89 Hatch Build-$300 shell to clean daily

[Rustys14]

Well, I figured I would throw my build out there and see what every body thinks.

First up I guess I should give the story of this car. I got this car in December 2011. This is my 5th 240 so I am not new to the game. I found the car while scouring craigslist for a shell to turn into a drift project since my s14 that I was using at the time was getting a little too nice to risk crashing at the track. I got it from some Honda kid who had bought it to drive while he did a turbo setup on his ek but had blown the engine while attempting some "mad tyte" drifts. The shell seemed pretty nice when I went to check it out (bone stock other then an eBay exhaust) and the kid still had the transmission and everything else to go with it so I gave him $300 bones and put it on the trailer.

The car had a very complete interior with an uncracked dash but the previous owner had stored it with the windows down for some reason so it had a lot of dirt and mold on everything. The first thing I did was remove pretty much everything and shampoo all the mold out then I rolled the windows up and got it ready for storage.
Only pic I have of the interior, this is after I did some work to it. Blue interior FTW!


I lost the original pics from when I got it home (more on that later) but this is about how the car looked when I got it back since the only thing done for these was a motor and a non rusted out hatch.








The car sat like that for awhile since drift season was about over when I got it and I wasn't really in a big hurry to do anything with it. Then fast forward to May 2012 and this happened to my s14.


I basically got rear ended by some dude who was texting and was sandwiched between him and a truck. I was fine (Bride seat ftw!) but my s14 was destroyed along with pretty much everything I owned since I was moving back home from school for the summer and everything was in the trunk.

I ended up getting a lot more insurance money then I thought and they let me keep the car (they even towed it 200 miles to my house for free). I was planning to use the money for a down payment on a FR-S but the rational side of me kicked in so I used it to pay off some of my student loans.

So now with no car and almost no money, I turned to the s13 shell that was sitting neglected in my yard. I needed a motor in a hurry so I went out and bought a $100 single cam from a guy on a local 240 forum and swapped it in. I went with the single cam because everything needed for that motor came with the car and because the ka24de in my s14 was in questionable shape after the accident.

Motor in


After I got the car running I swapped all the goodies that I could over from my s14 to get the car ready for the upcoming drift season.
Parts swapped over:
OS Giken 2-way diff
Bride seat and rail
Griproyal steering wheel (best wheel ever)
SPEC lightweight flywheel
B&M shifter
Tien tie rods with rack spacer
I also pulled my adjustable Rucas, tension, traction, toe rods and subframe spacers but I was sick of working on the car at this point so I didn't bother putting them on until later.

All I needed was coils and since the Super Drifts from the s14 wouldn't work I traded them to a local 240 guy who ordered some s13 EMUSA coils for his s14 by mistake. I know what you are thinking and I was fully aware that they were $450 eBay coils but they were new and I was getting desperate plus the Tien rears needed a rebuild so I justified the trade that way. Here are what they looked like.


Getting the car ready for install. I'm sure every 240 owner is familiar with this sight.


The first thing that I noticed about the EMUSA coilovers was that the bracket that is supposed to hold the brake line is welded on upside down. I just laughed at the Chinese quality control and moved on with the install, but here is a pic for lolz.


The rest of the install went pretty smooth except for one of the front studs breaking while I was tightening it down. Seriously the metal they used for the studs is so crappy that it simply broke, I didn't cross thread it or anything and this was before it even got to the bottom. Since this made me uneasy I went to the hardware store and bought some grade 8 bolts and replaced the studs with those. Also I noticed that the top hats were not torqued down so I torqued them to Nissan spec.

