Style Up! 2 S14 builds in 1

[xoxide]

Alright, so this is a copy/paste from another local forum so if some of it doesnt make sense thats why. Style Up is the name I use to make Hydros, knuckles, LCA's, and custom fab under as well as the drift team im on for anyone who was curious.

Ill post my kouki (daily driver) first:

I picked it up in Feb 2012 after selling my first car (spec V). Met the buyer of my car 2 hours away, and then immediatly drove 2 hours back home and picked up the kouki around 11 at night... Probably one of the happiest days of my life considering I had wanted a kouki since I was young and my cousin (bigs) showed me one on ebay.


First order of buisness was to clean the car (it was disgusting), and that included debadging and getting rid of the Nissan hamburger on the hood. So I ebay'd it up and bought an OEM silvia emblem.


Went through a little ricer phase, and picked up some Navan rear valences for $4 at the junkyard, and a ebay roof spoiler. Got tired of the look, sold the valences and kept the spoiler for a little while longer (no pics)
So, then came the first major purchase... Coilovers! Picked up a set of Fortune Auto's because I love them, and I am on their racer support program haha.

Tucking the Harness:

Rolling the fenders:

Setting the rideheight for a little while until I could get the right rear tires:

(also painted my wheels white)

Good enough for a little while:



Then, I graduated highschool, I bought paint materials and JDM kouki aero.

So, last pic with an OEM lip


Sold the lip for $300 and bought JDM bumpers (my cousin picked them up from Z1 Motorsports for me):


Finally in my office:


So, at this point I was pretty excited... But I hated the automatic, so I bought all the swap parts and got to work with a friend.
On the lift:


Under body was surprisingly clean!

Also picked up an Exhaust off him:

Sounds great by the way... Not raspy and not super loud.

So, after I drove home, the car started making a terrible grinding noise... Thought it was the tranny (which the 1st was bad), put a new one in and the noises got worse... Pulled the trans off again, and figured out that the Spec stage 2 clutch did not like the stock pressure plate (didnt realize it was stock), so I put a stock clutch in for a little while and it has been ok for now).

At some point towards the beginning of the build I bought some DDM Tuning 8k HID's for the headlights and 10K for the fogs. They are not near as blue as they are in the pics:


Small update, started getting the kouki ready for paint this weekend. I pulled the trunk off to fill in the spoiler holes.

Started by sanding the whole trunk, then using a wheel to get it down to bare metal near the holes:

Welded and ground down smooth:

At this point, from the heat of the welding the trunk got a little warped around the holes, so my dad started beating the trunk with a body hammer getting it flat again (no pics), then we put a light coat of body filled over the area, and over the other small dents that we could not work out with a body hammer and dolly.
I ran out of time and had to go back home, so we ended up spraying a really light coat of SEM etch primer over it so the bare metal areas would not rust.

When I go back out Wednesday, I will be sanding all the etch primer off, doing a light skim of polyester putter, and priming it with PPG 2k primer, as well as prepping some other areas of the car to.

So, got a late start thursday, but got a good amount of work done. The hood was probably the worst in terms of paint condition and dents. Also finished work on the trunk.
So, finished off with a final skim coat of polyester putty to get rid of pin holes and other imperfections:
(pic is weird, dont know what the lines are)

Then, I got to sanding down the hood... So much work.

Filling in some of the larger dents (tons of smaller ones that I didnt get a pic of):

Priming them:

Primed, the Keystone Premier primer is a really rad tan color... Kind of excited to see the car all this color actually. :lol:


Decided to start on the really bad area, the Quarter panel... It was a dented/smashed nightmare, and took most of the day to get straight.
Started by stripping the bad areas down to the bare metal, and hammering what we could with a dolly and hammer.

Then we used a pretty cool tool (forgot the name), that spotwelds little copper prongs onto the dented area and then you use a jackhammer type deal to pull the dents out. It was really cool to see this tool work.

