GSX-R35

As an R32 owner in the USA that's been spending time here on SAU to learn more about my car I've noticed that a lot of foreign Skyline enthusiasts are undestandably bewildered by the fuss being made over the old R32 Skyline in the US currently. The biggest reason for all the hubbub is our country's importation ban that outlaws bringing in cars not made for sale in the US if they're less than 25 years old. Now that the R32 is finally of that age the pent-up demand has burst like a flood onto the Japanese used car market. Another reason for the fuss is because for a very brief moment in time Skylines actually were legally imported into the US through a company named Motorex. The story is famous in import circles in the States but is largely unknown in foreign countries. The saga is fascinating though since it's a Hollywood-worthy epic of fast cars, dirty dealings, and easy money. I learned of the great story of Australia's official importation of the R32 from people here on this forum so I thought I'd return the favor by sharing the equally fascinating Motorex story to you guys. I just wrote about it on my blog and I hope you all find it a great read: http://23gt.blogspot.com/2015/09/godzilla-versus-banhammer-sad-tale-of.html

I was definitely planning to as long as there was interest lol.

Noted. Thanks for the info. From what everyone is saying I think it's a pass for me on either one of the Nismo shift kits especially since my car will rarely see the track if ever.

Hello everyone! This forum has been a big help in my short Skyline ownership so far but now that my little restoration project is well on its way I thought it was high time to post a build thread. So without further ado, I'm restoring a 1990 Skyline R32 GT-R Nismo, number 167 of the 560 made. I've been a long time Nissan and GT-R fan and also own a heavily-modded 2010 R35 GT-R so adding this car to my garage was an amazing bit of luck. I stumbled on this car by chance earlier this year and found it at an importer in Southern California while just on a recon visit. They had sold several Nismos over time but this was the last one left. On inspection it wasn't a huge mystery why it had ended up the Rudolph to all the other reindeer – the paint was faded in spots, the interior had been mucked with, the engine had been modified, the front bumper was cracked from some questionable trimming around the intercooler opening, the clutch sounded like it had a worn throw-out bearing, and the car had obviously seen some track time. On the plus side it was the original shade of Gun Metal Grey all Nismos came in, there were some nice mods like upgraded Brembo brakes, a mix of HKS, Tomei, and Cusco bits, she had almost zero rust and no evidence of accident damage, the exterior was unmolested except for some missing badges (i.e. full Nismo body kit still there and no ricer doodads stuck on), and she ran solidly. Oh, and they gave me a decent discount over the initial asking price – which turned out to be a great deal because afterwards Skyline R32 prices went crazy as demand in the US kept going up now that they're legal to import. Here are some pics from early on: After getting it back to Arizona the process of polishing this tarnished gem began. A lot's happened so let me just spell out some highlights and if you want more detail you can check out my blog where I've been posting regular updates on progress. Went through hell with registration but after a lot of legwork finally ended up the first US owner of this rare Nissan Did a full set of preventive maintenance – some of it myself, critical jobs like the timing belt at my local Nissan dealer (I'm lucky to have a dealer who's service department is run by a friend and has a great head mechanic with a ton of experience. Most Nissan dealers here in the US want F-all to do with an old Skyline lol). Swapped in a new radiator and shrouds since the old radiator had been painted blue and the old rad shrouds had been hacked into and misaligned perhaps in a sake-fueled moment of clarity or madness, take your pick, by the previous owner Had the inertial damper replaced with an uprated ATI version because the 25-year old OEM one was cracking Sold the old Desmond Regamasters it came with and swapped in some classic 18-inch Volk TE37SLs and new Michelin PSS rubber Had the dealer diagnose and fix my aircon (mostly, still waiting for one replacement actuator) Had a friend remove the Do Luck chassis brace in the rear footwell area and the ghetto-looking welded bracing in the trunk (didn't care for the looks especially since this will be a street car for me. Given its rarity I'll keep taking my other cars to the track instead except for maybe once or twice just to see what it's like) Bought a metric crapton of OEM and aftermarket parts to replace missing or worn bits on the car, most of which is still cluttering up my den as other stuff gets sorted. Stripped out the whole interior with a friend's help leaving just the upper dash for now in preparation for... Taking the car to the paint shop for a full exterior respray (and touch-up of some interior areas), during which the old, hacked up front bumper will be replaced with a fresh OEM one. As of right now the car is still at paint but I expect to get it back next week if all goes to plan. After that one of my friends who builds race cars and resto-mods should hopefully have a chance to whip out the old clutch and put in some new parts. And then the long process begins of putting in new carpet, replacing the interior trim, re-covering the dash, replacing the missing trunk trim, installing a new stereo, replacing worn trim panels, re-covering the seats, etc etc ad infinitum ad nauseum. Oh and did I mention I'm working on some stuff to tidy up the engine bay and refinish the brake calipers too lol? In other words, it's still a long road ahead but every little thing I tick off my checklist is one more tiny bit of progress. In the meantime, I keep dreaming of that far-off day when I have a nice, tidy example of a historic and rare Nissan that I can take satisfaction in having brought back from years of neglect. Here's how the car looked at when it went to paint: If you'd like to read more details, see additional pics, and follow future developments, as I mentioned above I started a blog to document the process and share more info on Nissan's amazing GT-Rs and other roadcars. Here's a link to my main page and the one that follows is to the first post on the restoration. http://23gt.blogspot.com/ http://23gt.blogspot.com/2015/05/progress-bar-r32-part-1-taking-stock.html I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my friends Nick, Lisa, and Dan who without their help a lot of this progress so far wouldn't have been made and I'd probably be in the middle of a nervous breakdown now lol. Thanks for reading!

