Run Away's Challenge Build

Can't believe I missed this! That's an awesome start to a challenge car. The Altima as-is with a good nitrous shot is already competive. Even more so in a lighter chassis 

Worse comes to worst you could front clip both cars and weld them together. It's a lot of work but the suspension is already paid for with the Altima. 

In reply to Stampie :

Yeah they make the total a round number. I haven't tried negotiating - they do have a price list for everything....some of the counter girls are definitely more relaxed about charging for stuff than others. I usually try to grab lots of stuff since they're likely to only charge for the couple things that are worth the most.

I didn't do great on the caliper/knuckle deal Saturday.

In reply to Professor_Brap :

Good to know! My current thought is to stick Nissan knuckles on a Neon control arm. Maschinenbau has a good thought too, maybe try to stuff the Altima subframe under the Neon. I'd have to see how it fits with the Neon K-member gone.

Messed around with the car a bit on Monday night. Swapped out the bad coil. Installed the negative battery cable. Let it idle to warm up. Noticed the headlights were strobing a bit so did an alternator test and found another problem.

Decided to take it for a quick spin now that it's not missfiring, has a semi-working clutch, and brakes that release.

Parked it and noticed this noise..hopefully this embeds

This car is such a piece of E36 M3. Not really sure what I'm going to do next.

In reply to Run_Away :

Tensioner?  But don't feel bad, most Challenge cars are pieces of E36 M3. 

Pretty sure it's bottom end noise.  Been mulling it over in my head. I think with needing an engine this car isn't going to work as my challenge donor.

One option I'm considering is using all the parts from the last Altima I parted out in 2014 for my V6 Sentra project. Pics of that Altima here. I could then go ahead with upgrading the Sentra to the newer "HR" style VQ35 found in the 07+ Altima/09+ Maxima/09+ Murano. I could use an "HR" VQ for the challenge car too, but that would be an extra $150 budget hit or so for only a ~20whp gain. Good deal for a non-challenge car, not really a good challenge move if you've already got nitrous for the drags.

I have receipts for most of the 2003 Altima, with the exception of items damaged in the accident (valve cover, o2 sensor, alternator, inner timing cover, IPDM/fuse box). The original ECU from that car ended up keeping the ECM relay on at all times killing the battery. I tossed that ECM already unfortunately, so I'd have to budget the $45CAD (after tax) I paid for the one I have now.

Here's a speadsheet comparing using that '03 Altima donor vs the current '05 Altima. Red is spent, green recoup, blue is the total.

I also put new OEM Nissan timing chains/guides/tensioner in the '03s engine as preventative maintenance. I've put about 17,000kms on that engine so far (daily driving it right now actually) so I don't know if I need to count that in the budget, or grab used timing components from the junkyard and include that into the budget to make it legal?

The chart for the junkyard part estimate for the '03 is on the high side, pretty sure they wouldn't charge me that much if I walked up to the counter with all the parts I had replaced in 2014.

The downside to using the '03s engine is that I'm locked in and have basically no recoup left. I only still have the complete audio system (inc parcel shelf amp) left over. No axles, sheetmetal, or extra wiring to use. But I know the engine, clutch, and transmission is good and will take a bunch of nitrous.

On the flip side, scrap prices are pretty high compared to a few months ago ($150/ton now vs $85) so I'm not in as bad a shape with the 2005. However, I don't see much recoup beyond scrap if I part it.

Ideally I think I'm going to keep my eye on the insurance auctions and cross my fingers another stickshift altima or maxima comes along. Start fresh, and maybe have some parts leftover to fix the current Altima up and flip it with a junkyard engine.

Maybe I should abandon the whole VQ thing and build a RWD LS car or something. Something outside of my usual comfort zone to challenge myself.  But I do believe the FWD VQ setup is an overlooked platform, especially for the money and I'd love to prove this with a decent challenge showing.

Anyways, that's my ramblings. Hope they and the spreadsheet sort of make sense. Mainly just writing stuff down for my own thought process. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: updated spreadsheet with accurate pricing. Junkyard's website was down yesterday

Hey, I love me some fwd vq. But don't be afraid to switch directions if you're not loving the one you're on!

I have just won two auctions:

https://apps.mpi.mb.ca/salvage/SlvgItmImg.asp?salenm=5794&itemnm=126

https://apps.mpi.mb.ca/salvage/SlvgItmImg.asp?salenm=5794&itemnm=192

Links will go dead in a few days.

