Hopefully creating something cool

Hi I'm Jeremy and I live in Philadelphia, PA. Gonna start a "build" thread, not because I am necessarily proud of what I have at the moment, but because I want to host my progress somewhere other than my camera roll, where everything gets lost because I take a lot of photos of bullshit. But the plan is for something somewhat cool to result. Everything in this thread will take place about an hour outside of Philly in eastern PA where I have more space and resources. I'll certainly get excruciatingly wordy here because I don't get to exercise my writing abilities or share my internal dialogue that I keep bottled up often enough (unless I overshare to my friends while drunk, to their dismay).

A little background, I got my first S13 in April 2013, I was a senior in high school. I still own this car and drift it at as many local events that my life situations allow. Started with mediocre street drifting in 2013 and hit the track for the first time in Summer 2014. I'll share a little about my other cars in a follow up to this post to try to keep things on track... something I don't excel at.

The subject car of this thread:

I got it for a few primary reasons, while already owning two S13 hatches. 1.) My current drift car has seen 7 years of drift use with minimal time spent fixing bumps and bruises. At this point and for a few years prior, I really started to gain appreciation, or should I say, need, for a stylish D chassis. Zilvia threads, BM Cup tapes, and eletor videos do wonders for taste-shaping. 2.) It was mid-2020 at the time and I was observing the rapid price spikes happening in real time and knew every day I waited, it would only get harder to get a new shell. 3.) I wanted to be able to apply lessons learned from my other drift car from the get go, including being picky about chassis selection.

Given #3 above, my criteria was simple.

>Car needed to be a slick top. Sunroofs are cool but I'm 6'-2", all torso, and even with a side mount seat on the ground, my head still his the sunroof framing with a helmet on.

>Car needed to be as stock as possible. Clean slate is important.

>Car needs clean quarters. This car will never be an overs car, knock on wood

>Car can't be overly mint. We all know 240's are basically grail classic Japanese cars at this point, unfortunately. I respect the s-chassis even though I very much miss the <2k running car days and still feel that drifting is an S-chassis only activity if I am to keep doing it. So gonna try not to ruin a nice one.

So here it is. 1993 240sx hatch, base model, factory 5MT, bone stock and complete, clean quarters and rough around the edges. It is perfect. Story on how I bought the car maybe later, it's pretty fucking funny. But I'm getting too wordy. Long story short I paid $1,800 in late 2020 for it. Was a no title car and I Vermonted it without a hitch and now have a clean PA title in my name. RIP that method.

On the trailer the night I got it

And it on the same trailer probably a day or two later

Bought it knowing it has rust. When I checked it out, the spare tire well in the hatch areas was pretty much gone. Both of my other hatches leak(ed) hella water through the tail lights so I wasn't surprised. The drivers side strut tower/wheel well was pretty fucked. Another common spot, usually caused by a leaky BMC or shitty job filling it up 20 years ago leading to no paint in that area. And lastly, the passenger side quarter behind the wheel. Or so my optimism thought.

So first order of business is to get it to my buddy Johnny's. He has been my best friend for 15 or so years and primarily deals with 80s toyotas, so he is no stranger to rust repair. I will be turning all wrenches on this car, but I am not a welder nor panel beater, so any welding will be done by him or others. Love my friends.

Upon arrival at Johnnys. Notice the rocker rust spots not mentioned previously.

First order of business was the spare tire area... or should I say the whole entire fucking floor behind the rear seats.

Big holes everywhere. This is where the trunk floor meets the rear tail light panel area. There was so much.

So naturally, cut out everything. Frame surface rust was addressed later but not pictured.

Ended up picking up a large section of the rear frame/floor. It wasn't in awesome shape but didn't have the same rot holes, and we were able to reshape the spare tire well decently. It was also covered in dynamat and was a mess. I think he did end up welding in a quick patch panel in it ultimately but overall I'm happy with what I provided him panel-wise.

Trimmed, removed by the spot welds, cleaned up, and began spraying high zinc weld-thru primer. I forget the product I bought but it was expensive and recommended, lol.

aaaand it looks like I don't have a finished product photo, other than this one that shows some progress on the spot welds from the outside. Could have sworn I took some finished photos. They can come later I guess. Take my word for it that it looks good and is fit like factory.

Next up is the RH quarter panel. I found a clean ass S13 at a junkyard in like 2015 and thought "Hey lets cut a panel off it, maybe I'll need it some day". And this day came in 2021 or something. I think that's when this rust repair started.

Don't have a pic of it on the car, but here it is cut out next to the good panel I was holding. The lighting in that image makes the repair panel look worse than it was. Just needed a little straightening on the seams.

And semi-finished product. The inside was also cut out, and rebuilt with sheet metal. All interior surfaces coated before sealing the cavity.

As I write this I realize I don't have a billion photos of everything. I begged my buddy to take as many as possible and he kinda didn't lol. He's not doing this for free, but it was a low-stress endeavor for me and included free garage storage for the while it spent there, so beggars can't be choosers here. He is one of the best friends one could ask for, and is very meticulous in panel work.

Driver's side rocker fixed. All rusty metal cut out and new panels hand shaped into place. He also did a fantastic job rebuilding the inner part where the rear of the rocker meets the wheel well, and cut out any compromised metal inside the chassis where the eye does not see . I don't have excellent photos of that finished product. Still needs a little body filler love, but this car will be wearing side skirts so I'm not chasing Barrett Jackson status here.

Next was the LH front wheel well. This area was messy.

