Shoota's R33 GT-R RB30/26

[Shoota_77]

Success!

Sits the front very high as you can possibly tell but that's perfect seeing everything I'm doing is at the front so will make painting underneath a lot easier. 

It rolls around insanely easily too.

Hopefully get home from motorbike riding tomorrow so I can give it a bath. 

 

[robbo_rb180]

Nice work on the cart.
Definitely needs a clean. I've use degreaser, scotch brite, stainless wool and pressure cleaner generally gets all the grime.

Going to be worth the effort and be tidy when all done.

[Duncan]

I've used a dolly like that before (well, not as sturdy), but keep in mind the car will be way less stable on it due to the small wheels and narrow wheelbase. Rolling it on anything but a totally flat floor will be puckering

[Shoota_77]

On 27/8/2022 at 8:45 PM, robbo_rb180 said:

Nice work on the cart.
Definitely needs a clean. I've use degreaser, scotch brite, stainless wool and pressure cleaner generally gets all the grime.

Going to be worth the effort and be tidy when all done.

Cheers mate.  Yeah probably needs another few scrubs and blasts before it’s ready for paint prep.

[Shoota_77]

On 28/8/2022 at 8:15 AM, Duncan said:

I've used a dolly like that before (well, not as sturdy), but keep in mind the car will be way less stable on it due to the small wheels and narrow wheelbase. Rolling it on anything but a totally flat floor will be puckering

It actually surprised me how stable it is and how easily it rolls around.  I had to roll it over a 75mm gap I have in the concrete between inside and outside and it was fine over that. No signs of being unsteady at all.

I ended up washing it at 9:30pm last night.  I couldn’t wait til today.  Was absolutely gross before the scrub but nice to see it clean again afterwards.  The paint on the body of the car is amazingly good.  It’s just the bumpers that let it down.  If I achieve a good enough job on the engine bay and I’m confident enough in my painting ability then I’ll be painting those too.

[Shoota_77]

Yep, she was certainly due for that bath...

 

Probably should have chammied it but at 9:30PM the inclination was low.  My fingers were frozen by that point.

She certainly looks a lot better now.  

 

[Shoota_77]

Started removing Nissan's horrid efforts at seam sealing in the engine bay.  I'm sure a blind dude has been given that job back in the factory. It's terrible how little effort they put into it!  🤣

Some of the carnage left over (most of it is still sitting on the frame rails)

Started (attempting) to strip off the undercover sealer from the wheel wells. Damn is that a thankless job....  Used a heat gun and scraper to get the bulk of it off. I'm hoping nasty chemicals finish off the rest of it as that cooked me!

 

 

[Shoota_77]

Got the right wheel arch pretty much ready to go. Just needs a bit more seam sealer removed and then give the whole thing a scuff up with sandpaper.  Ended up giving the wire wheel on the drill a go for cleaning up the residual body deadener. Worked quite well but not good enough to remove the deadened at full thickness so persisted stripping the bulk of it off with the heat gun and scraper on the left side as well. As you can see it took it back to bare metal in some spots but shouldn't cause any dramas. I may have to etch primer the bare sections prior to high fill primer over everything but I’ll talk to the paint shop to get their opinion first.  Picking up the paint/primer/clear this week so I'll ask then.

Right (post wire wheeling)-

Left (pre wire wheeling)-

Hoping to have all the stripping and then seam sealing done by the end of this week and then start painting the week after that. 

 

[Shoota_77]

#escalation

 

 

If I'm as bad at spray painting as I expect I'll be, I've really got myself in a world of hurt...

I've decided that it would be stupid NOT to paint under the car until at least passed the end of the gearbox. That way when I decide to finish full resto on the back half at least I don't have to take the engine and gearbox out again. All I'd need to take off would be the tailshaft and everything behind that. 

I'll tidy up the sill sections as best as possible (they're not great but far from the worst I've ever seen) and seam seal and paint them at the same time. 

The floor and myself are currently covered in a shit tonne of shredded tar...

Wish me luck digging myself out of THIS hole....

[robbo_rb180]

you've come this far....... may as well do the rear now too as be heaps easier doing it in one hit.
Cars on the hoist so subframe is easy to remove.
 

[Shoota_77]

On 10/9/2022 at 7:25 PM, robbo_rb180 said:

you've come this far....... may as well do the rear now too as be heaps easier doing it in one hit.
Cars on the hoist so subframe is easy to remove.
 

