180SX Australian Style

[CanCer]

So since I've just got the new car and am going to be making it the last car I build up before I move over to the UK, I figured I might as well put it up on here so some of you can see what cars in Aus end up looking like =]

This first post I'll endevour to keep an up to date picture of the car to try and encourage you all to read =P

 

[CanCer]

So now onto the real log;

A few months back I put my S14 up for sale, figuring that I'd sell it if the right buyer came along and put some money away for the move to the UK in 6 months or so. Didn't really get much interest until a week or so ago when I got a call from a local guy who wanted to check the car out. Two days later and a couple of test drives he took it away for the princely sum of $9000, which in Aus is pretty standard pricing for a S1 S14.

Then I needed a new car. Checking out the internet I found a couple of different cars I was interested in, organised to check them out as soon as I had a chance. Two got sold, including one I had a deposit on so my choice was really made for me.

IT's a Nissan 180SX, with the stock SR20DET and running gear etc. I managed to get it cheaper than the usual going rate because it had the full turbo side ripped off and was unregistered. Even though I needed a car to drive to and from work I decided I'd just man up and ride my bike for the next few weeks while working on this.

So on Saturday organised a friend with a 4WD and a car trailer and we did the hour drive to go and collect the car. Sitting in the car on the way there the temperature was sitting at 39 degrees, so not really a comfortable time to be outside, however it had to be done.

Three hours later we had it parked up out the front of my house while I cleaned the carport out and made it ready for work.

 

[CanCer]

So cleaned the carport out, swept out all the ex-housemate's crap along with the random foilage that had found its way into the carport and it was ready to go. Laid out cardboard to protect the rental's floor, pushed the car in and jacked up the front end to get ready to have at it.

I also went down to the local race produce shop to get some new lines for the turbo made up. Braided oil lines and rubber coolant lines rated to hold up to 600PSI, mated up with Speedflow fittings ready to attach and get rid of the nonsense banjo bolts.

The night didn't quite go as planned, for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, it was hot. Way too hot. Around 35 degrees at 12:30 am, so middle of the night and it was still uncomfortable outside. Second when I started to unload the car and get everything out to start bolting it there were a few things missing that I thought I had.

To take the car across the pits and get it re-registered everything has to be 100% perfect. No cable ties, no unmounted piping or anything. So since the car hasn't got an intercooler at the moment, I figured I'd put in the stock sidemount cooler so that I didn't have to hack up the reo bar and get failed for that.

But even though I have the cooler core, I haven't got the piping to mount it up. I'm also missing the oil drain from the turbo and the turbo outlet snout.

Not to be put off I tried doing as much as I could, dumped the oil out, made sure the speedflow fittings fitted up and to attach the coolant line that runs behind the back of the block. This brought up more issues, in that the oil fitting for the turbo is the wrong size, so I'll have to take that down to the race shop again today, and for some reason the coolant line that runs behind the block is missing and I can't see where it bolts on, so that's another job for tomorrow night.

So once I realised there was hardly anything I could do, I sat down to put the new studs into my manifold, and once again hit a snag in that one of the holes had been threaded by the guy I purchased it from so I couldn't put the new stud in.

So at this stage, all I've done is jack the front of the car up, drain the oil and attach one water line. Depressingly slow progress unfortunately but hopefully after today it'll speed up because I'll be buying a bunch of stuff today on my lunch break.

 

[CanCer]

So got heaps more done last night, after waiting until about 9:30pm for it to cool down enough to start working, I went outside and started to attach the coolant line to the back of the block. It was a bit of a shit to find but after undoing all the heater hoses I found it and attached it, letting the end just hang around in the empty space while I worked on the turbo.

On my lunch break I'd gone and got the correct sized fitting for the turbo so once I sat down and made sure that was alright I tightened it along with the other speedflow fittings and set to work on the manifold.

It turns out that the holes weren't too badly messed up and so I could screw a bolt in from behind which pushed the threads back out to where they needed to be and then bolt all the studs in, get the new gasket and bolt it up to the turbo. I also found a split dump in the box of random parts that came with the car so I attached that while the turbo was off. Bolted up all the lines and it was ready to go.

Squeezed the full setup in, bolted it all up, then realised that the coolant line on the far side of the turbo was kinked up against the block, so undid everything again, re-arranged the line so the 90 degree faced upwards, re-bolted and done.