Today's exchange rate puts me at $225.70 USD for the 2004 V6 5 speed and $215.74 USD for the 2008 coupe with the HR V6 and CVT.

I'm told the 2004 runs and drove to it's parking spot, zero idea about the coupe. Don't even know if either have keys. Now to try and get a uhaul trailer and stash them somewhere.

Remember, buy first, figure out the rest later.

SWMBO took the news that I had bought another two cars rather well, and even spent all day yesterday picking them up and moving them.

Got a U-haul trailer picked up first thing, I was waiting outside the door in the morning. I have to commend them on the COVID-19 precautions they were taking, it was really well done.

Picked the car up about 2 hours outside Winnipeg at a small repair shop. Middle of nowhere. Luckily the car came with a key. Battery was dead, had to boost it.

First start. Runs well, no check engine light. Exhaust leak at the Y-pipe, and it has some timing chain rattle. 342,636 kilometers (213k mi) on the odo so that's sort of expected. Alternator looks recently changed. Clutch felt good. Given the car's location it's likely it was all highway mileage, so who knows if the clutch it original or not. Unfortunately someone had swapped out the left rear wheel for the spare, so I only have 3 wheels. Auction pictures showed all 4 were present.

Made it back to Winnipeg and dropped it off at my work

The two Altimas togethere. The right rear tire on the silver one is flat, ignore the lean.

Underhood.

Now on to the 2008 Coupe. This was an unexpected win, I had thrown a bunch of lowball bids on a bunch of cars and trucks. I wanted a RWD LS/4L80 for my '69 C10.

I ran the Coupe's VIN at work after finding I had won the auction, turns out I know this vehicle, I worked on it about 3 weeks ago when the bodyshop sent it over for assessment.  I beleive it was a theft recovery as they had a key made for the car as well.

Here are my notes from what I worked on the car. The auction didn't have mileage listed, but 3 weeks ago it had 152k miles (US vehicle imported to Canada). So overall a bit rough and likely needs a new CVT soon, but runs well and drives okay. About expected for the mileage around here.

Picked it up inside the city at the auction compound. Manitoba Public Insurance is the sole insurance company, every single car on the road is required to carry full coverage through them. They auction off about 450+ cars every Wednesday - last week's auction was cut off Tuesday because of the long weekend. Anybody can bid/buy the cars, it's open to the public. They just changed to an online only format 3 weeks ago due to Covid.  First look at the car.

Overall impression is that I stole this thing. It's got a set of nearly new non studded Nokian Hakkas that i could probably sell for more than I paid for the car.

Annoyingly someone had stolen the key that had just been made for the car at some point, so I had to get creative loading the car.

I got lucky the steering wheel was locked in the straight ahead position and there was plenty of room in front of it. Chocked the trailer tires and used the truck to pull the car up on the trailer. The nose of the trailer popped up and the front wheels rolled over the chocks, but the second set stopped the trailer and up it went.

Deposited the car at home.

Rushed back to U-haul and returned the trailer with 19 minutes to spare before they closed. Here's some shots of the Altima. It's a fully loaded car with leather, navigation, 6 disc changer, HID headlamps. I should be able to make a bit of cash on this car, I'm super stoked about it.

Monday evening I'll grab a key from the bin of lost keys at work and get it started.

After that I need to get a better look at the 2004 car. Right now I'm leaning towards parting the 2008 Coupe and the 2004 Altima only and fixing the silver 2005 Altima to sell off since it's got a clean title. I'd prefer the 2005 electronics, but the other two have irreparable titles and make much more sense for the challenge budget.

Gave the '04 Altima a proper look-over this week.

Overall I'm pleasantly surprised with my purchase. All the suspension is tight, even the end links. There's a tiny bit of play in the LF steering, felt like inner tie rod but I didn't look close.

Went for a test drive too, clutch feels good, drives straight and quiet (other than the exhaust leak). No fluid leaks of any sort other than the valve cover gaskets are a bit slobbery. Probably why it's got a fairly shiny looking alternator in there. CV boots are all intact on this one too, an no seized brakes. Front tires match and have decent tread. The one rear is meh.

