NZ RB25 two tone S13

[KillboSlaggins]

lots of hard graft to get the s15 rear bench in!

does look good but how come you didn't buy some matching material and reupholster the s13 bench? I would have thought cutting some seat belt slots would be easier

 

[BenRice]

I thought about it, but the S13 rear seat base was shot. Foam had perished and it stank horribly

Tbh it hasn't been that hard. A lot of in & out test fitting, but in the end it was 4 rivnuts, repositioned U clips and hacking & gluing foam. It could be done in half a day but dad life got in the way as usual.

Ordered one of those compressed air fabric cleaners so will give the front & rears a good scrub up when it comes in

 

[BenRice]

Since last time I've been trying to get the front end to look a little better. The grill never fully grew on me, and i can't stand GTR style grills.

My personal favourite is a Battle Mode style which is super basic, but hard to come by. Found a cheap fibreglass copy so gave it a shot.

Many hours of sanding, primering, fillering and sanding ended up with this:

My next move is going to be a new bonnet. The BN-copy is horrific so something like this will be making an appearance:


Was a little worried it would look "too much" on metal guards but Tokugawa pulls it off pretty well.

A couple of weeks a go a mate welded up the intercooler pipes and i set about grinding them down and polishing them as best as i could. I think there's a coating on them though so will pass it off to the pro's to finish off

But as of now they're on there and the car's packed. Our Matsuri is on the weekend and I'm instructing again, which means get the car road legal, load it with a pair of half worns and sneak out for a play when it quietens down

Keep an eye on this page for updates on the event:

https://www.instagram.com/wearedriftmatsuri/


Also changed the headlights & highbeams to LED thanks to Uncle Ali as stock are not good. Was quite impressed at the quality of them for the price, and so was the WOF (MOT) tester. The LED indicators & brake light bulbs just showed up today so will throw them in as well.

 

[BenRice]

Matsuri was fun. Finally did a full weekend instructing and this bunch of Beginner & Amateurs made waaaaay more progress. Only had to put 1 guy on the trailer for a timeout over the whole weekend and got half a dozen ready for Advanced now too. Have 3 more instructors teed up for next event in July which will make my life infinitely easier.

Drove the Silvia down Friday night with the boot packed tight, the rear tyres rubbing and the exhaust hitting on every second bump. Stayed in an epic luxury apartment with gated, underground parking.


10min to the track was amazing, meaning I had time to talk crap to some of the boiz entered over on Advanced on Track 2

Shot over to Track 3 and we got right into getting the newbs up to speed. Things quietened off mid arvo as the attrition rate climbed, so unloaded the boot and threw on the pair of gold Advans i brought with me

Finally got a chance to clean it, then through the KFC drivethrough, back to the complex for swim & spa, grabbed the whiskey out of the freezer and off to see the boiz to talk crap until the early hours

The next day was a struggle due to said whiskey. Found out the day before one of the regular volunteer's hadn't been for a ride in half a dozen events. Fixed that good an proper


Packed up mid arvo and drove it 2hrs home. Smaller slip on spacers meant for a rub-free drive and quite relaxing.

You would have seen some RP01's in the background of the pits shots. I picked up some 17x9 +42's while i was down there. I'm piecing them together with other wheels to make 2 full sets. Will sell one set and keep the others to mate up to a set of 235/40/17 AR1 Nankang semi's for local autocross/sealed sprint events.

I could have used a set of the Advans (gold or grey) but they're now going for over NZD$1k now. I've always loved the look of RP01's and wanted a change and could still pick pairs up for $200/ sets of 8's and 9's for $350 so gave it a shot. The offsets of +42 aren't that bad as I've got everything from 5/10/15mm slip-on's to 25/35mm bolt-on's. With monoblock you can't really tell they're +42 either, and they're lighter than the Advan's

Gold set is getting cleaned up this weekend with someone keen to buy as is. If it falls through then I'll finally pull finger on turning them into Ver 2 lookalikes like the grey set and put a stupid price on them. The gold set is way more beat up that the grey set tbh. Still considering stripping the VSXX centres and getting them coated matte gold to change things up

In #lifestylingmods I've bought roof racks. I simply don't have enough space inside and have an idea to fit 2x wheels on the racks with my mtb next to them and stop off at Whakarewarewa Forrest on the way home for a ride to create the most epic weekend away. I also got stung with the old LED 1156 bulbs as indicators and need to get resistors. Thought i was stung on the 1157's for the tail lights as well when i went to put one side in and do a side by side comparison and they didn't work. Found out last night they all need to be changed for it to work, so they're in and working fine

Replaced the single T10 bulb in the boot with 1m of LED strip. Difference is night and day..............








