My Ceffy

[Stang]

A couple of days after the hills run in previous post, I took the Ceffy to Seaton Crash Repairs to fix up the rear bumper and boot lid. Since it was pretty discoloured and burnt, I asked them to respray most of the rear bar, in addition to cutting out a neater square opening for the exhaust, and painting the boot white.

After a few days, the car was a ready to go. As you'll see in the photos below, it looks a whole lot cleaner from behind compared to when I first bought it. Photos taken with a Canon Powershot A480.

Stopped at a small carpark near home to snap a couple of shots in the sunlight.

And back in the garage at home.

Sadly, the Ceffy was to stay in the garage for a very long time soon after the respray, as I became too sick to drive for nearly a year.

[Stang]

This post by far covers the least active and most unpleasant period of time I've owned the Cefiro. As I mentioned in the previous post, soon after the respray, my health problems got to the point where I was not really able to drive.

In the middle of July, I got worse and was admitted to hospital for ten days, due to the nausea being so bad I couldn't eat or drink enough to get adequate nutrition or stay hydrated. Which is a lot less fun than it might sound, see this post for more details: http://carscameraschronicillness.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-story-hospital-2010-1.html

I was still very unwell when I came home, so the Ceffy continued to sit in the garage, waiting for me to drive it again. The next couple of months consisted mostly of lying down and trying to eat a fairly marginal amount of food, and barely having the energy to sit up for more than a few minutes at a time.

August 18th, 2010.

I was missing being able to drive the Ceffy, so in early September I borrowed a battery charger from my Uncle Paul, and hooked it up for a couple of days to resuscitate the battery. As you can see in the photos, there were already a few spiders making the Cefiro their home.

September 11th, 2010.

So after giving the charger a couple of days to do its thing, I lowered myself into the driver's seat, with my Canon Powershot camera running video next to the exhaust. After not being driven properly for several months, I wasn't sure what to expect, or if it would even crank over and run properly after 6 weeks of sitting silently in the dust.

Surprisingly, the engine came to life as soon as I turned the key, and settled into a smooth but high idle within 10 seconds or so.

I let the engine warm up for a few minutes, and then slowly eased it out of the garage and onto the road. Just hearing it idling was nice, but it did feel good to actually drive it again. I was still rather weak at this point, and the clutch on the Ceffy is pretty heavy, so after gingerly driving it around the block a few times, I headed back home and nosed it back into the garage again.

Just the exertion of that short drive took the rest of my spare energy, and I spent the rest of the day lying down trying to recover. While I was obviously very unwell, I thought getting the car running again was a step in the right direction towards recovery.

Little did I know that I would not be well enough and able to drive it again until June 6th, 2011.

Edited August 16, 2011 by Stang

[Stang]

While being somewhat stable in a way for a couple of months, at the end of September, my digestive system pretty much decided that it didn't want to have to go to the effort of moving food through my body. Obviously this led rather quickly to me being hospitalised again. And if I thought the previous hospital visit was pretty awful, it paled in comparison with the torturous 7 week hospital stay I was about to endure.

Just as a warning, there are a few medical-ish photos below if you're sensitive to that sort of thing.

With my upper digestive system basically closed for business, I had to have a naso-gastric feeding tube inserted into my stomach. while completely awake and alert. It was a pretty horrific experience, and it actually felt a lot worse than I imagined it would, so whatever you think it might be like, it's worse. It's hard to describe, but the sensation was like someone was coiling up a rope in my throat and all the way down to my stomach, and strangling me while I was gagging, choking, coughing and being unable to breathe. Both my girlfriend and my mum had to leave the room after the first 30 seconds of attempting the insertion.

As you can see in these photos my girlfriend Sally took on her phone in early October, I'm not exactly the picture of health.

So I went from having some nice wheels to drive in the way of owning the Cefiro, to being relegated to a hospital bed and wheelchair for a couple of months.

I was around 63kg at the start of 2010, but by late October my weight had plummeted to 50kg. After spending weeks with the naso-gastric feeding tube rammed down my throat, the doctors decided the best long term option for me was to have a jejunostomy. Which essentially involves surgically implanting a feeding tube directly into the jejunum, which is below the stomach, as my stomach wasn't working at all really.

About a week after the surgery and once I'd stabilised a bit, I was finally able to go home in late November. I really wasn't any better, but after the surgery there really wasn't much else they could do.

The next few months I felt too sick and weak to do anything at all, besides lie in bed trying to make it through to the next day. It wasn't until February that I even took any more photos of the Ceffy, when one of my friends dropped round in his JZX100 Toyota Chaser.