Scanned for codes and it's got a pending code for evap leak, so nothing I care about. Immobilizer code is likely from the first boosting attempt. Fuel trims and cam angles look good.

It does have light timing chain rattle. Goes away after idling for a bit, comes back if you rev it up. Interior is pretty clean and the PO cleaned it out leaving nothing behind except this CD.

Got a key programmed to the '08 Altima as well.

Here's the CD collection from that car from the 6 disc changer.

And a quick shot from this morning of my lineup of stick shift V6 Nissans.

Still on the fence about the 2005 silver Altima. Can't decide if it's worth fixing up mechanically and selling for a minor profit to someone who doesn't care about the cosmetics, or if I'd rather cut my losses and keep the good bits to upgrade my Sentra.

Moved cars. I now have 11 vehicles on the property, and this gives me anxiety.

Got the coupe stuck beside the preludes, the silver car near the back on higher (drier) ground, and the black altima beside the C10.

Then I retrieved the Neon on Thursday, which did it's best not to make it. It wasn't happy to be woken up from sitting, check engine light, alternator not charging, fuel gauge was dropping out, and one of the calipers is stuck.

But it made it

Took a better look at it

Ugliest bits

Came in on Saturday and made this

Into this

K-swap a Neon anyone?

Futzed about with some Nissan control arms I've kept from the scrap pile for mockup purposes. The thought is to use a Nissan knuckle so OEM axles can be used. Custom axles are out of the budget and my skillset. Neon control arms are cast steel, so I can't weld a Nissan sized balljoint into them. The Sentra and Juke arms fit the best, but neither will fit easily.

And today I got the powertrain ready to pull out of the black Altima.

One fuel line and one bolt and it can come out the top, provided I can angle it all enough to slip the trans past the frame rail. If I have to drop the subframe that's not too much more work from here either.

I also sold the fog lamps from the silver '05 for $30 and the right rear door lock actuator from the black '04 for $15.

Anybody have a less awkward way to document sale prices/receipts?

My buddy who gave me the Neon shell asked my to dispose of the blown up 2.4 from his mint R/T.  More scrap for the real budget, won't count against the Challenge budget though right? I'll have to separate it from the Altima stuff when I get rid of it all.

He also loaned my a Neon control arm for measuring purposes so I can keep the red Neon a roller.

The nice Stratus 2.4 is scrap because a tuning error resulted in the #2 piston doing this:

Returning the 2.0 and all ancillaries from the red Neon to him.

Scaled the Neon 2.0L

Finished pulling the VQ35

Scaled it too. It's a bit of a tank.

Washed the VQ and lost the AC compressor. Might have lost a couple lbs from all the dirt and oil sludge built up on it..

Not the same Neon, but same scales and almost identical spec car to the Challenge Neon. Only difference is this one has cruise apparently. So this is probably pretty close to what I'm started with.

Tried fitting the engine Friday evening. Quickly became apparent the drivers side mount bracket was in the way and not placed where I could use it, so off it went.

Still wouldn't fit. I had removed the alternator and thermostat housing already trying to wedge it in.

Factory cats were holding things up front and rear

So today (Saturday) on went the cheapo headers. I was a bit concerned with the amount of room the rear one took. On the flip side, these should perform a little better than the headers on my Sentra, as these ones have a lot more length before the collector.

And it's in! Headers did the trick. The hood doesn't clear so I cut some webbing out. Still won't clear, but it's close. Probably going to put spacers at the back.

It's just sitting in place with a chunk of 2x4 at the back, the factory mount bracket on the rad cradle in the front, and Altima mount with bushing removed on the passenger side. Once tucked under the cowl there's actually lots of space on both sides.

The rear of the transmission is up against the Neon K-member, not sure if I'll gain enough by rotating the engine forward a bit. That needs to happen anyways for axle clearance I think. I'll notch it if needed. So far I'm leaning towards keeping the Neon K-member.

Took a look at cooling, the radiator that came with the car is pretty trashed. The inlet and outlets are also poorly placed. I have space for 14"x27" of radiator at most. Need the bottom outlet on the passenger side and top on the drivers.

The factory Neon clutch cable also won't reach the Altima fork, so I may have to convert to hydraulic after all.

Not much room on the firewall for a clutch master.

So priority #1 is figuring out what I'm doing for axles. Here's what I got

Took apart the wheel side of the LH axles for Altima and Spec V Sentra.