Anyone with any ideas about the black box in the last pic? That's the one I really want to identify at the moment.

Yeah, the R32 box is notchy already so if this just makes it worse I'll probably pass especially since I'm not planning on taking the car to the track except maybe once or twice just to see what it can do. Since they're so rare here in the US I'd rather risk one of my other cars at the track lol. Is that because of the synchro wear issue, the feel, or both? I saw that other listing and wasn't sure what the difference was for the higher price. Thanks for the clarification. I didn't consider that one though since 600 bucks seemed too much for a part that I didn't really need - I just was considering it since my R32 is a Nismo so of course I'm looking at all the Nismo parts available for the R32. Good to know it felt good to you but I don't think I can justify the 600 buck price at the moment for the 25% version.

While browsing for what Nismo parts were available for my Nismo R32 I found this solid shift unit and so I was wondering what opinions of it were: http://www.kudosmotorsports.com/catalog/nismo-nismo-solid-shift-gear-lever-32839rn595-nissan-skyline-r32-gtr-gts4-r33-gtr-gts4-r34-25gt4-stagea-wgnc34-260rs-rsfour-p-1160.html I currently have the interior stripped out of my R32 while it gets repainted so after that gets done it would be a good time to pop this thing in if it's worth the buy. I've never owned a car with a short shift kit before despite having numerous stick shift cars previously and the few times I've driven a car with a short shift kit it just seemed to make the shifts feel notchier so I'd like some opinions first before I decide to bother with this piece. Thanks in advance for your replies.

Well that's good at least. Thanks for the clarification.

Okay, that makes sense about the two plugs - the previous owner must have disconnected them when he swapped out the seats before for aftermarket ones. I'll see if we can hook those back up now that the OEM seats are back in the car and get rid of the cat sensor. Thanks for the info!

I read about the divider mod on a Canadian website so that was in the plans - if I can ever find an OEM turbo pipe lol. Dang, that sucks. Makes the search a bit harder. Oh well, at least I didn't buy something only to find out I paid through the nose for something useless. Skyline parts are like hen's teeth right now in the US since the cars just started being legal for import.

I'm currently plugging away on the process of restoring my Nismo R32 to the decent state it deserves to be so last weekend my friend and I stripped out the interior in preparation for new carpet, sterero, Dynamat, and replacement interior parts once it gets back from a respray. While we tore things down we found some stuff that we weren't sure about so I was hoping someone here could shed some light on them. I'm no expert mechanic myself, just some poor sod who likes to futz around with cars so please forgive me if some of my assumptions are off base. First was this black plug underneath both seats: Each seat had one underneath but they weren't connected to anything. We had theories on what they were but I was hoping someone could tell me for sure so we don't just ignore them if they fulfill some vital function. Underneath the carpet on the passenger side we also found this: I was worried it was an anal probe installed by the Grays at the behest of Majestic 12 but some googling told me it was just a sensor for the now long-gone catalytic converter so I took my tinfoil hat off. It was just loose underneath the carpet so what's the best thing to do with it? Zip tie it and erase it from memory or is there a more elegant approach? Then we found these: They were wired to the ECU but were loose under the passenger side carpet. There were two of the HKS Idle Stabiliizers but one was still taped to the stock ECU while the other's tape had failed and so was loose. I googled them and my understanding is they're good little bits of kit to have to prevent idle issues on R32s with aftermarket BOVs like mine. I figured I'd leave those alone in that case since the car runs fine currently. The other box I need advice on. From further googling I found out it's a module for a Greddy boost controller and I know the car had it before in its previous life but I have no idea why the former owners decided to remove the display, controller, and whatnot and leave this module connected. Does it still do anything the way it is now? I figure at some point I'll need to bring the car to a tuner for some proper engine work and tuning and have them sort out what vestigial bits left by the previous owner can be removed - in the meantime should I leave this be and just tuck it in a safe place until I can have an expert check it out or is it currently useless and removable? Lastly, this was hanging under the driver-side dash unattached: What's that black box thingy in the middle? It looks OEM and it has a small bracket that looks like it should be connected to something to hold it in place but I couldn't find the spot it attaches to. My theory is that it's the module for the door chime or something similar but I'm a noob so what do I know lol. I'd like to get it back in it's proper place or remove it so it doesn't keep hanging around loose but first I need to know what it is. Also, can anyone tell me what the brown plug is for? It was loose when I removed the lower trim panel. Thanks in advance for your help.

