# My 1989 240SX



## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

Well, I guess it's time to officially introduce my "new" car to you guys. But first, let me say something brief about my '94 SE-R that I used to own. In Sept. '04, I lost the SE-R to a semi. 


Since then, I had been looking to replace it with another SE-R, but to no avail. So one day (Nov. '04 to be precise), I was looking up the classifieds in the paper and found a 1989 240SX for a good price. It was in so-so condition, so I negotiated with the owner and ended up buying it.


This is is how she looked like when I bought her:


























Not too bad, right? Well, not exactly. After I got around finding time to really check her out, I began to find issues. Here's what I found:


Driver-side rocker panel:














Driver-side frame rail:













Trunk region:













After seeing those three critical rust spots, I began to poop bricks. I couldn't believe how bad the shape of the car was. It almost made me regret my purchase, so much so that I had put the car up for sale. On a side note, I had also discovered the severity of the rust on the hatch. Let's just say that it needed to be replaced.


Then came relief. A loyal and very friendly Puerto-Rican customer of mine, Julio, heard of my melancholy, and came to talk to me. It turned out that he did body-work on the side, so he offered to work for a great deal, as long as I spread the word for him. So off went the car to his little shop for a much-needed repair. While the car was at the shop, I started thinking that this would be time when I could go ahead and trying doing the B13 SE-R seat swap that I had been planning ever since I bought the 240 (those with S13s know how much the stock S13 seats suck).


Anyway, here is what she looked like during the redo process:
























*New hatch waiting to be painted and installed:*














*The man behind all the work, Julio:*














After waiting a month, I finally received the 240. Here she is, in her newfound glory:




































As you can see, all major rust spots were well taken care of (you can't even tell that there was ever any rust on the rocker panel).


Like I mentioned earlier, I also got Julio to install the B13 SE-R seats, which in my opinion are the best OEM seats out there:













The rest of the car:


































Now that the body's all straightened out, I am moving on to the suspension. I'm going to be ordering some cheapo STBs from ebay, I'm getting a good deal on a slightly used set of KYB AGXs w/ Eibach Sportlines from a friend of mine, and I will be ordering a master bushing set from ES very soon. This project is getting to the point where I want it to be, slowly but surely.


Let me know what you guys think.


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

looks like my friend's 240, including the rust


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## wildmanee (Nov 21, 2004)

Of course the After looks awesome, the rear looks super clean as well. Good luck with it!


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## Slayer2003 (Jun 4, 2003)

Wow, that looked like some major work mang.with frame rot like that, I woulda thought to see more elsewhere on the car.

The finishing up loos great though, guy does some nice work.


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

Slayer2003 said:


> Wow, that looked like some major work mang.with frame rot like that, I woulda thought to see more elsewhere on the car.
> 
> The finishing up loos great though, guy does some nice work.




There were other rust spots on the car, but they were just on the surface. No biggie there. The ones I took pics of were the most important and critical of all the rust the car had. Soon, I'll be getting the underneath undercoated. I'm just waiting on doing the LSD, suspension and bushing upgrades first before I do the undercoating. 


I'm not sure yet motor-swapping wise. I'm not going towards the SR20DET for sure. They're way too overpriced because of the drift-craze (which I'm not a part of). So I am going to see what other good alternatives I have in that regard. I'll most likely settle with an SR20DE. That's good enough for my purposes, IMO.


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## Exalta (Jan 21, 2003)

nice restoration work Harris :thumbup: 

i like the way the rust was removed.Clean job right there.


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## thedaddies (Sep 29, 2003)

Came out really nice.=) Good job


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## Pat200sx (Jan 29, 2004)

wow dude, very nice job! :thumbup:


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## muccman (Aug 24, 2003)

how did you smoke the tail lights like that?


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## Dustin (Dec 14, 2003)

muccman said:


> how did you smoke the tail lights like that?


yeah, i may have to do that with mine, get the stealth look going, black on black.


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

I painted them with high-gloss spray paint. Came out real nice. Make sure to put only one coat, otherwise they'll get too dark.


And thanks for the compliments guys!


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## 200silvia (Jun 12, 2002)

Nice work, Have any plans for the engine?


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

200silvia said:


> Nice work, Have any plans for the engine?



Like I said, I'll most likely go with an SR20DE. Swap comes last in my list of work that needs to be done on the car. I'm first going to take care of the suspension/bushings. There is no point in swapping in a motor if your suspension is shoddy.


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