CamryOnBronze

Well, here we are again- another year has arrived. I’m not sure it’s related to the new year at all, but I have been feeling highly motivated when it comes to my cars lately and I’ve been pushing myself to suit up in warm clothes and spend some time in the garage a few nights a week. This is no small task as it’s been in the single digits many nights with wind chills below zero. I’ve also really been wanting to update the blog, but just haven’t found the time until now. Before we dive into what I’ve been working on, let’s backtrack a bit to cover what happened since my last post in November 2021.

I ended up waiting a bit too long to gas up my hatch and tuck it in the garage and some snow snuck up on me, but I managed to get to it before the roads got salted. I had the cars together for one last time this season over at my mom’s place before grabbing a few photos in my driveway and pulling the hatch into the garage to put it on jack stands.

I tossed one of the LMGT4s on the car again to take a couple mock up photos. I still haven’t decided what I want to do with these knowing that I would only use them if I could find a way to score a 17/18 setup. I lost a bid on a pair of 17×9 +22 that would have been perfect, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be (or I’m not as crazy as some people are.) The prices that these wheels have been fetching in the past couple months make me wonder if I should be using them at all. I’m still considering trying to trade someone a pair of them (and have a couple people interested in doing just that,) but I’m really having a hard time justifying splitting up the set. For now they’ll hang around while I decide what to do, but I definitely want to see my hatch on a full 17/18 set at some point. This is the last big wheel setup I wan to see on the car and it would feel great to check it off my bucket list.

By late November, things got busy as they do every year around this time. My wife and I took a trip up North to the lake to celebrate her birthday, and surprisingly we were still able to take one of the side-by-sides out on the trails due to a lack of snow. I’ve gotten more comfortable taking the family’s Can-Am Maverick Trail on the smaller 50″ trails (as opposed to the larger 72″ routes we usually frequent) and I am excited to do more of that in the spring. I would really like to get a couple four wheelers to keep up there, but that’s likely not going to happen unless one of the S13s goes bye-bye- which is unlikely at this point!

In early December, I celebrated my birthday and took a solo trip down to Houston to visit Jimmy and our friends down there. My flight was about $60, so it was difficult to pass up. The Knuckle Up Friday Night Lights event was happening just a few weeks later on New Year’s Eve, but I wanted to come down prior to that to enjoy a low key weekend of hanging out. It’s fun going to watch friends drive at events, but sometimes it’s nice to sit car stuff aside and spend some time hanging out like normal people.

The rest of December was a blur with all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas. It’s always a chore getting everything done and attending lots of gatherings, but it’s fun when it finally happens. We were fortunate to see most of our families despite everything going on in the world and everyone made it through relatively healthy, so we were very fortunate.

With the holidays behind us, I committed to make a push to get to work on the tasks I have wanted to complete on my hatch for quite a while. The first of those was creating a set of custom front position lamps. Ever since I went with kouki 180SX aero back in 2009, I’ve wanted a way to utilize the factory position lamps as both running lights and turn signals like they do in Japan. I’m pleased to say I finally tackled this project and it’s nearly complete. I took a fair amount of photos, so I’ll do a separate post soon detailing the process. Hopefully it ends up working well though.

As for new parts, I picked up a couple small things over the last few months. I saw someone share that GK Tech was having a sale on their OEM style coolant tanks and the price was too good to pass up, so I grabbed one of those for my hatch. I currently have an aluminum tank that is tucked down by the radiator, but I eventually want to make the engine bay more factory again. Maybe I’ll get to this at some point later this winter, but for now I want to leave the engine bay alone until the suspension is sorted.

The next item I picked up is a pair of East Bear mirrors. I have owned several pairs of both East Bears and Aero Markers over the years, and most recently sold my last pair in the spring of 2020 to fund the suspension and brake refresh on the coupe. Those funds allowed me to get the car on the ground and across the finish line, so it made sense at the time- especially considering I was on furlough back then due to the early days of COVID. I’ve been hoping to snag another pair for the coupe, but was having a really hard time finding any for less than $1,000- which is crazy considering they used to be $200 just a few years ago.

Eventually I was able to find this pair from someone on Instagram. They’re in sort of rough shape, but I should be able to save them. I took them over to my mom’s house last weekend to throw them on and see what they look like. I think it’s a cool option to have for the future. We’ll see if I actually use them this time, but it feels good to have both a pair of these and some Ganadors stashed away should I ever decide to use them again. With prices the way they are, it makes sense to keep them since I got a pretty decent deal on both pairs.

Speaking of the coupe, I have been heavily considering converting it to five lug hubs and Z32 brakes like my hatch. I change my mind about it daily, but I have casually started to gather some items for the project as they pop up. I currently have a set of Z32 rear drum assemblies and e-brake cables as well as a Gent5 Z32 brake master cylinder. I’m trying to make the hatch my focus this winter, but we’ll see what comes of this notion later this year.

Finally, I ended up grabbing a pair of new kouki 180SX tail lights and another kevlar RPS13 panel. As I am sure many people heard, Nissan discontinued the lower metal trim panel for kouki 180SX tail lights recently and it caused a bit of a frenzy. I’ve wanted to have a fresh pair of lights and a new kevlar panel socked away for whenever I finally paint the car, so this seemed like the perfect time to snag them before prices go up. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the lights are gone too. And who knows, maybe they’ll end up like Silvia bricks in a few years. Worst case I can sell them (or my current used ones,) but this is another item I am glad to have stashed away.

