Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

This is a story of how I became broke 

It all started with a text. " is this this what you've been looking for? One just got dropped of here at the scrap yard!" 

IMG_27491.jpg.7eaf29fffe33152de95cc1ebb5f6f64c.jpg

Meet "Pidge" my 92 240sx coupe junk yard save. 

The backstory on the car is apparently it was some kids project back in the early 2000 that they had lost interest in after blowing the stock ka24de (you'll see the window in the side of block later on ) and had just left it in their mothers backyard when they left and moved off to college. Well I guess the mother was cleaning her property to get it ready to sell and had dropped it off at the scrap yard a few towns over where I have a friend that works. So instead of letting the scrap yard buy and crush it, he paid her cash for the car so it wouldn't be scrapped and texted me knowing damn good and well he'd be able to make a buck or two off of me. 

The car its self wasnt in the worst condition it sat as high as most trucks out here in east texas and aside from the silvia front end conversion,  and backyard straight pipe exhaust job the car was stock. Which for me was the perfect starting platform.

IMG_27561.jpg.858aeba03ad89ab39ace250837e90c15.jpg

That gave me the a fresh start. Minus the headlights no wiring was hacked up everything was there I could of very easily just pulled the blown ka put a fresh motor in and it would have been back on the road.well that and had a key made. 

The car had some minor body damage that was apparent upon inspection. The sun roof leaked and the trunks spoiler was almost broken off so the interior was going to need replacing and with the amount of humidity we get out here the under carriage was going to need inspection.20180829_195857.thumb.jpg.90155946954d9d1e0e26ec194926ff61.jpg

Then it was on I towed the car back home and parked her out in my front yard for about 6 months while I tried to find the between two jobs and a family to get all of my parents belongings out of my garage and my garage clean enough to get the car up in the garage Screenshot_20191223-090616_Gallery.thumb.jpg.80e17172e96442fd396cce049f127c8a.jpg

Then on December 23rd 2018 it got real the car was finally pushed up into the garage and tare down and a thorough  Inspection began.

 

Edited by kowalatea
  • Like 1

With the car finally in the garage it was time to really dig in and asses the situation.  So I started in on her 20181225_085738.thumb.jpg.b9f0ff9cfa38c0c485af0df832c6f432.jpgbeing as she sat for so many years you can see several squirrels had raised their family's in her, the entire intake tube all the way back to the throttle body was full of acorns. It was frighteningly comical pulling her apart. Almost like a bad cartoon. 20181225_082813.thumb.jpg.c3ba69cc73f5ca0649bc19d764733bef.jpg

One disconnecting most everything from the top side up she went on to jack stands where she would spend almost to the day,One year, as I pieced together and refurbished her undercarriage and suspension components. 20190104_105804.thumb.jpg.c987c4211717b4d92d8887eb5435c270.jpg

But before the chassis and suspension work, the dead motor needed to go. So with a little help and alot of enginuity (hehehe see what I did there ) out came the motor and transmission 20190121_073102.thumb.jpg.d5e581fcf81400c96e099b6b40a369f8.jpg

On a side note do you know what kind of a poor choice it is to try and pull an engine on the dirt by yourself.... a rather large one. 

  • Like 4
6 hours ago, kowalatea said:

poor choice

Also... just FYI. If you came here hoping that we would be the type to guide you into good life decisions... ummm... well here is some that I can offer; invest in Apple in the 90s and Google in the 00s oh and GTRs in the 2010. (Steve's life advice right here...) ?

This entire forum is a whole bunch of enablers.... So we like to see when people fit in straight away!!! You are going to fit in GREAT!

  • Haha 2

With the engine finally out we were able to finally find the damage. Cylinder 2 had decided it needed a room with a view, and threw a rod through the drive side of the block 20190120_172737.thumb.jpg.1c674f4c5101e8454ffa19a1401d30bb.jpg

With all hope of fixing and selling the engine to help offset the price of the build it was time to start stripping her down to her bare bones and assessing what was going to be viable to keep refresh and reuse and what was to be written off as a total loss. 

Decided to start with the suspension tare down because I knew right off the batt most all the suspension was going to be trashed and replaced with adjustable components. 

20190120_150901.thumb.jpg.ae78a9a0f8ad96274bc6ede1a62dccd4.jpg

Here we have a before of the front suspension, a sad sad stock front end. Can any one else not get over how big the factory springs are on these cars?  

20190120_150916.thumb.jpg.981ac019fc866ead2ef86979198d53f5.jpg

And here we have a sad before photo of the rear end. Fun fact when I went to pull the rotor off the rear passenger side the whole disc separated from the hat. I had a good laugh and pretended to be xena for about 10 minutes 

  • Like 2
  • Haha 2

 

1 hour ago, Steve85 said:

This entire forum is a whole bunch of enablers.... So we like to see when people fit in straight away!!! You are going to fit in GREAT!

