NicoClub's Rally Car

Signing off

2010-03-08T16:44:00.000-08:00

All further build updates and photos will be posted in my NicoClub build thread found here: NicoClub's Rally Car

Make sure and check it out, and join Nico, or email me if you'd like to comment, and join in.

Tally Ho

2009-11-17T23:10:00.000-08:00

Well, after talking to a few cage builders, I think I have settled. As long as the world keeps spinning the same direction, I should be dropping the car off at Davenport Racing within the next couple of weeks. Doug is a cool guy, and he is one of the few local rally guys. Most of my other options would have required trailering the car a long distance to have it caged. This way the car will be local, and I might even be able to check out the progress. I have a lot of work to do before then, but I think I can get it done.

Some of you may wonder why I dont build the cage myself, there are reasons. Rally America cages must be built to FIA spec, and the regulations are very strict. Also, the cage will be very closely scrutinized when I go to apply for a log book. They will closely inspect all the welds, bends, gussets, and mounting points. Without a pipe bender, and prodigious welding skill. Building an adaquit cage is currently out of the question. Its also something I plan to remedy.

On to the updates. I left off last time with the car essentially fully disassembled. Now Im moving on to some of the tougher work. In some of the previous pictures, some of you may have noticed the rust in the typical spots for an S13, where the fenderwell/strut tower meet the frame. I chose this as the plase to start my assault on the rust.

You can sort of see it in this picture. The thin fender well has almost completely separated from the rails, on both sides.

After attacking it with an angle grinder, and cutoff tool, I got to see just how far the rust had gone. Boy thats a big hole.

I also wire wheeled all the seems that will get stitch welded. Man the seam sealer they use is nasty.

The other side is almost as bad.

Besides the hole I cut, there is also a ton of holes in the fenders from the factory. Many are just filled with plastic plugs. Others were used for mounting power steering lines and other such rubbish. I will be changing that.

Gage getting ready to start stitch welding.

And hes off.

Not as pretty as some, but it'll do. The seam sealer was wreaking havoc on the way the weld was flowing.

With the stitching done, Gage took off, and I went to town on all the holes.

Sealed up tight.

With the holes filled, I started grinding them down. It didnt take long to figure out I need ear protection. Man that thing makes noise. I was at it just long enough for Cale to snap this picture.

I will be back at it tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I can get the plates welded on the bigger holes.

Seat mounts and suspension.

2009-11-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

Man, I have been slacking on the updates. Good news though, the first wave of suspension bits have been ordered!! Im going to blaze some trails for myself personally with this setup, and Im sure it will get lots of comments. Look for pictures, maybe even a breakoff thread in the next few days.

On to the update.

I left off last time with one of the rear seat mounts mostly removed. I finished that one up, and got the other one ripped out.

All gone. You wouldnt thing these things weighed much, but when you put them together, and add them to the long list of other stuff, it turns out to be quite a bit.

Opens things up nicely.

With that finished up, I shifted gears, and moved to the engine bay. Looking at the pictures, some of you may have noticed I left the front sway bar and tension rod brace in the car. There was a reason.

Most of you have heard of or seen the Nismo and Jonnie Fraz tension rod braces. Well, those cost money, and a lot of it. It will be much cheaper to make my own, but even more importantly I can build it to my own specs.

The factory tension rod brackets are two separate pieces, bracing them together will help shore up the front end. The only problem is, I need to clean and prep it properly before building. Not to mention I have more important things to work on. The brace is something I can work on while the chassis is away for caging.

To keep the shape, and lock the pieces together I grabbed a couple pieces of steel, and went to town with the welder.

First I cleaned off the area, so I could get a good tack.

It doesnt look like much, but it keeps them together.

Then I pulled it out of the car. It will go on the shelf to be addressed later.

I wonder if it needs bushings?

That about raps it up for what I accomplished that day.

Cutting spot welds.

2009-11-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

I only had a little while to work, so I cleaned up a little, then I started working on the rear seat mounts.

They are dead weight, and any structural value they may have had, will be replaced by the cage.

MMM spot weld cutter.

There is just a tiny bit left, but the battery for the drill died, so I called it a night, but you get the idea.

Lightening in the palm of my hand.

2009-11-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

The next day I took delivery of some parts I nabbed from a local 240 guy.

SR20 5 speed trans, SR radiator, heater core, with box, and a set of really ugly wheels, one of which is wrecked. Before you ask, the wheels are just for spares, and I got all of it for $250.

After snapping the picture of the parts, my camera died. I spent the rest of the evening removing glass. The only windows left in the car are the door windows.

I started the next day by making a rather large purchase. Some of you may have noticed that some areas of the car do have rust, and that stuff isn't going to fix itself. Its time to get serious.

