Category: Exterior

Wheely good stuff

Tuesday, 6 September 2005 | Comments (0) | Categories: Exterior, Wheels/Tyres

Side View with Professors

Well, big up to Ben for bringing his rims in on Saturday to test out the fitment and work out offsets that I'll be requiring. Before he got there I wacked on some shagged but lowered coilovers to get a better idea of height and the car is now the automotive version of the leaning tower of Pisa. There being at least a 5deg angle looking from the rear of the car left to right.

Anyway, Ben's rims are SSR SP01 Professors of the following specs - (F) 17x9 +24, (R) 17x9 -1. Quite a nice combo really, and they fitted up very nicely under the guards. We had about 20mm clearance to the outside line of the guards on the front, maybe a little more, and about the same on the rear - the fronts however didn't have much camber at all if any dialed in so you could add another 3-5mm of clearance.

Some pics of the testing session:
- Me being surley
- Side Profile from front
- Side Profile from rear
- Quarter shot Rear
- Quarter shot Front
- Rear Guard profile
- Front Guard profile
- Side shot
- Rear coilover clearance
- From above'ish

Since Saturday, I've been trawling all the good rim manufacturers across Japan, and was looking closely at the Gram Lights 57PRO's - a really nice dishy rim with about any offset you want to order. On Sunday night/Monday morning, Jash mentioned that the Volk Racing CE28N's could be worth looking into - these being something I've considered in the past but not really looked into greatly. I took another close look and came to the conclusion that they were pretty much what I'd be after, and of the same stature as the mighty QF's.

So after check through the sizes, I'm going to step up to the plate with some 19" rims of momentous proportions for the Sillbeer project:

- Front: Volk Racing CE28N 19x9.5 +12 (Tyres: 245/35ZR19)
- Rear: Volk Racing CE28N 19x10.5 +12 (Tyres: 265/30ZR19)

Pic of the rim in 19" bronze, which is pretty much what I'll be looking at:

Volk Racing CE28N (10-spoke)

As you can see from the pics, the larger guards really tend to dwarf the 17" rim, one of the reason why I'm going 19's. You also rarely see dishy 19's on an S13 Silvia so thought it was about time (except for the Wise Sport 19's on C-Red's Pig v2.0 [pic: Franz])

On another front, I'm looking to kit the car out with some specialised bracing from a newcomer to the scene - Zenith Tuning. Not that new really considering some of their products are already gracing a number of the Drift Nats competitors. I'll be using in no particular order their Guard Braces, Steering Column Bush, Rear Cradle Bushes, Boot Brace and C-Pillar Brace (still under development). I'll make sure I get plenty of info from Brad on these before doing a quick write up (you can see from of these for sale already on the NissanSilvia.com forums in the Sponsors for sale section).

Seeya
Brendan

Yep…it’s definitely phat!

Friday, 19 August 2005 | Comments (0) | Categories: Exterior, Interior

Bay says check this out

Yep, it's finally back to the workshop...but hopefully not for long. The body is back and it's very smooth, just needing some paint to finish it off. Enough of me yapping, check out the pics.

More pics of the completed body:
- Side Profile from front (High)
- Side Profile from front (Low 1)
- Side Profile from front (Low 2)
- Side Profile from Rear
- Overhead of rear guard
- Front Bar profile
- Rear Bar profile
- Fuel Filler Flap closed
- Fuel Filler Flap open

Well how was that, I think with the paint on, the single colour will hide the width more as the different coloured doors-to-panel change won't be there (ie. as severe). A couple of other bits that I've got along the way are a set of 4 Defi-link guages. Thanks go to Aston at JShop for getting these for me in record time and at a great price. Gauges include Oil Pressure, Oil Temperature, Water Temperature (all to be mounted on dash board) and Turbo/Boost (to go on A-pillar). Quite some time ago I got a really nice deep corn steering wheel from Abdus at Tenagah Motorsports in the form of a Sparco #215 Competition in black suede. Oh, and at some point I picked up some Nismo 740cc injectors - these being straight plug-ins for the stock units.

