Low budget s13 high angle ka-t build rust restoration+
So the idea of this entire project was to get everything done in-house, keeping cost down as much as possible. Due to the nature of this, some modifcations done here are questionable at best, and would by no means equate to the 'proper' methods. With this in mind the idea is to learn and do my best considering everything from engine work to body work and welding will be done by me alone. I dont have cool friends that like to help and ive never been mentored by a professional welder. That being said i impress myself every with the things i learn im capable of doing and in the end, thats what makes it worth while.
So lets start at the very beginning. I have a friend whose into flipping 240s and parts. Every day hes got a new s chassis, and this is no joke. One day he posted a white s13 hatch up. Were in michigan, so theyre all rusty. It was 100% stock to the T, minus the front and rear bumper. Being that i had welded one time, i took a chance. Said im gonna repair it all myself.. What a night mare.
I was in for alot more than i had expected. This was more than a couple patch panels and some frame rail gussets.. The entire drivers and passengers floor have collapsed, broken free from the under-door unibody from front to rear. The entire trunk floor is missing on both sides. And under the kit.. God help me. Under the skirts have a hole the size of my head.. Cant think about that now.. Ive gotta rebuild the motor.
It was the original KA. Someone had just done a headgasket, full upper set, and replaced some components and left the chain off a tooth or two. Must have been ran because 2 valves in both cyl 1 and 3 snapped clean off taking the pistons with it.
So i pulled it out.
Dropped in an sr for the time being
Did a decent repair of the drivers floor boards and unibody (which took quite a while)
And had a little fun...
Until... Kaboom! Sr lost oil pressure and developed the loudest knock i had ever heard. Only a couple days in. Piece of junk..
So the next few painful weeks were spent going over the ka. It got a new head & oem pistons as they were cheap. Rods were straight as an arrow so i reluctantly reused them. New front cover, new oil pump, new bearings all around, new waterpump etc. The injectors were broken so i threw in some stock 370cc sr injectors and coupled it with an n60 maxima maf. Why you ask? The t25 in my garage has gotten a little dusty so i ordered a tubular ka manifold for it and fabbed up the water and oil lines.
My intercooler piping only permitted a blow through setup.
Modified the chassis for the sr so i robbed the greddy ic piping from it to use on the ka. It also had a nice aluminum radiator that would do some justice. I dont mind the crossover so i nabbed that too.
Just like that it goes back in. Unfortunately since i just blew the money on a spec stage 3 clutch for the sr, the ka go to back automatic tranmission.. Sucked cause the 5 speed swap was done with the sr. Ah well.
i used stainless steel hardlines for the water lines and a standard rubber oil line fed via an oil filter sandwich plate (tapped & fitted a hose barb)
The sr lines were cut and double flared near the turbo to allow for hose connections . the oil return line is a standard removable fuel cell bulk head fitted with a 90 degree -6an fitting pointing up.
The frame rail gussets were welded in over a weekend less than 6 inches above the ground. Needless to say it wasnt the most fun work ive had to do but i was happy when it was i finished. Being inexperienced, my welds rather surprised me. No worries on penetration.
As luck will have it, rom tunes are more expensive for The ka. So i decided to pay the extra buck and go standalone. I will not say which one just yet, as that may have its own thread.... Out the door cost was $200 more than a rom tune. Plus i finally get the opportunity of learning how to tune myself (or blowing my car up..)
As i waited for my ems, i took a good look at my suspension. I didnt like what i saw. Rotted stock shocks. Rotted tension arms. Wanted to do something about that. So i removed my knuckle and control arm, had some relatively new kyk shocks from an old s13, and used some hand me down lowering springs. Turns out, the springs havent been driven on much at all as theyre condition suggests.. Must not have been low enough for them.
Then a bright idea hit me. Why not fab up my own angle kit while i wait? Cant be too hard right?
I got my confidence up with an old set of knuckles from an old s13. Cut and rewelded the tie rod mount at close to zero ackerman. Removed about 1in. I preheated the knuckles prior to welding, and made two hot passes. One to fill and one large pass over them. Quite the process for cast.
