LIFETIME car lover Dylan Smaling is enjoying his stock standard 1990 Nissan Silvia S13 which he bought earlier this year as “a fun little project”.
Using the Silvia as a daily driver and for cruises on the weekend, Mr Smaling appreciates the fact that the car had not required any restoration work.
“I saw the advertisement for it in Adelaide and went and brought it,” he said.
“All it needed was a clean-up, but no restoration as such.”
Since buying it eight months ago, Mr Smaling has added a special new feature – a Pokeball gear lever.
With a CA18De 1.8L engine, Mr Smaling brought the car as an automatic but has converted it to a manual because of a leakage of automatic transmission fluid.
He does the full servicing himself, including fluids, plugs, and any other wear and tear replacements the car may need.
The Nissan was imported from Japan in 1999, and is completely original except for the coil overs, exhaust and head unit.
Originally costing around $38,000 when it was brought over from Japan, it is now worth in the region of $5,000.
Mr Smaling has been restoring cars with his father since he could remember, and would always tag along to events regardless of school commitments.
Now studying light vehicle mechanics at TAFE SA in Mount Gambier, Mr Smaling brought the car for $2,500 and has poured another $2,500 into resolving its problems.
“It needed a new front bumper, headlight and grille,” he said.
“It was missing half the interior and needed a service really badly.
“It didn’t even have carpet, so it probably took me a few months to get it all together to look semi-decent.
“I worked on it pretty much everyday after work.
“It was a lot of effort.”
Mr Smaling used mostly second-hand parts, but did source some from overseas.
“The Silvia is pretty rough, but it is fun to drive so I don’t really care,” he said.
You can expect problems from a 27 year old car, but they have been sorted and it runs much better then when I got it.”
Mr Smaling also owns a number of other vehicles, including a 1996 Series 2 R33 Skyline Cape, 1963 XL Falcon Ute and a 1964 XM Falcon Wagon.
