Dave Bloomfield's 1999 Silvia S15 Spec R Pewter Areo

[David Bloomfield]

I am now the owner of Darren's S15 Spec R Pewter Aero, I bought it from Lee in late Jan 2014.
It replaced this... fast but thirsty and safe... too safe...

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However I got it home and began using it for work and at the weekend for fun! Great car love it! So the first pictures I got of the S15 once i bought it I guess is this one...

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[David Bloomfield]

I have a few more recent pictures of the car to go up now I've organised my photobucket!

So the first thing I did in 2014 was replace the awful metal gear knob it had, went back to a brand new oem!

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Then another cheap little job, had to replace my exhaust rubbers which where perished - and lifted the system tighter to the under side of the car which was bonus!

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Next little job I got done, (which really worried me) having my intercooler sitting right out front with no protection in front of it! So I broke out the chicken wire and a little bit of paint to just to add a little bit of bling haha!

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Finally with a few of the little niggles sorted could get on with a bit more of an interesting job, which would be tracking down all the bits I required to complete the mounting of these sexy things which I got with the car when I bought it!

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Finally tracked down the R33 hubs and cables - from some mystical old guy who was everything skyline and drifting and whom was mid way through building an RB30 Capri!I also got my discs and pads to complete the deals plus the usual bit of detailing bling!

All pre-assembled just to check I had actually bought the right stuffs! :nod:

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[David Bloomfield]

When the discs turned up got carried away with them being 299mm... Not knowing that when they were fully fitted to the car they would look tiny haha...

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I'm a stickler for the details, so courtesy of some 370z Nissan caliper stickers the calipers got finished!

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Finally, got round to fitting them up at work...

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Finished off, wheels back on and home looking tiny under the 18s haha!

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[David Bloomfield]

So with the brakes all fitted up, obviously needed to be tested which went great! Dialed the handbrake in, although the cables are too long I think because the handbrake works but the travel is ridiculous! Then after a few quite months winter came the car went into hibernation, welcoming my £1000 'winter beater'

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A 1999 2.2 Accord Type R in pirate black! Loved this car so much a great winter passed by with this even took it to brands... with a few pals and their project cars at the time, even went sideways down Paddock Hill accidentally... with girlfriend screaming in the passenger seat haha!

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Even went after the original wheels for it, and did the center caps in gold myself at work

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[David Bloomfield]

In the winter, started to learn a little a bit more about the art of paint correction and got interested in how to make the cars look show ready... started from the bottom learning on the rough and ready accord...

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Then after a lot of time and effort ended up getting hooked and getting a D/A machine and trying my hand at doing it properly on my cars and the rough and ready accord ended up looking like this...

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Reflection shot!

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[David Bloomfield]

With the end of winter coming little niggles surfaced in the S15 again, first on the list was the ball joints! A simple job... NOPE! I bought like four different sets of the things every time assured they would fit the car... Gave up in the end and bought these...

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After finally sorting these out, all was well. Until driving to work one day, started to notice on high boost especially from a roll on in higher gears I was starting to get some clutch slip...
After a fair bit of research I decided that an upgrade was in order and decided that a single clutch is what I wanted, so I went Nismo...

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Got it all fitted up...

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However with it all assembled realized that something was wrong, took the gearbox back off... Started cleaning it up, whilst trying to work out what I had done wrong. Then it hit me, I compared the old duel mass to the new Nismo unit and after a heated discussion with the Australian company I used to import the part, they admitted fault having sent me a nismo fly for an S14... They sent me another flywheel free of charge and I got to keep the S14 one! Result! Good Guys! After switching the flyhweels over all went back together fine!

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I believe that my clutch is now rated for 450ps!

 

[David Bloomfield]

After the clutch install my focus turned to the aesthetics of the car again, my new found love for the detailing/ paint correction had lead me to pay real attention to the minor things. There where several things that I wasn't very happy with on the car, some to note - the side skirts where starting to look a little rough with stone chips appearing etc, front end had various stone chips and the rear spoiler which had bugged me since I bought the car needed to be addressed; as on its underside the paint had gone flat... So I spoke to one of the other apprentices about having some of the work carried out on the car, being a painter by trade all ready he pointed out several more areas that he thought would need to be done at the same time, especially as many panels would end up being blended into for the job to look of proper quality...

So before winter came I decided to have the car booked into body shop, Brook Street Repair - Grove Farm.

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and another mid process shot, I know these guys are super busy most of the time and am really grateful that they took the time out to snaps some pics of the car whilst it was there! Would recommend then, as long as you don't mind waiting for the car to be finished... LOL!

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After much debate around the front bumper with the guys at the bodyshop, they managed to convince me to colour code the splitter on the front bumper, I have to say that the picture they sent me didn't do it justice IMO but in person it really does make the car look fresh!

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Thank fully that was just a test fitting of the bumper to see that i approved of the colour coding! :nod:

Had to get a close up picture of the spoiler, which had bugged me for too long, which ended up looking like this!

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[David Bloomfield]

Winter fast approaching again, cars almost ready for hibernation just wanted to give it a good going over with a fine tooth comb before it went away. Out comes the D/A machine and all the various compounds and polishes to accompany it! I was advised to use a long lasting wax rather than a concrete like sealant, my detailing guy suggested that I use Colonite which I really can recommend! I put it on and the car was still beading up like crazy wash after wash through the winter. These are a few shots of it just before it went away.

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Here I was really trying to refine my technique with the D/A, trying to neater my overlaps on the various passes, quite impressed with this tbf!

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Went through the interior too, told you my handbrake position is ridiculous!

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Finally an engine bay one, its always a joy to go through it spending time polishing all the chrome and various orange bits!

