Ksnew's Fd3s build

[ksneww]

Hey guys, I've had a build thread going on in a local forum for a little while now, but havnt posted on here yet, So here we go.

First off, I'd like to say, I bought the car back in December, 2010 already swapped, so I don't take credit for doing the swap.

How it was when I first bought it




Specs:

-1998 Camaro SS LS1 w. T56 6speed (working OBDII port)
-ECU Serviced - removed VATS, two o2's... little stuff
-Granny Speed Shop Subframe
-Granny Speed Shop Transmission Crossmember
-Granny Speed Shop Torque Arm
-Granny Speed Shop Engine Mounts
-Granny Speed Shop Driveshaft
-RPS Stage 3 Clutch
-CYN-R-G Segmented Flywheel
-Wilwood 7/8ths Master Cylinder
-Hinson Super Cars Master Cylinder Adapter
-JTR Long Tube headers
-3" Off road Y Pipe w. V-bands
-3" HKS Hi-Power Cat-back
-G.E.T. Coilovers
- Other little stuff.

The day after I brought it home, I went up to Atlanta to pick up a set of wheels for her, and the day after that a friend and I started on getting the fitment right.

Rolling the fenders so I could fit my new wheels


Wheels/specs : WedsSport SA70 17x9+20 18x10+18


Couple fitment pics

Front fitment was just ok


Rear fitment was money

Basically, It stayed this way, with little changes, for about a year.

Well, after about a year, I got bored of the car, changed a few things up. (most of the work was done in the dark after work, so I don't have many pictures of the work :/ sorry.)

I changed a few things up with the motor, along with the body.

Motor wise, with the help of friends, we did a heads/cam swap.

New motor specs:

Heads: TSP PRC Stage 2.5 Heads
Cam: TSP MS3
Intake manifold: BBK SSI Ported and polished. The mouth was ported to 92mm to accommodate for the throttle body, and the runners were ported to match the ports of the heads
Throttle Body: PTM 92mm

I had to get a custom adapter made as well for the throttle body to work. The throttle body was 4 bolt, and the intake was 3. so i took it to a local machine shop, and had a .5" spacer/adapter made.



Engine Bay pic: (messy, it was still a work in progress at the time)


Well, long story short, The car is finally ready to be tuned, we start tuning it, and fry the 98 pcm, which if you dont have any experience with gm engine control, suck in short.

Instead of buying another 98 pcm, I searched a ls1 forum for a nice 99-02 pcm and decided to re-pin my harness once I find one. After about a month of searching, I found a really nice 2002 pcm, and buy it. So the fun began. (again, no pics, sorry guys) So I started to re-pin my harness, which is about 200(?) wires. It took me about a month to do, working on it off and on.

[ksneww]

Along with the engine, I'm changing up a few things with the body and the suspension as well.

Here's a couple pictures of the progress:

The first thing I bought was this origin style rear bumper, i figured i'm going to cut it up anyways, so no point in buying the real thing.



Then I traded a re-amemiya style rear diffuser I had for a set of 50mm origin over fenders. The bumper, and over fenders didnt clear each other, so I began cutting them up to make them fit together.

First cut


second cut


finished result after doing some fiberglass work and adding some body filler.



I did the same for my side skirts as well.

[ksneww]

Traded my stock hood for a shine spec gt hood a few days ago, pretty excited about this considering it was local, and I've been wanting one for a while.




Ordered my gauges, but couldnt find a gauge pod I liked, so i built one myself out of pvc elbows. nothing to brag about by any means, but it turned out looking ok, so I decided it was worth posting...




Gauges are STRI oil pressure, oil temp, coolant temp, and AEM uego wideband

[ksneww]

Picked up some modded knuckles

Stock vs. moded.



I ended up getting super now tie rod ends, and pbm inner tie rod spacers as well. still debating if i should do inner tie rods and extended control arms, or just wait.

Got some work done by Andy at RaceFAB.. gotta say I'm very happy with his work.

