Shoota_77

I must say my car back when it ran was a laggy bucket of shit on the -5's but at the same time goddam it was fun once the boost kicks in!! This is a weird statement to a degree but the better a turbo setup is, the worse it feels!! What I mean by that is a smooth power curve from low down in the rev range doesn't have anywhere near the wow factor of a laggy turbo when it hits it's happy zone. The better sorted car will be a waaaaaay better and quicker car (until high in the rev range anyway) to drive but it just doesn't have that raw "Holy f#$k hang on boys she's off" kind of feeling! I drive a lot of the modern turbo cars that would be way faster than my car but they're boring AF compared to a laggy turbo coming on song!

Ok cool. It is a bit tricky but doable. You need to be very careful with the plastic washers each side of the spring as they get very brittle with age. I'll get some photos over the weekend.

Do you mean the bit that bolts on top of the manifold or the butterfly sections down at each runner? If its the bit on top I've got one dismantled at the moment. Of you haven't heard from me in a few days remind me and I'll take some pics.

Picked up my powder coating oven today. She's a bloody beauty! Think of the chips and pies I can now have for lunch out here! First powdercoat job I did was to powdercoat my favourite Canadian Club drinking mug! Yeah strange choice I know! I just wanted to throw some powder around to see how it comes out of the gun. I meant to do it in chrome but accidentally put the transparent metallic black in the gun instead! A lot of the powders look the same until you cook them so it looked like the right one till I pulled it back out of the oven and then read the bag.... Anyway, all good. I'll keep playing around until I'm confident enough to coat stuff that matters!

If its holding up to 600+ kW in yours then the PAR must be the goods! There's a few guys in NZ running the Speedtek and putting some decent power through them so hopefully it will be all good! My balls are on the line if its not!

Great work! Hopefully a 9 second pass is within reach (without breaking shit....)

Wow, it certainly has been a mission! You've thrown some serious parts at it! Must be an absolute beast to drive?

@Tobz allegedly they lose money on practically every car they sell in Australia. You can only do that for so long. If that's the case then they need to have a good hard look at their manufacturing and supply chain expenses as every other brand seem to be able to pull it off successfully. On top of that Hondas certainly aren't cutting edge, latest technology so I really can't understand how that can be. Their expenditure on innovation in the cars has been minimal. No all new models to speak of, minimal upgrades to existing models (which for the most part are already waaaaay behind competitors vehicles in terms of technology). As I said, I see some writing on the wall and what is written aint good......

Honda are deliberately targeting selling a lot less cars under the agency model. They're predicting selling almost half as many cars under the new format. I'm really not sure where they're going with their plan of attack. They will make MORE money out of each car as they're taking the middle man out in effect, but overall they will make less money as they will sell a lot less parts down the line having half as many customers needing their cars serviced. They have a MASSIVE shitfight on their hands though before anything goes ahead as first they will get their arses sued off by all of the dealers that have had their dealer agreements torn up which is in breach of those contracts. Those dealers (11 in Victoria alone) will be suing for lost revenue until the expiration of their contracts (in some cases 2 or 3 years of earnings) Added to that what they're offering the dealer network as a delivery fee has been seen as being far from acceptable so the remaining dealers that haven't got the arse and will be the dealers performing the agency model are fighting the whole thing going ahead at all unless Honda come to the party. I'd be surprised if Honda outlasts all of this. Yes I know that's a big call but they have a LOT going on and none of it is good....

Because I'm incredibly gifted at coming up with ways to slow the progress on my car I bought an el Cheapo EBay powdercoat gun so I can have a crack at powdercoating a few more bits and pieces as I go. I've tracked down a 900mm wide oven that should be big enough to fit decent sized parts in. It should fit rocker covers, valley covers and hopefully my turbo dump pipe as I've got some hi temp powder to put on that. I'll do the turbo housings at the same time. It's rated to about 700 degrees C which is probably not enough for a turbine housing and dump pipe but we'll see how we go! Hopefully if it is too hot for the powder it just discolours it rather than peeling off in big chunks. After I get a bit of practice I'll probably powdercoat my wheels as well as they're a little bit chippy and could do with renewing. Shoota's Powdercoating Services ready for business....

Nice! Look like they're in pretty good condition so you shouldn't need to overhaul them which is bloody expensive for normal Brembo's let alone R35 Brembos!

Sounds promising! Nice looking base car to start with. I actually don't mind the big spoiler! Look forward to seeing it all come together.

Good stuff! It should be right for another 20 years now.

Where did you get the steering wheel done, looks awesome.

The little things!

Your engine looks to be a bloody nice bit of kit. Should be super strong. What are the rust repairs? Sills? Wasn't that what it went in for when you originally got it painted or was those rust repairs just the visible parts that you've had painted and this is now all under the skin?

@Piggaz I've got the transfer case modded, got the front LSD (not Quaife that I know you rate! ☹) just need a gearbag that's up to holding 500+ killer wasps and I'm good to go.... I can't drive for shit so dunno if I'll ever be exploring the upper limits of my power anyway 🤣🤣. As long as it cops a few runs at the drags for bragging rights and the odd valve bouncing launch from time to time then I ask for no more!

