Consolidating Colours

After quite a lull in activity, I decided to finally pull my finger out of my ass and do something to Stacey... it's been way too long since I've spent some decent time on the car, and to be perfectly honest, I miss it!

One thing thats been on my to do list ever since I got the car was to consolidate the colours, so that the whole car is the one colour.  I did it to some degree back at the start of the year, but it was time to finish the job.

Before I get too far into it though, here's a reminder of what I'm starting with:

Although the car is now 2 colours (or you could argue 5 if you count the different shades of white), it's still too many...

I also wanted to get rid of these indicators... They were put in due to a confusion with legalities from the previous owner, but after figuring out they weren't needed, they were left in simply to fill the hole.  They don't house any bulbs in them, so there's no point in keeping them. Given what I was wanting to achieve this weekend, figured it would be a great opportunity to get rid of them.

Took this photo while I was in the process of pulling things apart... reckon she looks pretty good with the hood off :)

This is whats left after you pull off all the panels... the bonnet, the front fenders, the pods and the front bumper, all gone.  Makes you appreciate the purpose of this car - its business and not a lot else... Everything that's there serves a purpose, with not much care for aesthetics.

Kim you smart ass!!!!

Prepping the panels for painting... I didn't see any point in going right back to bare metal, given that this isn't a professional job by any means.  Just needed to rough up the paint enough so the new paint would stick.  Bought an orbital sander specifically for the job... WHY DIDN'T I GET ONE SOONER!!!! Seriously, it made sanding so easy!

The bonnet and the front bar prepped... I had to take the front bar back a fair bit further though, as there was quite a bit of wear and tear on it.  It may look like I haven't done anything to the bonnet in comparison, but the lack of shine is proof that I've taken a good coat or 2 off of it.

The crude spray painting booth in our garage =P  Front bar was quite tough to paint evenly though because there's simply that many curves, edges and angles on it.  Its not easy to get to some of the surfaces either, but I got there after quite a few cramped fingers.

Also time to see what that Nissan badge looks like on!!  This will be glued on at a later stage after I've sorted everything else out.  

Front bar test fitted... I personally think it looks great!  Need opinions though, Should I leave it at this finish or top it off with a clear coat to match the rest of the body?  I personally would love to do the rest of the car in such a finish, but it means that the whole car will be done as a rattle can job, and won't hold up anywhere near as long as a proper paint job.

Also started patching the holes from the indicators... Fibreglassing them was the first thing I did today, as the resin takes 12 hours to dry.

Stay tuned for an update tomorrow with part 2 of all these shenanigans :)  I really can't wait to see how it looks when its all back together!!

Little Bits of Progress

Time for an update methinks, it's been too long since I've posted anything, but then again it's also been a while since I've done anything.  The last couple of weeks have seen me distracted by many distractions, and to be perfectly honest, Stacey hasn't been high on my priority list... Anyhow, there's been a few little bits and pieces that I've been slowly working on, so have a read!

The indicators have always been problematic since I got the car... The front bar was always missing them, which basically led to my indicators blinking fast (lower resistance due to less bulbs = indicator relay switching on/off faster because it can).  While it's not necessarily a problem, it does add to the 'there's something out of the ordinary, therefore Mr Pig should investigate' issue that plagues us import drivers.  Given the nature of the car and what the previous owner was trying to achieve, I couldn't not go genuine when it came to fixing this problem.

Enter these: Genuine Type X Front Indicators.

We'd tried experimenting with some various bodge-jobs to see if we could slow the indicators down, but all of the bulbs were rated too low.   Once I picked these up we worked out why... A standard indicator bulb is rated @ 12 Volts, 5 Watts.  The bulbs that are supposed to be used in this case are 12 Volts, 16 Watts - over 3 times as powerful as a standard bulb.  Not something thats overly easy to come by from your local auto store, but found something at a Global Auto Spares.

This is what they look like installed... the black garnish isn't easy to see at the best of times, but, thats the way they did it back then, so thats the way its going to be done here.

Told you they were significantly brighter than a standard indicator bulb ;)

I also had issues with the left headlight... found out on a dark and rainy night that the bulb had stopped working, the lack of visibility kind of gave away =P It wasn't blown, it just simply wasn't getting power.  About 4 hours of troubleshooting led to a blown fuse (turns out this car has one fuse for each headlight) and it blew another fuse the second I turned on the lights.  Could not for the life of me figure out why, the end solution was just to run a higher rated fuse.  Far from ideal, far from safe, but there was nothing out of the ordinary with the electrical system from what I could gather... stumped!

Now when I got the car, it came with an air/fuel ratio gauge.  It was never plugged in, just bolted to the side of the center console.  For the uneducated, it basically measures the percentage of oxygen thats coming out of your exhaust, and lets you know whether you're running rich (too much fuel -> bad economy) or lean (not enough fuel -> can blow up your engine).  Decided today that it needed to be plugged in, because I was bored and its not a terribly involved job.