- Defi-Link Gauges
- Sparco #215 Competition Steering Wheel
- Nismo 740cc injectors for SR20DET

Fitting up cooler and taking measurements for wheels is next and as mentioned before, colour choice is 95% Mazda 'Velocity Red's flavour.

Adiós amigos
Brendan

Bodywork complete…painting to come

Tuesday, 9 August 2005 | Comments (0) | Categories: Exterior

S13 wide body

Hurrah, the body is finally complete. Tom has been hard at work completing the fit and finish on the body and here's the results. Starting to take shape finally. So from here it's back to the workshop to measure wheel clearances/offsets etc, check fit of intercooler, then off to get painted.

Pics of the completed body:
- Front View
- Rear View
- Rear Quarter

Cheers
Brendan

Clear Taillights

Wednesday, 20 July 2005 | Comments (1) | Categories: Exterior

Clear Taillights for S13 Silvia

Just got these at the beginning of the week as I'm not 100% sure which will look better, these or the smoked version. Got them through Racespec as before at a limited time special of $180 - now they're back up to $260 though. Whatever set I don't use will be back for sale. Also ordered a Sard Rising Rate FPR yesterday so that should be in sometime next week. Nothing much else to report.

Cheers
Brendan

Take a deep breath now…and cough!

Saturday, 16 July 2005 | Comments (0) | Categories: Engine, Exterior

GReddy Intake Plenum (Surge Tank) for S13/180SX SR20DET

Well I've been holding my breath now for sometime for the GReddy Intake Plenum (Surge Tank to others) to come in and it finally landed on Friday. Thanks to Jeff at C-Red and John from Import Bitz for getting this in. This was originally going to be painted in the red wrinkle (crackle) paint like the rocker cover, but have since decided against it - it'll stay raw. Not to mention the difference in breathing and visual appeal it'll make in the engine bay. Also managed to pick up the last piece of the bodykit puzzle in the shape of a modified Nissan Aero (Nismo) front bar - the modification being in the main intake mouth. It's been enlarged for a front mount intercooler and once cleaned up and painted should look the goods (thanks Zac).

Pics for your edification:
- GReddy Plenum (Top View)
- GReddy Plenum (Ports)
- GReddy Plenum (Front View)
- GReddy Plenum (Bottom View)
- Modified Nissan Aero (Nismo) Front Bar

The front bar will now go off to Tomas for fitting, while the lightened pulley and plenum will be fitted to the engine. From here, I'm hoping for things to roll fairly smoothly to a climax, but of course that's only the plan - reality in these ventures can be completely different.

Cheers
Brendan

Quickie Update…Decisions, decisions

Friday, 15 July 2005 | Comments (3) | Categories: Exterior, Paint

Apologies for the delay in posting, but the last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. Especially last week with preparations for the Perth edition of Cabin Autosalon, there were plenty of people putting in late orders for stickers which resulted in me not getting to bed most nights before 1am in the morning. The show however was a great success, myself personally involved in the SilviaWA and C-Red stands. Well done to SilviaWA for taking out "Ultimate Club Theme" for the third year in a row.

Anyhow, there's been a minor set backs with regard to Project Sillbeer over the last couple of weeks. This comes down to paint colour. We managed to track down someone who had a good matched colour formula to the Yamaha R1 'Lava Red' as Yamaha don't actually release a paint code as such for it. The main setup on this is cost - being a 3 stage candy application, a full professional paint job is going to cost between $6-7K - not to mention the problems with retouching such a paint job. So, Lava Red is off the list. Now the indecision sets in again as I try and decide on another paint colour. Here are my current choices in no particular order:

- Mazda's "Velocity Red"
- Peugeot "Diablo Red" (No decent pictures available)
- Citroen "Rouge Lucifer"
- BMW "Steel Grey Metallic"
- My Old R32 GT-R V-spec (Paint Code 'BLO')

At the moment, I'm really not 100% sure. I went to have a look at the Citroen the other day and it was dark so couldn't really see the paint colour too well (they had it out the back, not under lights), and I have a feeling they've done some colour correction on the online image. There aren't too many red Silvia's going around (especially wide-body) so red is more than likely the way I'll go, it's just a matter of which one. Feel free to drop a comment on your thoughts.

