Project S13 Convertible Part 2

•September 14, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Finished up the new project car just in time to get it to Sideways Sundays at Lake Elsinore’s Storm Stadium. The car was on low boost with stock injectors and stock ecu so it was down on power from what I was hoping but otherwise it did great! I drove it all day with zero problems and put it on the trailer and took it home. I couldn’t ask for anything more. My JIC Magic FLT-TAR’s that I custom valved and changed to synthetic fluid work great, along with my SB Fab Knuckles and Battleversion suspension. The car has a ton of grip and the setup all worked together great. Guess experience pays off! First day at the track rushed together and I wouldn’t change anything on the chassis. Car is getting water methanol at work now (Banks Power) as well as bigger injectors, tuned ecu, z32 maf and more boost. Can’t wait for more power and bigger tires. Next stop ASB 2013. Need to cage the car before then but otherwise it’s pretty much ready to roll.

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I’ve Made a Huge Mistake? – from Fellow Kitty

•July 14, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Here’s a blog post from Nicole’s blog Musings of a Fellow Kitty
I've Made a Huge Mistake?

In my never ending quest to be cool, I made an impulse decision to buy an S14. For those of my readers who aren’t constantly preoccupied by the drift scene, that’s a 1995 Nissan 240sx. I have wanted a 14 for quite some time now. Bryan and I were sitting around talking about how we really need to start saving money and that’s when I found it: A clean looking 14 for sale on craigslist for a seemingly low price.

That set us off on yet another one of our adventures. We went to meet the guy at 12. We arrived at 11:50 and I texted him. No answer. We also walk around and do not see the car. At 12 I called. No answer. I saw at 12:04 he has read the original text. Still no response. That pissed me off. We hypothesized that maybe he is coming on his lunch hour to meet us and he’s driving up. I started to get mad and start blowing his phone up with 5-6 calls in a row. At 12:30 we drive off to Vons to cool off and possibly grab a drink. I texted him saying that if he isn’t coming he’d better let me know. As we pull in the parking lot I finally received a text saying he was on his way. So we headed back to the apartment building and again do not see the car. Finally, this kid walks up from across the street and starts looking around. This must be him. (WTF?!) Then he tells us we have to J-Walk back across the street. Then down the block, turned down another street then down another street. (WTF?! WTF?!) FINALLY, we saw the car! Then Bryan gets to work. We started it and took it on an amazing test drive complete with strange suspension noises. But it does seem to be running strong despite the oil that seems to be spilled all over the engine bay. Bryan also found some other things going on with it that weren’t in the ad. Cha$CHing! (The check engine light was on and he goes yeah it’s been on since I got it. Seriously?!)
So after haggling with the guy for a few minutes we gave him $550 under asking price and left with 2 new subwoofers.
We made it as far as the freeway. I followed Bryan onto the freeway and off onto the nearest exit. As soon as the car got hot it was done. Yes, he had a huge coolant leak and possibly a blown head gasket. We sat on the side of the road for a while so Bryan could decide if it was fixable or if we could limp it home. Ultimately the hole in the coolant hose was too big. So we had to call a tow truck and get him towed home. But all in all, a successful day!
Here is with older brother, Datsun 510.

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Here is the car picture from the Craigslist ad.

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Project 240sx S13 Convertible

•July 13, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Recently Nicole picked up a new (to her) 240sx S14 street car. It’s clean with stock body and an unmolested Ka24de. I was daily driving it for a couple of weeks while I was fixing little things on it and it sparked my interest in another street car. It’s been forever since I’ve had a street driven 240sx and I kind of miss it. So I started looking…. I knew I wanted a convertible, I knew I wanted an sr20det and I knew it had to be drift able so I could play with it at the track. After searching for what felt like forever, even though it was only a couple of days I found a non-running vert that supposedly had a cracked gas tank. Well I didn’t think that this guy managed to crack a metal gas tank so I took that statement with a grain of salt it had “blown suspension” and that’s why it was so low. Turns out, it just had coils and they were not blown. It was already 5 speed swapped with a diff and a lot of other little extras here and there. I figured for $1000 it was well worth the price even if the ka was bad. So I towed it back to the shop and filled it up with gas, slowly because I was afraid it was going to pour out everywhere like the previous owner had suggested. But alas no leaks! So I went to start it up, threw a new battery in it and boom! It fired right up on the first revolution. Dumbfounded, I start checking for fuel leaks as I cannot understand why it wasn’t running but I can’t find any. After some careful study the alternator was not charging because of the charge light in the dash being burnt out. Other then that the car was cherry. Took it out did some donuts in it and blasted it around and I was very satisfied with my purchase. After a couple more days working on it I had all of the little issues sorted out without spending a dime on the car. Fixed the power top it was just a wiring issue. Cleaned it all up and drove it for a couple of weekends. Then I had the opportunity to come up on a friend’s sr20 swap and I jumped on it. Pulled the ka and sold it for almost the cost of the car making this one very cheap vert shell. So where I’m at now I painted the bay and am cleaning everything up. Changed the clutch to a street able ACT Xt-SS and put an 18g turbo on it so I can later turn up the boost and make a solid 350whp. The plans for this one are to get it back on the road ASAP so in a weeks time I’ve got it almost all ready for the sr20 to go in and the car to be running again.

