Last weekend once again brought some decent weather to Michigan, motivating me to tinker with the S13s a bit. I began on Friday night by making some adjustments to my kouki 180SX bumper for the hatch. I noticed when I installed the R33 GTR N1 ducts that there were a couple spots where the bumper was rubbing the intercooler and couplers. I marked them with the bumper on the car so that I could trim it a bit when I removed it to install the replacement fenders.

I also elected to install the only two kouki 180SX bumper brackets my setup was missing. I’ve had these stashed away for a couple years now and figured it was finally time to install them. It took me a bit to figure out how to put them on properly, but I think I got them on correctly. It’s a shame that many of these components are not available anymore- and if they are, they’re really expensive. I know you can get away without utilizing all of the brackets, but I am glad to have the complete setup. I can’t say the two brackets I added did much of anything, but at least they’re finally on there.

My wife was gone all day Saturday with her mom shopping for plants, so I was home with 2 of daughters while my oldest was at a sleepover with her aunt. I ended up inviting a couple of their friends over to play so they’d be distracted and I could tinker a bit during the day. I pulled both cars outside and primarily worked on reinstalling the front bumper, lip, and side skirt end caps on the hatch. I decided to spray off both cars to try to get the dust off since they have been sitting for so long. Of course it rained for a couple minutes as I tried to dry them, but that’s par for the course.

I would by lying if I told you I am remotely content with the appearance of my cars right now. It’s actually giving me a fair bit of anxiety that they both essentially need to be painted. I am tempted to just get the fenders, bumper, and lip painted for the hatch but I am so tired of doing things piecemeal for the last ten plus years. I really just want to get the entire car painted and be done with it, but I’m hesitant to spend so much at this stage in life. We’ll see what happens I guess, but for the moment I don’t really have any plan for paint work lined up. If you’ve been here for any length of time though, you know how quickly things can change.

We decided to have pizza with our neighbors down the street, so they watched the girls for me while I drove the hatch to go pick it up. It’s only a mile or two away, but the drive was pretty nerve racking- essentially because I haven’t driven this car on the streets in nearly two years. Aside from needing an alignment though, it went smoothly and I had a great time driving it. I’m looking forward to attempting to take it to the office sometime very soon.

I ended up pulling both cars onto the street to grab some photos as the sun went down that evening. I only had one battery between the two cars at the time, so it still didn’t quite feel like I own two functioning S13s, but it was still a pretty cool feeling that I am only beginning to get used to.

I ended up picking up a second Odyssey battery for the coupe that arrived this week. I also snagged a universal battery tie down that I am going to attempt to modify to work, but I haven’t had a chance to do that just yet- maybe this weekend.

As I think I mentioned before, the rear wheel bearings on the coupe are shot. Last night I began tearing into that project and got the rear upright removed from the driver’s side of the car. I could not get the upright and hub to separate on one side when I redid the suspension, so I figured I would just remove the whole assembly to try to make the process easier. We’ll see how it goes though.

Wheel bearings are on order and should be here next week. I think I am finally going to bite the bullet and purchase a 20 ton press to have at my house. After dealing with sketchy solutions and trying to find people to press things for me for years, it seems like a no-brainer to just get one of my own. Hopefully it will be up to the task and allow me to get things done myself in the future.

If the weather is nice this coming week, I am going to try to put some more miles on the hatch. My historical registration for the coupe has finally arrived, so both cars are legal and ready to go- I just need to get them road worthy so we can enjoy them! We’ll see how it goes. With only three weeks of school left for my daughters, I can feel summer beginning to arrive.

I hope you have an excellent weekend- don’t forget about Mother’s Day! Thanks as always for swinging by.

Damon