# The Official Awesome How-To Thread



## samo (Apr 30, 2002)

Okay kids, wer're going to play a game, and after that we'll have snack and nap time.

Okay, here's how you play:

Post your how-to instructions. Make sure they're comprehensive and easy to follow. Pictures are awesome. If you know of something that someone else forgot to explain or you can clarify it or whatever, post accordingly. From time to time I'll clean it up and make everything easy to read.

Okay, ready, GO!


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## sethwas (Apr 30, 2002)

Umm,
Just look at my signature.

Seth


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## Dynamitega (Feb 24, 2003)

I like Seth's how to's... I plan on doing them shortly. 

(Points down to his sig...)


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## AznVirus (May 8, 2002)

http://www.geocities.com/aznvirus25/eyebrow.html - How-To make fiberglass eyebrows

http://www.geocities.com/aznvirus25/advtiming.html - How-To advance your timing


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

http://1997ga16de.nissanpower.com/disclaimer.html

right now includes my 
GAUGE CLUSTER WRITE-UP
REAR DECK REMOVAL
POWER ANTENNA INSTALL
link to a nice writeup on ADVANCING TIMING

soon to come:
SAFE NEEDLE REMOVAL
LIGHTING MOD (LIGHTS TURN OFF WHEN KEY IS OUT)


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

UPDATE, I finally wrote the lighting mod. that page is now up on:
http://1997ga16de.nissanpower.com/disclaimer.html


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## Blu200SX (Jul 22, 2002)

I was wondering if anyone can post some how to do body kit work and patch up holes and whats involved in installing a body kit, like the products used (i.e. screws,Fiberglass resin, primer, putty, painting, sanding) and in what order to do everything in....i wanna do my own custom work...thanks


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## Teknokid (Jun 1, 2002)

http://www.geocities.com/yankeesfan728/throttlecablemod.html 

http://www.geocities.com/yankeesfan728/clusterbulbswap.html


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## GA16DESentraXE (Dec 17, 2002)

I have some Hot-To's on my website.


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## P11GT (Aug 3, 2002)

A bit long winded, but heres some how to's at the top of this page.

http://www.primeragtp11.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/claimsx.html

mainly to do with interior mods.


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## Nostrodomas (Jun 15, 2002)

Look in my sig to see the cold air intake how-to.


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## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

*How to paint your interior trim.*

N/T:

1. remove all pieces you want to paint (this is a given =P)
2. Wash, wash and wash those pieces until they are clean as f*ck. This step is extremely important.
3. For a professional finish, sanding is everything, start with a rough grit (300-400) and work yourself into a higher and higher grit, you want to remove that fake leather grain stamped into the plastic when you do this. You should have no traces of that fake leather grain left when youre done. Finish the sanding process with ultra fine grit. When youre done sanding it will look almost as if you had never sanded it at all. it will just be grainless and a lighter shade from being scuffed up.
4. Once everything is sanded and ready to go, wash, wash, wash and wash it again to get rid of all the dust from the sanding, there will be tons of it.
5. Once the parts have dried completely, lay out a newspaper, rest the parts on them, and have the following materials ready:

Plasti-Kote Sandable Primer (get the gray primer for light colors, and the black primer for dark colors).

Plasti-Kote color spray paint of your choice. I went with Candy Apple Blue, which has medium sized metallic flakes in the paint, its also enamel based.

Plasti-Kote clear coat of your choice. Because I went with Candy Apple Blue paint, I bought their Candy Apple Clear Coat as well, which has transparent flakes in it to enahnce the sparkling effect.

Have some extra sandpaper laying around (wet sanding grit, super fine/Utra fine works just fine).

6. Now with all your materials ready start dusting the piece you paint with the primer. it will take several passes to dust it properly, any gaps, gouges, and scratches in the piece should be filled with a heavy coat of primer, then sanded smooth later.

After about 3 full coats of primer, lightly sand it down smooth, and wipe it down thoroughly with a clean dry rag. Once you have established a good coat of primer, and filled in imperfections, you are ready to move to the paint itself. Make sure your primer has thoroughly dried before you attempt to sand it or move to the next step, or it will glob up on the sand paper and ruin all your work, or it will bleed into your color paint.

7. Next, again using the dusting method, lay down about 3-4 fully covered coatings of your color. make sure you spray from an even distance if you use a metallic flake paint, or your flakes will not distribute across the surface evenly. avoid runs at all costs. If a run develops, wait for the color coating to dry completely, then sand it out and respray the area with another coat. You should give at least 30 minutes for drying time between each coat, depending on the weather, more time for cold/windy/humid weather, less time for hot/arid weather.

Once you've finished with the color spray, evaluate the product and make sure there are no imperfections, even small ones will look worse ocne the clearcoat is applied. if you find them, fix them.

8. Now for the final step, using the same steps used above to paint your color, apply your clear, and allow for more drying time. You should put at least 4 coats of clear on to protect the piece from scratches and chips, interior trim pieces tend to take a beating.

9. Once your clear is finished, dried and glossy, evaluate your work again, any runs in the clear can be sanded out with ultra fine grit paper and then you can reclear over it. Once you are satisfied with the outcome, reinstall the pieces and enjoy.

THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE OPTIONAL:

If you want a professional looking finish, youll need to wait about a month for the clear coat on the interior pieces to cure completely. You probably noticed the orange peel on the final products, this is the way to get rid of that and make it ultra smooth and highly glossy.

The orange peel you should notice (if you followed my instructions), will be in the clear coat, and will be mainly visible when light reflects off of it showing redges in the shiny spots.

To rectify this unavoidable event, you go to your local autoparts store, but some fine grit cutting compound, and rent a buffer with a fine cloth pad.

Take some wet sanding grade sandpaper (1600 grit+), wet the piece down and sand lightly at it until youve removed the larger bumps in the clear. Once youve worn them down a good bit, you take the cutting compound, add it to a rag, and start sanding away with that. When youre finished you should notice a completely flat area, with no bumps or orangepeel whatsoever, however your clear coat will have fogged up and made the job look shitty. Have no fear this is where the buffer comes in handy. Take your buffer and begin to buff away at the clear coat, be careful not to overbuff or you will burn through the clear into your paint, just take your time, eventually your clear coat will shine back up like new, but without that pesky orange peel.

Ill shoot some pics of my interior when i get the chance, you can see what the result should look like, althought i did mine is less than perfect conditions (dusty/windy weather) it still came out looking almost professional. When midsummer hits ill be repainting everything so it comes out looking completely professional.

Good first attempt Sethwas, spraypainting is not as easy as it sounds, and it takes some balls to ripout your trim and risk making it completely ugly to try and improve the looks of your car. Hopefully my guide helps you achieve a more professional finish.


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## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

*Fiberglassing and Bondo in depth*

http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/html/adc/2003_civic/2003_civic.html

read it, learn it, live it, love it.


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## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

*Heres how to get out of california emissions laws, and it works.*

Heres how I solved ALL of my California smog law problems:

I bought my sentra while i was stationed in texas, obviously non california cars are not equipped with california smog devices. So therefore when i moved back to california, I would instantly fail a california smog test. Heres the catch though. My car is plated and tagged for texas. If you register your car in another state, and have the plates changed over, the smog laws for that state apply to you, and not the state you test in. So, my car only has to pass a federal emissions smog test to clear for registration. Anyone can do this semi-legally if they have a relative who lives out of state. All you do is notify the DMV when your next registration date comes up, that you now spend 51% of your time or more in the state you are planning to register under. Dont tell them you spend TOO much time in that state or they will force you to smog there as well. You will have to provide them with a mailing address in that state, and possibly some sort of mail sent to you at that address to verify you are indeed at that residence. I made a lot of friends while I was in texas, I have my registration mailed to a friends house there, he forwards the paperwork to me in california, I fill it out, and mail it back to him, and he then sends it out to the DMV for me. The DMV then mails my tags to him, and he remails them out to me in california, and everything is hunkey dorey. Make sure you do this with someone you trust implicitly however. You dont want to be mailing private vehicle information to someone youre on sketchy terms with.

With my texas plates and tags in place, when i go to smog all i have to pass is texas emissions standards which are only federal. If a cop pulls you over for having out of state registration and plates all you have to do is tell him you travel on business between the two states frequently, and they cant force you to change your tags and plates to california. It's worked so far, cops dont even question it, it would take a shitload of paperwork and possibly even multiple state surveillance to prove you are lying, and they have better things to do with state funds.


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## jblaze (Jan 30, 2003)

I do the above^^^^, but for insurance and car payment reasons, and I live in MD but have PA tags, its cheaper...I use my parents address. It's been working for almost 3 years now. Been pulled over numerous times and no problems. Plus i dont have to take smog/emmisions tests in the county where my car is registered. If I was in MD I would though.


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## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

*Minor dent repair, without damaging your paint.*

go buy a block of dry ice, and chip it up into small pieces with an icepick or a hammer (make sure you wear pants, long sleeve shirt, gloves and eye protection). Take a piece of dry ice and set it with some tongs on the dent, the extreme temperature change will cause the metal to shrink and pull the dent smooth. This will also allow you to fix the dents without ruining your paint. Just dont set it on the panel youre fixing for too long or it can stretch the metal abnormally thin and weaken it. Make sure you give the cooled area sufficient time to uh.. warm up before touching the spot or you can crack your clearcoat/paint. If youve done this correctly, youre dent will be gone, without having to damage your paint

I've used this method before when i was stationed in san antonio (golf ball sized hail at times), and it works well, just make sure you pay attention to the panel while the ice is on it, dont go get a sandwich while youre waiting etc. I did it with no prior experience as well so any first timer should be ok attempting it. If youre unsure of the method, try it on an obscure dent first.

dont use this method on abnormally large dents, it can warp the plate abnormally and then youre stuck having to have it professionally repaired anyhow. Abnormally large would be say... a cantaloupe or softball sized concave indent. If you have a dent of this size it will require one o those seen on TV dent repairing kits, or you could TRY a large chunk of dry ice (one sufficiently large enough to fill the majority of the dent) but im not sure how well it would work. Also dont use it where a crease has been formed in the metal, or a well defined fold, if you do you will still be left with a crease or fold in the steel. Its primarily good for taking out hail dings, and door dings. Generally speaking, you can use this method on any ding caused by a blunt object impact. It works great though, I highly recommend it.


