Budget thrasher.

[Jimmee1990]

Hey guys, I thought I would make a thread to keep track of everything I do to the car.

This one popped up for sale at just the right time, as my last sprinter met an unfortunate demise. It only has a few minor mods, but still plenty to have fun with for now.
It has factory power steering and power mirrors, no name brand front and rear strut braces, a decent pod and a full stainless fujitsubo over diff exhaust.
I would be glad to hear people's opinions on which way to go with paint, i'm thinking something very similar to the cam covers would look pretty good but open to suggestions. Don't flame me for the wheels, apprentice mechanic wages make things a bit difficult.
A few pics of how it sits at the moment, 226492264822650

[johl]

budget thrasher? looks too good for that. real nice base to start with. if it were mine, i wouldnt change the paint at all. save the coin for suspension upgrades and get some track time

[Jimmee1990]

It badly needs paint, just doesn't show in the photo's I guess. The whole car has been painted with aerosol cans and there's a couple of sections of bog that haven't been sanded down at all. Suspension is soon to be sorted, I have some front springs, camber tops and an adjustable panhard rod on the way at the moment and im trying a few tricks with rear roll centres instead of just putting stiff springs in it.

[ae86]

guessing this was the one on carsales for ages, looks much better than it did in those photos, i think it looks okay as it is just drive it hard and make use of it

[Vance]

i wouldnt give a shit how it looks. id just thrash the shit out of it. once youre confident and youve done everything else (suspension, wheels etc) then bother painting it

[Jimmee1990]

The main reason i'm considering paint at the moment is because I get pulled over at least 2-3 times a week because it looks like such a shitbox, and one of my old man's mates owns a panel shop. Being on p's doesn't help me either though.

[ae86]

you live on the east everyone gets pulled over there

[hachi_dk]

LOL 2-3 times a week. Holy fuck, I must just have bullshit good luck then.

Dump the shit out of this thing, 185/55/14s on 14x9s and it will look soo gangster that you'll forget about the paint.

But if you are going to be painting it, make sure you go panda bars...

[Jimmee1990]

Yeah, at one point it was every day almost haha. I want to keep it fairly legal, just because it's my daily. I saw a patrol come into work the other day and I think the colours would look great on my car, was a really dark blue with pale gold bumpers. I don't think i've seen a hachi like that, what do you guys think?

[shift_rook]

petes old rig, was for sale for ages, i was considering buying it at a point, just sand it back and give it a cheap paint, especially if you're cash strapped. how much can you get the shop to do it for you?

[Jimmee1990]

I'm going to be doing pretty much all the sanding and fixing the guards up, he'll just be priming and then shooting the colour on. Roughly 500 or so for his time he thinks cause he's a long time family friend.

On another note, I had been noticing a knocking noise starting to come from the lhf corner over bumps occasionally so I thought i'd better check it out. Saw that the swaybar has been bashing against the strut casing pretty badly. So I put my xt130 arms on to give it a little extra clearance which helped. However When I unbolted the steering arms to get at the balljoint nut I saw why the noise had gotten worse. There was no split pin, and the nut was less than 3 turns from coming off completely. Knowing that this was formerly used as a track car I decided to see if anything else was done on the dodgy before it was sold on to the next person when they turned it back to standard. Turns out seat bolts have been stripped and just hammered into the fucked nuts, and bolts on the rear suspension haven't been tightened. Checked literally every bolt under the car and it feels much nicer now I know the suspension isn't going to fall apart driving in the hills.

[shift_rook]

will you be hitting up winton any time soon? black hatch with white coupe tandems would look extra nice, you ever wanna go for a drive i know some sweet roads around this area( i live like 15 minutes from you in monbulk)

[Jimmee1990]

I want to go give it a go at winton sometime, but I still have to get my suspension in and the rear sorted and to buy a new lsd centre cause mine's well and truly rooted. And to learn how to properly drive the car haha.

[Jimmee1990]

Well I decided the car needed some bling to make me happy, got a cusco catch can and plumbed it in so as it's not to obvious to mr popo. Hopefully my springs and panhard gets here soon so I can get the car much lower and get rid of the crappy uneven cut king springs in the front. Also I think the rings in it are getting pretty tired, bit of blow by out the oil cap even when it's hot which sucks.
22732

[willa]

Keen to see ya rip it at winton, its the best place to truely learn imo ;)

Will.

[claw]

you live on the east everyone gets pulled over there

you have no fucking idea, i daily my car, KNOX is bad the rest is ok

[Jimmee1990]

I get pulled over for "random" breatho's on my way to work at 8 in the morning all the time, can't wait till i'm off my p's. Anyone got any suggestions for a good place to get a wheel alignment for when I get my springs and cambertops that's not too far away from lilydale?

[dove grey 64]

there is a new place just near the bp on the corner of ferntree gully rd and burwood highway, $35 for a wheel alignment. i dont know if they are good but the shop looks alright. you coming to the classic japan show sunday?

[claw]

bridgestone select, corner of liverpool and cantebury, charged my mate with a chaser $30 for front and rear, so im guessing spreinter should be cheap

[Jimmee1990]

Another update, got my springs, cambertops and panhard rod today and i'm going to put the xt130 arms I have from my last sprinter in while i'm at it. Should make a massive improvement steering wise, hoping I didn't go too soft in the spring rate but oh well.

Everyone loves pics 22935

[Jimmee1990]

I put my front springs, camber tops and cut my rear springs the same height. Car is super low now, looks great with some camber dialed in too. I'll get some pictures tomorrow. Pumped to go for a proper drive.

[Jimmee1990]

So I put a few bits and pieces in suspension wise the other day, 4.5kg/m front springs with some cusco camber tops and excel g's front and rear and cut my rear springs. Car feels like it's on rails now around corners, although it is a touch lower than I would have liked being 75~mm high at the exhaust. I don't see how you guys can all stand being any lower than that, my car scrapes on everything now.

