OK, so I finally got around to starting a thread about my car. This is going to be my documentation about the journey that I am going to take while bringing my car from where it is now, to where I want it to be.
Probably the first question most of you are going to ask, "Why Achilles?" I dubbed the car Achilles January of '06 when I threw the #3 rod through the block. The irony was that I was listening to Led Zeppelin's "Achilles Last Stand" when this occurred. Hence the name, Achilles.
Now I suppose I should start out with a little bit of history on my b13.
I purchased it used back in Dec. of '03 at the dealership I was working at for $2800. It had 71,280 miles on the odometer, all original miles. 5-speed, leather wrapped steering wheel, shift knob, power mirrors, sunroof, manual windows and locks! LOL How they gotta put in power mirrors and sunroof, and then leave you shafted with manual windows and locks. Oh well.
Shortly after purchase, I started doing minor stuff here and there. Nothing major till '05.
For the majority of my ownership the car looked just like this.
The first "performance" modification was a set of R-Active 9mm wires.
In March of '04 my neighbor was pulling into the spot next to my car at my apartment and hit my car. He drug his bumper down nearly the entire drivers side of my car. His insurance cut me a check, I had the shop I was working at do the repairs up to primer and I had plans to use the rest of the money on my car. Well, sadly, that didn't work out, so my car has been in this shape since.
That summer, I got bored one night working at the shop and decided to do a little bit of custom work to my interior. This was the result. Bayside Blue Metallic/ Athlete Silver
That was all that I had done to my car for a while. In summer of '05 I did a little more to my car. Wheels/tires, cat-back exhaust, WAI. This was the look. And it was LOUD! I loved it, just not the tickets
Quantum Tech 17's
Ebay canister, 2.25 cat-back, hallowed cat= really loud!
The money shot at the time.
Then I got a little bored and changed up my dash some again.
That was the extent of the work for quite a while. Then in Jan. '06 i blew the engine. #3 rod poking out the side of the block.
After that the car sat in front of the house till June '06. During that time, my sister was kind enough to remove my spoiler for me while helping me push my car into the driveway from the street.
Women! I told her to never push on the spoiler. Haha.
Well in June, I purchased a low mileage JDM engine. Went right in, no problems with it except for the down pipe for the USDM manifold doesn't quite fit the JDM manifold. So open header it was until my dad fabbed up a down pipe that "fit" out of my old one. And my buddy thought his '71 Chevy running open headers was loud... HA!
After I got it back up and running, I had to buy some new wheels and tires. (I let my buddy borrow my 17's after I blew the engine. big mistake. I got them back all bent and bald... How do you pull that off in less than 5 months in an ALTIMA?!) This time I opted for something a little more appealing to me. I would have purchased some Motegi Tracklites, but they were out of my price range.
So I got a set of bronze Enkie RS-7's and wrapped them in some SS595's.
The tranny went out on my on Halloween night '06. I replaced that New Years '07 with a G20 non-LSD that I picked up from pull and save. I redid the exhaust by removing the Ebay canister, put in the biggest resonator the shop had and a muffler, all to fit the 2.25 cat back that I already had in there. I didn't want to restrict my sh*t, just quiet it up!
Within the last two months I have lowered the car only with springs (I know, I know), replaced both lower ball joints up front, both sway bar end links up front, did the AD22VF's and the "Maxima" rears. I have, but still have yet to install the MC to complete the brake upgrade.
Here are some pictures of the brakes and wheels, and what it looks like as of today, 6/10/07.
AS22VF's painted bronze.
"Maxima" rears painted bronze. Yeah, I like bronze.
Close up of the painted AD22VF's
It was overcast today. Car lowered with nx2k Eibach Pro-Kit springs. 1.2" in rear, 1.4" in front.
The money shot. Thanks to nismo sentra for the VC. I have the matching fuel rail, just haven't installed it yet. Had a problem with getting the injectors out of my old fuel rail.
Hope you guys enjoy. Thanks.
Lance