And now, on to the actual project work that’s been going on. I dropped the subframe on the hatch and tore everything apart for the refresh. I have had a few NISMO items sitting aside for close to a year now that I’ve been wanting to install, including subframe bushings, rear knuckle bushings, and rear lower control arms. After installing these items in my coupe during the build process, I really wanted to add the same to my hatch. I’ve always had solid subframe bushings in my hatch since I replaced the factory ones in 2009, but the driveshaft and diff noise has always been annoying. My rear knuckles got the Energy Suspension polyurethane treatment at the same time, but I didn’t keep up with greasing them, causing the rear suspension to creak. All said and done, I am older now and really just wanted to go with something simpler and less harsh. The NISMO rubber bushings fit the bill perfectly.

After tearing down the subframe, I gave it a good scrub down. The Parts Shop Max subframe risers tapped out easily with a hammer which was a relief. Over the span of two different nights, I used my 20 ton shop press that I bought back in the spring to install the new subframe bushings. The process was a bit tedious and nerve racking, but it went very smoothly. It’s tough to hold the subframe in position alone, but I was able to prop it up and figure it out. It felt great to have this task taken care of as I’ve been worried about it for a while now.

The next order of business was pressing the old Energy bushings out of the rear knuckles. I tackled that with my ball joint press kit which worked pretty well. Once those were cleaned up as well, I hit both the rear knuckles and subframe with a fresh coat of satin black. For many years I have wanted to powdercoat my subframes, but I always get impatient and spray paint them. As time has gone on, I’ve grown happier with this decision. For a car that sees a lot of street driving and isn’t meant to be a show piece, it works out just fine. It’s easy to touch it up and refresh it every few years if necessary. Powdercoating is definitely the nicer way to go, but this solution works fine for my needs. I’ll have to circle back to the knuckles soon to press the new NISMO bushings in which I’m sure will be a task, but fingers crossed it goes well.

Whenever I find myself back in the garage again, I am planning to replace the boots on my CV joints. I did one of them on my hatch back in the spring, as well as all four of them on my coupe, but I want to do the other three on my hatch while I have the subframe out of the car. I went with these Beck Arnley boots from Rock Auto again as they are much more affordable than the OEM Nissan units and are likely going to end up torn at some point in the not too distant future.

My SPC suspension arms are showing their age a bit, but seem to be in decent enough condition overall. I am tempted to replace them with a combination of Cusco and NISMO units, but I think I will try to clean them up and make do for a while. I like the SPC stuff because it isn’t funky colors, the bushings are rubber, and they’re an affordable alignment solution. The rubber does seem prone to cracking on low vehicles, but I guess it’s to be expected a bit. I would love to replace these with something Japanese again someday as I don’t really love having more American parts on my cars, but for now it makes sense to save as much money as I can for paint work. I’d also really like to install some sort of aftermarket LSD, but again- it’s just not in the budget right now. Someday I’ll get around to doing this on both cars- it’s high on my list to get them to a point where I’m fully content with them.

My goal is to keep spending a few hours in the garage 2-3 nights a week to try to get this subframe project wrapped up as soon as possible. I often tear my cars apart at the beginning of the off season and don’t get around to finishing the things I start until well into spring, so I am hoping to avoid that this year. To be honest, after working all day, helping around the house, and taking care of the kids each night the last thing I want to do is go in the freezing cold garage. It’s been a struggle and I’ve literally had to drag myself out there, but every time I do I am glad I did it and come inside feeling motivated and fulfilled. I’ve had lots of motivation and a desire to continue improving my cars in the last two weeks, so I’m working hard to see that it continues.

It’s easy to consider calling it quits on the blog and this hobby in general at the stage of life I find myself at, but somehow I’m still hanging in there. I hope to have my hatch presentable again and running well when the weather turns to enjoy it to the fullest this year. I’ve been content to stay a bit stagnant since the pandemic began as it causes a lot of uncertainty and makes you question what matters most in life. However, I’ve felt a renewed sense of motivation to continue improving these cars lately- we’ll see how long it lasts, but I am feeling good right now.

Thanks for sticking around and still swinging by to see what I am up to. People reaching out to me about finding enjoyment and useful info from this blog this many years into it is a huge source of motivation for me. I sincerely appreciate it! Onward and upward in 2022.

Damon

Wow, two weeks of new posts in a row. What’s going on around here?! My hope is that this is the first step in making posting here a regular habit this winter, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe going into the offseason will afford me a bit more time to post on the blog.

Last weekend was consumed by prepping our home for winter- which wasn’t as bad as it typically is since we had temperatures in the 70s. It definitely felt strange to have that weather in November, but it made the task of cutting the lawn one last time, putting away patio furniture, and installing snow tires much more bearable. After installing the snow tires on my mom’s Accord, I took the coupe to top off the gas tank and take it for one more spin before tucking it back into my mom’s garage for winter. I just need to add some fuel stabilizer and throw a cover on it and the car should be good to sit for a while.