Next came the control arms. I chose to extend them 25mm and later wished i had gone more. I used what appears to be 1/4in steel for the extension. Using a special tecnique to keep it straight, i couldnt be happier with the result. Really getting the hang of this welder.
Next came the notch. Pretty straight forward, however i went a little OTT with it having tunnelvision for a crazy angle. So ill need to install adjustable bump stops too once its all together, & later on itll be nicely boxed and ready to go.
Nex problem was the tension rod. I had an old set of adjustable spherical pillowtop tension rods from another old rusty bucket s13 that were structurally sound. My solution was pretty straight forward. Turning the rod vertically on its axis and moving its mounting point on the lca closer inwards toward the motor, bearing in mind the pillowtops limits. I stayed about 10mm from its end point, allowing some margin of safety and peace of mind. This opened a damn good amount of clearance for the wheel. I think the frame rail will actually hit first. Brackets were fabbed up also out of 1/4in steel to acommodate the new placement of the rod on the control arm, mounting it instead vertically and using only the outside hardware - in theory allowing it to swivel under extreme conditions to counteract bumpsteer. The amount is neglible considering the bracket allows for a minimum amount of play (effectively zero) so its effects are controversial.
I was impressed at how well this actually worked. The bracket i designed hangs off the side in the way of the new placement of the tie rod, so that will have to be notched. Other than that, movement is amazingly free and solid. toe adjustment works like it should and effective travel is much more than i could ever use.
With the arms extended, knuckles modified, and the tension rods effectively moved out of the way, next up was to extend the inner tie rods. I had an extra inner tie rod to cut and use as spacers to weld up into my existing ones. 25mm added to both sides.
This is when i realized i would encounter a serious issue. Over center steering lock. To counteract this, rather than spending money on offset spacers for their measly amount of offset, i figured id move my rack forward. I had an extra in the back so why not.
After a bit of cutting, it was obvious to me that the popular 25mm usually removed here was not enough for my liking. So i grinded away for hours until i felt it was sufficient. It mocked up nicely. I was feeling confident. And wont you know. My welds look and feel better than ever. Its like the light of Posiedon opened up and shined upon my work, and as i pulled the trigger, Zues himself was guiding my beads bit by bit. It really was a nice feeling.
Once welded up, the final measurement was 31mm forward.. Beautiful, really. Although I'm sure a professional welder would tell me theyre slightly to cold or ive used too much wire. Penetrated very deep. Just a little bit of build up. Zero spatter finally.
I grab the steering rack and set in place in the ground. And immediately its apparent why nobody goes this far. The fabrication involved going beyond 25mm is nearly doubled. The engine mount had to be lightly notched to acommodate the steering gear case. And other general fitment modifcations were necessary at various points.. At the end of the day it was finished. Not bad for a days worth of work. All thats left is to extend the steering shaft so itll reach.
Theres much left to do.. The interior is still mostly stripped. Welding starts at the unibody and makes its way to the floor boards. Still working on removing the sound deadening. The body is one shot paint with tons of chips and spots where its reached the metal. Ill keep updating if people find interest & sorry for the lack of pictures. They will be up soon.
Plans for the car that ill be documenting are a removable core support
Few more suspension mods
Internals
Big turbo
Full ext body work dents, fiberglass, paint etc
Interior strip and chassis paint
Have fun with tuning - bbg, antilag, flex fuel!!
Rust repair (lots of it)
Misc Metal fabrication
I may modify volks to run true-all negative offset
Cage when i can afford it
And all the interesting shit i can come up with in between.
Go easy on me if youre some professional team or have the $ to spend on big name parts as this is just another fun project of mine that im working into my teeny budget. For those that are wondering this will be a daily at some point and a dedicated track/drift car later on. Staring at this thing in my back yard for so long in the condition its in, my intuition just kind of kicks in. Also, All modified parts have a matching oem spec in case anything goes south.
