My name is Nick Pullin, and this is my story. It all began on May 25, 2011. I had finally found what seemed like a decent S13 coupe on Craigslist. I promptly drove over to Pasadena to take a look. I didn’t really have any idea what I was looking for but everything seemed there to me! So I slapped some crappy tags on it and high tailed it home.

I didn’t really have a lot of experience with cars. I started to play around with my 350z a bit, but it was too expensive. But something about modifying the car was fun, and rewarding when you let the car down off the jack for the final time. So I began to look around for a cheaper chassis to play with, which is when I stumbled upon the S13. It was love at first sight. It took me a few months to find one, but I finally had one and I was ready to make some moves!

I knew from the start I wanted a Silvia front. It was so cool and unique to me, I had to have one! So I did some searching around and wasn’t having a whole lot of luck. Until I stumbled upon a closed ‘For Sale’ thread on Zilvia with a $550 Silvia front. The seller didn’t post pictures, so the thread was closed and promptly floated a few pages back. I got him on the phone quick and agreed to meet that night. I asked if I should bring tools, he said I didn’t need to. Learning curve… I didn’t have any car friends, so I couldn’t convince anybody to go with me. So I packed up and headed out on a Friday night to give this shit a whirl! It ended up being a total nightmare with the guy leaving me in the parking lot for an hour, and me breaking all the bolts off with an 18-piece WalMart tool set while the seller asked me if I would like to smoke marijuana with him. The front end didn’t have the ‘Brick’ headlights as advertised, so the seller knocked off $50. It was already cheap so I ripped it off and got out of dodge! At this point I was wondering if car life was even cool. Seemed pretty ratchet to me, but I was home free with my Silvia front at this point so who cares!

Swapped it on that weekend and was stoked!

A couple weeks later I was at Japanese Engine Import in Manassas, VA and scored a set of ‘Bricks’ for $250! Nice. While I was there I got something else…

SR20! Hell yeah we’re really moving now! It looks like the motor sat in the container for a year, but it’s better than my KA.

There’s no way in hell I’m going to put the motor in the car looking that way. So I started to tear it down and clean everything up!

Looking better…

Back together and ready to give my first engine swap a try! When my parents asked what I was up to for the weekend, I told them that I was going to pull the motor from the white car. My dad felt pretty bad for me, because he knew I didn’t really know what I was doing. So he decided to come up for the day and help me out! It was quite the experience but we got a lot done for two people with very little automotive experience.

Obligatory first-timers photo…

All cleaned up!

Ready to drop in! Let’s see how this goes…

Wow, it actually worked. Now to get this thing running…

Moved some stuff around…

Reset my timing since I pulled my CAS out without really understanding what the hell I was doing… LOL

Got some side skirts, hell yeah!

Then… one day my SR actually started! That was awesome, I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing and sometimes I wondered what I had gotten myself into…

So I took it out and drove it around as much as I could. Worked all the kinks out and was loving it! SR power! A few months before this time I had started hanging out with the guys from the local forum and a couple of them invited me out to a drift day at the local track. I had just planned to watch because I didn’t want to tear my car up. My dad told me I would be an idiot to go and watch when I have my car…

He was right! So off we went. Open diff, stock suspension, whatever! I didn’t do much but I had a blast. I was hooked!

So I bought coils, a seat, and got my diff welded (thanks Ivan!) I proceeded to thrash on the car for another few events. I was having a blast!

Got 5-lug and some Battles. Did some more drifting. Flew up a grass embankment and smashed my intercooler. Had to rig it up and drive home because I had convinced my dad to ride out with me HAHA. I was having a blast. I wasn’t very good but it was so much fun to go thrash on your car and not have to worry about police or guard rails.  But, I think when I hit the embankment I really shook the car and blew some of the rust holes open pretty good. Not cool. The plan was to keep drifting the car and hope I didn’t hurt myself, while I looked for a rust-free chassis.

A couple months and a few events later the white car was on it’s last leg. Right around then I managed to find this piece of shit on Craigslist. It needed alot of work, but it didn’t have any rust and came with a few parts I could sell back to recoup some money.

One good part about the car is all this was already done! I needed better suspension arms, and taking the subframe out of a 20+ year old car is never any fun. So at least all that is out of the way. I wanted to make the final Slideways event at ODS as well as 100 Drifters of December so I quickly got both cars next to each other and went to work. I started with all of the suspension stuff I wanted to switch over, and checked over all of the previous owners work. Unfortunately there were a lot of loose bolts and problems, but I got everything taken care of.

