relaxamigo

My first s-chassis was a coupe I purchased in 2012. I never got too far into that car, it was a side project of sorts while I was skating and doing other things. When I finally got into driving it and enjoying it towards the final months of 2014, I decided I did not want to destroy a coupe. I consequently sought after an S13 hatchback to build during the winter of 2015 so I could really get into drifting. This is where the story begins. Finding a decent starting shell is quite difficult, but after meticulous hunting and a slight predatory instinct, I finally found one!

The owner was reluctant to sell, and I recall being a complete nuisance. After about a month of pestering him (let?s call him Lionel) he finally agreed to meet up. I hopped in the truck with my pops and a rented u-haul and arrived at a vexing neighborhood south of Baltimore. While we were pulling in, there were groups of people quarreling on the sidewalk, so we needed to scoop the hatch and get the hell out of there. Lionel fibbed and stated the car was ?rust-free.? The brake line areas under the strut towers had a bit of rust from leaks eating away at the undercoating. This helped knock the price off a little. The car ran, but didn?t drive because he said it ?needed a clutch.? Anyway, I gave the man his money and we all mashed the car on the trailer. I?d like to apologize for the quality of the photos in the earlier part of the story, I was more concerned with the car and not aesthetically documenting the process. HA!



Once I got the car back home, it was time to tear it apart! I got the car up on stands and realized why the car wouldn?t move. The slave cylinder was dangling from the rubber clutch line and damper. There were also boxes of junk and random parts in the trunk, and I had no idea what I had gotten myself in for. Then came the worst part of all, the damn car had both HICAS and ABS! I didn?t know this at the time, but one of the parts that was laying in the trunk was the ABS module, and explained the rats nest of tee?d off brake lines in the engine bay from what I assume was an ABS delete. Anyway, I wanted to fully get rid of HICAS, so I swapped subframes with the coupe.



I picked up that spare (gold) one for the coupe so it wasn?t left with a HICAS subframe. My friends Marc and Alfonso kindly came by and helped me swap them out. The coupe subframe already had subframe risers, and battle version arms that would come in handy for the hatch.



At this point, I thought things were going quite well. I had the suspension from the coupe, and I would have this car running in time for the first event of the year! After I removed and converted all the HICAS and ABS crap (I?m going to upload a guide for this soon), I should be ready to go, ideally. Well, after grinding down the rust by the brake line bracket, it ended up being worse than I originally thought. I really despise rust, it bothers the hell out of me so I needed to repair this ASAP. I picked up a Miller welder with my pops to help with his projects, and I used this as a learning opportunity.

Cut the panel out:
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Made a template out of cardboard and welded the new piece on:




Welding thin metal was super tricky, and I had to be careful not to concentrate too much heat in one area. It obviously wasn?t something worth posting on WeldPorn, but it was sealed and annihilated the rust. But now, I was faced with a slight dilemma. Fresh MIG welds are highly prone to rust, and although I had repaired the damage, the other side (in the engine bay) needed to be sealed and rust proofed as well. Doing that with the engine in the car was an unfeasible task. The engine needed to come out to gain access to the other side of the repair. Otherwise, the rust would return, making all this work useless. The next Saturday morning I rushed to the car and removed an engine for the first time! My bud Goey came by and helped me pull it out and made the task a bit less fastidious.



I cut the core support and welded tabs under it to facilitate the overhaul. The new goal was to clean up and repaint the engine bay. I had only planned for a simple rust repair, but things snowballed into pulling the KA. It was at this point that I began to fully understand the domino-effect of building a car. As you work, you start to uncover minor issues that require attention and the amount of unanticipated moves you have to make to realize your goals grows exponentially. This can be especially frustrating for someone in my position as relatively new to cars (more on this later).

Anyway, I pressure washed and ground off the old seam sealer:


I looked online for inspiration on how to do my bay, and particularly enjoyed how VW cats shaved and tucked their entire bays. I was fascinated with the illusion they created of a ?floating? engine, with no visible wires or holes, just a smooth cradle for the engine. Obviously, I wasn?t adept enough for such a feat at the time, but I did attempt a subtle shave, and it was good welding practice!