Input on anyything is appreciated.
So the idea of this entire project was to get everything done in-house, keeping cost down as much as possible. Due to the nature of this, some modifcations done here are questionable at best, and would by no means equate to the 'proper' methods. With this in mind the idea is to learn and do my best considering everything from engine work to body work and welding will be done by me alone. I dont have cool friends that like to help and ive never been mentored by a professional welder. That being said i impress myself every with the things i learn im capable of doing and in the end, thats what makes it worth while.
So lets start at the very beginning. I have a friend whose into flipping 240s and parts. Every day hes got a new s chassis, and this is no joke. One day he posted a white s13 hatch up. Were in michigan, so theyre all rusty. It was 100% stock to the T, minus the front and rear bumper. Being that i had welded one time, i took a chance. Said im gonna repair it all myself.. What a night mare.
I was in for alot more than i had expected. This was more than a couple patch panels and some frame rail gussets.. The entire drivers and passengers floor have collapsed, broken free from the under-door unibody from front to rear. The entire trunk floor is missing on both sides. And under the kit.. God help me. Under the skirts have a hole the size of my head.. Cant think about that now.. Ive gotta rebuild the motor.
It was the original KA. Someone had just done a headgasket, full upper set, and replaced some components and left the chain off a tooth or two. Must have been ran because 2 valves in both cyl 1 and 3 snapped clean off taking the pistons with it.
So i pulled it out.
Dropped in an sr for the time being
Did a decent repair of the drivers floor boards and unibody (which took quite a while)
And had a little fun...
Until... Kaboom! Sr lost oil pressure and developed the loudest knock i had ever heard. Only a couple days in. Piece of junk..
So the next few painful weeks were spent going over the ka. It got a new head & oem pistons as they were cheap. Rods were straight as an arrow so i reluctantly reused them. New front cover, new oil pump, new bearings all around, new waterpump etc. The injectors were broken so i threw in some stock 370cc sr injectors and coupled it with an n60 maxima maf. Why you ask? The t25 in my garage has gotten a little dusty so i ordered a tubular ka manifold for it and fabbed up the water and oil lines.
My intercooler piping only permitted a blow through setup.
Modified the chassis for the sr so i robbed the greddy ic piping from it to use on the ka. It also had a nice aluminum radiator that would do some justice. I dont mind the crossover so i nabbed that too.
Just like that it goes back in. Unfortunately since i just blew the money on a spec stage 3 clutch for the sr, the ka go to back automatic tranmission.. Sucked cause the 5 speed swap was done with the sr. Ah well.
i used stainless steel hardlines for the water lines and a standard rubber oil line fed via an oil filter sandwich plate (tapped & fitted a hose barb)
The sr lines were cut and double flared near the turbo to allow for hose connections . the oil return line is a standard removable fuel cell bulk head fitted with a 90 degree -6an fitting pointing up.
The frame rail gussets were welded in over a weekend less than 6 inches above the ground. Needless to say it wasnt the most fun work ive had to do but i was happy when it was i finished. Being inexperienced, my welds rather surprised me. No worries on penetration.
As luck will have it, rom tunes are more expensive for The ka. So i decided to pay the extra buck and go standalone. I will not say which one just yet, as that may have its own thread.... Out the door cost was $200 more than a rom tune. Plus i finally get the opportunity of learning how to tune myself (or blowing my car up..)
As i waited for my ems, i took a good look at my suspension. I didnt like what i saw. Rotted stock shocks. Rotted tension arms. Wanted to do something about that. So i removed my knuckle and control arm, had some relatively new kyk shocks from an old s13, and used some hand me down lowering springs. Turns out, the springs havent been driven on much at all as theyre condition suggests.. Must not have been low enough for them.
Then a bright idea hit me. Why not fab up my own angle kit while i wait? Cant be too hard right?
I got my confidence up with an old set of knuckles from an old s13. Cut and rewelded the tie rod mount at close to zero ackerman. Removed about 1in. I preheated the knuckles prior to welding, and made two hot passes. One to fill and one large pass over them. Quite the process for cast.
