how i saved a trashed east coast vert (with bonus KA24DE issues)

[brndck]

great thread! cool to see you saving this one!!!

[SupaDoopa]

Don't do the luggage rack.
Only take the wing off to go something flat like a flat deck spoiler or drag wing-style.
Go more low so you smack your frame/pan on everything for no reason.
Nip the rust bud immediately.

[ingmar F]

nice progress! car looks a lot better, personally i like the tire size on your car. the arches are nicely filled, and it still looks functional. skirts and an front lip (maybe eastbear or something) would look great i think

[thermogod]

brndck, ingmar, supa, thanks. i know it's not "i put uras drag wing and 470mm overfenders on my corvette swapped custom fab chassis", but i am glad people are enjoying this.

i know the luggage rack idea could be dumb, i was considering something non-permanent like this. at an even lower height, with clear tails, wingless, at the beach, could be a good look or it could be really dumb. we'll see. doubt i'll do it.

https://www.thenissanfigaroshop.co.u...ith-wood-slats

i am also thinking eastbear lip and dorkidori skirts. these duraflex ones are definitely not the style i want; they look really dumb with no overfenders and unaggressive wheels lol. i'm embarrassed to even post pics of mocking them up. and they fit like shit! but we knew that already!

so...now saving up for skirts and a lip, different hood, probably have the whole car repainted, straightened out, fix that upper windshield rust...

[SupaDoopa]

Originally Posted by thermogod

brndck, ingmar, supa, thanks. i know it's not "i put uras drag wing and 470mm overfenders on my corvette swapped custom fab chassis", but i am glad people are enjoying this.

i know the luggage rack idea could be dumb, i was considering something non-permanent like this. at an even lower height, with clear tails, wingless, at the beach, could be a good look or it could be really dumb. we'll see. doubt i'll do it.

https://www.thenissanfigaroshop.co.u...ith-wood-slats

i am also thinking eastbear lip and dorkidori skirts. these duraflex ones are definitely not the style i want; they look really dumb with no overfenders and unaggressive wheels lol. i'm embarrassed to even post pics of mocking them up. and they fit like shit! but we knew that already!

so...now saving up for skirts and a lip, different hood, probably have the whole car repainted, straightened out, fix that upper windshield rust...

I will say that the Duraflex shit sucks for fitment and only gets worse with how many times they use the mold. JPFiberglass is also bad [although I needed R32 rear overs, bought them as throwaways and they were literally spot on]. KBD is heavy and hard to paint regardless what everyone says.

Be a boss and SuperDoof the car.

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by SupaDoopa

I will say that the Duraflex shit sucks for fitment and only gets worse with how many times they use the mold. JPFiberglass is also bad [although I needed R32 rear overs, bought them as throwaways and they were literally spot on]. KBD is heavy and hard to paint regardless what everyone says.

Be a boss and SuperDoof the car.

superdoof or going Silvia with an instant gentleman kit would be my top two, BUT i want to try out the OEM+ look first.



just got under the car after another 100 miles. things did feel a little extra shaky around here, which is because my flex disk has committed toaster bath. EDIT: i'm gonna use the Dorman 935-403 flex disk for a 2007 5-series and get smaller bolts so it fits. always trust random internet advice.


this is the only other concern, some seal on the rear caliper?

other than that, car drives great, just gotta save up some bread.

[thermogod]

so, Dorman 935-403 is what i'm replacing the driveshaft flex coupler with. this is for a 2007 bmw 535i, but i'm told it will fit if you replace the 6 bolts going through it with 3 M12X1.75 70mm bolts (trans input to flex disk) and 3 M12X1.75 60mm bolts (flex disk to driveshaft).





so far, it does fit. needs a little persuasion, but the rubber is flexible. however, i can't get the 3 bolts off my driveshaft-to-coupler flange. there isn't enough room to fit a 3/4" socket on there and my 3/4" wrench didn't move it.

instead, i'm drilling out 3 of the bushings to 1/2". the threads of the stock shaft-to-coupler bolts fit - but the unthreaded portion is something like 12.5mm diameter. so they won't go all the way through unless i do this...



anyways, that's currently in progress and it is working so far. i also took the bumper off and (because i was bored), cleaned up a few things and changed the diff fluid, which obviously looked like chocolate milk, and the drain plug looked just like my trans drain plug.




i know this isn't monumental progress, but the restoration part of this comes first.

