Yay... working windows.

I have gone five years now without working windows. In 2007 I wired up some toggle switches to the motors themselves and had them sot of working, but it was a terrible setup and one day I finally grew frustrated and ripped them out. Now that I have focused my finances on my car, I decided the first thing I needed to fix was the windows. I knew that the power amp assembly had gone out and it was just a matter of replacing it.

I picked one up from Courtasy Nissan, for $90 shipped. Installed it and turned the key to the ignition spot and clicked the window button. Nothing happened. Of course i felt that moment of fear that maybe this was more than just the power amp assembly. Upon further investigation, i found that the fusable link that is up in the engine bay was burned out. Replaced that and it works! I had to stick a spring under the "auto-down" button as what ever kicks it back up was broken. On the passenger side if you pull up on the switch, the window rolls down, but you can't roll it up. At this point though, I don't really care.

Clean seats... what a difference

I pulled my seats out and shampooed both the seats and the floor carpet. It took about 12hr's but the outcome was worth it. Below is a serious of before/after photos. Its been about two weeks and my car still smells amazing when I get into it. I plan to re-shampoo in a couple of weeks, to get rid of the layer that has now been pulled to the top.

Body work... one day at a time.

The Body:

Currently, I have body panel damage down the entire passenger side. In the picture above you can see that the front fender was crunched, the door got swiped and there is a large dent on the rear fender. Actually there are a few large dents on the rear fender.

I recently purchased a door from a user on the NICO forum. It arrived with a few minor dings and some paint missing from the bottom of it. I am leaving it off the car as of now until I get the rest of the body damage repaired.




It was a great deal and I couldn't pass it up at the time. I am also looking for a front fender, hopefully in great shape. The rear fender will also have to be replaced but I plan to send it to a body shop as the welding and cutting involved will be far beyond my current skill set.

The Interior

Current List of current missing/broken parts on the interior:

Missing center console cover. - I currently have the new one - need to mold it to fit to my screen. Should start working on it soon.

Stereo wire showing everywhere. - Still haven't resolved this

Shift boot tattered

Shift knob from Kragen - needs to be replaced

Holes in shifter area cover. - attempted to install switches, didn't work out.

Holes in door pieces. -

installed tweeters in wrong location. - Tweeters are now in their correct location, need to deal with old install holes.

Seats in terrible shape - Cleaned, they look great now

rear deck cover vibrates - fixed, the Rear top seat needed to be connected to the bottom seat.

steering wheel falling apart

Speedometer doesn't work - since 2003 - Indiglow gauges (terrible idea)

I plan to slowly replace or repair all the issues that I am currently having with the interior. Eventually I will start a couple of projects that should improve the overall appearance and functionality of my interior. I will post more information about them soon.

KA24DE

This is the stock KA24DE on my 95 240sx. Since i acquired the car in 2003 I have had to replace the timing chain, water pump, radiator, and valve cover gasket. As of today, it runs great on the cooler days, bogs down quite a bit on warm summer days, and eats through oil. I haven't done a compression test in a few years but the last time i tested it, #4 was sitting around 135psi, 20psi less than the other three cylinders.

My speedometer broke shortly after purchasing the car, leaving the mileage in 2003 around 135,000. With all the driving I tend to do, i'm assuming I'm over 200,000 at this point.

Current modifications = None, with the exception of a cut air-box, although i'm pretty sure this is limiting my power, not improving it.

Plans = Turbo setup. I plan to pull the engine, rebuild with forged parts, have the head worked on, and set everything up for a T3/T04E 50trim, .63 A/R. I would like to push somewhere between 300 - 400hp, but still maintain daily driving ability. I will be looking into doing the "White Bunny" setup to hold the power and keep my leg from breaking. My average daily miles are 25, leaving me yearly, to and from work, at 6,500 miles. I do like to take it on trips occasionally so I expect my average for a year will be around 8 - 10,000 miles. I hope that the setup I'm working on will be strong enough to not cause many problems driving this much.

The Master Plan

As of now, current planning includes keeping the stock motor and rebuilding it. I know that since I have owned it, I have kept the Oil up, replaced a few parts, and have maintained it as well as I could while running it hard.

Ultimate Goal:

Rebuild the engine for a turbo and push anywhere from 300 - 400whp. Simple but solid suspension. Clean interior, and improve the overall appearance of the car.

Current status of car:

As of now, I have been hit three times, once rear-ended, once side-swiped in a parking lot, and then backed into in a parking lot. The rear bumper shows no real sign of damage but the entire passenger side has suffered decent body damage. Nothing happened at high speeds so I am not too concerned with the frame. Need to just have the body panels replaced.

The engine is probably sitting around 200,000 miles as the spedo broke at 130,000 in 2003. The compression in chamber 4 is 20lbs lower than the rest of the chambers and there is plenty of oil being burned.

I have been through three cheep clutches from Auto zone and have no intention of sticking with that idea. The Synchros in the transmission are obviously warn and there is a whine when ever I am moving or the clutch is disengaged. I expect that to be a bearing. I hear a clicking from the rear passenger tire when I first start to accelerate.

The interior has received minor smoker damage, but I quit smoking in my car about a year ago. The drivers side window doesn't seal correctly. I plan to have that looked at. The seals on the rear window are missing the cover piece.

Where it started

I accidentally purchased my 95 Nissan 240sx in 2003.

I had gone to a few different dealerships and had finally settled on a 2000 Dodge Neon. When I returned to work, I explained to a few of my coworkers that I was working getting a loan to buy the Neon and thankfully one of them explained to me how terrible of a decision that would be. He further convinced me to actually hand him the $5,000 I had in the bank at the time and that he would go out of town for the weekend and return with an impressive car. Gullible me, I handed him the money and waited for a phone call from him.

I did get a little worried when Sunday came around and it was 7:00pm and I still hadn't heard from him. If he didn't work with me then I probably would have started to make some phone calls. But he did finally call, around 9:00pm and asked me to meet him at the front gate. At the time I was in the military and he wasn't able to drive the car on base until it was registered in my name. He picked me up and we went out to his house that was located off base. When we pulled up, I fell in love. Sitting in the dark was a sexy looking rear end with a much too large muffler. I jumped out of his car quickly and ran up, running my hands down the long curves of the body. He sat down in the drivers seat and I jumped as the motor roared to life. I was hooked, grinning from ear to ear, listening to that thing purr. We took it out for a quick spin, at which point he showed me how easy it was to break the back tires loose and how solid the acceleration was, which at the time was more than enough to throw my head into the head-rest.

The rest was non-stop fun and entertainment as I took that car all over Texas and New Mexico. It ran great, beat everything out on the street, including the newer V-6 Eclipse's. I was in heaven... that is until i started to notice a few things going down hill.

Since those original first couple of years, my 240 has been on a steady decline. As of now it gets me to and from work, with occasional fun on rainy days.