What was your Mistake or Learning experience?

[hatch4life]

welding next to a rag soaked in wax and grease remover laying on the rad support

spoiler alert, it went up in flames pretty fast and ruined new paint, but harness was fine

[brndck]

I wired an electric fan backwards once, in a rush to make it to ASB.
car kept getting hot no matter what I did, had to come in every other lap and spray it off with the hose, then I realized the fan was spraying water BACK at me.

OOOOOPS.

[dizzariot]

I've had friends talk shit on how selective I am when it comes to buying cars...but I've never had a problem daily driving and S13 in the US. Fucc tha h8rs.

...but when I got to Japan I fucked up. Found a Midnight Purple Type X for sale in Osaka. I was so excited by the price and how quickly I had come across one that I bought it without traveling to Osaka to see it in person. My thought process was something along the lines of:

Oh man I'm in Japan and dealerships are obviously all good sellers. Way better than America.

Wrong. Car was more of a 'project' then it should have been. I ended up trading a newer, turbo car for my NA Q's two-tone. I guess it worked out in the end.

Oh and I had a coupe when I left for boot. It was the ugly champagne color but it was an SE with HUD, sunroof, and brown interior. Should have never sold it :/

[dallaschristman]

Worst mistake I've made with my car? Buying a single cam to swap in my dual cam car. No compression test, no checking to see if it was running. Just bought it and figured it out. HUGE fuck up.

[kyral]

broke the plastic crown on the alternator. that was the end of that alternator

over torque'd trans cross member bolts and stripped them

stripped a ka idler sprocket bolt because nissans toque spec is insane for the amount of threads the stock bolt threads into

threw out my stock exhaust

installed a trans without fully inspecting it. locked up before the car came off jack stands

[3NDLESS]

Buying coilovers and somewhat lowering my car thats on 15s... 3 finger gap between ground and lowest part (pignose lip). My highschool used to have no speed bumps and now they do.. I look like a fucking idiot going through speed bumps.

[feito]

S-chassis related? Lets see:
Making a pretty nasty gash on one of my perfectly new tires while driving my lowered s14 to the alignment shop without rolling the fenders first.
Putting a crack on my then crackless dashboard while moving some parts in my garage.
Wasting money on a few stock harnesses before giving up and buying a WS one.
Other car related stuff includes:
Buying a pretty decent 280z with minimum rust, taking the project too far to a rotisserie point, giving up and selling it.
Too many projects at a time.
In life? No to think about my future and start saving from a younger age...

[CamryOnBronze]

Oh man, too many to list over the last decade of messing with my S13. At this point I regret basically anything I did to the car that cannot be easily reversed- anything that requires cutting, welding, etc. I wish I never shaved the engine bay or pulled the rear quarters, but those are things I have learned to live with.

My biggest regret with my car is not quitting while I was ahead. I made a lot of changes to the car in 2012 that ultimately made me hate driving it and lose interest. Having my first daughter seemed like a good excuse to sell it and get a more family-oriented project car (an Evo VIII,) but I think I really just wanted a new project. I ended up buying my S13 shell back two years later and doing it all over again- now THAT is stupid, lol.

I'm thankful to have the car back now, but if I had just stopped where I was with it in 2011 I would be in much better shape financially now. I enjoy the build process too much and just can't leave anything well enough alone, but I've been making progress with that flaw over the last couple years.

[eagleeyes221]

I have a bad habit of spending money before thinking of a better solution to my problem. Before doing anything to any project vehicle is to go in with a plan with plenty of notes and you can never do enough research on how a swap can be done. My advice to anyone reading is enjoy the car more and get it to a running condition and leaving it there for a longer period of time before any upgrades. It really keeps your interest peaked longer in the project instead of staring at your car on jack stands

[tuzzio]

my biggest mistake was buying a 240.

[SimpleSexy180]

Originally Posted by na12uto

Let's hear your mistakes or Learning curves

Let me tell you about the time I welded my diff and didn't realize it needed fluid. Blown diff on freeway, no bueno.
Or the time I was installing some fenders but it was too late and thought ziptied fenders were fine. They caught air and cracked at the top

How I didn't look to buy any fluid. The other day I still don't use a car for welded diffs.

[Zenki_559]

Originally Posted by SimpleSexy180

How I didn't look to buy any fluid. The other day I still don't use a car for welded diffs.

umm.... what?

[EFITTZY]

In hindsight I did a lot of stupid things in my younger days with my first s13... We're all young dumb and broke at some point right? (still broke, still young, and still dumb btw)

Bought a 91' pos hatch when I was 17. PO was king of DIW. Clapped suspension, slammed on its nuts, and covered in hoonibro stickers

So being a stupid broke boy who wanted a cool car I decided to get some rep chuki side skirts, and try my hand at the illusive "Home Depot" front lip.