Tonights job is to mount up the stock cooler and hopefully attach the couple of missing parts to get the thing started =] Hopefully this time tomorrow I'll have a running car with number plates.

 

[Big Dubs]

I couldn't handle the heat you got out there thats just insane!! Keep it coming though!!

 

[CanCer]

Haha yeah that's why I've been napping and then doing it at night, because it's a little cooler. We have whole piles of different issues to you guys too, where you all have to deal with rust under the car from the salt and snow, we all get cracks in our dashes and heaps of overheating problems because of the heat =P

 

[CanCer]

So there hasn't been much going on over the last couple of days, tried rushing it to get it sorted for last Wednesday, but then I had a couple of issues where I bought some hose and it was the wrong size etc. etc.

However I've got a bit sorted, got the full intercooler set up on there, only stock for now because the licencing pits are so strict here that it's way easier to use the stock cooler to pass opposed to an aftermarket one that I'll need to get passed etc.

Had to make some gangster brackets up using things from the local hardware store. Got some shelving brackets, cut at them with a hacksaw, and then bolted them up to hold it all solid. Problem solved.

So currently the engine bay is sitting pretty ready to go to the pits, one final thing has to be done which is bolting on the oil return line for the turbo. Couldn't get a T28 one at short notice but some quick altering with a file and hacksaw mean it should fit up no worries.

Once that's on, then it's time to drop the car back onto the ground, flush out the water that I've been using to test for leaks, top up coolant and oil and fire it up. Hopefully it doesn't all go up in a ball of flames and ruin my day

If that all goes well then it's on to the boring stuff, I have to mount up the horn, raise the coilovers as high as they go to pass the minimum height laws, make sure it's not too loud and then run through all the extra stuff like lights and wipers etc. Monday's a public holiday so I'll spend the day doing all of that in order to be ready to go when it comes to Wednesday which is the next day I was hoping to have for taking the car to the pits.

Oh and while looking through the car I found a 'Nismo' steeringwheel cover in the glovebox, one of my housemates obviously decided it looked in good working order because when I came out today to take photos I was greeted with this

 

[CanCer]

One of my impulse purchases got delivered today by a friend who just arrived back from Japan. Genuine Wakaba leaves =P One magnetic and one with a push on rubber thing that I've completely forgotten the name of.

Since the car's off the road I've only been able to justify putting one on, but the other is making my fridge fully sik JDM spec.

Spent the day moving cars around for other people though so didn't get to do much more on the car, although I did spend a little time pulling the alluminium overflow bottle off and giving it a wash down. To be fair it was in a pretty brutal state because it'd had coolant spilt down the sides at some point and the screw in lid had got stuck on. Oh and I also think I'm meant to be able to see the level of coolant with the line instead of the current red nonsense that's there =P

Sat down and pulled it apart into it's component parts, got them ready for a wash and tidy up, will probably replace the lines at some point but for now it's sitting in the sink to see if it'll clean itself out and be useable for a little while. Will have to see when I get up.

Tomorrow looks like it's going to be the day for all the boring jobs, can't wait to get to start the car up in the morning and then get on to exciting stuff like making the horn work and raising the car

 

[CanCer]

So did 99% of the stuff I had to do today, which is awesome. Did all of the last little bits, attached the oil return line, attached the last boost line to the turbo actuator and done.

Plugged in the new battery and got some good news, everything important seems to work =] All the lights except for one of the fog lights (which I'm guessing is down to a blown globe) are working fine, the lights pop up and down on command and the horn even works, which was something I was a little worried about because I wasn't so confident that I'd get it to work.

Unfortunately I also found out something a little upsetting when the battery was connected. It has blue footwell neons.

And they don't seem to have an off switch, which is absurd because it means the only way you can turn them off is to disconnect the battery. Which to be perfectly honest is retarded So they'll be getting pulled out tomorrow after work.

I did get to turn it on though, which proves to me that it can work and at the same time, it's not going to implode on me immediately. There is a whine from the front of the engine bay, although I'm hoping that that's just from the power steering pump/aircon pump not being used for almost 18 months.

Last thing to do is to make the car legal height and smash the bonnet back on. Here in Australia, cars have to be a minimum of 110mm off the ground at their lowest point excluding rims. So this means exhaust, chassis, suspension arms, everything has to be high. I made up a quick cardboard template the right height and got to work rolling around on the floor making sure it would fit under everything. After almost 30 seconds of doing this I found the first problem.

