Project 180SX continued
So far the exterior is coming along nicely. The std S15 front bar will now be replaced by an unknown brand fibreglass bar meaning their is now 1 more thing to add to trade me. A supplier has been found for the front guards . Once the car is back from the panelbeaters the fitting of the body kit will begin followed by prep for painting.
29-06-07: Update
A Uras style rear bumper was found and purchased from Lightning Motorsports http://www.lightningmotorsport.co.nz for the 180sx (thanks Mum and Dad) as a bithday present for Friday 6th :). Having scoured the internet and Japanese magazines it seems that the closest match to the S15 front I purchased is from a company called Webersports. http://www.webersports.jp I doubt that is is a genuine Webersports bumper as there is no markings on it but it is still a solid and well made bumper.
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15-07-07: Update
The shell was transported from Justins workshop out to Greenhithe as Justin has too much work on to do anything at the moment. Once it arrived there Murry wasted no time in getting to work. The sill damage has been pulled, beaten and bashed into submission and now looks nice and straight (I almost didn't recognise the car when I went to see it). The large rusty spoiler holes in the hatch have been cut out plates welded in and bogged over making for a clean flowing line. He was having issues with the S15 front and and didn't want to remove anything unless he was sure it was all going to line up. So after 2 visits and a whole lot of measurements and disscussions we worked out what to do (hopefully it all works and lines up nicely, only time will tell). All going well the shell should be transportrd back here and be sitting in its new home in the barn by next weekend.
21-07-07: Update
Shell was brought home and it was straight into working out if the front conversion was likely to line up correctly. The headlights were bolted up to their mounting brackets and fitted to the radiator support. The bonnet was then bolted on to check the positioning as I still don't have the conversion guards yet. Ran into the first issue, where the bonnet latch/release bolts on is too far forward so the bonnet won't close. But just sitting it in place it looks like when that is modified it should all line up nicely.
The next set was bolting on the missing wing mirror and drivers side door handle (simplest thing so far :) ). Then the standard rear bar was removed, a mission on its own. First up 6 nuts need to be removed 3 from each side of the rear bar (inside the rear of the boot) then the 4 main bolts that hold the rear bumper iron on have to be removed. Next up 1 bolt needs removing from the passengers side rear tow hook and 1 from the numberplate mount, with all those removed the whole thing can be pulled back off the car (be careful not to tear the wiring for the numberplate lights). Once thats off its a matter of removing 3 screws holding the numberplate lights on then about 8 plastic clips from the bottom and another 9 or so nuts holding the bumper to the bumper iron. The bumper iron and supporting foam can then be removed.
It was then disovered that the rear bar I purcahsed needs some modification to get it to line up and fit nicely (doesn't look too major though).
Enough talk time for some pictures. (left to right) S15 front alignment, arrows point to the bonnet closing issue, a bit of fileing to get the rear to fit
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I also got bored with nothing to do while the car was at the panelbeaters so I decided to attempt to retrim the interior myself. Some material was purchased cheap from Harvey Furnishings (end of roll) and a day was spent playing around trying to work out waht to do. I am 90% pleased with the result as it was cheap enough that I can always redo it if I decide I don't like it.
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Finally purchased the conversion guards from Racepro and test fitted them to the car. This showed me the reason that the bonnet wouldn't close properly, turns out that the S15 radiator support was welded on about 10 - 15mm to far forward. Now this left me with 2 options, #1 have the s15 radiator support cut off and rewelded on further back or #2 modify the guards, bonnet latch and hinges. I had already slotted the hinges to allow for more flexibility so it looks like we will customise it and make the car 15mm longer than std.
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