Removing the battery tray carefully without trashing the metal underneath was a feat. I wasn?t going to keep A/C so i shaved those holes too:





This project was great for practicing thin metal welding. I had to remove the front subframe so it was easier to work in there.



Got part of the bay primed to see if there was any smoothing left to do where I welded and shaved:


The engine bay prep was beginning to take a toll on my well being. Between a full day?s worth of classes and my job, it was becoming really overwhelming and I?ll admit I wanted to just give it up. My pops was starting to notice that I had no energy, and said that I should take it easy with the car, and offered to help whenever he could. I developed a type of obsessive nature once I got the ball rolling. He was the reason I got into this hobby in the first place, as a kid my life revolved around his cars. He?s into restoring classics, and keeping them in near factory condition. I respect that a lot, but my enthusiasm went in a totally different direction! I will never forget the look on his face when I showed him what I wanted to do with the car. Either way, he?s super supportive of what I do, and I?m greatly appreciative of that!

I finally got the bay primed, everything was looking up! My friends came by to help do the final prep work to the base coat


I?m ashamed of the color choice in retrospect but hey, we all make mistakes. At the time I thought it was ?cool.?



I started putting the shit back in the engine bay, I assembled my own power steering setup after getting rid of the HICAS junk. These are Earl?s fittings and hoses with a permacool universal oil cooler. A solid power steering system is essential, the fluid is under a LOT of pressure.



Continued to re-install the rest of the stuff in the engine bay. Things were coming together and I was pretty excited. Those brake lines are courtesy of Marc, really funny looking back on them now. Even with the kink those lines lasted around 1.5 years with no issues!



With the engine compartment in order, I wanted to tackle the engine itself. The odometer read 311k miles, a chilling fact. I was able to get in contact with the guy that owned the car before me, and he confirmed the mileage! We even became friends as he was a local cat with mutual buds, funny how things work. I didn?t want to get to crazy tearing this engine apart, I just replaced all the main seals and gaskets and hoped for the best. I also tried an emissions delete, and it worked out nicely!



Got a paper plate clutch kit (Exedy oe replacement)



Alfonso came by again and helped me put the engine in the car. For two people that hadn?t done this before, things went semi-smoothly after some finessing.



Got all the other odds and ends mashed in there too:



Got myself some new wheels for the front as a reward for making it this far! Enkei Kojin 17??9+35 (horrendous sizing for the front but I didn?t know any better back then)



It was at this exact point in the build that I hit a massive barrier. Everything is on, and the car is ready to start. I had put a lot money and effort, and even lost a girlfriend to this thing! I tore into it more than I had ever planned, and was really wondering if it was going to start. I plugged the battery in, and the car had power. Turned the key; nothing! I looked over things and realized the ECU wasn?t plugged in. Nice.

Simple enough of a mistake. *Crank crank crank* Still nothing! The car would backfire on occasion, so I checked the timing probably over 20 times. I ended up flooding the cylinders so badly with fuel that I locked the engine up. It wouldn?t crank anymore and the starter would make an pitiful noise. The first Drift Valley event of the year was coming up, and I was wholly devastated that all this effort was for nothing. To me, it wasn?t fair. It wasn?t fair to have put all this work into a project and have it all fail at the critical moment. My friend Nick Pullin was kind enough to have offered me an engine he had laying around, but the first Drift Valley event was looming near and I wouldn?t have it done in time. He is a pretty big hoarder, so I appreciated the gesture heavily. I lost interest in the car for a few months, and let it sit while I skated and pursued other interests.

One day, I had to get something out of the warehouse where I kept the car and I got a sudden itch to pursue this project once more. I still couldn?t rotate the crank by hand, that thing was locked tight. I looked online, and most of what I read about locked engines stated that the thing was as good as roasted. I figured the fuel in the cylinders washed the oil out and created a lot of heat while I was cranking it and fused the piston rings to the cylinder walls. Life lesson- don?t go in dry. Anyway, I wanted to be absolutely sure it was seized, so I hooked up a 6′ pipe to my 1/2 breaker and climbed on top of the bar. After a massive leap of faith and a few bruises later, the crank actually rotated! I drained the oil, filled it with some good-good and went back to square one. G was kind enough to come back and help me with this issue. In this game, it?s really nice to have friends that can answer your dumb questions. I would consistently pester Nick, Ivan, and G for guidance and direction.

