NZM.031

the stack was a blessing really... noone else was involved, the car wasnt greatly damaged, but enough to make me wake up to myself... not that i was a rat bag and endangering people and what not, i was always restrained and a back road hoon, but it makes you realise just how easy and quick things can go wrong, and your in a 1200kg missle.. this car will come out for the odd cruise, the odd show, the odd drive every now and then, but mainly on the back of a trailer and off to the track. heres some more pics. with the engine out... i was left with the usual mess of shit and corruption, and 20 years worth of built up gunk... mainly p/s fluid from bad hose clamps and bad hoses.. Spray and Wipe is your friend so now that the engine bay is nice and clean... its time for a lick of paint. starting to prime and all primed up ready for paint now the fun part, starting to paint and finished painting... looks sweet now, i chose Takeuchi Dark Grey.. or Machinery Grey in the common tongue... simple choice really... i first saw it on the red Garage Defend R33 GTR, and then NP's S13, it suits any colour car, doesnt not stand out, does not cause a black hole, its easily blended, and best of all, its cheap (free) through my work. now that the engine bay is ready to start bolting stuff back in, its time to move on to the interior it was a really neat, stock interior.. and den.... this was the point of no return, as i labled all the wiring i had my first double take.. do i really want to do this?? hell yeh i do... theres about 10kg of wiring under there, most of it for the stereo and air con. the blower unit, evaporator and heater core all way 3kg each... so 9kg gone now its dry ice time... i shouldve done it over the christmas break but i had other things to do.. i started to try chiseling it off.. as i have time to spare... but after getting one corner done in half an hour.. i thought F#%k this. the dash will be going back in with the centre console just for a bit neater look, and ill make vent system to the original vents for fresh air, but no fan or a/c. does anyone know how hard it is to cover the dash pad in suede or alacantra?? i mean is it hard dash shape to cover or should i just get a trimmer to do it?? i read up about flocking it, but its too messy and too much work, when all i really need is to cover it, plus suede looks and feels nice. ive almost caught up to where im at, so i better get cracking and do some more to stay ahead of the thread. cheers Linton

that dry ice makes short work of that crap... i have ruined serveral pairs of shorts sitting on the sound deadening removing wiring etc... only to find my body heat was sufficient in heating and softening the tarry shit sticking to my pants like shit to a blanket.. the missus thought i shat myself.. so did i when i saw the marks... glad i didnt race off to repco like that.. haha

shhhhhhh.... your not meant to read the back of the book first.. actually.... replace the GTRS with a nostalgic t04 (with magic dust inside) and your pretty well on the money.

xf throttle bodies really are ugly mofos

you may have to find a good tyre fitter as semi slicks usually have a stiffer sidewall, so they are harder to stretch (especially if they are new), and a 40 series will have a pretty low sidewall... so low and stiff sidewall = difficult... but hey, worth a try. i know of someone fitting federal 595 215/40/17 to 17x9.5 and 17x10... i think they had to use the brake cleaner + lighter method though. damn good stretch though!

now the wheels can be put on... me being a sook, i couldnt stand the sight of having the standard wheels on, so i put the 2 good panasports from the RHS, onto the LHS so i can bear to look at it... the RHS is against the wall so you hardly see it. now that it was back rolling... i can move it forward and backwards.. hooray!! now i could get the engine out (my garage roof isnt high enough to get a crane in there) and the engine is out and on the stand. until next time folks..

thanks DJRIFT... ive been watching savmans build aswell.. should be tidy as when he gets it finished... mine wont be built for competition like his will.. i can justify having this car even if i only do a few track days a year. 1st update.. twas the night of our year anniversary when i decided to keep her and go mental.. for 4 months i had been tossing up whether i wanted a GTR or not.. but the things i wanted to do to the car were too nasty for me to do to a GTR, as i have so much respect for the car.. so basically.. i will have both... one a a nice R32 GTR, fully restored and very mild, the kind of car you'd take home to mother... and one nasty suicide girl.. that your brain tells you is pointless and expensive to keep, but is completly mindblowing in other areas after driving Bakes' R34 GTR, i realised that the GTR and GTSt's are 2 completly different cars.. one is not better than the other.. and the GTR did not suit my driving style, i like to brake hard, throw it in the corner, catch the oversteer and punch it out.. the GTR felt a bit too delicate for that.. and it was farking heavy.. but damn quick and an awesome drive never the less. so the strip down began. at this point, i needed to get it back rolling so a chasing parts we went.. R33 Lower Control Arms New Crossmember and i got a matched pair of steering knuckles... obviously.. but i dont have a photo of them yet, considering getting them modded by one of the silvia guys.. they are doing marvellous things over there. oh, and check out my makeshift castor rod.. think i might market these bad boys.... or not.

