My 240 hatch

I believe I remember a story about a g20 that started something like this.... You wild man!

Yep, and the truck will be here shortly to deliver this whole mess to Jason's garage, so it can sit for another 6 months because of 2 switched plugs. Might as well move my family in as well. hehehe

Clever 1/4 mile time shadow.....

I'll be keeping my eye's on you aggressive...........in my rear view mirror that is. hehehe

Lol, very nice. Well im sure we ll have a meet sometime this year. Being i m pretty new i guess i have an impression to make. We'll have to make sure your there haha.


And the nismo vs dsm battle begins.....

I'll be back to montana around august sometime, still owe the marines a few more months. But after that I'm definitely looking forward to coming to the meets and enjoying the things my deployments kept out of my reach. Once this baby is done, I'll be taking it to buttonwillow for some professionally intsructed seat time. They have drift sessions, time attack lessons, etc...so I'm just going to go all out and drive the hell out of this thing until the wheels fall off, then put it back together and keep going.
Back on topic, I got my buddies welder back and have put the arc to the steel trying to get it ready to prep for paint. I just can't decide on a color for the engine bay. Black hides the little leaks and such too well, so I want someting a little lighter that will help me notice small leaks before they become big leaks. I'll get some pics up once I've made noticable progress.

Right on, I deployed with RCT1 last year. Keep your head low and stay outta those damn matv's , plenty of time for me to wax that nissan when you get back, lol.

Who were you with and where did ya go? And, yeah, matv's or any miltary vehicle and I don't mix. I usually walk everywhere I go because I hate myself and love misery. I'm done deploying tho, did my last one with 3/5 to sangin, afg in 2010-2011. Now I teach little turd recruits how to shoot on edson range, easy job, but I forgot how stupid we all are in boot camp. Recruits are odd little critters, some cry, some piss their pants, every once in a while one of them shits themselves because they forgot to ask to go to the bathroom or something crazy. Ready to be done, 8 yrs is enough, especially in the grunts.

I was in camp dwyer with RCT1, teaching recovery to 3536's. it was a blast. I loved it but im done as well im tired of that life. For now.....

I know most of you people are probably shaking your heads at my build, which is great, because I am too. So we can laugh some more at what else I've done. I tore all the front support shit, that I was doing, out because it gave me a head ache looking at it. Then I did this which I think is a better idea.






I'm working on getting a pipe bender, but for now it's angle cuts and welding. I plan on making the center bars, wether I keep this or change it a little bit more, removable for ease of engine install/removal. Learned a lot so far, but unfortunately its mostly from doing it wrong first, so more time has been spent undoing mistakes rather than making progress. Besides that, I think I have found a completely original powerplant. I don't think I have ever seen anyone use it before either. I've been researching it closely for about 5 1/2 months now, and it seems to have an unknown power potential. So far, all studies and close observations have seen it tested for hours on end, during all kinds of conditions with zero fatigue of any parts. Actually the longer it runs, the power the source seems to actually produce. Obviously, custom fabrication will be needed to seat the power plant in the engine bay, but it should be minimal. Would you like to see it? Well here it is

Like I said, unlimited power levels that make the energizer bunny look like a little bitch.

Made a litlle more progress. You'd be surprised on how long I took getting these headlight mounts tacked in "the right" place. I threw the hood on and used my radiator as well to get the headlights mounted where I think they should be.






The inner brackets are a combo of custom pieces welded to sections of stock pieces.

Got more work welding the outer portion of the the driver side tub. Had to cut and grind a little here and there but she is a little closer to being done. I know I'm not the most experienced welder but some of the inconsistency has to be due in part to the welder. Alright, I'll stop runnin my fingers. I know you pic whores are just here for the show anyway.

I cut tabbed that seam that sticks straight down toward the tire and folded it over. Not sure if it was neccesary, but I did it just in case.


And I'm almost done finalizing the headlight placement, but they are oh so close.



So once I get all this mess taken care of on both sides, I think I'll be able to finally work on the bumper mount and tower brace modification. Also, just looking more into how to paint, I should have just spot removed the rust, as now it appears it's going to be a pain in the ass to do it right. I guess it is a track car, but I don't want it to look like ass out of neglect and laziness. Feel free to comment instead of just lurking like a peeping tom on creeper status.

Once again, as I progress forward, I also back track as well. Made quite a bit of progress on my ducting though. Made it removable as well as the upper rad/ic support. Had to remove the headlight mounts as they weren't quite right. I hate this headlight problem.