From pretty much the cat back, the template can rest against the exhaust with no chance in the slightest of it fitting underneath. Looks like tomorrow night I'll be jacking the car up and winding the Tein's up as high as they'll go, hopefully that'll just clear it and I'll be able to get numberplates, finally.

 

[CanCer]

Took it for the first drive today =] Although I got some odd looks for some reason, I have no idea why haha.

Only around the block, and the car seems to wander a little bit with the minimal air in the tyres at the moment. But it runs, which is good. Although there's a bit of noise from the engine bay, I'm hoping that it's coming from the p/s and a/c pumps that haven't been run for the past 18 months and not from the imminent death of the top end =P

Apparently the wing I've got on the back of the car is something rare too, it's a B-Wave Wangan Wing, to begin with I wasn't the biggest fan of it, my housemate decided it was actually there to grow small aquatic creatures in. But now that I know it's rare allegedly it's suddenly more appealing =P

Not 100% sure though, because even though it's rare I'm still not really that big a fan of it. Will have to decide down the track.

Got bored of taking photos of just my work too so got a picture of the housemate's 33 too. Just for the lulz.

 

[CanCer]

So haven't updated this in the last few days because I'm a lazy fcuk and it doesn't seem like anyone's reading it anyway =P Haven't taken too many photos so this will be a pretty wordy update.

Most exciting thing that's happened in the last few days is the car now has numberplates ^^, Took it down on my lunch break one day, had a heap of stuff that should have been picked up but I thought I'd try my luck and to my surprise passed without issue. I think the old guys down there were just itching to get to lunch and didn't like having to stand out in the sun and look at the car.

So I've had plates on it and have been driving it around for the last few days, seems to be holding up pretty well. Was really floaty for a while, put it down to the tyres being massive in terms of sidewall and what I'm used to.

Put the front and rear strut braces back in and put the engine dampener back in, while I was doing it I decided I should probably check out the settings on the coilovers, lo and behold the fronts are set to as firm as possible and the rears to as soft as possible. Probably had a hand in making the car so floaty, although having both pairs set to as firm as possible makes the car quite bouncy, I'm guessing the last owner found this out and then decided that the best way to fix it was to go the complete opposite way. I'll play around with it for the next few days until it's setup nicely.

Also got some of my presents to myself arriving, although in the time it's taken them to get sent and arrive I've already changed my mind in the route I'm going.

Delicious seat and harness;

I've got another harness and another Bride too, just cbf setting them up for a photo. Already changed my mind and decided I'll be selling the Brides to buy some new Vios III's or something of the sort, so once they sell I'll have them on their way to me.

Also bought a couple of tow hooks on a whim, still undecided as to whether I'll fit them though as with the yellow sticker laws over here if I got pulled over with them the car can be pulled off the road by the police which is a heap of annoyance.

New gauges should hopefully be on their way soon along with new seats sometime in the coming month. Also have a full kit that I have to get around to putting on, and then trying to convince myself that raiding my savings for new rims is a worthwhile spending of dosh.

 

[CanCer]

EPIC UPDATE TIEM

Suddenly I have internet at home again so I'm pretty excited, and it means I can upload a bunch more photos and do a super long post. So be prepared for great and furious boredom as I tell you all about the stuff I've done the last week and a bit.

First thing I got around to doing was putting my kit on. Front bar and skirts went on without too much hassle, being a genuine Hippo Sleek kit they lined up pretty perfectly first go.

Ran out of time to put the rear bar on as it was getting close to midnight and the girlfriend was a little over me outside making noise.

Couple of days later I managed to pic up a couple of new toys too, being a Trust intercooler kit and a spline type steering wheel quick release. The intercooler was a little dinged up from hitting frontbars and that sort of thing but for the price I paid I wasn't too concerned. It still held pressure fine and that's what I'm looking for.

Easily solved with a bit of patience. I sat down with a tiny flat head screwdriver and straightened out most of the bent fins, made them much neater and straighter (although a lot of the massive dents I couldn't make look much better by straightening alone) and then hit it with some black paint to keep the black/white of the car going.

Not perfect, but much better. Still haven't had a chance to install yet as I'll need to buy a smaller battery or move the one I have to the back, which means money so that can wait for at least another week. I think I'll paint all the piping black too, might as well go the whole way if I'm going to start down the black/white ninja pathway.

