Doing it “properly” this time, S15

[thyfartismurder]

I think it’s about time to start the project thread for my new drift car seeing as I have just booked the first drift day for it,

 

[thyfartismurder]

Where I began…

Late autumn last year I reached a point where I was just fed up with spending 100s of hours in the garage for every hour of driving in my 200sx and said enough is enough, it’s time to put this car together properly or get rid of it

so I did the maths and worked out how much it would cost to get the car in a state I was happy with and thought “bloody hell I could just import a Silvia for that” … so that’s what I did

After about a month of no luck in the auctions I found this fine example listed for sale by freees garage through goo-net

Advertised as ready to drift, and a “little” rough around the edges, but mechanically sound and more importantly rust free, this was exactly what I was after..

 

[thyfartismurder]

more images from the port

 

[thyfartismurder]

due to delays it took over 6 months to arrive and was missing a few bits (still 2 months later havent got resolution from insurance)


stock rear lights and indicators taken, as well as the stock a pillar gauge (useless) defis intact and they even left the bride headrest cushion

 

[thyfartismurder]

anyway, i had most of the car so cracked on getting it ready for MOT,
the first think i did was strip the car down and do some rust prevention.

Ground away any surface rust and applied a layer of converter

then a layer of zinc primer and seam sealer

then some gravitex stone chip

 

[thyfartismurder]

with the underseal done, i pciked up some used lights and indicators, and also fitted a centre console that happened to match the current blue interior, ready for MOT now,

 

[thyfartismurder]

MOT passed, and i sent off my Documents to the DVLA for registration, now it was time to start on the bodywork

 

[thyfartismurder]

body work begins...

 

[thyfartismurder]

got the paint sorted over two weeks, harder then i expected but came out alright. untold hours spent trying to repair the carbon bonnet but it was worth it in the end..

due to the excessive amount of blue flake, it looks more blue then purple in the sunlight.. i also got some artsy photos taken by a friend...

 

[thyfartismurder]

and finally we get to present times, V5 arrived plates on and I lowered the car to an acceptable.. in desperate need of some 20mm spacers upfront

height

 

[crazyae86]

good work mate

nice color !!

frot rims make them silver like rear is look better on silver

 

[thyfartismurder]

good work mate

nice color !!

frot rims make them silver like rear is look better on silver

everyone has said this so far, the wheels will be getting refurbed.. but i need to source some 3" lips first

 

[s14south]

Nice progress, the clear rear lights look good, gives it a early 00’s look

 

[thyfartismurder]

In preparation for my upcoming drift day, I did did the gear and diff oil and fitted an AFR gauge, so i can see how bad mr japans tune is

while doing this I discovered quite a nasty exhaust leak caused by multiple cracks in the manifold, worst pictured bellow

 

[thyfartismurder]

After asking around, somone donated a manifold that had been lying around in their garage, being short on money and the drift day 10 days away it was the only option,

Unfortunately the turbo flange on both the manifold and my turbo was badly warped, about 2mm gap once bolted together,

So with even less time left I got to work skimming the flanges on the kitchen worktop

And put together with a nice thick copper gasket to hopefully keep things sealed up

 

[thyfartismurder]

And now arrives the first drift day, and in all my excitement to get the car ready I hadn’t managed to do any proper testing, so the first time I realised that the car has no self centring what so every was on the drive to option park…

I thought i would try to get out there and give it a go anyway but it was absolutely impossible to counter steer, so I came into the pits and spent the next 6 hours trying everything on Google to fix the issue,

trackside alignment setup

unfortunately nothing made the slightest difference suggesting the cause was the steering rack.

 

[thyfartismurder]

now having working power steering and somewhat of an alignment

 

[crazyae86]

brand new one ??

 

[thyfartismurder]

brand new one ??

Yes brand new from RHD japan

 

[thyfartismurder]

Long time no update…
Little bit of proof i haven’t been hibernating this whole time