Starting all over again build

[ryandriftingfat]

Sup nerds.
My first build thread in a long time, probably should be called a "life-build thread." Just skip to the pics if you want.

I bought my first S13 in 2001 and swapped to an SR in late 2002. I loved that car and every minute in it. Drove it all over, did tons of events and a couple of amateur comps in 2003 & 2004 and just generally had a blast being awesome.



By 2005, I was reaching that point where you have most of the parts that you can have without doing a full rebuild. It needed a cage, aero, paint, a power boost and most of all - to stop being daily driven, and I just couldn't afford it then.

I was living in SoCal but kinda far away; not near any of the shops or events. In 2005 I took a job in Anaheim and moved to OC. I had worked there for 2 months and was working an overnight shift when I heard a bunch of banging outside that I thought was someone breaking into the building. Turns out someone had been walking down the street at like 4AM with a crowbar bashing up anyones car they came across. They got basically every panel and window on my car, but didn't take anything.

So I parted it out, insurance took the car and I took a break. Bought a 6MT G35 Sedan, did some partying, finished college and worked on my career.

In early 2010, I decided I was getting bored driving my expensive G and wanted to get back into the game. Created a new account here and started getting caught up again. Searched for a while and in June, I found a real clean & stock 89 hatchback and bought it. Fixed the basic stuff and drove it while I was trying to sell my G. It took a couple months, but the G sold and I had a bunch of money to spend on the 240.



Not so fast. I sold the car on a Tuesday - that Saturday, my landlord told me she was converting the garage into storage again. Considering I had rented this place because of the garage, this was a huge problem. So I shelved my plans yet again and started looking for a house to buy. Luckily I found one pretty quickly and by January, I had closed escrow and moved in.

Buying a house costs a lot of money, so I just saved and saved until my July bonus, then started spending. First, I bought my truck so I could daily drive /tow, and a bunch of tools and storage for my garage. Then I started placing my orders. Bought about about 100 different items from Phase2, some PBM stuff and a few more things from Driftspeed and FRSport.

So While I waited for all that crap to come in, I started drifting my 240. I did the BARE MINIMUM - welded diff, bucket seat, steering wheel and drift knob. I wanted to see how I could do with a near stock setup - had a lot of fun, but the limitations are clear. Stock sucks.



Last track day @ Adam's
Adam's visit #3 - Dash Cam 1 - YouTube
Adam's visit #3 - Dash Cam 2 - YouTube

My parts have been trickling in and my SR came in last week, so I've turned my attention to getting the chassis ready. Plans are to make it a track-only car. The KA is out and sold, and I've removed just about everything unnecessary - no AC/heater, vents, radio, horns, cruise control, etc. - all gone. Going to strip down the wiring, finish removing the sound deadening, paint the engine bay and then start putting everything back together.

This is going to be a pretty much bolt-on build - I don't know how to weld or fab, I don't really know anyone I'd trust to do a bunch of custom fab and even if I did, it would probably be too loud to do it in my garage. I'll get into all the custom fab stuff later






I'll update the thread as I go - shooting for Feb / March to have it running. For sure needs to be drivable for ASB this year. These are the most current, though I have gotten a little further since.




I'll add some more pics of the various sub-projects as I go along. Lots more pics and information available now on my blog @ Give Me Shred

[ryandriftingfat]

Couple of the sub-projects.

Painted my front and rear subframes - I was going to reinforce everything but I don't know the first thing about welding. My friend said he would do it at his house, but wasn't ready in time so I just decided to proceed. I'll reinforce another set of subframes later

Ground down the paint on the front and rear, then primed / painted / clear coated everything. The rear has SPL solid subframe bushings pushed in (super pain in the ass BTW).




RLCA's got the same treatment and some new ball joints. (adjustable LCA money is better spent elsewhere for now). Also heat wrapped my downpipe and turbo elbow; the worm clamp bolts all face down or forward so that I can access them easily once installed.



Ran out of heat wrap so I'll do the test pipe and header later.

[ryandriftingfat]

Spent all day Saturday working on it. Radiator support & battery tray removed. That job is a bitch. ~2 hours of grinding left and the bay will be ready for paint.

[tricky_ab]

I hear you on buying a house is expensive. My wife and I bought a new build and it should be finished in late March. The money keeps going out and I have nothing to really show for it till it's finished.

Anyways, good to see that you made it back for some fun!

[Nihiliz]

VERY NICE dude! keep up the good work

[va240dude]

Looks great!

