Chapter 4 - SSTLC - Some Skyline Tender Loving Care
i got the car back in march,
and ALOT has been done since
alot of work needed to be done to put it back into shape, since no one knows how long the car hadn't been driven
i was nearing the end of my 2009 internship, so i had a re-stocked bank account, for mods, but mostly for maintenance
first thing on the list was choosing which part i would keep from my old GTR
1- the AVS wheels had to go, i just couldn't bare seeing them anymore
i had my work wheels, but 2 were badly damaged, and all were really scratched and chipped
but the tire were brand spanking new, and another set would have taken me back another 1,5k
so, fearing the wheels would cost me an arm to get reapaired, i took them to
P.Jaques wheel repair in Verchère, Quebec to be quoted
i big shop, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, renowned for their Über quality
i was told they could repair anything
so i got there with the wheels on a tuesday, i nice girl came outside to take a look at them,
i told her i just wanted them repaired and powder coated white again
she said, for the most damaged, 150$
for the 2nd most damaged, 125$
and the other two, just for paint, 100$ each
so in total, 540$ for freshly painted wheels with the tires mounted and balanced
ohhh yeah
then she tells me the wheels would be ready for the following monday (6 days, holy crap)
so that was that
2- lug nuts
i had a brand new set of rare Rays Duralumin blue anodized nuts,
there was no way in hell i was going to sell 'em
3- the whole brake system
i had just repainted the calipers, installed brand new Nismo discs and Hawk Hp+ pads all around
and the rear handbrake shoes were brand new from nissan
i wasn't going to sell all that, it was all new
this picture shows the 4 steps of the painting process
4- strut bars
i had a cusco rear strut bar
and a freshly powder coated nismo front strut bar
the nismo bar was bent just a bit in the accident when the hood pushed against it, but it was still structuraly sound, and only small spots of powercoat had come off
5- HID kit
my old GTR had an old school HID kit, pretty old, with huge ballasts
and it was something i absolutely loved on it,
i had to keep it
6- cat back exhaust
like i said in chapter 3part2, the huge 4,5" exhaust tip just wasn't my cup of tea,
and since i was going to drive the car alot on long journeys, it was also too loud (for my girlfriend)
my old cat-back though, only had a 2,5" tip, fitted flush with the rear bumper, and was much quieter
any general, a much more subtle exhaust
7- battery
i had bought a special "dry" gell-type Braille Battery, about 1/2 the size of standard skyline batteries and 1/3 the size of standard north american batteries, for the same power output,
and it weighted only 11,5 lbs ! and was so small, that i actually had to make a wooden box for it to fit properly
------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
second thing on the list was to fix some of the things i didn't like about the car
1- steering
sine i'm tall and large, my seat is always in the furthest position,
and the "flat" momo steering wheel was uncomfortably far from me
so, i sourced a Sparco 50mm steering wheel spacer
2- boost gauge
since the HKS EVC1 is an absolute dinosaur, it doesnt have a screen so you never really know how much your boosting
and the stock narrowband boost gauge is [-7 , +7] in 100mmHG which equals to a range of [-13.54 , +13.54] in PSI which wasn't enough
so a broadband [-30 , +30]PSI Autometer Pro-comp Ultra-lite gauge was sourced
3- turbo timer
the BEtime was old, which means it must have been installed a long time ago, which is a good sign the car the old owner cared about the car
but it was also hard to use
and i had a BNIB HKS type-0 turbo timer which was supposed to go on the old GTR
4- rear subframe slop
to correct the slopiness in the rear subframe,
some subframe spacers and diff bushings were sourced
5- FMIC grill
i think GTRs came with a grill in front of the FMIC, but they are a rare sight
i needed one, because..
the first time i took my old GTR to its top speed (limited ~180km/h) i saw a brown stop pass right in front of me really quickly
the next day at school, during lunch time, a friend of mine stormed into our engineerng locale saying;
"frank, when the hell did you hit that bird?!"
i was like, "what bird??"
that brown spot was actually a little bird, that got wedged between my front bumper and the lip, 3" away from the FMIC,
so i've been kind of paranoid about having a grill since
6- radio
damned jdm radios are crap, so i called up a buddy who works at Future Shop to get a GREAT deal on a ipod control pioneer deck
this thing is so sleek!
7- HID
my old hid bulbs were busted from the accident,
so Haig from autoworx found me some new bulbs that would fit N1 headlights (not cheap)
8- oils
new fluids all around!
9- cam gear cover
i didn't like the greddy clear cover, since it messed up whole look of the engine bay,
anyway, who wants to see stock cam gears ??
so i took the over off my old engine,
went to Polissage St-hubert with the spark plug cover, where i got my nismo strut bar coated (which wasn't very good btw, but he was the closest powder coater),
i showed the guy the spark plug cover;
i asked him to match the color as well as possible
the guy didn't seem to give a ****, he just oppened a couple catalogs, and chose a random gold color he would have to order
so i gave him two constrains ;
1- i gave him 16 days MAX (for the appointment below) to have it done (since the first time he was really slow)
2- i wasn't going to pay more than 40$, just for a cover (he charged me 60$ for the strut bar)
the first appointment
since i was getting ready for a 7 days Caribbean cruise with my family, for my father's 50th birthday, i didn't have time (and installations) to do everything myself
so i called up the experts,
Autoworx for an appointment, which was arranged to be 4 days after i came back from the cruise
i had called Polissage St-hubert a couple times to see if the cam gear cover had been dore, everytime i was told the paint didn't arrive (after 2 weeks ! wtf?!)
so finally i was going to drop the car off at Autoworx on a wednesday, for 6pm, without the cover
i absolutely needed it before the car left autoworx to have it swapped
so on that wednesday, while at work, i kept calling the guy's shop,
first no answer..
then his wife told me to call later..
then i got him on the phone, saying the paint had ~just~ arrived, and that he would start sandblasting it (wtf that wasn't done already ??)
then again, 2 hours later, he had just finished blasting it,
another 2 hours later, he had just finished painting it
last time i called him at 4pm it was almost done cooking
HOW SLOW DOES THIS GUY WORK
since i had to leave from work directly to autoworx, and my father was my lift back,
i called him to pick up the cover, because it was too late to stop by to pick it up,
so my dad arrived at autoworx about an hour after me
i took a look at the cover, and i was pissed
it was clear the color didn't match properly
and there was a couple pale spots and bubbles in the paint
and then my father told me the guy charged 60$ for the job, now i was fawking furious:furious:
anyways, at least i had it
this is what was done at autoworx ;
--install boost gauge
--install hks turbo timer / uninstall betimer
--swap cat-back exhausts
--install HID kit with 6000k bulbs
--install subframe spacers and diff bushings
--oil change ; Motul 4100 15w50 synthetic motor oil
- - redline shockproof Mt-90 an ATF gear oil, rear diff, front diff, transfer case, tranny (9 liters!!)
--radiator flush, with Motul MoCool fluid
--cam gear cover swap
--install FMIC mesh grill
- - and also had them stick my old GTR trunk badge in the middle of it
also got new NGK-R spark plugs and a 0gauge marine battery wire while i was there
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
just before leaving for the cruise, i went on RHDJapan.com and ordered a couple thigs;
to be continued in next chapter