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Scion FRS & Subaru BRZ Drift Knuckles

•June 13, 2013 • 3 Comments

Finished up the Scion FRS production drift knuckle setup for more angle out of the FRS and BRZ chassis. These have had some extensive testing from Riley Cahill and the response has been very positive to the added angle the car now has. It’s not crazy schassis angle but it’s not an schassis the car is so well balanced the car can carry very good angle in drift after the steering angle mods. Serious Badass Fabrication will be offering drift knuckle services and also working on modified inner tie rods to allow even more angle. Contact me at sales@seriousfab.com for more info. Videos coming soon!

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SB Fabrication – FD3S Custom Drift Knuckles

•December 30, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Another satisfied FD3S RX-7 customer! Finished up this set of knuckles this week and just delivered them. They are Formula D spec custom knuckles that I offer for all chassis. If you want to drift it I can do the knuckles and setup the chassis!

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Project Cafe Racer: Front End

•November 12, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Finished up a bunch of front end work to the motorcycle, lowered it, put on clip-ons, new brembo radial master cylinder, new headlight with integrated turn signals, all in one acewell gauge cluster and a lot of re-wiring. It really changed the whole looked of the bike and makes it so much more fun to ride with the clip-ons. Next up will be fitting my spoked wheels so I can get them relaced with 18″ front and 16″ rear rims and put some more aggressive tires on this thing.

Oh yeah and I chopped the front fender and painted the fender and tank.

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Project Cafe Racer: Exhaust

•October 17, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I finished up the exhaust on the XV920 cafe racer project today. It’s all mandrel bent TIG welded stainless steel. The muffler is a supertrapp with adjustable baffles so I can play with the back pressure and sound level to get something loud enough to enjoy it and not so loud my neighbors are pissed when I leave for work at 6 am. The exhaust came out really clean I’m super happy about the fit and finish and I even tried some new techniques like making a double slip flange for the rear cylinder so there is no ugly band clamp on it. I have it disassembled now and it’s going out for satin black ceramic coat. I’m a little sad about hiding all the beautiful welds with the ceramic coating but I think the black will look really nice on the bike.

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Project Cafe Racer: Batteries and Intakes

•October 4, 2012 • Leave a Comment

The cafe racer project is coming along quite quickly which makes me happy! More time riding and less time building. I have a bad habit of spending soooo much time on the build that I never get to enjoy the car/bike so this project was meant to be done quickly and kept running as much as possible. I cleaned up the bike a lot. I have a huge pile of parts under my workbench and they probably add up to 60-80lbs of unneeded junk. I took off the rear fender/grab bar, glove box, rear tailight and signals and replaced everything with an integrated LED light. Took the stock painted air box cover off and replaced it with a custom mounted open element k&n air filter. Made a custom battery box under the seat to mount a ballistic battery so I could remove the painted cover of the right side and the giant stock battery. With everything removed and relocated the bike looks completely different. So much better! It’s coming along nicely and the rear and sides are done so just on to the front cleanup and I can ride it the way it is until I change up the seat and tank.

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SB Fabrication – S13 Pro Drift Knuckles

•September 24, 2012 • Leave a Comment

This weekend I had a customer that just picked up a full set of Battleversion arms including the newly designed front lower control arms. As always Alex Pfiefer’s arms are very high quality and we always recommend them at the shop. This set of knuckles is cut a little differently then the last set I posted. I have a couple different specs that I use depending on what the customer is looking for out of the car and their power level. This set is the pro version with very low Ackerman and massive angle ability. This week a lot of time will be spent making everything clear so the customer can actually use this forklift angle but when everything is all done and aligned for next weeks competition the car will have gangster angle!

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Cafe Racer Project: XV920R

•September 15, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I picked up a new cafe racer project the other day. I’ve been looking for another form of semi reliable transportation because I hate relying solely on the 510 to get me around and I have always believed that two semi reliable vehicles is as good as one reliable vehicle! It is a 1982 Yamaha Virago XV920r it is chain driven and has a more standard seating position then the shaft driven cruiser style Virago. It’s completely stock and only one owner bike, came with brand new tires and a recent tune up so I feel like it was a great deal. Bike runs great I’ve been riding it everyday and loving it. On with the pics and some inspiration of what I’m going for when it’s all finished.

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