Anyway, G came over and taught me the importance of being simplistic in your diagnosis. It?s easy to get caught up in the problem and oversee obvious solutions. We double checked the timing, and it was fine. I had tried to replace injector O-rings while I put the engine together, and didn?t lube them; essentially trashing them. Don?t go in dry, remember!? Instead of spraying a fine mist of fuel, the spray more closely resembled a garden hose. I replaced the rail and injectors, and it still wouldn?t start. G sprayed carb cleaner into the intake, and it fired up! I was hyped! I replaced the pump with a Walbro 255, fixed some grounds, and cleaned up the wiring and we were back in motion.

I addressed the front end with some tein tie rods, put my D-max coils from my coupe on this car, and was ready for Drift Valley! Hell yeah 5 lug!




With the car running, I wanted to address ?aesthetics.? In the rear the body was cracking. This could only mean one thing, BONDO, AND LOTS OF IT. Apparently the car had been hit in a parking lot, and the body shop (if we can even call it that) simply filled the whole damn thing with filler. I was in no position to pull all that damage out, and set it straight. It was more of a task for an artist than a kid like me. B-Magic overs it is. I couldn?t even sand the bondo off, I had to get all 1/2″ of it off with a grinder

Measure twice, cut once:



FYI, looking back on this, I should have cut higher. If you plan on tucking rim, cut 4-5″ above the body line. After pulling my overs off recently I need to address this and raise the arch. The tire rubs ever so slightly under load tucking a 17″ on 215/45. Note the killer bodywork by whoever tried to repair this before:





More welding practice!



3M two-part Hardened body seam sealer!



With this out of the way, it was time for the maiden voyage! I lowered the car on the stands, slowly released the clutch, and the car moved! This was a truly gratifying feeling, never in my life have I dedicated so much of myself to a project.



Drove it around the compound, and everything seemed good. I painted the valve cover and proceeded to break in the clutch. A slight uneasiness lingered in the back of my head driving the car on the street. A lot of moving parts were disassembled and reassembled!



Cruised around with Marc in his hatch:


G gave me a bumper, and I made a half-assed attempt at a ?paint match.?





I thought I was so cool with my ?drift-spec? 240sx. Chuki extensions on a pignose, bumper sag, no signals, and a spray painted bumper. I didn?t care at the time, I felt on top of the world with my running and driving s-chassis. I continued to break the clutch in and prepared for Drift Valley after missing a good chunk of the season. A few days prior to the event, the car sputtered and wouldn?t rev past 2.5K RPM. I wasn?t sure if someone?s abuela had cast a curse on me, but I was tired of stuff breaking! Maybe I wasn?t cut out for this. Anyway, I woke up the next morning with a clear head and found a ruptured fuel hose by the tank and a disconnected MAF plug. Nice. Got that taken care of and kept mashing on. There were four events left in the season, stocked up on spares and was ready to go!



The first event was awesome! I started to get the hang of driving this car, and by the end of the event I was linking the course. I took things slowly at first, just a corner at a time. This was the final test of my perseverance, and I?m glad I stuck through with it.



Got some better fitting wheels for the front and I continued to do some more events that season to make up for lost time:





The damn thing was so funny looking during these stages it?s hilarious to reminisce! I began having a ton of cooling issues after a hose burst on me at the track. I frantically bled, changed thermostats, did the whole works and nothing seemed to help. I kept mashing on and repairing things as they broke. Ended up overhauling the entire cooling system and cleaning the engine galleries as best I could.



I kept on driving, learning, and researching! The journey was getting fun by this point; I was getting pretty comfortable driving the car and was confident repairing things as I destroyed them. Drifting is abusive!

relaxamigo

Edit: fixed bad photo links above

wolfpack

Hell yeah Juan!

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relaxamigo

Drift Valley coverage:

Jissan

Putting in the work, making the events, and progressing as a driver, with zero fanboyism.

Kudos man.

