Update - but not about the S13... I've had a G29 for a while, but since we moved into the new house over 2 months ago, it has just been boxed up in the spare room upstairs, then last Thursday night whilst me and the missus were watching Game of Thrones, I randomly thought about borrowing one of the small Ikea side tables we have in our living room, I put it on the floor and sat against the sofa with the table over my legs and thought "Ye, this could work..." A normal Friday morning was changed when on the way back from Maccies for breakfast, I stopped by B&Q - picked up 2 sheets of MDF and headed home, stole an Ikea side-table from the living room and removed one of the top support bars, and then got to measuring the MDF, first off created a base plate to mount the table to and also mount the pedals to: {} Got that made and then mounted the pedals after removing them from their original plastic casing, I then mounted the steering wheel and then had to make a bracket for the gear stick that was remotely similar to the S13, so I went outside and measured the distance from the steering wheel to the gearstick, then came back and replicated it - I dont have any pics of this in process as I just wanted to get it made and try it! Since making it, i've also inverted the pedals so they are similar to how a real car is, rather than mounted to the floor. I still need to pickup a joystick or something to setup as a handbrake(suggestions welcome if anybody can think of something?), but I am currently enjoying no handbrake as it makes me focus more on getting my line correct than extending with the handbrake . Its nothing fancy and I'd love to get some real wood and make it properly but this was just thrown together so I can get some use out of the wheel! {} {} {} {} Although I've only got a crappy laptop, it feels good to be back using it, atleast it sort of relieves the drift hangover until I can next get back out!(Not sure when that will be this year) P.S Yes the pink doll's house is another of my favourite pass times...
Not many updates.... Car has been reliable as ever, drove it to STL, drifted all day, drove it home, and still driving it around now, all I've done since STL is unload the damn thing and it still keeps going - absolutely love it! It is due a bit of attention soon though...hopefully that'll get fixed before Christmas! Saturday just gone Me and the Missus went to V8Illuminati Meet @ Church in Manchester - Same as a few months ago! Was a good night and met a few new people and chatted with others - Love seeing loads of drift cars together and people just chilling/chatting Heres the only pic of my car from the event that Ali from STL got - I always forget to take pictures when I go anywhere.... Yes it still looks the same. {} P.S - Assetto Corsa is amazing
Had my S13 pre-MOT Checked - and found its suffering from a common illness across most Japanese vehicles of this age... Something you might or might not have heard of... Rusticitis - Its quite a severe case but hopefully with enough treatment i'll be able to complete eliminate all signs of it. Heres some pictures of the lovely illness... {} {} {} {} {} {} {} {} I instantly went to Toolstation and purchased this: Makita GA4530KD 720W 115mm Angle Grinder 240V {} I also purchased many cutting/grinding discs and a wire wheel... Hoping to get stuck into cutting all the rust out sharpish - Just dont fancy doing it on the drive being exposed to all sorts of elements! Will keep this updated as I go on hopefully... **IF ANYBODY HAS ANY TIPS ABOUT WELDING UP OLD RUSTY NISSANS FEEL FREE TO SEND THEM MY WAY - Never welded before and im picking up a mig soon hopefully - only thing i've been told is that my welding wire should be atleast .2 - .4 smaller than the material I am welding with but that doesn't mean much so I am literally all ears!**
Things have now changed...the car is no longer SR20DE... Last Wednesday my mate came and picked the car up and took it over to his unit.... {} Sitting pretty after being dropped off waiting to be stripped {} Thursday came around and I proceeded to spend the whole day stripping it completely, all the interior has come out including the dash,seats etc... I found some lovely surprises along the way... {} {} These will definately require cleaning up ASAP. Drivers side - This might look ok from ontop, but as my previous post shows, this has basically just been plated over, the rust hasn't been cut out, its just been covered up {} {} Passenger side - the pictures are quite shit, but basically all the rust holes you can see, are all straight through, so you can see the floor out of them, and they are fairly huge! Also didn't take a picture but there is another rust hole at the front just underneath where the glove box is... ARGHHH {} {} {} The engine and gearbox have been removed aswell as the engine is being replaced... {} {} The car is now sitting on the drive looking sorry for itself - its engineless and has 4x4 ride height so that it is easily transportable... {} My aim all along has been to get back into competitive drifting again....so hopefully very soon the car will have a healthy S15 Spec R SR20DET in it, along with a nice rust free shell fitted with a rollcage to BDC Specs. Style wise it will be staying the same apart from changing the boot spoiler for something a bit more aggressive and potentially the wheels aswell I dont have a huge budget so unfortunately there will be no sequential gearboxes or anything fancy, just a basic spec SR13 that im hoping will be able to stick it with the big boys in Driftcup next year(2018) - I may struggle as my budget isnt huge and I cant do much of the work myself as I'm not very mechanically minded, but I will try my best this year and hope to have a competition ready car some point this year(Hopefully sooner rather than later!) and give the big budget guys a run for their money(literally)! The welding and rollcage are being done by a good friend of mine up north and hoping to have the car back for mid-feb latest so I can get the engine all wired up etc - Any pointers feel free to shoot - happy to listen
