Live Young, Die Fast

[Jeremy A]

Yo!  Quick intro, my name is Jeremy, I live in Las Vegas, and in my grubby mitts I've got a 1984 Nissan 200sx XE.  I bought the car in February of 2011 from a famous local S12-er Waylon(aka IggyEguana).  He had recently bought the car in California,  but decided he'd prefer a lower optioned car that he could modify the heck out of without feeling bad. Anyways,  the car has an interesting history,  an Indian man living in California bought the car new in '84 and owned the car up until 2011, putting 160k on the car.  He then donated the car to a breast cancer charity, who proceeded to sell it at a raffle event or some such thing. The winner of the car decided to sell it, and that's when Iggy bought it and brought it back to Vegas.  I had been frantically searching for an S12 locally for a few months,  and got into contact with him,  and boom! A deal was made.
   So,  I finally had the S12 I'd been searching for,  and I loved it.  The car ran ok when I first bought it,  some vacuum leaks and some ignition problems, but I drove it regardless and fixed it little by little. Eventually the starter died, and I was broke and going to school, so the car sat for a while.  I work in the summers and go to school in the fall/spring, so now that summer is over I've got some coin and time to put into my car, and was waiting until shit got real to start a build thread.
   As for goals, honestly I love the car as it is,  I just want a 5-speed behind me rather than a slush box. Now, I did go through a phase when I wanted a ca18det/sr20det swap more than anything, but this past year I've decided that I want to drive my car with a ca20e and a 5-speed.  My motor is good, reliable, efficient, and it just matches what I want my car to be.  I'm not a speed demon, 100hp is alright in such a light car. Handling and classic styling is crucial. I want to be able to walk outside to my 84 200sx and cruise the country, through rain, snow, heat, whatever. And I'm looking forward to when I can,  so here I go, wish me luck.


Here's the car the day after I bought it,  man was I stoked, it was unreal.  Note that my car has turbo ground-effects installed, but is missing a turbo hood, and is not actually a turbo model. Interestingly, my turbo kit was dealer installed, pretty neat.  Also, the spoiler on the hatch reads "200SX" and not "TURBO" like a true turbo car would, I wonder if others like this one exist. Clean car, eh?






The car was awesome,  and I did some maintenance to keep it running, like a full tune up as well as running some new vacuum lines and whatnot.  An interesting thing to note is I could never get it to run on both sets of spark plugs,  the intake side fired well enough to run it just fine, but that is something I'll need to address in the build.




The interior of this car was AMAZING, perhaps just to me, but it's in really good shape for it's age.  I had taken a sort of photo-shoot of the interior after I had bought the car, and the photos I took turned out pretty cool,  check 'em out.






















I also quickly bought this neat-o silvia decal from a clubs12 member, Keith.  My original 200sx decal was covered up by the spoiler at the dealer, so I needed a decal on the back of my car anyways.  Looks rad!




Stay tuned for more, as I'll need to get up to the cars current status eventually, coming soon.

[Prolowtone]

Looks clean, What interior is that? I like it

[night_s12]

wish i had a drive computer honestly...

[Redneck]

Build thread a year and a half later haha. I was kinda pist Iggy didn't keep this for his drift build since he had been wanting a SRA for the longest time but with how clean it is I could understand. Kinda feel sorry for you having to roll it for so long with the autotragic. This is why I only buy 5 speed cars though. I'd probably end up getting lazy and just driving it with the auto for half a decade before I finally got around to swapping it.

[turbo-s12]

damn that car is in awesome shape....u got a great car to start with

[Jeremy A]

Looks clean, What interior is that? I like it

It's just the stock, MK1 non-turbo blue interior, orange and blue!

wish i had a drive computer honestly...

For the looks?  It's rad 80's tech for sure,  but I don't rely on it telling me the truth, haha.

Build thread a year and a half later haha. I was kinda pist Iggy didn't keep this for his drift build since he had been wanting a SRA for the longest time but with how clean it is I could understand. Kinda feel sorry for you having to roll it for so long with the autotragic. This is why I only buy 5 speed cars though. I'd probably end up getting lazy and just driving it with the auto for half a decade before I finally got around to swapping it.

Yep,  the automatic is quite unexciting.  Definitely going to convert to a manual,  but yeah, the car was too perfect for what I wanted to turn down for a lack of 5-speed!  Heck,  the auto's only a four speed.  This car will be GREAT,  you'll see.

damn that car is in awesome shape....u got a great car to start with

Hell yeah.






Alright, so, one of the major things that was annoying me as I was dailying the car for a while,  was the typical S12 top of the door panel cracking and tearing from the sun.  So I decided to redo the tops of the panels with some fresh vinyl,  they turned out great I think, check it out.

The fresh vinyl





After peeling some of the cracking vinyl away








After patching the foam padding up with some filler material





After wrapping the tops with new vinyl,  I love how they turned out,  good as new.






More comin' up.

[sideways_s12]

Haha I remember this car I was the one that took Iggy to get it called into work and everything lol had some issues before he could get it to Vegas but he got it here lol I remember changing the alt belt in the gas station in cali glad you still have it and glad its taken care of.

[Jeremy A]

Haha I remember this car I was the one that took Iggy to get it called into work and everything lol had some issues before he could get it to Vegas but he got it here lol I remember changing the alt belt in the gas station in cali glad you still have it and glad its taken care of.