Angry bird is angry. 23060



2305823059

[Jimmee1990]

Just a small update, I finally got a pair of Re002's to put on the front to replace the ten year old toyos I had on the back. Makes the turn in feel sharper than before, really happy with them. I'm curious to see how well they wear though, anyone else using them on their dailys?

[Leafy]

Hey man,

I had them on the front of my car for a while, now I have some R1R's and with 3.1 neg camber and 5mm toe out, they seem to last alright! Still on my first set, couldn't tell you how long the'd last but i daily my car also.

[Jimmee1990]

Decided it was about time I got rid of the dodgey rails that came with my seat, so I bought a bride side mount rail. Bolted it all up today after I drilled a couple of extra holes to get the seat sitting even lower, definately much nicer than what I was using before although I sit a little bit closer to the wheel now. The headgaskets just started leaking, so I thought I would make the most of it while the head was off. Shaved and ported the head, better valve springs, bigger cams and a 0.8mm Toda headgasket so it should go pretty well when it's all back together. I also bought a new kouki trueno bumper to replace the fibreglass one that's smashed to pieces.

[Jimmee1990]

I picked up all my parts for this today. According to the guys at Clive Cams it should go much better with these cams, dad's porting on the head and a bit of extra comp from shaving the head with a toda gasket. Got the cams at a great price, can't recommend Clive's enough. Also got my lightweight steel flywheel in the mail today from sc autoparts, looks to be a very nice bit of gear.

2422624225

[wntdae86]

i looked at buying this ....would drive past it everyday . did you swap him a rolla ??

[Jimmee1990]

Nah just bought it with the cash I got for insurance for my first sprinter.

[Rice86]

whats the CAM size?

[Jimmee1990]

270 degree total duration w/ 233 at 50 thou and 8mm lift. A little on the bigger side for the standard ecu, but it should still be able to run them fine.

[dove grey 64]

would be nice to go for a drive in this and see how it compares to my unknown cams on stock ecu setup

[Jimmee1990]

When it's all together and going again i'll take you for a drive next time I see you if you want. Just got other things sucking all my money at the moment, still need to finish off the porting and find some money to get it machined then it'll be ready to go together.

[Jimmee1990]

I've been putting a lot of thought into where I want to go with this car lately and what I want from it. After finding a lot of annoying/dangerous issues with previous owners/mechanics/whatevers skills and general workmanship, I decided to go over ever single nut and bolt and every area on the car and make a list of what needed to be done. After finding heaps of bolts rounded, stripped and threads drilled out and the bolts held in with silastic (not even joking), rediculous amounts of bog in one of the rear quarters and the terrible spray can paint among lots of other things I have decided to let the rego run out in a few weeks and take the car off the road for a thorough rebuild.

Any comments or suggestions on what direction I go with now are welcome, but I would rather not deal with negativity as this is frustrating enough for me as it is.

[Rice86]

how much money do you have on you, Cash or in the bank?

from experience, cars do not get built from dreams and passion..money and only money build cars

So if you have 10k, thats not even enough for body and paint..unless done yourself, then yes

better off to keep it rego'd and keep driving and updating/changing parts..like rounded nuts, bent this, fucked that because you'll find yourself loosing passion and motivation more then anything when your not driving the car everyday every weekend

[dove grey 64]

better off to keep it rego'd and keep driving and updating/changing parts..like rounded nuts, bent this, fucked that because you'll find yourself loosing passion and motivation more then anything when your not driving the car everyday every weekend
this^^ dont let the rego lapse, just fix it up as you go along. do one panel at a time body work wise. i'll help out whenever i can

[Jimmee1990]

I do understand that point of view given my age, however I assure you i'm not taking this decision lightly. I can get all the bodywork done and painted properly with me doing the prep work for well under 2 grand. Hardly any parts for this will be bought, everything will be machined and fabricated at home. Between me, my dad, my uncle and my grandpa we could easily fabricate and wire up anything we like so that won't be all that expensive either compared to buying parts. Also, I know if I keep driving it I won't get anything major done because at the moment it's my daily. There's also a fair few things I want to work on engineering wise, but that's all still up in the air at the moment.

[Jimmee1990]

Just found out all my hard work on this car was a huge waste of time! Big chunks of the rear rails have been made out of fucking filler because some fucking retard decided to jack under them and bent the fuck out of everything including the floor then remade them out of filler to hide everything, half the LHR quarter is 3 inches deep of filler rather than pushing the quarter back out and skimming it to smooth it out again. If anyone knows of a good clean ADM shell I can reshell into please get in contact with me, I am absolutely gutted.

[dan.91]

is it easy enough to repair? as in bash out the quarter and dent pull the floor?

[Jimmee1990]

Nah, as in remake the rear chassis rails in new metal and replace the quarter with a new one. Well and truly fucked.

[Gear-head]

Time for a sr20? Make it to a track hack and transfer the 4age running gear etc into a ae-ke?

[Rice86]

Demand photos.. It can't be that bad..

[AESeca]

If the damage is that bad, I second the idea of making it into a track hack, if it goes and handles well, it may be a waste to scrap it.

[jakel]

Exactly as said just track it so then if you have a crash or something just bog it up again :)

[Jimmee1990]

The damage to the rear rails is just cosmetic, just that it got picked up on a roadworthy so now it has to be remade in new metal now. The rear quarter is two inches deep in bog in some sections. I really would love to sr20 it and make it track only, but I simply can't afford to have two cars at the moment because I need a car for work. If it doesn't sell as a whole and I don't have enough interest to part it out I may reshell into an AE71 if the right car came up.

[Gear-head]

Yea then put it on club rego later on