Shadowman's S13 blacktop hatch build thread

[elnino335]

just finished reading this and its making me want to go start welding my own tube frame

[Sstrappjr]

Great build so far!

[ShadowMan]

Elnino335-That motoivation bug is the devil, be careful. lol. I am glad I did it because I learned so much from everything, mostly from doing things wrong but now I know, and I'm all about others going for it. Any questions you have, I'd be glad to help answer if I can.

Sstrappjr-Thanks, I appreciate that.

[ShadowMan]

Update time. Was able to get the car back together and running in time for a track weekend. Pretty happy about how everything went down, especially for my first time with this car on a track. I do not own a truck or trailer and could not find one to borrow and couln't afford to rent one. So I packed everything I thought I would need and then some into the hatch and drove it from Pendleton up to Willow Springs for a Just Drift event. I beat the hell out of it all weekend long, and i mean I really laid into her. I held back only slightly because I knew I had to drive it home. Day 1 was me just getting used to the car, attempting donuts, figure 8's for the first half of the day, then wide sweeping drifts for the second half on the Balcony track. Didn't hit the dirt to much except when I went shallow into the back turn. 2nd day was at the Horse thief mile track and a bit more nerve racking, especially trying to link the drifts. Did quite a bit of off roading that day. I let one of the intructors drive my car and even he hit the dirt. But with all the advice and tips from any and everyone I talked to I think I progressed alright. I'd post some videos, but they are not nearly as rad as some of you guys who just link them turns in third gear with more smoke than a cheech and chong movie bellowing of your tires, so I think I'll wait until I have some good stuff to show you. Only casualties of the weekend was a passenger tie rod, the lower crash bar, the fenders cracked more, and the exhaust took a beating as well. The car just had so much grip as it would just hook and rocket off the track. I was running a set of continentals in the rear, 245/40's and they lasted both days. They are down to the wires now but never popped, so I have a butt load of tires for the next event. I also need to throw on some negative camber with wider tires in the front. But even after all that I was still able to drive it the 3 hours back home to pendleton. My wife followed me there and back in our hyundai and called me once we were on the road to let me know about the sparks my exhaust would shower her with when ever I hit a bump. Still don't have a new camera yet but as soon as I do, I'll get some pics up. That's all for now.

[lewisfk]

Hey man just picked up a welder and trailer fender from etrailer. I'm about to give it a try tomorrow. I'm on PTAD for 15 days, I aslo received my ARC wiring system for the chassis, what problems did u run into using the painless system?

[ShadowMan]

Oh I didn't use the painless system, I used the extremely long and painful, make-me-all-butthurt system. haha. so I don't know. Just label the shit out of everything. As far as welding, fitment is everything. It's 90% in the prep work.

[PG BOOSTED]

Hey man, i sell parts now. At a decent discount, hit me up if you need anything.

[Wizard]

awesome build so far just read through it i love all the custom fab work you need some new pics! its too hard for me to read what youve done haha

[drscooper]

the tube looks great man. learn everything now, drift it for a year and then re do it when you have cash saved up.

but great work none the less really like the duct work.

[ShadowMan]

Wizard- I hear ya, I'm all about the pics myself. Thanks for browsing thru it tho.
drscooper-You hit the nail on the head. That was basically the conclusion I came to after the weekend at willow springs. I just hope the car survives the abuse I put it thru, I've become rather attached to it after all this hard work.

My camera just decided to start working again, but I still need to get a new one that can produce better quality pictures. Here's a few for to keep you guys intersted tho.

The front took some abuse sliding off the track and I lost the lower crash bar, not that it was all that sturdy anyway.

Passenger fender tooka good beating too.

Front passenger tire decided to finally give up when I was driving home. I was about 10 minutes from my house when it happened. Thankfully I had a car loaded with all the goods to get it changed out.

Here's what's left of the rear tires. I bought these used with about 60% tread left and they lasted the entire weekend, never had to change tires until it was time to drive home. They're continental contacts 17" 245/40's. Too wide and too much grip from what the intructors told me, as well as the car just ctaching grip halfway thru some of the drifts and slinging me into the dirt.

And the engine bay, I never painted or clear coated and being out here on pendleton, there was a few foggy/rainy days that led to some surface rust. I'm not worried though as I'll be moving up to Montana soon and there will be plenty of winter time to pull the motor and redo some mistakes and get a coat of something on her.



As always, I appreciate you guys looking thru this and always welcome comments/critiques/criticism. Thanks.

