LarZ' Black 180sx (The Ugly Duckling)

[jeff nelson sileighty]

Automania are a bunch of fucking morons. When I read that you were taking it there I was like Oooooh Jesus. If anyone's willing to Chuck out that brutal quality work then they're clearly not competent nor could they give enough of a shit to actually do the job right. I was relieved to see that you went back and got it the next morning.

[LarZ]

I didn't know they had such a bad reputation. cowboys. they are still around purely because of their location i think..

[LarZ]

So I changed the battery the other day as my old one was knackered. €56 delivered from micksgarage.ie! It arrived the next day even though I didn’t choose next day delivery.





The bay really needs a freshen up. There was no battery tray but I sourced one a while back so I put that in place.



Here’s the finished product. #ratlook



I gave the two cars a quick wash on Saturday



Then I got notions...



So this is what it looks like now. 17s are so much harsher for daily driving and soooo much easier to spin up in the wet.





Other than that I tried to tidy up the rear spats a bit but really need to just tigerseal them in place because they keep coming loose no matter what I do.


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[Hachi]

That looks really good, even without the rear spats in place. Excellent job on bringing this thing back from near doom!

[lady89]

I think im starting to like it now ha

[LarZ]

Gave the exterior a good clean this morning. Re-fitted the skirts as the car really needs them in my opinion.



I must put the front lip back on but jacking up the car becomes an ordeal when that’s on as I need to drive up on planks to get at the nose.

Also, I like easy cleaning products and this tyre dressing is the business!



Quick before and after



I’m gonna swap back out the front bumper lenses for the Amber ones as they’re easy to swap for nct.

Other than that i STILL have to fit the new coilovers and I need to sort the steering rack gators and hopefully I don’t have a larger issue to deal with there other than a small leak.

Interior needs a serious clean too as I’ve gone lazy in recent months. Interior actually probably hasn’t gotten a clean in a year! Disgraceful...

Ordered some 3M double sided tape too to stick the kouki rear spats on properly hopefully once and for all. Will keep you posted.


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[LennyS13]

that exhaust was a a joke how do these places get away with that shit!!

loving it on the oem wheels tho

[LarZ]

So a few pages back I detail how I came across oem Chuki fog lights here in Ireland and got them fitted. That’s about 2 years ago now but I hadn’t wired them up until tonight!

My car was lucky enough to have the oem fog light button from the factory. That’s why I wanted them so badly.



So I’m a driveway wannabe mechanic as many of you know. So even the thoughts of doing some basic wiring really frustrated me. But having given the Silvia so much love recently I feel like the 180 has lagged behind and needs to step it up a notch again.

I got it all wired up last night after finding the original parts of the loom that were tucked and cable tied away. I was getting 12v on the wires when I turned on the fog light switch. Result. But the bulbs were blown. So I had to source bulbs!

They’re basically h3 bulbs but they have a round bullet connector rather than the spade connector we’re all used to




And the bullet connectors look similar to the ones we can buy in the shops here but I said I’d try to salvage the existing ones. So I pried them open and fitted the new bulb’s wire. As they were recycled they didn’t sit great so I dropped in a lump of solder to seal the deal I then wrapped them in insulation tape and shrink wrapped them.



So the fogs can be turned on independently and light up the dash and the running lights. Here’s a video to show the different combinations






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[LarZ]

Another little update. I’ve been dodging the nct for a while because I’ve not been making the time to do some basic jobs on my car. Recently I said enough is enough so I roped in my buddy alan to give me a hand. He ended up doing most of the work.

We installed brand new camber arms at the rear, brand new pedders extreme coilovers sorted the steering rack gaiters. I must book the car in for retest now.







Haven’t adjusted the height yet. The car is going into hibernation next month when I get the Silvia taxed. I’d love to store it away with a fresh nct so that it doesn’t become a chore to bring back out of hibernation

Must get the alignment done too, hopefully Friday.

On the lookout for a nice pair of S15 front seats for it too. I had to sell the Recaros to fund the Silvia project.


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