Haha,  yeah I remember hearing that there was an incident on the drive back!  And I remember you being mad when I bought it,  cause then you couldn't take it for rides anymore, haha.  Yeah,  it's in good hands with me, I fuckin love this old machine.


New steering wheel set-up,  a used wood grain 350mm,  bolted up to a works bell hub and works bell hub spacer.











And an in car shot,  the center console is just missing because I was doing some e-brake maintenance.  It looks pretty good,  I think it has an 80's feel,  you think?

[cory matthews]

I've been meaning to re-vinyl my door panels as well!  That looks great!  Are the panels behind them (rear quarter interior panel) messed up on your car as well?  The vinyl has totally peeled off on mine.  I bought some replacement panels from OEM surplus and they were peeled as well.  Where did you get the vinyl and how well does the color match?  I have the grey turbo interior, so I hope I can match the color.
I've got to say that I'm not a fan of that wheel though.  But I always prefer an OEM look.  I think the S13 wheels look great on our cars.

[Jeremy A]

Are the panels behind them (rear quarter interior panel) messed up on your car as well?  The vinyl has totally peeled off on mine.  I bought some replacement panels from OEM surplus and they were peeled as well.  Where did you get the vinyl and how well does the color match?  I have the grey turbo interior, so I hope I can match the color.

Yes!  My rear panels are cracked to all hell as well, eventually they'll get the fresh vinyl treatment too.  The vinyl I bought came from http://www.allvinylfabrics.com/ and I bought 2 yards of the carolina vinyl in majestic blue,  and the color is virtually perfect.  It's really high quality fabric too,  good deal.

I've got to say that I'm not a fan of that wheel though.  But I always prefer an OEM look.  I think the S13 wheels look great on our cars.

Haha,  I am not sold on the wheel 100% myself,  I bought it together with the works bell hub and spacer,  which is the real gem and the main reason I bought it, super high quality part.  An S13 wheel is an awesome idea.





Next thing I did for the car was buy some new wheels to replace the steelies I was riding on.  I bought some S14 4-lugs locally,  I think they look pretty good on the car honestly, except how dang SUNK they are in the rear, anti-flush for sure, don't like that too much.  I'm not sure what my future wheel choice will be,  but I've got some ideas.  These work for now until I get the power plant sorted out!

[night_s12]

thro some spacers in the back and theyd look really good

[VG30DETT]

That thing is CLEAN! I'm going to have to do the vinyl on my panels too, yours turned out wicked! You should hose your bay down with some simple green and blast the shit out of it with a pressure washer.

Can't wait to see what happens with it!

[rednucleus]

Really nice job on the vinyl. What did you fill the foam with? Mine looks like a crazy hamster got loose in the car the foam is so pitted. What's the vinyl glue?

[VG30DETT]

I've had luck with 3M spray adhesive in the past and to fill I've cut out chunks of other foam and glued them in. His way looks faster and better though.

[sideways_s12]

Haha,  yeah I remember hearing that there was an incident on the drive back!  And I remember you being mad when I bought it,  cause then you couldn't take it for rides anymore, haha.  Yeah,  it's in good hands with me, I fuckin love this old machine.

I wasn't mad lol I wanted to buy it for a daily and you got to it first lol its all good glad you got it and its not being turned into a drift slut its way to clean for that...
Post Merge
also the rims look good for daily driver status...

[Jeremy A]

thro some spacers in the back and theyd look really good

I'm definitely thinking about it.

That thing is CLEAN! I'm going to have to do the vinyl on my panels too, yours turned out wicked! You should hose your bay down with some simple green and blast the shit out of it with a pressure washer.

Can't wait to see what happens with it!

Thanks much!  And the bay IS dirty as hell, 30 years of a leaky power steering system...  She'll be getting cleaned for sure.

Really nice job on the vinyl. What did you fill the foam with? Mine looks like a crazy hamster got loose in the car the foam is so pitted. What's the vinyl glue?

Thanks!  The pits in the foam were filled with 3M All Purpose Filler,  and I used 3M's Vinyl and Rubber Adhesive as the glue,  and it was definitely a worthwhile project, cracked panels get annoying.

I wasn't mad lol I wanted to buy it for a daily and you got to it first lol its all good glad you got it and its not being turned into a drift slut its way to clean for that...

also the rims look good for daily driver status...

Haha, yeah, I plan on keeping this car as clean as I can!  And yeah, maybe some spacers on the wheels and i'll be set.


So,  the brakes on this car were OLD and needed a refresher, so that called for new pads and rotors up front,  and new drums and shoes on the rear, cause I'm a boss and have an SRA.










Also,  a local S12'er,  VegasS12 posted a turbo hood up for sale a while back, so I picked it up!  Its got a few small dings in the corners from a shipping mishap,  but it's a turbo hood man.  So I installed it as soon as I could to see how it looked.














My little sister loves this car as much as me!  Haha





So this is around the time last spring that I ran out of money and moved up to North Dakota for the Summer to work,  and the car sat for a few months just like this¦

[sideways_s12]

What its in north Dakota that everyone goes there to work I got a buddy that works in north Dakota and comes back like once a month because hiswife and kid are here...

[cory matthews]

Because there is plenty of work in North Dakota and nobody wants to live there!

[sideways_s12]

Apparently they pay good too

[s12rich]

clean very clean ...i like, i like just need a 5 speed