Andre's Nissan S14: 2009

HKS Hi-Power Exhaust Install

Finally got everything connected and installed on my car. Even though pictures speak better than words, I do not have a lot of them. Doing all of the work distracted me from taking pictures. But what speaks better than pictures? A video! Make sure you turn up the volume...

HKS Hi-Power Exhaust Install...Preview

Can't wait until the downpipe and test pipe get here tomorrow. Until then...Peep my J'ed out HKS sticker...lol

D-Max Corner Lights Pt.2

Finally had time to hook these up to the wire harness and give them some power. Here's how they look...

HKS Hi-Power Exhaust Arrival

My exhaust arrived yesterday. I picked it up from SAGE Auto, over in Norfolk. Be sure to go check these guys out. It's a nice quality shop, with loads of parts to choose from. Thanks again to Gary and Brian for their excellent help and assistance. I'm really excited to get this bolted up into my car.
-Here are some quick pictures after I brought it home.

D-Max Corner Lights Install Pt.1

Got some time to get the corner lights set in today. I did not have time to get any close up pictures because I forgot to charge the camera battery. I'll have to get some tomorrow. Unfortunately I chipped the paint on my front bumper in the process of getting the lights in place, so that will be a whole new adventure tomorrow also.

-Lower Quality Cell Phone Pictures

New Stuff Coming

Got some new parts coming. First off are a pair of D-Max corner lights. Seibon OEM Style Carbon Hood. And HKS Hi-Power Exhaust. Look down to see what they will look like. I'll start getting pictures up after the stuff comes.

Christmas Time Is Here

Well Christmas has hit full swing and that means one thing, for me and my cars to go into hiding. I am so sick of seeing people talking on their phone and holding a cup of coffee in the other hand. I can not count how many times I have had a close call with one of these idiots. So please, to anyone who reads this, drive safely...

Things Looking Down Again but then Slightly Upward

Well, the PS3 died again. I resurrected it again, but now the internal fan sounds like a miniature jet plane. On the upside, I have my speedometer working. That means that all electrical functions are now operational. I've heard that with the JDM speed sensor you can only get up to about 60mph before the speed limiter kicks in. I won't know until I get the car driving on the road, but, I already have a possible solution in the works. Still don't have any pictures of anything, school has just been taking too much time.

Things Are Looking Up

Well I fixed my PS3 and fixed the power steering leak on my S14. No pix yet.

The Day That Things Go WRONG

This post has nothing to do with my S14, but the events that took place will consequently affect it.

Part 1: To start things off I got new tires for my Saturn today. No big deal, until the rep told us that the car has a bad left tie-rod. Great, so at any given point I could loose control of the car. Also, I have a bad right rear wheel bearing. This car is turning into a really ugly money pit. In it's old age, parts are starting to wear and problems are starting to arise out of nowhere. Having an issue with this car has now just become a matter of time for it to occur. And if this persists, I won't be getting to drive my S14 for a while (this is the part where my poor innocent S14 is victimized).

Part 2: My PS3 died tonight, with the flashing red light of death. I was playing a demo of The Bigs 2, and all of a sudden everything froze and out. The Playstation powered down, and started flashing red. I started to research the problem, and have determined that it is not hard drive failure, but a SYSTEM FAILURE. I hope my warranty is still good.

Summary: I can't say that it was the worst day ever, but it was filled with frustration, disappointment, disgruntlement, and any other word that expresses anger.

Sealed Up Tight

I'm getting very close to actually driving this car. I've been testing the car for leaks; haven't found any boost leaks, a negative on oil leaks, and I have been experiencing some issues with retaining power steering fluid but it seems to be under control now. Anyways, I hoped I worded all of that right, I'm really tired. Goodnight.

Wallpaper Mabey?

Shot these before the camera battery died and before the waxing. But hey, I like it. Gotta work on a new watermark, I can't find the old one I used to use, so this one will suffice for now.

I got some dust on my car from my first drive. I wanted to clean it off so I can hopefully wax it tomorrow. I only have cell phone pics up because I forgot my camera at home. This is not my house in the background, just in case you were wondering, "why don't you just run inside and get it?" I could have driven home but that would have been a little illegal in this car right now...lol Yeah that's right, shes not even street legal.....yet. Still got to get signal lights, hook up the tail lights, functioning exhaust, and hood. I think that's everything, it's at least close.

Test Drive

I got to drive my Silvia for the first time Friday. I did not get to go down the street, neither did I get the turbo to spool up (got it into 3rd gear though), but it was the most exciting drive I have ever had. My Agency Power clutch line came on Thursday and I installed and bled it Friday morning (did my brakes too). I was really excited to enjoy the fruits of my labor. That's why if you look closely, you can see the jumper cables running from the engine bay into the interior of the car, where I had the battery sitting beside me. I might have sounded like a not so smart idea, and it probably was, but I really just wanted to drive the car. The reason for this is because I have to relocate the battery to the trunk, because of the intercooler pipes, and I do not have all of the wiring settled yet. I only have one picture right now, I wanted to brighten things up a little in the picture. Since I was driving, I did not take the picture, so me and my dad are going to have to have a talk about camera angle and lighting...lol
P.S. I forgot to look down to see if the speedometer was working, so I guess I will have to do another trial... :D

That'll Buff Right Out...No Really

While spraying my side view mirrors, and fuel door with the clear coat, I became a little trigger happy. Well not really, by gun was feeding in too much clear coat than it needed, which made it spray on heavy...Long story short, THE CLEAR COAT RAN. I thought I really F'ed up this time. But now with my trusty detailing tools, (que the super hero "da di da da" sound), I was able to remove and correct this ugly mistake.
-BEFORE

-AFTER (need to polish it 1 more time, but it's better than before)

Details Details Details

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this detailing thing. I've never really taken that much time to learn a proper technique until now. I have always been more concerned with knowing how to control a car at insanely fast speeds for the past few years...lol :) Anyways, I have been working on some techniques to help and a little extra pop to my cars new look. I'm still in the experimental stages, but this is my current setup.

Light wetsand to clear coat
Meguiars Scratch 2-0
Meguiars Ultimate Compound
Meguiars NXT Generation Tech Wax (Paste)

It definitely enhances the overall appearance of the car. I don't have any "before and after" pics but here is the finished result. Please ignore the lint in the pictures, I need to get some more microfiber cloths. The standard 100% cotton ones just don't get the job done. Usually it is not "good" to have reflections in car photos, but I wanted to illustrate the depth of the paint's new gloss.