[ryandriftingfat]

Finished wire-wheeling the bay and wire brushed everything I couldn't reach with the wheel, then masked everything. I'm out of paint and I still hadn't 100% decided on what color. I got paint last night though so I'm going to do it tonight hopefully. This week for sure. Pics afterward.



The attack ducks came to watch me work.

[ryandriftingfat]

BOOM.




Missed a couple small areas that I'll need to touch up, but I'm happy otherwise. A little over spray at the top, but the fenders will cover that so NBD.

Came out pretty close to how I hoped though; maybe a little brighter than I wanted but that's allright.

[punxva]

looks really good, keep up the great work. Can't wait to see it all put together.

[ryandriftingfat]

Thanks dudes.

Did this last night too. CS solid bushing install, removed wiper/signal stalks. Can't wait to put it back in.

[ryandriftingfat]

You find the damnedest things on used motors sometimes. Some Japanese person thought this would be a good idea.

[slider2828]

OMG!!! Its Silbeer (Recognized the pictures)!!! I was just looking at your new website shred it or something like that.... I was looking around on the net last night for the dangdrifter.com site saw your old site and the guy you lent silbeer.com to an australian dude told me about your new project.

I was following your project like 4-5 years ago before I even got into 240s but was sad because I thought you crashed it or you said like before closing your blog, "Car is gone" and project is dead..... Was a little sad cause you had a lot of technical pieces in your blogs. Fun grassroots read back then, but I am glad you are back!!!!

I think there are a lot more stuff out on the market now, so I think you'll have more fun the 2nd time around hahaha.

Welcome back

[ryandriftingfat]

Yea Brendan in Perth - good guy, I actually had some time to catch up with him for a bit last night; made a post about it too so hopefully he gets a couple more votes on the Speedhunters contest: Catching up with a friend.

But yea, thanks for the kind words, it seriously sucked at the time. But all the FAQ's are back on my new site, with some more info added. The new parts that are out now (high angle knuckles, hydro ebrakes, midmount intercoolers) - none of that shit was available then. Can't wait to give it a shot now.

EDIT: I believe this is the message you referenced;

[slider2828]

YUP! That was the one hahahaha! I was like bummer, he must have been really pissed at what happened. But I thought you crashed it rather than some a-hole destroying your work!!!

Pink Godzilla sticker hahaa Dousan, I have his steering wheel off his 180sx, but I think he is done with the scene too?

[ryandriftingfat]

Nah, I just saw him about a month ago. Just busy I think - life and such.

[ryandriftingfat]

I was gone for a couple weeks due to the holidays, but I'm back to work - got a few more things finished last night.

Pulled rear subframe;



Finished the new rear subframe (it's been ready for a month, but I was slacking on paint);


Reinstalled the brake booster (flipped) and clutch master, plus Z32 master cylinder and CS heat shield with reflective tape;


Also mounted my S14 water pump, water neck and installed the water pump / PS pum pullies. Pics of that shit later.

More info on my blog:
More build progress.

[Edwin562]

nice progress...

[ryandriftingfat]

Thanks!

The subframe is in, no pics though. This is incredibly lame, but I can't get a good picture of the whole thing. Maybe this weekend - I only need rear 5 lug rotors and the rear end is DONE. Oh and tighten up the arms on the driver side. But that's it, new fuel lines and double clamped with the evap crap removed.

Decided to get some stuff done in the bay today.

Cut out the piece of the heat shield so my brake master cylinder stopper would clear it. If I had it to do again, , I'd probably use a hole saw and then heat taped it up afterward. Whatever.


Top view with the stopper in place.


When I figured out that the stopper wouldn't work with the heat shield without modification, I thought about just not installing it. SOOO glad I did, the whole assembly doesn't move AT ALL.

And current engine bay pic. Brake booster flipped & vacuum line tucked, brake master / shield / stopper installed, clutch master & stainless line installed and breather tank mounted.


more pics this weekend when I mount the rotors, brake lines and WHEELS.

[ryandriftingfat]

Spent about 10 hours today working on various things.

I got my rear brake lines Thursday from Phase2, and rotors from Sonic Motor and finally had everything I needed to finish the subframe install, and so I did that today. Everything is bolted down, just need to do the axel bolt and ball joint and it's done.




Really wish those coilover bottoms weren't blue. Put one of my wheels on and one the 5 lug studs was messed up, though I didn't notice until I had killed one of my CS lug nuts.

