Haha thank you, its dog ugly at the minute, kinda getting carried away with buying things for it though. Really need to put a handle on that!
I'm all for steel guards, but I'm more for using cars (as opposed to long-term/unfinished projects) Whichever option is faster is my vote
Yeah. I think that's what my thinking is right now, the speed of overfenders is appealing, and to be honest, theres nothing stopping them being ripped off if the car is ever off the road and the metal being welded back in. So, Overfenders it is I believe.
Alright.. ok.. so. Eventually I wanna run some minilite/Watanabe style wheels, such as rota rkr or jr19's. Do I A) stick with a 17" wheel on a 45 profile. Or B) 16" wheel on a 50 profile? Always had a thing for small wheels but daily use and the road conditions kinda sucks for lows, but I'm kinda leaning to a 16" cus the 50 sidewall profile will be more comfy on bumps.. opinions?
Whatever you do, keep it practical. If you go 16's then you'll need to lower it a fair amount to make it look decent, When my S13 was DE it had 195/50/16 on and it was pretty slammed, not practical for a daily at all!
Yeah, 17's are the jam. 215/45/17 or 235/40/17 are plentiful, and with the sideskirts & GTR front it won't look monster truck at all
So I finally got around to having all my xxr wheels fitted. Upon tyre changing on the front we found both my front lower arm ball joints had quite a bit of play in which sucked. {} {} {} Starting to look good I think... I set about getting the bits to fix that, which included a set of longer inner rack ends and tie rods from Langdon4x4 (ebay guru/lifesaver) plus driftworks spacers, to accompany my r32 +25mm extended lower arms already fitted with power flex black poly bushes, then spent this weekend fitting it all. {} {} Decent amount of negative front camber. Steering feels so much nicer now too, must have had dead ball joints for a while! Only problem was, the front wings now catches the tyre quite badly and wouldn't let me steer! Onto fitting some FRP wings I already owned! {} Also as you can see, I decided to take the skirts off and put the original front bumper back on, was getting sick of it being multicolored and the skirts were just annoying me. Kinda like how it looks so might leave it like this for the moment. Also bought a cheap chinese slim line snap off wheel hub for added security, so fitted that, its pretty good but has a bit of slack in it {}
I think if you spent a little extra time tidying up the side skirts, and grab a colour matched spray can to hit them they'll grow on you again The gunmetal on gunmetal isn't that bad either, it's coming together nicely dude
I totally agree, the trouble is, the car has had a respray prior to my ownership and the colour isn't anywhere near the correct shade, so to try and colour match would be a nightmare! plus my daughter LOVES the colour blue so I'm inclined to have it resprayed at some point in the near future. but we will see how things go!
OK it's been a while since I last updated this! I've basically done nothing which can be seen from the outside except having a local garage which 2 of my friends run make a seat rail for a Bride seat I had, and fit a (second hand but good condition) 8puk R32 GTR Paddle Clutch because the stock RB25DE clutch started feeling a bit tired. {} Also put a new release bearing in for good practice, and fitted a braided clutch line so no more damper! {} FYI - RB26DETT (r32) Clutchs fit straight onto RB25DE Flywheels - which I'm led to believe are the same as RB25DET flywheels 8-) Seat {} I also started buying things for it to make it into the car I want it to be. List of parts bought: Genuine r32 GTR front bumper Vertex Skirts (2 door though so will cut down) Type M rear spats (again 2 door so slightly shorter) Pair of Enkei wheels I used to own about 4 years ago! Fibreglass GTR bonnet Nismo style bonnet vent (not sure if I should smooth it into the bonnet or not?) Also bought a complete RB20DET engine which was disassembled by previous owner for "forging" - not sure what direction to go with that but I'll turbo this RB25DE for the mean time. It also came with a top mount manifold, Compressor Racing RS341 turbo (600bhp capable apparently - same one Stavros used on his 470hp RB20DET), external wastegate and screamer pipe, 3" downpipe, Plazmaman inlet manifold, 600cc Fuel Injectors, New Water Pump, and some other gadgets. Just gotta decide whether to fit it all onto this engine and go full send, or use the parts I have (tubular bottom mount manifold and stock rb25 turbo)… decisions decisions!
OH! And I did a deal on a Tomei 2 way with 5x1 outputs and driveshafts. So that will be going on at some point too! {}
Because it's not a full on track build I'd err on the side of tubular bottom mount manifold & 25 turbo just to get it running quicker. Plus you don't know how that DE is going to hold up to boost-wise. Test it on low boost and see how it goes Would throw the Plazmaman inlet on though, make intercooler piping easier on yourself
Yeah I'm thinking the same, the engine seems to be healthy and works perfectly, be a shame to completely explode it from my thirst for power, but the temptation is killing me haha. I've also chosen a way to do the mapping, I can have a Nistune daughter board put into the ECU giving me the ability to have a good map, so I will be going down that route when the time comes, just awkward finding a tuner near to where I live, although I don't mind transporting the vehicle if needs must
Good option, and nothing stopping you throwing the top mount & Holset on at a later date and getting a retune
Alright so, some small updates but nothing much done to the car itself. Decided against fitting the Tomei 2 way purely because I will rarely use it for its intended use, and tbh I don't need the hassle of having to service it after X mileage or X time, cost I'd rather avoid truth be told. So that's being sold, hopefully to a good friend of mine. I've purchased some tension rods from Charlie Hulme for a good price, they're to be fitted alongside some modified 5 stud hubs (pictured below) from Adam Simmons, then ill be putting the S14 front brakes and some 5 stud wheels on the front. {} I may try and get the GTR bumper back on, and the Vertex skirts, possibly swap back to the steel OEM front fenders if the new wheels fit well (they are a slightly weaker fitment than what's currently on), and the Fibreglass bonnet too. Then its simply sorting the rear arches out and its one step closer to paint. By God am I wanting this thing painted ASAP! Hate having a dull looking car! Sorry for the crappy update, just a bit slow progress at the moment!
OK so this weekend I was thinking, I bought the s14 front calipers in an unknown state and because of having a young child I really didn't wanna throw them on and "find out if they worked" , so I began dismantling them to see what may be required in a refresh/rebuild. {} Began by removing the old pads, pins, securing clips, which were all quite stiff but not seized luckily! After that I removed the metal fastener clips which hold the seals in place and removed the seals, all of which look in good (but old) condition which I was surprised about, altho I think I will end up replacing them all for new. {} {} Split the Caliper's down into 2 halves to inspect the inner seals, again in good condition but will be replaced {} {} At this point I didn't know what the fuck I was doing so I watched a youtube video on how to get the pistons out. Turns out I skipped a step and you should leave them assembled, using the pads as "packing", and using compressed air to pop out the pistons. So at this point I stopped, gonna take them to a friend with a compressor so I can do that bit, then its a case of freshening them up and rebuilding them as long as the piston walls are OK. Full set of new pistons and seals works out at £60ish which I'm quite happy to pay to make sure they work correctly. Quite a fun experience too if I'm honest!
Love it man. Cracking into a mini project like those calipers and learning something new is something i love to do too!
It is damn interesting! Almost certain ill be putting new pistons in the calipers, can see me struggling to get these ones out and having to use some vice-grips or similar to pull them with, which will almost certainly damage them!