I drove the hatch to work on Monday since the sun and warm temperatures continued into the week. The time change happened over the weekend, so it was weird to arrive home from the office after dark- but it felt great to get one more commute in with my hatch. It’s still having a hard time starting if it sits for more than a day or two, even with a battery tender installed. I suspect this Odyssey battery just doesn’t have the CCA that my old Braille used to have, so I may need to replace it next season- which is annoying. It’s on my list of things to investigate this winter. There also seems to be an exhaust leak somewhere, with a sound reminiscent of when my first T25 turbo let go many years ago. It could just be the four-bolt gasket going bad, but that will need some attention as well. All in due time!

On Wednesday, the transporter arrived to pick up Tim’s rolling chassis and haul it to Chicago for the buyer. The buyer is none other than “180 Dave,” a Chicago guy that has been around for a very long time. In fact, I actually had a bunch of photos of his black S13 hatch with kouki 180SX aero saved from over the years – small world. I don’t think we have ever met in person, but we seem to have a lot of common connections and friends. I think he is going to do an amazing job bringing this car back to life and I can’t wait to see the results. The tow driver Billy also turned out to be an awesome guy that shares a lot of mutual friends as well. It’s always cool to be reminded of how tight knit this community actually is.

I got a ton of comments and DMs lamenting Tim’s car being parted out. While I totally understand the sentiment, I thought it was a little interesting how upset about it people were. While it’s definitely true that Tim put together a beautiful example of an S13, I completely respect his decision to part it out vs. selling the car whole. There are a number of factors that come into a decision like that, and I think it comes down to two big ones: the ability to let someone else own “your” car, and the money you hope to get out of it.

For some people, the thought of seeing their car being ruined online or being touted as someone else’s handiwork is too much to bear. While it might seem a bit arrogant to have that mindset, I think a lot of us have it about our project cars. When you spend so much time, money, and energy on building something and making it your own, the idea of someone else owning it just feels wrong. I sort of have this mindset about my personal S13s, and I know a lot of my friends do too. Heck, Jimmy even crushed his white S13 shell just so no one else could have it. It’s a bit extreme, but it is a real thing. I think people that have owned a car like this understand the feeling a bit more than those that haven’t. As weird as it might seem, it’s just the way some of us feel – and it was definitely the way Tim felt about his car.

As for the topic of selling the car whole, while it was a beautiful example, the car wasn’t technically finished. Sure, it looked great online, but there are many things that come with completing a build and getting it roadworthy. The car essentially had zero miles on it after the refresh and a lot of work still lied ahead for it before it was considered road worthy. The engine needed to be tuned, and it was proving difficult for Tim to find a place to tune the Power FC efficiently anywhere in Michigan. While some will say it was an easy solution, for Tim it just ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back. He’s a mechanic for a living and just doesn’t want to turn wrenches when he gets home at night. He also has a new son at home that takes up a lot of his free time. Tim had thought about parting the car many times over the last three or four years and finally decided it was time to let go. It doesn’t really matter how nice a car is or how close to the finish line it may be – when you decide you’re done, you’re done. I know I’ve been there.

To sell a car like this as a complete car, you need number of things. To fetch top dollar, it’s gotta be running and driving just about flawlessly – which Tim’s car was not. He didn’t want to invest any more time and money into it, so that made the decision easy. The second thing you need is a buyer with a LOT of disposable income to make it worth your while. Let’s face it- not many people have the cash laying around to pay even close enough for this car complete to match what it could net being parted out. The bank isn’t going to give you a loan for North of $25k for a 1989 Nissan with a KBB value of $1200. There might be people out there willing to pay it that have the actual money for it, but finding them is going to be a hassle. Not to mention dealing with any complaints or questions that arrive after the sale.

With the S13 market red hot right now, part values are at a premium. Many people don’t really realize it or understand the concept, but if you were to sit down and total up the value of every single part on your car (and I mean every single thing) the total value would likely blow you away. It was true of my S13 hatch when I parted it out even back in 2012, so just imagine what it’s like with today’s prices. I think I sold my complete OEM kouki 180SX aero kit for around $1400 back then. The same aero kit fetched over $6,000 today. A rolling chassis with a fresh paint job used to be worth $1500 on the high side, but went for north of $7,000 today. It’s much easier to find buyers for a lot of individual parts than it is for an entire car, and the total at the end (even after shipping things across the country) will probably be higher than any price you’d be able to collect from someone buying the whole car. It’s going to take you some work, but the reward is definitely there.

I understand that it’s frustrating and a bummer to see a nice S13 get parted out, but sometimes it just makes the most sense from a financial angle- and when someone is getting out of the game or moving on to a new chassis, that’s the angle that matters most. If you think about things on the bright side, the parts went to helping a ton of other nice S13s get even nicer – and I am confident that Dave is going to do an amazing job giving this S13 another chance at life.

At the end of the day, the owner of the car is the only person that can decide what to do with their car. Tim’s wish was to part it out and move on, so that’s what we did! I remember getting a ton of backlash for parting my car out back in 2012, but I think it’s just something you can’t really understand unless you’re the one going through it. I almost feel like sometimes we are all a little crazy for chasing this goal of building a perfect car (which will never exist) and seeing people bail out on that chase makes us question what we are doing for a second or two. It makes us start to doubt ourselves too, and that’s why we hate to see it. I don’t know – whatever the case, it is what it is I suppose. If it makes someone happy and improves their life, I will always be in support of the decision to move on. Heck, sometimes I am downright envious of it.

