First and foremost I have to give thanks to my mechanic and friend Juan Castaneda. He has helped me with every mod on this car. The car wouldnt be where its at without him. The hardest working mexican i know!
Onto the build, in summer 2006 I sold my first car and found this gem on CL.
Such a breath of fresh air. Finally a clean stock 240! No welded diff, full interior and one color! Strong motor too.....or so i thought. A month or so after purchasing the KA went bye bye :0wned:
FRONT CLIP TIME!
Out with the KA!
In with the S13 Redtop. All work done by VIPGarage with the help of Soap(currently in the marines.....miss you man!) their awesome mechanic! If it wasnt for him none of this would have gotten done.
Now that my car had been running perfectly. I had to get rid of the seats. I guess i was spoiled from my gs-r leather. Here they are in all their stained and smelly glory.
To this....Bride Zeta III Gradiation and Bride XAXII
Next up....The evil curse of all fastbacks with spoilers. CANCER!
That was fixed by taking a trip to richmond to purchase a CF hatch someone was selling.:
I cant believe i had this in my car. Introducing my steering wheel with special features such as old man steering wheel leather wrap and mysterious sticky substance in the middle horn:
A quick purchase from Logan @ Aspec and Jdm Theory and i ended up with this setup. KEY!S steering wheel and Works Bell hub and quick release:
Enter SUMMER 2007. I ordered a shitload of parts all recieved and ready to be installed. Countless hours were spent staring into nothing trying to figure out why the hell cant we put this in. Damn japanese directions mean nothing! And their drawings didnt help!
Suspension(kei office xt, cusco front and rear sway bars) and brake(Q45 calipers and cross drilled rotors with HKS teflon brake lines):
MMmmm Gold and green hotness:
Interior(takata harnesses, miracle x bar, autopower roll bar)
Engine(ARC intake Box and Greddy bolt-ons)
Exterior(vis carbon fiber doors)One of those what the hell are we doing moments:
This is how we looked most of the summer lol(i'm on the left juan on the right):
The Garage aftermath, still looks like that
:
FALL 2007
Got tired of the nasty door panels:
Bought some Bride fabric from Nukabe Automotive to upholster door panels and other misc interior parts:
I spent all of fall/winter/spring saving for aero and wheels. I was thinking of Vertex, Msport, Dmax, Ings but all of a sudden i was introduced to VIP styled cars. I guess to me it was more appealing because I wasnt looking to track my car. And the styling was so simple but clean. Sure i could buy a high priced aero kit that has been copied by every ebay company alive. But why be like everyone else when i can be different? So i decided on the following.
Thanks to Van Phan of
www.OneTonGarage.com I recieved my Supermade 180sx Body kit along with Headlight Covers and 326Power roof spoiler and Supermade rear spoiler(not pictured). Not only did he supply the parts, he kept me updated from the time they left Japan to my door. As well as provide me with a lot of knowledge on modifying the car. Another person I have to give credit to on this build. Here's a picture of his gorgeous Q45 on Leon Hardiritt Ordens:
Early May:
Here is the box in my garage:
Lets take a look inside....
LAZY MOCK UP TIME!
Early June
The car has been at the body shop since Mid-May. Since then it has had its interior gutted, windows removed(which revealed front window rust which will be fixed), (PDR)Paintless Dent Removal throughout the car, rear window washer shaved and fenders rolled. The bulk of the work are the quarter panels which were in really bad shape. After lots of PDR, metal massaging the body guy is finishing up on them. Then the doors and front fenders come next. I wish I had some before pictures, but the work they have done so far is amazing.
Car should be primered by the end of the week and paint process beginning next week. Enough talk onto the pictures:
Where I'm at right now......
Obviously waiting for the body work and paint to be done and wheels to come in. Should arrive within the next two weeks. What wheels you ask?
Thanks to my sponsor, Work Wheels USA, I will be running Work Varianza D3S.
I'll keep this thread updated as much as possible. Hope you guys enjoyed the journey so far, still have some to go
