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

[tuzzio]

Originally Posted by thermogod

so i hated that red circle too - i talked to someone that has these and you can pop that circle out from the back and cover it with something else. the circle is just a red reflector glued onto the back of the lens.

https://zilvia.net/f/showpost.php?p=...&postcount=170

[thermogod]

sorry i know y'all want cool pics - think i'm gonna take things a slightly different, and much better, direction.

i dropped off the bumper and skirts to get them wrapped, and on the way home was thinking that my front bumper is too wild for how i want the car to look. the style makes a lot of promises that i don't think the rest of the car lives up to. so it's up for sale on all the FB groups. but...

i need a balance of a mature front bumper, something flat on the trunk, and side skirts that weren't meant for overfenders (which i have).

new plan:
origin trunk spoiler/something similar
instant gentleman front bumper
same side skirts
less tire

anyone advise against this rep? don't care if i need to sand/drill etc, i have the tools
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184362456877

otherwise i can't find just the bumper anywhere else

[kanyedian]

Originally Posted by thermogod

was thinking that my front bumper is too wild for how i want the car to look.

anyone advise against this rep? don't care if i need to sand/drill etc, i have the tools
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184362456877

I like the look of that! I dig the bumpers with the lower lip section is posterior to the bumper bar. If that makes sense haha.

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by kanyedian

I like the look of that! I dig the bumpers with the lower lip section is posterior to the bumper bar. If that makes sense haha

I'm glad you get it. The visaero one sticks forward, and that's not what i like.

[thermogod]

i was about 0.5mm from rubbing through my harness from these 45 sidewall tires.

didn't do the world's neatest wire tuck, but i did a safe job and retaped any areas that needed it. i believe only verts have this extra fender brace, which was really annoying to cut - maybe i'll get a strut bar to make up for my new lack of chassis rigidity. yes, it needed to be cut.

i now have an schassis missing no fender liner clips/screws (minus the push ones) which i figure i can be proud of

made s13 to s14 radiator brackets which i will improve later, i just needed the general dimensions down. and wanted to replace my zip ties.

repurposed the old rubber hood seal to fill the gap between radiator and frame.

instant gentleman bumper and battery bracket are on the way, skirts should be done next week, and i'm figuring out where to get some 215/40 and 205/40s. i know that none of this is showcar quality work, but i'm just a guy in a garage with my first s-chassis.

[S14Gio]

Originally Posted by thermogod

sorry i know y'all want cool pics - think i'm gonna take things a slightly different, and much better, direction.

i dropped off the bumper and skirts to get them wrapped, and on the way home was thinking that my front bumper is too wild for how i want the car to look. the style makes a lot of promises that i don't think the rest of the car lives up to. so it's up for sale on all the FB groups. but...

i need a balance of a mature front bumper, something flat on the trunk, and side skirts that weren't meant for overfenders (which i have).

new plan:
origin trunk spoiler/something similar
instant gentleman front bumper
same side skirts
less tire

anyone advise against this rep? don't care if i need to sand/drill etc, i have the tools
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184362456877

otherwise i can't find just the bumper anywhere else

Hey man, I really dig the progress so far and am looking forward to seeing more. I picked up a kit from the same guy selling that Supermade rep for my 14. I haven't attached it yet but it seems to all fit fairly well, but it isn't drilled or anything. Ive had multiple buddies run it on their Miatas in the past and they've all been hapy. FWIW. Keep up the good work!

https://ibb.co/WWVvCzm

This is just a test fit of the kit, no hardware or anything holding it on and it hasn't been sanded at all.

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by S14Gio

Hey man, I really dig the progress so far and am looking forward to seeing more. I picked up a kit from the same guy selling that Supermade rep for my 14. I haven't attached it yet but it seems to all fit fairly well, but it isn't drilled or anything. Ive had multiple buddies run it on their Miatas in the past and they've all been hapy. FWIW. Keep up the good work!

it's weird that the guy says "no idea where these came from", isn't it? good to hear. thank you. the supermade rep is really the only aftermarket one i want - the type X, KBD, duraflex junk, is a little too wild.

[S14Gio]

Originally Posted by thermogod

it's weird that the guy says "no idea where these came from", isn't it? good to hear. thank you. the supermade rep is really the only aftermarket one i want - the type X, KBD, duraflex junk, is a little too wild.

Yeah kinda odd, when I picked the kit up from the guy he had a warehouse full of kits for a bunch of different cars. Weird. Maybe he just stumbled across the warehouse one day hah. The Supermade is cool though, understated. Car's lookin good though.

[thermogod]

instant gentleman time. will start mounting this after i get it wrapped and get smaller tires.

[thermogod]

many things have happened since september 8th, which i'll post when they're finished...

teaser for now. this car is now a wingless slab. not one of those Texas cars, i mean it looks like a flat brick, although it should have coupe doors... can't wait to get the rest of it done.

[kanyedian]

You could land a plane on that flat runway you got there!

