Adam's R33 Skyrine

[Run-It-Hard]

Might as well start a build thread for my boat, shits gunna get heavy soonish! ... taken from my blog.

As most know, I've been stripping the Stagea back to sell for the past few weeks, and the original plan was to sell the Stagea before I bought anything else. Somehow though I can never seem to stick to plans that I set.

During the weeks of preparing the Stagea for a new home, I've been trolling the classifieds, looking at all sorts of cars within my price range. There was this one car I was eyeing out for quite a while. I was hoping that when the Stagea went, it would still be available. I'd constantly check it every few days to see if it were still on Carsales too.

Two weeks ago, just before I finished work I did my new "routine" of checking the classifieds and that car I was keen on. When I found it, something was quite different … the price had been halfed! At first I was a little skeptical on why the price had been dramatically dropped so I called the owner, Steve straight away to have a chat about it.

It turns out that Steve was re-locating to Canada for two to four years so there was no point keeping the car.

Figuring out my options I decided to check it out. It looked a million times better in person than the Carsales advert. I was expecting some problems here and there but my expectations were blown away when he took me for a spin in it. The fierce acceleration of the GT3071R had the 255 tyres struggling for traction quite a few times, during the drive I was constantly thinking how off-tap this car was.

After discussions with Steve about his R33, he had it stored at a friends house until I could get my finances sorted.

Saturday was the big day, it was time to pick up the Skyline. So Nick, Yuan and I headed out to Berowra to get the new RIH beast. Thanks again guys for the help, couldn't of done it without you!

After finalising the purchase I decided to take it to my trusty mech, Anthony to scope it out as there were a few things I wasn't sure on.

After visiting Dahtone Racing with the new toy, we decided to grab some lunch and give the car a quick wash. Yeah I know it's missing a front bar, it came with a complete Top Seceret body kit upon purchase, but I've got something else in mind.

So, what's next you ask? Well first up I'll replace all the fluids in the car, then source a new kit while tidying up all the little bits and pieces that I'm not happy with, which I've already started doing. I would like to get it all sorted within two months, funds permiting.

I plan to keep this car for quite a while, but as I said I never seem to stick to my own plans. Though I can't wait to get out to Eastern Creek in this thing!

The new project

[Run-It-Hard]

Since the move I've been riding the bike quite a bit further, it's now a 15KM round trip. It's good though because I'm getting into a nice routine of going to bed early and getting to work on time ha ha.

Anyway with Winter slowly creeping away, the sunlight has been out a little longer. So this is what I've managed to do when I get home from work before the sun sets.

My steering wheel and hello kitty horn button have already made their way onto the car, but thats about all for now. I've focused on stripping everything back that I'm not happy with and well, starting from scratch.

The dash surrounds were painted a burgundy colour (the car was once the OEM burgundy colour, then black, and now blue) So I was going to replace them, but Nick came up with the idea of sticker-bombing it, so I say why not? It's cheaper than buying new panels.

Another thing that I wanted to rectify was the Greddy Profec B boost controller, along with the HKS turbo timer placement. Originally they were just tucked into the fuse box section under the dash, but I'm going to move them in the bottom din panel.

So yeah that's where I'm at, at the moment fixing all those little things while waiting for some parts to arrive … like some new gauges, I can't read those Blitz things for the life of me.

Getting into it

[Run-It-Hard]

Slow and steady wins the race, or so they say. I'm slowly going through all the aftermarket wiring in the car, getting rid of the un-neccisarys and other things. Check out all the junk that come from behind the head unit!

Although I hate almost everything electrical, it has been a good way to "know" the car, how the work was done and the like. Soon enough I'll know it inside out which will be handy for when things err, happen. I've finally pissed off the Blitz gauges and decided where the Race Techs will go. I was given a gauge holder as a spare when I bought the car, and thankfully it covers all the holes from the previous setup.

At this stage I've relocated the boost controller, wiring in my old Pivot shift light, sorted out the head unit wiring (Nick did it actually) and waiting on a few parts to get the interior back together. I still have a few things to do, like remove the HKS turbo timer, and trace many many wires that look useless, like the red wires on the right above.

While were at it, here's an engine bay shot. No expense has been spared in here by the looks of things, hosting a stack of quality parts and interesting modifications too (like the twin thermos). I won't be changing much in this department.

Still got a long way to go until this is rolling on the street or track, with the list of things needing attention just getting longer. It adds to all the fun though right?

