Keeve's Lowstyle S13

[prblmslvrs]

So after fucking the Mx5's chassis from running low I decided to sell it to someone that could be arsed with repairing it.
Was looking for a Nissan, R32 or S13/S14's to replace it as my daily drifter. I know that i'm not going to get near the reliability and seat time that I had with the Mx5 but I just wanted a change and wanted a car I actually gave a fuck about what it looked like.
Was about to buy flights to do a 400 mile round trip for an MOT'ed S13 when I was told about one only 40 miles away but needed work.
Price was at the top of my budget which i was a bit put off for as I'd never pay over £1k for a car with no MOT, never mind a crusty Nissan for £2k! Went to see it and the car was bloody well specced, just a bit crusty. Since I can't weld I sent pics to my mate who does body work for Rally cars and he said he will take it on for me.

Its a 92 with a rebuilt CA18DET, T28r running stage 3. Apex Coilovers, R33 GTST brakes all round. Adjustable arms where they're needed and just about anything I was planning to do already done.

Got it home and with me being the impatient bastard I am I cracked it up in the air and got to work with finding all the crusty bits with a wire wheel/knotted wheel

This was quite worrying at the seatbelt mount.

Decided to start cutting to see how bad the repairs would be.

Discovered there was fuck all left of the inner chassis rail. Patching it up wouldn't do whole new inner sill etc it is.

Decided fuck it, I'm going to borrow a MIG welder from a mate and get stuck in!

Done a few practice welds putting stuff together and after wasting bottle of gas on a fucked regulator I cut the whole inner sill and floor out and got to patching the bastard up.

My welding isn't fantastic but its penetrating through so thats the main thing.

Found this under a patch in the drivers footwell Glad i decided not to go down the "Bang it together for an MOT" route.

In between cursing at all the crust I did a couple jobs. Did a front bumper cut on the pignose.

and re-tucked the engine loom, already had been done before so was just a case of re-cable tieing.

Finally I was tracing back the OS sill crust a bit more and discovered its right through into the wheel arch/subframe mounting area. Definitely a job for someone thats not an amateur.

So much for leaving it for my mate to do all the work...

 

[essexcapri25]

loved your mx5 so will be intresting to see what you do with this, good luck chap

 

[carlrst]

don't give up mate, all worth it in the end!

 

[prblmslvrs]

loved your mx5 so will be intresting to see what you do with this, good luck chap

Cheers mate, Going to keep the same mindset. No lifestyler shit and keep the focus on seat-time. Only difference is I'll probably do some body work and shit to keep this looking nice.

don't give up mate, all worth it in the end!

There's no chance I'll be giving up on it unless my mate says its going to be too much hassle to save. I've got heaps of motivation to get it done. All I've driven it is reversing it off the trailer up my drive and turning it in my drive before taking the angle grinder to it.

 

[FAbity6032]

I am not welder but it looks like a really good job!

 

[jj205mi]

youd get on a shit load better with a real mig mate, those small gas/gasless things are torture, but keep at it and save another from the graveyard, i love s13s and will prob have another some day, so i bought a decent welder.

 

[Olliehood]

I have rebuild many a car with a clarke 135 amp mig. Although I spent most of my time getting them small bottles. Save yourself some time and money now and go get a big bottle with a proper regulator. Well worth the money and it will save you big time. Just a big outlay at the time compared to the price of small bottles.

Good luck.

 

[BenRice]

You're doing things right by fixing everything you can and identifying what needs to be done by a pro. Just don't let him convince you to do a full strip down as it looks like it's getting close to the point of "screw it, strip it back to bare chassis and find ALL the rot"

Chances are it will be back for panel repairs and any other rot repairs can be chipped away at then.

 

[prblmslvrs]

You're doing things right by fixing everything you can and identifying what needs to be done by a pro. Just don't let him convince you to do a full strip down as it looks like it's getting close to the point of "screw it, strip it back to bare chassis and find ALL the rot"

Chances are it will be back for panel repairs and any other rot repairs can be chipped away at then.

Discovered that the subframe is actually fine and it is just the wheel arch that went. Will be able to do that myself no doubt. My mate won't be into stripping it right back too he is just to help me get it MOT'ed, not a full restore.


Got the Drivers side floor spotwelded back to the inner sill and got stuck into the passenger side, that now has the inner sill and floor welded in.


Just need this section to do on the inside in both corners then will be done with the interior.


But need to deal with the fucked outer skins first. Waiting on my MOT tester mate to come give us some advice on how to patch em up.



Working away for 2 weeks so once I'm back I'm hopefully going to get the last few bits of welding done then MOT it.

 

[mad.matt]

Still coming down for Finalboss?
Is there as much rot as you expected?

 

[prblmslvrs]

Aye I get back on the 25th so will be driving down in something boring just to watch. No way this will be done in time.
Well the only surprise is the wheel arches and then again at how little there was on the passenger outer sill haha.

 

[BenRice]

Wow, those are some big holes. Pity you can't get someone in the States to cut out that section from a 240 and send it over.

