check out my $700 wheel spacers.

[attack180]

Hey guys, my name is Mike, im 27 and this is my ridgeback sx180 foreign cornering machine build.

I've always been a fan of cars, and as a teenager, I decided that it would be Japanese cars that would steal all the attention. I always invested a lot of time into reading and learning about Japanese cars, the parts, the different styling niches, and driving styles. There was only one small problem, I wanted one of these cars, and like any other teenager, I didn't really have any money to actually buy a car. I abandoned all hope of ever owning a japanese race car, and discovered what "chopping" or photoshopping cars, which is how i spent most of my free time during high school era. Soon I joined an Australian forum, which at that time was very active and had its own photoshop section, and I got very good at photoshopping cars despite I still didn't know **** about cars then, putting TRD, and FTO stickers on a Mazda i photoshopped haha. After highschool I didn't care too much for cars and had moved on to other interests.

Anyways, enough tl;dr material. Fast forward 2009, when I finally had a job, and owning a jdm ricebanger was finally a remote possibility. I had always been a fan of the 180sx, so I started looking, and found a very good deal on a basically brand new 180sx. It was around $7000 CAD, so I took a loan from the bank for $5000, and gathered up whatever money I had in the bank, and flew down to Scarbrough to pick it up. This thing was insane clean, with 30,000 km on it.

Here are some pics:








I left out he part where I got hit with a street racing fine on the way to the Thunder Bay airport lol, I stopped by in the town my ex-girlfriend was living in to have supper and introduce her to my dad. She reminded me of the time zone difference between and I quickly realized I was going to be late, so worrying I would miss my flight I highballed it from Dryden to Thunderbay. Yeah I got caught, my dads vechicle was impounded I lost my licence, had a court date, and also, missed the flight.

When I bought the car, we took it to get registered so we could drive it back home to northwestern Ontario. The salesman was really nice, and even lied about the price I paid for the car so I wouldn't get hit so heavily by taxes, and before you know it, we were on our way back home, our first time ever on the 401, completely clueless as to where we were going, to enjoy the 21 hour ride back home.

Anyways a month or two later being a cool guy trying to impress a carload of friends, doing donuts behind a Beer store, I let off the gas abruptly when I decided that was enough donuts for the day. My wheels hooked up and shot me straight into a pole LMAO.



The quote from the body shop was like $8000, and if you remember the nice guy who undervalued my car, well on paper, my car was only worth $4000, so I after paying my deductible, I was given $2000 or so and the car was gone lol.


I started having rhd withdrawls after a few months (Febuary of 2010 or so) and decided to save everything I had to buy another one. I stopped going out of town to see my girlfriend, stopped smoking, literally every cent I made was saved. I got in contact with Will Baird from jdm connection, and he managed to find me exactly what I was looking for, a lightly modified, low mileage 180sx.






Looks pretty sweet in the auction pics right? Well I won the auction, and it really wasnt as "sweet" as I thought it would be. It was in rough shape, but hey, at least the mileage was very low.







The car arrived in Winnipeg, around September. At the time I was going to school in Brandon, MB. I couldnt wait to drive this thing around, made a trip out to Winnipeg to see my brother who picked the car up for me from the yard, and drove it around for a few months using temporary stickers on the windshield lol until wintertime.

Being a poor student I wasnt able to do much to the car. My first "modification" was getting this funky japanese sony minidisc/cd player, its a shame I cant access any North American radio stations but the looks made up for that.



Being a poor student, I didn't really have any modification goals for the car, because I preferred going out, eating out, and realistically I knew I didn't have enough money, all I wanted to achieve was to get my car plated and insured so I could legally drive it around.

Shortly after owning it, the Tien coilovers had met their expiry date, and the fronts were completely blown, unfortunately I had to wait until summer to save up money to be able to purchase my first real car modification. new PBM COILOVERS. Lol i was so excited to finally get the ball rolling, and returned back to brandon after summer, with my shiny gold pbm, only to have my clutch go bad. I had to call home and ask my parents to borrow me some money after cleaning my student bank account on a clutch. I figured it was time to take my car into the shop, get the safety done, get the new clutch installed, and finally be able to legally drive my car.


I lost interest in the car slowly, and posted an advertisement on kijiji to try and sell the thing, because it really isn't a practical car, not derivable at all in winter, not capable of carrying more than 1 passenger, not safe, no airbags, too low and not very comfortable on long drives. I had no reason to keep the car or any desire to modify it. So it sat for a while on wood blocks.