[thermogod]

and here we are. sorry if some pics are huge.




installed the BMW flex joint on the driveshaft after giving up with my shitty drill bit and having a machine shop drill press through the bushings. it's clear the driveshaft isn't all the way into the transmission, is this the difference between an ABS and non-ABS driveshaft? maybe the previous guy installed the wrong one during manual swap.




either way - 85% of the vibration in the car just disappeared after installing this, and the rest is from the carrier bearing. i'll go one-piece in the future.



after my clear tails are here, and after i start this new job i got, would like to pick up more OEM+ skirts and an Eastbear lip. KA will likely remain stock for now. over a longer period, i will definitely pull and sandblast the subframe, do new bushings and replace some of the rusty front pieces. have to also learn how to sand and repaint a couple areas. i also plan on swapping for 40 sidewall tires and lowering it a bit more to match.

[AKADriver]

ABS driveshaft is 20mm or 3/4" shorter. Looks like that's what you've got. Funny thing is it's the back half that's shorter and technically you only need to swap the front half for a manual swap. Supposedly the factory balanced them as a unit I guess but I've swapped them piecemeal and had no issues.

If you want I can measure my non-ABS driveshaft rear half to confirm. It's just sitting on my garage floor since I swapped to a 1 piece.

[feito]

nice to see an s13 being brought back to stockish condition rather than turned into a missile
following

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by AKADriver

ABS driveshaft is 20mm or 3/4" shorter. Looks like that's what you've got. Funny thing is it's the back half that's shorter and technically you only need to swap the front half for a manual swap. Supposedly the factory balanced them as a unit I guess but I've swapped them piecemeal and had no issues.

If you want I can measure my non-ABS driveshaft rear half to confirm. It's just sitting on my garage floor since I swapped to a 1 piece.

if you don't mind, that would be sweet. although i bet the only driveshaft piece that's harder to find than an OEM flex disk, would be someone selling only the front half of a non-ABS driveshaft.

i'll go one piece...when i have $400 and after my carrier bearing starts really blowing up

Originally Posted by feito

nice to see an s13 being brought back to stockish condition rather than turned into a missile
following

thanks!



battery bracket and the S14-to-S13 radiator brackets need fabricating.

[thermogod]

another couple comments.

i still am not running an IACV and not sure how it's possible. i have nothing plugged in to it, no hoses, the harness is entirely missing, and the idle screw doesn't do anything. so i set it to 1100rpm using the throttle cable adjustment. EGR and FICD are deleted - do i have an IACV delete too?

short of taking off the timing cover to check under there, is there any other preventative maintenance i can do to this KA? TPS has been adjusted. new gaskets everywhere. timing is set properly. thermostat opens and closes. new spark plugs, injectors and seals, removed the upper timing chain guide. the vacuum hoses look good, all ground connections have been cleaned, both coolant temp sensors look good. oil smells like oil and not gas.

anything else i can do?

[AKADriver]

Originally Posted by thermogod

if you don't mind, that would be sweet. although i bet the only driveshaft piece that's harder to find than an OEM flex disk, would be someone selling only the front half of a non-ABS driveshaft.

Ok, it's 27.0" / 685mm flange to flange for the rear half.

Front half is 13-3/8" / 340mm flange to the flex disc.

I'd sell you mine cheap but with one caveat, the rear U joint feels stiff. Not loose or noisy but notchy. I actually just replaced the center bearing though. It's a surprisingly easy job.

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by AKADriver

Ok, it's 27.0" / 685mm flange to flange for the rear half.

Front half is 13-3/8" / 340mm flange to the flex disc.

I'd sell you mine cheap but with one caveat, the rear U joint feels stiff. Not loose or noisy but notchy. I actually just replaced the center bearing though. It's a surprisingly easy job.

thanks - PM me if you have a price in mind, but if there's no negative effects of this at the moment i'll probably save money til i can get a one-piece.



i separated the halves to take the center bearing off and had no idea how to get this 27mm nut off. nissan used some kind of press to push the center into the keyed part of the shaft. couldn't manage to "un-press" it.

[SupaDoopa]

Strategically placed bolts in a vice, some blocks of wood, and a big 3/4" impact on reverse with immediate torque.

[AKADriver]

Yep. Clamp up the driveshaft in a vise, pop the spot where it's staked out with a punch or a cold chisel, then bang off the nut with an impact. Then I was able to pull the flange off with a regular gear puller. Make sure to mark the flange's orientation. Then I think I hammered the old bushing off.

