♠ S14driftr's zenki build ♠

[slydin240sx]

It's nice to see builds like this. The attention to detail and time and effort put into restoring these beloved s chassis. Not many of us can do this for many reasons. It's good to know not all of these cars will be complete shit in 10 more years. Props man! Wish my zenki could go through a makeover like this. Maybe one day though.

[S14Driftr91]

Hey guys thanks alot for the good words. I've been meaning to update this for a while, I haven't been able to do much because of a recent trip and working alot. Lately I haven't had much time to myself. Hopefully this upcoming week I'll have a nice update for you guys!

[S14Driftr91]

Hey everyone, I'm back with a bunch of pictures and updates for everyone. Unfortunately it's been quite some time since I've last posted. I had a bunch of computer problems and was terrified I had lost all my pictures (i think its time for an ext hard drive lol), but now everything is better so we can get on with the show.

Last time I updated you guys with the minor wiring harness repair and briefly talked about how my coilover sleeves were seized... Well I never did end up getting them off with all the PB blaster and heat so what I did was cut them off....

Wetting than your gf.



We ended up having to take the grinder to them



Had to be extra careful not to cut into the threads.







Now that those were cut off I could finally remove the springs to have them coated.. or so I thought.

From so much NY salt and the weather conditions the lower sleeves and threads had become fusion-ed together. I had to purchase a thread file from Summit Racing and spending hours running it back and forth through the threads... talk about time consuming...



Almost there..



At some point, new lower sleeves and collars will be ordered from Stance.

After the coilover issue was taken care of, it was time to tackle the rest of the rust holes on the car.

This hole is from a heavy foot lol... on the driver side, right where your heel meets the floor board.



And two pin holes..



Scraped away some of the sound deadening.



I then used a cut-off wheel



If recall we used 16g sheet metal... Here's the patch with overlaps stamped onto the edges.



Test fit.





For the pin holes we used a copper spoon, without that you have a great chance of making the hole even bigger.



Another two sections that needed to be replaced were on the rocker panel. These holes were also replaced using 16g sheet metal.

Hole 1
Before:



After:



Hole 2
Before:



After:



I'll be back tonight with more updates, I have a bit to catch up on but g2g to work!

[slider2828]

Damn quality of work looks awesome!!! Whats awesome is your dad is helping too. Nice project, god I wish I knew how to weld.....

[tricky_ab]

Man you sure have more patience than me, I would have just bought new coils. With all the work you are putting into this, are you still planning to drive this in the winter when it's completed?

[S14Driftr91]

Originally Posted by slider2828

Damn quality of work looks awesome!!! Whats awesome is your dad is helping too. Nice project, god I wish I knew how to weld.....

Originally Posted by tricky_ab

Man you sure have more patience than me, I would have just bought new coils. With all the work you are putting into this, are you still planning to drive this in the winter when it's completed?

Haha thanks a lot guys. Yea my dad is helping me with all the welding. He's a local iron worker so he loves doing anything like this.

And no tricky, I don't plan to drive it every day during winters since I have a truck too but everytime the roads are clear it will be taken out. It will just be washed everytime it comes home like it was in the previous years

[blueshark123]

I am going to be reapairing a whole i have very similar to your hole 2 in the rocker panel

[S14Driftr91]

Originally Posted by blueshark123

I am going to be reapairing a whole i have very similar to your hole 2 in the rocker panel

It seems like right where the factory seam sealer is along the two panels they butt together is very thin and doesn't seem to do much good. Good luck with your repair man! Send me some pics when you do it cause i love knowing different alternatives to situations such as these haha



* Back with another update tonight...

In the previous post I showed what I did with the remaining rust! After I had grinded and smoothed down the welds, it was time to make sure that rust would never come back again. First on the bare metal I applied 2 coats of the POR-15. That was then followed by 3 coats of 3M rubberized undercoating. After everything was cured, 3 additional coats of POR-15 were applied to the remaining chassis.

Here's the outcome!

Hole 1..




Hole 2..


And here's a picture of where we cut out and replaced a section of the floor board.



I wish I could get better angles for some of these pictures... Ugh if only I had a lift

Here's a shot taken from the rear looking towards the front.



And the opposite... from front to rear


...



Driver side wheel well.



Passenger side wheel well.



Finally the entire chassis from front to rear has been coated. Now it's time to start assembling everything back together.

