Duncan

BTW while I got mine from a gts4, I think stagea might be easier to find, you still have to remember to get both front and rear of course.

Yeah I got mine as a pair from a wrecked GTS4. I kept the std rear centre (2way), the only parts you need from the gts4 are the crown wheel and pinion.

Yep it was lovely to drive with no bad habits. More than 150kw could have been helpful considering it was a hillclimb, and very open, but I'm happy with how it went; and there were plenty of cars there with less power

actually it drives beautifully and very predictably, and has done more motorsport in the last 3 years than any other SAU car I can think of. I'd have it in a second over most cars around the forums.

run 3:

Here's the incar from my runs: run 1: run 2:

that is a classic way to park a civic at woolies, love it

yeah I much prefer doing everything I can.....at least that way if a mistake happens I only have me to blame. I've had too many bad experiences with shops over the years, they all make mistakes, and some of them are really f**king rude when they do. you are doing this job right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLVV7HYkZs. I'd take it to a mechanical workshop rather than pedders personally....like I said, if you get stuck I can bring it back and do it next weekend but a press is a pretty common tool. I recently did all the bushes on the ute, the only ones that were really an issue were the front LCA inner bushes in the chassis, they were an arsehole to remove....couldn't press them out with a g-clamp (saw your cool tool ), ended up burning and recipro sawing them out.

probably, but not exactly sure what you need. do you need to separate a ball joint from some sort of rod end, or do you need to press a ball joint out of a control arm. if it's number 1 I can bring one down tomorrow, if its number 2 I could do it over the weekend (but I guess you could get any local shop to do it too)

Pete, I did my best but she just wouldn't blow up. Hopefully there are good burnout vids, but Matt's were heaps better than mine. And Brian's burn outs sucked

Thanks to everyone for heading up to support the club team today. It was a great event, shame it finished a bit early due to the big storm. Lots of quick cars although some of the fancy time attack did not end up at the pointy end of the field. 1st was heafy's evo, 2nd fernance evo, 3rd mckinnon. Our guys came home: Nick 8th 41.24 Brian 11th 42.32 Matt 30th 46.63 Me 32nd 46.75 Maurice 41st 51.38 Well done for everyone giving it a go in tricky conditions, and from me particular thanks to Neil for handing over Cheryl's keys when I couldn't get ready in time. And most of all, good on Nulon for putting this event together, looking forward to the next round at wake on 4 July

Hey mate, once you get into the super secret member's section, there is a club club motorsport thread to check out. This particular event is a little different, but generally hillclimbs are regular, accessible, and excellent fun

yep, and I'll bet ICI (and the compliancer) both want this finished ASAP too, because they make a fixed price on their service, so the longer it takes the less money they make. And you can bet they don't enjoy having to make and take calls chasing it up all the time. I was just thinking back; in the last 15 years I've imported via a broker 3 times (gtr, stagea, cima) and bought an import locally twice (gtst, cube). I paid way more on the local buys and had smooth imports for the GTR and Stagea, but the Cima was frustratingly slow through compliance. SOmetimes (mostly?) you are lucky, sometimes not. I think the real issue are DOTARS, they are not commercial enterprises and have no interest/care for how long their process takes or the impact on people trying to import. The people working there might be OK too, but clearly the department is understaffed and has no SLAs overall.

FAQ #1 from the Iron Chef website. http://www.ironchefimports.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=31 Do I just pay you the whole lot up front? This is one of the first things most people ask me, and the answer to this is no, because I am a broker, not a car salesman! My role is to provide a service – that of helping you bring the car in yourself.

Hang on, the thing is that that is totally incorrect. When you buy a car through an import broker you are not buying a car FROM an import broker. It's the exact opposite. You are buying a car, and you are paying someone to complete a range of services that make it easier for YOU to do that (shipping, customs clearance, car inspection, compliance etc). The alternative, which is totally different, is that you can choose to buy a car from someone who has already taken all that risk themselves, and therefore will charge you more (or you will get a worse quality car for the same money). This is no different to any other broker like life insurance or mortgage, the broker is working on your behalf to obtain something from a 3rd party (eg a bank or life insurance company). You pay them for the service of helping smooth the process, you are not buying the final good or service from them

At the risk of taking my own thread off track..... I'm a huge supporter of china shit tools. Basically having the right tool for the job is always better than having a top quality wrong tool and using it in the wrong way. For me a good example is that I could afford a H&F press, drill press etc that I would never to be able to afford in a quality brand. And frankly if I use it once a month it really doesn't matter if it fails on me quicker than a good quality one. I wouldn't look at it the same way if I used it every day for business That rule doesn't always hold for me of course; in particular common things like spanners, ratchets etc that I use more regularly I buy mid quality to save my knuckles....

mate I'm sorry to hear that you are the unlucky one, and it is hard not to wonder if DOTARS monitor forums and decided to go after you.... And I understand the pain because my Cima was held up for ages in compliance too....every week I had to get into the wrong car to drive down here was a PITA. BUT.....in the end you decided to import a car yourself instead of buying something locally. You almost certainly paid far less and got a much better car than you if you bought locally. The risk of course is that you are taking on any delays and unexpected costs, and in this case you have been unlucky. It really is neither your broker nor your compliancer's fault that there has been a delay; you've just been unlucky this time. In the end, you did have a choice to go to Parramatta Rd and buy some R grade car with a wound back odometer at top dollar, but you could have taken it home the same day.

Moved to correct forum, and off topic posts removed. Please post a price as per forum rules.

sadly my car isn't ready (just too much to get done in the last few days), but Neil is a champ and threw me Cheryl's keys. So this is my pic for the weekend See you guys up there, should be an interesting event

BTW threads merged. No need to start 2 on the same issue....

might also be called inner and outer tie rod ends. they are the first thing to bend in a side on impact so they are a common replacement

Howaitonaito it sounds like you would be more constructive to bring your concerns to the AGM and try and do something about them, than in trying to drag down a new and innovative event that the Exec are trialing. If you read the club constitution you will see it clearly states we are a "Skyline" enthusiast club which covers everything that has ever had that nameplate since 1955. And whenever there has been an older or newer model than the more common 32-34 series it has always led to compliments and interest. It is up to the membership, you included, to make this club what you want it to be.

My experience with Shannons was excellent at all times when I was paying them, but things went sharply downhill when I needed to claim (on 2 occasions), including a case I needed to take to the industry ombudsman after their admin error cost me a lot of money. Keep in mind that despite all the bullshit about being enthusiasts that they are just a brand of Suncorp these days and they act accordingly. I am now with Lumleys who were about 20% cheaper for the same insurance. Haven't had to claim yet so who knows if they will be just as difficult.

sorry was that for 18x10+20? ie fronts and rears needed a roll. If so, I don't get why people go 18x10+15 which are even worse??

yeah DIY is very do-able, cleaning it out is the pain as said above. Also check for rust in the channel that holds the window, and also rust or damage to the "waist mould" that goes along the top of the door. the only other issue can be adjusting the window afterwards (we had heaps of trouble in the 350z) but I think a 33 should be old enough to just do a straight replacement without any annoying adjustments.