Some pics of the install




And the car after


Notes on the EMUSA coilovers:
-They are very cheaply made but the quality seems to be on par with every other eBay coilover.
-They do not go nearly low enough without removing locking collars/flipping the bracket and drooping the rears. The pic above is as low as they go without removing collars and proper preload.
-The ride quality on them is actually fantastic. I have owned/driven on alot of high end coilovers and I have to say that the ride quality of these is just as good, if not better then more expensive brands.
-They seem to be pretty durable, I have had them since last May and they haven't blown or started leaking yet (knock on wood). That is with daily driving and several track days

Anyway back to the build. After the coilovers went on I pulled it of the garage and took it to Maaco for some paint. I've had them paint several of my cars in the past and have always been impressed, just remember that you should do your own body/prep work before you take it. I filled in all the major dents in the car before taking it. For $350 you can't beat a Maaco job, the car was one color again and looking great!

Some pics after paint. I just had it resprayed the stock color which was KG1.








About a week after paint, I took it to its first drift day (no pics sorry). The car did great at the event but on the way home the oil pressure light started flickering on and off and I could hear a distinct rattling sound. I've had alot of experience with single cams before so I immediately knew that the timing guide had broke. The previous owner told me that it had a metal guide installed but I guess he lied. Sucks because it would have saved me a lot of work if I had known.

Anyway I decided to pull the motor again since the throwout bearing was going bad and it would be easier to just yank the whole thing.

Motor back out.


The contents of my oil pan lol.


Metal guide FTW!


Motor back in.


Once it was running again it stayed like this for a while.


That was partly because I had just picked up a new project, an 89 seafoam green/gray coupe! I have always wanted a two tone so when I saw this for $600 I couldn't pass it up.


Then last month I decided that the hatch needed some love in the way of some wheels and more low. So I tyred up some Square g6 wheels that I had been sitting on for a while and prepped the car for lowness.

Harnesses tucked




Then I removed the locking collars from the coils, flipped the front brackets, drooped the rears (not too happy about the droop) and put the wheels on. I also finally put my rear suspension arms on so I could play with the camber/ fix the alignment.





Played around with instragram lol


The car came out looking a lot better then I expected. I would have liked to go a little lower but the coils are completely maxed out and there is nothing else I can do for now. It also could use some 5mm spacers in the front but I'll wait until I'm ready to put my z breaks on for those.

That's about how the car is going to sit for a while since I'm back at school. No major plans other then to install my jdm amber/clear signal lights and chuki sidskirts when they come in.

Here's a pic of the car from yesterday, I hate winter lol.


That's about let me know what you guys think! Good, bad I don't care. I will leave you guys with a teaser pic of whats coming this spring though.

[Coodsie]

great start, i'll be fallowing this. the exact type of build i want to do one day.

[mr_eh]

as a 240 enthusiast that picked up a cheap 14 off a used car lot unmolested and made it a sports car - thank you for rescuing this 13 and great work so far

[JIMB0]

good start, sorry to hear about your s14

[Oakville]

Whats the plan for the two tone?

[Rustys14]

Originally Posted by Coodsie

great start, i'll be fallowing this. the exact type of build i want to do one day.

Thanks man!

Originally Posted by mr_eh

as a 240 enthusiast that picked up a cheap 14 off a used car lot unmolested and made it a sports car - thank you for rescuing this 13 and great work so far

Thanks! I'm pretty pleased with how its coming along.

Originally Posted by JIMB0

good start, sorry to hear about your s14

Thanks, yeah I was pretty bummed about the s14 but it was kinda a blessing in disguise. The s14 chassis was rusting out and was kind of beat from years of drifting but I was in the process of bringing it back. I actually ended up making money off the insurance and got to keep my parts so it all worked out.

Originally Posted by Oakville

Whats the plan for the two tone?

The two tone is apart right now and currently undergoing a full on restoration. I'm keeping it fairly simple, just plan on cleaning it up, a silvia front, fresh paint (stock color) and good stance. I'm rebuilding the stock ka right now but I haven't really decided on a motor yet. I'm probably going to do a Sohc-T or a Ca18 though since those are the only two 240 motors I haven't really worked with and I want to do something new. I also have some some old 17" bbs rs wheels that I'm probably going to have re-lipped and put on if I ever get around to it. I'll make a separate build thread for it once some real progress has been made but that probably won't be until late summer/early winter.

