Hello, and Happy Friday my friends! The end of another week is upon us. Last week’s silence ended a weeks-long streak of new blog posts that I had going, but my family and I were on a much-needed vacation in Florida for spring break. It was great to get away from Michigan for a while, even though the weather has really not been too bad at all up here lately. Time away from work and winter weather is always great though. We also celebrated Hattie’s tenth birthday while we were there, which is hard to believe. I may or may not be suffering from a mid-life crisis (if that wasn’t already apparent enough.)

For this week’s post, I wanted to touch on my process for ordering OEM Nissan parts as it’s something that I get a lot of questions about. Back in 2017 or so, I had a bit of a perspective shift when it comes to building my S13. I began to become very interested in sourcing replacement OEM parts, rather than simply adding aftermarket items to improve the car’s appearance or performance. To my surprise, I found that a lot of components were still available new. I learned about the great satisfaction that can come from replacing the simple things – the parts that many of us often overlook.

As I traveled along this path, I shifted my sights from US sources to Japan, as I found that a lot of parts that were discontinued in the USA were still available in Japan. Some items were specific to the 180SX and RHD applications, but most were the same between the two variants. The resource I quickly began to trust most for looking up part numbers was jp-carparts.com They have an amazing catalog setup with exploded views that makes it fairly easy to find anything you are looking for (if you’re willing to be patient and spend a bit of time with it.) I have yet to find a good US equivalent for a system like this.

While it seems that this website also allows you to purchase parts directly, for whatever reason I have never used them to actually buy parts. I typically search for the part numbers I find there with US retailers to see if the items are available stateside. If they are not, I typically turn to RHD Japan’s OEM store to request a stock check on the item. You can submit these requests right on their website without ever needing to contact anyone directly, which is nice. After a day or two, you will receive an email notifying you if the item is available or discontinued, the cost, and the ETA for the item. If items need to be preordered, you can purchase store credit and order them. They’ll notify you when they receive it and give you a price for the shipping cost. At this point, you will be able to add the part to the cart and pay for the shipping, and voila! You have OEM parts right delivered right to your door from Japan. I used this process to source a number of my hard to find moldings and weather stripping, as well as my complete S13 Silvia lighting setup.

It’s also worth noting that I have used Jesse Streeter to source a lot of my OEM parts from Japan with great success. His process is a little different as you’ll need to email him with part numbers to request a stock check, but otherwise the process is pretty similar. Jesse is always my go-to guy for anything from Yahoo! Auctions Japan, but I felt bad constantly bothering him with tons of small part requests. That made the decision to use RHD Japan easier as it is a bit more automated. Like I said though, you really can’t go wrong with either!

With my recent part purchases, I hit a bit of a snag with RHD Japan. Occasionally, if you request a lot of OEM parts at once, some items will be available for immediate purchase, while others will need to be pre-ordered. This makes the process tricky, as parts requests expire after 7 days. For example, if you requested 10 different parts, you might find that 5 are available now and 5 have a 14 day delay. By the time you purchase and wait for the parts on delay, the request for the other 5 has expired, and you need to resubmit it. This can add a few days to the ordering process and get a bit confusing. I recently had an odd issue where I could not check out after items were added to my cart which seems to have been fixed, but these occasional issues were enough to nudge me to try ordering from a different vendor this time around to compare the experiences. I’ll also note that RHD has pretty great customer service and has always been willing to help me out.

The vendor I used for my most recent parts order was amayama.com and overall it was a very pleasant experience. With Amayama, you see the stock of items you search for in real time with an ETA. This allows you to add everything you need to your cart and check out for the purchase all at once, which is really convenient. After you place your order, it’s reviewed and shipping charges are determined. You’re notified when everything has arrived from the warehouse and is shipped out. For whatever reason, it seemed like the shipping cost was a fair amount more reasonable from this website as well. I will note, though, that a couple items I ordered came back as out of stock and I was refunded automatically. This was slightly frustrating as I had already been told they were available and paid for them, but at least the refund process was seamless. I will end up purchasing those items from stateside vendors for the sake of convenience.

An interesting thing I found with Amayama is that they often offer two warehouse options for Nissan parts specifically – UAE and Japan. Each location shows the stock level for the part requested as well as the cost. My most recent order was split into two locations and shipments for this reason, but the process went pretty smoothly. Some of the parts have interesting packaging that differs a bit from the standard OEM packaging, but it all seems to be legit. I am sure someone more knowledgable than I am could explain, but I found that interesting. However, like I said, my experience with Amayama was overall a solid one and they’ll likely be my go-to for OEM parts for the foreseeable future.

