Levan's 93' hatchback resto/custom 180sx build thread.

[jchrisw85]

ball so hard

[Levan. B]

Onto the rear subframe and suspension of the car..
Bolted up all of the suspension arms, spindles, Diff, Axles, and Hubs and then re-installed the subframe to the chassis.

The sway bar was put back on after this photo was taken with brand new end links and energy bushings in them.



As for the suspension arms I decided to go with ISIS, I know there is a ton of criticism on the brand, but I have ran these arms on my DD for a while now with no problems. This car is NOT a race car, I'm not trying to save weight or anything like that. That being said, I see no problem with running these arms on it aside from Heim joint noise, which could be replaced with aurora heim joints. If anything happens to them i know I have a great warranty on them.

For the Coil overs, I threw some old ISIS coil overs on the chassis for Mock up so that the car could be rollable until I remove the BC Racing BR coil overs off of my other car and install them on this one.

The BC racing BR's the day I bought them.

Front suspension, Rack, Hubs, Brake lines and brakes installed.





I went with Agency power brake lines, and some re-manufactured Z32 30mm Calipers up front. The rotors I attempted to use were 13" Brembo's but the bracket I purchased ended making the caliper too far away from the rotor. I went ahead and put the stock z32 rotors back on until I could find a solution to the problem.

Re-installed some goods into the engine bay, repainted the brake booster so it could look fresh again and cleaned up the grime on the brake/clutch lines. Also pulled the harness back up obviously.




As you may have noticed in the other photo, the gas tank was dropped. It was caved in pretty bad, and It was looking like I wasn't going to be able to replace it...
So i ended up buying a brand new OEM gas tank, Lol.




I also ran across a BRAND NEW OEM sunroof, The sunroof whistle has always peeved me... especially when I could hear it over my radio at highway speed.
I attempted to just replace the rubber on my old sunroof with an OEM seal, but it fit terribly. I think that they are vulcanized to the glass at the factory and I had no way of doing this, so I seized the opportunity and picked up the new sunroof.

I love it.

[project_silvia]

wish i wouldve took the time your taking with my build

[jdmjap808]

Where did you get the sunroof from?

[RichieSR20]

The bottom of your car is outstanding... This car is going to be incredible!

[Tempo]

Originally Posted by jdmjap808

Where did you get the sunroof from?

bump +1 id like to know also lol

great build btw, love that first pic of your gold hatch, sorry to hear about it being peiced away, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

cant wait to see more

[PSI240SX]

We bought the last one in existence from the dealer new along with a lot of other parts which you will soon see.

[sky high]

wow this is really nice. I'm using this build as a prototype for my own hatch build.

[CamryOnBronze]

Man, so jelly of the underside of this car and the sun roof. Awesome attention to detail!

[srstan]

loving it. keep up the good work

[Levan. B]

Originally Posted by jdmjap808

Where did you get the sunroof from?

Originally Posted by Tempo

bump +1 id like to know also lol

great build btw, love that first pic of your gold hatch, sorry to hear about it being peiced away, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

cant wait to see more

Originally Posted by PSI240SX

We bought the last one in existence from the dealer new along with a lot of other parts which you will soon see.

Yep, The sunroof came directly from Nissan, And as my Father said (PSI240SX) was apparently the last one.

I miss driving that gold car already, its sitting on dollies right now.

Originally Posted by CamryOnBronze

Man, so jelly of the underside of this car and the sun roof. Awesome attention to detail!

Thanks man! Haha, I figured some of the other type X bros would get a kick out of the sunroof.

[tricky_ab]

Originally Posted by RichieSR20

The bottom of your car is outstanding... This car is going to be incredible!

I was thinking the same thing!

[iLagX]

how much did the brand new gas tank/sunroof cost you?

[azsr20det]

Originally Posted by iLagX

how much did the brand new gas tank/sunroof cost you?

pretty sure fr sport has the tank for like 250 or something lik ethat
dunno about the roof tho

[wacko2]

so wat happen to ur old s13 hatch

[Frankz91]

Looks real clean loving the paint man.
Hopefully I'll see you dipping around some time i be out in Pomona sooner or later i'll see you.

[PSI240SX]

We're on the opposite coast of Pomona lol. Try Florida.

[Levan. B]

Back on track to the body work..

I wanted to keep the stock body, and to fit the wheels I was planning on buying I would need to pull the fenders. Since I pulled the fenders on my old car, and I knew how the old battles fit compared to how the new wheels would fit by calculating the width/offset I brought out the eastwood fender roller and very carefully pulled the fenders.



Took all of those silly stripes off of the doors, and started sanding.



Taped off the area where the stock hood insulator went and sprayed some lizard skin on that too.



Then put on some coats of paint.



After filling the door with sound deadening, laid some paint on the jambs





Took some time to test the color out on a fender that was not being used on the car.
This is just single stage paint, the car will be painted in a booth with two stage.



Finally, the chassis was back on the ground again.



As for the hatch, the spoiler was already removed on it. The only thing we had to weld and smooth out was the window wiper hole. When the car goes to the painter it will have the third brake light and rear markers welded up!

Also as I forgot to mention previously we welded and smoothed out the antenna hole.



Here is another random shot of the lizard skin inside the car.



Laid some primer on the chassis and sent it off to have the front end put on a frame machine to see if it was straight, and to line up the front bumper and fenders as perfect as possible.

[AMPZ]

Sick build! Really excited about seeing this finished!

[sky high]

What did you use as sound deadening in the doors?

[alexanderig]

Build is looking really nice and I'm in love with that color. What part of Florida you in?

[Martino]

Fml, such an awesome colour. Stoked to follow this build.

[Pray And Spray]

Love the attention, looking forward to this

[killer240]

that color is sex

[Levan. B]

Originally Posted by sky high

What did you use as sound deadening in the doors?

Dynamat, covered the entire inside of the door. If you tap it sounds like its solid. I did that on my gold car and it worked great for road noise.

Originally Posted by alexanderig

Build is looking really nice and I'm in love with that color. What part of Florida you in?

Thanks man! Central FL

Originally Posted by killer240

that color is sex

I'm pretty happy with it, Pictures really don't do it justice. Plus, everything that has been posted is only single stage, the two stage color on the actual body is insane looking in sunlight.

[homeslicej2]

I'm enjoying seeing the stages of your build come along. What led you to use Lizard Skin over other sound deadening products? Also, why didn't you spray it inside of the doors? Seems like that would have been easier than trying to get the Dynamat laid down. I wish now I would have used a spray liner in my wife's car. Installing all of that dynamat extreme was a pain.

[Riq]

One of the rare fla builds being done by a person that takes pride in their car. I wish Miami wasn't so full of fail wanna be ricers. Moar builds like this are needed here. I commend you sir, keep it up.

[EazyS13]

awesome build cant wait for the final product. thumbs up for doin things right!!

[alexanderig]

do you attend any of the local events at CFRC? i live in miami but would love to see this car when it gets done in person lol

[Levan. B]

Originally Posted by homeslicej2

I'm enjoying seeing the stages of your build come along. What led you to use Lizard Skin over other sound deadening products? Also, why didn't you spray it inside of the doors? Seems like that would have been easier than trying to get the Dynamat laid down. I wish now I would have used a spray liner in my wife's car. Installing all of that dynamat extreme was a pain.

Glad to hear man. The reason I used the lizard skin in the interior over the dynamat is because it is much easier to cover that much space with it, its a very thin coat, and it's much less expensive than trying to cover the whole car with dynamat. The inside of the door had a coat of lizard skin and dynamat, just to try to get it as quiet as possible.
Yeah, its definitely annoying.