Zellybean wrote:Hi everyone.
I am very new to the car scene. My first car was a Honda Civic EP3 and now I'm lucky enough to have an '85 S12 'zelle coupe although it feels old, weak and creaky. I love the look of the HR31 Skyline and when I saw the Gazelle, I fell in love immediately.
Welcome to the site mate, and welcome to the world of awesome 80's cars.
The Gazelle has a lot of potential if you're willing to put in the effort, and are a great car to own and drive.
I was hoping to talk to someone in the know of modifying cars. If you can help, I would really really appreciate it.
Things I'd like to do to it are:
1) Recaro seats. Loved the red ones in the Type R!
This seems easy enough.
Seats in the Gazelles aren't as easy as you think. This will requite some custom cutting and welding of the seat rails to adapt to aftermarket seats. The stock rails usually have seats sitting too high also, so this may need rectifying depending on what you want. Have a look in the Interiors section of the forums, this has been covered a few times.
2) SR20DET and strong gearbox, 5 speed (or 6 if affordable and reliable).
I would like to know of strong, reliable gearboxes I should be considering here. Please and thanks :]
Loads of people have converted Gazelles to SR20DET. It's probably one of the most popular conversions. Again, there is loads of information covering this in the Engine sections of the forums.
3) Suspension
I have no idea. Thinking of a fairly stiff/low setup, a few tame slides here and there but not a track setup where it rattles to pieces on Australian public roads. haha. Can anyone help?
The most common option is to convert the front end to an S13 setup. This will require S13 lower control arms, S13 coilovers, S13 brake setup, R31 castor rods, and shortening of the tie rods by 10mm.
This setup gives the most adjustability and also a bigger brake upgrade. This is covered extensively in the suspension and brakes setup of the forums.
For the rears there are many options. In Australia you can have custom springs made by Aurora spings, or find lowered springs on eBay. There are a number of rear shock options available also depending on how low you want to go. Again, covered in the forums.
4) Bodykit (attached a picture of a sweet bodykit, would love some info on this)
That is Wil's Gazelle here in Adelaide.
The body kit is a BN S13 kit. You will find there is no aftermarket kits for the S12, everything must be custom. There are a few cars out there with S13 kits modified to fit, I've also seen AE86 kits customised, and even BMW bits and pieces.
The easiest option for body additions is the factory S12 aero. There is the MKI lip kit and MKII lip kit. These parts can be hard to find and are most common in the US. Join the Facebook page to get your best chance of finding one...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/s12silvia/
5) Wheels, size and offsets?
http://s12silvia.com/community/topic/2281-the-wheel-fitment-thread/
I will be searching this while waiting for answers for the other questions. Where to find sweet JDM wheels in NSW?
6) Anything else I am missing in planning a car I can keep for 5 years as a daily, driving 500km+ per week.
What should I be replacing to have this car better than new? All bushes, bearings, seals, etc...I don't know what anything is really called so I don't know where to even start. I apologise for my lack of knowledge here but I am dying to learn more!
Thank you to anyone that can offer their knowledge and experience!
New bush kits are available from Nolothane in Australia, it's a good idea to replace them all.
It's an old car, so other general maintenance is needed to keep these things going.
There is loads of information and guides available on these forums to answer most of the things you are asking. Be sure to post some pictures of your car and post some updates with how you go.
I hope this helped a bit.
Matt.
