after I was already driving the car around lol

Overall it was in good condition so it didn't any crazy prep.



Of course, I needed to add some pop:



Well would you look at that! Another thing no one will be able to see, LOL




Installed the bumper during my lunch break:



Yeah... The car got pretty nasty.

Technically you're not supposed to wash the car with any soap, wax, etc for a month while the paint is still "continuing to cure."

But a distilled water rinse is okay to do:



As of writing this post (7.6.2021), I have not yet cut and polished the paint--we're off the gun:



However, once the front end gets painted, that's when I'll get a cut and polish, and very likely ceramic coat and/or PPF

For now, I am too busy enjoying the car again, but the journey will continue!

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

DEGUZZI

MAY

First thing to address with the car back was the leaking PS pump. I had a spare in storage and also swapped in the Pro Shop Noble hose.




While I was at it, I finally cleaned up the engine bay from being in the shop for so long, lol




As much as I love the HKS Hi-Power, it's the lowest part of the car, and all the speed bumps at work got back at me:



Thankfully I also have a spare exhaust and that was a quick swap! The drive back home with no muffler was AWFUL!



Polished the exhaust a bit, and decided to rinse the car with it.




Obligatory May 13 pictures:





Finally, it was time for a REAL wash! I heard good things about ONR, so I tried it out.



Basically you pour an ounce of the concentrate into 2 gallons of (distilled) water for the solution, and drop your sponge in it.

Soap the car, then immediately dry it off with a top quality microfiber towel, and that's it!





JUNE

It was finally time to get my butt into gear and drop some big bucks on restoring my AC.

For my AC compressor, I was recommended a place by my AC shop, and opted to check them out before dropping $400 on Rock Auto.

Over the phone they quoted me $180 to refurbish my compressor--not bad!

I decided to swing by to show them my compressor and they were like... "You are very, very lucky: I have only one, and it's brand new! I'll sell it to you for $200"



BRUH. WHAT??

I installed my new compressor, and the next day I went back to the AC shop for a new condenser and custom lines to accommodate it... I got quoted for $950--no thanks, lol.



They did suggest I find a universal condenser online that fits (they didn't have one with the right dimensions on hand), and install it myself. That way, they only have to do the lines for a cheaper price.

So if anyone has a condenser recommendation, let me know!


I finally went to my first car meet with it, but I got there too late and there was no more parking. A buddy that tagged along got a pretty sweet rolling shot though:







It was time to suck it up, and permanently mount the overfenders. Installing rivets were pretty nerve-wracking, but at least it's finally over.




My order from restomodninja also arrived: vanity plates and a fuel door label



Trying to get that Gran Turismo showroom look




I haven't mentioned much of it, but I finally got my lighting "finished". I have dual projectors, yet I really was only using one pair as my headlights.

For the unused pair, I bought some white "demon eyes" to use as DRLs. My turn singals are switchback and my corner lights will flash accordingly.

I finally look like a Silvia at night:




I also ordered some components for a DRL circuit I have planned that will use the factory fog light switch (expect a write-up for that)




Now we're all caught up; see you in the next update!

-------------

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

tuzzio

Love this thread man. Well deserved. Attention to detail is excellent.

DEGUZZI

Appreciate it!! I'm going through over 600 pictures just from the time I spent painting the dang thing, so it's taking awhile to wrap things up lol

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

FaLKoN240

This is CRAZY. I am subbing and sharing this with a few people for sure.

GREAT WORK.

__________________

Best way to do business with me? Make your best offer FIRST.

DEGUZZI

Thank you!!



Thread has been updated--I actually just painted some more parts today! But I'll be including them in a later post.

~Thanks for reading!

__________________
IG: de_guzzi

tuzzio

That color is out of this world. Excellent choice. Seems like a significantly better version of the new F-150 color (which I love) which does the black/dark red thing depending on the lighting.

EF_jaycee

Hey, I sold you my burners a while back lol. Man this thing looked great when I saw it, can't imagine how it looks in person with the new paint!

Jyttah

Well... Thank you very much. You just left me speechless!
Kudos to the fantastic work!

DEGUZZI

Thread updated! We are now in present time!



Is it that RR Ruby Red? That's a great color; 3T3 and 3R1 from Toyota are some beautiful reds, too


It was quite a mission driving back home with them, lol--thanks again!


Appreciate it, thank you for reading!

__________________
IG: de_guzzi