Stance is a little misleading since it's probably at like -7 camber right now. They are 17x9 +17, I expect them to be slightly outside the fender at close to 0 camber.



Did the fuel line sleeving install today as well.




Did some other crap on my motor today. I don't feel like summarizing, a pic is better.



Gotta try to fix that stud tomorrow, but I'm done with the rear. On to the front of the car and more on the motor.

So in these pics;
-Full set of CS suspension arms
-Moog ball joints
-HICAS sway bar
-ES stock sway bar bushings drilled out to 21mm for HICAS
-88rotors 5 lug rotors
-17x9 +17 MB weapons
-SPL solid subframe bushings
-SPL eccentric lockout washers.
-Kaaz Super Q 2-way
-JDM VLSD cover with fins
-Vulcan fire sleeve
-Federal SS595 215-45-17
-CS sway bar endlinks
-CS stainless brake lines
-CS stainless turbo lines
-CS pullies
-CS oil pan
-CS lug nuts
-S14 SR water neck

Thanks out to Wayne @ Phase2, Quoc & Koji @ Driftspeed and Zach @ Sonic Motor.

[ryandriftingfat]

Allright, time for an update.

I've been working a lot the last couple weeks and been working on the car a lot too - been a couple of past-midnight evenings, but I've gotten a lot accomplished. Now that I have almost everything I need, there isn't really anything holding me up, except time.

Finished up the rear suspension pieces. Stripped a damn stud right after finishing everything, so I had to order a die and wait for it to arrive before I could lower the car. That's now done:


Then I started to tear apart the front suspension.



Banged out the fenderwell seams for clearance then started reassembling everything.




I installed the GD sway bar upside down, so I need to fix that. Waiting for paint to dry on my tension rods and I'm going to replace the stainless brake lines (mine are used, mehhh condition). So hopefully I can bolt all that shit down this weekend.

Been working on the motor too, it's almost ready. I need to put the intake manifold back on, but that's just a matter of putting on a few bolts, no big deal.

Hopefully the motor will be in by next weekend.

[ryandriftingfat]

Allright, mounted my power steering cooler using junk parts from the assorted crap you find in an S13 from the factory.

It's one of the AC firewall mounts with the metal sleeve from an exhaust hanger cut 5mm shorter and used as a standoff. Up top, it's the breather tube holder from my KA trans.

This IS the anti-fab build.




Finished up the exhaust side of the motor today


And mocked up my gauge configuration, POV style (it's not just for porn anymore).


I'm tired. Want to drive and make smoke.

[ryandriftingfat]

The bird is in the nest.





Soooo.. to do list is;
-plumb everything (waiting on more fire sleeve).
-install gauge cluster (waiting on new bezel).
-drink beer.
-install exhaust.
-bleed stuff.
-ghetto alignment.
-place fashionable sunglasses upon my face.

[ryandriftingfat]

Mounted my ridiculous exhaust last night.



What in the fuck was I thinking when I ordered that?



Current state:

[ryandriftingfat]

Cut the radiator support and mocked up the intercooler and radiator. Gotta clean up the cuts now and then paint. Oh the PBM skid plate is in too - nice piece.

This was pretty much the last major thing except wiring, so it's just time now.

[ryandriftingfat]

Mounted the headlights yesterday.


Had to cut off the bracket for the popup motor to fit the lights around the end tanks.

In continuing with my theme of not welding anything if it can be avoided, I took the headlight popup post off the light, broke the plastic cups off each end to expose the threaded ends, screwed one end into the headlight adjustment screw (that one in the center below the light), then drilled a hole in the rear mounting bracket and threaded a 10mm bolt through the new hole. It's super solid now, but we'll see how it holds up after a few events.

[ryandriftingfat]

This is not an update!

I just like this picture.



Unbolts as one piece in minutes.

[ryandriftingfat]

Been working on plumbing everything.



Tucked / hid everything I could. Radiator support paint is drying right now, might mount it up tonight.

Down to the last couple items - need to cut down the hoses on the PS cooler and mount the oil cooler. Might make some custom lines, we'll see. A couple more hose clamps and it's done and ready for wiring / alignment.

Gotta wait for my taxes to see if I can afford some blinged out wiring.

[Pinggg]

Looking forward to see thing done!
Keep us posted!

[xBtony]

Awesome build so far! Subb'ed

[Edwin562]

so your headlights are going to be always up?