A rare treat for the street - 1JZGTE S14a Silvia

[SupaDoopa]

Hello, hello from Garage Wildlife. I scored quite the gem. Sit down, get comfortable and enjoy the slowest fucking build to ever happen unless I motivate myself otherwise.

Updates generally happen on IG first. @GarageWildlife for all of you who are tech savvy and like shit like that. Shoot us a follow or whatever the cool kids do these days.

So I have had this chassis now for a couple of months and I've been neglecting it pretty bad while setting up the new shop, wrenching on the R32 and traveling but it's probably time I start chugging along. Normally I'd be more productive in the winter but with COVID pushing all the work towards that season, it was time to give the car some attention it deserved. So here are some of the glamour shots the importer had when I decided to purchase it. I ended up selling my LS 350Z to fund the chassis and another lift for the garage. Here she sits. These were taken at the importers the day I went to go grab her. Excuse the absolute ass pictures. I was excited and on kind of a time crunch so I didn't get anything nice and fancy. More so a field of reference.









Don't get me wrong, it's nothing crazy special but the rarity is there. This is a S14a UK-Spec built in 1999. How this car became legal was being registered legally to a military service member and then imported and papered. This is completely federally legal. I'd post images of the paperwork but I'm not next to it currently and I don't really care enough to do so. The car itself does need some work but because I plan to replace or repair the issues, to me, this was a perfectly good solid foundation. The only real unfortunate bit was this car was originally Millennium Jade then painted some shade of red then Bayside Blue. I don't know that I plan to go back to the original color. I cannot paint for shit and I don't know if I trust anyone trying to tackle that. The other issue is if I need to touch anything up, I'm fucked. So it's bitter sweet. I also considered keeping it Bayside Blue but have some other ideas I'll keep secret until the time comes.





Note: Yes, that is my Skyline, too. It's much more drift-dedicated than occasional highway runs and such.

The Silvia is a shell currently going 1JZGTE/CD009. I have a solid lead on one and in a week or so, I'm planning to go grab it. The engine set will be the last piece of the puzzle, thought. I don't plan to track dedicate the car so I do plan to try to retain some of the creature features but as I go along, I'll probably nix that idea. But for now, I'm planning on leaving in a backseat of some kind, carpeting, a radio, etc. The first thing I'm tackling is getting the rear end of the car situated mainly because once this part of the car is set, the only other reason to go back out there is to hook up fuel and brake lines and put the exhaust on. This means all new arms, hubs, wheel studs - everything will either new new or rebuilt.

So, with that being said. I started acquiring everything I needed for the rear end. In the picture of the S14 covered, you can see a S13 rear diff. I scored that local with a KAAZ in it. After I check tolerances, I will be putting a S14 rear diff cover on it and sending the stubs to Villians to get modified to accept 350Z axles. This should beef up the rear end for the power I hope to make and hopefully make finding axles less of a headache. Worse comes to worse, Driveshaft Shop will earn some business. I also purchased a spare rear subframe and front crossmember which had the rack relocated as well as 6 Z32 calipers. Yes, 6. This is because the GKTech rear end kit I also purchased from Officer Dan has a provision for dedicated dual rear calipers.

Here is everything when it came back from the powdercoaters. Spoiler: he fucking killed it. This is prismastic powders illusion violet with some subtle metal flake. Every picture makes it look different due to how it reacts with angles of light. I'm so stoked - even if this is really isn't visible for the most part.




I ordered rebuild kits for all 6 caliper from Z1, got EBC yellow stuff pads for all of them and got to rebuilding. I also installed some speed bleeders but in hindsight wish I just got new clips and such. I cleaned up what I had and they looked pretty damned good so instead of stopping and waiting for new clips, I rolled with it. Everything went together nicely, lubes it all up and admired the calipers once again. These will go on with AgencyPower conversion lines for the regular brakes and the dedicated handbrake calipers will be custom lines I'll make shortly once I position the handbrake where I like.



I have a few sets of some three-piece wheels to shuffle through that are all pretty wide. Originally they were going to be for both of these cars but the RB20DET in the Skyline refuses to explode so I can't justify putting a different engine in quite yet. Once it does, I'll swap in something with more power to where it has the balls to spin such wide daddies. The rears are 18x12, fronts are 18x10 but I have some smaller spec'd wheels specifically for upfront to suite the angle kit. Also in the first picture are a pair of red Bride Euro II's that will make their way in the car. I had the door cards stripped of their grey leather and red BRIDE fabric installed in it's place but I don't think I have any pictures of that currently. The rear seat will most likely be wrapped in red BRIDE fabric as well after the cage is in and I know what needs to be altered.