JL's Skyline GTR - From Stock to Finish Done Right- R32 Metallic Red Pearl

[YakshaXaio]

Wow man awesome GT just a question I'd love to get one but how much is the insurance on it?

[archaeicbloke]

thanks yasha! well you might be surprised that for me in Quebec, i apy $135/month, for full 2 way coverage.

but, i have a perfect driving record, and no claims... so its pretty good.

don't let the insurance situation deter you.. investigate before you let your dream car off.

[KromCube]

Wow man, your GTR is so nice! Ive always been a fan of GTRs but cant have one because I live in the US. Keep up the good work and good luck on the build!

[240sxHitman]

Love the progress man. keep it up!

[JDMtrendyyy]

lovin the build keep it up.

[archaeicbloke]

@ Kromcube, ya man, im a US citizen as well, and it pains me to think that if i wanted to move to the USA.. id have to give up my dream car.. such a sad state of affairs down there in regards to that...lol

@240sxhitman, thanks very much man, i hope you guys are entertained even more by whats coming next!

@jdmtrendyyyy... thanks bud! much appreciaed! check out whats coming now!

Anyways.. back to the build! i pulled out the oem stereo amplifier too, i weighed the wiper motor assembly and its not THAT heavy as i thought... together with the wiper arm and the stereo amp though it came in at 9 pounds... so thats alright! lol

so for winter i said i was going to be doing something big, well relativley big, and here is the beginning of it!... i stripped the body panels off.. the hood, bumper, undertray, and corner lights... im going to be removing a lot of the useless stuff from the engine bay, relocating the battery and stuff like that.

i also want to replace the hose clamps and silicone couplers with vibrant perofrmance ones, and install my ARC intercooler...

i want to get rid of the plastic piping thats for the BOV's recirc system.and depending on how things go.. i might be pulling the motor to give it a refresh.. meaning new hoses, vacuum lines, gaskets etc....

and also i want to re-paint a lot of the suspension members and things like the bumper re-inforcement bar, it seems some of them are in a sore state.. so a refresh on all those parts would serve well too!

but really i have to see how much time i have this winter between school and work im usually pretty busy.

but... needless to say, this is definitley going to get a lot more interesting.

[archaeicbloke]

well time for another update, i got the car up on jack stands all stable now and positioned.

figured id start by taking off more stuff to clear the way, now i know it seems like im going very slow,and I AM! lol.. im going really slow to make sure i don't lose anything, im labelling every connection, and documenting the process as i go to make re-assembly when its time easy and good.

so, i took out the battery and tray.



Then came off the apexi intakes and the MAF's.. took em off as all one piece

Then i took off the twin turbo top tipe

Then came off the Recirc piping and the Hot upper side of the HKS piping kit

Took off the lower hot side of the HKS piping and the lower part of the Recirc rubber piping

Then the front turbo suction flex pipe

Then finally the rear turbo suction flex pipe, a little bit of oily residue around that bit. ill have a closer look when i get the rest of it off

Next ill be doing some of the lower parts, like i think taking off the exhaust, fender liners, intercooler and remainder of piping.... so much to do! this stuff really does take a lot of time...

guys got any advice as to what would be best to do next?

[M35x2006]

wow. Good work man, this is very very incredible. Can't wait to see when you're all done, and the exterior is all paint corrected and shiny.

[ZootedS13]

wow nice work

[archaeicbloke]

@ Zooted and MX35 thanks guys very much, i really feel its all the encouragement i recieve from all around the world that has given me the confidence to do this myself, and thanks to the wealth of knowledge stored on these forums it makes thins a lot easier too!

well i know this is taking a very long time but im literally drowning in homework these days, im doing 4 very high level physics courses this semester and i typically have 6 assignments due each and every week, not to mention i work on weekend so im not left with much time to work on her...anyways So continuing with the tear down of the car, I removed the passenger side fender liner to facilitate removal of other things later on:



essentially i had to pull the fender liner off to get this stupid useless piece out:

then i pulled the drivers side fender liner...

And finally of course the OEM front mount intercooler was able to come free...soon to be replaced with the lovel ARC one, which i realized is twice as thick as my OEM unit... lovin arc.

and of course since its not needed i pulled off that rediculous balance system pipe.. unfortunatley nissan decided that should be the main way of supporting the intercooler so ill have to fab up some new way of holding the intercooler in place as the 2 rubber bushes on the side of each bottom i don't think will be enough.....and also the HKS lower cold side piping

Also the Blitz Blow of valves which im thinking ill polish and clean up and service the springs and oil them up a bit

After some careful manipulation of shimmying the pipework back and forth it finally came free, so i got off the HKS upper cold side piping, essentiallly completing the job of completely removing the intake system,... so thats a big check mark off the list.