Hand brake mounting bracket


Dual brake caliper setup

[ksneww]

Picked up some supporting mods for my previously listed mods.
-Katech rod bolts
-Improved racing oil pan baffle
-Improved racing oil cooler adapter w/thermostat
-Ls2 Timing chain
-Super now outter tie rod ends
-Pbm tie rod spacers

improved racing oil pan baffle and oil cooler adapter. (I decided just to go with a fc oil cooler, I would imagine it will be more than enough, but please correct me if im wrong)



new diff bushings. (super pro? i dont remember)


Katech rod bolts


ls7 lifters


cometic head gaskets


arp head bolts


ls2 timing chain


Well long story short... We go to add all the supporting mods, pull the motor, pull the heads to put the ls7 lifters in, and noticed some things not right. pulled the pan (for the first time) and noticed the motor showed a lot of wear as if it had a lot of miles on it. So we decided to tear down the motor and do a complete rebuild.

Sent the heads, block, and crank to the machine shop to have work done to them. nothing extensive, just re-surfacing everything, and re-honing the block.

[Got Insulin?]

The PVC elbow pods are kind of ingenious, I dig 'em for a homebrew sort of set-up.

[ksneww]

As far as the rest of the wide body, here's the progress so far.

Finishing up the side skirts (still not 100% done)





Picked up a set of origin front fenders


(nvm the temp brackets for the oil cooler. just needed to get measurements for the an lines)

Also cut my quarter pannels. trying something a little different from the traditional fold up and weld technique.




Starting to come together

[ksneww]

Recently bought a sexy style tail light cover. Pretty excited about this, been looking for one for a while, and they're pretty hard to come by.

[ksneww]

Other misc. stuff... one of my headlight motors burned out, so I decided to make pop ups into fixed lights.



Still gotta finish building the buckets and mounting tabs.

and lastly, I recently picked up an oem style roof wing from shine.

Decided to shave the tear drop.

[ksneww]

Tossed around the idea of vortex generators. still undecided. I'm going to have to do more things to make the aero more aggressive if I do...



If i do end up doing them, im also going to chop my bumper and build a diffuser, along with a couple of other things with the aero.

the last few months the car has been at a stand still. but i should start up working on it again soon, so i'll be sure to keep it updated once i start messing around with this turd again.

As of right now, the motor is out of the car and torn down to the bare block, and has been machined along with the crank and the heads. I still have to buy pistons, main, and rod bearings, main bolts, new valves, and some other misc. items before its time to drop the motor back in. The wide body just needs a couple more things before its ready for paint.

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by Got Insulin?

The PVC elbow pods are kind of ingenious, I dig 'em for a homebrew sort of set-up.

Thanks, I'm surprised how many positive things people have said about the gauge pod. I've also had some people flaming over it too though haha. I don't really care personally, they cost me less than $15 to build including the pvc, glue, and paint, and they don't look bad, and work perfectly fine.

I just took a thick piece of plastic (I actually cut up an old s13 dash i had laying around for the piece of plastic lol) and made a base plate, popped out the speaker/speaker cover there in the center, and that's how i mounted them.

I think im going to order some shades from prosport to give all the gauges a uniform look since the aem has a different face.

[FaLKoN240]

Your work is bad ass. I'm digging the changes you've made to it already.

LOVE that tail light cover!!!

[Dolph_KYAS13]

As much as I think a stock bodied FD is perfect, I do like the DIY approach to this build. Its nice to see someone using their brain and making/ modding parts rather than buying all parts from a catalogue.

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by FaLKoN240

Your work is bad ass. I'm digging the changes you've made to it already.

LOVE that tail light cover!!!

Well thank you! starting out, I had no clue how to do any kind of fiberglass work, and had minimal experience with body work.. I'm actually getting pretty good at it now lol. I'm not building a show car quality car, but it's looking pretty damn good over all.. Especially considering more than likely it's all going to get smashed up anyways. Can't wait to get it all one color again. And i couldnt be happier about finding that tail light cover.. I've been looking for one even before I decided to go widebody. Two years later, I finally have one!

Originally Posted by Dolph_KYAS13

As much as I think a stock bodied FD is perfect, I do like the DIY approach to this build. Its nice to see someone using their brain and making/ modding parts rather than buying all parts from a catalogue.

Thanks! Yeah, that was my thing, I wanted a more aggressive look, but I got tired of seeing the same feed or burnout wide body, so I used bits and pieces from different ones and made it all flow. It's starting to shape up nicely! After I finish the body work and get it painted, I'll just need aggressive wheels.

[FaLKoN240]

Damn maybe I should learn how to fiberglass shit...