Yes i went there

 

[reecemunn33]

love the car love NZ your thread is sick!

 

[BenRice]

Cheers dude

 

[s13silvia]

Awesome car dude! Loving the look of it - a good way of final finishing that IC pipe would be putting an inverted sanding belt on a pillar drill attachment and holding the pipe at the other end, used to do this as a quick way of finishing various products (or simply mounted the pipe in a vice and used a strip of sandpaper by hand. However, as ugly as it is you're better leaving the cap of the weld in place rather than grinding it off as there's strength in the cap as well as the root - especially true when it comes to thin wall. If you want pretty and functional, get it tig'd or pro/machine mig'd to get a smooth bead. Might be okay though time will show

So envious of your RB though

 

[Lucky_13]

Dam this car makes me want to be abit more sensible a live with a little arch gap, it looks great and is still a nice useable height. That last picture is epic

 

[BenRice]

@s13silvia have a mate who works at a professional metal polishers who did my grey Advans so will drop them off to him, but thanks for the info

@Lucky_13 yeah i don't mind the ride height, but since those pics i have raised the rear 5mm and almost want to go another 5 so I can throw the 15mm spacers back on. The front could come down a smidge but I'm not too fussed, plus i want the clearance for the 235/40 AR1's. The real trick is 45 profile tyres all round filling the wheel-arch gap

 

[BenRice]

Smashed out a bit of interior bits over Easter

After seeing the impact of the LED strips on the boot I've applied it to the glovebox, passenger & drivers foot wells. Amazing how something like that can update the interior (will get some pics of it all soon)

Next was the bass tube. It didn't fit the best, fouled the boot rods and made things a bit too tight for fitting wheels in the boot:

So when i saw a few boxes at a mates house, one was acquired with a new project in mind:


I was going to order in a sub & amp panel to make it into a powered sub box, but after looking at the old bass tube everything measured up millimeter perfect! Everything still worked and disassembling it was piss easy so it was a bit of a no brainer

Plan is to mount the 10" sub facing towards the front of the car, and offset it to the RHS of the box as you see it, so it's near the centre line of the car. The amp and port will be fitted next to it, meaning everything will be hidden and it'll just look like a bomb box when you open the trunk lol. The OCD part of me loves that all the amp wiring will be 100% hidden with this plan

Will seal up all the joins, add sound deadening, remove the old latch and screw the lid shut once I've lined it with some 3M adhesive foam strip. I like the idea of screwing the lid shut in case of needing to open it again in the future, rather than sealing it permanently and the foam should help seal those joins

Still waiting on the semi slicks to turn up so i can get a pair mounted and get a bunch of tyres dismounted in one go, but in the meantime I've got a new toy to occupy me (2018 Haro Shift R5):

 

[BenRice]

Everything kind of fell together with the ammo box, but first up a shot of the LED light strips in the footwells and boot:

Next disassembling the old bass tube was done in 10mins. 4x screws and the subwoofer popped out, 6x screws and the amp was out as well and the port slid out with a bit of a tug.

Measured it up and the sub fitted on the rear perfectly, offset as planned, and the amp & port next to it. Traced out the holes required and took to it with the jigsaw. Mocked everything up and voila:

Now as part of making it fit between the RHS rear strut tower and the battery box I had to remove two bits of wood on the (now) bottom. These weren't overly structural but were where the rope handles anchored. In the end i had two bits of rope leftover on each end, so figured i'd try joining them. Grabbed 6" of adhesive heat shrink and it looks pretty sweet! (can see it on the top pic)

Then it was as simple as putting it in the boot and wiring it up

Have tested and works amazing. Couldn't be happier tbh

In other news i've been helping a mate +T his FL S14 manual SR20DE. We were originally going to +T a PFL he owns as well, but it's rougher yet has more goodies. So on Sunday we pillaged the PFL of it's big alloy radiator, twin thermos, strut brace, engine damper and soon it's HD clutch. We tried to retain the AC in the PFL but elected eventually to bin it.