Anyway, I guess I am rambling again. I just think it’s an interesting topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately. Parting out a car doesn’t have to be viewed as something sad or a tragedy- it’s just right for some people and can benefit a lot of other people and cars as well.

I’m just about finished with the part out – I have the Apexi Power FC and boost control kit left as well as the Wiring Specialties engine harness. I’m hoping those items will sell in the next week and I can put this one behind me. I’ll probably try to take things easy a bit through the holidays as life usually gets pretty hectic (and expensive,) but I am hoping to get my thoughts clear on what I want to achieve with my S13s this winter and come up with a plan of attack. I hope to tackle things in quick bursts this year so that I don’t end up with a bunch of things torn apart, waiting for the needed parts and motivation to finish them. I really want both cars to be ready to go as soon as the weather breaks in April. I say that every year, but hopefully I can stick to it this time!

Thanks as always for stopping by to check out the blog. If you know of anyone with some 17×9 +22 NISMO LMGT4, let me know! Have a great weekend.

Damon

Wow, here we are again- six weeks have flown by so fast! My family and I are definitely doing a good job at making the most of the warmer months here in Michigan this summer. Through June and July, we spent numerous weekends up North at the lake house. There was even a stretch where we were there a total of 4 out of 5 weekends. It’s beginning to feel like we don’t even know our neighbors anymore at this point, but it sure has been a ton of fun.

A few weeks back, Jimmy and his wife Kayla flew up to go to the lake house with us. It’s really cool how lifelong friendships can develop from this hobby. Jimmy and I met at Final Bout back in 2014 and have remained close friends ever since. It was really fun to get together and hang out without doing anything car related. We’re typically stressed out or sleep deprived due to some sort of car event when we manage to link up so it was a welcome change of pace.

Being gone every weekend has of course resulted in not really having any time at home to work on my cars. Despite this fact though, I have really been enjoying both of them. In fact, yesterday was my hatch’s 25th successful commute to and from the office, meaning I have put just about 3,000 miles on it so far since I began driving it in late May. It feels amazing to finally transition from working on these cars without enjoying them for nearly two years straight to more or less leaving them as-is and driving them when time allows.

Last weekend I did an oil change on the hatch and put it in the air to give it a quick once over. I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything seems to be holding up pretty well aside from my front tires. I don’t have an alignment connection anymore since Jaylen switched jobs, so I really need to figure something out for that. I got caught in a heavy downpour the other day and the car was downright scary with the front tires nearing the end of their life cycle. I’, definitely going to need to get this thing aligned and throw a new pair of front tires at it if I want to drive it until the weather gets nasty (hopefully through October and maybe even into November – it just depends on when they salt the roads.

I got a small order from RHD Japan a few weeks back that included a NISMO oil filter for each car and another pair of NISMO rear lower control arms. I ended up using the previous pair I had purchased on my coupe, so I needed a pair for the hatch. I am still planning to install these along with the NISMO rear upright bushings and subframe bushings over the winter months. I tossed the filter on the hatch and changed the oil to some fresh Mobil 1 5W-30, which I am being told is a bad weight for the SR20. It sounds like 5w40 is a better choice, but this is what I’ve always used and have never had an issue. Maybe my engines are about to blow and I just don’t know it yet…

I also ended up purchasing a complete side mount intercooler and airbox setup from Chico down in Tennessee. I only need the airbox, but he wanted to sell it all complete. I am planning to try running a factory airbox in the hatch like I am in the coupe, but I shaved the factory brackets for it when I did the engine bay many years ago. We’ll see what I can come up with for a mounting solution when I find the time to tinker with it.

I installed a factory catch can and some new hoses that I picked up a while back while I was working on the oil change. This is something I did with the coupe when I was building it and wanted to have the same setup in place on my hatch as well.

As for the coupe, I still haven’t had the guts to drive it to the office. I do take it on quick trips around town whenever I can, but haven’t had it on the freeway yet. I haven’t looked closely to see how much lower it is than the hatch, but it seems to scrape a lot more frequently. I am considering seeing if I can raise it up just a hair more this weekend without it looking too terrible, but we’ll see what happens. I need to investigate the strange drivetrain noise at some point as well- I’m beginning to wonder if it is the carrier bearing on the driveshaft.

The coupe feels a bit slower than the hatch for whatever reason. I really need to spend some more time investigating small issues, but I just haven’t had the desire to for whatever reason. It seems this season might slip away for logging miles on the coupe, but maybe some motivation will appear and I’ll start driving it more. I also wish it was a little bit louder- the hatch isn’t loud by any means, but the coupe is very quiet by comparison. Maybe I’ll consider a different catback in the future – though I don’t know what it would be.

So that’s about it! Not much to report these days in the way of new parts or big projects. I’m essentially just enjoying driving the cars as I am able to and spending free time with family this summer. It’ll probably be a couple more months before I consider what sorts of things I may want to tackle this winter, but I am pretty darn content at the moment. I of course really want to see both cars painted, but I am not sure when that’s going to happen at this rate.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Damon

Greetings! I believe it has been a little over five weeks since my last post. While I was sad to let the streak of posting every Friday in 2021 die, I was becoming a bit stressed out by trying to find the time to create some content every week. I wish I had been able to keep it going as it is a lot harder to remember what I’ve been working on for the last month rather than the last week, but I had to take a break for the sake of my sanity.

