Hachi's 180SX...... A car with some DI history

Since I was 15 I have wanted a 180SX, between various JDM Option DVD's and the internet, The want was bad! For some reason or other I spent the golden years for Jap cars in Ireland driving poxy Ford's (Talk about a misguided youth!).

Anyway some time past, some stuff happened, I bought a Skyline, worked on that Skyline while more stuff happened, then sold said Skyline, I partially regret selling it, but the want for a 180sx was bad. So after 13 years of wanting an S13, I bought one on the 13th of April last year(........I dont know if all the 13's were a sign)

So only going to put a couple pictures up first, and go into further detail over the coming weeks.

Some may recognise the number plate, and it wont be the first time appears on DI. This car has been through a lot over the past number of years.

Seemingly I have no decent pictures of it yet, Anyway, here two pictures to get us going.....

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...c2&oe=5B745173

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...44&oe=5B73D9B8

looks lovely! I don't recognise the number plate. Any links to previous build threads or posts about it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LarZ

looks lovely! I don't recognise the number plate. Any links to previous build threads or posts about it?

---

Searching for them at the moment, I'll post them up when I find them. Car isn't a patch on how it once looked. But I'll get it looking well again.

So here are two pictures from it's past, Firstly when owned by Eileen;

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...43&oe=5B277041

and then when it was owned by DI member marksull;

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...02&oe=5B6277FB

HAHA no way! I remember that car. I nearly bought it! It was here in cork for ages parked up.

That's cool to see. I remember the car from when Mark had it, had a good bit of work done to it. Be cool to see what you do with it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeff nelson sileighty

That's cool to see. I remember the car from when Mark had it, had a good bit of work done to it. Be cool to see what you do with it.

---

Unfortunately most of the work done to it got undone when it was broken for parts. Whoever bought it decided to paint it with black plastidip :facepalm:

Apologies for no real progress on this thread yet, I only noticed that 95% of the pictures I have are detail and reference photos for myself. So I'll take get some better pictures and go from there.

To get it going though here are some some of the first things I did when I first got the car. So as I had know for a long time that I would get a 180sx at some point I had collected a few parts to put on when I got one.

First up was my trust Sparco which I've had for the last 10 years. There was a Nardi on there, but I love the Sparco wheel, so off with the Nardi.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...71&oe=5B557CCF

Homemade steering wheel centre thingy

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...52&oe=5B6EC7B2

On with the Sparco :cool:

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...6b&oe=5B611D81


Next to the gearknob....Random aluminium one

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...71&oe=5B6AE989

One new Tomei Duracon Shiftknob
https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...b3&oe=5B5E8285

A little blurry, but much better

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...18&oe=5B7386B0

On with a Broadway mirror.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...a2&oe=5B539806

i might confuse this car now with another one, but is that a 200sx? was that in cork before, macroom area?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lady89

i might confuse this car now with another one, but is that a 200sx? was that in cork before, macroom area?

---

Jesus are you trying to give me a heart attack! It was down Cork before alright but it's a legit 180sx. :cool:

Yeah this one's a 180 for sure. I looked at the car when it was complete but it must be 3 years ago at this stage. I LOVE when people make the effort to do basic before and after shots of their mods, even if it's steering wheels and gear knobs and mirrors. I don't know what it is but it really makes me enjoy the read a lot more. Thanks for sharing, keep us updated!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hachi

Jesus are you trying to give me a heart attack! It was down Cork before alright but it's a legit 180sx. :cool:

---

hahahah i was thinking for a while should i even ask haha that car just looks so familiar to a 200 that was around the place (even the colour swap) so had to ask ha

So a bit more to the story, as I unfurl the pictures from the last year. Some of the more keen observers may notice that there were no side indicators on the wings in the first pictures.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...b6&oe=5B73D9B8

They didn't come with the car but I was given a myriad of different side indicators "that may fit", That was not going to cut the mustard for me and so onto the bay I went looking for some OEM type x indicators. I don't know if it was just a timing thing but there were none for sale at the time. I kept on searching for a week or so and eventually came across a pair shipped from Japan for €50, score!

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...01&oe=5B55166C

It may not seem like a major thing, but they really does add so much to the car (aside from making it road legal). Fitting them was fairly plug and play once I had fished out the wiring from in behind the fender.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...54&oe=5B5F9EEA

All going to plan I should have a more major update this weekend.

Details matter! And the amber lenses are soooo much nicer than clear.

Found a pic from May 25th 2015 when I looked at it with the intention of buying https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7393a0aa43.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome, thanks for the pic. It's brilliant to get more history on the car.

Totally agree with you about the amber lenses. Personally I don't like clear ones.

think it actually does make a difference, looks very good :)

Looks good, breaks up the black nicely. I've clear ones on the aide of my s14 and wouldn't be a huge fan of them


Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

same car? http://www.driftireland.com/forum/sh...X-kitted-180sx

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LarZ

same car? http://www.driftireland.com/forum/sh...X-kitted-180sx

---

That's her alright in a previous life. Nice find that! Cheers

I have links to previous threads for this car. I'll stick them up later.

Finally some time to update this after a crazy week in work. To follow up from my previous post, here are links to a couple of the previous threads put up by MarkSull who owned this car a few years ago. It was a very cool looking car before it was broken!

http://www.driftireland.com/forum/sh...my-kouki-180sx

http://www.driftireland.com/forum/sh...pics-of-my-180

http://www.driftireland.com/forum/sh...my-kouki-180sx

Okay, bringing things back to modern day as part of my prep to NCT the 180 I need to adjust the height a bit, that ended in me having to remove the coilovers as collars didn’t want to rotate… Looking at them it’s not really a surprise why!

