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Old Apr 14, 2024 | 11:56 AM
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1994 SC300
yo I'm ninetwo. I'm 27 at the time of writing this and have owned SCs for 5 years now. They are my favorite cars, I have a huge love for these cars and I will own one (AT LEAST!) throughout my life.
I recently purchased this Black 94 "hardtop" "slicktop" whatever. I also own a 92 SC300, 95 SC300, and a 97 SC300 I've scavenged a lot of parts off of. (Own a 09 Challenger and a 73 Duster also)


I found this 70,000 mile California car listed out of Pennsylvania after searching around for a low mileage SC without a sunroof. I honestly was just looking at every SC for sale on the internet, looking for a missing black rectangle on the roof..

Found this 94, the listings pictures looked like they were taken with a potato. Searched the VIN no accident reports and I found previous evidence of it on the internet for sale in Chula Vista about 10 years ago. Vehicle history showed it around the Mexico border in CA for 20 years then to Philly PA.


So I decided to fly up and see it.




Before I went to see the car I got to check Philly out a bit. Went downtown, got a sandwich and went sight-seeing.






The car was 40 minutes west of Philly so I made my way to it.
It definitely didn't live in a garage, the paint is pretty ate and there are some dings and a bunch of SC problems. ECU had been serviced by Tanin. Best suspension on a SC I've driven so far.


Flew up, shrewdly negotiated and drove the car home 600 miles through the night.
Here's the first picture I took of the car.



I made it home, time to dig in



Any ideas for getting this baked plastic off? Its really hard to peel but when it does peel, no paint is pulling up...
Both the door actuators were damaged on this car, so neither exterior door handle worked... the previous owner stored it with the window cracked and this film over the cracked window.
This stuff works to keep water out, but why leave it on for a long enough time to let it bake to the car. Laziness. It took a couple hours to do the first actuator (remove from one car, replace on this car) but its not rocket science. So much information available on ClubLexus and YouTube..


It was raining a ton and I was in a hurry to get the door handle working so I could seal up the window. This thing will be in my garage eventually, but no room currently - gotta sell something. Drivers door actuator was priority #1.
The rod that clips into the door handle was snapped off. My Grandpa and I got the drivers door actuator off my 97 SC300 parts car and swapped it over. Works great now - now I can roll up my window without worrying locking myself out.


Took both the door panels in the house for a rainy week project. I followed O. L. T. 's guide to repairing these door panels.. I used Liquid Nails - great product, I will definitely use it again in the future.
Here are some of the pictures from this repair.








I got a couple sunny days and took a look at the passenger side door actuator and the door handle rod was still intact on this one. Replaced the clip without taking the inner door apart - legitimately took 30 seconds once I was looking at it. Works great now.
Swapped the wheels it came on with the wheels I bought for my 92. 18x10 square on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. No rubbing or scraping on stock everything.






No more KBD for me. Next on the list is install the 97 parts I didn't use on my 92, restore and upgrade my lights, replace the window tint and do some future-proof maintenance on this car. I have some Brembos, and Figs parts I will throw at this thing too.. Expect updates sooner than later I will have time to work on my vehicles this year! -
Hope yall have a great day thanks for reading.

ninetwo
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Old Apr 14, 2024 | 11:57 AM
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My girlfriend found me a 96 Bordeaux Pearl 300 with black interior on Facebook, only an hour away and the listing price was right so I went down.



Then I came back with it. The cars a bit rough cosmetically but runs like a top. It has nice tires, fresh brakes, a new battery and radiator. Timing was done at 100k (185 now). My plan is to strip the interior and other parts I want, clean everything, restore and repair anything that needs it. Swap in a tan interior hodge podge from my 97 parts car and this 94 and sell it for the price I paid or make a small profit.






To give myself a refresher on removing these interiors without damaging anything I went and stripped out my parts cars interior.



I think I got everything besides the drivers seat, carpet and drivers seatbelt in 5 hours. I only damaged one item, the passenger A pillar handle... good thing I have extras... I couldnt get the Drivers seat to move forward to get the bolts out. I got the passenger seat out by tightening some bolts that manually move the seat motor located on the rails.



This is where I'm at as of 4/27/24. Today I drove my 94 to a 90s car show, here are a couple pictures from it. I'm not very happy with how rough my car is at the moment... I'll have to change that. I'll update my post again when I have a black interior in the 94. Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves and getting a lot done. Thanks for reading and helping with any of my questions



Last edited by ninetwo; Sep 15, 2024 at 10:46 PM.
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Old Apr 14, 2024 | 11:57 AM
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Its been 5 months since I've updated my thread. I wish I could say I got more done in this time... I'm getting back at it now before Winter. I did get some stuff knocked out though-


Here's a pic of the tan swap on the 96, I probably should've vacuumed the floor first thing... Yuck.



