Spare Tire Well

So a while ago I got around to cleaning out the back tire well which was full of baking soda after the previous owner had neutralized spilt battery acid. By the looks of the well after cleaning out the baking soda it was evident that that it had been there a while.

So luckily it was only surface rust! After a quick dusting with the angle grider (brush attatchment) the back looked much better (aside from the mass amounts of rust dust floating around the garage).

Now it was on to some hand sanding working our way up from an 80 grit up to about a 400 grit, a quick vacuum and a little rinse and we were ready for some chemicals!

We were lucky enough to find some rust two-in-one converter/primer which actually worked really well. In hind sight it probably would have been easier to use this first because the rust seemed to just wipe away after. anyways now we were ready for paint.

 While vaccuming we thought that we caught a wiring harness or something while going over the back right corner. Turns out an old shirt had been stuffed in the bak passenger side wheel well which was really weird. On top of that we found two beer cans underneath where the shirt was which although unopened were completely empty... I'm assuming the previous owner wasn't the healthiest after also finding rolling papers in the centre console.

Now time for the first coat... We used a Rust Killer paint so hopefully we have no more problems.

and finally the last coat.

Sadly all this work wont be seen because this is the future sight of a fiberglass sub enclosure!

HDR

So I started to play with Photomatix Pro:

Taking It to the Lake

So this past weekend we decided it was time to take the car to the garage at the lake because thats where the swap will be done.  Since it's the middle of Canadian winter and there is a good 5ft of snow already fallen... driving is not an option. Good news though, my dads friend was nice enough to let us borrow his bobcat trailer.  Just a normal tip trailer but considering i have about an inch of clearance in the front and two in the back we had a sneaking suspicion that a ramp build was in our future. So we started up the car and decided that backing on was our best bet. Well the exhaust pipe was too low so I guess this ramp was getting built sooner or later! So after a quick try to Rona, 10 2x4's 2 8x4ft pieces of plywood and $60 later, we had some ramp materials. I'd like to add that is was -24 degrees Celsius which is about -11 fahrenheit!!! So spending three hours building a ramp isn't so fun.  So heres some ramp building picture:

Well looks like a gradual slope hey? well apparently the car still scraped a little as I was driving up! I guess the moral here is that low cars and trailers don't much like each other. 

Anyways once we got her up on the trailer, since we didn't have wheel straps we had to use chains which although sturdy also do not like low cars, after an hour of fiddling and two bent coat hangers we had the car all strapped, well chained down. So after warming up in the house we went on the quick drive out to the lake and got ready to unload. So as I drove the snowmobiles out of the garage and removed the chains my dad snowblew the snow out of the way.  About an hour later we started on the ramp. Since the e-brake needs to be adjusted we had to just pieces of firewood behind the wheels in order to keep the car from sliding off the trailer as we built the ramp, in hind sight we probably should have left the car chained down. Once the ramp was build we took the blocks out and drove her off the back and into the garage. after a couple revs in order to hear the BOV and exhaust it was time to say goodbye.

Pictures

So heres some pictures to start off:

First look the day I picked her up.

HKS BOV, have to admit i was pretty excited when I this little extra was in there, definitely going to be keeping that because it is actually so loud!

Ohh... the pretty SR redtop... too bad she'll have to go soon.

 Interior is in relatively good shape considering the car is 19 years old

 Like i mentioned earlier the side skirts need repair.

Here is a picture of the rust in the back spare wheel well.

The Car

So this is what I know about the car so far:
The car is a 1991 Nissan 240sx.  The previous owner was a soldier and had been shipped off to Iraq, and he had instructed his dad to sell his car. Sadly i didn't have the opportunity to buy this car from the soldiers dad who had no idea what he had on his hands, I had to buy it from a middle man. The car has an after market Koyo radiator, an aftermarket intercooler, an SR20DET engine swap,  an HKS BOV, an Origin Streamline Body Kit (although in very rough shape), Double Din Panasonic deck, battery relocated to the back, aftermarket 3" cat back exhaust, and a lot of missing nuts/bolts/screws. I'm pretty sure the soldier who owned it before was messing with the air/flue ratio because for some reason the engine is running very very rich and stalls at low idle. One of the belts also squeaks which is somewhat worrying.  Overall thought the car is in relatively good shape for being 19 years old. Pictures will be up soon  

About Time

So I figured since everything was beginning to shape up and all the planets were beginning to align it was time to start a blog about this automotive endeavor of which I will soon embark. Let me just start off by out lining the house keeping... well I guess "car keeping", tasks which the car desperately needs. The car needs
-The front left headlight to be fixed.
-The passenger to door to be either lubricated or fixed.
-All the carpets shampooed.
-The rear hatch cleaned, grinded, sanded, repainted and recovered.
-The driver and passenger side side skirts bonded and resealed to the car.
-The car needs general cleaning and detailing
-The rims need to be cleaned
-The radiator hosing tightened (although that will be replaced)
I'm sure I've missed something but thats all i can think of for the moment. All in all the car is in pretty good shape but there is definitely a lot of work ahead.