Long story short I got flamed for it here on zilvia...

Times goes on and you get wiser. Sold that hoopty to help fund my first proper project car (95' s14 zenki with a red top sr20 swap.)

Best advice is to read as many build threads as you can to see how things should be done... oh and stop half assing things

[Malik]

Originally Posted by EFITTZY

Best advice is to read as many build threads as you can to see how things should be done...

this is really the main lesson though.

[slider2828]

Not replacing all the heater hoses under the manifold. Ended up costing me an engine on the track.

Not buying saving and buying an FD RX7 instead....

[Juucso]

Going all out before I've driven it fairly stock.

[Bnr32gtr]

Owning 3 of these $ Pits. My thoughts were That way one is always ready jam horrible idea but I can't seem to part with any of them it's crazy

[joshg51]

Not pulling a screw out of my tire and plugging it right away. came out while driving on the freeway and shredded my inner sidewall which led to me almost spinning out and denting the shit out of my quarter panel. Tire was brand new too.
Untitled by joshg51, on Flickr

Also going overfenders is wack, i wish i just paid a body shop to finish my quarter panels.

[CrimsonRockett]

Keep it simple.

Spend money on quality parts.

Tackle one project at a time. When you start taking on 3-4 project cars at once, you'll have 3-4 incomplete cars versus one fully built one.

I do not regret going over the top on my current build because these would be things that would definitely bother me down the line.

I would obviously rather be driving my cars versus just having them sit around for years at a time for the sake of a tear down / rebuild, but reaching personal goals is also very fulfilling.

[green_bullet]

Bought a project 240. O_o .

(It's currently my daily, so not to bad of a mistake... But still taking my money )

[k00laid83]

For me it was having multiple projects on a college budget. I had a ef civic 4dr that I learned on. Then I picked up my s13 and was building it for 7 years. Then trying to do both cars and have the funds for both was not smart. So, I sold my civic to my little brother, and fully committed to the s13.

My biggest regret with my s13 was buying cheap parts from ebay just to get the car on the road. They've lasted me a while but now I'm at the point where I'll never buy ebay / knock-off. I'm buying nothing but quality parts.

[enkei2k]

my mistake - going for the exterior stuff first instead of internals...

had authentic Volks rims, Sparco seats, Silvia grill, aftermarket HU and loads of stuff that made my car stand out obnoxiously in a 'steal me' sort of way... all with a stock KA engine.

All that pretty stuff gets stolen and had to start from scratch.

Now keeping outside car stock looking on the outside while focusing on the engine and suspension parts.

[Kingtal0n]

not using mostly stock engines when you want reliable daily






is often a costly mistake

[Beanzo]

car blew alternator fuse, tracked down 75 amp fuse, blew it again, got another fuse and alternator, swapped them both, blew it again, come to find out there was some exposed wire from my harness grounding on my chassis

[Future240]

I rushed and bought a bad chassis. The engine was junk and threw a rod in a week. A while later I jack it up and find out the drive side rail is pushed in (looked like someone jacked it up wrong). All of the struts were blown because the jackass prior owner put lowering springs on the stock struts.


When the KA blew I rushed on that too. My pops found a rebuilt ka for $1,000 and I said pull the trigger. A few days later on 240atlanta (rip) a fully built KA goes for sale for the same price.


I didn't set my coils right and blew one.


Life happened, I went through stuff and neglected my car, ended up with a bum engine, with compression dead in two cylinders.


Now she sits in pieces in my basement while I slowly resurrect her.


If I could do it all over, I would have found a better chassis. Saved all the money I spent on KA's and had a shop swap in a notchtop SR, then I would have done suspension mods then exterior.

[Highway Riding]

Selling any and all of my toys in order:

My 350z
My Sr20 S14 Zenki
MY 2JZgte sc300

Now I am looking for a new toy. Either another S14 a FDRX7 or effin merican Challenger SRT8 manual! Point being think it over before you sell your rides. Take your time and think it through!

[romo180]

Purchased my first s13 in 2012 from the original owner..super clean stock car...decided to make it a “track car”. within a year it was fully gutted and engine removed. ended up selling the shell for 500 because my attention had moved to my Jeep.

[Jo_Galezo]

Whenever buying parts or anything second hand, make sure you ask for as many pictures as you can of every thing that you think can be messed up & don’t buy something because you are excited finally found it. I’ve gotten ripped off because i was blind to my own hype[emoji854]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bnr32gtr]

Getting married, dumb as fuck

[sr vegas 240]

Trading my daily (wrx) for a project car (s13) now I have 2 kids and no backseat. Best mistake of my life never getting rid of her.