Goodluck man

 

[prblmslvrs]

Have been quite productive on this so far so think its due an update.

So Inverness never stops raining pretty much. Been a few times where I've made plans to go work on the car or take time off work for it to become thunderstorms or some shit. So went out and bought a fuck off Gazebo.


Basically did some more patchwork with this shitty MIG welder.





Made up a seat bracket for my bucket seat to mount as close to the floor as possible, which i'm not sure if its going to give as good a driving position as the MX5 did on the floor. Note that since I did this the bucket flexed like fuck so I have an additional 2 brackets welded in for strength.



Removed all the Stage 3 stuff and now back to running Stage 2. Modded the bonnet hinges so I can lift the bonnet to an actual height whilst I was at it.


Got a sill patched on this is a micra K11 sill. Theres a fair few comments of people saying they've used them but no real info. Its not a straight fit so theres some modification. you can cut the entire top half off and it should offer up quite well, but since i needed to go up a bit higher than the door line I ended up having to bend out the top. It tapers in a bit at the rear but I've got skirts to cover it so no real issue for me!



I had also bought these S13 Raybrig lights to do a square headlight conversion on the Mazda. These pretty much had to go on as well as a £1 nissan Micra badge from ebay.


Should be getting it booked in for an MOT on Friday, then I'll have to fix an oil leak and it will be good to go!
Picked up a BN rep kit the other day too but I don't know if I actually want to run it or not. Can't decide, thats a problem for another day though.

 

[prblmslvrs]

Well after 2 months of rolling about my gravel drive with a welder this shits finally happened.



Technically it passed first time. MOT Tester put it on the ramp and noticed that some diff bolts were loose so didn't actually start testing it, just did a pre-MOT check for me. Gave me a list of stuff to sort, was mainly just loose bolts I hadn't noticed so tightened every bolt on the chassis, leveled out the Nearside headlamp and that was it.



Got some savage banging and play in the rear wheels which I thought was broken welds in the welder, dropped the diff and turned out the welds are still solid and theres no play between the left and right axle but there is a bit between the prop and axles so looking to try and fix it with a replacement diff and hope the backlash is set right because I can't be arsed dropping the diff again to find out the diff is shagged.

Hoping to get it to crail in a few weeks to see how it compares to the mx5 properly. Got some posh wheels sorted too, 16x7 and 16x8 work equips. Proper weak sizes but fuck it better than nothing. Just need to clean em up and a wee polish before I get tyres on them. running the 8's up front cause I don't care what the rear looks like.

Aye thats a BN style kit behind the car but doubt i'm gonna run it. Prefer the pig nose with 180sx rear.

 

[mad.matt]

Love dem 16" Equips, must have been some eagle eyed dude to pick them up at that price
*also, what Crail day you going? Big track?*

 

[prblmslvrs]

Love dem 16" Equips, must have been some eagle eyed dude to pick them up at that price
*also, what Crail day you going? Big track?*

Aye mate cheers for that. Was sharp on those, bargain. 16th I think, just the oval. Hoping to bang in a new diff before then but think it'll still be sound without if i don't have the time.

 

[essexcapri25]

more pics with the equips and look rad dude cant wait to see it out an about

 

[BenRice]

Looking good man, great effort on saving the shell

A mate has a few of those 16" Equips, he refurbed them recently and they came up nice

 

[prblmslvrs]

Aye so I got tyres on the 8" Works. Since I just throw whatever wheels have good tyres on I don't care that the rears are 7" would rather it looking decent on track. ET35 but I've chucked on 25mm spacers as well.

Next time I'm under it I'm gonna drop it to the lowest I can get the coilovers. Also the first outing will be Driftland on the 5th of September as long as I aint away for work.

Been having grief with the electrics on it too. No speedo and Indicators kept blowing a fuse. Indicators turned out to be a short from the front indicator rubbing off the crash bar. Speedo I'm still lost. Re-soldered the clocks and checked all connectors but still nothing most of the time. Got a 2nd speedo sensor to try next week but not too hopeful with it being intermittent.

 

[prblmslvrs]

Right so its been long enough, got it down to Driftland for some skids.

Spent the first 2 laps struggling to get to grips with it and then binned it into a grass bank on the 3rd which resulted in a pierced fuel tank and snapped backbox. Luckily I had no double sided tape a few nights before so put on the kouki spats with tank sealer. Banged that in and a cable tie to the exhaust hanger and was back out.

It's different to the mx5. A lot fucking different. Here's a wee video of me binning it then me getting to grips with it before delamming a tyre on the last run of the day. Aint much but hoping by the end of the next drift day with it will be quicker and more consistant.

And as always Connor killed it with pictures from the day.

Next up is to switch from these 16" works to something 17", have to run bigger tyres on the 16's for ride height and styling but they handle like dick so going to size up to 17's and smaller tyres. Currently sorting the fuel tank to a more permanent solution and same with the backbox then hoping to get back out asap to get driving this thing dialled in.