Nothing major - just a small update last Wednesday, Chris from D8RC came and collected the car {} and its now sitting in his unit awaiting surgery... {} Hoping to have it back pretty soon sporting the new engine, then I can get cracking with the rest of it making it suiteable for Driftcup...urgh - lots of work! Hopefully plenty of updates soon
Got a message from Chris asking if I could spare a day to come up and cut all the rust out in preparation for him welding up the holes and fitting the rollcage, I booked Tuesday off work and left my house at 6am to be at the unit for 8am - work commensed almost immediately, and I took the few last bits off the car before the grinder and wire wheel came out... {} Quickly found a nice chunk of rust on the rear light panel, this doesn't show the part at the top where its not even held together... {} Then I moved onto the rear pockets, these have been patched over before(badly) so I wasnt sure on what to expect, cut the outer skin off and was greeted with this lovely site... {} {} Did the passenger side the same and found this bunch of happiness! {} Quickly chopped it all off and did the same on the drivers side aswell {} {} The wire wheel came back out and what I initally thought was a small hole(50p size) wheeled out to be a whole lot more, so I just took the grinder to it and cut it all out {} at this point...you'd imagine that I'd almost covered it all... Nope! Moved onto the passenger side outer sills and cut a previous patch out to be greeted with this - could get a good upskirt from this view if the floor was stable enough to even seat a woman...we'll come to that in a second... {} Then I thought that if the inner sill is like that here, I wonder what its like the rest of the way, so cut a slot all the way along the outer sill to look in, surprisingly the main parts were solid, its just the bottom of the inner sill that was rotten... {} I also cut out a patch on the rear of the passenger sill to see what was hiding - not sure wether im glad I did or not... {} Then moved onto the passenger rear floor - I knew it was bad, but not this bad.... {} {} {} Theres still loads more that I havent even got pictures of... Drivers floor, missing almost 1/4 of it and still plenty more rust to find Drivers rear jacking point has rust holes in it Drivers inner and outer sills Both front strut tops were rusty where they met the frames that hold the wings front crossmember has been patched over previously so that is rotten aswell got a pic of all the metal I chopped out - probably weighing in at around 7kg? {} Think its time to re-shell, as this isn't worth saving, and I could probably spend the next month chasing all the rust away, but then half of the car would be missing...and then how long until it re-appears if I didn't manage to find it all... Hopefully have a new shell ready to go with just a few tweaks...
New shell has been found(in the yard outside the unit where the rusty shell is - how perfect!) {} {} {} {} {} {} Its 10x cleaner than the old one, theres a spot(an actual small hole) of rust in the floor but nothing major {} and should be sorted pretty quick, and also the chassis rails have been bent/squished in the middle which looks like a fork lift truck has tried to pick it up and hit the chassis rails rather than go underneath them... {} The only downside so far is that the rear arches have been cut for overfenders, so looks like i'll be going down the rear overfender route! Nothing crazy, still keep it nice and subtle. Chris has immediately got on with the task of replacing the bent chassis rails, the shell is up on its side and hes chopped out the bent rails and is in the process of replacing them with fresh straight solid rails. {} {} {} The windscreen has also come out ready for the rollcage to be done which makes things easier for Chris - Im hoping that in a few weeks I can go up one day and spend the day swapping all the bits over from the old shell to this new one - fingers cross progress will be made and It'll actually be done before Driftcup - March 11th... 45 days encounting...
Been a while since I updated this... Unfortunately I didn't manage to get Driftcup tickets, so for the foreseeable future I am just doing loads of practice days to get used to the car and get as much seat time as possible... Lucky in a way as the car is nowhere near done! Engine is sat waiting to be dropped in.... {} And here's pictures of the Rollcage so far: {} {} {} {} {} {} {} {} {} Also got a new daily/tow car and a trailer so that I can trailer the S13 to events rather than drive it and worry about getting home/restricting how hard I push {} Hopefully not much longer until the S13 is back so I can get rebuilding it
Latest update.... Rollcage is fully finished now and the interior/engine bay has been painted - Audi Nimbus Grey {} {} {} {} {} {} {} Chris has also dropped the engine and gearbox in for me {} {} This is the last picture Chris has sent me before I'll see them again tomorrow, {} The old shell is no use to me, I want a few bits and bobs off it and then if anybody wants it cheap they are welcome to come and take it... Roll on building this back up and doing lots of drifting this year!