I broke down, and bought a welder. Its a millermatic 140. This is nothing industrial, but its a very high quality single phase wire feed. Its versitale, easy to use, and semi portable.

I wasted no time laying some beads. Ive never welded before, so it took a little getting used to.

I played on a pipe, and got used to the gun in my hands.

Then I grabbed some 1/8" steel plates, and began welding them together in Ts.

Luckilly I had Gage (professional welder) there to help me practice the basics.

As entertaining as sticking metal together with lightning is, I got bored.

Then a genius idea hit me. Its time to truly christen this project.

I drilled 2 holes in it, and hung it above my parking space.

And I will finish with that.

Glass=bad

2009-11-01T22:48:00.000-08:00

I pulled the rear hatch off. Man that thing is heavy.

I lade down some plastic, and then put the hatch on top of it.

Then I whacked it with a blunt object.

Huh, no thats not a hammer, its a poundometer, its a precision adjustment instrument.

Its not so heavy anymore. I wonder why I looked so grumpy.

Im sure some of you will ask why I broke the glass. The reason is simple, I plan to run lexan in all the rear windows. Removing the hatch glass without breaking it, is nearly impossible, so I chose to break it on my own terms, thereby minimizing the mess.

Moving on to the rear suspension

Out came the shocks.

Man I got lazy with the picture taking. Suddenly the subframe is out.

Man that rust looks bad in the pictures. In reality, its just surface nasty.

Ive never removed an S13 fuel tank, but its honestly the easiest tank I have ever dropped. Its dirty, but in good shape. I have not yet decided whether to run the stock tank or a fuel cell. Just another item on the TBD list.

That was all I accomplished that night.

Lifted

2009-10-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

I got some more work today.

Started out by getting the car on jackstands.

Apparantly, yesterday I inadvertently pulled one of the washer fluid lines part way off. It spent all night leaking on the floor. Happy happy joy joy.

Right down to business. Out came the front subframe, wheels and all.

I can now lift the front end of the car off the jackstands with one arm.

Oops, snack time again.

Some of you may have noticed, (or not) that there seems to be orange cups here and there. They are actually empty gatorade mix cans. I have a whole bunch of them, and Im keeping bolts in them. I have each one labeled for where the bolts came from, front suspension, rear suspension, body, interior, etc etc.

Ok ok, back to work.

I pulled the ABS sensors out of the knuckles. Wont be needing those. One came out ok, the other broke after a little persuasion.

Then I pulled the struts off. They are most likely garbage, but I nay end up reusing the tubes if I end up going with inserts.

Before calling it a night. I pulled the knuckles off the lower control arms. I will have to get those cleaned up later.

Almost forgot. I got the spec V wheels pulled of, they are officially for sale. For right now they will be pickup only, because shipping with tires on them would be obscene. If they don't sell in short order, I will consider shipping them.

If anybody has any 15" nissan alloys to trade for them, I would be very interested.

Getting naked.

2009-10-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

Man, Ive kinda been slacking on the updateage.

I got the steering rack torn down the rest of the way.

1 inner tie rod off.

And the other.

End cap removed.

The actual rack piston removed. One of these days I will get around to machining the fluid seals so the rack can slide freely while retaining semi rigid bushings.

I got my order of POR 15, plus I picked up some bug and tar remover to help get up a little more of the stuff in the interior

Before I can get to cleaning though, I need to pull the wiring out.

Body wiring harness, check.

I decided to also pull the steering column, as it was no longer connected to anything. This way I wont run my back into it anymore. That thing is sharp.

First you see it.

Then you dont.

All the work made me hungry. MMMM Juicy twists and Mountain Dew.

Back to work, yuck, bug and tar remover looks like poop.

Thats better. Still not perfect, but hey, its good enough for the girls I go out with.

Now its time to tackle the dust. Im guessing this car has seen a dirt road before.

Before

After

Yuck, look at that water. 18 years of dust in a bucket.

Finally moving out of the interior. Its time to give the engine bay the same treatment.

Started by pulling the fender liners.

Not much left of the one.

Look, hidden treasure, I mean mud.

Then I pulled the bumper cover. Man that thing is heavy considering its just a cover.

Then the fenders, check the mud on the floor, icky.

She looks kind of sad.

Engine bay wiring harness, check.

While I was working on the wiring, Gage and John took it upon themselves to remove the rusty battery tray.

Drilled the spot welds for the air box bracket, wont be needing that.

A little surface rust under that batter tray, stupid acid. Nothing a little POR 15 cant handle.

With the wiring out, I went to town on the brake lines. This car had ABS, and all the lines need to be re run. All for the better, it was a fuster cluck anyway.