I myself don't have those kinds of skills unfortunately - and what I want to do is return the OEM "Twin Turbo" pipe because I like the look of it so that part I need to source even if I had the skills. I was thinking of asking a friend about fabricating hardpipes to replace the rubber OEM connectors but first I need to get the OEM pipes to help him determine how everything needs to be shaped.

That's what I assumed so I've been looking around for R32-specific intake piping but figured I could get the turbo side piping from another generation RB26 in case I found someone getting rid of them. Thanks for the confirmation!

Hello everyone. I'm currently delving into the stuff I need to do to fit an ARC airbox into my R32 here in the US (I like the look versus pod filters - don't flame me please lol). My car appears to currently have an HKS piping kit for both the turbo and intake sides which has a different shape from the OEM piping. Since Skyline parts are relatively scarce here in the US if I find used OEM turbo piping it might be from an R33 or R34 instead of an R32 so will the piping from a different generation RB26 fit an R32? From pictures it looks like the piping is the same since the it's the same basic engine but of course I don't have an R33 or R34 to compare since they're not legal yet here in the US lol. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello ladies and gentlemen. If you own an R32 here in the US you probably already know that it's not exactly the easiest car to own and maintain largely because of a lack of widespread resources and info here in the land of apple pie and easy gun ownership. I know from my own experience that I would have had a much harder time getting my R32 GT-R registered if it hadn't been for the assistance of some wonderfully helpful JDM car owners here in my state of Arizona. Since then I've started my blog 23gt.blogspot.com to help spread info about JDM car ownership in the US to prospective and current owners but I can't possibly answer every question of course. So, here's what I'd like to do – if you own an R32 or other JDM imported car in the US I'd like you to contact me if you'd be willing to help others out if they have questions about their own cars that they are importing or have already imported. Since registration and ownership situations can vary greatly from state to state I'd like to compile a list of owners who can help someone out if they have trouble, preferably someone who lives in the same state or at least in the same part of the country. There would be two situations you would probably be called on to help: Someone has a car on the way or already here but needs help getting it registered. Someone needs help finding a good shop locally to get their car inspected or fixed. I may contact you to help with other issues but only if it's appropriate. Email would be the preferred contact method but if you have an alternate way you'd like to give (such as PM on a forum) that'd be great too. What would basically happen would be if someone contacts me through my blog or a forum I go to, or if I see a forum post asking for help you would then get an email from me asking if I can share your contact info with that person and extend an offer to help them out. I'd just like you to share your knowledge, I don't expect you to do anything financial or anything like that and won't hold you to a standard – just the fact you're willing to help another person out is enough. So what'll happen would be something like this (this is just an example mind you): I see someone on SkylineOwnersAnonymousAndOnlineDating.Com who posts “Hi! My name is Stacy and I'm an ex-porn star and I just imported an R32 Skyline but the DMV won't let me register it even after I flashed the clerk! Helps me plz!” You'd then get an email from me saying “Hey, have you seen this girl Stacy with the R32? She's hot! Here's some links to her vids! Oh., and you wanna give her advice on getting her car registered?” Only after you give me the okay would I then share your contact info, discreetly by the way so you don't get more emails from Nigerian princes and male enhancement vendors (I won't just post your email publicly – I'll either post mine and ask them to contact me or send a PM). So if you'd like to participate in this charitable endeavor and help the Stacys of our country then please contact me by PM, email me at 23gtblog(at)gmail.com, or post in this thread how I can contact you. Here in Arizona, I have someone already on board besides me but more people would be appreciated of course. I know SAU doesn't have a lot of activity from US owners right now but I hope I can get some interest from here as well. Thank you very much, Oliver P.S. Please participate only if you have a 100% legally imported JDM car. This isn't because I have anything against quasi-legal cars but it's for your safety and the other person's. If your car isn't quite legal then you probably shouldn't advertise it by sharing your contact info with others. At the same time it's not good if prospective owners get advice that's not quite on the up-and-up. Thanks.

