nandob

iTrader: (2)

So I thought I would start a build thread to try and document as much as possible about what I am going to do with my latest toy.

I copped a 92 SC300 manual shift off of Dallas Craiglist for $1600, he as asking for $2000 but I think I paid a decent price. The interior is shot, it has an exhaust leak from the cat, needs fair amount of body work, and I am going to possibly need a power steering pump or head gasket not sure yet. The good on this car, the engine and tranny is strong, it pull like a bat out of hell! The car actually has blue needles, heated seats, surprisingly the stock radio cd player and amp are in good shape. It has 205k but still a good running car.

I currently have a 95 SC400 thats up for sale on Craigslist and my wife wants to keep it so she can drive that one. (I have a cool wife right?) And she is encouraging me to build this one the way that I want, all she want is chrome wheels on the SC400. (Gotta love it right?)

So anyways I started on the light body work today, just sanding out scratches and nicks and bondo and glaze where its needed. The tags are dead so I can really drive, but that will be taken care of by next week.

My immediate plans is to get the body straight, do a full fluid change, add a cold air intake, fix the exhaust leak, add custom exhaust. I copped some M6 Wheels and I am going to hold off putting them on for now. Future plans will be a turbo set up, I am not going to do a 1JZ swap, I am just going to turbo this 2JZ and roll with that. All I am looking for is about 400whp and thats it. I got my eye on a complete turbo set up this guy i selling locally but he wants $1200 thats just about as much as I paid for the car, so I may end up buying things piece by piece. I am not in a hurry for turbo.

I am not sure what color I am going to paint the car just yet, its a lot of black SC's rolling around DFW so I am thinking of the Lexus Royal Sapphire Pearl, Navy, or maybe even Red. As I am typing this my homeboy just texted me he found a 97 rear bumper for $200 and that will compliment my 97 front bumper I got in storage so now all I need is rear extensions and OEM sideskirts. Hopefully Lextreme will have some.

I got a lot of work to do considering now I have 2 SC to work on, but this will keep me out of trouble. (LOL) I will post pics and document significant changes.

Thanks for looking and any feedback would be helpful.

nandob

iTrader: (2)

So I started the bodywork the day after I bought it, the car had alot of deep scratches on it and there is a bad dent in the left rear quarter panel that I dont have the tools to tend to so I am going to to have that fixed right before I get the car sprayed. I want to do as much as I can to bring down my price on the paint job.

I found a 1JZ on Craigslist for $500 and it was too good to be true and I was right. Turns out it has no ECU, no wiring harness, and the igniter is broken off. Still its a hell of a deal but trying to find those missing pieces is gonna be a headache so I am gonna pass on it. However if the engine is still up for sale in a week or two I may talk him down on his price and get it, because you never know...............

I drained all the fluids, ordered plug wires, plugs, Samco blue hoses, I found some LS rotors and calipers. So for right now she is still sitting until I get my hoses and wires, etc. I am going to paint the calipers and probably install everything tomorrow. Today is the 1st day of the Texas State Fair and that fried food heaven. So tonight my wife and I are going to go and have at it on all things fried. I was told that they sell fried beer so I want to try it.

Bigzavs

iTrader: (4)

Hey, if you are still looking for a 1JZ, i have one out of a Soarer for sale and im in Arlington if you are interested just shoot me a pm

RyanV

iTrader: (9)

Looks good, I need to learn how to do bodywork.

nandob

iTrader: (2)

Learning to do bodywork saves you a lot of money. I got a paint shop that will spray the cars for me about about $300. Plus to me its like therapy.

nandob

iTrader: (2)

So its been a while since I've posted anything about my build thread. Well here is the long story......
We all know how rare the 5sp Sc's are so a good friend of mine(Lets call him Buddy A) texted me told me about it, so another buddy(Lets call him Buddy B) bought it for me and I would pay him pending the sale of my 400. Well long story short, the Indian giver came out of "Buddy B" and he decided that he wanted to car instead. At the time we both had 400's and he wanted turbo but when he started adding up the cost, he quickly slowed his roll. So the car started blowing white smoke and Buddy B thought that the engine had a blown head gasket and he wanted no parts of it. In the mean time I sold my 400 and I caught a hell of a deal so I thought on a 95 SC400 had a salvage title with a full 97 conversion complete with fog lights and a 3 spoke GS wheel. The engine has 138k on the odometer, I did a VIN check and those are true miles. To good to be true the frame is bent and I didnt want to pour alot of money into the car.
So mean while Buddy B purchased Buddy A's freshly restored 92 SC300 NA 5sp black leather, black interior, sitting staggered 19 inch MRR GT1's rolling on Espeler Springs (guess I spelled that right). I will not give the amount the car was sold for but in the sell included the SC on my build thread. So Buddy A and I did some research and talking to other friends the possible issue was probably the ECU. Long story short Buddy A bought an ECU fixed the problem and sold the car to me for what I was going to pay for it anyway.
The ironic part is all this time, the car never moved from my back yard! LOL yeah thats funny.
Moving on so I removed the 97 body kit from my 400 to my 300, started making a list of things that need to be done to the engine.
*Cam Gears
*Headers
*Timing Belt and Water Pump
Along with normal things that need to be done, I plan on making this an NA/T sometime next year. I dropped her on IS Wheels, and she is going to the body shop this week to get all spiffied up not sure what color she is going to be. I got a set of struts/shocks Tenabe and Tein spring combo that I bought from another buddy that's going to give me a nice lowered stance. Once I get it from the body shop with rolled fenders then I will drop her. Until then....................................... I got an exhaust leak that need immediate attention luckily for me "Buddy A" had a functioning manifold in his back yard. Thank God for freebies and good friends. All of this sounds like the makings of a funny movie but funny how things come back around. More updates soon since now I have a good donor car with a very good interior including the GS wheel and all that. I am going to dye the interior I am thinking two tone Black and Camel since I already have an OEM black dashboard in my garage. I am doing my research on the SEM Camel paint but thats later down the road. The car is driveable but I can be rolling in a "Lexus Hooptie" lol.

