Well, it’s been nearly three weeks since I first saw my 180SX in person. Though I haven’t done a ton with it yet, I have been enjoying getting to know the car a bit and spending time tinkering when I am able to.

To pick up where we left off, I went back to the Secretary of State two weeks ago with my VIN verification form in hand completed by a local police officer. Though it took a while, much to my delight I left with a title, registration and a license plate for the car. In Michigan, you can register any car 26 years or older as historical vehicle. The registration cost is much lower, and you can use an actual vintage license plate from the year the car was produced. This was always cool to me, since I have fond memories of the standard blue plates on cars when I was a kid. However, the catch is that you are only supposed to drive the car to events- car shows, parades, etc. In the month of August (when the Woodward Dream Cruise takes place) you can drive a historical plated car as much as you’d like.

While I had historical plates on both of my 240s for a time, I decided to skip it for now on the 180SX. I went this route so that I could have the car plated sooner (historical registration takes several weeks by mail) and so I didn’t need to worry about how much I drive it. I may decide to switch it over later, but for now this will work just fine. There’s no safety inspection or emissions testing in Michigan which makes life really easy. I am grateful to Tweed and Richard from Run Works for ensuring I had all of the paperwork I needed to easily register the car.

I had my license plate zip tied on the car initially due to the difference in mounting hole locations between Japanese and US plates. Then I remembered that my buddy Kevin sells these trick 3D printed plate adapters on eBay, so I ordered up a set and tossed them on the car. I suppose I could have just drilled new holes in my plate, but I am a sucker for stuff like this.

Now that the car is legal, I have been enjoying taking it on quick trips. The girls and I drove it to church that first weekend, and I have driven it to the office a couple times as well. However, we have been dealing with record high temperatures in Michigan for the last week, so I have been hesitant to drive the car to work and let it sit out in the hot sun. These conditions also bring a higher chance of severe storms and hail, so I have been leaving the car at home for the most part. Hopefully things settle down soon from a weather standpoint. I ended up driving the car to a Habitat for Humanity event we volunteered at through work and had to drive down some dirt roads I hadn’t planned to. I couldn’t help but feel bad wondering if this was the first time the car has left pavement, but it went just fine.

I spent some time looking at and test fitting some of the optional dealer parts the car came with, including the window louvers and fog lights. The seller of the car had removed the louvers that came in it to sell separately, so I decided to buy them. I gave them a test fit and honestly don’t really care for the look. They’re still a cool part to have, but for me sometimes less is more. I will likely hold onto them in my parts stash unless someone gives me a really strong offer for them.

The story is the same for the car’s optional fog lights. Sadly, one is shattered and does not illuminate, but the other side works. I do not know why two of the fog lights are missing – maybe the previous owner was only using one for some reason? In any case, it was neat to see how these bolt up to the front crash beam. Perhaps one day I will remove the switch and wiring from the car as I am sure that’s a fairly sought after piece of the fog light setup, but for now I think I’ll leave these alone. Part of me wants to source a clean pair of dual fog lights, but I know I won’t really end up using them with my other bumper setups.

As for other notable options, the car sports a 180SX rear window tint strip. Sadly it’s in pretty bad shape and will probably need to be removed at some point, but I am dragging my feet on that since it is so cool. It’s also equipped with a NISMO catback exhaust that doesn’t sound all that bad, but I plan to replace that too sometime in the neat future.

I got word from Brent at B Street Garage that my parts I dropped off for paint are finished and ready to go. This includes my two spare front bumper setups, R33 GTR N1 Ducts, Ganador mirrors, and a pair of East Bear mirrors. I am hoping to find time to make it out to Chicago and pick those things up soon. Can’t wait to see the end result!

I realized while we were in Houston that the car had an HKS turbo timer tucked near the driver’s seat that didn’t seem to be operational. Regardless, I took the interior apart a bit last week to remove it. Fortunately, the only wiring it tapped into was the signal wire for the emergency brake. I noticed during the process that my gauge cluster has a mind of its own. The temp needle moves up and down while the car is off, and the digital odometer flashes on and off. The speedometer needle also bounces around when I drive the car. It sounds like a lot of people have issue with their gauge clusters, so I need to get to the bottom of it at some point. Hopefully it can be saved though.

After spending a great Father’s Day up North at the lake, I was back to work this past week. My office was closed on Wednesday for Juneteenth, so I spent the day tinkering with the car. The first thing I did was remove the KTS coilovers that the previous owner installed on the car and replace them with a set of DMAX Super Street coilovers. I had bought these for my 240SX hatchback to replace my Stance setup as one had a blown cartridge after many years of use. I had used DMAX coilovers previously and liked their adjustability from a height standpoint. After driving the car, I actually think the KTS were less harsh and rode a bit better. I am now faced with a tricky decision as far as which set I want to keep. I didn’t think the KTS would be able to go low enough for the look I want to achieve, but it seems like they might. I’ve heard good things about them as I know SPL parts used to sell them back in the day. I’ll make a decision soon and sell whichever setup I decide not to keep.

Next, I set out to remove the front tweeters from the interior. I realized these were only held on with double sided tape, so thankfully I did not need to replace the triangular plastic trim pieces. I removed the door panels to find a pair of aftermarket front speakers as well. Not knowing the age or condition, I removed these as well. I plan to install speakers and a head unit at some point, so I will work on that later. It took me about 15 years to install new speakers in my 240, and I never even finished the job – so take that with a grain of salt.

While I had the door panels off, I installed a brand new passenger side door handle (PN 80671-35F00) and new door handle trims (PN 80682-35F00) on both sides. I purchased these back in 2018 for my 240 and never ended up installing them. The driver’s side door handle was discontinued even back then, so I sprayed that one with some SEM Satin Black paint. Someone recently messaged me and told me Laurel and R32 door handles are the same, but the part numbers are different. I need to do some research on that to confirm.

The wiper arms on my car have seen better days, so I removed the rear wiper arm and hit it with some paint stripper to get it down to bare metal. I then coated that as well with SEM Satin Black. I ran out of paint before I could get to the front arms, but I will be working on those soon as a part of another project. In addition to refinishing the wiper arm, I also installed a new plastic cover (PN 28782-55A00) and rubber seal for the rear hatch (PN 28716-30P01.)

Finally, I decided to install fresh rubber bumpers throughout the car. This included the six bumpers under the hood, two on each door, and two on the rear hatch. These are the part numbers and quantities I used for those: x2 90878-2l700 (large bumpers under hood,) x2 65822-M7000 (medium sized bumpers under the hood,) x2 65823-28E00 (small sized bumpers under hood,) x4 80872-W1010 (bumpers on the doors,) & x2 01658-00112 (for the rear hatch.) I forgot to take a photo of the bumpers all together, but this was a really easy and rewarding process. I had always dreamed of installing these on a freshly painted car, but the 180 is close enough. I’ve come to the conclusion that I would rather use these items than wait years and years with them just collecting dust.

After the harsh sun went down last night, I washed the car for just the second time since I got it. I’ve had to spend some time looking the car over to find where the dings and various blemishes are. I like to think I know all of them by heart, but then I remember that this is not the same car I owned for all those years. They look and feel so similar that it is easy for me to forget. I keep thinking this car has a long history and I have spent a ton of time building it from the ground up – but then I remember it’s basically stock and I haven’t even owned it for a month yet. I am getting a little anxious to make this car my own and begin tearing into it. I might already be breaking my promise of waiting until this winter to really dig into the car. We’ll see what happens!

Anyway, thanks as always for stopping by and coming along on this adventure. I appreciate it! I’ll have more updates soon as the summer progresses. Have a great weekend!

Damon