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[David Bloomfield]

Now the Silvia had been put into hibernation again, it was time to welcome the new... well this time its not a beater as such more a daily driver - as I had plans forming for the S15... So it was bye bye to the brilliant Accord Type R and Hello to this Honda Accord Euro R, the first Accord won me over so bad after looking around for awhile at over cars which I liked and would have been able to afford (the later being the main constraint LOL) I decided it had to be very similar just more modern for day to day comfort. After many long discussion with my friends especially Matt Rainbow who did a very good job of saving me from myself as I tried to make Evo X's & JDM Hawkeyes fit the bill as a daily. I ended up going with this! Collected it from Leeds...

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I bought the car from a little independent who had a few cool bits of JDM goodness rolling about. Another shot with the Euro R home to make it a JDM driveway!

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[David Bloomfield]

So finally after writing up massive chunks at a time I'm caught up almost to present day. So as it with every year first thing to do was to sort out a little niggle jobs, and this year it was really time for me to attack the battery tray, as rust had got to it! Lucky I caught it early so it was pretty easy to treat!

So I rubbed it down just rough...

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Then I just quickly covered it over with a few coats of wet on wet 'Hammerite' came out of tbf!

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Came out ok when it all dried out. When the cars back on the road I will get it colour matched to the rest of the bay, just wanted to stop the rust in its tracks.

 

[David Bloomfield]

Now finally my plans, to upgrade the car this year have finally gotten rolling! I purchased many parts for RHDjapan and FRSport. Pretty much I want to build a responsive SR whilst maximising the modification that are already on the car! I have spoken to Bernies Blowers and he and Steve (FC tuning) have advised me to use the GTX2867R as I'm really interested in the small GTXs as their performance have been impressive on many builds I have followed. To accompany the turbine upgrade, I decided that a few other mods would help me build a more responsive and powerful SR which include: Tomei Pon Cams, Tomei Turbo elbow, Tomei Valve Springs, Tomei Valve Guides, Tomei MLS head gasket & Tomei Adjustable Cam pulleys. I bought a few other bits like, ARP stud & nuts, Nissan full gasket kits, Chain and tensioner, guides kit, Nissan front cover, Nissan water pump & Bosch aux belt kit.
Some of the part are pictured below...

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Comparing the Tomei expreme elbow to the one currently mounted on the back of my turbo.

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The Tomei 1.2mm MLS gasket.

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Tomei Cam pulley! Bling!

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Tomei Pon Cams!

 

[David Bloomfield]

Im trying to do as much of the mechanical work myself, as I am a training prototype mechanic for Fords. So heres my progress so far...

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Finally had the engine all turned over so all the markings where aligned, although when I took the rocker cover off of the SR20 I noticed that the top guide was missing!
:|

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Got OEM cams out all neatly laid out so it should be really easy on the reassembly with the new cams!

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Almost ready for the head to come off!

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Head is removed now, all looks in really good shape to me! No nasty surprises here! Now the head is off its ready to be sent off to the machine shop. Going to have the head skimmed and the OEM valve guides removed and replaced for the Tomei parts! So when it returns it should be ready to make powers! :nod:

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Got some serious cleaning to do now and then trace this oil leak back which looks to have been leaking for some time! I suspect it to be the top right corner of the front cover, good job I'm replacing everything around there! Gunna have to break out the cleaning materials on my next go under the bonnet of the 15! Next on the list is crank pulley off and front cover off and then start to clean and rebuild as I go!

 

[David Bloomfield]

There we go guys, up to current now sorry its taken so long! Two years of ownership compressed into a couple days worth of writing up haha! Any question with what I've done, give me a shout guys!!

 

[Judd]

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Some nice work going on there and well done for doing as much as you can yourself. :thumbs:
You should put the thread up on the SXOC mate, you would get more appreciation on there due to this forum being so quiet!

 

[David Bloomfield]

Hi, cheers I appreciate the comments! Yeah I guess so, I only really finished this up yesterday and when I finished I did have quick peak over at SXOC, but thought CBA to do it all over again, is there anyway to reproduced this quickly over there?

 

[David Bloomfield]

Right bit more has been done on the S15, since the head has been off I've been a busy boy!

[/URL][/IMG] This was just after I finished peeping the block sealing face, I have to say time well spent! Much improved with almost total removal and no sign of any trace left over head gasket!

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So after I had prepared the top of the block, I was looking at the rest of the engine thinking to myself ah this is in a sorry state! Poor old girl, looking bit old greasy and unloved really... Not to mention the remnants of a very persistent oil leak...

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This is the best picture I could get really, of the oil left behind with everything moved mostly out of the way! I think it was leaking from the place which I've read many SR's suffer from which is the top right hand side of the front cover; so hopefully when fitting the new one should solve the issue.

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So feeling bit sorry for my poorly old oil stained SR, I went out and bought some consumables to degrease and just generally renovate the engine/ bay! So when I got home from Halford's the cleaning begun!

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What do we think? Time well spent again! The results I think speak for themselves! No longer a grubby old engine! Well on the road to recovery!

So that was the fun over and done with, after fighting the front cover off in the first place, and after a few hours of research, I realised that the only way I was going to be able to fit the new front cover was going to be by removing the upper sump! (as stated in the service manual). So, after I followed the manual through I quickly realised that although it was involved it wasn't as bad as I was making it out to be! He says! So yeah four hours after I begun, I got the upper sump off! Well done Nissan some clever stuff deigned into it btw! I ended up aching and covered in oil, but least I have finally reached the halfway stage! Heres a pic to laugh at of me looking a state...

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So yeah, its the finally push now! LOL look at this guy ^^ What a mug! Just got a few more parts to buy for the car! Thinking Tomei baffle sump is gunna be on the list too! So more parts to come!