When we last left off in early May, I was finally beginning to start driving my hatch around. Since then I have put about 1200 miles on the car, driving it around town and to the office as much as possible. With restrictions beginning to ease up a bit and after my wife and I got vaccinated, I am now working three days a week in the office and two from home. This gives me plenty of opportunities to enjoy the car for extended periods as my commute is over 110 miles round trip.

I picked up a second Broadway mirror so that each of my S13s will have one. I purchased one of these for my Camry in high school and have been using it in every car I have owned since. I’ve grown accustomed to the convex viewing angle, so it only made sense to pick up a second one. I also got a fresh set of sidemarkers for the hatch as mine were beginning to yellow again. I just grabbed the cheapest pair off of eBay since they are all stamped Junyan, even the ones that are sold as DMAX, Circuit Sports, etc.

Throughout the month of May, we took the hatch around town fairly often. Alicia and I took Alexi on one of my lunch breaks to run to the post office and to pick up some soil for the garden this spring. We got to spend some one-on-one time with Kinsey and Hattie another weekend, so I got to enjoy cruising with each of them as well- we even had a street bike try to race Kinsey and I when we were on our way to get dinner. I politely declined and mentioned that my daughter was in the car with me- gotta love being old, haha. I even got to take Alexi to her preschool graduation in the hatch which was a lot of fun. Of course, doing all of this meant passing up installing my NeXt Miracle Cross Bar in order to keep the seatbelts installed, but it’s 100% worth it. I may try to find a way to make it work with seat belts at some point, but as of now I am enjoying the privacy cover and the ability to cart my kids around way too much.

Despite my lack of trust in the car and tossing my tools in the trunk each morning when I commute to the greater Detroit area for work, the hatch has been absolutely rock solid so far (knock on wood.) I’m hoping my luck continues and I get to keep enjoying driving it to the office for the duration of the summer. It really feels like a super comfy commuter car at this current stage, aside from the obvious lack of AC. But other than that I really don’t have much to complain about!

As for the coupe, it sat torn apart for quite a while while I sourced my own press setup to replace the wheel bearings. Alicia was kind enough to let me pick up a 20 ton press from Harbor Freight as an early Father’s Day gift which was super cool. After buying the press and assembling it, I found that I needed a bearing separator and some better arbor plates in order to press the rear hubs out of the bearings on the coupe. It took a few more weeks before I could get those items, but once I did it made the task a piece of cake. I highly recommend this setup for anyone looking to press their bearings at home! So far, so good. I’ll put together a more detailed post on the press and the bearing process in the future.

While I was at it, I also decided to replace the CV joint boots on both axles with some aftermarket Beck Arnley boots from Rock Auto. I installed one of these on my hatch recently to replace a torn boot and it has been holding up to the abuse so far, so I figured it was a good thing to tackle while the rear end of the car was torn apart. It’s a terribly messy job and fairly annoying for that reason, but it really is pretty simple once you try it. I can’t believe I have gone so many years without knowing how to replace these boots and press in wheel bearings. It just goes to show that even if you’ve been in the S13 game for a while now, there are always new things to learn.

I got the coupe back together and on the ground the first weekend in June. I was disappointed to drive it down the street and find that it was still making the same grinding sound that I thought was the wheel bearings. As it turns out, the HKS Hi-Power exhaust was scraping on the driveshaft (since I hammered the floor a bit to tuck the whole exhaust system up) and that was the main source of the noise. Frustrated but relieved to know the cause, I dropped the exhaust and took a dead blow hammer to the secondary muffler to create some clearance.

Fortunately, this more or less solved the issue. There’s still a faint rotating noise when driving the car that I can’t put my finger on, but it seems very minor. It goes away when I put the clutch in, so my thinking is it may be something with the pilot bearing- even though I installed a brand new one when I refreshed the engine and transmission. Whatever the case, I’ll likely have to take a look at it this winter when the car is parked for the season. I must have goofed on the rear main seal install anyway as that leaks a bit too, so I’ll likely have to drop the trans anyway to fix that at some point.

Last Thursday night I took the coupe for the first true drive around town since completing the car. I’ve been around the neighborhood and snuck down the road to put fresh gas in it, but this was the first time it felt like a real, actual car that’s turn-key, registered, and ready to be driven. It has been unseasonably hot the last few weeks in Michigan and there was a beautiful sunset that evening. It was insanely motivating to drive this car around and really get to enjoy it for the first time. The coupe is definitely a lot lower and pretty nerve racking to drive with how frequently it scrapes around town, but I still had a great time running up and down the main drag. I don’t know that I’ll really drive this one to the office at this height, but maybe if I begin to trust it I’ll get adventurous enough later this summer.

I ended up just staring at both cars in the garage when I got home, so thankful to have both of them on the ground and drivable. They’re more or less the same car, but are very different to experience in their own ways. If I am every in a position where I need to get rid of one of them, it is going to be a super difficult decision.

