Steve's S13 Build

[steve109]

Cheers mate, pretty much sums it up! Trying to go over every part and future proof it somewhat

[Tavinchi]

Nice car men! love S13 & i love you style
keep it up!

[Jlyons617]

Steve, A thought about your antenna. Be sure you have good power and ground to the antenna amp and a good antenna connection. Next, try temporarly move it out from behind that black section on the window. The black section may be metallic, and if it is, you're effectively blocking the signal from making it to the antenna aerial.

[steve109]

Cheers guys!

Jlyons it seems to work fine when the engine is off, but as soon as the engines turned on the signal seems to disappear. The black part is just a vinyl on the inside of the window. It should have good power having a feed from the constant live from the lighting circuit and a negative to chassis which has been ground back to fresh metal.

It is still something I need to go back and have a look at as my iPod does get a tad boring on long journeys! I just keep forgetting about it.

[steve109]

Pics from a small local meet of SX owners

[steve109]

Apex rails and kidney back supports arrived the other day so I got straight on it and got it fitted.






Now it does sit pretty high, but at a massive 5'8" it suits me just fine. I'd say its very close to the original seat position as I didn't have to adjust any of the mirrors.

I do need to adjust it over slightly to the left by about 2cm but to do this I need tools I don't have here so that'll come later, I may also add a couple of extra holes to make it sit lower when I take it out to dye my carpet next week see how that goes.

Super comfy, awesome to sit in. Drove around in traffic for about an hour before just to get used to driving with it and its fantastic. Makes the car feel very tight and a lot more useable as you can feel everything whilst being very secure.

I can see myself driving like a loon for a while..

[steve109]

Started a bit of work on the car today.



Stripped all the interior out to remove the carpet for cleaning and dying. Then put my bucket seat back in so I can drive it around still.

Under the carpets are in a lot better condition that I thought, little bit of surface rust and a load of dust. And my welds seem to still be solid and intact so please with that. Few snaps of it being emptied.

I'm going to board and carpet the whole rear and put the battery behind the drivers seat and box it in. I was going to repair the rear interior trim and dye it as well but they're way too broken, so I'll find some better condition ones and then dye those.

few snaps with it stripped. I'll give everything a quick de-rust and Krust session and then paint it before carpet/sound deadening goes in.





Also fitted new headlight and sidelight bulbs and a new breather filter for my catch can.

Had a massive scare, turned it over after fitting the breather filter and plumes of smoke filled my road.. Luckily its cleared up and stopped now, everything seems to be running fine. So I must have disturbed something somewhere when I tried to relocate it somewhere else.

Parts that came through the other day



Dyed the carpet




Painted out the inside to protect it after doing a bit of rust protection. It's not too neat but it's never going to be seen as the carpet will be there.



Ordered some new carpet, as I'm boarding out the rear half. Will be rust proofing and painting part of the boot as well to protect it.

More tomorrow

[steve109]

Update time, got a bit of sound deadening in and the carpet back in.





then placed in some extra carpet



then carpet in




I've also sorted out the basic boxing out of the rear and put in the battery box in behind the seat. Will take some photos later.

Decided it's going to look awesome.

[steve109]

Installed fuse holder, fuse, negative to chassis (seat belt point) and made up the ends of the positive battery cable today ready to feed through tomorrow. Also put the junction box into the engine bay ready to go. No pictures of these just yet, will grab some tomorrow.

I do however have pictures of the internal boarding out though. This is only loosely laid in there nothing is tied down just yet, as there's a few little bits to finish first, like boxing out the top of the battery to make an opening lid and obviously needs carpeting too.





That's mainly yesterdays progress no photos of the inside from today, but I've also sorted out all the mounting points for the boarding.

Petrol tank has been cleaned and given a lick of paint, ready for some underseal underneath then it'll be ready to install over the weekend.



Also decided that the kouki rep spoiler from magic aero that I got at christmas is going to get put on.



Hopefully the carpet will be here tomorrow so I can get the interior all back together.