February 3rd, 2011.

Checking out my hellaflush spiderwebs.

March 7th, 2011.

Gathering yet more dust, webs and associated plant debris.

May 26th, 2011.

By this point the whole car was coated in a layer of dirt and dust, peppered with some paw prints from nearby cats. I was also wondering if I would need some sort of winch to pull it free from all the cobwebs connecting the chassis to the ground.

I managed to very slowly pick up some strength in the first few months of 2011. At the end of May, I was still extremely sick, but was able to contemplate being able to drive the Cefiro again, so I made a post on Performance Forums to ask about getting it running again. It hadn't even been started since that brief drive in September, so I wasn't sure how much I might need to do to get it back on the road.

Coming up in Post #11; Bringing it back to life.

[Stang]

After the months of being essentially bedridden during late 2010 and the first part of 2011, by April I had started being able to get out again here and there. Towards the end of April I was gaining a bit more strength, and when one of my friends David dropped round with his 'new' Nissan S14 200SX, I thought that since it was such a nice day, we could try going for a bit of a drive.

After he had driven up the Port Expressway to Wingfield, I thought that since I was still feeling relatively ok, that I could try having a bit of a drive in the S14 myself. So after pulling over in a side street we swapped seats, and for the first time in nearly a year, I was finally back behind the wheel of a turbocharged car for a proper drive.

The tank was running very low so we filled up on the way back to my place.

I was pretty worn out after that, but it was worth it. After being a bit hesitant about driving my own car for a while, going for a trouble-free drive in the S14 helped give me some confidence and incentive to go about getting my Ceffy up and running.

So a couple of weeks later I made a post on Performance Forums asking for help with getting the car back on the road, and organised for a few people to come around on June 5th, a Sunday afternoon.

Given that there were heaps of spider webs all around the car, particularly underneath, I thought it would be a good idea to grab a couple of bug bombs, to kill any spiders or other insects that might be lurking around the chassis and suspension. I then went to Supercheap Auto to pick up a few necessary bits and pieces, like fresh oil, coolant, oil filter, fuel filter, oil change pan and so on. I put them in the garage next to the Ceffy, and hooked up the battery charger again, ready for Sunday afternoon.

Dad put a couple of the bug bombs under my car on Saturday evening, closing the Cefiro in the garage so they could do their thing.

I woke up on the Sunday morning feeling rather crook, but fortunately once I turned the Ensure feed off and gave myself a few hours, the nausea had settled down somewhat by the time a few of the guys showed up. Adam & Marek from PF showed up around 2 in the afternoon, followed by one of my old friends Prach.

With my dad cooking up a few chops and sausages on the BBQ, the guys set about getting the car ready to be driven again, while I sat down and took photos.

First item on the list was putting some air back into the tyres, they looked fairly ok, but Marek had brought along an air compressor, which he hooked up to his Pajero and re-inflated the tyres to their recommended pressures.

While the bug bomb was fairly effective at killing the wildlife living in the Ceffy, there were still a few redback spiders clinging on to life underneath the car, which was a little unnerving when working in close quarters. Or so I'm told.

After pumping up the tyres and removing excess redbacks, topping up, flushing and replacing the old coolant was next.

The coolant they drained out looked pretty gunky, and hadn't been changed since I bought the car.

[Stang]

After draining the old coolant and refilling it with the fresh stuff, it was on to the next pivotal step; starting the car up again.

Despite having been charged for a couple of days, the battery in the Cefiro was completely dead after so long that not even the lights worked, if I recall correctly. So it was out with the current battery, and we then pillaged a working battery from my parents' old Corolla hatch.

With a few minutes of spanner spinning, the battery was hooked up to the leads in the Cefiro.

And then came the big moment; firing up the engine. I neglected to have a video running at first for some reason. After a second or so of cranking the ignition, the RB20 roared into life. It was idling quite high and somewhat roughly, but for a car that hadn't been used for so long, I was expecting it to be a lot harder, particularly with such old petrol sitting in the tank.

After running it for a while to let the engine settle in, as well as moving the coolant around and getting the oil warmed up, I decided it would probably be easiest and best to just grab a new battery from Repco at Port Adelaide.

I took a few photos of the cars the guys turned up in. Prach (in the 2 photos above) has this 1997 JZX100 Toyota Chaser. With a custom tuned computer and some extra boost, it makes around 200kw at the rear wheels, which makes overtaking very easy.