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VQ Build Insta

relaxamigo

Much appreciated!

relaxamigo

Fun things first, a couple more photos watermarc took at the last driftvalley:





And the not so fun things:

So I had been running the stock temp gauge for the first event (big mistake) and it had always been acting funny. I had to get a new wiring harness from prosport for my temp gauge and I did not get it in time for the event. Once I got it wired in, the gauge read in the 200-220 range. The stock gauge was always in the middle. Once it even read this:



Not sure what kinda drugs the gauge was on. Anyway, turns out my water pump belt had been loose this whole time! Man I felt dumb, I guess the belt was skipping. This meant that I had been beating on the car for awhile and the car had probably been running hot! Fortunately nothing was damaged too badly, I don't think. I frantically took a compression test of the engine cold and it was pretty low at 145 across all four. Not sure if it was due to running the car hot, but at least it was even.

This KA burns a decent amount of oil. I'm planning on doing valve seals soon, and hoping it makes it through the season. I have a spare longblock that needs work, and in the offseason I'm going to rebuild it to have something fresh for 2016!

Took the front end apart to do motor mounts, water pump, thermostat, and belts. Cutting up the core support and welding tabs for a bolt-on setup was one of the coolest things I've done to this thing! Makes life so easy:




Andy and I pulling the old mounts out:



NICE:



Nismo mounts are sweet. Raised the engine a bit for oil pan clearance, the trans mounts are dope too! Now the engine and trans don't feel like they have a mind of their own.

relaxamigo

After a long fiasco with the company I ordered a water pump from, it finally came in. I decided to do a new pump and thermostat to play it safe. This KA has 311k miles on it, and I wanna keep the damn thing as long as I can!



Took it for a test run and everything SEEMED to be okay, hoping for the best. I have the last DRIFTVALLEY this weekend and I'm super stoked! Also washed the car for the first time ever!

relaxamigo

While I was waiting for parts, I took the time to practice my welding. I modded an integra muffler to fit on an EG hatch for my friend Marc:



Also made a bolt on battery tie down because that shit was swaying around with the strap last event and was hella sketch:







Cool! Now we're safe. I also like camber, so I went ahead and started dabbling in FLCA extension:





Just need to pick up some 1/8" steel to box the bottom and I'm gonna try them out on the coupe. It's just a 25mm extension

All I have left to do is put the body panels back on the hatch tonight and do some more test drives and we should be ready for the event this weekend!

TheRealSy90

Any pics of the removable core support? And how it bolts on etc. I want to do this to mine. I'm also bolting my intercooler underneath it and need to keep it sturdy somehow.

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relaxamigo

I'll get some for you tonight. I basically cut right after the bend and welded tabs to the bottom with holes drilled in. I have a screw and a nut holding them to the rest of the core support.

If I were to do it again, I would drill out the spot welds closer to the ends and weld tabs on there instead.

relaxamigo

Here's where I cut for the removable core support, I recommend drilling out spot welds further out though:

relaxamigo

The last driftvalley event of the year went well. I had to load the car onto the trailer alone for the first time, but the nice thing about this whole drifting thing is that you start to get the hang of things after a while and develop a sort of rhythm.. I got the damn thing on there alone in fifteen minutes! Then I headed home and hung out with my friends and good a good nights sleep.

I made it a thing to not fuck around with the car the night before and just have everything ready to go the next morning so I can get in the truck and go. The next morning I woke everyone up, made french toast and off we went! It was my first time with my dad there and it was really nice to have him with me. He has been a big part of the build and has always been out of the country the days of events.

I had kind of a shitty start to the event, two runs in and I blew the coolant line that loops under the intake manifold. First though was, "damn I'm gonna be out the whole event!" Upon further inspection, the line developed a pinhole towards an end. Marc took a knife and hacked away at that shit and I threw it back in! I was somehow able to shove my hand under the intake manifold. After a cut up and burnt forearm, the car ran again!



After this, the car didn't run to well. I would drift, then temps would spike on grid. I think the engine sucked in a hellacious amount of air from the leak when I drove it back to pits from the grid. The event organizers (Fresh Roots) were nice enough to let me park my car up front and wait for my turn with the engine off so it didn't overheat!