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...61&oe=5B6706B2

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...7b&oe=5B5859D1


After much work we managed to get the collars free, but not without a fight.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...25&oe=5B5B7063


With the collars loose and the springs off I took a moment to assess the condition of the shocks. It came as no surprise that there was no natural rebound of the piston when compress which I take as a sign that shocks are well spent and past their due. That was back in late October 2017, with this in mind I started considering another set of coilovers, but didn’t want to go the second hand route as I may as well be replacing one bad part with another and I was conscious that Black Friday would be soon and that DriftWorks normally do 20% off the price of coilovers in their sales. I kept an eye on the DW website over the Black Friday week and as luck would have it there was 20% off all HSD coilovers. I went ahead and ordered a set of HSD Dualtech Coilovers that way there would be no worries about the coilovers failing the test.

About the same time I sent the 180 to a guy I know/mechanic to put on a standard exhaust for the test also as I was too busy in work at the time and don’t have a garage or lift to work on…………….6 months later I got the car back (~3 weeks ago). The HSD’s had long arrived at this stage and I was eager to fit them. Thankfully there was a day of very nice weather so I took the opportunity to fit the coilovers.

Sunshine, Shocks, and one very dirty S-Chassis.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...4e&oe=5B6557DF


New coilovers, a rare luxury!

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...c8&oe=5B94C32D


The effort required to lift a car without a lift ☹. That jack has been one of my best purchases ever!

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...ef&oe=5B55B6E8


Of course this did not go without issue. When removing the wheels, one of the internal drive wheelnuts started to split, I had normal wheelnuts bought to replace these as I had forseen this happening.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...b1&oe=5B581A8D


After some beating with a punch and screw driver, we managed to get the nut free……. Should be usable again with a little JB Weld :lol:

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...a8&oe=5B983506


Finally with the nuts loosened, I was able to jack the car up and get the wheels off.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...92&oe=5B5F2761


Next step, Off with the old coilovers which have definitely seen better days. Really and truly these should be red, but after some time on Irish roads, lack of care, and someone painting the car with plastidip, they are now a multitude of crusty colours.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...d7&oe=5B625F09

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...2d&oe=5B5E639E


Had some help while removing the front shocks from my new apprentice.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...ae&oe=5B956C4C


So nice and new!

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...e9&oe=5B97CDF5


So I didn’t want any seized collars, So I stripped down all of the new HSD’s and coated the thread sections and surfaces in contact with copper grease.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...68&oe=5B68D748


Having a quick look around the arch, all looks pretty good except for this brake shielding which had been trimmed in the past but was interfering with the brake caliper, So I bent these back towards where they should be.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...68&oe=5B60E384


It probably won’t make any difference to anything, but it would have bugged me just leaving it like that. Anyway, with that done it was on to putting in the first coilover.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...83&oe=5B5DFC87


All went smoothly here, though some zip ties were required to mount the ABS sensor wiring. Pretty sure this isn’t operational but thought it was best to keep it in place for the moment. At this point, repeat for the other side and move to the back.

Out with the old and in with the new…

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...74&oe=5B97BA16


Maybe a little overzealous with the copper grease, but I don’t want end up with seized coilovers.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...73&oe=5B5BE769


With the coilovers all in, I moved on to my next job tidying up in behind the front bumper. There was still a lot of plastidip over spray on hard to reach parts. I also want to tidy up the wiring and brackets behind the bumper.

One example of the remaining plastidip

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...0d&oe=5B56B3AD


And after some elbow grease, Not perfect, but looks much better.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...3b&oe=5B93DF7F


Around this point I was running out of time for the day so I dropped the car ack down onto its wheels and parked it up until my next free day to work on it.

https://scontent.fdub3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...7b&oe=5B5CF465


Plenty more to come soon, just take so long to write these damn posts :D

This is how you update a build thread! Love the details. Can't wait to see this restored to its former glory!

cool build pretty solid car that . when mark had it i bought the rear lights wheels and bonnet i should really update my thread keep them coming

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LarZ

This is how you update a build thread! Love the details. Can't wait to see this restored to its former glory!

---

Thanks Lars, I am hoping that I can eventually get it to the point I want to bring it to. It will take some time though. Really need to get a garage or shed of my own which I can fit the car in, then things could really take off :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LennyS13

cool build pretty solid car that . when mark had it i bought the rear lights wheels and bonnet i should really update my thread keep them coming

---

Thanks Lenny, I have to say you took two of the best parts from the car haha. If you ever think of selling the bonnet, let me know

I'm hanging for a shed near my house. as in, right by my house. But that's never gonna happen in my estate. I'd do a lot more stuff myself if i had a shed. right now i rent a shed about 10 mins away from my house. But just going there to do a 1 hour job can take 3 hours by the time i grab my tools, tidy up, etc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LarZ

I'm hanging for a shed near my house. as in, right by my house. But that's never gonna happen in my estate. I'd do a lot more stuff myself if i had a shed. right now i rent a shed about 10 mins away from my house. But just going there to do a 1 hour job can take 3 hours by the time i grab my tools, tidy up, etc.

---

I'd kill for that. My cars are 1hr away down at my parents place. Progress has been non existent on cars in the past year

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

all i need now is time I guess :p

I'm the same as yourself Ptank! My apartment has offroad parking but not something where I could park the 180 to work on, plus I would have no where to store my tools.

The garage I was using when working on the Skyline a few years back was ideal at the time, but still a bit of a pain to get to.

Right across from my apartment is a derelict/unlived in house which has a perfect garage going out onto the road beside it, perfect for storing a car in, currently trying to find out the story with the house and shed.......see if the shed could be rented, unlikely but it would be perfectly located for me :D

Thanks again for all the comments guys, I'll have another post toward the weekend