spiderwebfx Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Discussion Thread Time I posted up my ride. I've been trolling and adding a little bit of input to the forum where I can, but overall I'm a nobody without having posted my project. It's not as old as a lot of other projects on here, but I'm going to post it anyway. Anyway... In August 2010, I bought this: I bought the car with no engine, gearbox, or driveshaft. One of the first things I did was pull everything out of the engine bay so I could respray it. I gave it a good sand and did some anti-rust prep. I etched primed it to get a good base and then sprayed it with Icy White paint. I bought a S15 SR20DE and manual gearbox to go in it. Then it sat on the ground for 12months while I mucked around with other stuff. I bought a shortened 2WD Hilux diff for it and cut the old diff housing up so I could weld the brackets and everything on to fit it in. Five stud conversion ftw! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted February 23, 2013 Author Share Posted February 23, 2013 As for the front suspension. Decided to go the S13/S14 hybrid suspension route, four pot turbo brake calipers and also put in a S14 power steering rack. Front suspension consists of: S14 Cusco coilovers. (Dual camber adjustment. Slotted mount and camber plates.) S14 hub carrier. S14 turbo five stud hubs. S14 castor rod brackets. S13 adjustable castor arms S13 lower control arms with Nolathane bushes and S14 balljoint. S13 swaybar with Nolathane bushes. Front brakes: S14 four pot turbo calipers. S14 Znoelli S12 rotors. S14 EBC Yellowstuff brake pads. The rotors and pads I pulled off my S14 before I sold it. Photo is from when they were new. Steering rack: S14 steering rack. Custom spline shaft to mate S12 steering column to rack. S14 rack ends shortened 10mm. S14 tie rod ends. I'd like to get aftermarket rack ends and tie rod ends but it's huge expense even for second hand ones. I also bought the Techno Toy Tuning adjustable arms for the rear axle. Rear brakes are factory S14 calipers (with integrated handbrake) and new TSW rotors. I'm still figuring out how I can do this. I'm thinking of just dropping an S14 handbrake lever and cables straight into it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted February 23, 2013 Author Share Posted February 23, 2013 Just a quick photo from when I had to move house: This is sitting on the front suspension above. Adjustable spring perches in the rear and ROH 15x7 +6 wheels I got of my Grandfathers Studebaker. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 Did a little bit more on this today. Swapped out the Z32 rack-ends in the front for some slightly shortened S14 ones. I can actually get the wheels to point straight now rather than having massive toe out. Also pulled the factory handbrake lever out so I can start adapting the tunnel for the S14 lever to go into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted October 19, 2013 Author Share Posted October 19, 2013 Put the S14 fuel pump in the S12 and took a photo of it with the new wheels on. Managed to get the S14 handbrake lever and lines set up a few months a go too. (Jeez I'm slack with updates.) Â Â Â Â Wheels are 16x8.5 +35 Weds Adula Mesh. 225/45's on front and 205/55 one rear. Â (Rears are due to thats all I had, will eventually get 225/45's all round) Â Even though they are high offset, the fronts sit pretty much perfect (due to the wider track) and the rear does need some 15mm spacers. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 Shit I've been slack on this. Â Couple of days ago I put some 225/45R16 Toyo T1R's on the rims. Â Will look great once they're on the car. Â Today I finally did something with the power steering, have a couple of Aeroquip fittings coming due to having to make a right angle out of the power steering rack. Also pulled the diff apart to get the spring perches modified... Â Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the power steering bits finished, alternator on, and the gearbox loom in place. Â Â Does anyone have any tips for battery relocation on the cheap? Â When I painted the engine bay, I pulled the battery tray out. Â Was also considering still having proper terminals inside the engine bay some how? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted May 29, 2014 Author Share Posted May 29, 2014 Did a bit more today. Â Aeroquip fittings showed up for the power steering, so got that installed. Â Does anybody know where to get a 15mm ID power steer hose? Â Everything seems to be 1/2" (12.7mm) or 5/8" (15.9mm) which is too big and too small. Â Also made a little plate to hold the speed sender in the gearbox, and pulled the gearbox crossmember out to repaint it again. Â Installed alternator, and started putting on that part of the loom. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted November 29, 2014 Author Share Posted November 29, 2014 So not much after my previous post I sorted my hoses out.  I've got all the power steering lines, the clutch line and all the brake lines hooked up.  Got the heater hoses hooked up.  (Had to find a 19mm tail to 16mm tail adaptor that took up no extra room.)   Then I broke up with my daughters mother, moved into a new house (again), lost all motivation to work on the car, or anything for that matter.  