I didn't bother getting this data for the Neon axles, they're only 23 spline and tiny. If I make custom shafts with Mopar outers, I'll probably use 2g Neon/Shadow/PT cruiser spec outers.

What I'd love to find is a company that could make some shafts with my spec length and splines, like below:

Anyone have any suggestions on who could make that at a Challenge acceptable budget? $140 for a pair is a STEAL.

Comments on anything very welcome! I know there's a lot of Neon guys here that know stuff I could probably use.

The only place that I know of off hand that deals in custom half shafts is Dutchman Axles in Portland, OR.  I have a couple of rock crawler buddies that have used them for weird stuff with good results.  I know of nothing north of the border, though.

Dutchman Axles

In reply to Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado :

Dude you've made my whole week! That's perfect! Thank you! I'm calling them as soon as I get the measurements

Alright, so I thought about it some more after calming down. I'm still going to try and junkyard a solution for my issue, but keeping the custom axle option open. I'm not sure the cost of custom axles (resplining is $135/pr plus shipping) but I'm guessing it's in in the $200+ range when all is said and done.

Found that the Neon lower balljoint stud is about 17.8mm in diameter, which matches Versa, Sentra, Cube, and Juke balljoint studs.

Versa has dinky 25 spline outer joints, but 07+ Sentra and Juke have the same 29 spline outer joints as the V6 Altima. Sentras are plentiful in the junkyard, so I grabbed a knuckle from one. Found one right beside an Altima for easy comparison.

Also found a manual transmission 03 G35 sedan, I grabbed the ECM from that thinking it was the same 287hp tune as a 350Z, but turns out it's only 260hp like a Maxima. Probably won't use it for Challenge purposes.

Also found a Spec V, used it to confirm my coilovers will slot over the 07-12 Sentra knuckle.

Also found a couple 05-06 X-trails, grabbed the axles from that since they're a Canada-only model with 29 spline outer joints and all catalogues I found have barely any info on them.

Total haul for that weekend was the knuckle, the pair of axles, and some sweet precision fit floor mats for my buddies Volvo 740.

Counter lady didn't charge me for the rotor, caliper, or floor mats.

Test fit stuff on the 23rd.

07-12 Sentra vs 1g Neon knuckles

1g Neon front strut vs Tien basic front coilover for 95-00 Sentra

Neon outer tie rod is too big for the Sentra knuckle, but that's okay as the inner tie rods on both are M14x1.5 so I would just need Sentra tie rods to match.

Neon pinch bolt is larger than Sentra. With the Sentra pinch bolt it can't slide off, but not ideal.

My thoughts are to spin the Neon balljoint stud 180, and make a small groove for the smaller Sentra pinch bolt. Below is Neon balljoint vs Nissan style, with where I'd cut out drawn in paint pen.

Unseized the seized up coilovers, and adjusted them to almost full low.

Pressed two studs out and put it in at max camber for loose test fitment.

Bolt spacing on the knuckle doesn't quite match the coilover, but that's an easy fix.

With the wheel jacked up until the front of the car starts to come off the hoist arm, things look pretty good. Lower control arm is level, tie rod will have a slight downward angle (Sentra tie rods insert from the bottom of the steering arm).

Put on a wheel from my Spec V with a pinched 245/40/17 RE71R. Tire rubs the coilover so lower offset would be needed. Tested turning angle, okay angle when turning right

Tire runs into the frame rail pretty quick turning left though. I think sticking to a shorter tire might be needed for this car.

Put in the Altima axle and found it's way too long.

Sunday the 24th I went back to the junkyard.

Pulled the transmission from the G35 sedan I spotted last weekend, and scored huge.

That's an almost new Exedy clutch with matching single mass flywheel. New this combo is about $1k USD! I considered taking the CD001 trans for future budget LS swap shenanigans, but it's stuck in place with the rack the car is on. According to the internet, this flywheel will work in a FWD format if the timing ring is removed and re-clocked properly.

Unfortunately the Spec V was no longer there, so I wasn't able to grab the LSD from it. Next one....

I also did some more axle disassembly and measuring.

Total for yesterday's trip was $55 CAD taxes in. Counter lady didn't charge me for a washer fluid tank for my dad's Volvo V70.