Been a couple of weeks... Got both shells back!(New and old) {} Just a case of swapping everything over from the old one to the new one, and by everything - I mean pretty much EVERYTHING! Swapped over the steering column as that had my ignition barrel and all the indicators etc on it so saved me faffing about trying to get them off. Also - wiring - what a nightmare, Its like somebody has fitted a gash alarm and then ripped it out just by pulling it and not even cutting wires, it was crazy - Examples... {} {} Ended up buying a soldering iron - never using one before I cracked on and managed to do some decent wiring I think which I was rather happy with - sorted out some horrendous bodge jobs so hopefully the wiring is all sorted now. {} {} Also wired up my remote central locking kit that I ordered a while ago, as I'm fed up of putting the key in the door all the time, lucky me, the drivers door already had an actuator in it all bolted up, although I had already ordered a new one before I checked...just need to plug it all in now and then I'll get it tested and fingers crossed it'll work a treat! {} {} All the wiring looms are in and attached up, We managed to get the dash back in after a bit of persuasion and a hack saw and grinder. {} {} {} {} Next is to run new fuel lines as I have no idea on the state of the current ones, and then fit the fuel tank and prop and then see if she starts. I also need to get an intercooler piping kit and radiator top hose and then I can plumb them in aswell... Hopefully not much more, once it's driving well, im gonna book on a drift day and just drive it as it is, I dont care how it looks, just want to make sure it drives well before I spend money on the exterior. HUGE Thanks to Amy for helping with numerous things that would have been a huge pain on my own, and also Norfy for being the wiring god that he is, and able to tell me exactly what each wire was at the drop of a hat... More to come - hopefully next time it'll be driving!
Nothing major just a small update... Finally got all the dash etc back in, just need to make up new seat rails and then the seats and harnesses can go back in... {} Bought a healthy amount of new/fresh fuel hose so that I can replace anything underneath the car that doesn't look right... {} Got the car in the air ready to fit the fuel tank, stupidly jacked it up then realised I had left to the fuel tank in the boot... No bother - just lift it out - simple right? {} NOPE!!! Bloody breather pipe snaps as I lifted it via that instead of the filler neck... D'oh! {} Quickly on the blower to a mate(Mr.Hanson) who came up with a genius idea of sleeving it and making another tube that will slot over the top of it with a washer around the bottom to seal it on... {} Cleaned up around it with a wire brush and then got some tigerseal and stuck it on, just waiting for it to set then hopefully i'll be able to get the fuel tank in and then that's another thing ticked off the list On a positive note....fitted a pair of 25mm spacers I bought a while back! Adding a bit of girth ready for some +30mm overfenders! {} As I said - not much updates unfortunately but slow and steady wins the race right?
Few more updates... had a spare few hours over the past few days so done small bits and bobs... Finally got the new slip on nozzle all fitted onto the tank - now awaiting a dry day to get underneath and fit it!(Working outside is no fun!) {} Then I got onto modifying my door cards so that they fit around the rollcage...Started out with 2 full door cards... {} Out came the grinder! The door cards then became 4 half door cards... {} After some fettling they eventually fit like a glove! including keeping the original handle(after cutting that aswell!) and window buttons - winner winner! I will make up a panel to cover the bottom of the door later down the line once the car is running etc and I know its fine - bottom of the priority list right now lol {} Picked up a viscous fan and got that fitted up along with the stock cowling and an uprated Japspeed radiator(Best cooling setup going! Stuff your electric fan malarky!). Also fitted the power steering lines. {} Again waiting on a dry day so that I can get under the car and fit a few things up... Need to swap the oil pressure sensor to an S13 unit as my start/charge loom is still the stock s13 stuff - But with the intake brace fitted up its impossible to change it from above Hopefully more updates soon! May even be running very soon hopefully!
