Ice Cream Paint Job

Got my paint on Thursday. I do not really have any other comments because the picture is kinda self-explanatory.

Prime Time

I started shooting primer on my car this past weekend. Everything seems to have gone well so far. Despite the fact that I forgot to shoot the side view mirrors. I have to smooth over some areas where my gun was being fed too much paint, but other than that everything was a success. Here are some pics to prove it.

Drive Shaft Arrivial

The needed front half of my drive shaft came the other day. I could not use the original half because it is specific for an auto transmission. I bought this one from an S14 owner on the NICO form (link on the right). That is an awesome place for any Nissan owner/enthusiast. It has already been installed on the car, but I misplaced a couple of the necessary bolts, so I had to get them ordered. Props to Victory Nissan in Greenbrier. Dan the man has an awesome staff out there who were very polite and helpful. The reason for mentioning them is because I had first visited Hall Nissan in Portsmouth, because it was closer. When you pull up on the lot the dealers are look like the belong on To Catch a Predator. I went to the parts/service department and the people in there act like jerks. They cut you off and give you short answers like they are doing you a favor. (Note: I think this qualifies as my WTF moment for the weekend.) I'm never going there again. It might be a longer drive, but I will be going to Victory from now on. Plus it's right down the street from Hooters, good food and good service. So again big thumbs up to the NICO forum and Victory Nissan for a job well done. And if you go to Victory to purchase a new car, tell them I sent you. Okay, not really, but maybe if you do they will let me drive their GT-R. At least mention my blog and why the should sponsor me with parts. :)

Roll Out...Well sort of

The other day I decided to roll the S14 out to rinse off some of the dust from all of the sanding that has taken place. It was starting to become out of hand. Luckily I did cover the motor so I did not have to worry about that, especially since I do not have an air filter attached right now. Any ways I snapped a couple of pics while the sun was out. Hopefully I will be able to prime and paint this week, I just been getting hit hard for time in the last few days.

Almost Done

I almost accomplished my deadline goal today, by finishing up the body work on my car. At least now I should only have to do very small detailing to try and make everything nice and smooth. I also got to see how my converted LED license plate lights look.
-I partially opened the right door to show how much wider the car sets now.



-These things are bright. Note that these were taken during the day with the garage door half way down.

-I put some water on the ground to show how bright and powerful they really are.

My WTF Moment of the Day

Two days ago my driver side (left) window started going stupid in my Saturn. I disassembled the door to find the gears that the window motor turns were totally shot. So yesterday I was able to find one at a junk yard. Today I took the door apart again today to replace the broken one. Now, I will pause my story here to backtrack to yesterday, for some needed details of the reason I consider this to be a WTF moment. The window motor assembly that I removed off of the parts car yesterday was apparently a newer model than my car. The whole assembly was held in by 4 11mm bolts. Remove those, and you have a window motor sitting on the ground, pretty simple concept. Coming back to today, I start to remove the assembly in the same order as the previous, and what do you know, the whole assembly is riveted into the door. If you don't know, rivets are used to hold things that are not made to be removed. What genious at Saturn would think to permanently attach a part that is commonly removed? WTF were you thinking GM? I understand in the world of making cars someone has to get stuck with making rental car quality cars. But rivets? You guys must have been ripping people off to make money for a while, and you still couldn't get that right. I can imagine it now, "oh yeah, you're gonna have to let one of our technicians take care of that for you"... I spent 40 additional minutes beating the crap out of my door just to get this thing off. Later I install the new (new to me at least) assembly the "right" way the nuts and bolts. Saturn must have also swapped the signal locations on the assembly on the later model cars also, because now I have to pull the window up for the window to go down, and push the button down for the window to go up. I really hate when stupid stuff like this happens, it takes away from the time and money I could be using on my S14...

Garage Life

Just thought this picture was kinda neat. I'm one step closer to baller status with two cars...lol