Pic for thread {} The first post contains the backstory, my following posts will be picture heavy and substantial I promise. I sold my modified Fiesta ST and decided between S13 and R33 for a while while doing research. The choice was S13 because of it's weight and size, LHD, general availability and budget. In Slovenia very few S13s were sold. I found one with the open roof, rusted through and sitting for years with another one in abnormally good condition sitting on top of a barn covered in a whole season worth of hay. Both for fair money and locally. The owner was acting like they are gold, problems free and like I am selling him a car, not the other way around. I was fed up with waiting for him and pressed on on foreign websites, including here. Major problem for me was to get one cheap or to get one unmodified. I need it unmodified because I would never be able to import it with xy modifications and no TUV certificates. I then found a car on mobile.de but over 700km away in Romania. I name all my cars and this one will be "Romana" for obvious reasons. I got in touch with the seller, relieved when he spoke good english, asked him A LOT of questions over the course of 2 weeks while we waited for a date we could both make it off work. That was yesterday. I started my trip from Ljubljana by car 135km to Zagreb. In Zagreb I had a Hungarian bus booked to Budapest. The bust newer showed. All my hardship aside, after hours of frustration, exhaustion and googling I was on a bus from Zagreb to Wien. Arrived in Wien at 5 in the morning, charging my phone in a hotel nearby, using their restroom and pressing on from Wien to Budapest. I knew at this point I was not going to make it to Romania in time to do all the paperwork, so the plan was to have the seller go there with copies of my documents and sign everything in my name. Is it illegal and risky? Ya, but so is owning a modified vehicle. I arrive to Budapest late because it was raining and still manage to catch the shuttle for Oradea in Romania, just a few km from the Hungarian border. We meet up where the shuttle dropped me off, I see the car for the first time. It is a fucking shitbox. I expected it to need work, but it was worse. Did that turn me away? NO! Most of the work that is planned for the car will take care of everything that is currently wrong with it, plus I am too stubborn for my own good. We check all the papers with his father, everything adds up, he gives me a bottle of their local spirit "palinca" which according to him "opens a lot of doors" and I am on the way. Was 3000€ and a full fuel tank too much for this car? Yes! Could I get one cheaper? No! Not long after leaving Oradea I come to the border. Mind that the car is still on ROmanian plates and his insurance because that is how they do things when exporting, just changing paperwork to my name. I am fucking scared when they don't just wave me by. No problem though, just wanted me to open the boot. Which it took me like 3 tries because it sticks and can't be opened by key for some reason. {} I drove for 7-8 hours straight like usual when on a long trip after that, only stopping for the Hngarian vignette. The car is funny in stock state. DOesn't look good, everything has that feel of cheap, paintwork was never beautiful to begin with in this cream white color, the wipers were extremely noisy, I had t ostop and tape down the roof window because it caught wind at 120km/h and whistled my sanity out, the bonnet was looking like it could tear off at any time and the lights were shaken into the ground, giving me about 6m of visibility on high beams. As soon as I enter Slovenia after 5 and a half hours I stop for the Slovenian vignette. Immediately stopped by police. Romanian plates in Slovenia, this will be good. I open the doors and say I know the drill. Give them my ID, he is surprised I am a citizen in a foregin car. Asks for car documentation and drivers license. I tell them the story real quick while stretching my legs after being battered by the worn out seat, low seating position and home made coilovers (they let out some hydraulic liquid to make it lower). He doesn't know what to look for in the pile of papers I gave him, they like my story and let me go. This was over 500km into the trip home and I haven't stopper for fuel yet. In my fiesta I would be filling it up twice by now. I pass some bigger cities in Slovenia on my way back to Ljubljana. I am 600km in and still no warning light for fuel. The gauge could be trusted although it did go up and down a low slightly. After 660km and very nervous last few km I reach a station and fill it up a little just to be safe, although I think I could make it all the way home. Today I took it to work to lift it up and check the damage underneath. The steering was trying to shake the car apart at all speeds and braking, the transmission was clanking with every touch of the gas pedal and I was afraid it was