My wife and I took a quick trip to Florida last weekend since my family wanted to watch the girls for us which was very refreshing. We’ve got several trips up North to the lake house planned for the next month or so, so I am not sure how much time I’ll really have to wrench on the cars- but fortunately both seem to be in a really good spot at the moment. I’m really enjoying all that summer has to offer this year- especially outside of the car hobby- which feels like a really nice change of pace. I think having nearly two years off from driving the cars has helped me reset and find a better balance between my hobby and my family which is a good thing.

I received a small parts order from Nissan this week and ended up making use of those goodies during an evening in the garage. The first item included was four new key blanks (two for each car) that I need to have cut. Both cars have aftermarket keys currently, and the coupe only has one key that’s bent pretty bad. I’ve always wanted to find a locksmith capable of rekeying my trunk lock to match the doors, so maybe I’ll finally be able to sort that out.

The order also included some screws I needed to properly install the shift boots onto the new shifter trims in each car (I ended up caving and installing my new old stock shifter trim, center console, and ash tray in the coupe a while back,) some new strut top nuts for the hatch (these were supposed to be used with the Cusco OS strut bar I bought a while back, but it didn’t clear my valve cover with my engine mounts-so I sold it,) and a new dome light lens for the hatch. Small items that were all quick to install but were fairly high on the satisfaction scale.

I’ll try to stay a little more on top of the blog if I am able to, but there are lots of busy weeks and weekends ahead. We’ll see what happens, but for now it is feeling great to slow down a bit. I hope everyone’s projects are going well and that you get to enjoy them soon!

As always, drop me a line with any questions or if you’d like to chat about anything and I’ll do my best to reply as soon as I can. Take care!

Damon

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

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I took the afternoon off last Friday to meet up with my cousin Nick and his girlfriend, my aunt, and my mom to go up to the lake house for a quick weekend trip. My wife’s family purchased a lake house last summer about three hours North of our house and it has been a ton of fun to go up there over the last 10 months or so as an affordable getaway, especially during the pandemic.

My father-in-law bought a Can-Am Maverick Trail last September that I helped him transport up to the lake house. Alicia and I have had an absolute blast with this machine on the trails up there and we’ve really taken a liking to the hobby and the lifestyle that comes with it. We’ve really been wanting to have a four seater version so that more of us can enjoy the trails, but like everything else fun these days they have been very hard to get a hold of. Alicia’s dad recently found a 2021 Can-Am Maverick X3 Turbo at a local dealership that someone had ordered last summer and decided not to purchase. Side by sides are about 8-9 months out if you order them new right now, so we were really excited that it worked out.

We needed a way to get it up there, so my cousin volunteered his Dodge Ram and a friend’s car trailer to help us out. We loaded up just outside Detroit and made it up the the lake house just before dark. We unloaded the new machine and were excited to try it out the next morning.

When I first took the new SxS out for a drive, I realized that it wouldn’t let me exceed 25MPH. After some research online, we found that the dealership neglected to reflash the key for us to the performance setting. I figured we wouldn’t get to drive it at all for the weekend, but fortunately we found a powersports dealer about 40 minutes away that was able to flash the key for us before the closed Saturday. This allowed us to get out and enjoy it a bit which was really fun. It’s crazy to ride in this thing- it feels like a limousine.

On Sunday, we loaded up the two seater and took it in for service on our way home. I am eager to learn more about these things and do the maintenance work for my father-in-law myself, but both are currently under warranty so it only makes sense for the dealership to do it. Soon enough though! It will be fun to learn to work on something different for a change.

However, as of now this is not an off-road vehicle blog- this is about S13s! As much as I wanted to sell my cars and get some four wheelers or something last weekend, I forced myself into the garage Tuesday night since it was unseasonably warm out and felt like summer.

I finished tightening everything up with the rear axle and suspension as I sort of quit half way through the last time I worked on the hatch. Then I installed my Auto Collect Storm fender braces up front and rolled my fender lips flat. I thought I remembered having more success with a roller on my coupe, but I ended up using a rubber mallet. After adjusting the ride height and front camber a bit, I was able to sit the car on the ground and take a step back.

Seeing both cars on the ground together again for the first time in a few months sent my motivation through the roof. It’s funny how you can put something off that will only take an hour or two for weeks, causing your mind to wander and making you feel like you should be giving up. I continually let this happen without learning my lesson.

On Wednesday when I got home from work I managed to toss the battery in the hatch and pull it out of the garage to drive it a bit. I completely forgot how much fun this car is since I’ve only really been focusing on the coupe lately. The hatch is a bit louder than the coupe and just feels and sounds a lot sportier. I forgot how cool power windows are too.

The past couple days it’s been starting to sink in: I have two functional S13s. Neither of them are without issues that need to be addressed and things I need to finish, but I sat down, turned the key, and drove both of these cars on public roadways in the last week. I really can’t believe it! I definitely have a huge feeling of accomplishment and am really looking forward to continuing to button things up so that I can finally start enjoying my cars properly.

The registration document should finally be here for the coupe next week. Aside from that, I just need to get some details hammered out before I drive one of the cars to work for the first time. I’ll likely begin with the hatch since I trust it a bit more and stick to shorter local trips for the coupe until I get it a bit more reliable.

Thanks for bearing with me through the ups and downs as of late- I know it is probably annoying to read sometimes, haha- but hopefully you can relate to my madness. I hope you have an excellent weekend- see you next week!