Now, you are probably asking yourself – why not just purchase all of these items from Nissan in the USA? Well, there are a number of reasons that I typically don’t. I’ve found many times in the past that items US vendors say are discontinued are still available from Japan. However, the biggest motivator is cost. For example, one item I bought in my most recent order was the three components for the shift boot for my manual conversion – the large upper rubber boot, the lower insulator, and the metal bracket that secures them. Those three items, with shipping, were $263.41 from a US Nissan vendor. However, for the exact same three parts, the cost was $112.19 shipped from Amayama overseas. Remember, the exchange rate will certainly impact this- and it is very favorable to the USD right now when it comes to the Japanese Yen. However, that is a massive difference. Some small hardware and clips may cost $8 each from the USA, but will cost $1.50 from Japan. When you’re trying to restore a car and replace as many items as possible, this adds up to be a ton of money. That being said, sometimes the opposite is true. I recently looked into replacement SR20DET coil packs and found them to be a fair amount cheaper from US vendors than in Japan. It really just depends on the item, making it that much more important to do your homework and find the best price before you commit.

All of that to say, I have received a ton of great help and discounts from US Nissan vendors in the past. I certainly understand more than anyone that relationships go a long way, and I have definitely benefitted from them over the years. However, things are certainly not getting any cheaper these days, and every penny counts when providing for a family while trying to build a car. Sourcing parts from Japan definitely takes a lot more work, but if you are willing to put the time in, the benefits can be great. At the end of the day, go with the process that works best for you.

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Well, that certainly turned out to be a bit more long-winded than I had anticipated – but hopefully that information is useful to anyone that may stumble upon it! I’ll keep the rest of this week’s update short and sweet. I got word from Richard on March 26th that my car is next in line for booking, so I am really hoping to hear that it has hit the water sometime in the next two weeks. Fingers crossed!

When we landed in Florida last week, Alicia told me about the bridge collapse that happened at the port in Baltimore. I am always fascinated by disasters like this and was sorry to hear that lives were lost in the process. As fate would have it, my 180SX was actually scheduled to be shipped to Baltimore. After reading that no ships could travel in and out of the port there, I considered switching to Virginia as a second option. However, my assumption is that many shipments destined for Baltimore would be doing the same thing. I ultimately ended up reaching out to Jordan at Tweed and switching the car’s destination to Galveston, TX. This will hopefully avoid any delays on the East coast and will be a great opportunity to see Jimmy when I pick up the car. I have a loose plan for getting the car to Michigan that is still taking shape, so more on that later when I have a better idea of how it’s all going to work- but hopefully it won’t be too much of a headache!

While I was gone, a few parts arrived – the first being a pair of ABS sensors I purchased from the same Zilvia seller that sold me my S14 front knuckles. I have heard that it’s darn near impossible to remove the ABS sensors without damaging them, and I hope to retain it on this car – so it will be nice to have spares on hand. I am not sure how S13/S14 240SX and 180SX sensors compare, but I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

I also scooped up a pair of OEM Z32 2+2 E-brake cables from another Zilvia OG Alex Chang. He was selling them at a pretty hefty discount to move the rest of his inventory, so I figured it was worth replacing my used pair with these while I am at it. Alex is the one that ran the raffle a few years back that resulted in me winning a pair of new OEM 180SX front fenders. I am still hammering out the details of my desired brake setup on this build, but I am pretty confident it will include Z32 rear brakes. These will likely come in handy!

And now, the OEM parts from Amayama that I mentioned earlier in this post. The first order from Japan included a few more various odds and ends. First up was a new clutch fork and some items for rebuilding the clutch and brake pedal assemblies (which I hope to tackle soon- I think I finally have everything I need for that job!)

Next was a brand new interior shift boot setup. I initially went with a used setup, but couldn’t pass up getting everything new and fresh. It will be satisfying to bolt these into place when the manual swap is complete.

I also scooped some restoration items for the wipers. New left and right wiper pivots were much cheaper in Japan than the states, so I grabbed those – as well as the plastic cover for the rear wiper arm.

Lower radiator bushings were in this order too, along with a clip for the hood prop rod on the front core support.

After I got home, the other half of my order arrived – this time from the UAE. This order included a few more bushings and components for the clutch and brake pedal rebuild, upper radiator bushings, The remaining clips for the hood prop rod, the rubber seal for the rear wiper assembly, nuts for the clutch master cylinder, and new door striker screws. This all just seems like a lot of small, trivial items, but I think it’ll be really satisfying to slowly install and refresh all of these components. I’ll be sure to share part numbers and more details when everything gets installed.

Finally, we are two weeks away from both my rolling chassis and SR20DET swap being picked up by their respective buyers. I am still working to get everything I need to make the car a roller. I think I have been bitten by the classic phrase “I’ve got plenty of time” once again. However, hopefully I can manage to get everything sorted out in the nick of time. We’ll see how it goes!

Whew, that was sort of like two weeks crammed into one. If you managed to read all of that, I salute you! Thanks as always for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Damon