My Ridgid 1/2 cordless took it right off, I think it's torqued to about 200ft-lb.

Get the new bearing as far on as you can, put the flange over it lining up your marks and use the new nut to send both the bearing and the flange home. Then torque it. Need a good vise for this because mine kept slipping as I was trying to put the 200ft-lb or whatever on it.

[thermogod]

didn't end up getting the carrier bearing replaced - i knew i'd need the tools you guys suggested, just didn't have the time to get them before doing this:



a 66-mile trip to gfs house! she was a little hesitant about the idea, but it went great. no temp issues. actually, nothing to report at all. proud of myself and my dumb KA. the ride had plenty of miles-long uphills on highways, which were no issue. although her parents watched me pull into the driveway scraping the shit out of my fender.

the carrier bearing, although it looked incredibly off center, didn't seem to cause any vibration - it was just my flex joint (although i should replace the bearing). feels like a whole new car.



66 miles is, i guess, as good of a test as i'm willing to do. today i need to do the same trip back home.

long-term, these are the 3 rust areas i need to address (besides powdercoating rear subframe). anyone aware if the shock towers are hard to cut out? and no, i'm not gonna tub this chassis lol



vert owners seem to agree this area sucks, although removing that trim piece is easy.

[SupaDoopa]

I'd probably also make sure your wheel wells and frame aren't shot. I am a firm believer with starting from the bottom and working my way up in this cars.

[AKADriver]

My car is rotted out in the same spot on the passenger side strut tower. Mine's actually worse even though my car was driven in Maryland all its life, but it's a hatch and was daily driven 14,000 miles a year for 23 straight years.

The best fix I've seen for that spot beyond replacing the entire strut tower/apron is to drill out the spot welds on the reinforcement plate, patch the hole underneath in the strut tower top plate and treat all the hidden surface rust (there will be a lot), then replace the reinforcement plate. I've seen people just make their own reinforcement out of plate steel and stitch weld it on, I plan to trace out the factory one and replicate it in CAD and get it laser cut.

And yeah start from the bottom and go up. The only reason I bought my car knowing the strut tower top was effed was knowing that the frame rails weren't. Though I didn't catch that my floor pans behind the front seats were also cheesy... oops.

There is no better feeling than being able to finally take your car for good long drives knowing that it was you that put it back together.

[Thursday7]

I've been keeping up with this thread but somehow missed your replacement of the driveshaft rubber (what the euro dudes call a guibo). Other than having to drill out the certain holes, has it been othewise a long-term install success? I've always lamented how replacing a worn shaft is basically up to how good of condition the next one you can find is.

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by Thursday7

I've been keeping up with this thread but somehow missed your replacement of the driveshaft rubber (what the euro dudes call a guibo). Other than having to drill out the certain holes, has it been othewise a long-term install success? I've always lamented how replacing a worn shaft is basically up to how good of condition the next one you can find is.

yes, and ain't that the truth for most of these parts: my missing A-pillar trim, shift boot, etc, all you can find is someone else's used parts...eventually used parts make their way between 82 owners and get truly beat up. i guess you have to intercept 240 parts at the beginning of their use cycle before someone else destroys them...

but now that i'm using the BMW guibo, now that i've done 256 miles on it, i can say it was a success. i used teflon tape on all 6 bolts through it, along w the 4 bolts on the rear diff flange, and nothing has backed out. the vibration is gone.





supa, i checked under the car yesterday. lots of surface rust. i do not see anything structurally concerning, and i would call this "drivable until winter at which point i should drop the subframe and sand and powdercoat with new bushings" - anyone see anything of particular concern here? other than, you know, all the hardware and bushings are crap? the frame forward of this point is rust-free.

in case anyone's wondering how i can call this a "build", the mods moved it into this section. i hope this is interesting enough and i do intend to keep updating progress. i have transformed this car from completely undrivable to one that does 66-mile roadtrips and will continue to modify/improve it.

[AKADriver]

Nothing of immediate concern there other than the probably seized hardware on the RUCAs and toe links, and the kind of weird combo of having RUCAs and toe links but not forward links. Those heim joints have got to be basically shot, they all have rust on the actual ball part, but if they're not loose yet, send it. For all you Cali guys this right here is why I don't have heim joints on my street driven 240.

