Red RB25 S13

[Ka24Power]

Hey everyone. Here is my build.

Had this s13.



A Farm tractor turned in front of me on a back road, ending its life.



After many half assed builds I finally decided to give it one last shot and build the s13 I've been trying to build since I was 16.

Picked up this clean, automatic, old-man owned s13 in March 2012



Extremely clean by Canadian S-chassis standards



Bought it and caught up on all the neglected maintenance, cleaned it thoroughly inside and out.

Shortly after I 5 speed swapped it and kept the single slammer running for a while longer. Collected a bunch of quality parts.

SPL multi link, HSD coils, some cheap wheels, some cheap seats.
5 lug and R32 GTR brake setup, complete rear 5 lug and Z brake setup, etc. Everything has been carefully chosen and only the best parts have been used/installed.

Swapped my coils, 5 lug and front brake setup on to get it rolling on the new wheels. Drove it like this for a few weeks while I sorted out my engine plans.








Went to the strip with my buddy and his low-11 second LS swapped s13



Bought a house part way through the summer and put spending on hold. Few months after getting settled I sourced an engine.

S1 RB25 with basic bolt on mods. Installed that over a weekend.






Drove it like this until the end of the season. Pulled it off the road and left it for a few months.

Spent some more money, collected some more parts, and started to get the car ready for spring.

I'm not going to list all of what I did, but here are some pictures of the pretty things








That brings us to where I am now. Waiting for my wheels to come back from powder coating, changing up the colour for the new season.

Cheers

[BossHogg]

god damn that 240 got man handled. Sucks to see, glad you came out ok. Car looks good man. Looks like you are going down the right path.

[Big Zee]

Gold always works for a brake caliper

nice build so far, keep the updates going

[OrangeVirus1]

omfg that was so funny.

Here is my build :
clean car
picture 2:
and that's it! dead car. thanks for looking.

[LJBS13]

very nice. perfect platform for a build and looks like your taking it in a good direction. looking forward to seeing whats next.

[Ka24Power]

Small update for today

Went to Buffalo to grab a new exhaust. No markings on it, but I'm 99% sure its a Buddy Club Spec 2

Have to modify my downpipe for it to line up correctly, so its just mocked in this shot.

[WristWork]

The paint looks very good!

[christpatillo]

The paint looks very good!

[Ka24Power]

Thanks, its amazing what a proper claybar, polish, and wax will do for 23 year old paint.

I can't wait to give it a fresh polish and wax for this year. Needs it badly.

[tricky_ab]

It's nice to see more Canadian content on here...

[Ka24Power]

Over the last few weeks I've been working away at the car

I dropped the 18x10.5+15's out back to a square 17x9.5+12 setup, and while I was doing that I had the colour changed up





I started fitting some of my aero. Unfortunately I only have replica rear valences at this point, but OEM are coming later.

I also installed my Bride Reps with some MO super low rails I picked up



Installed my new Mishimoto rad, and had to pick up some ISIS slim fans to cool everything down.



And this is how it sits currently. Swapped in my Z32 MAF and chipped Z32 ecu but unfortunately the ECU has a dead injector driver. Waiting to get that issue sorted out so I can tackle e-test and finally align it properly.



Oh, I almost forgot. Here's my dog hard posing with the car

[Dolph_KYAS13]

Car looks good. ... yea buying a house sure gets in the way of things :/

[1jzjoey]

damn that thing looks clean!

[Ka24Power]

Car is almost ready for the road, but I'm having issues with my chipped z32 ecu and found some issues with my harness. I decided to pull it out and re-wire everything, pics in a few days when my harness sleeving shows up.

Since it doesn't drive at the moment I decided to clean it up in anticipation of the first drive.

Mostly original paint cleaned up really well after a wash, clay bar, high speed buffing, high speed polish, and a hand wax to finish it off. Front lip will be re-sprayed soon.

[nield13]

update this thread man....

[1990 240sx Rb25]

enjoy the buddy club spec 2 i love mine with the sound of my rb25

[CharCharXD]

Tight fitment on the rad haha.

[psi999]

Love the stance

[GU40sx]

whats the sizing on your tires? i'm gonna run 17x9.5 also.

[Ka24Power]

Late summer update

I did stuff. The car is faster, and running great.

I'll write more later, but for now here are some pics!

[Pinggg]

simple yet so clean, keep it up!

[WristWork]

God damn give me your camera lol,
was about to tell you to paint that lip!
Looks amazing so far, get some skirts

[mr.nismo.]

Wheels? Msg length

[Ka24Power]

17x9.5+12 all around. 215/40/17 up front and 225/40/17 in the rear

[mr.nismo.]