Why thank you good sir. I didnt necessarily look to fit in but its continously a good feeling knowing one does 

  • Like 1

Lol nice crank case vent, no need for those fancy sump vents or drug money PRP head drains.

Well done!

Also, last minute advice abort while you can. Trust me, I've bought a dirt cheap Nissan shitbox and no joke have spent 10x that value. I keep saying meth or shards seem like a cheaper hobby.

  • Haha 1
37 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Lol nice crank case vent, no need for those fancy sump vents or drug money PRP head drains.

Well done!

Also, last minute advice abort while you can. Trust me, I've bought a dirt cheap Nissan shitbox and no joke have spent 10x that value. I keep saying meth or shards seem like a cheaper hobby.

TOOOOO LATE!!!! 

chants: One of Us!, One of Us!, One of Us!

  • Haha 1
5 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Also, last minute advice abort while you can. Trust me, I've bought a dirt cheap Nissan shitbox and no joke have spent 10x that value. I keep saying meth or shards seem like a cheaper hobby.

Mama didnt raise no quitter!!!!,

she raised an addict!!

I dont quit doing things I just take breaks. 

 

  • Haha 2

 Continuing with disassembly and inspection the rear end was the first to be dropped, and i cheated i unbolted the struts the rear subframe and just dropped the whole bisnitch as one full assembly. 

But that didnt really work in my favor because I still had to pull the diff out to get the assembly off the jack so i could drag it out from under the car. 

I dont know what I was thinking Jack's dont want to roll over a damn zip tie let alone around on crushed concrete and dirt. 

20190125_124900.thumb.jpg.f15ad621905b58b1c3877c706734a917.jpg

Here's the haggard stock set up and as you can see it had see better days so I stripped everything off down to just the bare subframe and got after it.

20190126_084028.thumb.jpg.a25272e2f017a0b45f5f8a107a13aa46.jpg

And after about a week of aircraft remover and wire wheeling the subframe, a frash coat of primer was ready to be shot. which in hindsite I should have waited until I knew what I was doing regarding rear the subframe bushings before shooting. but oh well 20190127_145357.thumb.jpg.305763529a47ebaed45be09454cece8e.jpg

After deciding on what to do about the bushings it was now time to get the old ones out. I cut as much as I could but finally broke down and just let em burn 

20190204_175819.thumb.jpg.76942e98eb0ebefd77effea628cf6a1b.jpg

I had decided to go with the energy suspension urethane squeakers 20190126_083716.thumb.jpg.399b5a2d4f27ae416d7f08bd495c04be.jpg

  • Like 1

With the squeakers being chosen and the suspension arms being slowly purchased it was time to start prepping the underside for the reinstallation and well in order to do that properly the fuel tank had to come out. So I pop open the trunk to the fuel pump and guess what I find ..... a lake where the spare tire should be. 20180911_192132.thumb.jpg.83179699dfe07ddeb3fe8c7bf6c28bfb.jpgthis is what it looked like after pulling the drain plugs. Once addressing that issue I loved onto the task at hand and pulled the fuel pump. And at that point things got more expensive because I found this 20190214_142044.thumb.jpg.6198b11ce07fa55959572a5e7216f6ff.jpga fresh low milage fuel pump ..... and knowing when a sending unit looks this bad the amount of time and effort that's needed to get the tank clean is going to be astronomical so the deliberation began. Do I find a stock replacement or do I go fuel cell( I'm going with a cell) 

Now that the tank is out and the whole underside is barren it's time to dawn the mask and goggles and get up under there with the wire wheel and start knocking off the caked up oil road grime and old undercoating. 20190219_115235.thumb.jpg.8b7760cd33d7357d223d8e566f107667.jpg

and after about a month of this I finally got the back end to a spot where I could start to reapply a new layer of primer(used a rust preventer) and then some fresh undercoating. 20190306_135559.thumb.jpg.4825e6a6f7f0da49124a0c7fdc1963e8.jpg

  • Like 1
30 minutes ago, PLYNX said:

Cant really see a problem with that fuel pump assembly ! 

There's at least another hundred thousand miles in it yet !

RIGHT!!! You see all that added filtration the iron crystals are providing not to mention the cheese burger that says how much fuel is in the tank 

Edited by kowalatea
  • Like 1
3 hours ago, kowalatea said:

. a lake where the spare tire should be. 

Why should you be different to the rest of us? ?

But seriously this is a great write up, you are doing some real solid work and really seem to know what you're doing (more than me anyways). Hoping you find a few good surprises somewhere along the track (even if it's just a panel that doesn't need bog). ?

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Hi, is the HKS  Tower Bar still available ? negotiable ? 🤔
    • From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
×
×
  • Create New...