To make this upper portion removable, I had been searching for some way to make it simple. I happen the wrist pins from my old pistons when I rebuilt my motor, and wouldn't you know it, they are a perfect fit inside the 1" tubing I've been using. So I cut the uprights, welded the wrist pins in the upper portion and WHAMMO!, it works. Not perfect by any means, but neither is anything else on this project.


Ran out of welding wire so I'm done for the night. But tomorrow should bring a lot more progress and updates.

Made some headway today. Got a late start but managed to get a few things marked off the list. I found out my nieghbor has been hoarding a pipe bender, so I snatched that up. It's a harbor frieght edition so I don't know how it stacks up to other ones that the pros on the fabrication thread use, but it bends pipe. I can feel that I'm getting close to painting the engine bay, which is where I'm boggled. It's a track car so I'm not looking to go balls out on the paint, but I want it to be something that will last and not look hidious. If anybody has suggestions, send em my way.
Headlights mounted, again. Much better I think too.


Nismo, shizzmo. Made my own power brace. Still need to box it in though.

Had to cut the mouth of the bumper to fit around the ducting, not the best but it'll work.



Removed the cross member and all attached items which allowed me to be able to clean up alot more surface rust as well. Quite a bit more than I initially saw.

Started making one of the bumper bars. A little tricky getting the bends on either side to match up but I get em close enough for my taste.


It started getting late so I'm done for now. I'm hoping by tomorrow someone will chime in on which road to take for engine bay paint/coating so I can get a start on that. Should be able to get the crash bar mocked up and tacked in place as well. No that you're done looking at my hard work, go post a comment on that asshole's tiburon thread. hahaha.

Not much progress but I got the upper bumper/crash/bash bar tacked in place as well as the headlight outer mounts.




Not sure if this was the best way to go about it. I will try and weld in a stiffener plate in the frame rail itself to tie the inner and outer angle iron together. One of the reasons I did it this way is hoping that in a bad crash it will allow more shearing/crumpling with mounts on the outside rather than on the end of the frame rail. Maybe I'm way off base as I have no personal experience in this matter, here's hoping I'll never find out.
The headlight brackets. As you can see, I used a combo of the original brackets that bolt to the HL's themselves and some fabbed up shit that serves the purpose.


I'll try to get the lower bar mocked up tomorrow, but I think I'm going to make that one removable as it seems like some more experienced fabricators have mentioned that detail for ease of trailering the car. Thanks for looking.

Got home and was able to get the lower bar bent and welded on before the wife had to leave for school. Going to make this removable to, but I think I'll keep the upper bar permanent.


Seems to be coming along. I should be able some more done tonight. I think I'll pull the dash out and remove the ac stuff and weld up those holes as well.

Probably more pics than neccesary but here ya go.
Boxed in the "fismo" power brace. I think my welds are finally getting better as far as dialing in the welder, just need to work on welding straighter.



Modified the strut tower brace. It's not completely finished, but the just of the idea is there.



Welded this plate on the firewall where the tower brace will bolt up to, although I'm not sure it's enough on its own. Probably going weld something in behind there under the winshield wiper. Just not sure how I'm going to do it. That part of the firewall isn't sturdy enough for me so I'll have to get creative and go overboard as usual.

And a gratuitous shot of tonights work dudebro'n it up.

I've also come to terms with the fact that this build isn't as sketchy as I thought, because of the lack of shit talkers leaving their humorous smack talk. But on the other side, it also lacks that "special sauce" that gets everyone "e-jizzing" all over it. So I'm content with an in the middle build. Maybe once I exit the military, I'll go beg for a job at an automotive fab shop. That way I can learn how to do this shit the right way, instead of the "well I'm tired of staring at it, so I'm just going to weld this here, and that there, I guess it's good enough" way that I'm currently using.
As always, thanks for looking.

looking pretty rad dude! your really plugging away at that front clip! definitely a big project, and you appear to be handling it like a boss. Keep up the good work big homie

Got just a few things done, not much tho.
Stitch welded some more seams


Then I braced/stiffened my 3 poit strut brace

hopefully i'll be able to get more stuff done tonight, i just need to figure out what is needed to get this bay painted. I heard at one of my local meets awhile back that if I'm going to track the car that i should tie the strut towers to the firewall. Not sure if my brace meets that requirement or if i should weld permanent braces from the towers to the firewall. I'm probably doing too much at this point.

jdmsolutions wrote:

looking pretty rad dude! your really plugging away at that front clip! definitely a big project, and you appear to be handling it like a boss. Keep up the good work big homie

Thanks for the compliment. This is definitely a bigger job than I anticipated but I'm nearly there I think. Wish I would have weighed my car prior to this to see how much weight I've added. Really want to get the motor back in and drive it, so Ive been considering just clear coating the bare metal, like rat rod style. Then Id be able to spot ruat right away, or maybe Im just crazy.

