Here is my project thread. Please post comments in the discussion thread.

Some brief details.

98 speed red 20vt, stock apart from a custom stainless cat back system.

183k miles with a fully stamped service book and then fully documented history at motormech. (And still running original turbo)

I bought this car with plans to get it into prefect cosmetic condition along with some nice tuning goodies to give me a great road car.
More pics to follow along with some recent work done.

To do list.

Completely restore the body shell. Which will involve total strip down with all glass out.
Shell strengthened and seams stitch welded.
Full respray in speed red including underside on top of stone guard.
Zender front bumper
LE skirts
Auto DS vented wings
Auto DS rear bumper (twin exhaust one)


Full brake overhaul front and rear. Uprated discs and pads all round.

Full suspension overhaul using Bilstein dampers and FCCS springs, strut brace, poly bushed, and main components powder coated.

Rebuilt engine running 350bhp
Air con delete.
Electric PAS conversion
Battery relocation


The aim is to restore the coupe to a satisfactory condition for a fun Road car with occasional track use.
It isn't a daily driver so it should be easy to maintain the "newness"

I've had it since January and just enjoyed driving it to start with. But mindful of the high mileage and my plans for more power I started to hunt round for parts.

I have a complete bottom end that's recently been rebuilt. A recipt for £3k came with it for customer supplied parts.

Up to now I've just pulled the pistons out. All seems well and they appear to be standard pistons with new rings and shells.

I've also got another complete engine with 120k miles on.

But for now I'll keep doing bits to the original engine till it shows signs of impending death.

The car has cloth interior which I don't mind.
I stripped out must of the interior to check the condition of the floorpan



I found the silver key under the passenger seat which was a bonus
but with no red key I bought a full set with all barrels and ecu's so if I have issues I can sort it.

There was a small amount of tin worm in the boot

I've had lots of jap machines before and I missed the noise of whooshing turbos.
So I added the old jap tuners choice

had one of these on my last 200sx

the engine bay is letting the car down at present





I whipped the grille off and gave it some plastidip treatment




When motormech last serviced the car it was noted the manifold was cracked.

I wanted to trial fit the replica zender bumper I had and check out how bad the rust was behind  the bumper.

It wasn't great and had to cut off just about all the fixings.
The bottom half of the bumper support brackets had gone where the oil cooler sits.

I also wanted to bin off the aircon too and fit all the aircon delete parts.





The bumper needs a lot of fettling to fit properly.
I found a broken manifold stud and two others loose.



But the manifold was cracked the whole way round the primary on number five.

I do have a stainless manifold which is currently away having its flange refaced. You can see why here.


so until that comes back at the weekend its off the road for now.

I do have lots of bits to bolt on soon

The fun will be fairly short lived as the car will be coming off the road at the end of July when the mot expires.
Then the proper restoration will begin.

Just a little list of the bits I've got so far.

GT28RS
EVO 9 intercooler and pipework
Five stud 3" H&S downpipe
Replacement manifold and turbo stud kit.
All new manifold / turbo gsskets
440cc injectors
3.8bar FPR
Walbro fuel pump and direct feed.
Stainless manifold
Forge recirculating DV
Apexi filter
Helix paddle clutch
FCCS lowered springs
FC stage three chip
Water pump
Cambelt tensioner and guide pulley
Cambelt
Blitz boost gauge




Stuff to get list.

Engine gasket set inc seals
Cam phase sensor
Wideband lamda sensor / gauge
Aux temp gauge
Aux oil pressure gauge
Bilstein dampers
New lower arms
New top mounts and bearings
Full poly bush kit
ARB drop links
Strut brace
Grooved front discs
Caliper rebuild kit
New grooved rear discs
New pads (unspecified as yet)
New OE flexi hoses
New brake pipework
New brake compensator
pipework for PAS pump delete
New alternative alternator bracket and tensioner
New windscreen
Full silicone air and water hose kit
Replacement O/S hub flange
New wheel bearings
New trailing arm bearings

Mobile coupe storage unit

Although my workshop is a decent size, it's 15 miles from my house.
Which is a pain. And because the electric is included in the rent, the landlord has decided that all power to the units is cut at seven pm.
Which is no good for me.

Next month we will also be moving house, which has a standardish sized garage.
So I'll be starting the strip down at home
Which means I'll have more time to get stuck in.

We've plenty of storage space at the new house and the mrs is allowing me use of the spare rooms for my "coupe parts department" as long as they're clean non smelly parts.

I'm aiming to build a spit to mount the shell on when its stripped so it can be stored on its side for most of the time.
I've also got a room adjoining the garage to use as a "clean" engine building room.