Hello Everyone and welcome to my first ever build up thread. this project has come as a result of being a bit silly on our public roads... which i has learnt me a well good lesson... DONT DO IT! the planned finish date somewhere in between 2011 and possibly 2012 (depending on finances), i will do all the free labour jobs first up, which should take all of 2010 and then start on the buying of actual parts in 2011.. then its just a matter of money. Being a mechanic, i will be doing all the spanner twirling, the old boy is a machinest so i will be calling on him to help out with fabricating of things. This car, nicknamed Rach (after Rachel Green from Friends) is planned to be a super neat, super clean track car with a number plate.. i enjoy drift and time attack so this will be its primary job... it will be completly refurbished from top to bottom, look fairly standard on the outside, retain the RB20 with a moderate power level.. but with lots of suspension work and weight reduction and weight placement up the ying yang. i have been keeping tabs on how much everything weighs as it is removed and ill be removing everything that is not necessary.. id like to attempt all those little things that narks say is a waste of time and effort and hopefully prove them wrong, im not one to just up the boost to make up for terrible weight balance. the influences are heavly on Nigel Petries S13 Silvia, his car inspired me to take mine to that kind of level.. but many ideas are picked up from dozens of other cars.. i have HPI magazines strewn throughout the house looking for ideas. im a few months into it so the stream of updates should be able to be kept steady. so, lets begin with a small intro.. one sentence can describe me... i mow my lawn once a week, every week and i wash my mower after each and every use. heres the car when i first got her... and after a wash ... add one HDI fmic... and some cusco coilovers and Panasport G7 rims... and that was how she stayed... until a nasty gutter jumped out at her and ripped her to bits.. actually, it was a dampish morning, rear tyres were kablanked, front tyres were sgaglanked and i came in too fast like ally ally ally shckablank, understeered straight into the gutter, front suspension was danked, twanked and danked.. as you can see... the end of the crossmember is mangled.. the control arm is mangled, the steering knuckle is broken, the top control arm is warped, the brake line has snapped, the castor rod has snapped... and the front and rear wheels werent much toast.. we had to strap the steering knuckle together and also strap the control arm forwards just to get it to move... getting it on the trailer was a bitch especially with two flat tyres on one side... CHECK YOUR SPARES PEOPLE!!! mine was dead flat and it popped off the bead making it pointless. and here she sat... for 4 months while i decided what to do about her. Cheers Linton

heres some pics of mine... i consider this conservative as i have only lipped the guards. wheels are 17x8.5 and 17x9.5 panasport g7's and were used a test fit... be prepared for what i have planned when my rig is back on the road in 2011. and for the haters... this was my daily.. and i never got pulled over.. aslong as the top of the tyre is inside guard its not really a problem. also the rears were almost flat... i can show you pics of my skid tyres and you'll see that just about the entire tyre is worn. i dont see the point in having a lame (safe) offset... it looks like a commonwhore and is crap. and soo many cars are running around with these kind of offsets and stretched tyres, so i think the unsafe claims of stretched tyres can be put to bed... they just dont hold up anymore. cheers Linton

had external set up in my r33 gtst.. i used a factory gtr pump as a lift pump to the surge tank, and an external bosch pump from the surge tank. i screwed the surge tank and pump in a bracket to a piece of aluminium, then screwed that to the floor of the boot. i also screwed an L shape bracket to the alumiunium to mount the relay for the pump. the relay just wires in to the pump signal, so when the original pump is on, it switched the relay and the bosch one runs aswell.. i had it running straight battery voltage and had an inline fuse just in case.

what they all said.

i agree that when you add up costs of materials and actual time spent painting, its not expensive... but the sheer amount of prepwork involved in a good spray job is enourmous.. things need to be perfect and clean before even thinking about the paint.. overhead costs of spray booths, exhaust fans, etc. for one car arent cheap.. and many panel beaters have to have many cars on the go to save the customer paying for them to wait around until this has hardened, or that has dried, etc. etc. spraypainters need to eat yes... but how much of what you pay for a respray actually goes to the panel beater??? mechanics need to eat aswell, and many are charged out at $100 per hour... but they will be lucky if they get $25 of that... the norm rate for a mechanic is $15 p/hour, and they, like panel beaters/spray painters, went to tafe for for years to learn how to do it. on a side note, didnt a young girl die the other week after being wrongly diagnosed by someone who went to uni for 7 yrs and probably charges $100 for a consult??

no... i'd run it with 4 bosch 044's.