I've also been slowly selling bits of pieces from the Altimas. Here's a rough breakdown of where I'm at with the Challenge budget. I've thrown in a few guesstimates for recoup on the shells when I'm done based on the last Altima I scrapped.

And I've been poring over catalogues trying to find either

1) short enough axles with 29 splines at both ends

2) outer CV joint with 29 splines going into the hub and 35 splines in the joint to fit 02-06 Spec V axles, which are the shortest axles with the correct inside splines

3) a knuckle with 27 spline hubs that will fit a Neon balljoint so I can use un-modified 02-06 Spec V axles

So far of all the 29 spline outer joints I've found ones with 24, 25, and 27 splines but not 35. In fact, ever one I've checked has been different.

I may look into building a custom set of lower control arms that will accept Altima knuckles so I can use stock Altima axles. Budget hit for something like that is about $77 USD for 4 junkyard control arms and a lot of my time, but that's far beyond anything I've ever attempted to fab.

Oh, here are the catalogues I'm using:

http://gsp.by/Catalogue_GSP.pdf

Lots of euro stuff, cars we don't get. Pretty detailed though.

Interparts, which for some reason re-directs to allballsracing now but I have the PDF saved on my hard drive. PM me if anyone wants it.

And Rock Auto for everything else. Moog parts have the best info for balljoints, and Suretrak has the best CV axle info.

If anyone has some better links please let me know.  Or tips on building custom control arms.

Oh and this morning I scaled the car.

Junk in the trunk.

Result. Cross weights are not accurate, I just placed the pads down wherever.

That's missing fluids, a battery, and a bunch of little stuff. But also without any weight taken out. I'm hoping to keep it under 2500lbs without making it a tin can.

More mucking about with things

What this means is that I could probably use stock Altima axles if I graft 13-19 Sentra lower control ams to the Neon subframe. If I align the balljoints so that the wheelbase would be stock, it widens the track by about 2" per side.  13-19 Sentra control arms are under $60 USD budget hit for new arms from Rock Auto.

The downside is that I would lose the front sway bar. I could possibly add it back in a different location, but that's more time and budget as well as reduced ground clearance if mounted below (don't think there's room above).

Also this

Much more work to fit the Neon subframe, like a lot more. But I could potentially use both control arms and knuckles from the 08 Coupe, which is zero budget hit. 32 sline axles, and all aluminum control arms and knuckles. Not sure if I can fit 15" wheels over the brakes on those knuckles. Same sway bar issues, but worse since I can't weld to the aluminum arms vs the steel Sentra arms.

This weekends update. Went to work and played with the car a bit on Satuday. My initial plan was to pull out the subframe and start cutting it up to fit 2013 Sentra control arms. Wasn't feeling super motivated and didn't feel ready to start cutting it up yet, so I went through the GSP catalogue again and found it listing the 07-12 Altima 4cyl CVT axles having the exact 29 spline outers with 35 spline inner that I needed to make 02-06 Spec V axles fit. So all I ended up doing was taking a bunch of weights.

Part of that was pulling the engine to measure how much the shell weighted so I had an accurate figure for my FMV proposal. In the process of pulling the engine out, I bent the cowl back which cracked the windshield.

I posted this thread here and fortunately the consensus is that replacing the glass shouldn't affect my Challenge budget. To add insult to injury, I then clobbered the crank sensor connector putting it back in. I was in a pretty E36 M3ty mood for the rest of the day.

Sentra arms are longer which would allow the stock Altima axles to fit without bottoming out.

Another snag in fitting Sentra control arms is the Neon bolt is larger diameter than the Sentra bushing sleeve.

Since this bolt doubles as the subframe retaining bolt and the captured nut isn't accessible, I'd need to change out the Sentra bushings, which are not the same size either. If I were to go this route, I'd probably turn some delrin bushings that allow the Neon sleeve to fit inside the Sentra arm. The Neon bushings are hammered and fell right out when I unbolted the arms.

Weight of the shell sans engine. I forgot the front sway bar was out, so add 9lbs to that figure.

Work borrowed my truck to scrap all the used up control arms/rotors/etc this week so I got accurate local scrap pricing. Using 1867lbs and $120 CAD/tonne puts the car at $112.02 CAD in scrap weight.

Weight of shell with engine sitting there. I'm hoping I can be at 2500lbs with the car running and driving.