Fast forward 2014, I was still interested in looking at cars, finally had a decent job, and nothing really to spend my money on, so I decided to touch up the car here and there. I figured that I'd start with changing out the old flaking work wheels that came on the car, and found a pair of ssr type f wheels on zilvia. It was love at first sight.

[attack180]

Anyways, it was time to convert from 4-5 lug so Ichiba 5 lug conversion was arranged.

I feel like I should have mentioned earlier on, I was in no way a mechanic, mechanically inclined or understood anything about cars other than a few common sense things. How to drive standard, how to check fluids etc, but with past experiences in other topics, I watched a few videos online, and it was quite easy to do myself.

Now this is where the build really takes off. After being lazy all winter, I had finally gotten enough motivation to get some tires for the wheels with no tires, managed to swap the hubs, and go the wheels on. I wasn't completely happy with how the wheels looked on the car, and needed to find a specific set of center caps that matched the wheels.



This is really what started it all. I could not find these centercaps on the internet anywhere, ebay, nope, kijiji, nope, forums etc. I remembered lurking forums of different car clubs and heard mention of Jesse Streeter a few times, so I got in touch with him, figured out how to search for items myself and found a pair of center caps pretty quickly. Since my current set of lug nuts were pretty beat up and I was already trying to make my wheels look good with the center caps, I opted for a set of project mu lug nuts (reference picture). I was amazed at how quickly he responded, and how fast the packages arrived to my doorstep.


Unfortunately at that time, I wasn't really taking pictures of the things I was doing to the car, but I decided that I would attempt to flock my dash as well, because they were an eyesore, and I figured id try to tidy my car up to the best of my ability. I removed the dash ended up breaking a few vent pieces, and once again had a peek at yahoo auctions japan, and was able to find a set of new ones dipped in a carbon fiber pattern.

I had enough of spending money on the car for the time being, but always had a peek if anything cool popped up for sale. As my searching skills and my notepad saved document of translated search terms expanded, I began to find some really cool stuff, and this is where it got dangerous (July 2015).

I had always wanted a Nismo kill switch lighter, figured it would compliment the flocked dash, and after searching for a little bit, and persuading myself that its ok to spend $100 on a lighter, I bit the bullet and very soon had my cool nismo trinket. Of course I got a taste of some oldschool Nismo swag, and I couldn't help myself after that.

few months later i also managed to find one in its original packaging also:



Anyways, I felt like my car was quite heavily modified, at least my wallet did, withe the hub conversion, and wheels and tires, and other little nick nacks so the car once again sat for a bit. At this point, I was unsure where I was actually going with the car so I took some time to think about it.

[attack180]

While thinking about what I wanted to do to the exterior of the car, I already knew what had to be done to the interior. I started doing a little research on the different types and manufacturers of seats available for my car. I figured, well since I already got these expensive wheels and lug nuts and center caps, why not just make a proper investment and get rid of my hideous seats.



I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to stay true to JDM tradition, and have a full bucket driver seat, and a reclining passenger seat, I found a reclining seat that caught my eyes. When time came to order a new one from Bride, i was about a month late, and had been told the Cuga line had been discontinued. I was a little dissapointed because I knew it woudlnt be easy finding a nice Japan edition cuga, as I had originally planned to get. I was also tired of the stock shifter so I managed to hunt down an authentic C's shifter with the original box, and at the same time, found a bride cuga japan edition on UPGARAGE. As usual, they arrived in no time:





the seat was in excellent condition, and as usual delivery was nice and quick. So, now pondering what to do for the driver seat, i started looking at the new (at the time) Bride Proface full bucket, black with kevlar back. That 240,000 yen price tag tho, so I held off for a bit, and kept doing a little more research on seats. I also wasnt able to install the cuga, because I had absolutely no idea which rail would fit the bottom holes on the cuga and work with the 180sx. There is no seat rail currently offered by Bride, that will allow a cuga to be to used in a 180sx.


Since I was visiting the idea of upgrading the interior and have a cool racing seat, why not go full out and get a roll cage? I started looking around, and with a lot of luck a forum member happened to be selling his jdm s13 silvia shell, which had a cage in it. At first he didnt want to really part things out, but with a little persuasion we came to an agreement and he decided to sell me the cage, and had it shipped for me. Upon arrival, I had inspected to the cage, and MY LUCKY DAY. Got a nice little surprise, and found it it was an authentic saito cage and not a cusco or safety 21. That was a nice treat. For those of you who aren't familiar with saito roll cages, they are a small shop in japan that makes bolt in roll cages or weld in, for a lot of performance cars in japan, so that was why I got so excited. I'm not affiliated with saito (i wish i was though), but they have some cool stuff on their website, for a wide range of cars. http://www.saito-rollcage.co.jp/



Upon test fitting of the roll cage, I discovered that my regular mirror would have to go as it was right in the way of the roof brace bar, so I decided to look for mirror options. Eventually i found something I really liked from a Japanese owned 180sx I saw online, and had to make my way to yahoo auctions japan to have myself a search. Its a wink mirror with a vented metal cover ontop. I like it, yeah I know its ricer, but not if its straight from japan.