^^^ for a second there i thought you were putting a V8 in it.. thankfully its a v6.. looks like a nice workspace you have there... nice and light. my poor old garage needs some natural light asap.

paul thomas at hunter thomas automotive is the gun with all things GTR.. super nice guy too. there are more tuners in sydney, yes.. but you may not be better off. eastern creek is 2.5hrs drive... down the freeway,, pennant hills rd, m2 then onto the m7, and you're there.. wakefield is more like 5 hours from newy.

walbro just arent as good as bosch is all that it is... and when the entire car relies on the one part.. is it worth it to get second best?? no serious circuit car or time attack car, or drag car uses walbro pumps. your $100000 rb26 with a T51R, 1000cc injectors, etc. etc. aint gonna be much good without a decent pump is it.

im doing this at the moment.. but im using an s14 rack and pump to do away with all the hicas shit, it also has a nicer plastic resovoir, looks a bit neater ... the rack doesnt have the solenoid and is 1kg lighter, there is only the one pressure sensor in the line... apparantly the s14 rack has less turns lock to lock but i wont know till its all done.. the s14 pump has a seperate pulley (not attached to the shaft) so i can change it with a nice aluminium one, either 3 or 4 rib, depending on what the balancer has.. im also mounting it down low, where the a/c used to be... i will be making a build up thread now that im getting things done and my brain is starting to kick over.

sell your drift brand fpr and your walbro pump, find used GTR (440cc) or rx7 (550cc) injectors and gtr fuel pump, put the stock pressure reg back on. the gtr fuel system can happily support that amount of power. ive done the max injectors thing before on an rb25 as i couldnt just get some rx7 or gtr injectors... it worked... but i wasnt real enthused on it. and on hot days it was a bit of a worry.. even though i had a gtr fuel pump as a lift pump to a big bosch pump and a nismo fpr.

gtr offsets aka +20ish will sit just nice and flush on gtst... these offsets will sit just out of the guards a little like joeyjoejoe said... but not enough to worry about. stretch thems tyres.. 215/45s on the front and 235/45 on the back and the tyres will tuck in the guards and look phat. you may have to roll the guards if you havent already. these are my rims... 17x8.5 and 17x9.5... not sure on the offset but at a guess it would be in between +10 and +20

thats exactly the reason why the rta has the law.. on a public road... the speed limit is the speed limit... it doesnt matter whether youve got a fun car with 300kw or a shopping trolley with 30kw.. all cars can do the set speed limit so why should a p plater require a turbo car?? cricket is fun to play on the road aswell.. but its a dumb and dangerous thing to do, there are proper places to play the game and its the same with cars.. the public road is not really the place to "have fun" in a turbo car.. there is nothing stopping the OP from getting a track car and a tow vehicle and going to the race track.. the road is not for games, its a place for you and everyone else to get from one point to another, safely.

^^^^^ Work Emotions FTW!!!!

to take a hit like that you have to be fair hooking.. i know, because ive done the same.. slightly damp day.. wierd off camber right hander.. bald rear tyres, front tyres down on pressure, came in too fast, and in to the gutter she went. i used ratchet straps to pull the front wheel forwards enough to drive it on the trailer. have a good look at your tie rod as they bend with a slight touch. also the end of your crossmember can bend easily... it is all designed to snap and crumble like this so it doesnt transfer the shock to the chassis... bent chassis = wrecked car. the parts are out there... you just have to be on the lookout. if you need it going asap its going to be expensive though. you were going faster than 40km/h... at 40km you wouldnt do that much damage.. 60km/hr maybe.

are you serious?? i drove them nearly everyday for 6 years.. the gear ratios dont match the engines torque, so its all over the shop... like the ravs. had it had a 2L engine, it would be great... but the 2.7 has too much torque for what feels like a corolla gearbox.. revs out to quick without actually going anywhere. yeh the diesel fuel thing is an issue unfortunatly... always getting diesel on your shoes, on your hands etc.. its shit.. no really... it is.

its quite easy for the porcelein to break off plugs... when people do them up too tight, the swing off an oversize bar to undo them, usually with a long extension to reach them.. thus putting a sideways strain on the plug as they lean on the bar. causing a bit of porcelein to ship off the plug.... now, getting it in the hole is the best part.. when you tip the bar/socket upside down to pull the plug out, chances are you will do it right over the hole, as its too much trouble to move away, remove it, then go back to the next plug... as the plug pulls out of the socket, the chunk comes with it.. then drops out, directly down the hole. now you couldnt possibly think that was going to happen so your not paying attention, your more worried about carefully placing the plug on the side of the engine bay.. or up near the windscreen, so saying that, i think the OP is very bloody lucky that he saw it go in.. even if he has screwed the engine because of starting it, at least he knows what caused it and may get away with very little work required.. definatly worth taking the head off though... it really isnt that hard. if it makes you feel any better, i lost a lens cover on franz josef glacier... went straight down a hole like it was a slip n slide, couldnt have done it if i tried.... stupid me tried to jump for it and nearly went with it.. fark that was close.

yep... find me an s13 non hicas cradle and you can have my perfect r32 hicas cradle.