Today (Sunday the 31st) I went back to the junkyard. First things first I checked on an 07 Altima axle outer joint and hit the jackpot!

Also spotted another 05 Altima VQ35 5 speed manual and grabbed the ECM and complete engine wiring harness for that. This probably won't be used for the build, but it's a nice extra for future VQ35 swap shenanigans.

And from a 00-01 Maxima I pulled the right side axle because I need the support bracket for use with Sentra Spec V axles on the V6 engine.

I also grabbed the rear block drain as I'll be deleting the factory oil cooler on the challenge car because of clearance issues. I tried to get the oil filter mounting bolt, but I didn't bring a 12mm hex and my idea of using a 12mm head bolt double nutted failed. Too tight.

So in total, today I collected

-two 07-12 Altima 4cyl axles

-left side 07-12 Sentra knuckle (complete with rotor and caliper) to go with the right side I bought earlier

-right and left outer tie rod for 07-12 Sentra

-both front brake hoses for 07-12 Sentra

-all four strut pinch bolts for 07-12 Sentra

-two lower balljoint pinch bolts for 07-12 Sentra

-right side axle bracket for 00-01 Maxima

-block drain bolt from 00-01 Maxima

-crank sensor connector/pigtail for VQ35

-ECU from a 05 Altima V6 5 speed

-complete engine harness for 05 Altima V6 5 speed

Counter lady must have been in a good mood because this is all she charged me for:

Hopefully I can test fit the knuckles and axles for real, once I've confirmed everything fits I'll start building engine mounts.

There is a few people who have chryo v6 in neons, might be helpful to check then out to. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah I've checked a few. Jimbo on neons.org has lots of good info, unfortunately most photos fell victim to the Photobucket fiasco. His posts really helped with find out what Mopar axles might possibly mate with Nissan inner halves. I'll also be going back to his info on putting a hydraulic clutch master into the car. I need to find out the Neon hydraulic master cylinder size, most parts listings only show them as a complete pre-bled system with line and slave. Nissan has a 5/8" master.

Puttered around again yesterday. To fit Spec V axles, the intermediate shaft hanger needs to move inwards from the V6 axles. This is the crappy solution offered by one company that offers 01-06 Sentra V6 swap mounts. It involves stacking washers. My own Sentra has a slighly improved setup, I had the hanger machined down flat and a precise shim made to fit the gap so no washers are involved. I don't have a Challenge budget friendly solution at this time, just seeing if these axles will fit.

So it turns out the Spec V axles with 07-12 Altima 4cyl outers are almost too short.

The axles have about 2" of travel from fully compressed to fully extended, and as you can see with the axles fully installed they're right about at the fully extended mark. That's with the suspension at full droop, but there isn't much droop with coil overs. I also was able to dial in the engine placement a bit better with both sides having axles, I had to raise the back a bit so the inner CV joint clears the subframe. This means the hood has to be spaced at the back.

I also tried swapping a stock Altima axle on either side and shoving the engine all the way over in the opposite direction to split the difference, but that's a no go either. With a stock Altima drivers side axle, the axle is fully compressed still when the engine starts to run into the subframe and front core support. With the Altima passenger axle, the transmission runs into the subframe and the shifter actuator runs into the frame rail.

Also discovered the 07-12 Sentra outer tie rods don't in fact fit the inner tie rods. I miss-read the specs.

Fortunately Moog has a nice search by dimension tool. I ordered some vey cheap Firefly inner tie rods that hopefully fix that issue.

I was finally able to sell stuff off the black Altima and I'm pretty confident I'll be able to zero it out. I also picked up a set of 3 Spec V wheels with very old tires for $80.

I think the official motto of this build is " I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work ".

Question: If I find a Spec V Sentra at the junkyard again and assembly a hybrid axle while inside the yard so I only pay for 1 pair of axles vs 2, is that a dick move or cool?

Run_Away (Wears Clogs) said:

Question: If I find a Spec V Sentra at the junkyard again and assembly a hybrid axle while inside the yard so I only pay for 1 pair of axles vs 2, is that a dick move or cool?

 

Totally cool. There have been several presidents.

Watching you work through this is awesome.

It's been a long time since I've updated, and I've been meaning to for a while. I'm trying to upload some photos using Imgur, but it doesn't seem to like batches of photos >10.