[ShadowMan]

I also have to confess to a boot ass mistake I made. One of the many times I slid off the track, I broke a tie rod. Pit space was at a premium and I was parked next to the orange vert you see in the beginning of this video. Well I positioned my jack to get my car up and did not tighten the handle all the way (very stupid) which left it at the mercy of the wind. Which in turn left this guys really nice and clean vert at the mercy of my jack handle. As I let go of the handle and turned to grab my tools, I heard the most sickening thud I heard all day, even when I was mowing dirt. I knew what happened before I even looked at it. The handle to my jack fell into this guys door and took a chip of paint out about the size of a thumb nail. When I did look I got that queezy feeling you get right before you usually vomit. Took me some time to track him down to let him know about it. I wish I could remember his name, especially since he was non chalant about it being a drift car and it didn't matter. Seriously, he was very cool about the whole thing, even turned down the set of wrenches I bought him as an apology. The rubber protective grip was long gone from the handle so I instantly wrapped a roll of e-tape on it to keep it from happening again. Even tho it was my first track day and all, it was a stupid mistake. So to everyone that sees this car and the ding in the driver side door, yeah, that was me. But this video also shows the more advanced guys that were out there getting sideways, including him. Some pretty good talent out there, better than me anyways. I'll see if I can find my best video to post up of myself, just so we can all have a laugh at me scrubbing dirt. And to the cool headed man with this orange vert, if you ever read this thread, again, I'm sorry about your door.

[ShadowMan]

Here is a run from the 2nd day on the HTM track at Willow. That last turn with the pit exit ate me up all day. This run, I was lucky enough to keep it on the pavement, but most of the time I ended up on the inside mobbing around like a trophy truck. Some of my friends still can't believe I beat my car up like this after all the work I put in, but I had a good time. I know I need to go faster and the track looks wide as shit from this angle, but driving on it, it feels like it's as wide as a golf cart track. I will also say I have an awesome wife for toting our two boys, 6 yrs old and 6 months old, for 2 days and filming almost every run for me. She and the boys were real troopers keeping an upbeat mindset the whole weekend while I was the one having fun.

I know it isn't much, or fast or very good, but this was my first weekend of drifting. I've never been street drifting or parking lot drifting or anything, so that's why I suck so bad. But I have a better understanding of what a big difference wheel and tire setups can do, camber, etc....so hopefully next time will be better.

[ShadowMan]

I tried to break this video down into smaller segments, but I'm really not computer literate, and my computer sucks. Anyways, this video is from the 1st day at the Balcony. It's the second half of the day, where we all just took turns making these runs.
At 3:00 the driver in the white hatch is 15 year old kid. It's a stock ka, and the kid put together better runs than I did. He's also been doing it for a year or so, but regardless, he has some talent. Him and his dad helped me out when I busted my tie rod. I would have let him make a run in my car if I could have risked it, but I needed it in one piece for the drive home, but maybe next time. There were also these other two guys parked on the side opposite of John Chow, so their cars were safe from my jack handle. They offered up parts as well, they ended up being the wrong size but they tried. They both had ls swaps as did others, and man those things sound mean in person. It's awesome to hear a 240 rumble like that

As for these videos, I'm really just posting these videos to give anyone else thinking about starting all this an idea of what to expect. Unless you were blessed as one of those people who can just try something and get it figured quick, fast and in a hurry, then like the rest of us mortals don't expect to be busting out face melting, super linked drifts on your first weekend. Bring your determination, good attitude and a solid car and you'll have a blast.

OK, you can laugh at my expense now.

[brndck]

orange vert = john chow. cool dude.

[ShadowMan]

Thankyou brndck. John Chow, Thankyou for being cool with me about your door.

[ShadowMan]

Alright, I'll have to up load the videos later, but went to the Balcony at Willow for another Just Drift weekend. Had a great time despite the heat, sunburns, sleeping in the truck, yada yada. Had a truck and trailer this time so I wasn't too concerned with baby'ing the car. Getting closer to being able to link my drifts and upping the the speed as well. I think I have a bit of begginers luck on my side with this motor, it gives me just enough problems to keep me giving it attention. Casualties of the weekend-fuel feed line detached itself, split intake pipe coupler, 2 flat front tires, tapped the wall with back passnger corner, and what else.....oh yeah, the motor went all david blaine by making one of the throttle plate screws come out and dissappear. It seriously vanished, it's not in the intake piping, the intake mani, and it didn't sound like it was in the motor itself when I dry fired it. So I ran the motor the whole rest of the weekend with no problems, it actually ran better, probably because I put new throttle plate screws in and tightened them down. I think thats it. All in all, had a great time.

[brndck]

I had a similar situation where my throttle plate cracked around the hole where the screw goes through. We ended up just welding it solid.

[ShadowMan]

Originally Posted by brndck

I had a similar situation where my throttle plate cracked around the hole where the screw goes through. We ended up just welding it solid.

Any downsides you encountered to welding it? I just went and bought longer screws and used blue loctite. Not sure about the longevity of blue loctite though, because when I was just giving the car its post track tune up, I rechecked the throttle plate screws and they were loose by about 1/2 a turn. I guess I'll try loctite one more time and then go from there once it becomes overly annoying.

Question for those of you who actually read this thread:
Which spacers seem to hold up the best and how much is too much? I was thinking of 20-30mm for the fronts that have the studs pre-pressed. I usually go through frpsort for the stuff I can't get locally. They have h&r, project kics, and ichiba. I've never paid attention to wheel spacers until now so not sure which ones will hold up to drifting, autox, etc..

[elnino335]

What thickness metal sheets did you use to weld on ?