Besides that, the car felt pretty good, here are some photos:

Shenandoah, VA is an incredibly beautiful place to drift:



The man himself, Marc Pitts. This dude has been to almost every event and I'm super thankful to have him by my side!






Stock ass KA makin a little smoke!



Aaron also came out for the first time and gave us a big hand on the pits. Thanks for coming dude! The event went well besides the hiccups. I was allowed to do some cageless tandem for the first time because I was putting down some solid runs. This was a little scary, but I definitely wanted to take this next step in. Here's a run with Dylan Wiley:



Definitely wanted to keep my distance for the first time!

The car started overheating a little too quickly towards the end of the event so I called it a day. I definitely did not want to grenade my poor KA. We all got in the truck and headed to chipotle for a family dinner!

Midnight Matsuri was a week away and there was no way in hell I was going to miss that. Drifting under the lights, who would want to miss that!? The next day I started tearing the car apart again:



I tested the thermostat and it was okay. I don't have climate control but I still have the heater core hooked up, so my only theory was a hellacious air pocket in the system. I looped the heater lines and plugged the core. After extensive bleeding, the car held idle at 180 and things were looking good! Thanks to Willis "Killing the Game MEDIA" for these dope shots:



Great! Car is burnout tested. We're good to go for matsuri. Lets bring back the underglow! Mah boy fonz helping drop some vinyl





I bought a chop saw and wanted to play with it, so I wanted to try and make a bash bar out of some old trampoline legs made of 1/8" tubing.

Tubing cut:



Welding:



Mocking up:



Done! Still need to add a reinforcing bar in the corners, though. I'd also like the bar to come out away from the car a little further and wrap around the inside of the fenders a little. All ready for Monster Matsuri tomorrow

bmaddock

Cool build thread man, I remember seeing your car at Monster Matsuri. I was hanging with the Jspec booth guys and the purple S13.

I'll have to introduce myself next event. Are you going to 100 DoD? I'm hoping to drive that one.

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relaxamigo

Brandon's coupe!? Gotcha dude! Yeah I'll be at DN this sunday, and definitely 100dod. Say what's up!

Heywood Jablomie

I was kinda hoping you were going to stick the sube front on

R_Rod_s13

Clever screen name

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relaxamigo

With each passing event, I was getting more comfortable with the car. I was slowly learning to relax mentally, and I felt like it was doing wonders for my car control.

S-Nation S13

Battery breaker box what are you using ?

relaxamigo

The breaker switch? It's a 150 amp stinger I think

Hoonigan19

nicee man. keep it coming

relaxamigo

It's been a minute since I've updated this! I have a ton of content to put up, but as usual between events it has been super super hectic, a lot of shit went on! The drift nirvana event was a super important one for me because last time I was at this track I sucked real bad.

I could nail the beginner track (d-loop) pretty well but the next step up (pistol grip) gave me an incredibly hard time. I was understeering and flying off track the entire time in the coupe, I left that day super unsatisfied and outright bummed out. But shit happens, and that feeling of wanting to return to nail it is what I had fueling me this time around.

I don't have a ton of media, but here's one of my runs from each track. I'm happy to say I linked the track and had a great time!

Pistol grip:

relaxamigo

Nick from Wolfpack Drift Club invited me for a birthday celebration at our favorite track. It was an awesome atmosphere and I progressed a lot! It was cool having everyone together, including Paul who flew in to celebrate. Nick’s parents have always been great to us, helping out where they can and getting awesome media. I picked up some skirts and traded welding labor for rear valences!





I felt awkward with the only non matching car, this was to be addressed soon. Here’s my first fully destroyed tire!



Here's Paul and Bill's video from the event:

relaxamigo

I was reasonably content with the few events I did in 2015. The car felt nice, I was comfortable driving it and ultimately tearing it apart to make repairs. The following winter I had 2 main goals: address the tumultuous overheating and the aesthetics. While I was overseas I came across a mismatched origin stylish kit and thought it would be cool. It needed some tender loving affection but that didn’t bother me. The car wasn’t aggressively lowered at the time, but the skirts hung pretty damn close to the ground. When I pulled the hatch out of the shop for the first time, I instantly ran over one of the skirts! They had a fresh coat of paint on em and only needed some scuffing for a new finish. The clamor of crushed fiberglass will forever be entrenched in my head.