In the meantime, I've just been advised that my front bar is ready for pickup (modified Nissan 'Nismo' Aero bar), and according to Tomas, that's the last bit he's waiting for before we get the body back.

Cheers
Brendan

Parts Update

Tuesday, 28 June 2005 | Comments (1) | Categories: Engine, Exterior

GFB Lightweight Crank Pulley

Hasn't been much to report really over the last week or so, but we're getting closer. Managed to track down and purchase the side skirts (see pics) and just waiting for the modified Nissan Aero (Nismo) front bar to be repaired before I pick it up. In the mean time I had some of the Zinc plated parts on the engine replated to bring back to new condition, these included the fuel rail and various fuel and water pipes, throttle body parts and washers and nuts that go on the rocker cover (see pics). This was fairly cheap and cost $88 from Electroplaters Pty Ltd in Welshpool and took about a week. I also purchased a GFB Lightweight Crank Pulley to reduce rotating mass plus it looks tops. This has been modified to fit up to the Nissan Pulsar GTi-R Oil Pump we're using on this engine.

Pics of the body so far:
- Nissan Aero (Nismo) Side Skirts
- Nissan Aero (Nismo) Side Skirts
- Zinc Plated Parts
- Zinc Plated Parts
- GFB Lightweight Crank Pulley
- GFB Lightweight Crank Pulley

Now the good bit. Have spoken to Tom about the progress of the body and he's looking to have complete by end of this week/early next. Woohoo. After that it'll be back to the workshop to get intercooler test fitted then off to paint.

Cheers
Brendan

Body moving…

Monday, 20 June 2005 | Comments (5) | Categories: Exterior

S13 wide body panels fitted

I'm currently stoked. Tom sent through some images of his work so far. It's looking pretty toight now with the M Sports 50mm Front and 50mm Rear Fibreglass Wide Body panels (from C-Red). As per previous entry, I'm moving to a Nissan Aero (Nismo) body kit instead of the M Sports one. Philosophy behind this is that I'm creating what I would envisage as being a 'factory special'. Something that Nismo or Autech may have been if given enough rope similar to the Nismo S14 Silvia 270R and Nismo R33 400R.

Some things to note are that these panels will be fully integrated into the body work, not just tacked on. The fuel filler cap has been integrated as well, as what you get in the kit is some strange curved jobby that mounts to the standard hinge and looks horrible. I've 95% secured a set of side skirts and possibly a different Nissan Aero front bar that has been modified with a larger intercooler intake - negotiations still underway on that one.

Pics of the body so far:
- Front View
- Rear View
- Rear Quarter (note fuel flap)

Cheers
Brendan

Kit Change

Friday, 17 June 2005 | Comments (1) | Categories: Exterior

S13 Silvia Nissan Aero (Nismo) kit - rear pods and side skirts

OK, have had a slight change of plans with the body kit on SILBEER. Going to go with the full Nissan Aero kit (also known as the 'Nismo' kit) for now, and if it doesn't do the job, then look at the M Sports possibility. Reasons for this are varied. For one, I'm looking for a very clean look/lines and love the original lines of the Silvia without kit. Spoke with Tomas (the body guy) today and he says the car looks so much better with the Nissan parts than with the fairly squarish Wise/M Sports side skirt and that the wide guards were really nicely accentuated with the Nissan Aero stuff.

The above pic (not my car) shows the rear pods and side skirts very well, displaying the nice curve that the body has from top to bottom.

Stay tuned as there could be some photos of the body so far coming up soon.

Cheers
Brendan

Smokin’ Tail Lights

Wednesday, 25 May 2005 | Comments (0) | Categories: Exterior

Smoked Tail Lights (Lense)

Although I said I wasn't going to do anything 'ricey' on this, I couldn't go past the good looks of these tail lights. They're clear indicator lense and red brake lense, both smoked should look right at home on the colour I'm using. You'll notice from the pics that they are only the lenses, and requires you to use your current light frame and a orange bulb for the indicator (included in this kit).

Smokey goodness:
- Front
- Back
- Top

These were a very well priced kit, on special at $330 delivered through PRO100 on the NissanSilvia.com forums.

Cheers
Brendan

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