It never ceases to amaze me how quick and easy this interior is to pull apart... All I was doing here was running/tracing wires, and soldering the wires into their respective sources.

Given that the boost gauge was already mounted on the steering column, I decided to mount the new gauge on there as well just for ease of reading.  A quick drill, a quick screw, and thats the two brackets mounted.  For the record, I am aware that my instrument cluster is in terrible condition!!

Here they are installed... sorry for the terrible quality picture, camera kept focusing on the steering wheel and I couldn't get it to focus on the gauges themselves.  I moved the boost gauge to the top just to make it easier to read, as it's a little bit more vital than my A/F ratio.  For those of you who are concerned that I put it right in front of my speedo, don't worry, you can still see the needle fine! Pretty sure boost is a little bit more critical than speed anyways...

The interior as it sits now... Gauges sorted out, center console finally finished properly, black gear boot instead of a dirty white one...

 

Everyone loves a bit of sticker love :) 

The next things on the to do list:

- Replace Oxygen sensor (found out from todays exercise that my existing o2 sensor is a little bit on the wrecked side)

- Paint front end, so the whole car is one colour

- Get some wheels that sit properly instead of running stupid spacers (looking at April at this stage based on when they're arriving in the country)

Watch this space!

Better.... Not quite there, but better :)

First things first, Patches isn't sticking... After taking it for a shakedown, and being around the block once or twice, it's definitely a she, and unfortunately Patches is a he name.  This simply won't do!!  So instead, she's been named Stacey :)

Anyways onto business... as I've mentioned previously, I did have rear spacers coming to fill those hideously sunken rear guards... Ala these:

Bolt on spacers.  45mm's of them.  Yes, the offset on the wheels is that far off! Idea is they bolt onto the studs that currently exist, and provide a new set of studs on which to bolt onto the wheels.  Hideously illegal, and not as safe as bolting straight to the hub, but better and safer than slip on spacers at least. It's far from a permanent solution, but for the sake of saving some face, it will do until I can get some proper wheels :)

So... gone from this...

To this :)

As the title states... definitely better :) Not quite there, but better!

Introducing 'Patches'

This weekend was my first full one with the new car.  After much deliberation and consultation, it was decided that the car was a male, and should be named 'Patches'.  After looking at the panel work, its pretty damn clear why ;)  Anywhoo, I'm hoping to get him some registration this week, but there's quite a number of things I wanted to attend to before I would confidently take him out on the road.

First thing to attend to was wiring... Earlier in the week I sorted out the abomination that was the head unit (the wiring was messy as, and was insulated with freakin masking tape!!!).  I also painted the centre console, tidied up some bits and pieces, etc etc...  Anyways, the next thing to sort out was the boost gauge.  It needed physical adjustment so I could see it better, as well as re-plugging in the illumination loom, so it could be seen at night.  Picture above doesn't show much, but the general idea has been to tidy up the wiring, reconnect bits and pieces, and make sure connections are reliable.   

Next thing to sort out?  Rust and the cracked sunroof.  First things first, pulling out all the roof lining so that I could get to it...  

Here's the sunroof removed.  Unfortunately there's rust forming in a few places, so a more permanent solution will need to be devised at some stage.  All things considered though, this is only surface rust, nothing deep or properly set, so that's a bonus.

If you look at my previous post, you'll see what the rust looked like, and how it had been fixed previously... After removing the roof lining and the sunroof, the next step was to take the previously repaired paint and rust back to surface metal where possible.  This was achieved using a wire brush on the end of a drill... seriously made mince meat of anything that got in its place ;)

Unfortunately, I did also find this... The rust has caused the roof to actually crack =\  This will need to be properly plated in the near future... Something this small is not a problem as is, but is obviously farrrrrr from ideal.

After exposing it all, its then converted the rust.  This is achieved by literally painting on a liquid that reacts with the rust, eats out the worst of it, and binds with the rest to strengthen it and become steel again.

While the rust converter was drying, I took the opportunity to paint some more things... Interior bits and pieces, roof linings, door cards, all in the aim of giving the interior a bit of life again.  Going for the subtle and clean look though, with black being the general theme.

After the rust converter dried, bog was applied to fill in all the holes created by the rust.  Here is the end result after the bog being sanded back.  The idea is to get the flattest possible finish.

While the door cards were off, I addressed the next issue: audio.  Can't not have decent tunes whilst driving!!  Found out that the front left speaker was straight up missing, the front right was mounted with rusted screws, and the bracket so sodden with water, that it didn't resemble anything anymore.  Wish I got a picture actually, it was pretty damn pathetic.

In order to rectify this, I fabricated some new brackets out of MDF, using a template I found online.