Adam has a cool little Mazda MX5 Clubman, with a 1.8 litre turbo engine making 114kw at the rear wheels. You know a car is small and low when a Corolla hatchback looks kinda big in comparison. I haven't been in it, but considering how light the car is standard at 1010kg, the handling must be similar to a go-kart.While Prach's Chaser obviously makes more power due to a 2.5 litre 6 cylinder 1JZ-GTE turbo engine, it's also much heavier, tipping the scales at around 1500kg.

Marek drove his much more practical Mitsubishi Pajero 4wd on the day, which we jumped in to head over to Port Adelaide for the new battery.

Spotted this nice Ford Falcon FPV GT-P at a set of traffic lights.

After lugging the battery back to the Pajero, we headed back to my place.

This bright orange Ford Escort on a trailer caught my attention.

Pulling up at my house, you can see the size difference with the MX5 and Corolla more clearly.

So with a new battery installed, I started the car up again, and let it run for a while, before carefully easing it down the driveway and onto the road, for the first time since September 2010.

After getting it warmed up first, the engine only stumbled a bit as I very carefully took off in first gear up the street. The wheels bearings or something related made a bit of a scratching noise at first, but it had stopped by the end of the street. I puttered around the block a few times until the oil was up to temperature, then pulled back into the garage for the oil change.

Here's a short video of the engine running, and me going for the first drive.

[Stang]

Marek then backed the car out into the driveway so we could set a few things up to drain the oil.

Just after getting it back into the garage, one of my other friends Daniel turned up in his Nissan Pintara wagon. It's quite a good sleeper, running a CA18DET engine from a Nissan 180SX, the car makes around 160kw at the wheels. Certainly enough to surprise some V8 Commodore owners.

[Stang]

The guys then got some wheel chocks, stands and a hydraulic jack, so the car could be lifted up to drain the old oil.

[Stang]

[Stang]

After the car was dropped down back onto all four wheels, Marek started pouring in a few litres of fresh oil.

Once it was topped up again, he started the engine again to let the new oil spread around a bit.

Following about 5 hours of hard manual labour from everyone except me, the Cefiro was back on its feet, finally ready to just be driven after such a long hibernation.

You can see a bucket half-full with the old oil sitting on the concrete.

Coming up in post #12; on the road again.

[Stang]

Bah one post disappeared...

Marek then backed the car out into the driveway so we could set a few things up to drain the oil.

Just after getting it back into the garage, one of my other friends Daniel turned up in his Nissan Pintara wagon. It's quite a good sleeper, running a CA18DET engine from a Nissan 180SX, the car makes around 160kw at the wheels. Certainly enough to surprise some V8 Commodore owners.

The guys then got some wheel chocks, stands and a hydraulic jack, so the car could be lifted up to drain the old oil.

[Stang]

[Stang]

[Stang]

After making the big step of getting the Ceffy up and running once more, I was finally able to start driving and go to different places in it, which hadn't happened for a very long time.

First up was getting some fresh petrol in the tank, although on the way my girlfriend Sally and I stopped off at the Semaphore Fish Palais, which was about to close down. We picked up a few things in preparation for an aquarium, including a stand which just fit into the boot.

I then headed over to West Lakes, babying the car at low revs with the dodgy old petrol until I got to the Shell petrol station, and topped up a third of a tank with some V-Power premium fuel.

After being in the garage for so long, there was a distinct layer of dirt and dust on the car, and given my lack of health and energy, I decided to drop the car off to get washed while we went into the shops.

With the Cefiro's heavy duty clutch not being the most user-friendly, when I handed over the keys to one of the attendants, I warned him that the clutch was pretty gnarly. He brushed the comment off with a wave of his hand, saying 'We drive lots of different cars all the time.'

He then proceeded to stall the car trying to move it into one of the wash bays, which was kind of funny considering his response to my advice. I was just bringing my camera up to take a video and missed it, but got him scraping across one of the bumps, after getting some advice from his boss about the tricky clutch.

With the car cleaned up nicely over the next half an hour, a couple of days later, I headed over to a crash repair shop to ask about respraying the bonnet and front quarter panels on the car. The shop had done the respray on my boot and bumper soon after I bought the car, and did a good job, so he had a walk around to make an estimate on the cost.

Here's a closer look at the scrapes on the front left quarter panel and bumper. It's not drastic, but enough to make it look untidy, and along with the bonnet, was something I wanted to get fixed up and resprayed.

Back in the garage after the wash, the Cefiro looked much brighter with all the accumulated dust and grime removed.

It was good just being able to run around doing relatively mundane activities like going to the shops.

[Stang]

Late one afternoon I drove to the local Foodland, and took a few photos from different angles in the car park while I was there.