:P

[thermogod]

here we go, part 3. i didn't feel like waiting for a finished bumper for this. holy shit, can't stop taking pics of this car now (more at the end).



i drove another 100 miles and decided it was time to GET GOING. never had a more satisfying 2 weeks of work. let's see...

step 1: rust. this bash bar looked pretty bad. the rust was all structural, and it was so bad the license plate screw holes no longer had any thread, and the license plate light bracket was shaking when i drove the car. picked up a new bar and bumper, and got to work...




picked up a new bracket, painted it. on the right you can see the junk that came off the old one just from taking the lights off.



then came the exhaust hanger. this was not fun at all and killed 3 dremel wheels, but it actually worked. $80 worth of ebay later, and a lot of sanding, grinding, cutting, and really annoying angles with locking pliers because 3 out of 5 bolts were stripped...





painted the bash bar, reassembled, cleaned the trunk and the surrounding trim, here we are. i do need a new spare tire cover to support the carpet, but that's low priority.



coolant leak! got under the car and figured out why i had consistently needed to add coolant for the past few weeks.



this is not a good sealing surface for a thermostat housing gasket. previous owner slapped a ton of RTV on here and called it good. when i did the job earlier this year, i "cleaned" it off. that meant cleaning it off the housing, but not the mating surface, and not the RTV inside the depressions in the flange of the housing.

i got it, or at least i got it good enough. sealed much better. thermostat weep hole at the 12 o clock position!


what about the rest of the cooling system?

obvious rust residue inside the radiator. but it didn't take much flushing to get this out, coolant was all green, and i felt much better than when i drained it on page 1 of this thread.


coolant stuff back together! added one more washer to the power steering pump. now only the return hose leaks (because it's 30 years old and getting porous). i can live with that.

and then for my favorite part. as promised, now that i finished messing with the mechanical shit, i get to mess with the looks. i think it looked good before this, but i hated the wing, the ride height, the tire size and the way my tires audibly scraped around turns.


getting real close and personal with the bumper on the way to the wrap place


gotta do what you gotta do, with offbrand "Super Stable" coils. removed the bottom 2 spring collars on the front 2 shocks, dropped the springs all the way down. lowered the rear 2 springs. adjusted all other necessary crap to ensure i had sufficient shock travel and wasn't being dumb....


mocking up the skirts, which fit GREAT. the flanges just need some help. i'll heat them up and stick them on properly later.


i put the car back on the ground and my taillights wouldn't shut off. helpful people told me to check that the brake pedal switch was being actuated by the rubber stopper on the pedal, which it wasn't, because it wasn't there.

the actual worst job i've done working on the car, not kidding. i had to glue a rubber stopper on the backside of the top front facing part of the brake pedal, directly between the steering column and gas pedal. whatever.

the last and best step here was smaller tires.

215/40 and 205/40. best $300 i've spent on the car, it ended up significantly improving how it drives, lowering it to the actual height i wanted, completely erased any fender scraping, and they look great. i hit really nice backroads on the way back from a car meet, it'll sound dumb, but for coilovers i've never heard of, it drives great.

oh, and it looks great. need a tonneau cover!





sorry about my bad quality pics. haven't really mastered getting them uploaded. what do y'all think?

[kanyedian]

Really nice job replacing all that rust! That must bring peace of mind. I like that last picture with the side skirts and that rear bumper. Gives it that drift race car look with the shortened rear bumper. And I dig the wingless!

Have you thought of tinting the windshield? I'm seeing that more here in FL and if I don't go very dark I think I would like it on my vert !

Those tyres fit nice also. How did you plug the holes from the wing on the trunk?

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by kanyedian

Really nice job replacing all that rust! That must bring peace of mind. I like that last picture with the side skirts and that rear bumper. Gives it that drift race car look with the shortened rear bumper. And I dig the wingless!

Have you thought of tinting the windshield? I'm seeing that more here in FL and if I don't go very dark I think I would like it on my vert !

Those tyres fit nice also. How did you plug the holes from the wing on the trunk?

thanks!! i need to address the subframe rust at some point though. really the whole chassis should be wire wheeled/sandblasted and undercoated, and i'm willing to put the time into having that done because i'd like to keep this car for a very long time.

i'd tint the windshield but i like the whole "no roof" thing because i get to be outside inside a car. don't want to tint what i see through. the wing holes....are covered with electrical tape til i paint the whole car lol

a few questions for anyone that has knowledge:

• when i first crank the car over, RPMs will always drop to 0 unless i hold the gas for 2-3 seconds. i have no IACV mini harness at all. will getting an IACV harness help with cold starts?
• when people bypass the clutch interlock relay on manual swaps, where is the bypass located? right behind the relay?

[thermogod]

yeah. baller. needs paint!

[AKADriver]

I'm impressed that you found the upper part of the bumper-to-exhaust bracket on eBay. I looked for one for years before finally landing one in a junkyard that still had seized bolts stuck in it and needed work.

Any time I found someone parting out a car I'd ask if they had it and they'd say "yeah" and then send me a pic of the W-shaped piece that the rubber hangers fit into. I'd try to explain what I was looking for and they'd be clueless or "Oh I threw that out when I installed a bash bar".