nandob

iTrader: (2)

So today is October 31st Halloween! Instead of Tricks I got a treat today. I sent my car to the shop to get the exhaust leak fixed and while I was there I was like what the hell and I went ahead and lowered my car. I have Tein springs in the front and Sprints in the rear, sitting on MKIV shocks and struts. My homeboy recently sold his SC so I bought the exhaust he was running from him for $150. (sweet deal, thanks Barry and thanks Sammy for the Supra setup). Also I went and got my SEM PPG paint tommorrow I am going to start working on the interior. I am going to pull the good seats from my donor 95 SC, including seat belts back seats, or whatever looks better than what I have in the car now. I am going for the two tone look, Satin Black up top and Camel below. I am not sure what I am going to do to the carpet just yet, I may just leave it tan since I have a full set of OEM black mats.
On the downside, I discovered I need an idler pulley and a thermostat. Those are easy fixes so I am not to concerned about it but the problem will be rectified this week. Also I need a new gauge cluster good thing is I know where another wreck 5 speed is and I can go and get it. I am far from turbo but I just want to bring the engine back as much as possible. For the engine to have 205k she still runs pretty good, so I am not going to dog her out just to buy another engine. That may come in the near future but for now I am focused on proper maintenance, interior, and paint. Paint is coming soon. I have decided to do matte black, I've done it on my previous SC400 but I used cheap paint and it didnt turn out the way that I wanted. You could really call it matte brown......IJS!
As for rims and tires, I got my eyes on a set of Corvette C6 Wheels, for those who say they will not fit let me educate you on this. Yes they are 5x120 but they run a 79 offset. So with 25mm adapters that will put me right at +54. I plan on running a 295/30/19 on the rears and probably a 245/30/18 in the front. Eventually I am going to turbo and then I am will change my wheel set up. I posted a pic of the C6 rims.

nandob

iTrader: (2)

Thank God I finally got another job, which requires me to travel. I have been unemployed since April so I am going to take what I can get with no complaining. Anyways I got back from Florida last night, and today I started pulling the back seats and panels out. I decided to go with two tone Black and Camel. Everything above the window will be black while below will be Camel. So I pulled the back seats and got to working on them. I didnt use and cheap stuff I get the SEM paint, I have used this on several occasions the key is to clean your leather really well. I didnt have leather cleaner so I used some old school bleeche white the stuff you use to clean white walls and they really work good on those seats. The cleaner the seats are the better the SEM will stick to the seats. I was going to go all tan and I probably will end up doing that but for now here is how my back seats are looking, I still need to retape and spray but you get the picture. My car is still in the body shop and I am anxious to see how the body work turned out. I will post pics.

vugoodoll

The two tone seat look good. Where do you located in TX? I just rescued a 5speed from a kid and interior is shot too. You know anybody is selling a complete interior?

nandob

iTrader: (2)

I am in the DFW area.
Good Interior is hard to find. I got a clean tan passenger seat that I will let go super cheap. For my car I was going to roll with (pleather type) racing seats and sem them the same camel color

nandob

iTrader: (2)

So I got my car back from the bodyshop and I have to say it looks really good. For right now I am going to ride primered up. This is really making me think I want satin black. I got a few things to do to the engine: Idler Arm Pulley, O-ring for the distributor, Low Pressure Power Steering Hose, etc. So those are on my to do list. Import face off is in the DFW area this weekend, so pretty much no good mechanic will be working on anyones car, everybody will be at the track. LOL. So here she is tell me what you think?

SourLex

wow nice progres. looks nice even with primer, cant wait to see the finish. what color were you thinking of going with if not satin black?

abounly

iTrader: (27)

I hope you paint it.

nandob

iTrader: (2)

I am thinking RSP. I just want to be clean and different.

nandob

iTrader: (2)

Trust me. It will be painted. The focus now is on the engine. The car maybe na-t before I paint it.