Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

OK update time.

Made the 9hr round trip drive to go and see/drive the car.

The owner was very helpful (and is also reading this thread so please say Hi and be civil).

Below is a gallery of things that stood out as blemishes/concerns/need repair.

Comments welcome, but in particular I was interested in what people thought of the following. As in, will these present long term issues or require expensive repair?

- Opened and re-sealed headlight.

- New seam sealer on inner guard (looks to have been neatly done).

- Surface rust on rear subframe. Spoke to my panel beater about this and he said he thought we could repair it with the frame in, wire wheel, rust convertor and some satin black. He did question the unusual spots which almost look like welds to the right of the hicas rack boot.

- Similar looking spot on the drivers chassis rail.

Comp tested it cold while I was there, barely 5psi variance between all cylinders while cold - seems fine to me. No idea what the tuner was doing when he tested it.

Drives fine/straight.

Paint is quite good and a very nice colour.

Interior has a few blemishes and will need some touch up as pictured.

Compared to what you guys have seen how does this stack up? My 33 was actually a little cleaner interior wise but it was a genuine low low k's garage queen.

http://imgur.com/a/RckNe

Your attention to detail is that of a collector ! I'd totally get you to suss out my next purchase.

Resealed headlights seem fine, although I'm not sure a set of r34 headlights are worth (i rmb them to be $$$ iirc) if theres no signs of air/moisture as is, shouldn't have an issue.

Covers showing slight heat marks probably not seen from a distance, i'd imagine similar marks on the plenum.

Most of the interior you'd never see daily but I can understand just being thourough.

I didn't even inspect my 32 in this much detail and I used to be fussy...

I'd prolly wait for a 34 owners to comment, plus have you seen another 34 yet? it might be worth seeing another in the flesh for a more direct comparison.

Drove fine. No miss, cold start tune could use some touching up.

Pulled fine. A few interior rattles and the Nismo twin plate rattle.

Brakes a little noisy when cold but fine warm. Drove straight, no wobbles up to 80-100 or so.

Couldn't hammer it given where we were.

I dunno, it seems a little rougher than I expected. I really wish I'd driven some others to compare it.

I know its a 15yr old car, but I have another mate telling me it's not indicative of a well kept car (maybe prior to current owner) given the rust and interior blemishes.

When you're spending that much on a car, get something you're in love with. Seems like you're trying to convince yourself its good enough when there's continually things popping up about the car that obviously put you off. That's how id look at it anyway.

I keep that in mind, but I balance it against not wanting to drop 60k on a "clean" one that still needs 15k in mods to be how I want it.

There's a middle ground in there. Just working out what that is.

The rust is my biggest concern.

My opinion...

Car looks a little rougher than what I would have expected.I'm basing this off my R34 GTR which now has 125000 kms. There is alot of steering wheel wear and interior blemishes that suggest its had a bit of a rough life.

Car might have originated from a snowy area of Japan. A few rust spots where a car of that age generally wouldn't have.

Cam covers are def quite 'used' compared to the majority of 34's I've seen

I've since spoken with a number of people who's opinions I trust on these things (repairs and GT-Rs) and all have said don't touch so I'm sad to say I spent a day on the road (and a day out of my holidays) for nothing.

Greatly appreciate everyone's help on this.

The search continues.

In respect to the seller, should I look to have this thread closed?

I do feel the car represents good value to the right buyer, I just don't think I'm that person.

  • Like 2

IMO this is where you're at.

You know the story of the car. Pay less than a "showroom" example and you'll enjoy it more than a garage queen no story car etc and won't be too afraid of getting it dirty and using it to its potential.

+1

It seems like you're after a show car. This is a 'go' car - someone who wants to use it, mod it and extract enjoyment out of it. Not put it on a pedestal and look at it.

I bought a GTT with a few rough edges, my last car was an R33 GTS-t that I was SUPER precious about. I am not precious at all about the GTT. It's there to be used and abused (ok, not ABUSED abused.. but have some fun).

Just depends what you want in a car. When I looked at your inspection photos I was thinking to myself "jesus this guy's anal" - I slowed down when I saw the rust spots but they're not that bad really. The car has probably lived on salt roads back in Japan (snow country). Would I drop 60k on it? Probably not quite that much, I'm also paranoid about things like rust. But if you treated it, it would take a long time to get worse. The accident damage doesn't matter IF it's been repaired properly and I don't see any glaring red flags in those pics.

Seller sounds like a champ btw.

+1. Seems to me that the car isn't hiding anything and nor is the owner. It's not a showroom special but it would be a lot of fun for someone who's not too precious about looks and previous history.

OK update time.

Made the 9hr round trip drive to go and see/drive the car.

The owner was very helpful (and is also reading this thread so please say Hi and be civil).

Below is a gallery of things that stood out as blemishes/concerns/need repair.

Comments welcome, but in particular I was interested in what people thought of the following. As in, will these present long term issues or require expensive repair?

- Opened and re-sealed headlight.

- New seam sealer on inner guard (looks to have been neatly done).

- Surface rust on rear subframe. Spoke to my panel beater about this and he said he thought we could repair it with the frame in, wire wheel, rust convertor and some satin black. He did question the unusual spots which almost look like welds to the right of the hicas rack boot.

- Similar looking spot on the drivers chassis rail.

Comp tested it cold while I was there, barely 5psi variance between all cylinders while cold - seems fine to me. No idea what the tuner was doing when he tested it.

Drives fine/straight.

Paint is quite good and a very nice colour.

Interior has a few blemishes and will need some touch up as pictured.

Compared to what you guys have seen how does this stack up? My 33 was actually a little cleaner interior wise but it was a genuine low low k's garage queen.

http://imgur.com/a/RckNe

My 2c

The rust bothers me.

Repair looks ok from behind a computer. Does look more worn than expected but much more used not abused. Interior doesn't really bother me that much as its all easily replaceable. Its the prior history combined with rust that does.

That said, you now know its mechanically 100% and requires work elsewhere. Would you prefer a cosmetic and structurally 100% car that requires engine work / mods? Which costs more to achieve? Engine work or bodywork, your call?

If it was my money, I'd walk away unless the price was something I simply couldn't turn down. Kudos to the seller though. Hiding nothing. Wish everyone was like that.

  • Like 1

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Hi, is the HKS  Tower Bar still available ? negotiable ? 🤔
    • From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
×
×
  • Create New...