Could always just por15 it for the sleek black look, rust blockage, and rugged durability!

I think that might be the route I end up taking. It'd be cheaper than priming painting, clear coating, etc... or at least it seems.

yeah por15 is decently cheap, just be aware if you use the brush on type, it doesnt come back off very easily!

decided how I want to tie in the outer frame with the Rad/IC core support. Now that I've got it in there, it seemed like the obvious answer along, I just couldn't see it. I guess that shows me inexperience, but I'd like to think I'm slowly getting this fab stuff figured out.


I'll get better pictures once I get both sides in place. But I think this is a step in the right direction towards getting the bay painted.

Got a bit more done today. Also used some scraps to make a table, which would have been nice to have all along, but what can you do?
The table

And the front 98% finished



Also welded up some unneccesary holes in the bay. Just need to throw on a few more welds, a couple tabs to mount the PS resevoir-coolant overflow-FPR, and then just a bit of grinding here and there. Also got the all the stuff to POR15 everything, which I'm hopeful will happen tomorrow.

looking pretty cool dude, you already have a motor ready to rock?

Looking like fun Big Corey. Nice to talk to ya this weekend. Hurry and move back home!

Jason-this is so much fun, you should come down and have some fun with me, before I move it into your garage, hahahaha.
Fox-Motor is waiting just the way it came out right now. Not sure if I should put a new clutch in or just run this one until it's gone. Probably just run it, I hate wasting money. The guy I bouhgt the car from finally got back to me and answered a couple looming questions that I had if you guys remember. The injectors are Blitz 850cc, so I should be able to finally work the small gremlins out of the tune. Unfortunately he also answered the question that I was already sure I knew, which is that the rear end is stock non lsd. So, I'll need to source and install one of those before I try to take it to willow springs for their drift clinics. So if anyone finds any good deals on a 1.5 way lsd or even 2 way, let me know. Still have a few tabs to weld into the bay for mounting coolant res and PS res, but almost ready for prep and POR15.
No car pics today, but I can't leave guys without something.

Picking up a KAAZ 2 way lsd this weekend. Man I love southern cali as far as parts being readily near by. So that'll be making its way into the ass end very soon. No more one wheel wandering, unpredictability for me. I'll be happily destroying both rear tires from now on with equal extreme prejudice. That is all for now.

Well, I decided to do a final fit/mock up to see if I forgot anything. Just a few more tabs to weld in for the PS resevoir, oil catch can, EBC solenoid, and a few others. I can also mock up to IC piping, and take the IC to see how much it'll be to get modified. I also need to get a new intake pipe as well. Come to think of it, there is still a lot to do, so here's the pics.
Boxed in these bad boys.

The o-ring was obliterated on the brake master cylinder, which led to it leaking every where which is what caused everything to rust. The booster got it bad.

I like the way it looks with now paint, fab scars and sketchy welds too.


Can't wait until I can re-build this the right way with beefier guts.

And nestled back in its home

Tomorrow I should get the wiring all back together but we will see.

well done my friend

Was able to make some more progress on the little things, which is nice because the list of shit to do gets shorter fast. Mostly just getting things mounted.
Radiator overflow.



Catch can


FPR

This picture shows the path the cold pipe will have to take.

This pic shows the path of the hot pipe.

I need to find a welding shop that will modify the end tanks/outlets so they are orientated as directly to their link up points as possble. Hopefully, it'll be affordable or I may just buy a PBM hi/mid mount unit.
Need to lengthen the injector plugs so I can route em underneath the IM.

And an end of progress for the weekend pic.

Still lots to do. I just barely started running the wires to their locations and haven't even began to solve the mounting of the fuses/relays/connections under the dash/in the glove box problem. I need to pick up my kaaz lsd too and get that in. Lots more to do, but I cna taste it.

Where does the other hose go coming from the valve cover? Also any particular reason why you used braided hose on the inlet side of the oil catch can and rubber hose on the other? Is it just for mock up? Lookin good, looks like a lot of good fab work.

BlueSteel wrote:

Where does the other hose go coming from the valve cover? Also any particular reason why you used braided hose on the inlet side of the oil catch can and rubber hose on the other? Is it just for mock up? Lookin good, looks like a lot of good fab work.

