Sunday, October 21, 2007

Brakes Are In!

Yes, thats right.

The brakes finally arrived after the courier company miss-placed half of my 5-stud conversion in another truck. As you would imagine I was rather thrilled that I had actually received the complete brake setup.

Pics:

Thursday the 18th, I got the car loaded at 7am and was quickly on my way to my mates place to commence the 5 stud conversion. As you could imagine, the brake conversion is one of the few toughest jobs to do on a car. All thanks to dazza, the 5-stud was on its way and we started by removing the front rotors, calipers and hubs in preperation for the 5-stud and R33 brakes.

Three hours later, the fronts were done and we begun on the rear. Unfortunately the rear was tougher than we initially thought; having to come across our first major problem, we had spent from 4pm till 11pm tackling the problem and finally installing both rear control arms, r33 drum, hubs and rotors. At that point, all that was left to do before we had to bleed the brakes was the installation of the R33 handbrake cable and rear calipers.

Comparison of rear stock rotors to R33 gts-t rotor


After countless hours spent on drilling the right brackets (with a blunt drill!) to fit the handbrake cable, we decided to pack it in and call it a night. Leaving the car on all 4 stands sitting in the street.

The next morning I drove around at 11am to notice, dazza had finished the 5 stud conversion and successfully mounted the handbrake cable to a proper strength. All that was needed was a good brake bleeding and we were on our way! Note, brake bleeding isn't as easy as it sounds for new brake installations. Roughly two hours spent on bleeding the brakes till we achieved a smooth, crisp pedal response.

Overall the end result is sensational, the braking response is just wonderful, though the pads need a week or two of bedding in.

Heres pics of the end result, enjoy!





Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A - Spec Project

It begins with a desire and closes in with a hobby.

After years of pondering on what car to purchase, I finally came to a concluding decision to purchase a Nissan 180sx over the runner up, a Volkswagen Golf VR6. Reasons for chosing the 180sx primarily revolved around factors such as pricing for parts, people in the know and the motorsport scene; the golf would've been a costly run and more hours would've been spent setting up the vechile for the action oppose to experiencing the fun.

So how did I go about purchasing the vechile? Essentially I was all rather thrilled with the idea of owning my own sports car when I should've concentrated on taking an interest in the market of 180's to choose from. After the endless battle of gathering my funds together I was informed of a sale that seemed like a bargain, but eventually wasn't. It was a love at first sight, note that i exaggerate when i say 'love'; but nonetheless i was overwhelmed with the acceptance of my initial offer, could've bargained for more but it went at a reasonable price.

May rolled around and being the impatient person, i could hardly wait to pick the car up. The day came along were my mate and I dropped in to pickup the car; drove it for no more than 3 minutes and my first problem arose; battery was dead and required a push start to get it going, being the inexperienced driver I had to get out and push the car to get it starting. One hour later after having to fill up and jump start the car again, we managed to get it to Glen Waverly shopping centre where I purchased my first part, a new battery!

Little description:

Vehicle: 1990 Nissan 180sx
Engine: SR20DET - Rebuilt engine with 30,000kms
Transmisson: Manual
Kilometres: 156,000
Modifications:
Interior
Type-x Seats
Apexi boost gauge
Apexi Turbo Timer
JVC Head unit with JL splits & Kenwood sub

Exterior
Vertex front bar
Resprayed at DT Panels in custom blue with red pearl
17" ASA (bbs made) rims

Performance
T28 Turbo
Complete 3" Cat back exhaust system with N1 style muffler
Genuine HKS Intercooler
K&N Air Filter
HPI Engine Damper

Suspension & Handling
Hotbits Coilovers
Kazama Castor Rods

Heres the pictures of the car when it was advertised:





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Since I purchased the vechile roughly 5 months ago i've been able to put some time into the car and fix up the minor problems that sprung about. Although time has been rather difficult to come across since my study at monash has been dominating. Nonetheless, my pursuit to build a dedicated street/track car continues and is coming along rather well.

From when I purchased the vechile, the following things have been done:
- Complete service the week after purchase
- Replaced Tie rods
- Replaced Kazama Castor rods with Cusco
- Installed Cusco Tension Rods
- Adjusted Coilovers to a more suitable height
- Removed head unit & speakers
- Installed Schneider front speakers & splits
- Installed new pioneer head unit
- Installed Kenwood Amp & Boston sub
- Resprayed centre console
- Fixed boot leak

More current pictures, (note these were taken before the audio installation):





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The mod bug has bitten me hard lately, and extensive changes are soon to be done. After 3 weeks of organizing my new 4-pot brake setup, it has finally been finalized and sent to the courier for delivery, although the courier company managed to missplace one of the two boxes that contains half of my brake setup. This issue really did hit my nerves hard and in a matter of minutes the company got an ear full, hopefully they manage to resolve the issue and deliver it before the week ends!

Essentially the current brake setup will be removed and replaced with R33 GTS-T brake assembly, here are a few snap shots of the assembly:



And, what was delivered:


With the brake assembly soon to be on its way, i couldn't help but go for a new set of coilovers, chucking out the old hotbits and throwing in the new Greddy Type-s, this will be installed either this week or the following.

Pics of coilovers:


Overall, the car has gone well and i've learnt alot along the way and enjoy learning more as each change progresses. At this point, i'm hyped about the brake assembly + suspension change over, not to mention the fact that I'll be losing the horrid wheels and ordering a set of 18" Drifteks made in europe.

I hope you've enjoyed the read up and I'll be sure to blog in once the brake assembly, coilovers and other mods are done. From this point i'll sit tight and see how things come along; though i managed to whip up a teaser of what it'll look like after the brake conversion and rims are installed. Enjoy!


Oh and an enormous shoutout goes to daz for the mechanical assistance and help.

- Anthony