Slow and steady

[Run-It-Hard]

Sorry for the lack of posts on Run It Hard guys, we still have no internet connected at the new house, and I've been hauling ass the past week to get the Skyline tip-top.

So with the next DS event just around the corner, I wasted no time on getting stuck into the Skyline. At first I had a decent sized list of things to do but then it just snowballed. When I completed one thing, I managed to rectify two more things.

One of the most important things was the replacement of the steering rack. The previous rack was leaking pretty bad and as we all know, dropping fluid at the track is a big no-no so out it went for a second hand piece from Skyline Spares.

While all the fluid is out, I've decided to hook up a power steering cooler (which I'm still waiting on). I also installed the KTS inner and outer tie rods that previously bought for the Stagea.

The 6mm spacer built into the KTS tie rod should give me a nice amount of extra lock. The great thing about the KTS rods is that there is a little more thread then the OEM tie rods. So it would be possible run another 6mm spacer safely.

That's not all I've got planned foe extra lock. I've got some extended LCA's in the works that should give me some pretty spastic lock combined with the KTS goodies.

Stay tuned for the next post about getting the Skyline ready for skids!

Race against time - Pt. I

[Run-It-Hard]

Thursday afternoon, the Skyline was finally off jack stands. At this point all the adjustable arms and steering rack were installed, along with engine oil and filters changed.

During the preparation of getting the car ready for skids, quite a few parts I ordered arrived on time, and some didn't.

I ordered these gear and handbrake boots a couple of weeks ago for when I get the interior looking schmick. They are from Top Gaiters on EBay.

They are made from leather and double stitched in any colour you desire. I went with black leather with blue stitching. Best of all I got the set cheaper than you'd buy just a gear boot from local stores.

The extended LCA's I picked up from Skylines Australia forums off a guy in Victoria. These bits of gear give me more track, clearance, camber and a chance to gain more lock.

Next step will be to grind the lock stoppers down on the standard knuckle, but first I want to drift it and see what it's like at the moment.

The power steering cooler I ordered arrived a few days after. I decided to put this in another time as it's not neccesary at the moment.

I also happened to score a free vice the other day so I'll be able to make up some mounts for the cooler sometime soon.

One thing I haven't been able to do at past events is record in car footage as I only had a roll cage camera mount. I made sure I could get some footage this time so I ordered a heavy duty suction base to attach to my camera mount. I've used this mount before when the guys at Camzilla put a Drift HD pro recorder on the Stagea for a few runs.

It's an extremely sturdy piece and should show 0 movement when recording, which means near perfect footage! Great service from them too, I ordered it on Monday afternoon and received it the following Wednesday. I can't wait to use it!

Race against time - Pt. II

[Run-It-Hard]

With only two days to spare, things were getting pretty close for preparation of the Driving Sports full day event. At this point my alignment was way out of whack so that's what was next on the agenda.

I've been dealing with Jax tyres in Smithfield for about two years now, as they are literally down the road from my work. Micheal, Jamie and the guys there are extremely helpfull and won't bat an eye to stretching tyres or aligning slammed cars, like my old MX-5. Generally, Saturdays are pretty busy for tyre shops and Jax Smithfield is no exception. Though the boys still made room for the R33 to get looked over and knocked it over very quickly.

Getting the car there was another bloke that I've met through work. I once helped Peter from Camel Towing source some gearbox bearings and he gave me his card.

Peter is very professional when it comes to towing. I specified what time the car needed to be picked up and he was there to the dot. The car was on the truck and off to it's destination within 5 minutes, Which in my eyes is exceptional as I've had quite a few towie's take forever when getting cars on their trucks.

Not only is he a genuine, honest bloke. Peter's prices are extrememly competitive too, for an example he beat all other quotes I had by $40! Peter has currently reconstructed Camel Towing and is now only doing after hours (6pm onwards) and Weekends.

If you need a towie for whatever reason, don't hesitate to give Peter a call on 0434-434-434.

This is the R33′s current lock after the wheel alingment. Considering it's quite a conservitive alignment I think it isn't too bad. I should get a few more degrees quite easily once I grind the stoppers down. But before I do that I have to figure out a strange problem I have with the steering rack. It seems that it's not centred as the right side will touch the stoppers, but the left wont. Wierd.

The next blog entry will be results from tomorrows event, here's hoping I don't break anything!

Stay tuned!