No like what wheels are they?

[Ka24Power]

Varrstoen ES2.2.whatever fake TE's. I want new wheels but these will do for now

[mr.nismo.]

Love the way they look

[Ka24Power]

3 ½ years later…

It’s time to revive this thing. When it came off the road in 2013 I was having trouble getting it to pass Emissions, struggling to keep engine temps down, and had no power steering. It looked ok but it wasn’t what I wanted when it came to driving it. Lots of city construction and the car's small but annoying issues had started to get to me. I had started to regret my decisions to buy replica parts and had no doubt in my mind I wanted to replace them all with tasteful quality pieces.




It went into storage and when spring came around I had all the same issues and no desire to deal with them. I was done with it, I decided to take some time off and park it in the garage. I started to disassemble slowly from time to time. I wanted to get rid of parts I knew I was replacing to free up extra cash and space. During this time the car almost got parted out a couple times – and I’m glad it didn’t.




While the car was in the garage being neglected I was spending some time on local classifieds, YAJ, and forums collecting new parts for the build. This part was fun – hunting down the deals and stockpiling for a later date. I started putting some of the new parts on the car in the garage to keep the space as tidy as I could. Most of these pictures are old ones pulled from my phone, sorry for quality!

As mentioned earlier in my thread I had some Kouki 180sx aero and intended to complete the kit.








I ditched the Bride replicas and waited to find a deal on a cool fixed bucket drivers seat. I found this on YAJ and decided it suited my needs. I haven’t 100% Identified it, but I believe it’s an Artis II – can anyone confirm?






Shortly after this excellent condition Bride recliner popped up. It matched the driver’s seat well so I had to have it. I believe this one is a Brix 1.5 but again, unsure.




Found some aero marker mirrors



A 330mm Nardi classic, BLITZ horn button and some silver face Greddy gauges. Some other electronic goodies will be joining them, more on those later.



I sold the Varrstoen’s to my buddy for his Type-X hatch and started looking for new wheels



It took a while to decide what I wanted. There are so many classic wheels that look amazing on Kouki S13. I thought about Blitz 03, Panasport, LMGT4, Te37 and more. Eventually I found these Regamasters in need of light refinishing on YAJ. I had a local wheel guy Blain @ Rightous Garage take care of the rash and one crack (surprised?) and had his powder coater match the original colour.
F: 17x9j et18 215/40r17 Dunlop Z2
R 17x10j et20 245/40r17 Michelin pilot





Throughout the build hiatus I was occasionally working on the car. I bought this car as an automatic and it was equipped with cruise control as well. As a result there was a lot of extra wiring in the chassis. I had notched my upper rad support to tip the rad forward and make room for the power steering pump and belt again. This meant the bulky harness running below it would no longer fit – time to remove all the extra wiring!



I’ll suggest that if anyone else is only picking away at a long term is thinking about tearing their harness apart to thin it out – DON’T stop half way through and wait over a year to get back to it. I can tell you first hand, that is a bad idea.

It basically stopped me from doing any further work on the car. It was such a defeating sight when opening the hood that I really lost motivation to go out and look at it.

The car sat a long time before I got back to it. My friends harassed me about the car that will never be finished. As mentioned it almost got parted out. I told myself I wouldn’t give up on it…

That brings us to current day. This winter I found a shop for rent close by for a good price. It’s heated, has running water, enough room for 2 projects and room to do side work. I split the shop with the owner of the black type-x. He’s a welder by day so we have been talking about a few projects in the engine bay.

I moved the car to the shop after we set up and moved all our tools there. It was a great feeling seeing it out of the garage and into a new space, along with that came some much-needed motivation.

I decided the best way to go at it is diving right into the wiring. In addition to thinning the harness I’m fixing the wiring for my reverse lights, which never worked after the engine swap - nor did the speedo, or the tach. I started to make my new transmission sub harness and once that is done I have a battery boost/charging point to mount and wire. The engine harness is going to get a clean up and re-loom as well.

Here are a couple pictures from the shop today. I didn’t take many, most of the time was dedicated to studying wiring diagrams and planning mine out on the white board to make sure I have everything done correctly.





Thats all for tonight. More updates and work coming soon

-Andrew

[Just Alex]

Man this car had a nice starting point, most aren't that clean nowadays..

Every build has its ups and downs, just keep keeping on and you'll see it through. I too have learned not to stop a build half way through haha. I actually ended parting with a project Miata a couple years ago because of that exactly. Glad you are sticking too it though!

[tricky_ab]

Pleasantly surprised that you have this car still... Keep at my man! I can't wait to see this thing buttoned up and on the road!