[ksneww]

lol, i watched like two youtube tutorials and then went for it

[boost cruising]

nice FD where did you get that gauge pod set up

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by boost cruising

nice FD where did you get that gauge pod set up

Thanks, I made it out of pvc elbows and some scrap plastic I had laying around the house

[hillclimb240sx]

this thing is going to be awesome when its done

[510erv]

loving this build

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by hillclimb240sx

this thing is going to be awesome when its done

Thanks man, it's been down for a while now, I cant wait to get this thing back out at the track.

Originally Posted by 510erv

loving this build

Thanks! I've been working on it pretty hard. I'm just trying to do something a little different than what you typically see, but still look good at the same time haha

[bc.]

I am hating what you did to the body of this car. It was so good before, this isn't a dime a dozen pos like a 240sx, but you turned it into one. I was willing to stomach the LS swap, since it looked like it was done legit, but man, you ruined a perfectly good FD.

The end result may turn out cool in a rat-rod/death race kind of way, but damn, why didn't you start with something less fresh...... rant over.

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by bc.

I am hating what you did to the body of this car. It was so good before, this isn't a dime a dozen pos like a 240sx, but you turned it into one. I was willing to stomach the LS swap, since it looked like it was done legit, but man, you ruined a perfectly good FD.

The end result may turn out cool in a rat-rod/death race kind of way, but damn, why didn't you start with something less fresh...... rant over.

Honestly the car wasn't all that great. The swap was clean but that's the only thing it really had going for it. The chassis had nearly 200k on it, it was originally red, and was painted black with single stage paint from o'rileys, all the jams were rattle canned satin black and were chipping so you saw all the red when you opened the doors...It took good pictures I guess, but in person the body/paint wasn't all that great. I understand where you're coming from, but the chassis it's self wasn't anything spectacular to begin with. Don't get me wrong, she ain't going to be a show car when I'm done with her, but she'll look pretty damn mean... In the end, either way it would have gotten smashed up anyways so why not look good doing it.. Plus fiberglass repair is easy stuff

[snow hawk]

Beautiful car man! You're making me miss my FD now... I love that tail light cover, it looks dope! keep up the build man, I'm curious to see where your own style bodywork goes. Sub'd for sure!

[FaLKoN240]

Originally Posted by bc.

I am hating what you did to the body of this car. It was so good before, this isn't a dime a dozen pos like a 240sx, but you turned it into one. I was willing to stomach the LS swap, since it looked like it was done legit, but man, you ruined a perfectly good FD.

The end result may turn out cool in a rat-rod/death race kind of way, but damn, why didn't you start with something less fresh...... rant over.

Oh man, there's always someone that "knows how to build your car better than you do."

Get outta here. Looks good.

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by snow hawk

Beautiful car man! You're making me miss my FD now... I love that tail light cover, it looks dope! keep up the build man, I'm curious to see where your own style bodywork goes. Sub'd for sure!

I'm interested to see where the bodywork goes too hahahaha

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by FaLKoN240

Oh man, there's always someone that "knows how to build your car better than you do."

Get outta here. Looks good.

Yeah, I've learned since I started this build. I have noticed it's kind of one of those you either love it or hate it builds though.

[soundboy]

Nice mods. Glad to see its a DIY project

Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 4

[ksneww]

Originally Posted by soundboy

Nice mods. Glad to see its a DIY project

Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 4

Thanks..I was going to try to finish up my head lights today, but the rain had other plans -__-... I need to make room for this turd in the garage

[bc.]

Originally Posted by ksneww

Honestly the car wasn't all that great. The swap was clean but that's the only thing it really had going for it. The chassis had nearly 200k on it, it was originally red, and was painted black with single stage paint from o'rileys, all the jams were rattle canned satin black and were chipping so you saw all the red when you opened the doors...It took good pictures I guess, but in person the body/paint wasn't all that great. I understand where you're coming from, but the chassis it's self wasn't anything spectacular to begin with. Don't get me wrong, she ain't going to be a show car when I'm done with her, but she'll look pretty damn mean... In the end, either way it would have gotten smashed up anyways so why not look good doing it.. Plus fiberglass repair is easy stuff

Ah, I didn't realize it was in such tough shape. I will withhold my judgment for the end result, good luck on your build sir!