All smooth metal wise:

Then, we put a light skim of polyester putty over it to get it nice and smooth:

Sanded down, then coated in 3M Charcoal to show the lowspots:

Lots of little steps in between because they are boring and I am really bad about taking pictures.
Primed with more Keystone premier primer, then spraying SEM guidecoat:

And done for the day:

Looks like ill be fitting in with most of the 240 community for a little while. :lol:
For anyone wondering, this will be a windows out paintjob... I just have to drive this car daily, so we are holding off on pulling everything until its ready for paint. And I was told that the good areas of paint do not need to be primered, which I was unaware of... Learn something new every day. :roll:


Cut the licence plate holder out:

Cut a piece from a donor bumper from some other car:

Screwed the two together so it would hold well for the bonder to set:

Then, took 3M Panel Bond and pushed it lightly into the rough areas so it would bite in well:

After that hardened, we ground it some to roughen it up, and put down a thick coat to cover the massive indent, and so we didnt have to use bondo to cover it:

Sanded again for a final coat:

One final coat of panel bond, before a light skim of bondo:

Then I stopped taking pics for a few because I was covered in bondo dust, but here we put 3M Charcoal over the bondo to show low/high spots, and blocked the area:

It is not primed yet, but I got the valences/rear bumper mocked up:

So at this point, the bumper and valences should be primed this sunday, along with another body panel (either fenders, or the rear QP)...
Oh, I also got in the paint and clear:


Supposedly this clear is brand new on the market and the best money can buy... Really got hooked up by the paint rep my dad has at the shop... Well over $1000 in paint/clear alone.

its been too wet to drive my car back to the shop lately, so heres a small update.
Finished the front bumper

Primed the rear Valences

Then went to KMS and had a blast hanging out with everyone... look someone even took a pic of my car!

Sonja's (nismojoesgirl) black kouki behind mine
On the way home.. obligatory gas station shot

The next day, I got to get the car back to the shop, so we primed the front fenders


And untaped so I can drive back home for the day:


I dont feel like posting all the progress pics so here is the progress as of 4:00 today.


We werent completly happy with the finish, so we ended up wetsanding down the car (1000, 1500, then 2000), and buffing it (3M Perfect It! Stage 1, 2, and 3)... Doors are done, car should be done tommorow and ready to be put back together.
Heres a quick snap of the door showing the shine and baby's ass smooth-ness. :lol:


Shitty cell pics of my car finished, been to lazy to take better ones.


I really need some decent wheels.

[xoxide]

Huh.. Guess I didnt see this get approved. Anyways heres some more.

Around mid december I got a text from Jeff of this smurf blue slammed zenki sitting at the house... It was one of his friends who had just picked it up, instantly I knew I had to have it. Fast forward a bit, and I met the owner at KMS drift. Little chit chat later, I had talked myself into trading the KA I had picked up from Jon, for his SR out of the zenki. A week or so went by, and we talked some more and agreed on trading cars. I traded my KA and my coupe for his zenki and SR.
Pics of when I first got it home:




^My grandpa cracking himself up about the process of getting this shitbox off the trailer
Didn’t look to bad at first sight right? WRONG!!
Did I mention how much it SUCKED to get it off the trailer?

Basic rundown on parts list was decent-
Blacktop SR with Isis t28, samco hoses, koyo radiator with flex-a-lite fans, Freddy Midmount IC setup, greddy intake…
Chassis wise the car has ZX brakes, Isis RLCA’s, Tien tension rods, Nismo powerbrace, Offbrand RUCA’s, etc etc.. Lots of parts I don’t feel like listing.
So anyways, like any car I get I instantly have to tear into it to check it out, My dog absolutely loves sitting in the car while im working on it, and you’d have thought I was the worst person in the world when I took the seats out of the car.. So I threw some towels down and proceeded to keep working:

(at this point I am really bad at taking pics, but everyone knows what taking a car apart looks like)..

So the further I got into this car, the bigger of a shitbox I found out it was. I found out the total history of the car off a guy on zilvia, apparently it caught fire while drifting, so the prev owner welded a new drivers floorboard in, right over the existing rusty singed one. Little rust here and there, sheared bolts, just normal 240 dumbass owner stuff.
The motor was a whole nother story… What a heap of shit.

Just to start off, you can see the head… Chipped cam, more sludge than ive ever seen in my life, prev owner blocked off the turbo water lines, turbo oil feed line was held on loosly with 2 threads, the valvecover and head were chipped, oil return line was cut, SO much more. So I sent my head off to our engine builder to get hot tanked, decked, and have a competition 5 angle valve job. Also ported/polished the runners. $300 later, I had a brand new head:

While I was in there, I had them inspect the valves,install new OEM valve seals, and install BC titanium springs/retainers and BC guides.
So next I paid some attention to the block. Ran up to the gas station and grabbed some diesel fuel to scrub down the block because I did not want to remove the rotating assembly at the time:

After:

Grabbed a few cans of carb cleaner and sprayed the shit out of the internals.. Pretty spotless now.
So at that point I ordered a new OEM full gasket set, ARP head studs, and a few other goodies.. Started putting the motor back together, and it sits almost done currently.
Onto the chassis.. Obviously I had no intention of this car being a street car, although I may register it to drive to meets/play dates if you naw’ mean.
With that being said, I stripped the interior, took an airhammer to all the sound deadener. Within about 4 hours all the sound deadener had been chipped away and the interior cleaned with a wire wheel down to bare metal:


Primed it, and picked up some single stage white… Lady gave me the wrong color so I ended up with a pearl white which looks like crème in the shade:

Oh yes, did I mention I took on the task of stripping the harness of everything non-essential?