[JadedNazgul]

Looks great! sorry about your S14. At least you were able to salvage some parts and get money for your car.

[christo19]

wow $350 for a paint job.... car is looking really good man! How soon are you planning on pulling the SOHC out?

[iStubz]

legit build man!
cant wait for more

[Rustys14]

Originally Posted by JadedNazgul

Looks great! sorry about your S14. At least you were able to salvage some parts and get money for your car.

Thanks! Yeah, this whole build was pretty much financed from parting out my s14. I probably made a extra $1500. I could of made more but I wanted to move parts fast and help out the local 240 community so I sold everything super cheap. There was literally nothing left of the car. Here is a pic from the day I took it to the recyclers. I see people with parts from it all the time lol.

Originally Posted by christo19

wow $350 for a paint job.... car is looking really good man! How soon are you planning on pulling the SOHC out?

Thanks dude! Maaco is where its at. A lot of people talk bad about them but its hard to beat the value. They do a really good job for the price, besides its a 20 year old 240 that gets tracked/beaten on regularly not a show car.

I'm probably going to do the swap sometime around late May or early June since I'll be out of school (Woo! Last semester) and will have more time to work on it. I'm not really in a huge hurry since the SOHC is running great right now.

Originally Posted by iStubz

legit build man!
cant wait for more

Thanks man!

[Extreme Dimensions]

Nice and sorry for your lose, but keep it up!

[Oakville]

Do a CA18. They dont get nearly half as much love as they should!

If I did a 240 I'd definitely do a CA.

[JIMB0]

CA in the Two-Tone!

[christo19]

man i wish i had a maaco in my town, yea not like you want show car quality or expect it for that price

[alexander240]

Hey man awesome build so far by removing collars and flipping the brackets can you show us a picture?

[Rustys14]

Originally Posted by Oakville

Do a CA18. They dont get nearly half as much love as they should!

If I did a 240 I'd definitely do a CA.

Originally Posted by JIMB0

CA in the Two-Tone!

I'm also leaning toward the CA, just from a reliability standpoint.

Originally Posted by alexander240

Hey man awesome build so far by removing collars and flipping the brackets can you show us a picture?

I don't have a picture of it right now because its cold out and I'm too lazy to take my wheel off but what I mean when I say flip the bracket is to take the lower bracket on the coilover (the one that bolts to the knuckle) and turn it upside down. This will give you another inch of lowness on most coils. The lower bracket is not removable on struts and some coilovers though. You also cannot flip the rear brackets but rear coilovers usually have enough adjustment (if you droop them) to match the fronts.

As for the locking collars, I just mean remove the ones that you don't need. If your coilovers are set to max low then you will have some (usually 2) locking collars that are not doing anything and keep you from going lower since they take up space. Just leave the one that holds up the spring and remove the rest. You can just spin them off when you have the lower bracket off. Here is a picture of the collars after I removed them.


Let me know if that helps. If you are still confused I could probably go out and take a picture.

[Rustys14]

Also figured I would do a small update.

This was the scene about 100 feet from my bottom floor apartment the other day.


Thankfully the water receded before it made it to my place but we still can't use the water and the power is patchy so I just decided to go back home for the weekend. I also had some small parts for the car come in on Friday that I wanted to install.

What parts you ask? Well my JDM turn signals finally came in! Seriously these things have been on backorder for months. If you want a set for your car I suggest you order them from Courtesy Nissan or Nissan Race Shop soon since they have a very limited supply before they are backordered again. Here is a pic of them in all of their brand new oem Nissan glory.


And installed on the car.


I thought that it was going to be a super easy install when I went to put them on last night but I ended up having to drill the old lights out since the screws were rusted into the mounts. Luckily I was able to get the old lights out without damaging them and the JDM lights came with new hardware. It was still a pain though lol.

I also got some cupholders! I got them from a member on here and they work great. I'm stoked because the lack of cupholders is something that always pissed me off about 240s. Here is what they look like installed.


I also figured that I would post up a interior shot since this thread is lacking one. It looks about the same as everybody's lol.