[thermogod]

new clear turn signals installed.

can't imagine why my left turn signal didn't work before...

but now neither turn signal works LOL. the rear ones flash - the front ones seem to have turned themselves into running lights. my right rear turn signal is now permanently on.

was told i have bad flashers, but for the life of me i can't seem to find where they are (above the steering column). i took off the cluster/surround, steering column covers and the lower dash cover, and still hear the flashers clicking above the steering column, but can't SEE them.



about to pull the fender off and the cluster back out to tuck wires and replace as many interior LEDs as possible with white ones. a little more modern look eh?

[SupaDoopa]

Depending on the bulbs, some LEDs will need resistors to work - otherwise the car will think the bulbs are out. Weird system but I've seen a few cars exhibit things like that.

As far as the imagines underneath, someone beat me to it. All those adjustable arms look pretty beat - the heims looking like they're gone. I'd probably invest in a full arm set if your plan is not to go back to OEM [which I assume you aren't], very some new bushings for the subframe and diff, and do a full rear end drop to sandblast and powder everything.

The rear end is literally the first thing I do on every car - drop it, break it all down, sandblast it all, powdercoat, install new bushings, change all the lines, change the diff fluid, and before I toss up the completely re-done rear end, POR/15 undercoat that whole section of the underchassis the subframe sits against. I'm meticulous. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability and TRY to only have to do it once [unless it's a drift car in which I understand why this logic cannot be completely followed].

[thermogod]

sounds about right. i'm still gonna try to find where the fuck my flashers are. it's infuriating, i took off half the trim on the left side of the interior and still hear the flashers "ticking" from some unseen piece.

was gonna do the fender wire harness tuck today. that didn't happen because of the fender brace.


FML. i knew the process, just not that apparently the convertibles have this fender brace and coupes do not? i don't have a sawzall. don't want to buy one.


whatever. got plenty of junk out of the fender and now i own pure gold (AKA an intact, fully mounted fender liner).

[thermogod]

and then, part 3, miscellaneous interior mods...pulled all the interior bulbs out (map lights, both footwell lights, dome light) to see about getting the bulbs matched at a hardware store to convert to LED or white bulbs.



engineering nerds rejoice: i pulled apart the AC control unit to see if the interior LEDs can be switched out.



there are two main LEDs on the circuit board. those LEDs project light upwards and out through this literal prism, towards all the buttons and sliders. this is cool.



what's not cool is that you can't replace the green lights with any other color. each button has this green crystal/LED thing behind it that illuminates. these aren't removable, (clearly) i tried. maybe one of those crazy crystal astrology girls can fix my crystals.



i also pulled the shift knob and boot back off to get better ones. why does my damn shift knob commit scooter ankle every time i take it off? this is the second one in a row that did this.


nothing monumental, i know, but it's gonna rain for a while and just waiting on parts and money. hoping some of y'all enjoy details like these.

[AKADriver]

Those aren't LEDs on the main HVAC board, they're 1.2-watt light bulbs, seriously. If you do change them for LEDs let us know how it turns out, I replaced mine with new bulbs but I had to buy like a 20 pack.

https://zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=680576

[EFITTZY]

Glad to see you updating this regularly. I look forward to seeing what you've been up to when its slow at work. Keep it up OP!

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by AKADriver

Those aren't LEDs on the main HVAC board, they're 1.2-watt light bulbs, seriously. If you do change them for LEDs let us know how it turns out, I replaced mine with new bulbs but I had to buy like a 20 pack.

https://zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=680576

got it. i'm currently trying to figure out what size they are or what the "turn to release" bulb mounts are called, so i can get red ones to match the cluster.

Originally Posted by EFITTZY

Glad to see you updating this regularly. I look forward to seeing what you've been up to when its slow at work. Keep it up OP!

thanks. when it's slow at work, clearly i focus on things like the background color of my AC control unit...

i hope i'm making the small details remotely entertaining enough to continue this thread before the real big jobs come later in the year for this car.

[thermogod]

i'm honestly conflicted about where to go next with this car. it is just way too clean to cut it up for overfenders and a kit the way i wanted to. i wanted the "super-low on chrome 17s with super doof and overfenders" look. and i don't know if a vert would look good like that. the issue is, when most of the fenders on the east coast have already been riveted through, cut up and widebodied, fiberglassed etc, why should i touch these mint ones?



and i wanted to keep it KA, slap a livery on it, drive around and take it to dinner and car meets and other places you wouldn't think to see a car like that. i know, "fake drift car poser" whatever. i know it would be an abrupt end to this thread if i stopped modifying this one and saved up for a coupe. or i could get a coupe roller and swap all these things over....conflicted