Nissan Silvia S13.5 kit bash

[sauranas31]

Hi guys. New to the forum and to model car building, as well. I normally do Sci-Fi kits (Gundam, Macross, etc.) but I wanted to branch off and try some new stuff. I don't do anything halfway, so I decided to do a kit bash and build a Nissan S13.5 (Nissan s13 Silvia hatchback with a Silvia S15 front end) and possibly turn it into a diarama of two drifters going down a Japanese mountain side. I built a 1:1 a few years ago, so this is kind of a tribute to it. I'm going to upload a few pics of the build in a few, so feel free to chime in with some constructive (or destructive!) critizism. Any help is appreciated since I'm pretty scared of this venture!

This is how they started life. Notice the difference in hood. It took me about an hour to figure out how to mate the two kits together:

Snip snip!

Edited November 6, 2011 by sauranas31

[sauranas31]

Finally figured out how to get the two kits together.

I want a clean look, so I took out the side molding indent thingies:

First coat of primer and final touchups:

Started working on the undercarraige. Just about done:

That's about 3 days of work right there. More to follow!

[n8dogginz]

YEAAAYAAA! Loves me a silvia.

[LAone]

nice a strawberry face s13. looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

oh and welcome to the forum.

[stulee11]

welcome dude !! cant wait to see how this one turns out gotta love a silvia

[sauranas31]

Thanks, guys! :)Not much work got done the last two days. I've been fretting over making a mask for the windshield and back windows.

First attempt:

Aaaaand... this is in between my third and fourth attempt:

I can't seem to get the hang of making my own mask, so today I'm moving on to other things. Dashboard, interior and just got back from the LHS with some supplies for a FMIC. They were completely out of the paints that I wanted, so I'll be working on other things. More to follow!

[sauranas31]

So I've been working hard at this. I'm making lots of mistakes, but learning quite a bit about building cars. I started painting before gluing the bumper on. Big mistake. Still can't get the windshield mask right. Trying to figure out how to work with Alclad. Frustrating, but fun. Pics later.

[surfjunke]

Your off to a great start. Nice clean surgery on the body. Welcome to the sight & to building cars. Those robot kits sure are fun & challenging to build & paint. I tried a couple of the Bandai 1/60th scale Pat Labor kits back in the 1990's.

[Dr. Cranky]

Looking real good. Keep it going, please.

[sauranas31]

I made a boo boo. Not sure what I was thinking. I painted the car body before I attached the bumper. Sigh. Paint and glue don't mix. Duh. Stripping the paint and starting over:

Getting the rims ready for some Alclad II Chrome:

Prepping the seats. Black inside, red outside:

[camaro73]

Looking very good so far! Keep it up!

[LAone]

careful what you use strip the paint. brake fluid likes to eat at putty.

i see your going with the rare chrome te37's. nice.

[sauranas31]

Thanks for the motivation, y'all!

I'm using Simple Green to do the paint strip. If that doesn't get it off I'll try Purple Power. Hopefully, it won't give me too many more headaches. Chrome TE37's, yep! I was going to try a Takata green or some other Skittles color, but since I'm going with hot pink pearl and black for the body, I didn't want the colors to be too busy.

When I test fitted them, they were HELLAFLUSH, so I'll be making some custom decals... illest Can't decide if I'm going to put the VOLK/RAY'S decals on them or not, though.

Edited November 16, 2011 by sauranas31

[Jantrix]

We generally don't see much kitbashing here of the tuner variety. Nice to see something new. Very cool. Except for the pink.

[Nick F40]

I 'll be following, this is sick!

[jbwelda]

if "purple power" is the same as castrol super clean, it will definately remove most putties (i say "most" because i obviously havent tried them all but everytime i soak a body in csc the body work disappears along with the paint.

killer build...now you say you built a 1:1 a few years ago...do you mean this hybridizing? i have never seen or heard of that before. i have a 96 s14 (just slammed into a big dog by the way...boo hoo).

with the windscreen you should think about just hand filling the window black areas using a sharpie. works pretty good especially on the inside of the glass and do a coat then let it dry then another or two.

looks great man, keep it up.

[Nick F40]

well, this really isn't a hybrid because in Japan, they had the Silvia and the 180SX (hatch back) Zenki and this is what most did, put the cheaper Silvia S13 (notch back) front end on the 180, thus Sileighty was then created. It's the swap all of the American JDM enthusiasts always want to do. A member on here, Gray Smith had exactly just that, except his was a 240 hatch (Kouki). With the S14, if you have a Kouki, a lot usually do the S15 front end swap.

[sauranas31]

William, I've own 4 different 240sx's and done this conversion on both my S13 and S14. I don't have any pics of my S13, but here's one of my S14.5. Most all of the parts are directly interchangable with each other. It's fairly easy to do, just a little costly. Fenders, hood, radiator support, bumper and headlights (900 for the pair for the NON-HID version ) Here's a pic of my S14.5 with custom drift battle damage! Oh, and the Simple Green worked great. Took everything off except the primer... which worked out perfect!

Rob, drifters get points for style as well as technique. It's a JDM thing

[sauranas31]

Stripped the paint and glued on the bumper and mirrors. All is well. Paint take 2 this weekend:

So I FINALLY got the windshield and rear window to be ACCEPTABLE. Still not perfect, but I think it's the best I'm going to get without a ton more practice. Also a little bling for the rimzzzzz:

[jbwelda]

kool man thanks for the pic. we are neighbors by the way, i live about 40 miles from tracy out in the delta. maybe we should get our 240s together!

ps: i am in the immediate need of a right front turn signal and a right side fog lamp if you got any originals lying around, please PM!

Edited November 18, 2011 by jbwelda

[Nick F40]

wow, ok then! you know what your doing then with the S chassis haha =] yours looks great!!

[sauranas31]

Ah, cool, man! My current 240 project is in shambles and I'm driving a 300 right now. I go through cars like there's no tomorrow lol! Once I get my 240 up and running, that sounds like a plan! I'll ask some of my contacts about some parts for you, though.

Thanks, Nick! I absolutely love the S chassis!

Edited November 18, 2011 by sauranas31

[LAone]

nice 1:1

looking forward to the paint job. the wheels look good, as do the windows.

[sauranas31]

Not much work went into the model this week. I might be putting this on the sidelines for a few, too. Model club is doing a P-47 group build for a display, so when that gets in I'm going to be working on that for a bit. I'll be switching back and forth when I can.

Interior shots. Still waiting on PE parts and flocking from the LHS This is a start, though:

Still have some detailing on the rear seats and the wonderful "doors" that Fujimi decided to not detail at all. Not sure if I'm going to try scratch building some window cranks and handles.

[RodneyBad]

Conversion is looking Great and your 1:1 looks Dang cool too!!