@Piggaz ha ha, good post. Chock full of truth! Yes if I bust it there will be jack stands, beers and tears! Yes an affordable 6 speed (H pattern OR sequential) would be incredible. The PPG path is the path that could be the most affordable and I don't doubt the effort they put in to development but I really reckon over $20K is gouging. The actual cost of the raw parts and the machining time would be a fraction of the cost. Again don't get me wrong they deserve every dollar they get for developing it but mid teens is a much more realistic value for it. They would sell a shitload more an potentially make more money via volume. And not just in Australia but across the world. Why pay $15K for a Getbag when you could get a sequential for the same money. No I'm not riding the Speedtek bandwagon (yet, final opinion pending...) but if they got on board (which looking back through their Facebook posts it appears they've dabbled) and pumped out a quality unit for decent money they could make a killing. It would be a massive task to get it up and running in the first place however. I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been a Chinese brand rip off one of the big boys (Albins, Samsonas, Hollinger, Quaife, etc) and make their own version. God knows they have no issues ripping off anything else they can make an earn on! Or have they and we just haven't cottoned on to it yet?

That sounds a lot more usable! You're spot on about the Getrag 1st gear, that's bordering on pointless having a gear that short. Good for feeding out hay on the farm.... You'd never be able to select it on downshift unless you practically stopped and you'd only use first from a standing start (maybe).

$10K? Good luck finding one for that! I haven't seen one under $12K for nearly a year now. I believe they've now gone beyond the point of considered good bang for the buck. I remember looking at them advertised for $6K for a full bolt in kit 4 or 5 years ago and thinking I'd love one but that it's way too expensive! Hindsight is a glorious thing! This is what Speedtek list as the ratios (identical to the OS Giken gearset ratios except 5th which OS use 0.826 which would be revving it's arse off at 100 km/hr)- GEAR RATIOS 1st: 2.695 VS 3.214 STD 2nd: 1.703 VS 1.925 STD 3rd: 1.236 VS 1.302 STD 4th: 1.000 5th: 0.7 VS 0.752 STD (0.7 is what I chose) In effect i guess they're longer rather than shorter gearing throughout the whole range. OS Giken has the shorter gearing on 5th which would help keep it in the revs going into 5th but Shouldn't have to change out of 1st gear quite as quick which is nice. With the normal box (from my very distant memory of driving it....) it barely felt like you were rolling off and it's time to go up a gear.

Ha ha, I hate when I mistype words, I'm such a clutz!

Right so I'm either dumbest, most gullible person on the planet or a fiercely brave groundbreaker! I've ordered the Speedtek gearset and will hopefully see it early to mid December. I got the assurances I felt I needed from him (Alex) and I also spoke to a guy in NZ with a 610kW R33 GT-R running the gearset. He's run a 9.7 sec quarter mile on it. I specifically asked him about a) the service he received from Alex and b) the product itself including fitment. This guy had nothing bad to say. Alex's remarks (be they right or wrong) were that at this point he wasn't too fussed about chasing work in Australia at this point (maybe he realises he's burnt too many bridges here and minimal chance of recovery?) as the majority of his gearsets are heading to drifters/racers overseas and the number of them he's currently selling are the capacity of his workshop anyway so he probably wouldn't be able to handle much more in the way of capacity. If anyone wants to know, I got the 1-5 gearset with a 0.7 ratio 5th gear and their billet centre plate. All up it was $4200 including post (*** if my wife is reading this I'm actually grossly exaggerating, I got it all for $420 and fitment was free.... But, if I'm dead and you're selling my shit to afford a bood job, it WAS worth $4200 plus about another $1000 to get it further treated and assembled, send me a photo and make sure you look after the kids xx.***). It's an expensive gamble and I'll be pooping myself until the first time I dump the clutch at full noise! I'll be 100% honest throughout the whole thing. If I get effed over and I've blown $4200 I'll admit it and admit that I'm a moron for disregarding everyones warnings. If everything goes to plan and it does everything I'm hoping it will do, I'll admit it and will sing the praises of the product and the service I have received so far. On that note, I cannot fault his contact from initial contact to the point of me making the payment. This includes some pretty late hours responses to my fairly confronting questions regarding his ownership of any dramas. So far, so good. Stay tuned for full disclosure!

Aware of all that guys, I appreciate the concern and I understand it's a risk! I've read the reviews and I'm not going to lie I've got some hesitations but I'm willing to give them a go and support a local business as opposed to spending a heap more for an OS Giken gearset. Google Skyline problems and I'm tipping you'll find a few (thousand) dramas. Google Toyota problems and you'll also find plenty of posts. There's piss and moaners around every corner these days so I take them all in but come to my own conclusions at the end of the day. If I was judged on my actions from the past then I would have been given a lot less opportunities than what I have so I'm open to being convinced they have done the same. What is clear that he does seem to take ownership of the dramas. The guy that had the OS Giken gearset replaced did seem to get everything he needed (eventually!). I guess I'm hoping that 3 years later they're way more on top of their QC than back then... I have requested some assurances from him (which are just words at the end of the day) that they will back up their products and not dodge responsibility. If they can't give me the assurances I need then I'll be pulling the pin. Neat Gearboxes will be giving it a going over and making some minor modifications to it and I'm sure they'll tell me if it's not up to scratch. If it's not and it can't be rectified then I'll be chucking a major tanty. The reality is, if it wasn't that price I wouldn't be doing it and I'd be driving around with a stock shatter box like a nanna scared #hitless that it's about to go boom. Every man and his dog wants a sequential but that's just not going to happen so this is the only reality for me at the present time. I'm nervously optimistic that I'll be driving around with a smile on my face! If not, I'll be pissed off and making as much noise as possible to make sure it's made good! Only time will tell!!

Thanks for the vote of confidence! 🤣

Ok so I misinterpreted timing on the gearset.... Going to be 4 or 5 weeks which will suck balls as probably won't get it all back from Neat till next year now 😪. I'll get the centre plate through them now that the wait is longer. Got my manifold back today. I'm happy with it but it's just not exactly how I hoped it would come out. It was supposed to be shadow chrome but its like the transparent black isn't transparent enough so its now sort of a metallic dark grey. Ah well, its unique! Covers my welds a bit so all good!