I took the tan carpet to the car wash and washed it out for probably 10 minutes. Very waterlogged, I pressed out as much water as I could and let it bake in the sun for the rest of the day. I kept it near a dehumidifier after this until it was bone dry.



I definitely could've gotten this carpet cleaner if I had a steamer (I got one after) the rust wouldn't come out at the car wash though..



I put most of the interior back together and started to daily this car for a while.










Pulled both cars front bumpers, swapped the headlights / highbeams from the 94 to the 96



Buffed and waxed, before is pictured above, after is below. The paint definitely livened up.
I put the rest of the interior back together as well.



Thats the end of the 96 back to the 94..



I started pulling everything out of it, was a very clean interior minus the cracked vents



Under the carpet wasn't as bad as the other one.



At this point I wanted to install a new sound system since my radio wasn't working. I decided I'd rewire everything. I had a lot of headaches at this point, I definitely wasted a lot of time by not knowing what I was doing.
I mounted a 5 channel Pioneer amp in the factory location. I built a platform for it to sit on the factory amp mount. I wanted it to sit at the CD changers height.



I mounted some Pioneer 6.5 components here. I used some speaker brackets from eBay and they worked great. Ran new 14 gauge through the door grommets.



I mounted some Pioneer 6.5 Coaxials in the rear deck from the same series, this setup is specced to my amp very nicely. I used brackets from the same eBay seller here, the rear weren't as perfect as the front and took some time to get everything sitting pretty.



Here are my power/speaker wires running down the passenger side, they follow all the way back through the trunk grommet straight to the amp. The blue remote wire goes down the center and joins up with the speaker wire. I ran my RCA+Bass ****+Rear view camera down the center, and through the driver side trunk grommet wrapping around the trunk and to the amp



Rough test fit, everythings good.

After wiring everything up I decided to test out the new system. Lots of problems. Took me at least a week, a bunch of questions and YouTube videos to figure out my issues.



Eventually I got to hear some music, took the radio and center console back out and got to procrastinating.

Changed a cabin filter, that I can only assume was the original 30 year old unit.



I started working on some of the interior in the house and being really indecisive about the direction I was taking this thing.
Heres a comparison of sun-bleached OEM black interior speaker grill and the material I reupholstered with on this brake light.

OEM black rear deck pictured on top,
OEM tan-painted black with Duplicolor vinyl and fabric satin black pictured below



Making a template for the speaker grill reupholstery




Re-upholstered and cleaned up.






I bought a vinyl wrap sample kit and decided to wrap my wood trim. I did this in my spare time for a few days, testing different brands and colors






My best attempts were trash, so I went a different route...

Last edited by ninetwo; Sep 16, 2024 at 09:55 PM.
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Old Apr 14, 2024 | 11:59 AM
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I had my wood trim refinished, very happy with the results


Here is the trim re-installed with Scott Chamberlain's vent bezel repair kit.



Around this time, I started prepping the car for its future T-56 swap, installed a Supra clutch pedal and Supra manual brake pedal from Grannas.
If you are reading this and debating the same DO NOT buy the Supra manual brake pedal for your SC. There is a SC specific pedal he has if you're looking for it.
Pictured below is the Supra brake pedal basically riding the floor at its standard/normal position.



Here is the correct brake pedal installed.




Pictured below is my clutch master setup, the entire setup minus the pedal was doable around $100. Using a Wilwood 3/4"" master cylinder and a bracket for a Nissan S13.



9/18/24 I was waiting in anticipation of a black friday sale from Grannas to purchase my transmission kit, this group buy went up and I decided to sign up for it.
Early in 2025 I should be able to get my swap completed. All advice for the job is welcome
I'm extremely excited for this car.



The tint on the car was failing so I decided to have the Windows tinted in Llumar 20%
This is actually the first vehicle I've ever had tinted.
I need to clean this car it looks disgusting here



Next update will be next year when I have a week of nice weather. t56, bbk, suspension refresh


Last edited by ninetwo; Oct 17, 2024 at 08:45 PM.
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Old Apr 14, 2024 | 11:59 AM
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R E S E R V E D for me #4
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Old Apr 14, 2024 | 12:01 PM
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R E S E R V E D for me #5
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Old Apr 15, 2024 | 11:27 AM
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So cool to see someone flying around the country to save these cars. Have fun with this bad boy!!
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Old Apr 15, 2024 | 02:19 PM
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Nice!! Sounds like it was a pretty cool journey. I'm looking forward to seeing how things come along.
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Old Apr 17, 2024 | 09:15 AM
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Nice journey, looking forward to seeing your future plans with this.
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Old Oct 26, 2024 | 11:20 AM
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Previous posts edited/updated.

Last edited by ninetwo; Nov 15, 2024 at 05:14 AM.
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