We used my spare 550mm x 230mm intercooler flipped upside down with 2.5" tight 90deg joiners in a high mount setup. Relocated the loom from under the radiator support panel to run along the bottom chassis / tension road support brace instead, which gave us the space to put the intercooler right up the top. A bit of massaging with the hammer so the joiners fitted and we were golden

The radiator sits in factory position and joiners clear no problem. Connected the thermos to the AC wiring and they kicked on at 95deg as per factory, however driving it on the open road with no viscous and no fans going it sat at 75deg on the open road (go the Fenix radiator!). Found a suitable bit of alloy piping for the cold side, drilled & tapped a hole for the idle control, threw the AFM on the intercooler's hot side joiner and it fired up and drove (and did a burnout) no problem lol

Next steps are swapping in the HD clutch, battery into the boot as it's a tad tight up front, swapping the pump for a Walbro 255 and hard wiring it, fitting an SAFC, swapping in a rail with 370cc injectors, drilling & tapping the block for the turbo oil drain, fitting a braided oil feed (T'd off the oil pressure switch port), factory turbo manifold w/ T25G, 3" exhaust, finish hot side piping & turbo intake, swap plugs, retard the base timing 3deg, fit my AEM wideband and road tune it at 10psi. Obviously full process is more in-depth than that but I'll try document it here.

Between the two of us we've got spares coming out of our ears so have pieced everything together quite easily and I'm keen to give road tuning a go

 

[BenRice]

Next project: sort my wheel collection out

First up, the autocross shoes - Enkei RP01's

Benefits of knowing people in the competition game meant i got a set of four used 235/40/17 Nankang AR1 semi's (previously front's). They had tonnes of picked-up rubber, so after getting a couple fitted to my first pair of RP01's i got to scraping it off with a heat gun & paint scraper

Still a bit of light stuff on them, but a quick scuff as rears and they'll be sorted. Still have 4mm+ of tread left so pretty stoked tbh

RP01's really are a timeless look and suit the meaty rubber nicely

Then the challenge to make them fit properly

And the money shots



They're both 17x9 +38 - fronts have a 15mm bolt on and rears have a 15mm slip on. The actual rears with be 17x9 +42 so will use a 20mm slip on instead of the 15mm. Dropping off the +42's to the sand blasters this week to get he process under way

In other news, the gold SA3R's got their centres machined down as part of the V2 upgrade

Have them all masked up in preparation for sanding the wheel stud area next. These have been my longest serving wheels and have done some serious mileage. I am frothing to see what they look like with the middle machined, V2 stickers on and lips freshened up. I have this image in my head of the Silvia running them front & rear, and if reality lives up to this then I'm hanging onto them - i put them up for sale and had a couple of bites but nothing serious

Finally the VSXX: the centres are going matte gold. The chrome is pealing and the car needs some colour in it.

Plan is to pull them off the car this weekend, lower the front 5mm, put the gunmetal SA3R's on, deflate the VSXX tyres, unbolt the centres and drop them off to the sand blasters next week. I may even get the lips sanded & polished to really top off the rebuild, but will see how time goes. My aim is to have everything ready by winter Matsuri in 2 months time and stunt on some niggaz

 

[BenRice]

Progress on the wheel project. Works removed and "skid" wheels fitted


Then removed the centres from the Works


Scratched an ID into the barrels & centres and kept the bolts bagged separately too

Dropping the centres off this afternoon for sandblasting. Brought the gold Advans along as well to see if my sandblaster can just do the wheel stud area. The paint is so thick that paint stripping was taking ages (despite roughing the paint up), sanding wheel was also laborious, as was a fine wire wheel so am looking for faster solutions

Have Thurs & Fri off this week but won't be doing any work on these. Instead have the red FL lined up to have a bunch of jobs done.

Oh, and got put onto a pair of 18x9 RP01's for sale. So now have another pair of RP01's to collect. I officially now own more of another type of wheel than my Advans, never thought that would happen

Brb, searching for innovative wheel storage solutions...

 

[BenRice]

So wheel refresh is ongoing.

Made a cock up on the colour choice for the centres and they came out waaaay too orange. So back to sandblast & at powder coaters for round 2. Expensive mistake, but learnt my lesson.

Got the refresh on the gold SA3R's done. Could have gone further, but had to keep reminding myself they are drift spares

Tyre shop only had 235/45's, hence the balloons above (dropped them off today and getting swapped to 215/45)

And they got finished extra quick as the first ever Coffee & Cars was held a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday. I found out on the Saturday morning.

(the only pic taken by some kid)

And my goofy af son

So waiting on word from the powder coaters that the centres are ready, again, so i can bolt them back in, get them rebalanced and throw them back on.

Also, the S14 FL +T now has an RB25 box conversion in it & HD clutch (done by owner). Just waiting on the driveshaft yoke to be swapped over.

I'm off to continue the wiring bits on it this arvo. Installing oil pressure, water temp & boost gauges in a non-dodgy manner

 

[Doritofu]

Looking really nice there Ricey! Still the best two-tone in the biz.
Looking forward to seeing this thing in the flesh at a track meet once I finally get mine up and running.

