My project 1990 240sx - Swirled, Oxidized White; terrible engine bay. 20 pics

[BigLouMaxSE]

I bought this car in July of 06, with half an engine basically, and I was in love. I have always loved 240sx's, and Nissans, and RWD with plans of turbocharging just got me giddy.



Background on paint...oxidized, swirled, single stage (?, I assume anyways) Ivory White. I honestly don't feel the pics do it much justice being white, however, in direct sunlight/artificial light, it was extremely cloudy, dirty, and downright disgusting. Some of the pics show that.



The engine bay was horrible, and even though I had the old engine out and free reign to clean...I was never able to. Coming home to work on the car from college in frantic attempts to install the engine and get it to run, the cleaning took a back seat.



Anyways, I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking, I feel like I'm rambling already.



Process...quick spray down with a mix of detailing spray and wheel cleaner (lol). No clay bar.

Polish with Sonus Green DAS pad with PC, and Sonus SFX-2, and later OC/OP combo.

LSP was probably not in any of these pictures.

Engine bay recieved a heavy dose of wheel cleaner and detailing spray and a hose.

Interior was taken out, hosed down, vacuumed, gum was extracted from carpet with goo gone and summer heat.

Yes, that's all dirty water coming from the seat, just using a regular garden hose. Yummy.

One of my favorites showing the newfound paint condition.

Me and some buddies going to the 240sx meet:

(didn't try to do that...lol)

Feedback is always appreciated. Before anyone asks, I didn't clay bar because the pad I used was on it's way out anyways. Didn't need to wreck two things in the same detail.



What's funny is that in a matter of 2 months, the engine will be back out, the engine bay power washed and repainted, since I need something to do.

 

[Z K]

Looks good, I used to own a S13 240SX... my friends used to or still own a few as well. All ours have SR20DETs - definitely a night and day difference from the factory KA motors. They are incredible cars with lots of performance potential. Have fun!



Here's my old car after applying Souveran... Sold it 4 years ago, I miss it.

 

[BigLouMaxSE]

Z K - your S13 looks great. Big brake kit in the front? Your coupe must have sold for a hell of a lot.



Believe it or not, that same single slamming ka is staying put...I'm building a ka-t for this car. There has been a tremendous increase in people doing ka-t's in the last 4 years or so, and with that turbo manifolds and other parts are now pretty accessible. I have plans for suspension as well, just haven't thrown my money anywhere just yet. I've had it for over a year, and have only gotten the pleasure of driving 1200 miles with her.

 

[Z K]

Z K - your S13 looks great. Big brake kit in the front? Your coupe must have sold for a hell of a lot.



Believe it or not, that same single slamming ka is staying put...I'm building a ka-t for this car. There has been a tremendous increase in people doing ka-t's in the last 4 years or so, and with that turbo manifolds and other parts are now pretty accessible. I have plans for suspension as well, just haven't thrown my money anywhere just yet. I've had it for over a year, and have only gotten the pleasure of driving 1200 miles with her.

Thanks! It was a silver 92 240SX SE coupe with the HUD display, digital speedo, power everything and everything worked fine. I have the 300ZX TT brakes in front. I spent a good $20K on the car not including the cost of the car itself. Japanese Kouki 180SX front end, OEM 180SX aero kit, 2 piece staggered dish wheels, dyno tuned SR motor with working AC , coilovers, all polyurethane bushings, adjustable arms etc... ended up selling it for $14K. I put a good 30K miles on the car as my daily commuter.



As for the motor, I'd rather drive a car with an engine built for turbo from the dealer than a frankenstein motor... that's the reasoning behind the SR20DET. Easy to source parts and everything bolts on.



Good job bringing that paint back to life!

 

[BigLouMaxSE]

Thanks! It was a silver 92 240SX SE coupe with the HUD display, digital speedo, power everything and everything worked fine. I have the 300ZX TT brakes in front. I spent a good $20K on the car not including the cost of the car itself. Japanese Kouki 180SX front end, OEM 180SX aero kit, 2 piece staggered dish wheels, dyno tuned SR motor with working AC , coilovers, all polyurethane bushings, adjustable arms etc... ended up selling it for $14K. I put a good 30K miles on the car as my daily commuter.



As for the motor, I'd rather drive a car with an engine built for turbo from the dealer than a frankenstein motor... that's the reasoning behind the SR20DET. Easy to source parts and everything bolts on.



Good job bringing that paint back to life!

Again, awesome s13. I would love a coupe someday.



To each his own on the engine I guess:up After being in the Maxima community without any engine swap possibilities, and forcing to custom turbocharge the car (I never did, just read other people's experience), it changed my perspective on boosting factory n/a engines. That, and the stock block success shown on ka-t.org. Four years ago I thought the ka was "less than desirable" as well, but I've come a long way since then, and I am sure that the ka-t will do what I want it to. My budget for this car is a "tiny" bit less than yours lol. BTW, what did you dyno?



Another thing nowadays too, is that the cheap 40k miles sr motorsets are no longer. They are either very expensive, or beat to hell, or both in some cases. I've realized that I'm almost running the same risk of having to rebuild the ka, as I would with buying a reasonably priced sr motorset. One thing we can both agree on though...boost is/will be fun!!



Thanks for the kind words on my paint correction too.:2thumbs:

 

[BigLouMaxSE]

Just to add to my original post, most of the pictures are half and half shots. So anytime you see a fairly distinct line down the center of the hood (especially in the shot where the hood is open), it is half polished, half dead paint.



And I also threw that pic with the intercooler in front of my car to show how a project car seems to accumulate a ton of grease, dirt, scummy fingerprints all over the paint. There was also a sizeable amount of tar on the rocker panels that was taken care of with some wheel cleaner as well. The front and rear bumpers had to be polished by hand.



The paint was such a turn around that my buddy who owns the flat black 240 said "I wish I had real paint since yours looks so good:clap: "

 

[sharky nrk]

I love resurrection threads - good luck with the project. I have had friends with every sort of 240 swap done, sr, kat, rb, ls1. They are a great platform - keep on cleaning her up and post some more pics

 

[cfranck1]

Pretty clean.

Nice job on that Engine and Compartment. I hate when an engine and the compartment is dirty. Look so much better clean and it's not that hard to keep clean.



Where in CT do you live? Newtown??

as that meet at the old Fairfield Hills Mental Hospital??

Or at Gardner Correction?



I use to have a job in Newtown.:grinno:

 

[BigLouMaxSE]

I love resurrection threads - good luck with the project. I have had friends with every sort of 240 swap done, sr, kat, rb, ls1. They are a great platform - keep on cleaning her up and post some more pics

Thanks man, it's been going very well for being my first ever project car. I have big plans, and many smaller "attention to detail" type plans that keep me busy when I'm home.

Pretty clean.

Nice job on that Engine and Compartment. I hate when an engine and the compartment is dirty. Look so much better clean and it's not that hard to keep clean.



Where in CT do you live? Newtown??

as that meet at the old Fairfield Hills Mental Hospital??

Or at Gardner Correction?



I use to have a job in Newtown.:grinno:

:LOLOL we were actually just meeting up at that rest stop of 84 in Newtown, to meet up with a few more guys that were going to caravan down to Milford...the 240sxmotoring meet.



The engine bay will be even easier after I take the engine back out, powerwash, and repaint it:getdown



I was just interupted writing this reply because the apartment below me had a fire :bat ...just thought I'd throw that in there.