Pretty much everywhere cut out was extremely rusty. More was cut than shown here eventually. I love seeing the frame/crossmember cross section here.

Bottom section new metal in, grinded, and primed

And all done, primed, seam sealed.

Thirst trap yall when I originally wanted to pull the KA to address the strut tower rust. Didn't end up pulling it and got the work done engine still in car. Car currently sits with the KA in it with nothing connected lmao

Next up was the rear subframe build. Always loved seeing people build a pretty subframe on the ground in build threads I've read over the years. This subframe was scaly but not terrible. Had Johnny weld in the GK Tech subframe reinforcement panels, then I stripped it with a wire wheel (hell) and sprayed it semigloss black.

Sandblasted and refinished the rear knuckles with gloss black and GK poly bushings and plenty of ES poly bush grease. Ultimately decided to go with poly bushings after much consideration and research. Typically I try to avoid poly in articulating parts, but find that these fit my needs and will ensure to keep them heavily greased.

The goal for the car is to be a 50/50 street and track car. I will keep my main drift car (I'll refer to this as the grey car if ever brought up) for events with carnage anticipated. This red car will be for road courses or more showcase style events. But anyway, trying to avoid heims where I can because I want to be excited to drive it anywhere. Pennsylvania roads are unforgiving as fuck.

Sandblasted and shot the RLCA's silver. Got new balljoints from Bernie on Zilvia and put in black prothane bushings w/ plenty of ES grease.

Semi assembled. Went with SPC arms after talking to a few people (Zilvia threads and Damon Young). Hopefully the RUCA's don't have clearance issues as this car is planned to be very low and they are not as chassis avoiding as Parts Shop Max pieces, for example. Time will tell. Lastly, GK poly subframe jawns. To my knowledge the only bushing which raise the subframe and aren't solid (see: chasing some sense of comfort).

And here it is with hubs. Decided on running a full single caliper Z32 rear setup w/ all drum hardware. Will be using PMU shoes and all new cables. I'm a big hater of hydros but have grown to enjoy a little ebrake action in drift, so I hope this setup works well. PMU pads have done wonders for me on stock S13 calipers. Fun fact, my other car's ebrake has only worked for the last 2 years of my ~10 or so years of drifting.

And a piece I'm excited about. I've never had a Nismo power brace and heard they do wonders for chassis rigidity. Also, on my not overly-low grey car, I always scrape tension rod brackets over shitty roads. This is a good example of where I want to apply lessons learned to make this car the best that it can be.

At first, Parts Shop Max's power brace looked really cool and comes with good ground clearance. Then I saw that Villains does a similar service but using stock cores. Given I had stock cores and have had good luck with Villains stuff in the past, I decided to go with it. Awesome end result; great welds, and about an inch of additional clearance! Paired this service with a GK Tech weld-in power brace kit using the car as a jig, and shot it in gloss black + clear.

Notes for those who want to do this: The boxing plates installed by Villains limit you to only heim style tension rods. Stock big bushing types will not fit given the plate. Also, the metal trimmed off the bottom of the bracket itself by Villains will not allow GK Tech's kit to be welded on without a little modification, see how the base plates at the ends of the tube somewhat protrude upward. Anyway, with a little finesse, the end result is strong and doesn't interfere with anything. I'm stoked on this.

Similar paint treatment to the subframe brackets.

This pretty much brings us to current. The subframe is back in the car and it is once again a roller and no longer at Johnny's. I need to take some pics of the parts I have lined up as well as document some of the finished rust repair a little better, it's not too late to do that. For now, a quick plan. Thanks to ridiculous inflation of literally everything in life, I feel like I have the same amount of disposable income as I did in college, while maintaining a lucrative career in engineering/construction. Hoping progress doesn't lag as a result, I'm just taking any excuse to digress and express my discontent with life if opportunity allows me to. This forum is that opportunity because 99% of y'all are strangers!!

Plan:

Stylish Kouki-style early 2000's street car drift build (how original!)

SR20DET

Low

Cool Wheels, 17/18

Parts on hand:

(2x) S13 SR20DET's and a buttload of transmissions

17x9 AVS Model 5 in original dark chrome (need to find an 18x9 or 18x10 pair still)

17/18 Blitz Techospeed Z2

(2x) Mint OEM kouki front bumpers with all brackets and extensions

OEM Kouki skirts

Mint Bride Zeta III L-type (I'm tall and should probably lose a few pounds realistically)

Ganador chrome tail lights + OEM kevlar center panel

BNIB kouki tail lights and under panel

Ganador super mirrors

That cool 3 piece tubular Cusco strut tower bar with the adjuster in the middle

OG More Collage hatch wing, but will probably go 180 or GT-1

Fortune 500's with Swifts

Cool rare interior bits. Veilside shift knob and GAINS chrome door sils

Need to get:

>Rest of kit. Will probably go hot road/rep but have been looking at other stuff after seeing hot road everywhere and not having it for many years and almost getting tired of it.

>Front knuckle setup. Either Heatmaker Hotside or Parts Shop Max Super Angle.

>Parts Shop Max OEM-style FLCA (someone lmk if 50mm of added length is absurd if I plan on keeping stock metal fenders)

>Relocate steering rack (want to keep soft rack bushings)

>Kaaz 2-way

>Paint

>Probably some cool power parts. A cool catback and name brand FMIC

>M Sports (or rep) hood

Ended up trading these

For these (ironic Z2 pics only I guess). Will need relipping to fit Schassis and look good.