rusted out more than I expect it to be. IT WAS FINE... Rusty, yeah, but nothing I did not expect. Overall a good sight underneath. Every rubber needs changing, coilovers are in order, the one way diff will be swapped for a 2 way and I will strip it down for a serious respray inside and out. Both front and rear subframes are fine, just need refurbishing. The steering is all greasy so that needs sorting out and the middle bearing for the prop shaft needs replacing. The engine was redone by the previous owner, it pulls really nice. I drove a 1.8T passat and this is SO MUCH better as far as 1.8T goes. THe mechanics were laughing at first, but then they saw how clean the engine was and how much potential there is if someone was to dump money at it and they started to like it soon. My first thing to do is to get it in some kind of state that will pass the technical examination for importing it and get the Slovenian documents for it. Then...you know what they say, if you want to make gods laugh, you tell them all about your plans. I will go slowly but steadily and give you a lot to see. This far the forum has been good to me, I hope I can count on you all for the whole build. I am not a mechanic after all, just an enthusiast who likes to tinker. First of all I will need 2 new headlight housings as these are all broken, a front bumper (RB style or similar with giant intercooler mouths), roof liner because I am welding the roof down, coilovers, 2 way diff, 2 wide bucket seats and a bunch of patience. I will soon also need advice on what to do with the bodywork and wiring. Now please wish me luck and share your experience what to look for and expect. {} {} I can't see the pictures. Here is the link. Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet How do I make them visible and embedded?
Waiting for the old owner to de-register so I can start the procedure to pay all the import taxes and register it. Ordered new water pump, belts, subframe bushes, steering bushes, silicon hoses, coilovers, nismo 2 way, new headlights and a lot more maintenance parts. Still don't know how to embed pictures because brackets don't do the trick. Next on my schedule: wait for the registration, then take the subframes off and replace everything that is either broken or too far out. Renew the steering rack, refurbish the subframes, replace the centre propshaft bearing etc. Will come with pictures next time.
When you say the transmission was clanking, are you 100% it was the transmission? Try checking the axle bolts first (where the axles bolt to the diff stub axles) as they have a habit of coming loose when people don't locktite them when running tight diffs Have you checked if you have an R200 diff in there? They came with R180's as well, so worth checking before buying the 2 way. If I can recommend anything with regards to styling a stock metal 180sx & dealing with rust, check out Keeve's thread: http://www.driftworks.com/forum/drift-car-projects-builds/236719-keeves-low-street-driven-s13.html
Your responses are most welcome, thank you. I will check the diff as soon as I can, the seller ships on monday, so that gives me a little time. I was told they came with R200 and S14 came with R180. As for the clanking, it could be anything. Everything is kind of loose underneath. I wasn't really worried as I intend to drop both subframes and see what rubber needs replacing and refurbish them. It could be the bolts you mentioned, will take care of it when I come around to it. First off, documents, taxes and homologation. I did notice one thing that won't help the technical examination at all and that is, the reverse lights don't come on when I put it in reverse. I checked the bulbs and they are fine, so I am guessing there is a switch somewhere that gave up at some point. Any tips? Identifying diffs: From your experience is this a good way to do it from the outside? http://hardtuned.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=457529
S14 came with R180 in most of the non turbo models, and R200 in the turbo model S13 came with R180 in some of the auto CA models and R200 in the turbo SR20 models Because the subframe accepts both R180 and R200, it's easy for people to change between them if the factory one breaks so worth checking ASAP. The subframe will have 6 holes for where the backing plates bolts up (2 on the RHS, 4 on the LHS), the R180 will use the RHS and closest pair on the LHS, R200 will use the RHS and furtherest pair on the LHS (wider case). So with that in mind it's very easy for you to check. Reverse switch sensor is closest to the front:
There's a lot of bullshit in that thread for diff ID But the bit about the R180 having bolts on the case next to where the stub axles come out is correct
Thank you for everything so far, I will get to it tomorrow. One last thing for tonight, please tell me how to embed pictures. It shows your pictures, but won't show mine no matter what I try.