The job wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone makes it sound.. Just label everything.

Removed over 170 wires in total.
Relocated the fusebox under the dash… Still need to go back and shorten the wires, but I was in a rush trying to get the car done for the event this weekend, so I skipped that part. Will be doing that soon.

So I mocked stuff back up to see how it was:


Grabbed the steering wheel off the sprint car, picked up a boss hub and an NRG quick release kit… Love the wheel. Doesn’t get hot in the sun, uber light, and looks awesome.
So with most of that being done I started working on a gauge cluster/switch panel bezel:


Sprayed it with Duplicolor bedliner, so it has a nice texture, and will never scratch haha:

Oh yeah, got an oil pressure, water temp, volts (not going to use), and boost gauge off Ashibah, HKS turbo timer off Sprunt, and a Greddy Type S EBC off rixskyline. Running efans, push start, headlights, and wipers off of switches.. really all I need. Will get a strobe light kit for the highbeams eventually for shits-n-giggles.
Lets see, after that I tried cleaning the disgusting Fride recliner I intend to use for the passenger side.. But my dog kept attacking the carpet cleaner machine, which I found funny as hell:

Plan on using one of my Bride fixed back on the drivers side, picked up another Buddy Club rail off Zilvia for $100 bucks.
That about does it for interior until I can start getting stuff back in and tested once the motor goes in.
Last weekend I was bored/to cheap to buy a battery box, so I grabbed some spare sheet metal and went to town:

Made a top strap to hold the batter, but no pics. Bolted the box town in my trunk, so now im good to go for KMS rules lmao.
Oh yeah, sold the Godspeed coils to Lowell and picked up a set of Fortune Gen 4’s for a sick price from Terry at Fortune Auto (hit him up for anything you need suspension related!)

So onto the engine bay… To be blunt, the bay was super nasty when I got it… I like a clean look, so I got to work.


Filled in misc holes, and painted it single stage white:

I had tubes bent for a tube front end, but since I was trying to make KMS this weekend, I didn’t have time.. So I will go back and do a tube front sometime in the future.
Painted all the random shit in the engine bay, and left it at that… Plan to tuck the brake lines and what not eventually but its good for now.

Blasted my calipers and repainted them some sparkly blue we had in our paint cabinet. Love the way they came out, so much better than the house paint- black they were before.



Next update will be progress coming up to my first event and to present day.

[xoxide]

Alright, so as ive said im bad about taking progress pics, but here is from where I left off, to how the car sits right now:

The motor I was working on, I ended up selling because someone came with a cash offer I couldnt refuse. I ended up picking up another full SR swap with a bunch of cool parts for $1200, so I cleaned that up and dropped it in the car. Turns out it had low compression and was firing on 3 cylinders- my fault for not checking. Its ok though, I sold it for more than double what I paid (parting it out).

So, sold both SR's but kept spare parts and cool parts, and went down to JDM Orlando and picked up a new motor set:

Unmolested motor, still had all the emissions stuff on it, and an OEM nissan clutch, so I do not believe it was a drifted car. Came with a tuned ECU and tubular manifold, so im assuming it had some sort of street/touge tune on it..

Got home with it around 2PM, dropped it in and had everything hooked up by 8PM that night thanks to some awesome friends:


Started right up and ran perfect.

Did some stuff in between here and now that I didnt take pics of...

Ordered Achilles tires:


Went and got them mounted:


Ghetto alignment the day before the event... not bad angle for a stock setup?


Then got the car loaded up and went drifting...


had a blast, for some reason the car cut out really bad in second gear (only while sideways), so I am currently in the process of trying to figure out that issue...

More pics from my first event:




First event as well as my first tandem with a good friend... Peer pressure won, and the tandem line was moving faster than single run line lol...