And the last thing i had time to do today was drop the full catback exhaust line.. i know its not necessary for engine removal, but the plan is to give it a nice coat of POR-15 high-temp exhaust paint to prevent any further corrosion of the steel.

so next up will be the Trust downpipe to come off, and then i suppose it'll be time to drain the fluids and pull the rad.

[archaeicbloke]

its just a small update but it bothered me to leave a job half done! so i did this first thing this morning! ....

so last but not least of the exhaust system, the Trust downpipe, this was really very hard to remove, i didnt have a 1/2" extension long enough and i couldnt get enough torque out of my 3/8" drive ratchet... im sure i pulled some muscles removing those 4 bolts

[archaeicbloke]

Well tonight ive done probably the most rediculous thing ever on this car build so far.. the Blitz blow off valves were very dirty and grimey and covered in a terrible corrosion. and the cast aluminum pipe that they bolt too was a disgrace... so i figured id clean up the BOV's and have a go at polishing that horrible demented pipe.. my god what a headache, i reccomend no one ever bother trying to polish that pipe lol, its miserable, the casting of aluminum makes it VERY tough to achieve a perfect polish and not to mention all the curves and grooves... ugh miserable, anyway heres my attempt to clean it up.



you can see exactly what im talkin about

Took apart the blow off valves to give them all a good cleaning... LOOK at the crap inside there!

heres the end result

[archaeicbloke]

well its basically a small update everyday at this point, i do as much as i can while balancing homework and real work. i honestly wish my body didnt require sleep.. what a design flaw.. why do we need to sleep anyways!?

uggghh to add to the rediculous situation that was polishing the BOV's... re-assembled them and then thought id pressurize the piping to see how it holds up... all i hear is .. sssssssSSSSSSS... and im thinking.. .FFUUUU<<<<KKKKKK...

so.. i took them both apart all again.. only this time, i decided i would completely rebuild them and polish the brass pistons so they would seal properly...

so i take the circlip out of the first one, and it explodes!.. duhh... like i didnt know that would happen! the piston shot across the room and the spring went flying.. it was epic... anyways cleaned it up, oiled it, put it back together and all was good, it actuates as it should...

now the second one is the one which had the air leak.. and it was clear to me why.. it was FULL of gunk and sand and dirt.. which had caused the piston to become sezied into the BOV housing, cause when i removed the circlip. the piston did not fly out... so, i had to make use of some other tools not normally used for this purpose and after working the piston back and forth for more than an hour.. it finaaallly came free... so, i polished the brass and the inside, oiled it up, compressed the piston down, re-installed the circlip, and bolted it all back together.. ta-dah! perfect.. no air leaks anymore and both pistons actuate as they should!

i wonder how long i was running bassically with only one BOV for? lol...

next thing on my list of small tasks was to mod the balance tube for the recirc system, since i don't run recirculating BOV's i don't need the piping behind the FMIC and i need a way to block the return pipe under the intakes.. so, marked it, cut it.. and capped it, job done!

and heres the finished result of that.

THEN... it was time to get on with some of the bigger things i wanted to do, which included painting the exhaust system to stop all the gnarly corrosion!...so i started at the axleback section with the wire brush wheel.. when to my surprise!... WOW.. the exhaust system is actually stainless steel!! hahah i had no idea! it was always so corroded and oxidized i just thought it was regular steel!



So i decided i wasnt going to polish the whole damn thing.. it would take too effin long... instead i decided to polish the axle back and muffler and the rest of the exhaust would recieve the high-temp POR-15 paint as its never seen anyways.

but ya, polished it up and gave it a coat of clear, heres the end result!

[KromCube]

This is the best build thread EVER! I wish I had a Skyline, good luck with the build bro. Keep it coming!