Damon

The past week has completely flown by- I can’t believe it is already Friday! Needless to say, despite the best of intentions I got absolutely nothing done related to my cars this week. It was a bit crazy after returning home from vacation in Florida and getting back into the routine of work and school. Add getting summoned to appear for jury duty to that craziness and I just didn’t have any time. I had hoped to work on getting the hatch on the ground, but it just didn’t come together.

I received the registration document for my hatch, but not for the coupe. It seems they have not processed it yet, so I think it may have been lost in the mail. I’ll have to send it in again I guess since historical registration can only be completed by mail for some reason. Of course the one that arrives is for the car that I don’t have quite ready yet.

Alicia has been wanting to drive the coupe for a few weeks, so we took it out with Alexi on my lunch break earlier this week. It was fun to ride in the car as a passenger. It began making some sort of grinding noise during our quick cruise, so I parked it back in the garage. It almost sounds like a brake dust shield is dragging on a rotor or something, but I haven’t had a chance to diagnose it.

I am taking the afternoon off today to head up North to the lake house since my girls do not have school today. It should be a good time! I’ll try to include some photos of what we are up to in next week’s post.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Damon

Well, since I currently find myself on vacation in sunny Florida this week, I don’t have any updates to provide about my cars. We’ve been down here since last Friday and it has been a great break for all of us to escape the Michigan weather (though it has been unseasonably warm lately, I did see from a friend that we had some snow on the ground up there this morning) and the first family trip we have taken out of state in about 14 months. We’ve been having a great time and are trying to soak up all the sun we can as it sounds like the pandemic has been flaring up in Michigan again the past few weeks.

Speaking of the pandemic, I am still completely blown away about what it has done to the market for S13s and parts for these cars that have become very difficult to find. As you probably recall, I parted out a number of S13s from 2018 to early 2020, essentially to fund my coupe build. I was able to snatch up cars locally (or at least within a three hour radius) and tear them down, keeping items I needed for my build like black interior plastics and an SR20DET swap, but selling the things I didn’t need to raise extra funds to build the car. It ended up working out much better than I could have anticipated, and I managed to build the coupe from a bare shell within about two years or so- much faster than I ever thought I would be able to.

When COVID crept in early last year, I expected the economy to completely tank. I thought people would lose their jobs (like I did) and be forced to sell their unfinished project cars. However, it ended up feeling like the opposite had happened. After finishing my last part out in March 2020, I never really saw another S13 for sale near me that seemed like a viable option for a part out. Granted, with everything going on I didn’t spend as much time looking as I used to, but the market really did seem to dry up. Even the junkiest S13s were listed for prices so high that there’s no way you’d be able to make your money back parting the car out, let alone turn a profit. And the craziest part is that most of them were still being snatched up.

I’ve watched S chassis prices increase for years now, especially for parts that are getting harder to find- things like Bride seats, JDM OEM aero components, Ganador mirrors, etc. It wasn’t totally unexpected. From 2009 to 2018 or so, the price of most of these parts doubled. But since then, it seems like everything has doubled again- which is really mind blowing. My first pair of genuine kouki 180SX side skirts set me back about $240- now they sell quickly for over $1200. I remember my mint condition red Bride Zeros was priced on the high side at $900 in 2012- now one in that condition would easily fetch $2500 or more. $250 Ganadors now sell almost immediately for $1250.

I don’t totally understand what has driven all of the increases other than the fact that these cars and parts were treated as disposable for far too long. I remember people ranting on Zilvia that S13s are a dime a dozen an they aren’t true sports or collector cars. Any time someone complained about them being crashed or destroyed, they got criticized about caring. It seems that the disposable mindset has finally caught up to us- even basic stock parts are getting really hard to come by, let alone the more desirable aftermarket and JDM parts.

I think another factor may be that many people that had S13s when they were younger are now coming back into the hobby. Maybe they got married, bought a house, had a kid, and decided to sell the car to make ends meet (something I have nearly done many times.) Now that they’re older and more stable financially, they can finally come back to the scene and build another S13. Sure, everything is more expensive now, but people often have the means to do it anyway.

Whatever the cause of all of this, there’s no denying S13s and parts for them are the hottest they have ever been. I was discussing the situation with my father-in-law last night as he was helping me with some retirement account stuff, and we talked about trying to capitalize on opportunity when it comes along. I feel the same way he does about taking opportunities to gain financially when they come along, especially with three kids at home and being a single-income household. It really makes me wonder what the future holds for this stuff and where the ceiling is- and if and when the bubble is going to burst.

While it’s been super tempting for me to try to capitalize lately, I just don’t think I am ready to leave the hobby behind yet. I’ve seen lots of people come and go over the years, and I know many of us reach a point where it makes sense to move on. I wonder sometimes if that’s happening to me, but I think I’ve still got some gas left in the tank. Tinkering with these cars has become such an outlet for me that is a part of my identity. I don’t doubt that a day could come where I decide to bow out, but I don’t think it’s time just yet. I definitely didn’t expect to find myself up much on my investment into these cars, but current prices have made that a reality.

I don’t see S13s or the parts for them getting cheaper any time soon. I think prices are close to stabilizing for a while right now, but I don’t know that I see them going back down much at all. As long as these cars still have a cult following and people want to restore them properly, prices are probably here to stay.