I've basically not touched the car at all in almost 6 months, but I have been busy with other stuff.

We decided to start house renovations this summer and of course scope creep was in full effect and it's still not done. 

-Completely gutted the master bedroom down to studs, re-insulated and added 1" rigid insulation. I'm actually hoping to hang some drywall in there today still. 

-Re-wired the majority of the house, from a new panel to almost every junction on the main floor. This included digging around the attic which is 3.5" of wood chips, 3.5" fiberglass bats, and 16" of blown in insulation on top. Horrible work.

-Tore up flooring through most of the house which we assumed and treated as if it were asbestos. This flooring touched all 4 outside walls of the house. Did it properly with plastic sheeting enclosing everything, P100 respirators, tyvek suits, and a negative air setup that had enough suction to start tearing down the plastic sheeting (had to make some properly sized relief holes). Disposed of properly with the city. Kitchen had 5 layers, now there's all 5/16" plywood underlayment and I'm playing with self leveling cement which is fun.

-Replaced all but 2 of the main floor windows with new triple pane windows

-lots of drywall work. Framed in a new closet and half wall for the end of the kitchen. Removed and sanded down most of the doors and re-painted them.

In non-house projects I have got my scooter running, got my motorcycle license, and bought a CRF250L.

I also put in a little work on my auto-x car with a new rear wheel and suspension upgrade.

And my buddy and I parted out a rusty Prelude in his driveway. He owns my old Prelude I bought in high school that burns a lot of oil and recently had an encounter with a curb requiring a new subframe. This car has only 90k kms and was a perfect donor.

Meanwhile the Neon has been untouched, but my advertisements for the parts car were up and I've slowly been selling off parts. With winter on it's way, I made a push about a month ago to get rid of some of the junk in my back yard.

First, I sold the original Altima which started this whole thing. Bought without a key, got it running, found the clutch was toast, swapped in a clutch, found the engine was hurt. Made a small profit on it.

-scored some Mevotech branded SPC adjustable rear camber arms from RockAuto, thanks to a tip from the Neons.org facebook group.

-scored a set of four Sebring 16" alloys from a former co-worker who bought a set of used winter tires and needed 5x114" wheels. Haven't put them in the budget yet, he was tossing them in the scrap pile so I'll have to FMV them.

-scored an aftermarket stainless steel cat back from the junkyard off a 04-08 Maxima. I had two Magnaflow mufflers someone had added, mine for only $20 after tax

-sold off bits and bobs from the two Altimas. Also stripped the '04 4 door of everything I needed and sent it to scrap. Zero'd out on the  Challenge budget, made a profit of almost $400 in real-world money. You may recall I got the car with only 3 alloys and 1 donut spare. I sold one alloy, bought two of the same wheel with tires from the junkyard, and then sold things off as a set of 4 just as people were buying up wheels and tires for winter. Sold the Nokians from the '08 Altima coupe for more than I paid for the car, as I had hoped.

Here's all the wiring from the B pillars forward, pulled uncut from the '04

Got some spare sheet metal from the quarters and the roof to patch up the Neon

Rented a Uhaul and scrapped the Altima and a parts car Prelude in one day to save on trailer rental costs.

Got $166 for the Altima. One knuckle and the two rear wheels/tires are not part of the challenge budget and were added just to make it a roller, but it was zero'd out on the budget anyway before I even scrapped it. $9.50 for it's battery.  The rest of the stuff isn't challenge related, mostly wiring and plumbing from the house reno project. The Prelude I loaded with random scrap I needed gone and got $126 for it.

Here's my current budget:

Feels good to have 3 cars out of the yard. Real world budget I'm about $300 CAD out of pocket for all 3 Altimas and the Neon, Challenge budget I'm at about $940ish USD. Still have the cats and shell from the '08 coupe to scrap as well.

I've discovered the instrument cluster on the Neon is actually worth some money as it's an "export" model with the 8k tach so I should be able to zero that out. Depending on what I use for the nitrous kit and electronics I may be able to trim the budget further. Big ticket items yet are a seat, wheels, steel to fab mounts and control arm stuff, and of course paint/bodywork.

Maybe in a couple weeks I can get back on to the Neon. My next step is cutting up the 2gn lower control arms and making them wider to fit the stock Altima axles. Then engine mounts can be made.