Hi All, I have been on about doing a blog, to log my S14a road/drift spec build. The build has been going on 8 months already and is coming to a close. Well should be coming to a close but I have a feeling that there's alot more to come, like any project really. So here we go.. Day1. Well night 1! I bought the car from a friend. Broke all the rules of buying a car. In the night, cold and wet and couldn't even check for rust. Bought the car in good faith as i have a good judge of character and this dude seemed honest.. A big thanks to Tom Murphy - drifter in the Irish Drift Championship for putting me in contact with this fella and bringing the car home for me! Check his page out here: https://www.facebook.com/TomUrMomMurphy It's a 1997 S14a Sr20det UK spec car. Full origin kit (Pretty Tatty) Stainless Downpipe 3" Apexi Performance exhaust system with decat Front Mounted intercooler other than that the car was pretty standard!! the s14 and my altezza
So, what did I buy? Next job was to get the car on the lift and see what i bought!! I was pleasantly surprised to only find a few bits of surface rust. All in all, a very straight car and I was happy with my purchace. I forgot to mention in the previous post that the paintwork was tattty. Even the bad rain on the night I bought it couldn't hide it! :/
Road,drift,road,drift,road,drift... Decisions!! I had to make a decision would i keep the car on the road, or convert to a track car. I decided to keep her as a track car after days of deliberation as there are too few on the road!! Sooo on the same day I began to strip!! The car that is! Rear Sub-Frame off Standard Rear Brakes Removed as I was going for the Skyline Upgrade! Skyline Brakes... Cheers EliteAutos! Subframe Stripped and bushes removed!
Few Random Pics One of the studs after a spin one night! Nearly lost a wheel :/ Primer and Tension Rods thanks to Paul Stryker! Awesome Drifter in the Irish Drift Championship.. Check him out https://www.facebook.com/Paulstrykerdrifting and of course a good cuppa to keep the show on the road
Let's Do This!! Subframe & Diff First up was the subframe. Cleaned down to bare metal. Used the Dinitrol RC900 rust converter, then primed and painted the subframe. Used the Powerflex Poly Subframe Bushes! Subframe Bushes I Done the same to the diff, Polished the rear casing and used the high temp paint on the diff its self. Solid Driftworks Diff Bushes too!
Arms & Hubs So as mentioned above, I want to keep this car on the road so I decided to get Skyline Brakes. Using the Calliper for the Hydro and the inner drum brake for the Mechanical Handbrake so the setup is fully legal on the road, I think I painted up the hubs and put the Driftworks Hub Bushes on them! Awesome Stuff!! Then it came down to the arms!! I was unsure what to get. I was steered well away from the cheap chinese shit on Ebay and I couldn't afford the Driftworks Camber, Toe and traction arms so I got Japspeed Ones. I got a good Deal on Megan Racing Lower Control Arms So I bought them too! Here they are installed! The Anti-roll Bar Bushes were pretty perished so I Convinced myself that twould be nearly as cheap to get new ARB's!! I went for the Whiteline ones. 22mm in the rear and 27mm in the front!! Subframe almost done!!
Engine Out!! I wanted to cleandown underneath and underseal it properly, to do so the engine had to come out. Easy enough job with help from the aul lad!
Undersealing and Cleaning! Before undersealing the car, i brought it all down to bare metal. I had to take a few days off work to get a good run atit but here is the outcome. There were only a few small patches of rust, one on each sill, very small! And one on the rear passenger arch! Patch up and we were ready to Wax!! Used the dinitrol 4941! Used 3 Litres on the whole car. I think for about 150e I got the gun, 3L of 4941 and the rc900 from Dinitrol Ireland - CleanCar.ie great products and great help!! A very small price to pay to save one of the few good shells remaining! Little rust hole on the right
Standard parts... Standard parts.. BE GONNNNEE!!!! Up into the loft in the shed in case i need them in the future!
Tight on space.. EASSYY As we were tight in space with a few other jobs space was at a premium. For that reason I came home one day to find the engine on a handy trolly that the father made up so he could move it out of the way! This proved to be very useful when cleaning up the engine and box!!
More Cleaning And Painting! Took off the front subframe, took everything apart, cleaned primed and painted, callipers, hubs, EVERYTHING! When cleaning the tie rods and track rod ends, I decided to get new ones as there was a bit of play in the joint! Got hardrace tie rods, track rod ends and the hyro from Barrys Motorsport . They are great to deal with, never a problem, very helpful!
Polished engine and box After hours of cleaning and polishing the engine, this was the outcome! More pics later showing how clean she is all around. Box and all included! Here is the pic of the Hardrace parts I forgot from the last post from Barrys Motorsport
Engine Bay! Ok one of the biggest decisions along the way was what colout to do the engine bay! I tried a Nissan LP1 Purplish Grey but it just didnt work so I went Kawasaki Green! Think it would contrast nicely against the purple of the car! No Likey!! COOOL Back in with the Engine!!
STOP-----Brakes... As the ABS was one of the parts that went out the door in the wheelbarrow, we ran new brake lines. I got the Driftworks Braied lines going to the Callipers, and to the Hydro!
Underneath I had to put up a single thread to show how clean the underneath was! All the head shields were removed, cleaned and resprayed, the fuel lines were ran in the new and painted and the gearbox looks swet polished!
Engine Bay starting to fill out! Started cleaning and connecting up the ancillaries like the powersteering ect!
Front Hub Assembly After hearing great things about the yellowspeed coilovers, I decided to give them a shot! Super Quality Products from Welcome to MCG Autostyling! Car styling & tuning, alloys, performance parts and many more! Ireland's biggest carstyling shop! The megan racing front lower control arms and tension rods with the hardrace extra lock tie rods should be awesome! Got Lock?? more to come!
Ok.. Few Pics of the build so far! Here are a few pics I have of underneath 95% finished! Mega Clean!!