The hose coming off the side of the valve cover routes down to the crank case vent. I used a rubber hose on the catch can because it only came with one braided hose, so when i went to see about getting another section of braided hose and -AN fittings, my left nut didn't weigh enough to put down as collateral.haha. I really just didn't have the money at the time and this worked well enough. All these other projects soak up my time and money for now. Like the slightly used KAZZ 2 way I just picked up today. Now I really can't wait to get this hog running, I'm really looking forward to seeing what this changes as far as driving goes. I'll get a picture of it up here in a bit. Also, been calling around to see about getting the intercooler end tanks modified so hopefully that happens soon.

What charger are you running?

jdmsolutions wrote:

What charger are you running?

T3-T4 60 trim. But I have a feeling it'll be needing an upgrade soon, so I need to start looking for an adequate replacement. I'm hoping by the time it finally takes a dive, I'll have the funds for a twin scroll setup.

I've been a little distracted but I managed ot get a few more items scratched off the to-do list. Mounted the fuse/relay box, modified my intercooler, and fabbed up some mounting points for the toe arm brackets, and soldered up some wires that needed some attention. Can't wait to get this hog started again.
I know this is a mess, but I'll sort it out. Just need to start figuring out a good location.

Next up was modifying the intercooler. My reasoning behind this route was saving money, I hope. I figured this way it would cost me 50-100 bucks to have a shop just weld this up as opposed to buying a new intercooler. Plus, it just gave me more of an option to customize how I want it. It took me a little bit of staring to finally just cut into a perfectly fine IC, but too late now. The piping is the cold pipe for the freddy that I hacked up.
Cold Side:
Test fitting the cold pipe, trying to decide my attack plan.


Trimming the pipe



Cutting the IC





Hot Side:








Mocked up with Radiator





In the car

Bracket mounts


gratuitous end of day shot

Over all, it's definitely not the slickest layout, but I think it works. A good track day ought to help shake it down tho. Definitely some things I would do differently but I'm satisfied with it.

Alright back with pictures of today's progress. This is just of the passenger side but I'm sure you guys can pretend both sides look like this. Quick run down of the process:
1-Wire cup and angle grinder to get down to bare metal
2-Aircraft paint stripper for the nooks and crannies
3-Marine Clean diluted 1 to 5 with hot water
4-Rinse thoruoghly with water
5-Prep and Ready spray down, kept wet for 30 mintues.
6-Dried thoroughly.
SO now it's ready for POR-15 I guess, just not sure if it supposed to look like it does.
So here it is after the wire wheel.

And this is after the marine clean and prep n' ready.




Wish I had a paint gun or two, then I'd just paint it. But I think por15 will do good in the fender wells. We will see tomorrow I guess.

Well I got the wheel wells coated. Inspected the kaaz lsd I bought as well, never seen one before so I'm not sure if it should say kaaz on it somewhere or not. Everytime I google it, I get directed to honda forums, or people asking which is better, so I leave it to one of you guys to help me out if you can. I spun it inside housing expecting to see a big KAAZ stamped on it, oh well, here's some pictures.
The KAAZ 2 way


The wheel welss after 1 coat of POR15



She's coming along I guess.

Love the project. Kinda motivates me to work on mine.

yeah yeah, lookin pretty sick dude! love all the stitching work you did,

Thanks guys. I finished the final coats on the wheel wells and installed the front suspension on both sides as well. I'm about to go pick up my intercooler and I hope it turned out like I hope. As long as that dude has any amount of pride in the work he puts out it should be decent. I'll take pictures of it all and post it up when I get back. Hopefully I can fire it up by this weekend.

I was able to swing by and snatch up my intercooler and some extra piping as well. Turned out decent for what I handed him, so no complaints from me. When I have extra money to throw around, I'll probably end up changing it with some other things as well. Should be able to finish up the minor gaps in the ducting and get the front fully assembled by tonight hopefully. Maybe even get the new fluids put in but I'm not trying to rush that step.
Modified intercooler


Here's the roughest side

Cannabalized some old IC piping

New end welded on

Not too much burn thru

Gap in the ducting

Piece to block it off


All these minor odds and ends add up. Wish I had someone to show me the in's and out's of this shit. I'm pretty sure I'm going about this all wrong in the hardest way possible.