For the time being, my plan is to stay the course. I really want to have both cars out and drive them as much as possible this summer to see how I like it. Owning and maintaining two of them is definitely no small task and something I have always advised people against since it’s just so hard for most of us to keep up with the time and expense required to do it right. If anything I could see parting with one of the cars, having whichever one I keep painted properly, and keeping a few sets of wheels for it- then putting the rest of the money away. At this point though, it feels like I’m more or less where I want to be- and it is difficult to think about giving that up after working so hard towards that goal for many years. In any case, I think this summer is going to tell me a lot about what I want to do moving forward.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the current market- is it just a bubble that’s going to burst soon? Have you been tempted to get out? Maybe you already did cash out? Drop a comment or shoot me a DM on Instagram if you’d like. I always love hearing what others in the community are thinking and chatting about these cars.

Thanks as always for reading the blog. Have a great weekend!

Damon

As it turns out, like many of you have suggested, actually driving your project car has a major impact on your mental state and serves as a reminder of why you put yourself through everything that comes with this process. Though I didn’t spend virtually any time in the garage over the course of the last week, it proved to be just what I needed to remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Last Saturday was our family birthday party for Hattie, followed by visiting family and having our own Easter celebration on Sunday. Needless to say it was a very busy weekend. However, I did get the coupe out of the garage Saturday morning before the party for a quick trip around the block. That was just about the only thing I had time for through the course of the weekend, but it was enough to remind me of why I enjoy these cars. After last Friday’s blog post, I knew I needed to do it.

I determined that my Braille battery had finally given up the ghost. I was frustrated initially, but realized I have had it for about six years now. I ended up ordering an Odyssey PC680 as a replacement after hearing good things about them from Liam and Kev. I also purchased the terminal kit as well for installation.

I still need to come up with a solution for mounting the battery, but I’ll work on that soon. The Odyssey is actually a decent bit smaller than the Braille battery I had which is kind of wild. I will actually be purchasing another one soon for the hatch. I’ll keep you posted on what I come up with for securing the battery in both cars.

I need to roll the front fender lip on my new fenders on the hatch. In the past, I have done this with a rubber mallet while the fender is off of the car with mixed results. It seems to warp the fender and it just never fits right afterwards. When I rolled the lip on the Slivia fenders last summer, I decided to try using a roller like I do on the rear quarter panels. I found that with taking my time and pressing on the outside of the fender while using the roller, the fenders retained their shape and it worked quite well.

I’ve borrowed a fender roller many times over the years. I think when I first got my hatch, I even bought one and then sold it after I was done. It used to be one of those tools that was fairly expensive and everyone used to rent. I borrowed one from my friend Greg last summer for the coupe, and decided it would be nice to finally just have one of my own. As it turns out, the price has come down drastically on these tools since I last looked into it. I also found that tons of brands offer them which was surprising to me. Since I was ordering the battery from Summit Racing anyway, I decided to get one of theirs since the shipping was free (and very fast.) We’ll see how it works, but it seems like it should be great for my limited needs.

The weather was incredible once again in Michigan this week and very unseasonably warm. It hit 80 degrees on Wednesday, so I decided to take the coupe on its maiden voyage to fill the tank with fresh gas. It’s always terrifying and incredibly exciting to drive a car that you more or less assembled from scratch, but it can be very rewarding if things go your way. Add to that feeling of anxiousness that my registration documents technically haven’t arrived yet, and I was freaking out a bit. But it was too nice out not to do it!

My initial impression is that I am very happy with the overall feeling of driving this car. Sure, it’s basically the same formula has my other S13, but it feels very different for some reason. The coupe just feels more solid. The exhaust is very quiet with the factory aribox and HKS Hi Power exhaust. It almost feels too quiet, but it is also very refreshing. The clutch pedal is lighter than the hatch even though they have the same clutch- maybe because I have a NISMO slave cylinder on the coupe? It shifts smooth, idles nicely, and just generally feels pretty sorted.

The overall ride quality on the coupe feels better too for whatever reason. This might be partially due to the NISMO subframe bushings vs. the solid risers on the hatch, but it’s likely just because of running a tire with a lot more sidewall. It doesn’t feel like a 28 year old tin can though which is a big plus.

There are still some kinks to work out of course. The power steering pump is still making more noise than I would like and steering takes a little more effort than it should. The rear wheel bearings are noisy and need to be replaced much like the fronts did, so I need to take care of that. For some reason my running lights are always on, and the cluster gets power with the car off when I turn on the headlights. I also noticed that my rear main seal seems to be leaking, so I likely goofed on the install when I replaced it. That will likely wait until next winter to be addressed though.

Cruising in warm weather with the windows down in an S13 reminded of my why I do it. Even just a quick four or five mile drive was enough to kick start my motivation and renew my passion for these cars and this hobby. I even took it to the bus stop to pick up my daughters from school which they were excited about. With the coupe more or less sorted out, I hope to turn my attention to the hatch to finish the outstanding items I have lingering and get that car out of the garage as well. If I can find a couple evenings to spend in the garage it shouldn’t take too long.

But first, a much needed family vacation! Thanks to everyone for that stops by to read this and provides insight and encouragement- I genuinely appreciate it! I hope you have an excellent weekend and are able to make some progress on your own projects.

Damon