So did you get your car?

I'm keeping an eye out. Thanks!

Just wanted to post a link here to a guide I just wrote on my blog about rare R32 Skyline models - including the ADM cars: http://23gt.blogspot.com/2015/06/rare-air-guide-to-limited-edition-r32_30.html Once I found out about the ADM GT-Rs I found it was a very interesting story especially to an American like me who's only now seeing legal Skylines come in to the country in quantity. I think other Skyline fans here in the US will find it fascinating as well. Mucho thanks to Aussie_Delivered_R32_GTR for the use of his pics and the extra info he provided.

I haven't had any real issues and I have a LHD stick-shift Scion FR-S (Toyota GT86 in Oz) for a daily driver in addition to my LHD R35 and RHD R32. The turn signals being on different sides actually throw me off more when switching cars rather than the shifters lol.

I don't know nearly as much as some people - I just like to do a lot of research for my US GT-R blog lol. You're welcome and I hope the info helps you get your car!

There might still be bullshit going on with this car but that document isn't necessarily proof. It doesn't look like an EXPORT CERTIFICATE because it ISN'T one. It's a REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE not the DE-registration or export certificate. It's the document proving ownership of the vehicle and released by the local prefecture while the car is still in Japan, in this case Chiba. Once ready for export, the car should then get the actual export certificate in lieu of this document. From that document it looks like this car was exported as soon as the first shaken (roadworthiness certification) expired after three years - the car was first registered in 2007 and then bought by the exporter in 2010 - right when the iinitial shaken was expiring. I think that's what the owner means by it not needing a roadworthiness certificate since the car was still on the initial certification as a new vehicle then exported before it had to renew (shaken's last for three years for a new car, then have to be renewed every two years). That's pretty normal for Japan - people trade up to avoid the hassle and expense of a new shaken, that's why a lot of auctioned or for sale cars are selling at intervals of 3,5, and 7 years because it coincides with shaken renewal. The big question though still is where is the actual EXPORT certificate? The car should have one if it was properly exported from Japan. I don't know your laws in Australia but here in the US our state motor vehicles department took mine when I got my Skyline registered so I don't have it anymore. I was smart enough to make a copy just in case though if I ever resell the car (which'll probably happen about the same time the nether realms have snowboarding competitions lol). Of course, you also have to wonder about the low odometer reading in the first place. 25K since 2007 is hardly any mileage but not inconceivable if the car was babied. In that case the car should look pretty pristine. I'd start by asking the current owner where the export cert is and go from there. EDIT: Here's a link explaining the difference between the registration and de-registration/export certificates: http://wavuti.weebly.com/news-blog/fraud-warnings-when-buying-a-car-online-point-three#axzz3dEePTntY

I'm biased since black is my favorite color and red one of my least so my R35 is black. You can't go wrong with choosing black with one caveat - you have to be willing to take care of it. Black shows dirt like nothing else so regular upkeep is a must. The lack of contrast for the wheels is fixed easily if you swap them out - I put Volk GT30s for exactly that reason and my car has gotten a lot of compliments over the years. Five car show trophies and counting for proof, not to mention that when I went to the Nismo Performance Academy with 19 other GT-R owners the staff from Nissan said my car was the most tastefully done R35 there. The best argument I've ever heard for black is that there's a reason why everyone always talks about finding the "new black" - it's because black is simply timeless and the fact people are always looking for a new color to trump it just shows the lasting quality it has. So anyway, buy the red one - 'cause I don't want to see more GT-Rs the same color as mine You're in Australia though so I guess I can let you have a pass lol.

Yeah, I wasn't digging the condition of that old Nismo. I don't mind it's an earlier style since it's period correct for the car but it just looks pretty worn. If it were a lot cheaper I might bite but not for $1K. What are you planning on doing with your ARC now that you have two intercoolers? Are you considering selling it?

I'll have to let him know that if I ever free up the money lol.

I just saw this thread and would like to humbly add a link to my own blog with a thoroughly researched primer on buying a Skyline for the USA: http://23gt.blogspot.com/2015/04/buying-your-own-jdm-car-part-1-one.html I've also been adding more and more additional info about GT-R ownership so I hope it proves both helpful and entertaining to everyone who give's it a chance.