New ride.... sorta

So the newest addition to my driveway: a 90 240sx hatch. I bought it for my fiance. Needs some love, for sure. Looks rough, but its got potential.

Drove out to Deforest, WI to buy it (just outside of Madison). Pretty fun ride... had myself, my lady and three other friends crammed into an 06 sentra . Met up with the seller around 6 at a McDonalds. Spent a little to much time playing with the pop-up headlamps and killed the battery (yay!). Push started it and got her going. The last owner told me the timing needed some playing with, and I figured it just needed to get back home, since the crappy single cam engine (ew) wont be calling this car home for much longer (hopefully). took a look under the hood to find it had no screw in it to adjust the idle. So we limped it over to ACE hardware and got a screw and lock washer to hold us over til we got home.

He told me the brakes needed to be bled, and that's why they were so soft.... more on this later....

The car has no air-con, and the drivers window is stuck up. My Marlboro-addicted self couldn't handle that, so we stopped just passed the Dells to try to fix/force the window down. We pulled in to the parking lot of a combination Home Depot and Wal-Mart and began work on the window. A few minutes into this, my lady asks me what all the steam pouring out from under the hood was. I popped it open to find the lower radiator hose has sprung a leak right before the thermostat. Great. 200+ miles from home and it springs a leak. Luckily, our redneck ingenuity got her patched up (2 hours later....) and we limped home trouble free... unless you count no radio as trouble.

The car runs rough, and doesn't like to stay running until it warms up. Even still, it's surprisingly responsive, and didn't require me to shift out 5th to pass most traffic.

Got home around 2:30AM and let her sleep for the night, since I had work at 7 in the morning. Came home from work today, planning to bleed the brakes. Popped the wheels off to find the rear drivers side brake line had been cut and (poorly) crimped shut. I drove 250 miles across Wisconsin with basically no brakes. I FEEL COOL. Anyways, we called around, and nobody nearby had the line, so we bought a universal metal line and the rubber part from some other car, and got it all put together and bled. AWESOME. We went to test the brakes, and began putting the wheels back on... and learned that 21 year old lug studs like to just kinda give up. Broke three with almost no effort.

As of this writing, it's up on jack stands waiting for thursday when I get paid so I can get a new battery and 16 new lug studs.

 

One more picture

 

Also, the rims and tires you see are available for TRADE. Not going to sell them, only want to trade. Tenzo-RS5 or something (I don't really know rims. Could care less about em) Fronts are 18x8 and backs are 18x9. Front tires are really low profile and look stupid. I think 215/35/18, but I could be wrong. Back tires are mostly trashed, but have a slightly fatter sidewall. Look cool. I think 245/45/18. Looking to trade for a set of 15 or 16 inch rims with good tires. Looking to get something similar to the BMW basketweave wheels, or something similar to the Enkei classic enkei92 (whatever they are called. Google search BMW basketweave rims and you'll know what I'm talking about)

Got something you might like to trade for, text me. 651-829-4295. Gotta have good tires on them. at least 70% tread, prefer more.

 

I have been WAITING for you to post something on this car! I knew you were looking at cars, and I knew I saw pics on facebook of a car. Glad to see the sale went smoothly and the ride home... wasn't horrible

And we have done that to wheel studs, so don't feel bad. Once one breaks, they all seem to I think it will be a good project for you guys and hopefully we will see you with it some time at Sonic (Meow!)

Post up all that you do to it And of course more pics, cause we know you will have lots of those

 

More pics to come, hopefully. Laurenn has put the camera down and jumped in under the hood to learn about how to work on cars. Sooo sexy haha.

Today, we got to work on it, putting on new lug studs. Ordered the lower radiator hose, should be here friday or saturday, the guy said. Car won't start anymore. Battery is no good, and I think the coil took a shit. We dicked around with the distributor and tried to figure out what the hell the chilton was talking about (someone needs to proof read those things for understandability). Still won't start. I'm running on almost no sleep. Tired as hell, gave up for the day. Tomorrow after work getting a new coil and battery. FINGERS CROSSED. If it runs, I'll do everything in my power to get it to the next sonic meet, so everyone can laugh at how ugly it is. She made the car look WWAAAAAAYYYY better in the pictures than it really is. Pretty sure we paid to much for it. Only positive side is the more stuff we replace, the more stuff Laurenn learns. Also, learning my way around the car. Alot of stuff was removed under the hood (window sprayer crap, cruise, other useless stuff) so it looks pretty beast under the hood.

 

So today, we got it running. Got an early start, and as soon as Yeej and Evin came over, it began to show signs of life. Started off fixing the plug wires, cause my dad and my neighbor fucked them up last night, being that they are drunk and too stuborn to listen to me (or the chilton). Set the timing, got the plugs and wires cleaned up and installed CORRECTLY, made a few tweaks to the battery cables, regrounded the block and VROOM! Started right up. Threw a new belt on today, too, as well as a few other little things. Radiator hose comes in tomorrow (hopefully).

Embarrassing story -- in all my excitement to drive the car, I don't think I ever torqued the lug nuts on the new wheel studs, or the shifted while I was driving or something, because on my way to get some pizza on Hermes maiden voyage (yes, I named it Hermes. Yes, Laurenn hates that name) I was going up the hill on 2nd street in hastings and began to hear a clunking sound. I stopped right away, fearing it was something drivetrain related. I mean, snapping a driveshaft SOUNDS totally metal, but I can imagine that having it happen would suck. So long story short -- I need to learn some patience, and pay closer attention to what I'm doing. Lesson learned!

Also, we've only had the s13 for a few days and have already made a couple new friends because of it. Evin and Yeej both came out and helped us get it running. Both nice dudes. Makes me appreciate the local scene more, since they didn't come over and do the whole "my car is way better!" thing that alot of dudes do. They appreciated the Hermes for what it was. Glad I am finally making new friends who like cars =]

 

this could possibly be of interest.

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/cto/2535881400.html

 

^^Flagged =[

I don't have the patience to explain it all, but the car ran great after cleaning the electrical connection to the injectors. Then, something went horribly wrong and it began blowing the ignition fuses every time I turned it to run. I just can't catch a break with this fuckin thing... every day a new problem, worse than the last.

 

How is the car doing Matt? Anymore news, upgrades or pics?

 

no news bump