Admittedly I wasn’t originally planning to find myself back at the body shop prior to the S15 going into the booth for its new colour, but I had to drop off one final piece for the team so of course I was going to take a look at the car while there. In hindsight I’m glad I did however, as it gave me the chance to grab a few quick photos of the primed shell without all of the masking that I’d seen it wearing during the previous visit. As you see it here, the shell had already undergone its blocking and final prep for colour and was just waiting on a few other pieces to receive the same treatment, along with the new addition to the pile.

I had been going through the car’s collection of parts when I found one of the interior trim pieces to have a small crack in it; specifically the surround for the headunit, HVAC, and shifter. The trouble here wasn’t the crack but rather the fact that this piece – along with the lower half of the dash and part of the center console – is textured and it wouldn’t really be possible to repair it while keeping that texture seamless. I got in touch with Devon and given that the car itself wasn’t yet in colour, I decided to drop off the surround to be mended, smoothed, and painted as well. We’ll see how this one small splash of body colour will look inside the car, but replacing it with a new piece would’ve been the only fix anyway so I figured I’d take the chance and see how this works. If I don’t like it I can always quickly and easily swap it out down the road.

Anyway, I left the piece at the front counter so that it could be handed directly to the guys the next day, before then wandering back to quickly take a peek at the car and its various panels.

Happily the team at Speedy has had no shortage of work (and surely more will be coming after the weekend’s storm) but even so they’ve been making great time with the S15. In these photos the doors and a few other pieces were still yet to be prepped (as mentioned above) but as of now – as I’m typing this – every single component that they have at the shop is ready to go into the booth and be sprayed! Incidentally, given I originally only stopped by to deliver the trim I didn’t have my full camera kit on me and so shot all of these with my GoPro.

The car itself wasn’t too far away, looking a bit dusty but amazing regardless. Like I had said in the last update, even just in primer this thing looks infinitely better than it had with its failing pearl white respray and various scars. Fortunately the engine bay’s paint is actually in good shape, so even though it won’t match the body for a while at least it will still shine up nicely. We’ll just pretend I’m going for a body-in-white race car look by leaving it alone for this round of the build…

Speaking of the bay, you’ll probably have noticed the rather tired looking OEM header; I’ve repainted the factory heatshield satin black (along with some other little bits for the engine bay and exterior) and it will be going back on to make the bay look just a bit better than it did.

Otherwise, there’s not too much to share on the shell itself since the last update. It did see the blocking and final prep as mentioned of course, which is no small job, but it is one that doesn’t really show its full impact in these photos. Trust me, in person this thing is now really tidy! Without any masking on it you can now get a good look at the rear body panel too. One quirk of the S15’s design is that the license plate bracket is mounted to the rear panel and slips through an opening in the rear bumper, so parts of this panel are actually visible at the right angle! It would have been painted regardless, but you definitely can’t skip this area on one of these cars.

With everything now ready for the booth I’m hoping that it won’t be long before a picture of a no-longer-white S15 is sent my way, and my excitement is doing nothing but growing further. I keep getting messages asking to reveal the new hue but we’re still keeping it hush – we’re almost there!

With the S15’s return getting ever closer I do need to carry on getting the numerous components in my basement ready to go back on (I still need to polish the headlights a bit more, come to think of it), alongside some more new pieces. I’ll be keeping the trunk lid debadged but always intended to retain the hood and quarter panel emblems on the car to keep it from looking naked. The problem was that one of my Spec S scripts had broken (and all were a bit scratched up) but happily I was able to source a brand new set of OEM pieces from – of all places – a Nissan dealer in the USA! They recently arrived along with a variety of replacement OEM hardware, and will be the perfect finishing touch for the exterior. The fact that the Spec S emblems use blue as their accent is spot-on for my car as well (to match its interior) and should pop nicely against the new paint too…

-Bill