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Well, right now i am sitting here with a massive grin on my face

why you ask, well i finally have my own car. Yes, it is a Box R31 but hey, its all mine thanks to my brother and his generosity. it's a stock, auto, white executive, with one flat tyre.

so the plans.

first of all, i need to find out what needs to be done to get it to road worthy so i can get it registered. as far as i know, all that is is a new windscreen and a new tyre.

after that, i will be saving a bit more money, and my plan (in my head, what i want to do) is to get the

suspension redone-lowered, bushes, swaybars, do the lot so it handles awesomely.

brakes checked- work out what i can do with them to make them stop better.

rims- i will be looking at proberbly a set of 17's. i dont need anyhting more. i will be looking for some with dish, and a polished lip, gold or black in the middle. something j-spec, that will go nice with black paint (see below)

stereo- just as long as it plays cd's, sounds good enoguh (no crappy distortion or anything) and maybe a 10 inch sub ill be happy-will look at my options when needed

drivetrain- will look at a silo LSD

engine- right now it has a crappy auto RB30e with 312 000 k's, so after everything else, i will be looking for a new engine, meaning turbo, meaning mostlikely a RB25. other than this, i could stay na, with the RB30 bottom end, and the non turbo RB25 top end-and rebuild it nicely (this is what i spoke to ed about back at work experiance)

paint and body- eventually i would like it to be painted black, with maybe a subtle bodykit, GTS2 or something the likes. if not, i will buy the kit and get the white touched up

honestly now i know its nothing special, but you should all know how much i love my cars (hell i joined here at 14) so i guess lets just see how i can go with it ;)

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Think I should make a suggestion. Instead of pouring all those modifications into an aging car. Save the money instead, just keep it in working order and use the money down the track a little to buy something more modern. Modding old cars is a big time sink, I wish I hadn't spent so much on my old car.

Congrats on the ride.

Think I should make a suggestion. Instead of pouring all those modifications into an aging car. Save the money instead, just keep it in working order and use the money down the track a little to buy something more modern. Modding old cars is a big time sink, I wish I hadn't spent so much on my old car.

Congrats on the ride.

I agree with this 100%. sure you can do some nice mods to get it running, but keep in mind it might cost you more in the long run tha a more modern car with less problems.

Still, it's good to see you've got yourself a car, i remember my first car, a 1971 POS Holden Kingswood, nothing special there. save up for a few more years then get yourself a nice R34 or similar.

just a suggestion, you've seen what mick and mark have done with their R31's though :)

yeah beau, it will be staying auto unless i go ahead with the engine swap.

the above are only really plans. stuff like the suspension and brakes need to be done anyway, so why not do them nicely. then whter i put on a new set of rims is whether i want to spend the money, same with the paint. but it proberbly will get a new engine, the idea of a sleeper really appeals to me :)

yea like others have said first cars are usually average cars for a reason if you are going to have an accident generally i would say its in the first year or two on your p's. This is nothing personal but i just remember at college the amount of people that had accidents :P i say keep it going and then if you really do want to do up a 31 wait till you have a full time job and go buy a straight clean 31 that already has a good base to work from.

well done mate.... i kinda knew this was on the cards.....

but seriously, if you think your gonna make an R31 handle good without spending a couple of grand, your dreaming. speak to mark and mick.... not putting you down, just telling you straight up...

grats Gus!!

I agree with the modding of an old car, more trouble than its worth sometimes, eg enigeneer certs, brake upgrades to match the rb25t. My first car was a mini after the first blown motor I did a full rebuild (dad and I) bored out to a 1275 race tuned extractors, 1"3/4 su carb (big for mini) water cooled intake manifold, saved and ported head, bigger valves, commonwhore eater flame shooter, but big money sink after all that it still blow another motor. (fixed that motor too)Now it just sits in the backyard ready to run agian..

but all in all its up to mate where you spend your money and time.

Edited by race_snooze

Yeah mate enjoy! Realistically you wont be able to make it look and go like the R31’s in your pics unless you fall into a very high paid job very quickly.

The benefit of trying to achieve what you are is that some things will be cheap enough for you to afford! The 17’s for instance will be very affordable. Lowered king springs wont cost much but I think you should rethink the suspension remodel. Those parts are a fortune to buy and even more to have fitted.

The motor is an obvious problem. You will need the stocker to learn how to drive (sorry its true) but after that its all up to you! A conversion can be done for a good price and if your serious about R31’s then there is no need to worry about how much your investing. I know you’re a fan of Ed at Integra but it is worth having a chat to John at Trojan if a conversion is on the cards.

For now though I suspect it will be a reasonably stock R31 with a P plater behind the wheel. As long as you don’t hurt yourself (or my car) you should have fun with it. You will make mistakes with this car but hopefully they wont be big ones.

Oh and PLEASE don’t make it a rice burner!!! Its one thing to “rice up” an R32 or an R33 which have the balls to back it up. But to do it to something that has no chance of living up to its enormous rear wing or HKS stickers…Anyway I trust you.

(I would like to note that my car is considered by many to be “Rice” given its glamorous appearance)

Yeah mate enjoy! Realistically you wont be able to make it look and go like the R31’s in your pics unless you fall into a very high paid job very quickly.

The benefit of trying to achieve what you are is that some things will be cheap enough for you to afford! The 17’s for instance will be very affordable. Lowered king springs wont cost much but I think you should rethink the suspension remodel. Those parts are a fortune to buy and even more to have fitted. 

The motor is an obvious problem. You will need the stocker to learn how to drive (sorry its true) but after that its all up to you! A conversion can be done for a good price and if your serious about R31’s then there is no need to worry about how much your investing. I know you’re a fan of Ed at Integra but it is worth having a chat to John at Trojan if a conversion is on the cards.

For now though I suspect it will be a reasonably stock R31 with a P plater behind the wheel. As long as you don’t hurt yourself (or my car) you should have fun with it. You will make mistakes with this car but hopefully they wont be big ones.

Oh and PLEASE don’t make it a rice burner!!! Its one thing to “rice up” an R32 or an R33 which have the balls to back it up. But to do it to something that has no chance of living up to its enormous rear wing or HKS stickers…Anyway I trust you.

(I would like to note that my car is considered by many to be “Rice” given its glamorous appearance)

dw stevie, i assure you it wont be going anywhere near bling or rice. 31's should not even be considered for a show car in my opinion! with the stocker engine, it will deffinetly be staying for at least a year, i would much rather spend money on suspension brakes rims, and learn how to drive with them on there before putting in a powerful engine

i went to discount tyres in erindale today, they will be doing a rego check for me soon and i will be getting a list of work that needs to be done for rego - and what needs to be done in the future. then i will be leaving it for awhile, and looking at all my optoins to do work to it and yeah! guess we'll see how we go with it

and in reguards to jon at trojan, i will be speaking to ewveryone possible for advice...ed, everyone on here (especially mark and mick),trojan, and other shops so thanks :D

Edited by Gus-

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