The deciding factor for me came down to a few things when i looked into doing this. But what sealed the deal was the cost. When i got the 90 GTU chassis it had no motor, tranny, wiring, radiator, ect. ect. So I started making a list of what i needed to get this car going. Added everything up to see what the cost would be. Then compared it to buying a front clip, wich comes with everything I would already need. Doing the RHD swap actually saved me a lot of money.

And truth be told, I am really against the whole JDM thing. I didnt do the RHD swap to be JDM. Besides the cost factor, I wanted to test myself and broaden my fabricationg and build skills. How many people have done swaps like this, and fabricated as many one-off parts as this car? yes theres a few, but not many. Especially not ones that drive on the road 7 days a week. This is my only running car. I drive it to school, work, the store, ect...

Also, im infatuated with delivering mail. Contact me on Super Speedy-Rotary mail delivery! lol...

 

I prefer these one piece seats to the TII ones. These are lighter and i dislike the adjustable headrest on the TII seats.

My car sat lopsided with the stock one. And just about every FC does... lol. Its a huge problem that no one seems to know how to fix. But... after i installed my camber bar, its almost perfectly even now. I only can tell if i measure the wheel gapdifference. So mine actually fixed the FC gansgta lean.


Many RHD FC's are making huge power. Also, its becoming all to normal to see 350-400whp out of a hybrid stock turbo these days. Plenty of room for upgraded turbos, or a larger hybrid. Either way, steering column has no effect.

 

looks good as hell man. were did you get the mazsport lip from?

 

Its not a Mazsport lip. Its a lip made by rob xx7. search his name and you'll find his thread.

 

oh thanks. mazsport used to make/sell lips that looked just like that

 

Adjustable headrests which edition was that? Plus you'll be making plenty of power, the 2-3 lbs difference wont kill you for some seats that actually have some side bolsters

Love all the custom work btw, plans for the sunroof?

 

Just did the entire read. Great stuff. Took me back to last winter when I did a rhd swap on an S14. However I took the route of cutting the entire firewall out and using factory weld seams to make it appear factory.

I agree 100% that when it comes to the swap mounting the steering column/pedal brakets is the hardest part because you really have no "landmarks" to go off of. The crossmember is cake and in my case the firewall was just lining up spot welds. (I didnt change the wiper arms either)

Question though: what did you do about your rear chassis harness? For my swap I just bought a JSpec rear harness and plugged it in. Did you twist, extent and splice the USspec harness or buy a complete Jspec?

either way it looks awesome man, arent the little surprises awesome when you first unwrap the clip?

*may still have pics of my firewall work if your interested*

 

Im actually re-doing the roof now. Im replacing crap rusted/dented metal and re-doing my see through roof. Ill post pics when its done. I grew fond of the light weight roof and kinda like it now. So i have no plans of ever going back to the original style sun roof.

What im doing is cutting out all excess metal and even cutting out all the metal from the front of the sun roof to the windshield. There was still some rust and was dented up enough for me to be annoyed by it constantly. So i went to the junk yard and had them cut out a section of the roof so i can replace it. im using Lexan now instead of the crap plexi-acrylic **** that warps in the heat and cracks when trying to screw it in. So after i replace all the metal, ill be shaping the lexan and using about 50+ rivits to secure it in for good. The picture in my head looks pretty sweet. Hope fully it comes out that way.


Thanks

For the harness, I just tryed splicing the front JDM cut body harness to the stock USDM harness that was in the car. Wasnt to hard. Some of the wire colors matched up. But theres a whole lot that didnt...

 

Here are those pics, I dont have ones after we cleaned up the metal prior to welding it, but it was basically a mix of spot welds and lap welds.





Steering column and pedal brakets:




once the car was done:

photo credit to K!NCH

 

/\ nice job!. Ya I did the same with my rear harness. I had an s4 shell so most colors didnt match up with the jdm harness

 

More updates...

I made my own motor mounts. They are made from a very strong plastic type material. I also made a steel sleeve for the bolts to go through. Im happy with the overall outcome of them. And will be much better than my highly worn out stock mounts. I also added tranny mounts, but i didnt get to take any pics...

 

More updates coming soon... just havnt taken any pics of the new stuff.

 

I added a rear strut bar. I also, FINALLY GOT REAL COILOVERS to match the front!!! about damn time!

 

Then cause i was REALLY bored one day, I broke down the rear taillights and did the "modernizing" to them. Basically i removed the honey comb crap behind the lens. And then i sprayed it with translucent black paint for a nice and mean look... Im digging it.

 

Pics to compare the tailights...

 

yes, its true. Even more custom fab work to the car...

After looking at the stock UIM, I really dislike the design. Air go's in and hit a flat wall for the primary runners. And there are hard abrupt corners everywhere in the primary and secondary areas. So i cut it open, sandblasted everything, and ground out most of the bumps, corners, and round edges. I then added JB Weld to help smooth the air flow.

Before i go ahead and weld it back up, anyone have any good ideas to further improve upon this "experiment".


Here's what I came up with:
*These pics are before the sanding, polishing, and finishing.


Stock:

 

And doing some inside work:

 

And welded back up like nothing ever happened. I will not be getting back on a dyno until i do a few more things to the car. So i will not know the real advantages of this. But im sure it will compliment the rest of the work i have been doing just fine...

 

So I hated the shift **** that was in my car. It was steel, so it burns my hand in the hot Florida sun. Which in turn makes my hand sweat and easy to slip off it in a quick shift. And wasn't really all that comfortable... So, I made my own. I came up with what I call, The KTEC death ****...lol

 

^ummm lol

 

a little late but amazing job!!!! i wish i had the skills to do all that.

 

what material is that **** made out of?

 

Billet aluminum.

I made 2 others that are more practical. They sit lower, are much shorter and have no spike. I just like having this one for my daily driving.

 

careful not to impale your hand!! ha

 

Can't wait to see the results with that manifold!

Doesn't aluminum get hot as well?