That's about it. Small update but I figured I would try to keep this going since I have gotten such a good response from everybody so far.

[towlie]

Looks good. Nice progress

[Reece]

Great build so far! Sucks to hear about your S14 though. At least you made money off of it. Cupholders are awesome too.

[Idahos13]

Nice build so far man! Not to be a dick or anything, but what is up with your headlight/bumper/fender fitment on the drivers side? That would bug the hell out of me lol. Keep up the good progress!

[Rustys14]

Originally Posted by Idahos13

Nice build so far man! Not to be a dick or anything, but what is up with your headlight/bumper/fender fitment on the drivers side? That would bug the hell out of me lol. Keep up the good progress!

Haha, I was waiting for for someone to notice that. The car actually has some pretty bad damage to that part of the chassis. I think someone rear-ended someone or hit something at some point and it was never properly repaired. I assume that's why the car had the white body panels in those places when I bought it. I could fix it myself but it is just more work then I care to do to this car. That's the main reason this is my drift car/daily beater and the two tone is the one that I'm turning into my "nice" car.

[Idahos13]

Makes sense, well good luck to you sir! I'm looking forward to more progress.

[KravingAKouki]

not to bring up a sore topic, but do you have more pics of the s14? that sucks to hear man, but congrats on the new whips

[Rustys14]

Originally Posted by KravingAKouki

not to bring up a sore topic, but do you have more pics of the s14? that sucks to hear man, but congrats on the new whips

Don't worry man, its not a sore subject. These are the only pictures I can find of that car since all of mine were on my old computer (along with the pictures of when I got the hatch) that was destroyed in the accident. It was nothing special but it was pretty good at going sideways.




And the computer in question lol.
atter.

[ronny.jpn]

So, once again... I've been trying to figure it out... are incomplete builds allowed or not?

Btw nice so far! I love that 2 tone.

[mostdopes13]

dude the last side shot pic of your hatch is like the definition of perfect 240 daily. lol i'm selling my zenki soon and picking up another hatch i miss my old one way to much

[ayrtonlucyk]

any updates on this thing? also great build man, really enjoyed reading it

[va240dude]

Where are you in VA?

[Rustys14]

Originally Posted by ayrtonlucyk

any updates on this thing? also great build man, really enjoyed reading it

Yea man, read below!

Originally Posted by va240dude

Where are you in VA?

I'm in NOVA about 40mins to a hour out of DC.

[Rustys14]

So I haven't updated this in awhile but I have made a good bit of progress on the car so I guess I'll just pick up where I left off.

First off, my chuki sideskirts finally came in! The car looks awesome with them, just need to have them painted. I still need to source some type X valances and taillights before then though so I can have it all painted in one go.



The car remained pretty much the same until the end of drift season. I packed it up and ran Drift Valley V with it. This was the first Drift Valley event that I went to and it was a blast. The lines were short and I swear I must have hot lapped the car for over a hour. As a result of me having too much fun the rings decided to let go and I started burning a ton of oil on the way home, the old Ka had finally crapped out on me

Packed up and ready for the event, it amazes me how much you can fit into a hatch lol.


Some go pro footage from the event, I think there are two runs on the video. Not my best runs but I forgot to charge my go pro so its pretty much all I have. Also I was too lazy to edit it but you can just skip to the drifting.
http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/jf...5641e.mp4.html

So after the event I decided to pull the motor and go in another direction since I had sold my SR awhile back to a friend. Another friend had given me the low mileage KA from his 97 and I had a T25 setup that I had pieced together a few years back for my s14 laying around so I decided to use it.

The motor when I got it



Mocked everything up


Cleaned it up


Put it together for good


And dropped it in!


That's about where I'm at right now since I got sidetracked by some other projects (more on those later) but I should have it finished and tuned before the March Drift Nirvana event.

Just for fun here are a few random shots I found of the car. One is from a 240 cruise I went on with some other local dudes a few months back and I don't remember where the other one is from but I like it haha.