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## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

*Homebrew Indiglo Needles (Not for the faint of heart)*

You can find the tutorial for homebrew indiglo needles here props to poisonfist of altimas.net for this how-to, I did it on my car, its a tough one but damn, it looks sooo sweet.


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## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

*Fixing broken gauges on your cluster (popping the needle pin out of alignment)*

If you tried the homebrew indiglo gauge mod and broke a gauge, heres how to fix it


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## toolapcfan (Jul 10, 2002)

I did a '93 b13 tach cluster swap write-up for NPM earlier this year:

http://www.nissanperformancemag.com/february03/b13cluster/

The wire coding might be different for other year B13's so you take a risk using that info on anything but a '93. 

Here's one that gets asked all the time and gets a lot of answers that I disklike. Here's how I usually answer it:

B13 aftermarket tach install:

Find a keyed hot, either off of your ignition switch or off of one of the various keyed hot circuits at your fuse block and connect the power wire for the tach there. Find a chassis ground for your ground or tap into an existing ground wire. If your tach is backlit and you want it to dim with your other dash lighting, then pull the dimmer switch out and connect the backlight's positive wire to the red wire with a blue stripe and the ground to the red wire with a yellow stripe. Lastly, connect the RPM sensing wire to the blue wire with a black stripe coming out of the #2 ECU terminal. It's the same wire in the same location and same color for either GA or SR ECU's. This wire can be found in a 6 wire harness located just behind the HVAC controls on the driver's side. The wire runs all the way up to the cluster and is lost in a larger harness, so you can connect it closer to your cluster if you're willing to take your cluster out and search for it.










Paint, prep, bodywork, etc:

To prep for paint a person can use a rubber hand block and sand with 320 to 400 grit paper. A foam block is good to have when sanding all the nooks and crannies. Never use just paper and your hand, you'll leave stripes and it's hard on your hands. Wet sanding does a nice job but you need to let the car dry for about 24 hours before you can paint, and you'll want to re-scuff the paint with a scotchbrite pad to open the paint back up. Any time you wait 12 or more hours after sanding before painting, you'll want to re-scuff the existing paint with a scotchbrite pad. Always use clean white rags or cheesecloth to tack off the paint. (Colored rags sometimes bleed) You can use compressed air first but you'll need to tack it off with rags after that. I like to use the Swiffer style of cheesecloth since it's rather lint free and doesn't have resin in it. Resinated cheesecloths can leave a waxy residue if you don't have a very light touch when using them. You'll want to use a primer sealer before repainting a car, especially in areas that had bodywork done or where the paint was taken off to the metal. Be sure to use a primer made for bare metal adhesion wherever needed. If you used a high build primer, you'll want to use a rubber hand block with 400 to 600 grit paper to sand before you use a primer sealer or before you base coat. If you are repairing rusty metal you'll want to use a paint called por-15 to prime the metal. It also isn't a bad idea to use it on new metal panels or places that you patched metal in, especially if they are places that will come into contact with water, salt, etc. I recommend using duraglas anywhere you need filler. It costs more than bondo and is a little tougher to work once it's hard, but it won't swell with moisture like bondo type filler's will. I also use Evercoat two part glazing putty after I've worked the duraglass, to fill in pin holes and the like. Use the right spray gun for the paint. Most high build primers require at least a 1.6 or larger orifice. 1.4 works fine for base and clear coats. Also use the right temp reducer for the temperature you'll be painting in, at least for your basecoat. If you want to fix small rust areas, a little thinner, touch up paint and an airbrush can do an awesome job. Just lightly thin the touch up paint and dump it into your airbrush jar. Several light coats allowing each coat to dry to the touch before applying another. A can of clear coat to seal will help as well.


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## toolapcfan (Jul 10, 2002)

I can't delete my own post? gay.


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## LethalAudio (Feb 12, 2003)

Just to add some stuff to Seth's "how to" interior painting. I found that if you buy one of those plastic tubs from Wal-Mart, you can save yourself alot of grief. When I was painting my steering column, I was bringing the top piece to the house from the shop and a gnat stuck to it and I had to basically start over to get rid of it. They make the tubs quite large and if you get a long one, there shouldnt be anything you couldnt put in there. It keeps the dust off and lets it dry pretty good and it lets you keep it clean if you have to take it from one place to another. Had I bought one from the start, I could have saved alot of paint...oh well, live and learn.
Also, if you dont want to buy a tub to put it in, you can dry the paint just enough to where soemthing doenst stick to it(but dont touch it cuz it will leave an imprint) with a hair dryer.
As for taking paint off...I know plenty about it, I had to start over countless times. After sanding and sanding, I finally took my pocket knife and held my thumb across the blade and scraped the paint off. IT leaves little ridges like when you peel an apple but with minimal sanding, it smooths it out.


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## James (Apr 29, 2002)

GA16DET Turbo kit install


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## kingsentra (Jul 9, 2003)

excellent thread


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