[archaeicbloke]

@Kromcube - well thank you very much!! the kind comments help me to stay motivated!

well not much more progress yet, still just a little bit every day,(ive actually been busy prepping the exhaust line for POR-15 high temp paint, its quite the process...and ill put pics of that when im done)

but yea, basically just got the koyo rad out now, man that was so much easier than i thought it would be... theres really nothing to pulling a radiator... 2 screws, thats it! and drained the fluid of course. thats tough to do with out spilling every where



and then just as it was quick to do, i removed the upper and lower samco hoses and disconnected the defi water temp sensor.ive been labelling everything that disconnects with tape and names of parts, so the engine bay is starting to look like a battlefield with little white flags poping up everywhere declaring what they represent! lol

i have a question though... does anyone know how to get rid of that brown slimey stuff from inside the block!???

[archaeicbloke]

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_sbdpR7Jp...2.JPG

[archaeicbloke]

Well, another small-ish update...

I started the night off by attempting to flush the brown slime out from the engine block. So I plugged in the rad hoses again, the bottom one would drain to a bucket, and the top one had a hose hooked into it for water feed from the tap. Seemed like a good idea. So I turned on the tap water. The system pressurized but no water came out the bottom? I went in close to see whats up when all of a sudden *sploooosh*! The loosely place on upper rad hose lets go and I'm COVERED in brown slime water and coolant. My god, what a miserable odor.

Well it seems like both me and all the people who suggested I do this, forgot about the thermostat. doh! Anyway no harm done, but lesson learned, the hard way.

Well onto brighter things. To get back on track I started off by polishing the upper rad mounts and gave them a coat of clear to protect them. I think it'll look really sharp once its all back together. Check the difference:



Then I wanted to get more done on the exhaust plan. So after hours of work with the wire brush wheel to remove all the gunk, and grime and corrosion from the steel, I then sprayed the "metal ready" solution onto the steel. It's basically just phosphoric acid and a few other chemicals which encourage the rust to peace outta there, and converts it all to this white powdery chalky stuff. Then I soaked it down with a hose to wash off all the excess acid solution, and used a towel to dry it off. Then all the hard work is done and all that's left is to apply the paint. It's not THAT hard to work with the POR-15 paint, but it certainly requires care. It dries in about 3-4 hours to the touch, at which point I applied a second coat. I'll probably apply a third coat tomorrow. But it's gonna look the same, so for arguments sake, here's that finished product:


Then I wanted to do something that would serve a purpose and move me closer to the goal of engine out, but I didn't feel like doing any heavy bolt torque or anything like that, so I started on the electrical and vacuum line connections. Man there's a lot of them.

So I disconnected all 4 Defi sensors (boost, water temp, oil temp, and oil press.)


Then I pulled the throttle cable off:


And finally the entire main engine harness. This wasn't difficult at all, just took some time to label both parts of every connection and mark it down in my book.


Then, to finish off the night in a really poop manner, I noticed my feet were soaking wet!! And there was a growing puddle of water under my car.

WHY THE HELL IS IT RAINING IN JANUARY! +4 right now in Canada. Really quite concerned as to what I'm gonna do now that my garage is flooding. grrr.

Will keep you posted!

[streetstarspride]

what the FRIDGE.

awesome AWESOME build man

i'm really loving the color and the way your building the beast.

my favorite gtr out of all the models.

keep at it man.

[archaeicbloke]

@ Streetstarparade - thanks a lot! haha thats pretty awesome to get so much nice comments from people all around the world.. im definitley heading in a good direction!

Well thanks to the much appreciated help of my neighbor, we managed to fix the problem that was causing the rain water to flood the basement... so its back to work on the car! woohoo! lol...

well i started off by finishing up some of the wiring and vacuum lines that were still attached.. like i said before, everything which gets disconnected.. recieves a flag with the location of its counter part listed... and it all gets written down what each tag means in my note book... so like you see here... EGT-1 and EGT-2... are obviously exhaust gas temp sensors.. 1 = front.. 2 = rear! pretty simple... but ya the whole engine is being done like that.



then at the suggestion of some people on the forum, to gain a little more room when it'll be needed most, i just un-bolted the fan.. really easy to do!

and then i wanted to get back to work on the exhaust system refresh:so i started back with the de-cat pipe... look how corroded it is from driving just one summer!!

well after a little while with the wire brush wheel... it looks much cleaner:

and its the same sob story for the cat-back to axle forward part:

then i started on with the rather long and complicated and tricky procedure for using the POR-15 high temp paint.

step 1 (when starting with clean metal smooth surface).... had to spray the "metal-ready" phosphoric acid based spray onto the metal and let it soak in for 15-30 minutes all over...

step 2.... wash it all off with a hose and hang it up to dry over night...(important not to towel dry!!) supposed to leave the white chalky substance all over the steel.

step 3... after 2 days drying... you can finally apply the first coat of POR-15.. and it goes on really thin.

step 4.... after 2 days drying and curing ill be doing a second coat.. and a third coat... each coat becomes successivley thicker to apply...

so heres after the first coat:

and thats all for now, next hopefully we'll be making more progress in any number of areas!

