Let’s see here… where do I begin this time around? Well, when we last left off in late October of 2023, I had just finished parting out my S13 coupe project and decided to focus my efforts on one singular project- the S13 hatch that I first purchased in 2008 when I was in college.

While I immediately felt very relieved to shed the coupe project and motivated to finally paint and restore my 240SX hatch, the enthusiasm quickly began to fade a bit. I decided to remove the side skirts to check for rust as they had not been off of the car in about seven or eight years. Much to my dismay, I found what I would consider to be a fairly large amount of rust behind the side skirts. Despite people reassuring me that it was not bad in the scheme of things and could easily be repaired, it really took the wind out of my sails to make that discovery.

I get it: S13s are pretty old and Nissan metal isn’t known to be the most resistant to rust. But finding that my rockers were in rough shape was sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. A lot of people online saw my decision to part out the car and move on as a knee-jerk reaction to finding a little bit of rust, but it was the culmination of many years of regret. Many years of decisions, modifications and mistakes that I had grown to regret. I shaved the bay and welded everything shut only to cut it back out and try to convert it back to factory specs again. Removed sound deadening just to add it again. Removed the HVAC system and reinstalled it. Pulled the quarters as a young twenty-something a lot more than I would have liked as a guy pushing forty. And though most of these things could be reversed by repainting the car, I ultimately decided it was time to make a change, take a risk and shake things up. If I was really going to pour all of this time and effort to try to build a beautiful S13 to my standards, I started to wonder if it made sense to start with the real deal: a late model 180SX.

Around the same time I discovered the rust, I took another leap of faith by applying for and accepting a new job. I was very happy at my role at the time, but the commute was brutal- typically an hour and a half or more one way due to construction. I ultimately decided to apply for a different role at a company twenty minutes from home and was thrilled to learn that they were making me an offer. My start date was pretty close to my birthday in December, and it just felt like a big shake up for the better. Taking a risk had worked out for the best. Birthdays are often a time of reflection, especially as I get older, and it got me thinking that maybe it was time to part ways with my hatch as well and take another risk. It was scary, but it felt like the perfect time to make the switch.

So I ended up doing just that – I parted out my S13 hatch again just like I had back in 2012. I was greeted again by that familiar feeling of relief with each set of parts I sold and shipped out. I went into the process with the mindset that I would be importing a kouki 180SX to replace my 240. The goal was to find one as stock and clean as possible – with the least amount of rust possible as well, of course. I knew this was a risk and that I may not find an example that ticked all of the right boxes for me, but I decided that with the way I had been feeling about the hobby over the last year or two it was worth the risk. If I didn’t find the right car, I would simply cash out and enjoy the simpler life many of us often dream of – a life without modifying a car.

Just as I was becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of not owning an S13 anymore, I stumbled upon a car that ticked just about all of the right boxes for me. I am very excited to say that I am in the process of purchasing that car and jumping through the hoops to bring it home to my little garage in the USA. I’m sure it is going to be a relatively long and tedious process that will require more patience than I have to give, but I am hopeful that it’s all going to pan out as it should. Fingers crossed!

As of this writing, I am essentially done with parting out my S13s. I am hoping a friend of mine can come get the bare shell out of my garage soon, but aside from that nearly everything is gone. I kept a number of parts from my hatch to use on the 180SX, and am still holding onto some of the harder to find Silvia parts for a while just in case I end up with one someday. Unlikely, but it shouldn’t hurt to keep these parts around.

With any luck, I’ll be able to share some details about the 180SX in my next post if things continue to progress as they should. I’m hoping to start posting more regularly to document the parts I am gathering for the car while waiting for it to make its way here on a slow boat. It’s been a while since I have tackled the build process from scratch, but I am looking forward to experiencing it again – especially with this platform. It’s nice to have some time to put a plan together and gather parts before the car arrives.

Thank you as always for stopping by and joining me in this journey. I am really excited about what’s to come in 2024!

Damon