Update time. Was able to get the car back together and running in time for a track weekend. Pretty happy about how everything went down, especially for my first time with this car on a track. I do not own a truck or trailer and could not find one to borrow and couln't afford to rent one. So I packed everything I thought I would need and then some into the hatch and drove it from Pendleton up to Willow Springs for a Just Drift event. I beat the hell out of it all weekend long, and i mean I really laid into her. I held back only slightly because I knew I had to drive it home. Day 1 was me just getting used to the car, attempting donuts, figure 8's for the first half of the day, then wide sweeping drifts for the second half on the Balcony track. Didn't hit the dirt to much except when I went shallow into the back turn. 2nd day was at the Horse thief mile track and a bit more nerve racking, especially trying to link the drifts. Did quite a bit of off roading that day. I let one of the intructors drive my car and even he hit the dirt. But with all the advice and tips from any and everyone I talked to I think I progressed alright. Only casualties of the weekend was a passenger tie rod, the lower crash bar, the fenders cracked more, and the exhaust took a beating as well. The car just had so much grip as it would just hook and rocket off the track. I was running a set of continentals in the rear, 245/40's and they lasted both days. They are down to the wires now but never popped, so I have a butt load of tires for the next event. I also need to throw on some negative camber with wider tires in the front. But even after all that I was still able to drive it the 3 hours back home to pendleton. My wife followed me there and back in our hyundai and called me once we were on the road to let me know about the sparks my exhaust would shower her with when ever I hit a bump.
The front took some abuse sliding off the track and I lost the lower crash bar, not that it was all that sturdy anyway.

Passenger fender tooka good beating too.

Front passenger tire decided to finally give up when I was driving home. I was about 10 minutes from my house when it happened. Thankfully I had a car loaded with all the goods to get it changed out.

Here's what's left of the rear tires. I bought these used with about 60% tread left and they lasted the entire weekend, never had to change tires until it was time to drive home. They're continental contacts 17" 245/40's. Too wide and too much grip from what the intructors told me, as well as the car just ctaching grip halfway thru some of the drifts and slinging me into the dirt.

And the engine bay, I never painted or clear coated and being out here on pendleton, there was a few foggy/rainy days that led to some surface rust. I'm not worried though as I'll be moving up to Montana soon and there will be plenty of winter time to pull the motor and redo some mistakes and get a coat of something on her.



As always, I appreciate you guys looking thru this and always welcome comments/critiques/criticism. Thanks.

I tried to break this video down into smaller segments, but I'm really not computer literate, and my computer sucks. Anyways, this video is from the 1st day at the Balcony. It's the second half of the day, where we all just took turns making these runs.
At 3:00 the driver in the white hatch is 15 year old kid. It's a stock ka, and the kid put together better runs than I did. He's also been doing it for a year or so, but regardless, he has some talent. Him and his dad helped me out when I busted my tie rod. I would have let him make a run in my car if I could have risked it, but I needed it in one piece for the drive home, but maybe next time.
As for these videos, I'm really just posting these videos to give anyone else thinking about starting all this an idea of what to expect. Unless you were blessed as one of those people who can just try something and get it figured quick, fast and in a hurry, then like the rest of us mortals don't expect to be busting out face melting, super linked drifts on your first weekend. Bring your determination, good attitude and a solid car and you'll have a blast.
http://vimeo.com/63773950
OK, you can laugh at my expense now.
Here is a run from the 2nd day on the HTM track at Willow. That last turn with the pit exit ate me up all day. This run, I was lucky enough to keep it on the pavement, but most of the time I ended up on the inside mobbing around like a trophy truck. Some of my friends still can't believe I beat my car up like this after all the work I put in, but I had a good time. I know I need to go faster and the track looks wide as shit from this angle, but driving on it, it feels like it's as wide as a golf cart track. I will also say I have an awesome wife for toting our two boys, 6 yrs old and 6 months old, for 2 days and filming almost every run for me. She and the boys were real troopers keeping an upbeat mindset the whole weekend while I was the one having fun.
http://vimeo.com/63628378
I know it isn't much, or fast or very good, but this was my first weekend of drifting. I've never been street drifting or parking lot drifting or anything, so that's why I suck so bad. But I have a better understanding of what a big difference wheel and tire setups can do, camber, etc....so hopefully next time will be better

Got another drift clinic coming up, so I just have some minor things to accomplish to get it ready. I'll have a truck and trailer this time so I can not be such a bitch on the track. I'm going to try and weld on some mounts for a better postion of a camera I have, since I'll be making this trip solo. Wish me luck.

stuff is comming along real niiccee. well done my friend.

This car is coming out awesome. You have put a ton of time and effort into building it. Now you will have to put in a lot of time practicing drifting. Your getting it down though. Those videos from Willow Springs are cool. I would love to go there and practice. When are you moving up here to Montana?