[sebastianwrx]

cleannn ...

[blueshark123]

damn thats alot of por 15 lol. I already spent 1 quart in just the rear. It gets expensive. I am also using the 3m schultz

[unknownkris_s14]

cant wait till see it finished.

[sash_ak21]

Nice build! Dont see quality like this very often, most ppl just half ass it. You can work on my car anytime!

[dozug]

how do i subscribe this thread??

[blueshark123]

almost all the way to the top you see a tab that says thread tolls let it drop down then click subscribe to thread

[S14Driftr91]

Thanks for the support guys!

and thanks blueshark for pointing that out!

[jdmunlimited]

good job on the build keep it up man

[PureShadowed]

siick build so far. hoping for an update soon!

[06_footy]

Love it. Sub'd

[project_silvia]

damm i wish i was as patient as you lol

[dreamin240sx]

hell ya man your the shit i need a garage lol

[iLOVEASIANGIRLSS]

awesome work man. looking forward to seeing the final product

[nyc240sx]

nice work on your s14

[Tubasteve1]

Holy hEll that's clean!!

[s13 loverr]

Great job you've inspired me! I was planning on going with black por15 and using chassis black as a topcoat, but you have changed my mind. I'm in love with that white undercarriage.
What colors did you use in order to get white? There is no white por15 on their website. Did you use a brush to apply or did you spray it? Thanks!

[S14Driftr91]

Thanks for all the compliments guys! I hope you all had a great new years! I know I did!

Originally Posted by s13 loverr

Great job you've inspired me! I was planning on going with black por15 and using chassis black as a topcoat, but you have changed my mind. I'm in love with that white undercarriage.
What colors did you use in order to get white? There is no white por15 on their website. Did you use a brush to apply or did you spray it? Thanks!

Hey man thanks alot! I too was originally going to go with the black as most people think that's the only color it comes in. I ended up using the gray POR-15. I brushed 3 coats of this sh*t on from the trunk to the front rad-support (talk about a lot of time lol). I didn't end up using a top coat since one of the POR representatives had told me, "as long as the sun is not exposed directly to any painted part, you'll be fine." I took his word for it because those guys have some awesome products. To see for myself, I painted one of my ruca and left it out in the sun for a few days.. sure enough the POR grey, turned to almost an gray-emerald color. Anyways I couldn't be more satisfied with the outcome! Good luck with your project!

[s13 loverr]

Thanks! I'll be stealing your white undercarriage idea soon.

[DallasTXjdm]

Absolutely meticulous in detail! Excellent work! Have you decided which Zenki headlights you are going with? European glass or buffed plastic? What about the front and rear bumpers? Are you going with aftermarket or OEM?

Two thumbs up!

[S14Driftr91]

Originally Posted by DallasTXjdm

Absolutely meticulous in detail! Excellent work! Have you decided which Zenki headlights you are going with? European glass or buffed plastic? What about the front and rear bumpers? Are you going with aftermarket or OEM?

Two thumbs up!

Thanks! I have been thinking for awhile about both the lights and the bumpers. Frsport just had the euro lights for sale for an awesome deal but I had to pass on the opportunity. I've buffed my plastics once before but I really would like to retrofit my headlights with projectors one day. As of now I'll most likely just rebuff the lights; they are not in that bad condition. For the bumpers I'll be keeping the rear stock, maybe a kouki rear in the future. For the front I'll be keeping my jdm zenki bumper. It would be nice to track down a mint navan bumper but I'm in no rush lol.

[S14Driftr91]

I've been slacking on updating this but I've been super busy between work and trying to get everything situated with the car.

Anyway awhile back I brought all these pieces to get coated over at Hudson Valley Powdercoating and I was waiting on them for some time. Well I finally got them back and here's the "before" and "after" pictures...









I have to say, I'm very pleased with the work these guys do. The owner, Ed is an awesome guy and his prices are pretty fair!

With all these little parts back, I could finally start reinstalling everything. Being that I am working in a semi-tight garage with all the shit in the way, I figured I would start with the rear subframe and diff since I'm tired of tripping over it and to free up some room.

In goes the nicely coated diff cups...







Then came the Energy Suspension differential bushings. I've heard both good and bad stories about these poly bushings but i'll have to see for myself







Subframe and differential all done.







I'll be posting a bunch of more photos tomorrow night so stay tuned!

[Om1kron]

awesome stuff kiddo!