[nismodatsun]

Sweet build man, I love seeing builds where people take time to document each step, keep up the great work man!

[turbo_blitz21]

Car is coming around really nice.

[archaeicbloke]

@Turboblitz21 thanks bud! im curious to see what you guy's will say when you see the end result!

@nismodatsun ya hahah! some people say im obsessive about it but honestly i think its the best way to make sure i can go back and see the order of which things go on and off!

more progress and a box of new parts!!!



well with the help of a friend i was able to seperate the power steering pump finally with out disconnecting the PS lines!



got a Full engine gasket kit for my RB26 motor!, she's gonna be sooo fresh!

then it wanted to make a little bit more progress in a different direction so i took off the caliper, pads, and rotor

then i took out the Tein coilover:

then the Cusco tension rod:

then disconnected the swaybar end link so not to damage it:

and finally took out the upper table AMS makes great products, after a year use its still in mint condition.l.. its just dirt encrusted! lol..

well more will come soon

[MellowZ32]

great thread man!

[archaeicbloke]

@mellows13 thanks bud! keepin up the hard work!



well got right back into it today finishing up the front wheel well area on either side (photos are only of passeneger side but driver side is the exact same thing).... that above ^^^ is the lower control arm with 2 ball joints... rather than attempt to seperate those ball joints it was far easier to just remove the whole assembly... no damage to balls that way lol...

then after letting these beasts soak in WD40 all night, about 15 seconds with the impact gun had these off no problem....axle nuts and cotter pins

then just pulled the spindle off and thats how it'll stay... i tried for hours to free the tie rod end and just couldnt get it off.. i even bought a new pickle fork kit... tried everything and it refused.. so i didnt want to break it, therefore it stays like that... theres no reason to take it off anyways at all...

and don't forget at this step to remove the ABS sensor as well (thats it wrapped around the brake line)



and finally getting a couple of things ready for paint.... i just spent hours cleaning them with the wire brush wheel, then a spray with phosphoric acid (acts as a great primer) .. a wash in water to remova the excess after 30 minutes of acid.. and now letting it dry over night.... after this its paint time!

[streetstarspride]

i am indeed jealous of this build!

[archaeicbloke]

hahaha thanks man!~

ok so continuing on with the work...

time to remove the axles... it was really easy, 6 nuts and bolts to remove the passenger side front axle,. and it comes right off!

next i wanted to get the AC pump ready cause it needs to be free when the motor starts to come up and out so that you can jimmy it around.. also this way i don't have to empty my AC system and risk passing out from lack of air! lol...

and this is a special tool i made... its actually a long tall skinny house lamp.. that i "modified" to fit over the end of my wrench... this is actually one of the hardest bolts ive had on the car!!! soooo long and its position makes my back hurt lol... once that miserable bolt was out...(its also the longest of the 4!! grr)... the other 3 were a breeze... andddd its free!!

now to get to some of the good stuff... my silicone heater hose kit came in today!! its nothing super special just direct replacement for the 20 year old heater hoses under the intake plenum...

and heres the finished product of those parts i prepped last week... like i said... wire wheel brush, phosphoric acid dip for 30 minutes, rinse in water, dry over night or 2.... many many light coats of metal flake red... many light coats of clear top coat... and we have this!... its the front spacers, rear spacers, front brake caliper pin pressure plate thing, and axle nut cap thing...i did these because these pieces are visible when you look at the car and on most cars they're covered in rust... i don't want that! so, these will clean easily with water after a long drive.

and heres the parts for the wheel well all organized, cleaned and ready to go back in when the time calls for it!