So, think whilst I've got a bit of time I'll go through my weekend at Driftcup... It started out on the Friday evening, we arrived at the track just before 7pm and instantly unloaded the car and unpacked everything so we didn't have to on Saturday. {} *Boring text incoming re Clutch/Gearbox issues I've been having* During the day Friday I had been speaking to Dan Joyce about my clutch/gearbox problems of having difficulty going into gear... After we had unpacked etc, I got underneath the car and checked the play in the slave cylinder, confirmed with Dan and he said that was normal, so then he advised to correctly adjust my pedal - first set the height with the big 14mm bolt/nut at the front of the pedal, and then once that was done, crack off the nut on the rod from the master cylinder and adjust that until the pedal only had about 15mm of play in it - this way it gives the slave its full stroke of motion! Did this, took it for a quick spin, instantly noticed a difference! No clunky gear changes, it went in smooth every time without fail - you wouldn't think such a small change could make such a noticeable difference, and my biting point wasn't right on the floor either. We then packed up and went to the hotel for the night. Arrived at the track early Saturday morning and signed on, briefing and then checked the car over and went out in Practice, about half way through the practice session, I entered a bit fast and took a trip into the gravel trip, apparently all 4 wheels came off the ground! How cool! Unfortunately this removed the rear bumper and debeaded one of my tyres. Not ideal. {} Limped back to the pits and re-fitted my tyre, then went out and did a few more laps before qualifying kicked off - with my number in Driftcup being 107, it meant I was 2nd to qualify as the numbers ranged from 100-199. {} I will keep the rest short and simple 1st Qualifying Run I got a score of 79 which I was mega happy with, my highest of the season so far! 2nd Run I went out and nailed a 90.3 putting me at the top! 1st Place QualifierI was so happy! {} Top 32 Battle was against Ben Mears which was a good battle, both making small mistakes, but it was EXTREMELY close and I'm not sure how we both ended unscathed! I went on to take the win! {} Top 16 was against Danny Herald in his SR E36 - Another close battle but we went to a OMT and I took the win! The level of driving was unbelievable to say it was the Unseeded Class of Driftcup! {} Believe it or not I am actually in this photo... {} Top 8 was against Stuart McLellan in his crazy Supercharged E36 running 650hp and 265 Semi's... Over the 2 runs I made less mistakes and was more consistant giving me the win! {} Top 4 was against Damien Choppen in his wisefabbed 1jz E46 compact on Semi's...although he had issues with his prop we went OMT after the first battle {} After the OMT battle I came out on top putting me into the finals!! At this point I could not believe it, It was beyond anything I thought could happen! {} I was against Marcus Clare in his immaculate RB26 R32(Later found out that it was running 750hp on 255 street tyres!) {} It was an extremely close battle but I went on to take the win! I was gob-smacked and had no words!! {} Finishing in the Top 4 meant I could compete the next day in the Seeded Class, we had a late start and turned up just as the morning briefing was starting, then we went for a 30 minute drive to fill up, then came back and I did about 5 practice laps in total just because I felt pretty confident from all the seat time the day previous and I was running low on tyres! Qualifying came round and on my first run I nailed an 88.7! Mega happy with that {} 2nd run I did the same as the day previous and thought fuck it - threw it in and went a bit wide, ripped my rear bumper off AGAIN and de-beaded a tyre...AGAIN {} Overall I came 2nd in qualifying! My mind was blown that I was able to score so high 2 days in a row! Battles - Top 32 was against Mark Chapman in his Turbo'd E30 Touring - it was fast! Had a good strong battle and again I came out on top taking the win! {} Top 16 was against Steven May in his 328 E36 Touring, for the first time all weekend I had the power advantage! This was a fun battle and on my chase I felt really confident to be able to stick it to his door and keep it there! I took the win. {} {} Great 8 was a repeat of the previous day's final! Me and Marcus Clare! {} It was close and we went OMT! {} Again I had the slight advantage and took the win advancing onto the Semi-finals!! At this point I still couldn't believe that 2 days in a row I was in the semi-finals... In the Semi-Finals I was up against Chris Parnham in his gold RB S14.5, I felt pretty confident with this battle! I put down a good lead run, and on my chase I felt I was very consistant and stayed close to him throughout! {} I took the win again advancing into the finals for the 2nd time that weekend!!!! I was against yesterdays Semi-final battle, Damien Choppen in his 1jz E46 compact - this time he had fixed his prop issues and he was ready to fight! He fitted fresh tyres which is exactly what I should have done. But I didn't, instead I decided to sit in my car and roast in the heat whilst waiting for him, silly move! {} {} It was a fairly straight forward battle, and on my lead run, Damien was all over my door, and on my chase run I was miles away from him, I couldn't keep up at all. He took the win and I came 2nd - I was still extremely happy and couldn't even care that I didn't win!! After the final battle, we got asked if we wanted to do a 4 car train for 1 lap! We decided that would be a great idea and it turned out very good! I think the spectators loved it! {} Ontop of this I got invited to take part in the next round of BDC at Birmingham NEC, which I have agreed to and will put up another post shortly regarding it! Alot of prep is required! Huge shoutout to the photographers who got some amazing shots over the weekend!