Aero “fitted” and skirt repaired along with some paint prep



Hanging out with Willis at the shop, lovely bumper fitment



I have forever been plagued with the issue of automotive ADD. I start working on one facet of the car, and my attention wanders to other things. Instead of completing paint prep and bodywork, I started looking into the overheating issue. As I mentioned in the previous segment, I had exhausted just about every avenue in my endeavor to alleviate the overheating. Although the headgasket tested negative for damage with a leakdown and liquid color gas test, I wanted to replace it. This was tremendously nerve-wracking. Before I had only removed minor components and changed seals, but for me, this was a significant overhaul. With the help of the FSM, the internet, a few beers, and Aaron’s help, we got it done!

So empty looking!





Got the head cleaned and machined:





I’m glad there was no extensive damage given the frequency of the overheating. There’s a lovely look at Marc’s brake lines! He was kind enough to let me use his fancy snap-on torque wrench that lets out an audible *beep* every time the torque setting is reached. It’s idiot proof and perfect for me.

]

Double checked the timing, and kept everything straight thanks to my friend Krash’s guidance and it fired up on the first try! This was exhilarating and left a deep feeling of accomplishment. My jovial day soon turned sour, however. The car still got hot! I could not believe my own eyes after installing a fresh OEM headgasket, temperatures were still high. I ditched the pro-sport gauge for an autometer one, and temps still read the same.

Around this time, my pops and I were no longer able to use the small warehouse we kept everything in, so the build took a short hiatus. I completed the paint prep in a frenzy, and Aaron graciously let me store the hatch at his place. While I had some downtime, I came across a decently priced pair of wheels I had sought after for years; Work Equips. When I was a young[er] rapscallion and had just gotten into cars, I fell in love with them and Alfonso astutely pointed out what they were. I picked up a set, wholly ignorant about three piece wheels, yet eager to learn.



They came in 17x9+35 I believe. They had a massive inner barrel and a tiny lip, but I didn’t know any better. I split and resealed them in the same specs, and the fitment was comical! I didn’t care, I felt like a king with my new equips, happily analyzing the antique stamping on the back of the face and at the inspection stickers with plenty of history. With Aaron’s help, we finally got it painted and drove it back to Gilbert’s shop in the rain for a roof wrap!

Tai and Gilbert getting things done!



My first fully painted car! The daily isn’t even a uniform color.



Painted the aero as well:



The aero still fit quite poorly, but I didn’t mind at the time. Everything was done in time for the first Drift Valley of the year, and it was the first event where all the Wolfpack cars were matching.

Rollers are my absolute favorite!



I did my homework on three piece wheels, and asserted that I needed a smaller inner barrel to run a bigger lip. I tracked down some oem 17x5.5" inners so I could run a 3″ outer creating a 17J +9 wheel. While I waited for those to arrive, I picked up a pair of Weds Farmas locally in 17x9—8. I split them to polish the faces and run a 4″ outer lip, resulting in a 17x9—9.5-15.

Gostt02

Nice car! You did a lot of work! Wish I had as much space to work as you have!

And by the way, your mother rocks! Mine wanted me to take her with me for a trip, she loved the car!

IslandBoy

The Chosen Juan. Didn't know you had a build forum. Pretty tight son. Seeing what this car started out as and what it is now is awesome. The work you put in is very admirable, young blood. Looking forward to drifting with ya in the future homie (oh yeah this is Jarel btw.) ✊������

relaxamigo

Hey dude! thanks man, I have a TON of updates I need to get through.

Escape 240sx

Love this build im 17 with my s13 hatch just did a s14 ka swap and picked little tips from you, I like the powersteering setup i broke my hardlines and gotta find away to bypasss that cooler just dont know how. But following this to see more of this build up!

relaxamigo

the hardlines are junk, just asking for trouble. I have a rubber line feeding the pump, braided high pressure line to the rack, a braided line exiting the rack to the cooler, and a braided line leaving the cooler back to the reservoir!

hope that helps

Escape 240sx

hey thanks man! hope to see more updates!