Then I bought a spare parts car, still had no motivation to do anything so I haven't stripped it, or really looked at it for that matter.  And now five months later, I did something  I put the radiator in about two weeks ago.  Had to slot a hole in each of the castor rod brackets and get new rubber mounts for the bottom and made aluminium brackets up for the top.   A few days later I installed my Truhart castor arms I had just received (and took the shitty chinese ones out).  While doing this I adjusted the left front camber adjustment on the bottom of the coilover )it's got a slotted hub carrier bolt hole) so that the tyre no longer rubs on the spring, and then checked on clearances for my steering.  Apparently my right front tyre hits on the sway bar at full left lock.  So I'll need to put some adjustable bolts on the LCA to limit the steering movement.  Also rolled the rear lips up so my back tyres no longer rub.  And cleaned some more carpet.   I've gained a little motivation so might slowly be doing more little stuff until I can afford to get the other bigger stuff I need. (rear shocks, battery relocation, engine wired up, driveshaft made)  And some photos for good measure.  So the few things I need to sort out.  How the f*** do I do a battery relocation, and what do I connect it to in the engine bay? Who's going to wire the motor up for me for SFA? And who's going to shout me the KYB AGX 743020 shocks from 'muricaa for me? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 Did some more fluffing around the last couple of days.  I spent all day Saturday researching the wiring diagrams for the S12 and S14 motors and sensors to make sure I get the sensors right. On Sunday, I put a new plug on the S14 starter and alternator loom and a new one on the body loom so I can connect them together properly and extended the AFM wire so I can put it over the intake side.  I've still got a handful more to connect up, but I might be done with them tomorrow. I also started the battery relocation.  I've got the box in the boot, a 120 amp circuit breaker and a kill switch.  Then the cable to the engine bay.  Which connects to a terminal post from Jaycar to keep it all tidy.  Have put brake fluid in.  Unfortunately I have a couple of leaks.  Anybody got any tips or suggestions to getting tapered fittings to not leak?  Oil is in.Engine loom is in.Power steering fluid is in.Gear stick is in.Clutch fluid is in.I'm still trying to track down a S14 fan shroud before I put the radiator hoses on.  If all is going to plan, I'm hoping to be able to turn the key and try and start it by this weekend.  This'll be the first time I've had it running in the five years since I've owned it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 Oh god the motivation is real at the moment. So following up from the last post, a lot has happened. Â Turning the key wasn't so simple. Â I ended up wiring it three times before it finally fired. Â And even then it was with the fuel pump controlled by the ignition switch, for some reason the ECU won't control it and I couldn't figure out why.So it starts and runs, runs perfect considering its missing most of the exhaust and the intake is just bodged up to get it running. I also removed a lot of the wasted stuff from the engine loom that hadn't already been taken off, and then completely retaped it. Â I mounted the new ECU inside the old ECU box so that it could be put in the same place. Â I went to Repco and they managed to find some rear shocks that were the right length and have the right ends. Â They're 6" shorter overall than the factory ones which means I can lower it more, and not have to worry about the springs becoming uncaptive. Â I did need to try and figure out the spring rate though. I got a single piece driveshaft made. Â I got so many different opinions on this vs two piece that it ended up coming down to money. Â If I got a one piece made, which I had both ends for, it was going to cost similar to getting the S13 one lengthened and a different flange(?) put at the diff end. Â So by getting a single piece made, I ended up selling the S13 one complete for $100. Â I've tidying up the battery relocation so that it's all bolted down proper. Â It has a kill switch on the top of the battery box, as well as a 120amp circuit breaker. Â I also put a single kill switch on the injectors, ecu and fuel pump.I'm picking a trailer up on Wednesday next week so I can take it to work and get the alignment set up a bit better. Â I'll have to do it again eventually but I need to get the track and everything sorted with the T3 rear arms and the camber, caster, toe at the front.I bought a driveshaft safety hoop from BNT. $72 trade. Â So even though it was a little more expensive than trademe, at least I'm supporting the business's that are in Rotorua. Â Will probably put this in when I have it on the hoist at work next week. Â I reassembled all of the dash and tidied up all the wiring the last owner left sprawled everywhere. Â Stereo wiring is going to be a bit of a drama, but I now have a 2 volume edition of the workshop manual. Â It's so much better having a hard copy than using one on a computer. Â I put all the front panels and lights back together. Â I didn't realise how rough the body is. Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet. Â I'm going to ring a guy in Papamoa who does certs and see if is able to do my car, if so, I've got a few questions but will look into booking it in with him in about a months time once the exhaust has been done. Â I'm so not looking forward to this. Â I'll probably put it on the ground on Monday and see if it'll move under it's own power. Â I haven't checked the clutch yet 'cause the rear is up on ramps. Â Sorry for lengthy worded posts, I'm not good for photos at the moment, I type this after the garage is shut up, and when I'm working on it, I don't want to take photos. Â I'll try update with some photos tomorrow night. Â Â For now though, a quick photo of the wiring in the glovebox, I'll probably end up cutting a piece of perspex or something to go in front of it to protect it:Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 A couple of other photos:Â Â And first start up video. Â (Coolant on the floor was from a water pump with shit seals, I've since replaced it.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Thought I'd chuck a couple more photos up.Driveshaft hoop is in, alignment kind of done. Need new front coilovers, extended balljoints/roll centre adjustabers and lowered tie rod ends so I'll have to re do it. Â And got told cert is going to cost $900 because I need bump steer test :/ Â Is Neil Miller in Hamilton ok to deal with? Â Rear end: Â On the hoist for exhaust: Driveshaft hoop: 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 More updates: Got told my cert is going to cost $900.  $500 for cert and $400 for bump steer check. Got small intake pipe made up.  AFM wires I relocated to the drivers side for a tidier look. Just needed this pipe to finish it off. Exhaust was completed this morning. Has one leak which I have to take it back to get fixed. Put it back on the hoist at work and have found out the right rear caliper has shit itself.  Will have another here tomorrow so will probably do that over the weekend. Ordered a pair of Yellowspeed coilovers off Moonlight Racing, they'll be here in a week. Discovered I need a rear sway bar. When running it had a tapping noise in the head.  Got told the typical VCT rattle, but it was coming from the length of the head, not just the front. Someone said the lifters can't self-bleed on these so they probably need to be done because the engine has been sitting around for so long.  So.. Did this tonight, and sure enough, that problem is gone.  And some more photos: 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 More progress. Yay!!!!  I put my interior back in.  Got it looking all tidy.   Also made up a stereo surround, gap filler (for where the tape player used to be) and a gear stick surround out of dark perspex to help tidy it up.  Working on an idea with a material to make a gear boot to cover the last of the ugly hole.  My new Yellowspeed coilovers showed up.  So I put those in and adjusted the height.   Unfortunately they didn't fix the issue I'm having with the rear end so I'll chuck the rear swaybar on when it shows up and see if that makes a difference.  Rear springs are currently 8kg as well, so I can't put firmer springs in it to try fix it.   I also need to change my rear spacers to 10mm ones as the 15's I think are just slightly too big.  And I did a bump steer check.  With 70mm of travel (+30mm / -40mm) I have 0.6 degrees of bump steer.  I can't go the full 100mm of travel as the tyre lifts off the ground, or the shocks won't compress anymore. Make shift load thingy whatsit.  Two 15t bottle jacks, two steel beams and two chains.  Worked really well.  Wheels were on slip plates and readings were taken in 10mm increments off the alignment machine.  After doing the lifters, I noticed that the car seemed real gutless and had a miss.  I couldn't take it anywhere as I have this thing against driving illegal cars on the road.  Finally got it to work yesterday and discovered that under load, it had no power until 2500rpm.  Wasn't to sure why, so borrowed a timing light off a local workshop, discovered that I had turned the dizzy at some point and it was almost fully retarded.  Turned it to the opposite end of adjustment, and it runs MINT.  Took it out the back of work and got it swinging a couple of o's.  Without having to clutch kick it, which also means the LSD is locking (I thought it wasn't)  I then took it inside, and noticed a rattle when the rev's are dropping.  Then noticed that when you blip the throttle, there is a twang when it peaks on the revs.  Turns out the big ends are gone.  