Next came the control arms. I chose to extend them 25mm and later wished i had gone more. I used what appears to be 1/4in steel for the extension. Using a special tecnique to keep it straight, i couldnt be happier with the result. Really getting the hang of this welder.
Next came the notch. Pretty straight forward, however i went a little OTT with it having tunnelvision for a crazy angle. So ill need to install adjustable bump stops too once its all together, & later on itll be nicely boxed and ready to go.
Nex problem was the tension rod. I had an old set of adjustable spherical pillowtop tension rods from another old rusty bucket s13 that were structurally sound. My solution was pretty straight forward. Turning the rod vertically on its axis and moving its mounting point on the lca closer inwards toward the motor, bearing in mind the pillowtops limits. I stayed about 10mm from its end point, allowing some margin of safety and peace of mind. This opened a damn good amount of clearance for the wheel. I think the frame rail will actually hit first. Brackets were fabbed up also out of 1/4in steel to acommodate the new placement of the rod on the control arm, mounting it instead vertically and using only the outside hardware - in theory allowing it to swivel under extreme conditions to counteract bumpsteer. The amount is neglible considering the bracket allows for a minimum amount of play (effectively zero) so its effects are controversial.
I was impressed at how well this actually worked. The bracket i designed hangs off the side in the way of the new placement of the tie rod, so that will have to be notched. Other than that, movement is amazingly free and solid. toe adjustment works like it should and effective travel is much more than i could ever use.
With the arms extended, knuckles modified, and the tension rods effectively moved out of the way, next up was to extend the inner tie rods. I had an extra inner tie rod to cut and use as spacers to weld up into my existing ones. 25mm added to both sides.
This is when i realized i would encounter a serious issue. Over center steering lock. To counteract this, rather than spending money on offset spacers for their measly amount of offset, i figured id move my rack forward. I had an extra in the back so why not.
After a bit of cutting, it was obvious to me that the popular 25mm usually removed here was not enough for my liking. So i grinded away for hours until i felt it was sufficient. It mocked up nicely. I was feeling confident. And wont you know. My welds look and feel better than ever. Its like the light of Posiedon opened up and shined upon my work, and as i pulled the trigger, Zues himself was guiding my beads bit by bit. It really was a nice feeling.
Once welded up, the final measurement was 31mm forward.. Beautiful, really. Although I'm sure a professional welder would tell me theyre slightly to cold or ive used too much wire. Penetrated very deep. Just a little bit of build up. Zero spatter finally.
I grab the steering rack and set in place in the ground. And immediately its apparent why nobody goes this far. The fabrication involved going beyond 25mm is nearly doubled. The engine mount had to be lightly notched to acommodate the steering gear case. And other general fitment modifcations were necessary at various points.. At the end of the day it was finished. Not bad for a days worth of work. All thats left is to extend the steering shaft so itll reach.
Theres much left to do.. The interior is still mostly stripped. Welding starts at the unibody and makes its way to the floor boards. Still working on removing the sound deadening. The body is one shot paint with tons of chips and spots where its reached the metal. Ill keep updating if people find interest & sorry for the lack of pictures. They will be up soon.
Plans for the car that ill be documenting are a removable core support
Few more suspension mods
Internals
Big turbo
Full ext body work dents, fiberglass, paint etc
Interior strip and chassis paint
Have fun with tuning - bbg, antilag, flex fuel!!
Rust repair (lots of it)
Misc Metal fabrication
I may modify volks to run true-all negative offset
Cage when i can afford it
And all the interesting shit i can come up with in between.
Go easy on me if youre some professional team or have the $ to spend on big name parts as this is just another fun project of mine that im working into my teeny budget. For those that are wondering this will be a daily at some point and a dedicated track/drift car later on. Staring at this thing in my back yard for so long in the condition its in, my intuition just kind of kicks in. Also, All modified parts have a matching oem spec in case anything goes south.
Input on anyything is appreciated.
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