Just a Simple Rebuil...Oh My God What Have I Done.

[hanzbrady]

So since Photobucket decided to murder my old thread I've been left with 2 options,

1) Go through my old thread meticulously and tediously change all of the pictures and keep the half assed writing and rambling.

Or

2) Make a bad ass new thread that I actually put some effort into!.. for about 2 weeks or however long it takes me to forget that I did this.

Well I think it's apparent that I went with option 2 by this threads existence, for those of you who don't know who I am my name is Hanz and I do car stuff. Professionally speaking I'm a parts salesman and a media producer but that's boring 8-5 stuff. In my free time I'm often working on this pile of rage inducing Japanese sheet metal that I call my car.



I got my S13 my junior year of high school after a pretty rough break up. The car was actually my neighbors and I had been asking to buy it out of his yard for about a year, I ended up with the car after helping him tear down the SR that he blew up in it and finding the car on Craigslist (he did't want to sell it to someone close enough that he'd have to see it everyday lol) so after some hard convincing and an exchange of too much money I had a shit box, but it was my shit box <3

Over the summer I rebuilt the SR and refreshed the car including putting all the interior back in, wiring the car, and painting it. 30 minutes into the first drive of the car the engine spun another bearing which was quite the kick to the nuts because it meant I didn't have a car to start my Senior year. Fortunately though I had the car back together for my birthday in September so I only had to go a few months carless.

Now we get to the part of why I haven't dumped this waste of money onto some other idiot. After going to about 11 or so different schools in my educational career I hadn't exactly ever had friends, I had never been to a party, and I was really missing out on the "teenage experience". Ironically all this time the secret to being popular was posting a picture of your shitty Nissan on Instagram, before I knew it I was being invited to parties, football games, making friends and just having a good time. I was genuinely happy and actually living life. I skipped school, I stayed out late, and I had fun, something that had lacked from my life and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.



To a large extent my car was an extension of myself. It was different, it was loud, it didn't fit in and that's why I love it. My car was my pride and joy and I daily drove it till the day it died which was the day before my prom... Nice! Me, a teenage scumbag, was on my way home with my rental tux in my passenger seat pulled up next to a new SS Camaro and decided to play, some highway pulls ensued and fun was had, until I snapped a rod in half and shot it through my block at about 100.

Achievement Get: Ultimate Jackass.

As I sat in the Florida sun for about 4 hours waiting on a tow truck all I could think was "wow paying for this with my Steak & Shake paycheck is going to take quite a while."

The car got towed home and I started to plan the rebuild out. for the next couple of months about all of my money went towards buying parts, but my minimum wage job wasn't paying enough and I was pretty depressed in general. I didn't have any plans after graduation due to being kicked out of school making it next to impossible to get any decent scholarships despite receiving my diploma on time so college wasn't an option, I didn't really have any career path in mind, and I was just going through the motions. Around this time I decided to say fuck it and move to New Orleans, this meant breaking things off with a girl I really liked which added to that who depression thing and just being alone for a while. No friends, no girlfriend, no cars, just work and time with myself. Looking back I don't know if any of that was the right or wrong decision, I can't really see how staying would've gone, I really just needed to get out and breath a little. So I lived in New Orleans for a bit but ultimately missed being around people I knew so I came home. I got a job in the restaurant industry as a chef at Ruth's Chris, I made decent money, well decent enough to be able to justify spending money on car parts at least. I worked at Ruth's for about 6 months in that time I met my current day girlfriend Andie and started to realize wow the restaurant industry sucks if you want to have any kind of quality of life. At this point I was desperately looking for a new job. So since I was a chef I was doing my usual get home at about 2am and go to bed at 8am but right before I fell asleep I saw a post on Instagram that'd change my life. Mazworx had posted a hiring ad and I exhaustidly typed up a new resume and sent it in.

So new paragraph, I felt like that last one was kinda getting long. I was super anxious to get the job, to the point that I was going crazy. after not hearing back for a few days I finally just started showing up and after some annoyance I ultimately got the job. I was hired as a sales assistant, making less than I had in the past couple of years, and had easily the most uncomfortable office chair I've ever sat in, but I was happy. Around this time I started to assemble the short block for my car. I ended up going with the following,

ACL Bearings
Manley H Beam Rods
Wiseco Pistons
Stock Block Bored . 020" over

This was my 3rd SR so it wasn't anything too hard. I knocked the short block out in about an hour including blueprinting, balancing, and actual assembly time. The most time consuming part is getting those stupid aftermarket wrist pin clips in.






And I think I'm going to end the first part of the build thread redo right there for now. The car currently is all together so I have plenty of content I'm just really hungry and want to go get lunch haha.