The coupe is off the road at the minute still waiting for a decent manifold
I was hoping to use it till the test expires in July but that seems a slim chance now.
But i'll get to start the project earlier I guess, so that's good news.

I can't do anything till we get the keys to the new place in two weeks.

I've decided to keep renting the bigger unit, to the horror of the mrs.
But you just need the space to work.
I'll use my home garage for storage and engine building / parts cleaning painting.

Coupe should be back on the road this weekend. I gave up on the stainless manifold as the engineering company couldn't be bothered to do it after three weeks.

I also picked up a puncture so I've had that repaired while I've been away at work.

Its still not back on the road yet
Moving house had taken up my spare time.
I was able to spend half of last Sunday on it.
I got the evo intercooler mounted and the manifold and turbo back on.
There's just the radiator / water in and bumper back on.

I taxed it again last week so I should hopefully get till the end of July out of it before it comes off the road proper.

I also sorted out an insurance quote for the marea with all 20vt running gear so that's all good too.

I may look out out for a scrapper coupe shell to "disect" panel by psnel to suss out how the shell is put together and where any hidden potential rusty bits are hiding.

The coupe was back on the road a couple of weeks ago. Been having far too much fun to post in here.
Now its done some hefty miles in its life and I'm sure every bush is about worn out, but my god does it drive well.
There's a well known private Road near me that is perfect for five minutes of high speed twisties.
I was following a bloke on a bike who didn't like the fact that I was there so he gave it some.
But there was no getting away from the coupe. On the straights he couldn't get far enough away before slowing up for the corners. I could tell he was frustrated.
The coupe was going really well. Steering on the throttle spot on with only minimal chirps from the tyres.
I can't wait for it to be rebuilt with decent dampers and my fccs springs.
Im even quite impressed with the michelin tyres.
I'll be very sad when it comes offthe road at the end of the month.

It's now tucked up in the garage waiting to be stripped and the rebuild to begin.

lots of rubbish to get rid of then tidy up properly before the big disassembly begins.

I've been working out how much this is going to cost. And it's a lot, a hell of a lot.
The wife and I have talked things through and we've decided that when the coupe is done we will start a new project "dream car"

So the coupe will be done sooner but not to the standard I was going for.
Basically I'll be repairing the body, getting rid of rust etc.
Everything will still be coming out apart from the rear screen and rear quarter glass.
It will be getting a full respray too.

Engine will be rebuilt up to 300bhp spec as per the goodies I've already got.

Brembos rebuilt, new oe flexis all round, new pipework, discs pads the lot.

Suspension wise all new oe dampers, fccs springs, wishbones, bushes, top mounts etc.
So rebuilt to a good spec thats nice and road friendly.

On a similar line to KBTs LE30 thread
Here is my drivers side front chassis leg




Luckily the passenger side Is fine.
Well it wouldn't be a fiat if it didn't have serious structural rot somewhere would it. As soon as I get my new welder I'm on it.

There has been progress.
I picked up another manifold to replace my cracked stock one.


Stripped off the arch liners, struts, calipers, discs and inspected the inner arches and lower "a" posts

Bit of surface rust that's easily sorted.

Stripped the manifold, alternator, oil cooler off and brought the engine loom into the engine bay.


Then started taking the mains from my "£3 k rebuilt" engine

Fubar.

Just to be clear this isn't the engine from the car. Nor is it the one I got from adam16vt (which il be using)

I got it in the deal with the car as a good bottom end that had been rebuilt with a receipt for £3k labour for a rebuild.
The crank doesn't look too bad but I'm still disappointed. You win some you lose some.
Progress has been slow due to the Mrs new business taking its slow ass time bringing some coin in but it's starting to come to fruition now. I reckon by the end of jan I'll start getting on track.
I've got to put my energy into something and the cpupe is a good place to burn it off.

A testament to the rust proofing that someone did, just a shame they didn't do the usual rust prone areas.


I've seen late coupes rot here

Small update.
Been cleaning up engine bits.

Few more pics of the shell

Another update.
Engine is now out, as is-

And pump
Steering rack and pipes
Most of the brackets in engine bay
Dashboard
Fuse box
pedal box
Steering column

What a pita the dash was to remove

Update time.
I've painstakingly removed every wire and connector from the car, all necessary for if and when the shell goes for a swim in the acid dip. I can see myself buying another coupe to use as a donor for this one as I can't use the wiring looms again once they're in the brava.

Time for a little update.
The coupe has been in piece's for almost a year now, I miss it terribly,even just to look at.
So while I've a few other projects going on at the workshop I decided to bring it home and refit most of the bodywork.