Project Correct-a-Car pt. 2: Panels & Interior

No rest for the wicked as work continues turning this pig into much more appealing bacon... Here's where we sit after the first week.

Replacing the drivers side door was pretty high on my list - it was a big job that just needed to be done, so I figured why not do it next.  While I've never removed a door before, I do have a Bachelor in Engineering so come on, how hard can it be?  Turns out not hard at all.  It was pretty straight forward to remove, just unplug/unclip all of the cables, run them back through the rubber grommet, unbolt all of the accessories (central locking, windows, power motors etc) and then unbolt the door itself.  

That said, I still had to remove the front fender to get to half of the bolts, but once that was done it was indeed pretty smooth sailing.  I have heard that re-aligning the new door can be quite tricky in terms of getting the latches to line up, so I also took the precaution of spray painting over the old hinges which would give me an outline to help line up the new door properly.

Couldn't resist the opportunity to sit in a car without a door though... I've never been in a situation where such a thing is possible!  I must admit, it felt very strange looking out and seeing... well, everything really.  I can imagine that the advantages for motor racing would be many, primarily being able to see the apex of a corner directly instead of trusting that it will be there.  I then thought that the costs would outweigh the benefits, as any hard left-hander could potentially through you out of the car...  Then I started off down the Mad Max route, picturing many many things... A boy can dream, and dream I did :)

Part of this job included swapping over the lock from the old door to the new one so that I could still use my key to get into the car - a pretty important step I'm sure you'd agree.  It was only after I removed the handle from the old door did I realise just how messed up the old door was.

New door fitted!!!  I will admit, it doesn't look very new at all thanks to it being a test panel, but it lined up beautifully with the handle and locks working as they should.  It also allowed me to picture the whole car in that colour, and I've gotta say, I'm really excited to see how she comes together over the coming weeks/months :) :) :)

From there it was simply a case of re-installing the wires and accessories.  I got quite lucky in that the replacement door already came with the internal door handle, as well as all of the mechanisms, rods and latches that are required to allow a door to do what a door is supposed to do, which made my job incredibly easy.  Dealing with a bunch of steel rods in a cramped space with a hand as big as mine is not exactly pleasant... so to be able to bypass that completely was a very pleasant surprise.

From here I moved onto the passengers side to address a faulty power window motor that died about a month ago.  When I was originally started planning everything, I was only chasing a drivers side door but ended up getting both a drivers and a passengers because the seller wouldn't let one go by itself - it was both or none.  While the drivers door only really came as a shell, the passengers came with everything - mirror, motors, glass, regulators etc.  I was originally looking at selling it as a complete door but in hindsight I'm really glad that never came off!  This meant I had a whole new power window mechanism to transplant into the existing door.

Ideally you use the motor to put the glass in such a position so you can access the bolts that secure the glass to the motor so you can remove it - given that I had a dead motor, I unfortunately did NOT have that luxury (sad panda) and instead had to undo 4 bolts with a 10mm spanner a quarter turn at a time... all the while jamming my hand into the most uncomfortable position I could fathom just to reach the damn things.

Needless to say I tested the new mechanism before I installed it... Great Success!!!

Gotta love older cars... They have so many flat surfaces that just turn into useful storage areas :) although apparently not by me... Katie was cleaning her car at the time, so sure, go for it =P

The next item on my agenda to address was the abysmal interior.  The idea here was that if I could at least get it clean early on in the piece, it would allow whatever death and pestilence that had worked its way in over the years to properly air out.  This becomes even more relevant given that I'm buying all new carpets for when I piece her back together, so I'd really appreciate it if I could start fresh and turn the interior into a place I'd rather be, instead of have to be.

I started off with getting all of the seats and interior plastics out in the hope that the carpet would just lift out, but no, Nissan in their infinite wisdom decided to make sure that the carpet never moved, even in the most extreme of circumstances.  They ran it completely under the dash - to the point that it ran both over and through some brackets, and required others to be completely removed to pull the carpet back.  (Sigh) guess what that means...

... dash completely out so I could remove the freaking thing.  Oh goody.

Seeing the carpet in its entirety under some proper light made me realise just how poor a condition it's in.  Those stains you see are permanent, with dirt ingrained in almost every other surface.  This photo really doesn't do it justice.

The underside showed a much more dire situation - half of that padding was still sodden from rain we had back in January, with a fair section also full of mold.

Pulling it out showed me an interior that couldn't have been less hygienic if you tried.  

This picture affirms the notion behind this whole endeavor - it's no wonder why the interior smelt so bad!!!  Possibly the most disgusting bit was actually having to get back in there, and your feet just slid thanks to the grease, grime, sodden moisture and general crap that had accumulated over the years.  Once you got out, you left yellow foot prints on the garage floor... Woot.  Certainly made me think back to the amount of time I spent on that carpet back when I had all of those electrical faults... *shudders*

I couldn't ignore the fact though that I had a completely stripped interior  (sunroof included) ready to start cleaning, so it was a necessary evil.

It's amazing what you find when you have a completely bare interior that hasn't been cleaned in probably ever. Take this house key for instance...