While the car generally looks a plain creamy white, it does have a blue pearl running through that shows in direct sunlight on some angles.

I was also finally able to go and visit a friend at his new house, although the 'natural' driveway at the time wasn't the cleanest area for parking.

With the Cefiro coming back into frequent use, and my general health improving, I figured it was time to continue on my initial plans to modify the Cefiro to how I wanted it.

Coming up in post #13; the second round of modifications begins.

[Stang]

Since the Cefiro was now getting driven regularly, although still somewhat gently, I thought it would be a good time to take the car to Boostworx to check that everything was running ok, replace a few bits and pieces, as well as install a front-mount intercooler.

For some reason I hadn't consciously noticed that the coil pack cover on my engine wasn't there, I mean I knew it wasn't there, but hadn't thought about it until my dad mentioned it. So one afternoon I headed over to Nisswreck to pick up a replacement.

There were a few cars lined up in their yard with expensive windscreen stickers from SAPOL.

So after waiting a few minutes while someone rummaged around out the back, I headed back home in my friend Prach's JZX100 Toyota Chaser, and stuck the cover in the Cefiro's boot along with a few other bits.

[Stang]

After ringing Shaun at Boostworx to discuss what I wanted done to the Ceffy, a few days later I went over to the workshop so he could have a look at it, and see what needed to be done in regards to trimming the bumper, installing and fabricating the intercooler and piping.

When I bought the car, it came with an HKS 300x600mm intercooler and a bit of piping, among other assorted parts. I was wanting to keep the look of the car fairly low-key, and have the cooler sitting behind the front bumper. I've seen quite a few Cefiros with a huge chunk of the front bar cut outto fit a large intercooler, with shiny metal piping sticking out underneath the car, something that would probably attract unwanted attention from SAPOL.

After talking to Shaun about it, we went back out to my car, popped the bonnet and he had a look inside to see how much room there was for one. Considering that I wanted to keep the front bar intact, there was no way the 300x600mm one I had was going to fit without some major hacking. Not wanting to do anything drastic, I decided to just get a smaller 200x500mm intercooler instead, which would fit behind the front bar without any major cuts into the bodywork.

There was some piping from the other intercooler that could be used, but I wasn't sure how much could be used, and what might need to be fabricated to fit correctly. After sitting around for so long I thought it would be good to also flush the coolant system, change the fuel filter, put new spark plugs in, replace worn rear brake pads and machine the discs, put the 'new' coil pack cover on, and finally doing a test and power run on the dyno. The car was standard power-wise apart from the exhaust, so besides checking that it was running properly, I was interested to see how much power it was making.

There are always a few interesting cars around, this 32 is a good example of a huge shiny intercooler. Definitely something that would need an aftermarket front bar to fit.

After dropping the Cefiro off and handing over the keys, I left the car there while they did the work on it for around a week.

[Stang]

In the meantime I went to Japanese Import Spares to get a more subtle 'Nissan' rear light garnish, to replace the CEFIRO one in big capital letters which I found too obvious.

Pulling up in the car park, there was a purple Cefiro sitting out the front. A cool looking and different colour, but the panels had certainly seen better days.

Inside the JIS workshop, there are loads of new and used performance parts all over the walls, floors and racks, to the point that it's hard to know where to look at first.

Plenty of suspension options on the rack here as you walk in.

Some very nice BBS mesh rims which I would love for the car, but at $2600 for the set, probably not the best use of funds.

After asking one of the guys there about the rear light garnish, there were actually two options for the 'Nissan' one, dark red and light red. With my car at Boostworx I couldn't just go out and look at it, so after a couple of minutes of thinking and my girlfriend Sally suggesting it was the darker one, I bought it.

Coming up in Post #14; the Cefiro at Boostworx.

[Nic_A31]

Why did you buy a new centre garnish?

Sell me your old one.

Preferably dirt cheap.

They're pretty rare, so don't throw it out, lose it, destroy it, or sell it to a Mexican plumber.

And good guess on picking the darker one.

Series 2 = darker (matches the dark edges of the taillights)

Series 3 = lighter, matches the lighter and narrower edges of the taillights)

Edited September 18, 2011 by Nic_A31

[Stang]

Mostly because the huge CEFIRO in capital letters struck me as kind of 'loud' in a way, and it's a bit more anonymous with just the small Nissan text. I haven't seen any other ones though as far as I can remember, it's sitting in the garage at the moment next to the old grille...yours for $75 if you want.

[GravyGarage]

Just read through the thread. Very detailed write up dude. Good to see all the little details. Car is coming together nicely!