Hey, don’t you hit me with sensible comments! 😂 

Where do you stop though? I was first going to NOT paint then engine bay, then I was going to paint the bay but just to the floor, then I was going to halfway along the car, then I thought “stuff it, I’ll go to just before the fuel tank!  You are right but there really isn’t much in the way of visible body beyond that point so if I don’t do it now I’m not fussed.  I’ll get everything that I’ve committed to fully prepped and ready to go and if I’ve got the inclination to do the whole thing I’ll decide then.  I do have to pull the subframe out at some point as I’ve non V-Spec diff to put in so if that’s done in this round of mods then I will paint above it at the same time.

Should get all of the body deadener stripped by tomorrow so ready to start seam sealing and slapping a bit of bog around by next week.

[robbo_rb180]

Yeah its making it a bigger job and more time off the road. Your right most of its hidden so won't see it just a good clean will be fine there.

Its a slippery slope with tidying up/restoring a car thats why I haven't fixed my wifes HQ. Need to pull half of it apart to fix a few little things but it would be mostly stripped at that point and I hate half doing things.

[Shoota_77]

On 10/09/2022 at 8:11 PM, robbo_rb180 said:

Yeah its making it a bigger job and more time off the road. Your right most of its hidden so won't see it just a good clean will be fine there.

Its a slippery slope with tidying up/restoring a car thats why I haven't fixed my wifes HQ. Need to pull half of it apart to fix a few little things but it would be mostly stripped at that point and I hate half doing things.

Yes, they're a very slippery slope. Every. Single. Time..... 🙂

[r32-25t]

Hahaha I’m glad I made the call early on where the start and finish was going to be for the paint and stuck to it 

[Shoota_77]

On 10/9/2022 at 9:30 PM, r32-25t said:

Hahaha I’m glad I made the call early on where the start and finish was going to be for the paint and stuck to it 

I have made many, many plans and stuck to about none of them! 😂

[Shoota_77]

Wow......  There's two days of my life I'll never get back....  That is a very dirty, fiddly and physically demanding job!  I can see why most people would do underbody on a rotisserie. Very hard on the arms, shoulders and back. Not gunna lie, pretty happy the vast majority of the stripping down part of it is done.  Theres not one spec of body deadener left under the car (up to the fuel tank).  Hopefully get some Epoxy Primer during the week and get a couple of coats over everything before I get any flash rust seeing it's pretty wet at the moment. Seam sealer and body filler will go very the top of the primer then base, then clear.

Probably going to Raptor liner the wheel arches and under the car.  Having a full 3 layer paint finish and then Raptor should seal everything up for the next 25+ plus years. 

 

[admS15]

That's some mega dedication right there👍

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 11/09/2022 at 5:46 PM, admS15 said:

That's some mega dedication right there👍

Big time!

Amazing effort

[Shoota_77]

On 11/09/2022 at 5:46 PM, admS15 said:

That's some mega dedication right there👍

 

On 12/09/2022 at 6:12 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Big time!

Amazing effort

Thanks guys, much appreciated!  It was a slog I can tell you!

Especially in all the ribs along the underside.  They could have made it dead flat to make my life easier!!

 

Having a play around with the sills at the moment trying to straighten them up a bit.  Mainly just each end is where the damage is.  I want to get them a bit better but not waste days on them!  I had a bit of a crack with locking pliers and a slide hammer which was mildly successful in pulling them back into place a little but they need more work before I'm happy.  I've got another puller concept in mind utilising 3 locking pliers and an engine support bar pulling up against the underside of the hoist arms that allows me to pull down on the 3 locking pliers with nuts that are on a threaded rod that is screwed into the bottom of the locking pliers where the adjuster bolt normally goes.  Very hard to explain without photos!  If I go with it I'll post up some photos so my rambling actually makes some sort of sense!!

I got a heap of tarps from Bunnings yesterday to make up my makeshift "spray booth".  I'm more doing it to stop getting overspray on everything other than the car rather than the goal of a perfect paint job!  I'm pretty much going to make the shed a 'wind tunnel' so lining the walls of half of the shed so air comes in one roller door and then flows out the other roller door at the other end of the shed.  It won't be perfect and will probably still mean I get a bit of shit in the paint but meh, can't get it all your own way!!

[robbo_rb180]

Get some pics up of the tools your making/using be handy for others.

This is going to worth all the effort.

Good idea with the booth/tarps. I've used a 6x3 gazebo & industrial wrap on the sides with good success.