...or a random hole that has been cut into the C-Pillar for no reason that comes to mind. Amongst the gunk there was also a ridiculous number of balls from some unfortunate ball bearing that lost its guts, 3 loose random screws (all in the one place strangely enough), some broken glass and a 10c coin.  Not even enough to get a soft serve from Maccas for my troubles :(

So here we have all of the interior out of the car and stacked 'neatly' just to get it out of the garage.  A literal 'Pile of Shit' if you will.

And so the cleaning began.  First with a scraper to remove the padding left over from the carpet, then with detergent and water and a sponge to remove what I could of the surface slime (scourer if necessary).  Toweled dry, then attacked with a degreaser/multi-purpose spray to try and clean what was left. You can see the difference between the left side (half-cleaned) and the right side (not cleaned at all) above - what a difference, and this was only after using detergent.

This was after cleaning just one half of the car...

But you cannot argue with those results :)  It certainly smells much fresher, looks much fresher... and gives me the opportunity to start afresh.  I won't be re-installing any of the interior unless I have to to move her, simply because I want to give it every chance to wave goodbye to whatever foul ju-ju has been going on since 1993.  

At some point I'll also be tracking down some dry ice to remove all of that sound deadening. Quite simple really, you basically snap freeze it with the dry ice, bash it with a mallet and it shatters - simple :)  The goal here is that all of that sound deadening adds a fair whack of weight to the car - weight that I can happily do without.

So that's what has gone on in the last week... slow progress but sure progress.  Stay tuned for another update at the end of this long weekend to see what else I've managed to tick off the list!

Project Correct-a-Car: The Beginning of a Long, Long Road

Well hasn't it been a while since I've posted anything here...  Let me start off by showing you what's since happened to Edna.

That's how she sits now, running and registered.  The bloke I swapped her with for Stacey put an entirely new front end on and grafted together the various components from an S14a front end to work with the S15 chassis/body.  Not a bad outcome, and one of the first in Australia to attempt such a thing.  She's certainly not the car that I remember, and while I'm not a big fan of the wheel choice or the paint, that's a luxury I gave up when I let her go. Thankfully I had the opportunity to take her for a drive just before Christmas and to be 100% honest... damn I miss that car.  It's amazing that given everything she's been through, her soul still exists, and exists exactly how I remember.  

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Alas, we make decisions and we move on... Unfortunately moving on with Stacey has been non-existent in the last couple of months.  Come to think of it, the last time she had anything done to her (decently) was back in July last year.  Given the amount of work I put into her to get her ready for that track day, I decided to just give it a break for a little bit... then the year got away from me. 5 weeks in Germany, Christmas/New Year break, crazy work period, moving house, settling in etc... Then once we got to the new place I couldn't even get her into the driveway thanks to an unnecessarily steep driveway.  I'd love to say it's a fault with the house but that's really no excuse, car's just too low =P

On top of all of that I've just finished spending the last month working on my mate's AE86, as his broomer has also been neglected since July (hell she didn't even have rego!).  Due to him changing jobs, he was going to lose his company car therefore getting his car back on the road was top priority.  Fixing rust, new paint, re-vitalising the interior amongst a few other things...  That got finished this week, coming to a climax on Friday when she got a safety certificate and a new set of plates.  Amazing to see how far she's come, and it has certainly whet my whistle to do the same to my veh-hih-cle (read: how American's butcher such a simple word).

I've spent a damn long time wondering what to do with her... Do I sell her?  Fix her up?  Make her a track only car?  I've been in a state of indecision for over a year trying to figure out what to do, but decided to bite the bullet and make an actual decision.  Driving Edna made me realise just how much I miss having a streeter... so I decided to spend the time and money to get her to a point where I can (comfortably) drive her around on the street.  Go for drives in the hills.  Drive her to a racetrack.  Take her to the shops.  But the big kicker here is to be able to do that with the least chance of getting pulled over by the cops as possible.  Let's be honest, her nature is to yell and scream for all attention to be on her, good or bad!!!!  On top of that though, I would like to start tracking her properly next year in the IPRA (Improved Production Racing Australia) next year, but it would be nice to be able to drive her there and back without needing to get a tow-ball, trailer, and everything else that's needed for a track-only car.

Here's the list of things I came up with in order to achieve that goal.  It's by no means definitive, comprehensive or complete, but I figured it was a damn good starting point.  You'll notice I've got it split up into needs and wants, that's because the needs alone total over $2000, however including wants (and wants that are not on the list like half-cage, upgraded turbo etc.) the total goes well beyond $5k.  Got to start somewhere though :)

Finally it was my turn to make some headway.  It took us close on 4 hours to 'reset' the garage if you will... picking up rubbish, putting tools away, finding places for the various screws/panels strewn around the place, picking up all the drop sheets, sweeping everything out... you get the idea.  Then came the daunting task of actually getting Stacey into the garage...  