[rsingh3g]

Loving this build man

[steve109]

Loving this build man

Cheers mate!

So the interior is done for now, everything is back in and bolted down and nothing seems to vibrate or bang around which is such a change to before its unreal. I've also put all the rear boot and boot back/lock panels back in which have basically been out for over 6 months so they make a small difference in noise control as well.

Been on a pic whoring session in the last hour so I'll just throw them all here and let them do the talking. Its not quite to the standard I was hoping for but its a much needed improvement. I'll probably re cover the battery box top as there's a little of the boxing exposed still. I had a bit of left over carpet so I've just thrown that on top of the boot boarding for the time being which is why it doesn't look cut to shape, but the boarding underneath is :thumbs:











And some general filthy exterior pictures because the weathers good









Not managed to get everything I hoped for done, but it leaves me with more to fettle with next time!

[steve109]

So! I've got a few bits coming to me soon

Ordered a radio din slot gauge holder to move the pillar pod and neaten it all up. Gone with one of these with the three gauge holes



Also getting a newer crank pulley off Jonny, as mines got a massive chip out of it

Just ordered a set of Japspeed Polyurethane engine and gearbox mounts as I think mines the cause of some horrid vibrations and knocking.



Just hoping they won't be too harsh, heard mixed reviews. Some people moan about it vibrating everything, some people say you barely notice so will see for myself and if I can't handle it then I'll sell them on.

Not that the rest of the car isn't getting a little hardcore now anyway is it.. haha. If anyone's going down to Japfest I'll be there for you to have a mooch around it.

I've also booked into a dyno day so will be able to see if she's healthy and what power is left in her!

Few pictures from Japfest

Cleaned the bay for the first time in ages



Driving down to notts the night before



On the stand




and this one thanks to chriscooke


Fuelling up on the way home as I was out of fuel on the way in, rode the fuel light for half an hour at least in the queue to get in

[pjurisprudencia]

woooo i remember reading your thread on zilvia!

[steve109]

Cheers man, yeah I spread it around a bit to get a few different opinions!


Up to a few things at the moment



Rockers off to change to Red, since the brown was crap, flaking and just not as awesome as I was expecting. They're currently being stripped and sanded ready for primer and paint tomorrow.



In the process of changing the engine mounts and gearbox mounts at the moment, all the bolts are off ready for instillation tomorrow.

Had to make an exhaust bracket for the gearbox mount, which was unexpected. but here's what I've done so far






so that's all set up ready to drop in tomorrow, the two outside bolts are just in there to keep them safe and hold the exhaust mount bracket on for now so I don't loose it but they wont be needed when putting onto the gearbox it seems.

I've also destroyed my pillar pod and started to mount up the gauges into the centre console

Chopped up the old little drop down din box I had under the stereo, so it could accommodate the gauges and also the gauge holder I bought so it'd sit flush with the stereo face with a dremel that didn't seem so impressed...








It's no where near finished yet, that's just a quick mock up of how it'll look. Hopefully I can get it sitting a little better as it's not quite to my liking at the moment.

Tomorrow I'll be installing the engine and gearbox mounts and hopefully taking off the rear section of the exhaust to alter the hangars so it doesn't foul everywhere, start to spray up the rockers and maybe in the evening start to finish the centre console. So busy few days ahead.

[steve109]

Few photos from today, first up engine mounts swapped out




No images of the new ones in yet, will get them tomorrow, but they are now in. Had to leave one of the locking washers off as the drivers side engine mount bolt wasn't long enough to allow me to get the nut on with both washers in. I'll just keep an eye on it.

Gearbox mount and exhaust hangar all bolted up.



Hot glue gunned the gauges into the holder and the din holder






Also sanded down the rocker covers, primered and then given a coat of nissan flame red






That's it for tonight, hopefully get the exhaust off and smash it with a hammer and heat until it stops hitting the diff and lacquer the rocker tops/polish them up and fit with new bolts and then fit the gauge holder