So much less clutter.

Look at all that junk.

After a little simple green and a quick scrub down. Its all nice a good that the previous owner wanted to paint the engine bay, I just wish he had done a better job. In a lot of places the paint is just falling off.

Before calling it a night, I decided to put the front bumper on a diet.

I pulled the front lip and all the associated brackets, along with the grids that fill the DRL holes. Then I pulled the license plate frame retainers. Then I discovered the support for the top of the cover. For some odd reason, Nissan wanted to make sure the center of the bumper cover was the strongest part of the car. It has no structural value, all it does is keep the center of the cover from sagging. I figure this cover will get trashed sooner rather than later anyway, so out it went.

The only things Im keeping are the brackets that hold the cover on the car, and the foam support.

Thats it for now. I hope to get some more done tomorrow.

Power steering? Who needs it.

2009-10-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

Removing the power from my power steering rack. I used a box on the floor so as not to make a giant mess of the work bench.

First things first, I pulled the supply, return, and crossover lines off the rack.

Then I pulled the bellows boots of to expose the inner tie rods, and the rack piston.

Then I pulled the cap off the steering shaft. I was careful not to damge the bearing in the cap.

Then I pulled the rear cap to remove the pressure relieve valve.

At this point I called it a day. I failed to bring home the proper tools to remove the inner tie rods, and the end cap from the rack. Without them I cannot dissasemble the rack further, and it will have to wait for another day.

Are we done yet?

2009-10-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

So much sound deadening.

Look at that, I do actually work on my own car, picture proof.

Close up, check out that excellent complexion.

Im satisfied. All of the sound deadening is out save for some of the preform stuff, which is super extra nasty.

With the nasty all done with, I moved onto the sunroof. I pulled the glass out, along with the latches. Once the cage is in I will permanently seal the hole with sheet metal.

While working on the rear of the car, I noticed some rust showing neat the leading edge. I pulled it off to find SUPRISE, cancer. Guess Ive got more welding to do.

Dont think I will be needing a rear wiper on stage, so I pulled the arm off.

And the motor too. Just another hole to weld up.

Up until know, I had left the interior door panels on, but I could wait no longer. I popped the panel off.

I pulled all the seal plastic off, man the glue they use is nasty. I removed all the unnessary door accesories, power locks, and speaker. Look at all that extra wiring.

The finished drivers door. All thats left is the power window stuff. I will be skinning the inside of the door with lexan at a later date.

Look at all the wiring I ditched, just from the doors alone.

Rally rules stipulate that the steering wheel lock must be removed or dissabled. The lock is part of the ignition switch. Pulling the switch requires a little drilling because Nissan uses a special tamper proof screw. Once the screw is tightened, the tip snaps off so it cant be easilly removed.

Ignition off, notice the smooth screw heads. After a little grinding, the lock was no more, and I reinstalled the ignition.

Before calling it a night, I jacked the car up and removed the steering rack. This car origanally had power steering, and I will not be using it. The 240SX was not offered without power steering, so I will have to settel for removing all the power stuff from the rack. But thats another night.

No more rust.

2009-10-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

Just a tiny update. I put in an order for a whole bunch of POR 15. I should have enough to coat the whole floor pan, and other problem areas. Hopefully it gets here this week, so I can stop all the little spots. I need to get the car out for roll caging ASAP.

Everything coming apart.

2009-10-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

Her home for the next few months.

Tinted tailights.

Having fun with the popups.

Lets get down to business. First to go were the seats.

Then the steering wheel, and cluster.

And the dash, and dash support.

With the interior hollow, I start knocking out all the sound deadening. The stuff in the hatch, and under the rear seat came out really nice. The passenger floor turned out not to be easy. After finishing the passenger side, I called it a night.

Project layout.

2009-10-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have big plans for this car, and I would like to lay them all out right here.

Over the next six months I will be preparing this car to compete in the Rally-America Group 2 regional championships.

First things first, I need to remove the interior, fix any rust, and get a cage installed.

Once the car has a cage, I can get an engine installed, and running, along with a set of FIA spec race seats.

The car will also need new suspension, a light pod/bar, all required safety equipment, and a skid plate. I will also need to acquire a rally computer, and gravel wheels and tires.

Thats my basic plan, and as things come together, everything should hopefully fall into place.

New beginings.

2009-10-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

Lets get down to business.

Out with the old. I sold my 1995 240SX.

In its place, I picked up an 1991 Nissan 240SX S13 hatchback. Its an SE model with every single option. This will be my new long term project.

As the car sits now, it has a full interior, but no engine. The suspension is all stock. There is a small amount of rust on the car, which will be taken care of in the next few weeks.