Getting her up the driveway as she currently sits is impossible, to put it bluntly.  In the photo above the exhaust is sitting flat on the ground.  However, I'd always thought it'd be possible to get her in by driving on the grass around the letterbox, as the grass has a much shallower incline, and at least has some give if I do bottom out.  Unfortunately with all the rain we've had, I didn't want to chance messing up the lawn.  Thankfully it's been pretty dry, and got her in without a hitch :)

So here she sits in all her filthy glory...

A complete car indeed, but for the street she's about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

Keep in mind though that this is how she entered my life.  I can't believe how much work has been put into her to still look as crap as she does now... but what can I say, the price was right, and she's still 100% on what she used to be.  

Anyhow, let's take a bit of a look at what I'm dealing with.

Some of the most aggressive rust I've ever seen in a car.  Sunroof's on S13s are notorious for rust, but this is just taking the piss.

The multitude of blacks on this car are an absolute atrocity, but at least she's (for the majority) the one colour.  Note the line in the door that doesn't exist on the fender, something I want to standardise on the whole car.

Rivets that were installed to hide drill holes for over-fenders that were installed prior to my owning her, plus various rattle-can paint patches.

A rear bumber that doesn't fit properly, is chipped and cracked and has no element of 'decent' to it at all.

A bunch of random scratches and what not on the drivers side, including all of the damage to the drivers door handle when she was broken into before I owned her.

Not only that, look at all the damage to the paint around the fuel filler flap... There's issues with the throat to the fuel tank in that it doesn't seal properly, so whenever I have a full tank of fuel and I turn left with any real gusto, fuel comes pissing out.  Joy.

A bunch of mis-matched screws to hold panels on (previous owner doesn't really believe in glue... crazy thought I know).

The interior... Oh where do I start... Leaking sunroof = stagnant interior.  Ex-race car = 0 care factor by previous owner. Ruined carpets, a smell that doesn't exactly invite you in, and a bunch of grime and dust and dirt that just doesn't come out.  Paint that hasn't been done on the entire car means door jams are as contrasting as (literally) black and white.  You'll also notice ant sand on the right hand side of the scuff plate thanks to an ant infestation that developed with all the rain we had.  Body clips missing left right and center, and the rattles... oh the rattles...

An engine bay that is function over form...  but come on, it can certainly be prettier.

There's also a bunch of stuff that needs to be addressed that can't be seen by your eyes... some examples include a stiffness in the car that warrants me taking out health insurance purely for chiro, a ride height that is just plain ridiculous, sorting out mod plates for the battery relocation amongst other things... the short of it though is that I have a heck of a lot of work ahead of me.

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Given that I only had half a day left I decided to start with little things... I changed the suspension to its softest setting, and also removed the engine brace.

Unfortunately while doing so I found that one of the bolts on one of my suspension towers is completely stripped... just another thing to add to the list (sigh).

Sorting out the rear bumper was as good a place to start as any I decided.  I had issues with how much it sagged, as well as its overall condition.

I was able to pick up another bumper for free... yes free.  Parts for S13s are so easy to come by they're simply giving them away.  Hooray for me!!  The original goal was to just replace the rear bar altogether - unfortunately this bar had sat in the sun for too long and was quite warped, but it did have some critical components I could salvage, namely a strip of bolts that secure the bumper to the reo (reinforcement bracket that provides extra metal between you and a vehicle in front or behind you).

I also decided to address the number plate issue that is inherent with every S13.  When they were built, they didn't make the cut-out for the number plate wide enough for Australian plates.  People have different ways of getting them to fit, cutting slots in the bumper seems to be a popular option however it then becomes a defectable item, as apparently you 'obscure' part of the plate.  Come on, who cares if you can't see the maroon lines either side of the damn plate!!!  One guy actually fought it, and the Department of Transport simply said that the only way he could rectify it was to get a personalised plate which is shorter.  They wouldn't have a bar of any other argument, no matter how valid.

The easy workaround is to just bend the plate to fit (see photos above for proof), but given the goal of what I'm trying to achieve here, I want as little to stand out as possible.  I ended up cutting out enough so I could flex the sides of the cut-out enough to make room for the plate to fit without hiding any of it.

Not a bad outcome I'm sure you'd agree!

Here you can see the bumper bar now properly secured to the reo.  That strip of 8 bolts across the top?  Never had that before!!  It's like botox for a bumper bar... no more sagging =D  I was also able to secure the bottom part of the bar to the reo as well, which will just help to hold the whole thing together.

Drilling out the rivets seemed like the next easiest thing to do... Not a big job but a job none-the-less.

Didn't bother cleaning the drill until the end... certainly quite a few of them though.

I also removed the rear wing and cleaned it all up, as well as cleaning the mounting points on the boot and removing the sikaflex that had been used to glue/mould the wing to the boot.

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And so concludes the end of day 1.  Stay tuned for more panel shenanigans and legalising goodness!!  As a teaser though...

This is the colour I'll be doing her in.  Bayside Blue, a pearl paint that comes off of the R34 Skyline, which I'm thankfully able to get in a Metallic.  Sure it won't pop near as much as a pearlescent paint, but it's cheaper, 2 less layers of paint I have to worry about and is nowhere near as easy to stuff up.  Pretty happy living with that trade-off :)