Shoota_77

Ha ha, yeah we definitely did decide that. I think?? We just didn't sort out the finer details of who's paying for it as it aint me! Even though I control the finances of the household my lovely wife would LOSE IT if a nice timber box turned up with a shiny new sequential gearbag in it! One day maybe but not for a fair while yet. Maybe when I give up motorbikes, hookers and blow I'll have the spare cash to drop $20K on it!

They're definitely the two things I most regret doing! It's all part of the learning process. It does stress me out a bit but conquering the fear and stress makes the next challenging project that little bit easier. I've said many times that the hardest part of many of the things we do is just starting. If you have a few issues along the way who cares. You've just grown as a person by having a crack. We learn more from our mistakes than from our easy victories.

Got the rest of the gears/synchros off the mainshaft over the weekend. Anyone seen this before? It looks like when I was initially using BKs method to get the shafts out of the centre plate and the counter shaft launched itself out and smacked into the synchro which has then put pressure on the circlip on the end of the shaft. That impact has splintered the end spline off. End result, mainshaft is rooted. Fingers crossed the recipient boxes shafts are both in good condition or I'm buying new shafts too... I do have a 3rd box but was hoping to not have to rob parts off that one yet... If you zoom in where I've circled on the brass synchro you can see the impact from the counter shaft. *large sigh*

Good on you for trying to learn and give it a crack!

Some great upgrades! Awesome work on making them yourself! Loving the stealth(ish) looking engine bay.

Hi mate, this link may help you- https://www.amayama.com/en/catalogs/nissan/skyline/9-sedan-right-r33-1996-r-1349/7/538 At least gives you the "proper" names and part numbers.

Yeah the Shepp Lake is about as safe to swim in as the Yarra! You would jump in, bash your knee on a shopping trolley then end up with a severe dose of tetanus! A case of lockjaw would shut the kids up for a while though as a side bonus....

Stop harassing me! ?

Having been an incredibly tidy mechanic in my early working days I’m now TERRIBLE at putting my tools away. I have about 6 different jobs on the go so I’ve got tools spread from one end of the shed to the other! I actually don’t know if all of my tools even fit in all my toolboxes as they’re never all there at the same time! ? When (if) the GT-R gets finished that will be the trigger for an all out shed cleaning onslaught!

Clear coat it for sure! An anodised candy colour would stunning too but maybe too try hard show car? Either way it's impossible to make that work of art look anything other than amazing! I'd eat my dinner off it...

I don’t think there are any salt mines around here to send them to? ??‍♂️

Jesus that escalated since the last time I checked in ??. 16 swims a year versus no drives for 8 years. The pool is looking like the smarter option at this point! I’d need to sell the car to afford either of them which would make one of the choices a redundant decision.....

Holy shit that is a work of art! So much billetness....

So one one has talked about the elephant in the room.. Getrag?

House is only 6 years old so renos are years away! Ha ha, put in a pool for the kids or get a sequential.... Hmmmmm. Sequential will be cheaper!

Pool noodle draught stoppers, brilliant! Please feel free to send me some of your neatness and organisational skills. My shed is a bloody disgrace!

Nice, that looks hot! I do like a modern spin on the old Jap cars.

Sounds like a good deal to me! Yeah the 2+2 is definitely more functional. The rear of the coupe is basically useless! Anyway, look forward to seeing what you do with it!

I think 90% of people on here would love to do the same thing! Datsuns and rust is like a dog chasing its tail.... They can look good on the surface and next minute you've drilled out 400 spot welds and there's not much left! Good luck with it all, especially the rust repairs! I look forward to seeing it all come together. If you don't mind me asking what $$ did you pick up the car for? I can't convince myself that I can live with the 2+2 but the 2 seater is insanely priced nowadays and out of reach for me now.

Hi mate, very kind words, thankyou. I'm glad you're enjoying what is possibly the slowest build on the whole of SAU :). I can feel the motivation juices slowly churning away again so fingers crossed I can start to get into it again. If we end up going back to shorter hours here at work again (due to COVID) then there's a chance I'll have a bit more extra time to work on it again!

Ha ha, sorry they're all boring non car related posts lately! Hopefully in a few weeks that will change a little bit......

Yeah I dunno, it just had it in for me! I'm not sure if it was because it was a pretty new gearbox?? Anyway, all good. It's heading in the right direction now! Once I get this shed out of the way I'm back into it! Boring shed pic-

Wrong. Full electric cars will replace them, not petrol. ICE (internal combustion engine) are near on done. There will be minimal investment on diesel/petrol engines within the next few years. Whether we like it or not electric cars are the future. There are going to be massive issues/challenges to start with but by 2030 it will be incredibly hard (impossible?) to buy an ICE vehicle. I've never driven a Tesla but the Jaguar I-Pace I've driven was awesome! Incredibly acceleration and handling. The obvious issues are (seeing this is a towing thread!) will be towing range. I'm sure they'll be all over that by 2030 but lots of work to be done. For all of the great things that full electric cars bring it just won't be the same..... Cue nostalgic music!

Why do you hate diesel @ActionDan? There's no way I would go the other way unless I owned my own petrol business. I find that Diesel is just so much nicer to drive in a big heavy vehicle. Being so heavy I feel they need the diesel torque to get them up and moving. Have you driven a modern diesel engine (V6)? If you've only driven Toyotas or an Isuzu diesel then I can understand why you may have doubts about them as they are the old generation of diesel engines. Even though the Jeeps have questionable long term reliability the engine is a great engine and the ZF behind it is even better. There pretty much isn't a crap modern V6 diesel in my opinion. Any of the ones we mentioned in Fatz's post are brilliant - Audi Q7, VW Amarok, Jeep (diesel), Mercedes ML/GLE are all great tow cars but you obviously run the risk of issues down the lines as being European cars that can be costly to maintain once getting a little long in the tooth. For me, I'd rather run the risk of a slightly less reliable ownership experience to be able to say I drove a car I enjoyed. I'm sorry but there is not one car in the Toyota stable (excluding the obvious Supra) that would do that for me. Their clinical plastickyness just kills me. There is hope for Toyota, apparently there is a V6 TDI in the works. Will take a lot more than that to get me on the Toyota bandwagon though. As always, each to their own! These are just my narrow minded, biased opinions!

A few minor updates. New 3rd gear and press on sleeve finally arrived from Amayama. Corona making a (unt of itself again... Front diff should be back in a week or so from the dude who is resetting it in the sump for me. I tried BK's method of removing the shafts from the centre plate and had mixed results... The counter shaft went from staying in place after 20 hits with the dead blow hammer to launching itself out and smashing into the synchro on the mainshaft and smashing it in half ?‍♂️. I decided to keep trying with the mains haft but ended up destroying my dead blow hammer which disintegrated in a shower of ball bearings and metal dust.. BK, you can stick your bloody method! ?? Went back to the original plan of modifying the press to finish it off. Seeing I bought the bloody thing primarily for that purpose I may as well use it! I cut the deck in half then cut up some steel plate to weld it back together. I made it 120mm between each side which is big enough to fit the largest synchro on the mainshaft in between them. I also drilled new holes on the middle of the deck to be able to support it from two points on the uprights rather than just the one. Seeing the deck is now wider it puts a lot more load on the pins. Cue more boring press modification pictures! As soon as the mods were finished i threw the mainshaft and centre plate in the press and off it came with minimal effort! Building my new mower shed next weekend so I can get my machining/welding/grinding shed up and running. It'll be great to get all of that stuff out of main shed. Slowly slowly!