After the event I was kind of bummed about the cutting out issue, so I let the car sit for a few days and decided to fab up a hydro for the car. Fabricating stuff is a lot of fun for me, so it cheered me up and made me enjoy working on the car again


Just need to get it plumbed.


So, as of right now I have a full URAS Kouki kit coming to me from another member on here, I am in search of a Dmax kouki hood, and overfenders as well... After I finish sourcing parts the car is getting painted (most likely Habenero red)... May do the tube front now, not sure. Also about to do the Altima/Z31 rear brake upgrade because I stole the rotors and pads off the zenki for my daily.

More updates to come soon!

[FaLKoN240]

I like this! You guys do great body work it looks like. Great new owner for both of those cars.

[xoxide]

Thanks man. Once my Aero comes in and I can find a good deal on a hood my track car will be getting the same paint treatment. I almost feel embarassed drifting around the hoopty that it is now haha.

[KendallH]

Man, you definitely brought the zenki back for sure. Glad you're having fun with it. I'll be sure to say hey if I ever catch you around!

[xoxide]

^Its getting there haha. Still some stuff to work out. Forsure, ill be down south for events once I get the car to the point where im happy with it/its mechanically sound.

[fast250sx]

Where did you get this??? I f**ckin love it!

[xoxide]

Joes Racing Products. had it laying around from our sprint cars. They arent made for NRG style QR's so I had to drill the holes for it.

[K_style]

God !!!!! I love that color. what is the paint code?

[xoxide]

BN6 OEM Starfire Blue Pearl.

[aga]

that blue is really kickass dude. nice work on both the cars

[05subysti]

man i like both builds, you sure saved that zenki's life! btw what paint did you use for the engine bay and interior? was it aerosol or actual spray gun?

[xoxide]

Originally Posted by 05subysti

man i like both builds, you sure saved that zenki's life! btw what paint did you use for the engine bay and interior? was it aerosol or actual spray gun?

Thanks guys.

The paint used on the bay and interior is just Nason Single Stage Acrylic Enamel for a paint gun. Its about $50 bucks for a quart, reducer, and hardener from the local paint store.

[05subysti]

okay cool. If you dont mind, what spray gun and compressor do you use?

[S T Y L E S]

Wow! Loving the build! Thanks for giving me inspiration!

[zenkiset]

lovin' the zenki! keep it up

[xoxide]

Originally Posted by 05subysti

okay cool. If you dont mind, what spray gun and compressor do you use?

The compressor is a Snap on commercial grade 80 gallon (may be a little bigger), that is plumbed into the paintbooth and into a SATA moisture trap system. Its a really awesome system.

As for the gun I really cant remember because we have quiet a few. I believe for basecoat it was a SATA gun, and for clear it was an Iwata gun.

[Idahos13]

Awesome builds! I'm looking forward to more updates!

[Falkendrift45]

Post pics of the kit you got from me.

[xoxide]

^Its not on my car, I bought a URAS kit the day after I picked up the stuff from you. Wanna buy it back? lol

[Falkendrift45]

Originally Posted by xoxide

^Its not on my car, I bought a URAS kit the day after I picked up the stuff from you. Wanna buy it back? lol

Lol. I'm broke. I still haven't finished paying for that vg.

[rawgarage]

nice fab up on the zenki

[xoxide]

Thanks guys.


So progress has been a little slow lately, its been hot and humid as hell the past week.. Finally got the URAS kit (still looking for a type 4 drivers sideskirt) , Mocked it all up this afternoon. Need to make some brackets to hold the front bumper on and get everything bolted up.. And I still need a Dmax/Dmax style kouki hood!

[Idahos13]

Should have stayed Zenki front:/ lol

[xoxide]

I love zenki's, but koukis is where my hearts at haha.

[PureRush]

I like the two builds in one haha and that pearl blue is awesome

[xoxide]

Finally got a little time out in the garage friday, so I fabbed up a front bumper support/crash bar. Used 1 inch tubing, because I ran out of 1 1/2 inch, but itll be plenty beefy enough for now.

Started out really simple as just a bumper support:


Didnt like it, so I started adding more braces/supports:


Finished adding bracing:


Need to weld on some tabs to use Dzus buttons for ease of removing the front bumper still... But its pretty much done.



More updates soon hopefully. Shooting to start body work on this one this week.

[rawgarage]

nice bash bar setup.......keep it coming

[xoxide]

Just gonna leave this right here...


Got the color for the track car today, it's going to look beautiful on the car. Progress will be slow until after I get back from fd Atlanta, but after that expect some big updates.