 

[BenRice]

Cheers man

Got the VSXX centres back from powder coating last night. Definitely more of a bronze than a gold but way better than what it was. There is some nice gold flake in there which should hopefully pop in the sunlight. Otherwise will leave it as is for now then look to strip & paint next year.

Hopefully be able to start reassembling them over the coming evenings once the little man is in bed

 

[BenRice]

Assembly going ok. All lips have been polished and centres are bolted in, and as of Sunday arvo all are torqued down

But did manage to snap a bolt:

But have had multiple offers of replacements so won't be an issue to replace. 5 or 6 others are marginal as well so will grab extras

Going to get them rebalanced this week and throw them back on this weekend

In +T news, managed to get the temp looms for the wideband done, the VAFC mounts done and the gauges finished off

As per my love of magnets the VAFC can sit in the glovebox when parked (for security) and up on the vent magnet when being used. Tacho and speedo don't work so it's worth having.

Am having some issues with the VAFC saving settings. Done a little research and have some things to try. Fingers crossed the talk of an "internal battery" is internet lies.

Have also been roped into pulling a dogbox out for a mate tomorrow night. Must be a drift event happening soon lol

 

[BenRice]

So prep for Matsuri this weekend is well under way....... for everyone else

The +T is all road tuned as of Sat night and was all done within an hour. Running a VAFC is a huge benefit over an SAFC as it allows 12 rpm points on the "low cam" and 12 on the "high cam". With the silver top having a super low rev limit of 7200 we had awesome fine tuning available. Think I'll put it all into a thread for people to peruse rather than here.

My prep has involved fitting the Works and rolling it outside and taking photos haha

Will charge batteries for power tools, swap the buckets seat & harness in and pack it up. My mate flaked on getting me the clear vinyl so second pair of wheels will be on the back seat. All four wheels have new tyres though as i should get a bit more track time with the extra instructors along. Keep an eye out on the D*Club YT channel for Reuby's take on the event from an instructors POV (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqneLYnRYuMHXTnyCBp7QeA)

I'd like to do an oil change but probably won't get around to it. Have been roped in to modify an SR waterneck to take an M16 thermoswitch and make some fan relay kits up

 

[BenRice]

Matsuri done & dusted

First time out it felt all over the place, found a puncture in the front. Wound a screw in and sussed.

Next, car kept cutting out when i came off the throttle on the decel, so bumped up the idle.

That worked until it started missing up high then losing all power out of the hairpin and cutting out, which i suspect was fuel surge as it was just over 1/4 of a tank. So more gas needed...


Beers, rum & pizza and a crappy sleep and back at the track with a decidedly dodgy condition

Got invited to a photoshoot so hopefully have some glamours popping up soon

Next plan is to cut down the twin pipes (angle cut, just poking out past the bumper), polish up the muffler again, properly inspect the noises coming from the rear and do all the oils in the car, especially now as the gearbox wasn't liking highspeed shifting (should never used semi synthetic shit)

 

[BenRice]

So in the past month or so our household has been fighting winter sicknesses so not a lot of progress sadly

In saying that, my new bonnet finally arrived, been painted and I fitted it a couple of days ago

Now the good news/bad news situation.

Bad news: as i suspected/feared the throttle body is fouling the ribbing on the underside

Good news: there's a lot of meat i can take off the throttle body, which i had wanted to do anyway as i'd half done it to clear the old factory bonnet. Also, the ribbing is huge, excessively wide and actually sits under the edge of the hump, so any cuts won't be visible from above.



Now worth mentioning - the quality of the bonnet.

Origin seem to be the cheapest of the Japanese brands and, for Australasia at least, are the only Japanese bodykit manufacturer pushing international sales. It was actually priced within $100 of the cheap knock-off bonnets too, which influenced my expectations.

This was also replacing what could only be described as the WORST copy of a BN bonnet in existence. It bowed up in the middle front-to-back, sitting above the line of the guard. It also needed a huge amount of customisation on the hinges to line up, plus i must have been drunk when i trimmed the vents to clear the inlet plenum.

The Origin bonnet uses M6 bolts as opposed to the factory/copy bonnet M8's. This meant a lot more room for adjustment, which i initially thought was a bad sign.

However, it feels like it's been made really, really well. It's dual skin, and the edges are finished to a really high quality. I was gobsmacked that fibreglass this good was so cheap. It actually pains me to cut it tbh

Once clearance issues are sorted it'll be on to cutting off the latch loop and swapping over the Aerocatch latches, hopefully all done by the end of the weekend