[attack180]

Summer/fall 2015

Now after spending countless hours researching what I want to do to the outside of the car, and playing around with S-tuner (for those who dont know, google it, its a nice tool for messing with appearance in 3d of almost any import car with a large selection of parts), I finally had some sort of idea with what I wanted to do to my car. I was absolutely disgusted by the silvia front on the 180sx, and always knew it had to go. The rough edges of the silvia front dont mix at all with the very oval rear end of the 180sx, and it always bothered me. Id always try to find an angle where it looked ok, but there were too many angles that bothered me. I've always loved time attack car styling, and there are 4 cars I'm obsessed with, so I asked myself what do I like so much about each car, and decided to make my own version, perfect to myself.

The infamous Koguchi 180sx:



Toshiyuki Kagawa s13 silvia:



The Dream works 180sx:




So I decided on Koguchi Power widebody, +70mm rear fenders + 50mm front fenders, and GT-1 front bumper from the koguchi and dream works cars, Car modify wonder side skirts, and rocket bunny rear diffuser, as well as spirit rei carbon front and side splitter from Toshiyuki's s13.

I started to order the bigger body parts, getting in touch with Jesse Steeter who said he could take care of everything apart from the bumper, forcing me to contact Right Drive (an importer based out of southwestern Ontario) to order up the GT-1 Motorsports front bumper for me. For the wing, I have something very special (to me anyways).

I had also stumbled upon a very rare Works 9 double tip exhaust in routine scouting of Yahoo Auctions Japan, and jumped right on it. I wasn't a fan at all of the old beat up ricey sounding fart cannon Apexi N-1 exhaust that came on the car, and it looked horrible. As usual it arrived quickly and was installed straight away.





Also I apologize for the crappy ipad pictures, I swear they are pictures I took before I even knew I'd be making a build thread. If you have bothered to make it this far, we are just about finished the ****ty ipad pictures haha.

Anyways, more and more random parts started to come in, and my obsession for hunting down rare, discontinued items grew. I was never sure about what mirrors I wanted to choose for my build, so i just got a few different ones. As I write this, im still torn between stock mirrors, ganadors, and craft squares, or those non existent mirrors that I'm generating in my imagination subconsciously.

Can't remember what these ones were, pretty sure veilside mirrors tho, wasn't really a fan of them, so I turned around and sold them to a guy in the states, who happens to have a pretty cool s13 coupe. raizosr20 on instagram.





Some of my random finds:
"hitman" steering wheel, looked cool on a listing I saw, then decided it wasn't something that would go well with the theme, and tbh not a fan of these types of the jdm acrylic/bubble thing.


managed to scoop up a nismo cluster for my s13. Brand spanking new!


Found an authentic Hitman steering wheel for very cheap, and made a massive profit, even had the original tag, extremely rare to find one with original tag:



Found a rare Volk c-1 steering wheel, again just to kinda see it in person and also made a nice little profit off of it:



Something about that oldschool Nismo logo gets me:



I found a set of brand new Nismo mats. Im pretty sure they are for s13, as the r32 ones are shaped slightly differently, and have the grommets in them as well as a Nismo badge. I haven't been able to find any information about which chassis they are specific for, so if anyone has any information feel free to let me know. You wouldnt believe what these things cost me.



Managed to find an arc intake box brand new with original packaging.



an arc rad cap



Some more arc goodies - oil pan and bov



an endless bmc stopper



also picked up ganadors



got a random set of equips i was planning on re barrelling, might sell them might not, they have been sitting the past 9 months still wrapped in the packaging they were shipped in.


some more nismo goodies



random s13 rain visors, to be honest no idea why I got them, they were expensive, didnt need them at all, wont fit my car, and I already have brand new 180sx ones. i must have been drunk or something lol.



defi vsd-x heads up display unit. I was still unsure at this point what exactly I was going to do with it, but I follow a blog by a guy known as Broadfield, and wanted to mold this little unit somewhere into my car. It displays rpm, speed, and anything else that you could plug into a defi control unit.