Off to find another motor now   So due to having to source another motor, and finding the time to put it in, I'm going to have to postpone my cert for now, as funding doesn't allow for me to do everything in time for the cert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post spiderwebfx Posted February 10, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 10, 2017 Wow. So much has changed with this. I'm just going to drop these here for now. Ignore the block of wood the gauges are on. Not sure what I'm going to do there yet. Â 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted March 29, 2017 Author Share Posted March 29, 2017 No photos just quick update. Was doing some little maintenance things on the car. Â One of which involved fixing 4 leaks in the intake system. Â Once that was done, the car wouldn't run or idle or anything anymore. Â Went through so many different things trying to fix (injectors, CAS, replacing AFM, fuel pressure/fuel pump) Â turns out the guy I bought the motor off gave me the wrong AFM. Â (I bought one with the same part number) Â $40 later I had the right one and it runs primo. Replaced rear springs with 5kg rears. Â Looks like I had 8's in it which is why it was so hard riding. Â and big news; Cert booked for next week. nearly 7 years and it's almost legal. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 Well car failed cert. Â Pretty small list in all honesty, but one of them is possibly a big job. No spring washers on engine mounts. (Easy fix) No rear bump stops. (I thought the were on the shaft of the shock) Rear suspension is too hard. Upper 4-links touching on chassis. So the last 3 are really all hand in hand with each other. Â The car still feels a little bit like you sitting on bump stops. Â I'm wondering if a lot of this is too do with the 4-link arms being rose-jointed as opposed to the factory arms having bushes. So my plan, too lift it a bit higher, find different shocks for the rear... again... Â that also have bump stops on the shaft. Â Hopefully this will sort the whole 3 things out. I lifted it tonight, about 15-20mm. Â It's given heaps more clearance underneath so that, combined with bump stops will fix the upper 4-links from touching the chassis and hopefully, improve the ride quality so it's suitable. Certifier will be back in Rotorua week after next so I'll get it done by that and then see how I go again. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post spiderwebfx Posted May 6, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 6, 2017 Car passed cert. Ended up getting the factory shocks shortened and putting them in, also lifted it a little bit. Cert plate showed up yesterday, passed wof and got rego. Â So as of yesterday the car is road legal. Â Had some little rust spots tidied up on just to smooth it off. Â Now that I'm driving it I've find a few little bits that I need to tidy up. Â There is a hole where the factory handbrake lever was thats letting hot air through, one of the springs is knocking in the back under load, not sure why and I want to put factory engine mounts back in. Â The polyurethane ones in it now cause everything to vibrate so much. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post spiderwebfx Posted May 23, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 23, 2017 Woo, more stuff. Good and bad.... So the good. Had the windows tinted.  Has made it much cleaner looking.  Excuse bad photos. Fitted up front lip. (Fitment isn't 100% due to slightly warped guard.)  Looks so much coooolleerrr. Swapped factory engine mounts back in.  No more vibrations through the car anymore.  Note to self, for street driven car, do not put polyurethane engine mounts in. And the bad Took it for a drive to Tauranga last weekend.  All good, or so I thought. Lifted it up on the hoist at work to do a quick check over on everything and oh good lord, fluid everywhere. Rear gearbox seal and front pinion seal on diff are leaking terribly.  And I've blown the left rear shock. So, back home and on stands again.  Seeing as I had to pull the diff out, I decided to replace the crown wheel and pinion so I can get my rev and speedo to more friendly.  So managed to track down a 3.5 Hilux diff, bought that.  I've got a drivetrain specialist swapping the crown wheel and pinion to my current LSD centre, tightening the LSD a bit more and giving it a freshen up with new bearings and seal/s.  Should be perfect afterwards.  While it's in pieces, I got the axles checked to make sure there was no runout as one of the brake rotors was grinding on the caliper.  No issues there so I think my caliper is a few mm to close to the hub, so I'm getting new brackets cut out as well to improve that. So it's in pieces, random photo for the sake of another photo. I've still got to take a shock out to send to Autolign so they can match it with some damper adjustable Bilstein ones. Also had to go through and pull my drivers door apart to get the window out as one of the plastic guides for it had fallen off.  Thankfully I had a complete parts door I was able to pull apart first to see how difficult it was.  (Turns out it's easy as shit.)  Factory plastic guide had a crack through it so it had come loose.  Put the one from the parts door in, and it's perfect. And because we were working on it late one night, group photo at my work!  Once the diff is back in, I'll take it somewhere nice to get a couple of decent photos of it.  I haven't managed to take any proper ones since it's been road legal. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderwebfx Posted May 24, 2017 Author Share Posted May 24, 2017 Got this back today. Â Will be putting it back in on Friday. Â Just waiting for the new brake caliper brackets to be finished. Â So clean and shiny 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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