True Life: I'm Addicted to Stupid Old Nissans

[Hoffman5982]

So I have an old build thread on here my old s14, and in it I also started the build on this car but completely stopped updating. I don't really want to update the old thread because it was primarily for the s14, so I might as well start a new one.

Fair warning, this isn't going to be an update every day kind of build thread.

Some of you guys may remember my old s14:




Long story short, I sold the SR in January and the shell is sitting. I've decided to put my high comp KA in it and sell it in the next few months. Will be sad to see it go, but happy that it won't be wasting away any longer.

Now, this thread is mainly focusing on my s13 drift car. In the hopefully near future, it will include the resto project of the s14 I picked up last year:



More on that later though. For now, let's get started on the s13, starting from the beginning.

Phase 1: Beginner's Luck

This period in my life was just dumb. I was barely attending school. I had no motivation because I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up taking a total of 4 semesters off, flunked some classes, and really screwed my degree plan up, for which I'm still making up for today. I read something recently where someone stated that most drifters are aimless kids with no real ambitions. I fit that description depressingly well. The only real smart decision I made in that time was buying this car.

So I had my s14 as a daily. I had sank a shit ton of money and time into it. I wanted to start drifting, but didn't want to destroy the car. So I started looking for a shell. Surging craigslist one night I came across this



I emailed the seller that night, 15 minutes after its posting. I got a response shortly after saying I could come look at it in the morning. Got there and fell in love. It was a bone stock 89 coupe, auto, but had no engine. The woman I bought it from had gotten it from her mother, who bought it brand new. The woman was extremely nice and was really attached to the car, but it had been sitting for 2 years and she couldn't afford to put a new motor in it. I paid $550 for it and took it home.









As you can see, the battery tray was completely rusted through. This was the only rust on the car, fortunately. The car had an uncracked HUD dash, although the HUD didn't work. On all accounts, this car was mint as some fuckbois would say. It took everything I had to not keep it bone stock and mob around in it.

Since this wasn't my only car, I took my time with it. Because of that, stumbled upon some amazing deals, one of which being this $60 DOHC long block



It was grimy



I went through it replacing every seal except the head gasket. I don't believe in breaking that factory seal unless necessary. Thanks to a really good friend, I got all s14 accessories and an SR trans. I had to source a distributor, ka bellhousing, and s13 wiring harnesses. The ultimate goal was to end up with an engine bay that looked 100% stock. The biggest mistake I made was going with an XTD clutch, but I was trying to keep costs down. The clutch set cost over 3 times what I spent on the motor anyways lol. I deleted the egr system as well as any vacuum and coolant lines that I could under the intake manifold.

Ended with something like this







Moving onto the interior, the original seats were not comfy or supportive. I threw in my s14 se confetti seats. Also, as stated the car was originally a sohc auto. I converted the harness to sohc chassis plug as cleanly as I could and started with the auto-manual swap. Threw in a Tomei shift knob, a gaudy ebay shift boot, and a Grip Royal wheel.













Got my hands on a 5mt drive shaft and started replacing bushings with poly replacements.





Soon after this I got the car running, and it ran great. I half expected to the engine to be toast for how cheap it was. So now I could turn the focus to suspension/braking. I got a super good deal on some almost new BC type BR coilovers. I think I paid $550 shipped for them.




Next, the tie rods were bad. Replaced the inner and outters with s14's, along with the rack boots.




Next was brakes. Being one of the most important parts of the car, I went through them completely. New pads, rotors, rebuilt the front calipers and replaced the rears with reman'd units. Also went with Agency Power stainless lines.








I also found play in the front ball joints, so I replaced the FLCA's




Only thing left was a locking differential. I originally wanted to go cheap and do a welded. A friend offered to trade his j30 straight up for my open, so I did that instead. Ordered a shim and threw it in.




For those wondering, I really suggest this setup. I still run it to this day, and even went with the smaller .8mm shim. It locks perfectly all day long.