[thermogod]

if you ain't seen "part 3" yet, go read it up there.

did 123 miles today. left home in 44 degree weather, to work, to my friend's house, to Chilis, to drop her off, then back home. i did go sideways over every speed bump at work, hit the exhaust flange a few times, everything else was great. no other scraping to report. temps were great but my temp needle was jiggly as fuck on the highway (someone said it's a cluster issue).







s14gio, apparently the supermade bumper was covered in sticky white primer that stuck to the wrap when the guy tried to wrap it. it's getting redone now. i stand by my decision not to paint it, i'm not ready to paint shit on this car until i future-proof everything underneath it.

cleaning the top! didn't know 303 aerospace worked on vinyl.


picking up the bumper, sanding the hood, wrapping the hood, then we'll be pretty much done til wintertime.

[S14Gio]

Originally Posted by thermogod

s14gio, apparently the supermade bumper was covered in sticky white primer that stuck to the wrap when the guy tried to wrap it. it's getting redone now. i stand by my decision not to paint it, i'm not ready to paint shit on this car until i future-proof everything underneath it.

Ahh damn man sorry to hear about that headache. Looks good though, excited to see how it turns out. Mine's getting painted now and the body guy's had some issues with it too.

[kanyedian]

Originally Posted by thermogod

cleaning the top! didn't know 303 aerospace worked on vinyl. https://i.imgur.com/36lUjdU.jpg

That looks like a nice change! I have not heard of this product. How long does that refresh last? Is it back to what it was after a week or so?

If not that might be nice to try on my Jeep Gladiator which has some plastic fading out from the sun

[projectsupra]

A little late, but something interesting to note since I also have that Nismo style bumper.
I just got a set of 180sx front and rear bumper supports and the front fit behind the bumper perfect, no cutting necessary, bottom of the support lines up perfectly with the top of the ducts. I know the US support is boxed but I didn't know they were different sizes?

[thermogod]

Originally Posted by S14Gio

Ahh damn man sorry to hear about that headache. Looks good though, excited to see how it turns out. Mine's getting painted now and the body guy's had some issues with it too.

had to offset my NRG steering wheel with genuine Erebuni and Supermade and Enkei stuff, right? i'm picking it up on Tuesday. can't wait to see how it looks.

Originally Posted by kanyedian

That looks like a nice change! I have not heard of this product. How long does that refresh last? Is it back to what it was after a week or so?

If not that might be nice to try on my Jeep Gladiator which has some plastic fading out from the sun

so far it seems permanent - the dust is gone, i did another 96 miles after cleaning the top and it still looks that shade of black.

Originally Posted by projectsupra

A little late, but something interesting to note since I also have that Nismo style bumper.
I just got a set of 180sx front and rear bumper supports and the front fit behind the bumper perfect, no cutting necessary, bottom of the support lines up perfectly with the top of the ducts. I know the US support is boxed but I didn't know they were different sizes?

honestly not sure, someone more knowledgeable could probably confirm.

same spec, different shit.



took it to new york this weekend, still with no bumper. i keep scraping my "GodSnow" exhaust, it's definitely the lowest part of the car. it's designed pretty badly, none of the hangers line up, idk what's going on with it.

[DEGUZZI]

Originally Posted by projectsupra

I know the US support is boxed but I didn't know they were different sizes?

I believe the reinforcements are even different between US chuki and zenki front ends.

I have an OEM front reinforcement for Silvia S13 it might as well be DIY C-channel bash bar.

Not sure if I still have the reinforcements for my pop-up front ends, but I'll compare it with the Silvia one if I do

[thermogod]

welll, here it is. i gotta say i love it. thanks, Supermade rep dealer. this bumper perfectly matches the style of the rest of the car.







obviously the kit and the hood don't match the rest of the car. legitimate paint is a wintertime thing. and i don't have much else I want to do to the car RIGHT NOW. so...I would consider this "build" pretty much done til wintertime. i want to take all the suspension off, strip it, paint it, do new bushings, wire wheel the underside of the car, POR15 it, etc...

also, i have grille material i plan to use for the bumper that will match the "grilles" on the side skirts.

[S14Gio]

Looks great man. Bumper came out rad!

[thermogod]

a relatively long way from where we started. i think i'm done messing with it for now. my winter plans are somewhere in this thread already. thanks for the help guys!

[Thursday7]

Reversed photo fucked me up. I was like why does the exhaust exit on the passenger side? lol.

Otherwise, great work brother.

[thermogod]

hit a thousand miles driven, since i reconnected the speed sensor. awesome. thanks everyone for reading.

[thermogod]

things have gotten a little out of hand recently. hey powdercoat guy, give me my stuff back so i can make it to Lock City next Saturday...

[thermogod]

getting the car back together and decided to run the carfax. here's your nine year gap of the car sitting in new york:

and, turns out this was a Maryland car that made it as far as North Carolina.

it actually does show maintenance history up to the point where it stopped driving. anyways, random details, but i love details like this. got some work to do.

[zwzweston]

Great transformation so far, love to see one of these being brought back to life. Verts are underrated imo