By now snow had fallen so I was waiting for parts to come in, waiting for rare parts to pop up for sale, and still trying to figure out some exact details for what I wanted to to to the interior of the car. After looking at the dream works 180sx, and Jesse Streeter's own car, a few months prior I had developed a strange obsession for Abflug headlights. Problem was, they were discontinued about 20 years ago, and were extremely expensive (about $1500-2000usd) back when they were in production, so even with the few existing sets scattered throughout japan, I knew it would be very had to find a set for myself.

After searching every single day twice per day for 7 months straight on yahoo japan and UPGARAGE, I was finally able to find someone on facebook in the UK who had posted up his car for sale. The listing was about a year old, but i figured I'd give it a try and send him a message to see if he has the car still and would be interested in selling me the headlights. They were perfect, lenses were in tact, had all hardware, and they worked. What more could I want. Obviously extremely excited that I found them, with an extremely generous offer and a little kindness, I was able to persuade him to sell me the headlights. I don't know how to describe the feeling of relief and victory when I finally had found these, but if you were ever a little girl, and got a pony for your birthday, I'm sure you would be able to relate.





As soon as I got them, I got to work restoring them, buffing out the oxidation on the lenses. Once again, I know nothing about cars, so there was an incredible amount of research into polishing different surfaces, what wet sanding was, what sand papers to use, which polishing products are the best, what kind of pads to use etc. Anyways I got to work.

Starting with the lenses.






and then the housing




I managed to clean them up pretty well:



but I wasnt completely happy with the job i did:




maaaaaaaan, was I ever miserable sanding off all that spray paint lol. I sanded the spray paint all down and left gave the headlights and myself a break from these frustrating things, but do it right, or don't do it all!

[attack180]

pictures removed because Johsua Ramos Stamos is copying wing and OP isnt happy about it.

[attack180]

pictures removed because Johsua Ramos Stamos is copying wing and OP isnt happy about it.

[attack180]

oops double post

will fix image sizes later today

[attack180]

reserved for future

[95_S14]

If you found the wheels on zilvia in 2014 why is it you have a newer join date ? You wouldn't happen to have $700 wheel spacers would you

[5280VertDET]

Originally Posted by 95_S14

If you found the wheels on zilvia in 2014 why is it you have a newer join date ? You wouldn't happen to have $700 wheel spacers would you

Yea, I would recognize this parts list and pictures from any where...

Hopefully his balls grew some hair and he's trying to eat some humble pie.



It's looking good, you have good taste at the expense of your (or parent's) bank account.

Resize some of your picture though.

[attack180]

received awesome news this morning, my bumper has finally been shipped out. Been waiting all summer for the GT-1 bumper, it's quite a relief.

[attack180]

Originally Posted by 5280VertDET

It's looking good

ty

Small update, took a look at the harnesses I got as well as the attain muffler bumper cover thing. I plan on going a certain type of off white atm for the exterior of the car, with black parts here and there for a little contrast. The more the merrier, plus I think it will stop my white paint on rear bumper from getting too smoky.

[KAT-PWR]

Hey there pal

[Hoffman5982]

Oh that's cute, he's going to pretend he wasn't the most annoying prick on this forum for the past year or so.

[attack180]

Originally Posted by KAT-PWR

Hey there pal

goose goose pack it rack it boii

[tricky_ab]

I'm curious to see how this will all turn out... So far I like quite a few of the pieces used so far.

[KAT-PWR]

He turned the 6 upside down that's a 9 now.

[Dolph_KYAS13]

Originally Posted by tricky_ab

i'm curious to see how this will all turn out... So far i like quite a few of the pieces used so far.

100% this.

[Hoffman5982]

Please tell me the mods changed the title

[bataangpinoy]

Originally Posted by Hoffman5982

Please tell me the mods changed the title

def. they must have.

[turbo2nr]

Well god damm that escalated quickly... cant wait to see how this comes out.

[KAT-PWR]

RIP MHubonehead.

[Ramonesfreak2010]

What did I miss?

[RB25GUY]

fuckk HES THE DICKARD THAT OUTBID ME FOR THAT maxis!!!!

[Dirk Jan]

I've missed you.

[FaLKoN240]

Damn someone beat me to it.

[S14kouki805]

This is hilarious, I actually got a kick out of reading some mhubeny180's bullshit lmao

[brndck]

Originally Posted by attack180

$500 for a bumper
$800+ for shipping

DAMN.

[ehhhregartless]

The past is the past and this build is turning out very well. Glad to see you back.

[Dirk Jan]

#freemhubeny