Use TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting Copy the URL one with the tags If you want I can send you a link to the factory service manual once you've got your private messages working
Can this be recognized as R180 or R200? Best I could do in a suit this morning, without lifting the car up.
As far as I know all european 200SX S13s had R200 diffs from factory, it'll be a 3.9 open if it's a pignose like yours or a 3.9 VLSD if it's the chuki facelift. Both autos and manuals had the R200 3.9 diff, I think it's only JDM 180SXs that had a mix of R200s and R180s with the 4.1/4.3 ratios
Yup, that's R200 as it's using the outer bolt holes for the rear diff mount 3.9 isn't the best ratio, but for learning it'll be fine. And good for daily driver duties
a littl bit of update Documentation and legislation still not taken care of because of really slow post system in Slovenia and Romania. Meanwhile I haven't started working on the car yet as I will have a much harder time getting through technical examination with modifications. I have done a lot of research and started ordering parts. I found a garage I will rent over winter to do work on the drivetrain. Today was a rainy day and I finaly had some time to get around smaller things I have planned for the interior. As little as that has to do with drifting it is still important to me. I won't go too far though. Car parts, never a bad thing! Some plastic interior parts had holes or chipped edges and I wanted to tae care of that before I wrap it in shiny carbon foil. Appartment reaks of epoxy. Wait for the finished product, won't look bad even if it is a tacky carbon ebay foil.
MORE PARTS!! Not going ot help me drift any better but it will help me love the car more. Rocket bunny replica!
too 90' in my opinion it is too pointy and I like big mouths a lot so this is perfect for my taste I am keeping the pignose around in case of accidents or even for tandem somewhere along the line
More parts! Radiator and silicon hoses fitted tomorrow along with a new water pump. Interior refresh!
Got my brother to come from another town, help me go check a garage, take it and move the car, tools and supplies there. Done! We dug right into it, worked past midnight. Removed the bumpers (WHAT A PAIN!), removed everything A/C, swapped the stock cooler for a 52mm ebay one, fought the alarm system at night and came out on top! After removing the plastic inner arches we found this: screwdriver goes right through into the drivers footwell. I will leave it like this untill I get around having the roof welded, then I will cut out a big piece and weld a new one in. Passenger side is much better but needs fixing as well. This is the most rusty bit on the car. Everything else is brownish but totally fine. After changing the radiator, securing the shroud so the fan doesn't hit it and fighting the alarm system that went nuts after having the battery removed we needed to warm up the car and bleed the system. This was it Since the car was designed many years ago, the fenders are long and pointy, made of metal instead of plastic, everything is secured tightly AND DOESN?T OFFER ANY GOOD SECURING POINTS FOR THE NEW BUMPER! I need to either weld a bit of metal to the arches or use the tiny bit of the edge underneath to secure it, otherwise the bumper and the pointy bits of the arches don't exactly fit. Since then I secured new lights with proper working mechanisms, we stripped out the interior for a good clean, dry and new upholstry. Next chance we get we need to drop the rear subframe with diff, install diff and coilovers, poly bushes, gearbox mount, change the belts and water pump (didn't this time because belts haven't arrived yet), clean the engine and see what happens. We will most likely do all that out of the garage at a mechanics because it is incredibly tight underneath, jacked up only on 4 pieces of wood or building block. Untill then smaller things such as interior cleaning up, rear seat delete with battery relocation and so on.
Did you unbolt the front bumper support from the factory bumper and reinstall? The fibreglass bumper should work with the factory bumper support: You can also use some of the factory foam, trimming it down to suit the new bumper's shape in order to hold it at the right height. Or just use small blocks of adhesive foam on the bumper support
the height itself is not the problem at all, because the side mounting points will hold it firmly in place if I use all holes, the problem is the fit between the pointy part of the arch and the bumper. I kept the original steel bumper under it, but I don't think it is the one from your picture. I have an idea or two how to fit it properly and firmly but it comes down to how brittle the glass fibre bumper is. Zip ties FTW