I put the driver's Bride in aswell, I've already sold the passenger side and want to sell this driver's side so I can recoupe some of the costs of buying the new Vios III's that are on their way, but until then I'll chill with this one =P Harness is probably going in this weekend too. Also put the quick release on because with this seat and the height of the car I look like a bit of an idiot trying to slither out, at least with the wheel up and out of the way I can stay a bit more dignified.

One Saturday morning while the housemate was outside working on his 33 I figured I should probably do the rear bar too, since I was looking a bit foolish without a complete kit.

So out came the tools and the stock bar got pulled off. (Notice the hatch-strut assist in the form of an axe handle, the BWave wing makes it too heavy to stay open which is another con, I'm leaning more and more towards pulling it off but it depends on how the paint is underneath, it'd look nonsense if the whole car is in white with a gold pearl except a chunk on the boot)

Taking the bar off didn't take all that long though and I got distracted once it was off because I was needed to help with some wiring in a 33. While looking for wire I also found an old roll of vinyl and had an awesome idea.

Plus

Equals

For a rising sun drawn freehand with a bucket to create the circle, I'm actually not too upset with it

After the nonsense I got back onto the task at hand and smashed the Hippo Sleek rear bar on in record time.

It makes a big difference, or at least I think so.

The car sat like this for about a week or two while I debated what to do next, I wasn't too upset with how it looked anymore.

Then the chance arose to join in on a group buy for some rims and me being me I found the money and off I went to get some new rimage.

17x9.5J +12 Rota GridR
Fronts with 215/45/17
Rears with 225/45/17

Not as much stretch as I'd like but they do look pretty good on the car. I've considered getting some 15mm spacers for the rear to end up with some -3's but I don't think that's called for quite yet.

I also quickly chucked in a TGS sleepy eye controller, there's a few kinks I've still gotta work out, the passenger side light stops a little higher than the driver's side for some reason, but it's an improvement at least.

And that's that for now. I still have to put in my intercooler, as well as the Bride's and Takata's when it's all arrived, but I'm somewhat happy with it as is now. The front needs to come down a bit more but I was overly cautious when I wound the coilovers down last night so I'll be able to do that sometime in the next couple of days.

Phew, epic update over. Good going if you read my ramble all this way =P

 

[Big Dubs]

Looking good mate, awesome progress! Hows the heat in the day now?

 

[JordonVW]

EPIC UPDATE TIEM

spoiler looks a keeper to me great progress!

 

[hansen]

alright dude,

im going to be moving to australia soon and wanted to know where i can buy a nice 180sx for good money im talking 2000-4000 bucks? any ideas would be awesome!

Nice work on the car!

 

[jamle]

looks great! not a massive fan of black wheels. you cant see the wheels that well, and they are awesome wheels so seems a shame

 

[CanCer]

Looking good mate, awesome progress! Hows the heat in the day now?

Still up around 32-33 or so during the day, but going down to at least 20-22 during the day which is pretty mint in terms of work on a car.

alright dude,

im going to be moving to australia soon and wanted to know where i can buy a nice 180sx for good money im talking 2000-4000 bucks? any ideas would be awesome!

Nice work on the car!

It all depends man, what you can do to them and that sort of thing. Where in Aus are you moving to?

looks great! not a massive fan of black wheels. you cant see the wheels that well, and they are awesome wheels so seems a shame

Haha yeah the only options I had were white, black or hyper black, in the end I decided that the black would be best. If you look at them during the day they actually look pretty mint I just havne't had a chance to take any daytime photos yet.

 

[CanCer]

looks great! not a massive fan of black wheels. you cant see the wheels that well, and they are awesome wheels so seems a shame

And also, just saw your DP of TEEM FALE, if that's a take on Team Fail then we should be friends =P This is my first car and first drift car, we had to pick a team name for a local event so went with Team Fail and ended up with about 6 cars with the team fail stickers;

 

[hansen]

It all depends man, what you can do to them and that sort of thing. Where in Aus are you moving to?

Well my girlfriend is from Melbourne, so i will be moving down there. I'm pretty good when it comes to looking after cars getting pretty good with welding and shit so thats no bother, i know you have alot of cars that are dressed up like pimp mobiles but i just need something to get me into drifting and i think Aus is going to be perfect with cheaper fuel etc.. i have been looking on Unique cars and stuff but the prices seem pretty steep compared to the forums just wondered if you know any forums where i can find a rolling shell or something to get me going? preferably not some clapped out crock of shit haha)

Thanks Dude

 

[angrydan]

looking good
but time for some slammage dude