Motor out! Ready to go into its new home.

At this point things were getting pretty chaotic at the shop, but I just had to keep pressing on and getting things done! I would get off work at 5, eat dinner until 6, and work all night until 1/2am. Wake up for work at 6 and do it all again. This went on for about 3 weeks…

Things were starting to come together though, just have to keep pressing on!

Carlos came by and did some flexing, we got some shit done and…

The new car is alive! Finally. Took it to H2Oi and drove the car for probably about 14 hours total in one weekend. Everything was great!

Carlos put in some more work…

Decided that I needed to clean up the shop a bit and knock some walls down for more room. Looking way better! If you look in the background of some of my earlier pictures (where I am in the engine bay), you can see how fucked up this place was to begin with. So it’s a huge improvement for ~1 year.

Spray painted my Silvia front to match, put some Eurolines on and went to some car meets!

Hit up the last Slideways event ever! Didn’t do that well but I had a blast! I got the ‘Scariest Driver’ award!

Went to 100 Drifters of December and some people took pictures. Definitely had a lot of fun, can’t wait for next year! Car ran great for 2 days of constant abuse! It was now winter and I had a few months before any events. Time to make moves!

Tore out the sound deadening… ugh never want to do that again!

Got my valve cover powdercoated! Looking good!

Peace out PBM skid pan!

Met a friend who does body work and paint. We were able to come to a deal and quickly got to work on the car! First up was a bit a body work. I wasn’t too picky though, it’s a drift car.

Painted the inside! Wow what a difference!

Set up a booth in my shop and painted some stuff. What a job all this was…

WOW! What a difference. Couldn’t wait to get this thing back together. Things were really starting to fall in place at this point.

Got all my interior back in…

Wow, what a difference that made!

I couldn’t believe what a difference it made. It felt like a whole new car. I was so stoked! Couldn’t wait to see it in the sunlight.

The paint came out great. Props to the painter! If anyone needs any paint or body work, let me know!

Drove it around to make sure everything was still good… you never know with these cars.

Devin took some cool pictures!

Got my car aligned, what a painful experience that was.

The 2013 season begins! Finally got to do some more drifts, and was starting to get settled down in the new car. Things were feeling good.

Next up was the Drift Valley IV event. It was a 3.5 hour drive from me, so I was alittle nervous about the trek. I would be a long way from home. So me and my dad set off for Shenadoah, VA. About 45 minutes in…

Then another 3 hours later…

At that point I was wondering what I should do. I felt like the day might be cursed, but I’d probably get pulled over 2 more times on the way home if I turned around. Fuck this, we’re going to have the best damn day of drifting ever!

Great success! Had some of the most fun I have ever had behind the way. Man I was pumped! Everything was working exactly how it is supposed to. Can’t wait to get back out to this track again. What a blast!

After the 4.5+ hour drive to Shenandoah I decided it was time for a trailer. I was tired of getting pulled over and harassed. This way I can sleep/drink coffee/etc. on the way to events.

Got a sweet deal on a Safety 21 13-point steel roll cage!

I couldn’t have been more happy with this cage. Amazing quality and great fitment! Fit right up with my Mazworx harness bar. It really came together nicely!

Went out for some more drifts. Decided to give Bridge course a try. Was finally starting to get the hang of it when…

BOOM! Tension rod let go. I was blown. Really cut my day short.

I hate sitting there looking at my car when it’s broken, so I decided to lower it so I had something cool going on. I talked with PBM on the phone and they quickly had two new rod ends shipped out to me. They took good care of me.

I was back out in time for Hyperfest and got to hang out in the car show on Saturday and do some more drifting on Sunday! Had a blast and the car was driving great. I’m really starting to get a good feel for this car, just have to keep at it!

Then I met up with my friend Paul who took some awesome pictures of my car! Big thanks to Paul. You should definitely go check them out at http://www.teambushido.blogspot.com if you haven’t already.

That brings us up to where the car currently sits. The goal for the rest of the year is to get time with the car! Whether it’s a drift event, car show, car meet, whatever. I’m just trying to spend time in the driver seat and get the car out there and let others see it. I’ve dedicated the last two years of my life to this car and it’s finally starting to come together. I couldn’t be more proud. I hope you enjoyed my story, I will try to keep this updated from time to time.

Nick