This picture doesn't show how genuinely necessary the brackets are.  The hole is so obscure, that no speaker bolts straight in.  This bracket mounts to the 4 original mounting points, and provides the necessary mounting points to mount a 6.5" speaker.

See? =P

To get a decent base for the top coat on the roof, a primer was applied.  The yellow stuff is a really thick primer, that is designed to fill in any holes that have been missed.  It is then sanded again to get a smooth base, before applying the final top coat.  Ideally you then put down a thinner primer to get a smoother finish, but that involved effort.

Here is said top coat!!  Could've done with a bit more sanding, but black will not be the final colour.  This was done simply to fix the rust and avoid attention on small things that can get you pinned... its already 100% better than what it was.

I also spent a full day on starting to sort out the mixed panel work.  This involved sanding back all the various flares, skirts, pods and spats and painting them accordingly.  Once again, this is only an interim job to make it stand out less until I get around to doing everything properly.  Have a look at the 2 pictures below and you'll get an appreciation of what I'm shooting for...

While its still not 100%, its once again 100% better than what it was :)  I also have rear spacers coming to fill out those hideously sunken rear wheels...

Here's a final shot of the interior too.  A hell of a lot cleaner and a lot more presentable than what it used to be.

Laides and Gentleman, I present to you... Patches :)

A Day of Moments

So, the last couple of weeks have seen me making some pretty big decisions in regards to what to do with Edna... Tossing up between fixing her or selling her, parting her out, transplanting components into a new shell... too many factors to take into account to be able to make any kind of decision!!!  One pro was another con, benefits outweighing costs left right and centre.  After chatting to the smash repairer to look into the costs of fixing her, chatting to flatmates, neighbours and friends, a solution was finally reached.

Before I divulge you in the details of whats gone down, let me begin with the final moments for Edna...

To start with, I removed the rear wheels... the fronts had stocks on them for quite a while just because it was easier to deal with the repairs that way.  However, given everything going on, got around to swapping out the rears too.

The driver and passengers seats also came out, as well as the steering wheel.  The main benefit of having all this space is that it makes room for a LOOOOT of spare parts, so a tidy up and consolidating of parts meant keeping the garage in some state of cleanliness...

I did mean 'some' loosely ;)

It's always interesting seeing her back on stock wheels... You never realise just how much of a difference that wheels can make to the appearance of a car!!

Case in point :)

Having finished all of the remainder of the work, I thought one last picture was necessary... Man I am going to miss this driving position so damn much!!!!

So onto whats happening!!  The short version?  I've swapped her.  The long version?  My neighbour is very much so into cars.  He's a competitive drifter, and has been looking for a new project.  He's been following a lot of what's been going on with my car, and has had his fair share of opinions to do with the repairs.  When I got the quote back from the smash repairers, the price they came back with was right at the top of my budget.  The money I'd be investing in her to fix it, as far as I was concerned, simply wasn't worth it.  That's not to say, it's not worth to him ;)

He put forward a proposal... straight out swap for his ex-drifter.  He'll take Edna as she is, with the parts I have on her (minus wheels and a few other things) plus the parts I'd already acquired to fix her, and I take his car.  He's been slowly converting it back to street legal so it can be registered again, and now she's mine :)

What is she?

A work in progress... a Type X Onevia.  For the uneducated, it's a Silvia, an S13 to be precise.  With a 180sx front.  The 2 are interchangeable to the nth degree, and such a conversion is actually quite common.  Whats not common is to take all the good bits from the Type X 180sx (top of the range, few extra goodies over the type R) and do it in such a fashion as this, by effectively adding them to a 13, which does not come in a type x.

He wasn't willing to part with the wheels, so the wheels from Edna have come across.  Due to the differences in body shapes, the offset of the wheels are way off, so spacing is required.  Fronts already have +25mm spacers on them to get them sitting as they are, I'll be needing to chase down some 50mm spacers for the rear... 

Due to a couple of factors, I've actually been able to keep the seats and the steering wheel from Edna, so its not all unfamiliar ;)  Interior is in dire need of some work though, stay tuned on this one.

You can really see here just how sunken the rear wheels are, that simply won't do!!!

View from the rear... Including Type X wing

Everyone loves SR fruit!!!

The final verdict?  I'm quite excited to see what the future holds with this new beast.  In terms of financial outlay, there will be spacers for the wheels, a new ECU, enough stuff to get the paint sorted out and all one colour (less conspicuous!) and whatever cleaning products are needed too. Then onto getting her rego'd, and I'll be back on the road :) I'm sure there will be other things that I'll find out along the way, but thats kinda the point ;) But it will be a lot cheaper than it would have cost me to fix Edna, and while I'm going backwards in terms of age of the car, I am getting quite a few upgrades in terms of power and drivability.

Stay tuned for some pics that'll come in the future, when she's properly cleaned up, with a proper set of pictures and a full mod list.  And I'll be seeing you all soon!