Project Nissan Sentra

The aluminum angle brackets look simple, but note that the bracket is threaded to accept a bolt holding the grille and uses a nut and bolt to attach to the headlight. The tab on the headlight also had to be drilled to accept this arrangement. The brackets holding the bottom of the grille were made with hardwood for a simple reason. There is no easy way to get a straight shot from the lower mounting holes into the bracket. Wood doesn't care about being straight though, so a wood screw could be jammed in at a 30-degree angle. Oh so elegant.

The aluminum angle brackets look simple, but note that the bracket is threaded to accept a

The early trim piece is slightly taller than the later one, and the late Mexican headlights are narrower than early U.S. ones, so the 1991-1992 trim panel won't work with the new lights.

I made do with 1993-1994 U.S. trim from B&R Auto Wrecking way up in Oregon. Of course, I painted the bumper before realizing I needed new trim, so I had to paint the trim pieces separately.

* Lesson #5: Test-fit first, paint second.

Next problem: The back of the Mexican headlights hit the early lights' mounting brackets. The brackets, naturally, are welded in place. Be prepared to cut and/or grind to make room.

* Lesson #6: Sparks are bad for brand-new bumper paint.

Neither the early or late U.S. grilles fit with the Mexican headlights. Two Mexican grilles are available, but both look incredibly stupid. The Sunny grille that came with my bumpers, however, looks quite dashing with its mysterious, Marvelesque stylized "S"-badge, so I decided to make it work.

Whether or not it actually worked is open to debate, but it still looks far less bad than anything sold in Mexico. Filling the gap below the grille meant cutting the '91 trim panel to the approximate height of the corresponding part I didn't get from Japan and narrowing it to fit between the junkyard parts from Oregon. The grille was designed to snap in place at five points, none of which exist on this car. Instead, I fabricated two simple aluminum angle brackets for the top of the grille and two hardwood brackets (cut from the handle of my favorite wire brush) for the bottom. This left only the large, irregular gaps between the grille and headlights to fill.

Weeks passed as I tried to figure out how to bridge the gap without reducing airflow. The final solution, it turns out, was sitting right there between the duct tape and the zip ties: flat black spray paint. Painting the sides of the headlights turned the glaring gap into a cleverly shaped cooling duct. Magic in a can.

* Lesson #7: Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea.

Done with the cosmetics, it was time for more weight savings. Thirty-six pounds was a nice start, but like more power, less weight is addictive.

The 16x7-inch Black Racing N1 wheels we installed last century (1997) were reasonably light for cast wheels at 15 pounds each, but years of abuse had turned them square. It was time for a change.

The '91 lower grille trim is both too wide and too tall for this grille and headlight combination. Cutting the ends off is easy, but cutting a straight line down the length of this piece requires something more precise than an air-powered body saw and my sloppy hands. Actual skill might work. This is another piece that should have been completed before painting the bumpers so the freshly mangled sheetmetal can be made shiny. The gap between the grille and headlights looked much worse before I applied Krylon's black magic to the sides of the headlights.

The '91 lower grille trim is both too wide and too tall for this grille and headlight comb

Visually, 16s are the right size for an SE-R, but the selection of 16-inch tires is pathetic. 17s look like dubs on a B13, so we went down to the land of lightweight and abundant race rubber. The land of 15s.

Every good tire is available in 205/50-15, and 15x6.5 and 15x7-inch wheels are abundant in the bolt pattern (4x100mm) and offset (+35mm) the SE-R requires. Despite the myriad choices, the decision was not hard. Motegi Racing's Traklite has the perfect balance of reasonable cost, forged strength, and almost unbelievable lightness. At 10.5 pounds, they knock 4.5 pounds of unsprung weight off each corner compared to our already light 16s. They also have enough brake clearance to clear the popular Fastbrakes SE-R front brake kit that mates Wilwood four-pot calipers and 11-inch Corrado rotors. Oh, and they're already flat black, so I don't have to get my spray can.

Wrapping the Motegis in R-compound Nitto NT-01s dropped another 2.5 pounds from each corner compared to our old, discontinued 215/45-16 Falken Azenis Sports. That brings us to a total savings of 28 pounds of unsprung weight and 36 pounds of high-polar-moment bumper weight.

We first sampled the NT-01 in a much larger 245/40-18 on an RX-8. In that application, at least, they were brilliant, offering massive grip, easy breakaway, comfortable behavior when sliding, and perfectly reasonable track wear. Their good grip at high slip angles makes them particularly suitable to my personal 11/10ths driving style. The NT-01s' only vice on the RX-8 was the monster-truck howl they made when cruising on the street. They might not be the best daily-driver tire, but they're certainly civilized enough to drive to and from the track.

We're still not sure how the smaller size behaves on the SE-R though. We'll learn that soon when our longest-running project car meets its younger cousin, the B15 SE-R Spec-V, at the track next time. We're just a few little suspension tweaks away from actually wrapping up a project.

By Henry Z. Dekuyper

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