After writing my last post, I finally found myself in the home stretch of getting the car running and on the ground for the first time in 2025. Both subframes were in the car, all bushings were replaced, the five lug conversion was complete – I just needed to find the time for the final push to completion.

I started by stripping the chipped up black paint off of my Z32 calipers leftover from my 240SX. I decided to switch things up a little bit this time and ended up painting them silver. I am still a little torn if I like it better than black or not, but this is meant to be a temporary solution. My initial plan when I bought this car was to go with an ENDLESS big brake kit up front, but scope creep and life slashed my budget a bit before I could get around to it. I still hope to make that happen sometime down the road though.

I bolted up the calipers with Stoptech pads and a fresh set of their Z32 conversion stainless steel brake lines. I’d prefer some nicer rotors than my old 240 leftovers, but again – at this point it was just time to set feelings like that aside and get this car road worthy. I reinstalled the OEM ABS sensors and made some custom brackets for where they bolt to the coilovers to ensure the lines didn’t have too much tension on them at the ride height I plan to run.

Next on the list was installing the new Kakimoto catback exhaust. The quality and fit on this piece is so nice. I installed it along with some GK Tech polyurethane exhaust hanger bushings and it tucked up very nicely against the chassis, even with having a large secondary muffler. It’s so cool to have the proper hardware for all of the exhaust mounting locations – something that was always sort of cobbled together on my previous S13s. I really love the look and fitment of this exhaust!

By the end of the first week of May, everything engine-wise was assembled. I ended up having issues with the GReddy hot pipe fitting alongside the factory airbox, so I elected to toss the factory pipe back on in the mean time. After finishing up replacement of all of the vacuum lines, I filled the coolant and tossed in a new Odyssey battery the day it arrived to attempt starting the car. I loved having a full-size battery in the car, but a slim battery is needed to clear the intercooler piping for the front mount setup.

To my amazement, the car fired right up and idled nicely. It always feels amazing to hear the car run after being torn apart for a long time. I figured the Kakimoto exhaust would be a bit quieter than my DMAX, but wow is this thing quiet. At first I was disappointed, but I think I might actually enjoy it being this quiet in my old age. We’ll see what happens – I might get tired of it and try something different.

Despite everyone’s advice of trying to work on the car a little bit every day, it’s been happening in larger, infrequent bursts for me as of late. I usually spend several hours (or even the majority of an entire day when I can) working on the car, achieve a few key milestones, then take a break for a week or so to let my body and mind recover. Things take a lot longer at this pace, but it’s been good for me lately.

A few days later, I got Alicia to help me bleed the brakes. I had been putting in a fair amount of time adjusting the height, camber and toe on the car prior to this to get it ready to be dropped back on the ground. With the brakes bled, I finally bolted the wheels up and removed the car from jack stands.

The next day was Friday. I decided to take the day off of work to finish adjusting the suspension as it is always a long and labor-intensive process to get it sitting the way I want it to. I found the night before when the car first came off of jack stands that the cat converter was more or less sitting on the ground. Before I could move ahead with setup, I needed to install my set of NISMO engine mounts to raise the engine and exhaust up a bit. This ended up taking several hours due to all of the factory stuff that was in the way, but I eventually was victorious.

The new mounts raised the engine up quite a bit and tucked the exhaust up a lot closer to the frame rails like I was hoping. After some advice from my friend Tony, I tossed a few washers under my Cusco strut tower bar to give it enough clearance above the valve cover. I’ve never been able to run a strut tower bar with NISMO engine mounts before, so I was pretty excited.

After a quick lunch break, I spent the majority of the afternoon and into the evening continually tweaking the suspension, lowering the car down, inspecting it, raising it back up, and adjusting it further. There was a ton of camber in the rear due to not pulling the quarter panels this time around, so I elected to raise the car just a little higher than I would have in the past to remove some. I also added an 11mm spacer up front, added some camber, and raised the ride height to get it looking closer to the rear. More camber up front than out back is always the goal visually. I am not quite there yet, but I am relatively happy with the current compromise.

Over the weekend, I finally got to pull the car out of the garage and wash it. I couldn’t stop staring at it. Sure, as my pal Jimmy said, “it’s the same thing you have been building over and over again for years.” But that comment was validating and rewarding for me as that’s exactly what I set out to do. It does feel like the same car I’ve had for so long in so many ways, but to see a genuine late model 180SX in my driveway – the very car I was trying to emulate and dreamed of owning one day – really is a trip.

When I pulled ride height and camber out of the rear of the car, it messed up the toe – so I need to circle back and fix that. Then I should be able to test drive the car a bit more and address any other issues. There are still small tasks to tackle, but with any luck the car should be on the road in June and ready to enjoy for the summer. I really need to spend some time and money learning paint correction, but we’ll see what happens I guess. At the end of the day I am just relieved to have the car back on the ground and in a semi-operational state.

Thanks as always for following along – I’ll share some proper photos soon for the one year anniversary of me bringing the 180 home. Have a great weekend!

Damon