Race against time - Pt. III

[Run-It-Hard]

What an action packed day the 29th was! The following night I was up in anticipation, I just couldn't stop thinking about getting out to the track once again. I finally managed to get to bed at around 3am. Then it was all systems go at 7am.

I got to the track at 8am, I think I was the third or fourth person there. Waiting for inspection and briefing was hard, I just wanted to drift (as did Ben, Yuan, Dave and Julie). The first run out there I just let it rip, and it felt so damn good to do so!

Enjoy the video guys, more updates of the day to follow.

DS full day drift

Edit: fixed youtube link - Revhead

[jamie curran]

ok i dont know whats happening, but everytime i open this thread, i get deverted to youtube

[browneye91]

Same here. a bit odd

[Run-It-Hard]

I'm getting directed back to the "portal" for some reason

Still have a little more to update too

[Run-It-Hard]

Ok, we are back thanks to revhead!

[Run-It-Hard]

A lot of shit went down at the recent Driving Sports event, there were a few prangs and almost a punch on, yep you heard right. A bunch of sick coconuts thought they’d try drift around a spun car, and ended up crashing into him. They then had the audacity to threaten the poor bloke when it was their fault in the first place.

I don’t get it, if you can’t accept the fact that your car could possibly be a write-off as soon as you hit the track, then don’t bother coming. These coconuts were just causing trouble the whole day, not obeying the rules set by Driving Sports and being just plain tools. Grass roots is about having fun, learning and hanging out, not this crap.

Anyway, these two fellas I’m about to talk about are the complete opposite, you could call them Driving Sports veterans (like myself I guess?) at every event since, well pretty much the beginning of it all. Though Yuan and Ben don’t seem to have the best of luck.

One car was towed to the event that day, and three came back on a tow-truck. Both Yuan and Ben had problems that put their day to an end quite early. Ben hit the curb while doing the track in reverse and Yuan split an inter-cooler hose (which he managed to fix) then broke his throttle cable!

Check that out, Ben completely destroyed a tie rod and lower control arm, luckily I had some spares at home and we managed to fix Ben’s car during the night. Yuan’s car had to wait for the following day though, as we couldn’t find a throttle cable.

Both cars were easy enough fixes and it doesn’t discourage the guys at all, they can’t wait to get back out there. When they do, I reckon they’ll be doing what they do best … break shit!

DS aftermath

[Run-It-Hard]

That maroon console surround was one of the many things that I didn’t like about the R33, and this weekend I’ve done something about it. Nick came up with the great idea of stickerbombing the shit, at first I was a little iffy about it, but I’m glad I went through with it.

I bought some stickers a few weeks ago, and I finally had some spare time on my hands. So out came the surround and I loaded up over 100 stickers on it. Looks pretty cool don’t you think? I did the door handle cups too for good measure.

If anyone is interested in getting something like this done to their ride, shoot me an email and I’ll be able to sort something out for you.

Bombed

[Run-It-Hard]

Battle damage ... From those orange witch hat thingys … I scored this Trust front bar off Benny at the DS event, shame it didn’t last very long on the car haha. It’ll be my thrasher until I’m ready to make the car look boss.

Battle damage

[Run-It-Hard]

Heres a vid I knocked up a couple of days ago.

And that's where I'm at at the moment, I've had the car for about 3 weeks.

Future plans are to make it look mighty boss and drift the tits off it.


I start a new job soon, so shit should wild shortly!

[adamskill]

awesome dude. love your threads too, winning

[Run-It-Hard]

Here's some pics from Street cover

and some of the missus

[AAARGH 33]

Loving the car mate

What's the switch on the center console for? I love those switches and will make up uses just to justify having one in my car haha.

[Run-It-Hard]

Cheers dude, it's coming along.

I had one lying around just to fill the hole up. I guess the PO had the same type of switch in there before. I might make it for my ariel so it's not up as soon as I turn the radio on.

[Run-It-Hard]

Sweet f**k all

Sweet f**k all has been happening the past week. I’ve done a few little things to the Skyline but nothing really blog worthy. Been enjoying the nice Spring weather, checked out a few events … actually came back from one a few hours ago.

The Driftmob – Project D drift day held at WSID (Eastern Creek drag racing section), it wasn’t bad at all huh! It’s one event I’d love to take my car out to when I get the chance.

Next week I start a new job, and the week after I get my licience back. Exciting times for me at the moment.

Stay tuned!