[archaeicbloke]

FREEDDOOOOM!!!!... well for the drivers side front axle anyways! lol...

man, that is one tricky piece to remove, but ill post the instruction how to remove it VERY easily for everyone to see... i should thank Mcfly for the advice on this little trick

k.. so first you need to find a flat head screwdriver...then crawl under the car with a work light... and have a look on the metal part of the axle shaft close... vvery close to fhe differential housing... there is a slot/groove all the way around the circumference of it. thats where you put the screwdriver into... and you simply just turn the shaft a little and give a pry with the screw driver.. if it doesnt come out.. turn the shaft a little more... and pry pry again... and at one point in the turning.. you'll be super shocked cause the whole thing just litterally fall out!... pop! woohoo.. so easy..

this is what you;ll be looking at when you get under the car.

then... (even though this one is already out) you can really see that slot im talking about

and once its out.. a small red stream will run for like 30 seconds, this stuff is pretty thick... not a big deal:

then i proceeded to finish up some of the electrical wire connections, a couple more vacuum connections, and finally the fuel send and return lines...

before the motor comes out... i still need to:

- drain engine oil- drain transmission fluid- disconnect shifter from inside- disconnect the rear prop shaft from the transmission- disconnect wiring and speed sensor from transmission- disconnect some ground wiring on the engine- unbolt the engine and transmission mounts..

not much more than that.

[archaeicbloke]

well, i wrote my last midterm exam today, so naturally got right back into the work on the car.. man its so hard going back after 3 weeks of not touching it! grrr...

2 weeks ago i made a large order through a shop, heres whats on its way over:

- 2 x Garrett 2860R-5- N1 oil pump- stainless braided oil lines with oil restrictors- full set of vibrant performance T-bolt clamps and silicone hose couplers for the entire FMIC piping system

is supposed to ship out this week, set to arrive about a week from friday,

so first thing i did tonight was disconnect the main engine ground wire, then disconnected the heater hoses from the body:

then went under the car and disconnected the rear prop shaft from the transmission, its easy just 4 bolts.

while i was down there i also unbolted the clutch slave

and finally i painted the front re-bar with POR-15, and i touched up a couple other parts like small brackets that arent really seen usually, but i saw them, and they looked like they needed fresh paint. lol

[archaeicbloke]

Serious update request fulfilled!

first, since ive been asked, this is the polishing kit i use, i have 6 different compounds for all different kinds of metal. heres a pic of that kit,

and heres the tension rods new paint job (i had to keep the POR15 base coat well away from the nuts and bolts section as this paint "fuses" metal together permanently)... then a top coat of mettalic red with a clear coat... i know they;re not seen, but i see em anyways.

and heres a center console DIN that marc made for me! (props, the man with all the solutions! haha as he also hooked up some new wheel studs! woo hoo!)its a carbon fiber weave with red kevlar, its super cool, from one direction it looks mostlyt black, and the other its red...

then i unbolted these from the rears, im gonna clean up the coil-over and oil them and stuff, and gonna repaint the cuso rear A-arms with POR 15.

ok so back to the job of pulling the motor:disconnected the speedo cable

then just unbolted the attesa filler pump thing

then drained the engine oil

at this point i have to stop and give a HUGE thanks to marc and my neighbor jesse for comin over tonight and giving me a much needed hand with all this! thanks a lot guys!

so we had a fair bit of fun removing the circlip from the shift lever... anywas we got it out finally:



then i dont have pictures of this part! ahh... but anyways we unbolt the 4 transmission mount bolts and removed the cross member.. of course we had to support the transmission with a jack... then its just one nut on each side for the engine mounts... then we rigged up our crane with two large hoops of 7000 pound test cables.. and due to our height restrictions on my garage we had to be super careful hahah.

also the jack stands were in the way so they had to be move and then we had to disconnect the electrical from the alternator, a plug at the bottom of the steering rack and the wiring to the starter mortor and the transmission sensors. ugh i had obviously forgotton a whole wiring loom worth of wires lol ha, anyways. heres us setting up the crane:

and we started to lift!! - but its a very tricky game to get the balance just perfect to clear the pipes below and the firewall above and all the other junk in the way!

and here it is just starting to peak out

a little moooore! and ugh, jammed on the upper rad support... so we put a jack on the front and actually lowere the body of the car to make it clear... and that still wasnt enough to clear it all!! so we ended up lifting it out ourselves!! - we also had to remove the front rebar because we couldnt get enough reach on the crane!! ugh doh! remember for next time i guess

and there she is, out, free and clear, nothing damaged in the process except my only work light

and theres the body, waiting for its refreshed heart! (EPIC photo finalé)

[nissans13240sx]

Nice build you got goin here. My 32 looks exactly like your haha. I actually just recently pulled my motor out too. Where did you get the silicone heater hoses from?