Recently got a new GTR R32, and have started buying up parts for the spring, I'm in Canada....so I decided to start a build thread to help track progress. This is the second GTR I've had.

And so here's the first GTR I had:



Then i got tired of having a really modded / problem car, so I sold it.

******************************************** 6 months later, I bought this:

1991 Skyline R32 GTR *bone Stock*. Not a single thing was upgraded ever. 110,000km's in great shape, no rust, and compression on all cylinders was above 160PSI. Never been over boosted either.

Here's the pics of it at the shop.



That's all for now!!

Check back soon, more to come!

ok, so i finally got the car home plated and insured, and gave it a good wash and wax.

i also ripped out some classic japanese wiring jobs for a car phone!?....

here some pics for after the clean...

and thats just before it went into storage for the winter!

more to come! im getting pieces soon!

Awesome! Well in all honesty I've done quite a bit already and I intend to post it up to date within the coming days. Or maybe all today, but you will see the progress! And I assure it has undergone quite the transformation!

Just picked up the following parts:

Nismo Front Strut BarNismo Rear strut barSamco rad hoses Cusco Front adjustable tension rods Cusco Read adjustable camber arms

The cusco bits were a bit worn, so I cleaned them up, and here's the result.

I'll post pics of the Nismo strut bars and Samco hoses later tomorrow:

And this is how she sits right now in the garage for winter:



Here's pics of the strut bars + rad hoses!



Stay tuned, more to come!

hey, so finally I had the time to pick up some more parts!~

here it is....

my Tein Type - HR with pillow ball top mounts!!!!.

they are ride height adjustable, but NOT damping adjustable, which is fine for me since my main concern is being able to raise and lower them for when i get new rims. before i bought them i read a bunch of reviews, and decided they would suffice, the general consensus is that the damping force is fair stiff, but still totally streetable. so thats why the type HR's.

and the top mount pillow balls is just a bonus~! didnt expect them at all. they're in great condition, just need to go at the threads with a wire brush to clean them up a little and we're in business!



I picked this up at the same time as the shocks!

3.5" inner diameter Stainless Steel exhaust!

so thats a Jasma certified Straight through muffler, with a one piece mandrel bend cat back exhaust line, and a "test-pipe" cat with O2 sensor bung welded in.

this exhaust is a monster! i can stick my whole arm down the pipe with out ever touching the side, i cant even imagine how this is going to sound! lol

*watch out neighbors*

check out the quality of the welds on here! nice work eh??

here is the remaining parts of my HKS Front Mount Intercooler hard piping kit.

i re-polished all the pipes, and washed all the clamps, and hose couplers. it looks pretty shiny and clean now,

i tried to assemble it so people could see what it looks like all together, ya they even gave me the oem black hard tube pieces that are used to go through the front body and down.

check the pics!

in a few more weeks i will be getting hopefully some more stuff for the car! so check back soon.



got another piece of the puzzle today....

picked up a Trust Greddy MX 3.5 inch downpipe, with equal length runners...

peep the beautiful construction grade... i was impressed...

so, all this should help with much quicker spool, now all i need is some dump pipes, and exhaust manifolds... then the exhaust system will be complete...

after that, the plan is to finish intake components, then fuel, and a couple more electronic goodies...

thanks for all the support everybody!



these came for me today, after a struggle and a half with UPS about shipping information, they finally figured out my address DOES exist.. imagine that?! anyways, these $50 wrenches cost $130 in credit from UPS to me due to their errors.. so basically UPS paid me like $90 to take these wrecnhes.. LOL not bad eh?

they're obviously for my tein coilovers...

so i recieved a few parts in the mail today, woohoo! adjustable front upper coontrol arms to replace my old ones that have worn out bushings

im trying to save up some money to send the car in for fluid flushes and changes and some other maintenance items. so i need to chill on the parts purchasing.



So i keep buying up parts for my big plan... but i have yet to install a single thing...

im also holding off for another reason... I've realised what a rare thing it is to have a completely bone stock GTR in mint condition... and im considering offering it up for sale before i start to mod it... if it sells, I would buy another GTR that is not so mint, and make it more of a project,...

i just dont think its very fair to the community and world to start modifying an original in such perfect condition as mine is without offering someone else the chance to own it instead. so watch the For Sale sections soon.. if i decide to post it up for sale... ill let you all know..

anywaysThese just came in the Mail!



NEXT POST WILL BE A MASSIVE UPDATE WITH TONS OF WORK DONE!!!

First off...BEAUTIFUL R, man. That things is clean. The only exception being the engine bay, but not many cars have a clean one anyway. I see you are getting the normal chipping of paint off the intake manifold, I have a little on my R33, but not much to worry about yet.

I, too, have a mostly stock GT-R, but I have an exhaust and set of wheels on mine, but the mod bug has started to hit me. The car is fun as hell to drive as it is, so I kinda want to see what's it like modded. Has to be even more fun!

Anyway, thanks for your posts. And if you decide to mod this, or sell it for another not-so-mint one, keep us updated.

Cheers!

thanks a lot man! thanks for the kind supporting words! ill be frank with you though... you havent seen even half of whats been modded to the car yet... i plan to post more of the story tomorrow or perhaps late tonight..

so keep your eyes on this thread i promise there some big updates coming..

AS PROMISED - MASSIVE UPDATE**********

well i picked up the car today from Autoworx, and i must say, what a pleasure it is to deal with Haig, and JR and all the guys there, just absolutley astonished with the quality of work.

so that loong list of things was completed. with a couple of things differentiating from the list. heres what got done.

- New timing belt, idler, tensioner, CAS seal, crank seal, + N1 water pump all installed.- New rear inner outter tie rods installed- NEw Front inner ball joints installed- new front inner tie rod boot kit- flushed and replaced EVERY fluid with top notch synthetic oils (Tranny, motor, rear diff, transfer case, front diff)- New valve cover gasket set and grommets installed- new Apexi cold air suction kit installed

- the 5Zigen exhaust i had purchased was apparently meant for a Silvia. *DAMNIIT!*.. so i went back and picked up another one. so we installed the HKS Hi-Power exhaust system instead, and im sooo glad i did, the sound tone is un-real. sooo smooth, and they installed the rest of the 3.5" exhaust system and trust downpipes.

-then they installed all the HKS intercooler piping and BOV's and re routed vacuum lines, that all looks and sounds wicked too.

- then those Tein coilovers i had purchased where a bit seized up, so the guys at autoworx completely dismantleted them and cleaned them up super nice, so they work as they should, and dont leak or squeak.

- also they installed AMS front upper tables, Cusco front tension rods, and cusco rear camber arms.

ive got all the stock parts, which are now going up for sale. (the oem shocks are already sold sorry, but check the for sale section for other stuff)

Haig was kind enough to take pictures of everything for me during the whole process so heres a whack load of pics.

i will post a video up soon so you can all hear the exhaust and BOV's...

thanks everyone for the kind words!

so finally i took a quick video of the exhaust tone,

all the revving is just below 4,500 RPM.. its not good to just rev under no load for no reason,

as soon as it stops Effing raining here ill take a video of a drive by / BOV's cause thats really what i find sounds the best.

anyways, just a quick video:

If you cant get it to play here, ill post the link below:http://vimeo.com/4005272

i also sanded off the black paint that was covering my nismo strut tower bar. and polished by continuously wet sanding it with finer and finer grain paper.

looks really shiny now, i like it much better, also spent some time with armorall orange cleaning wipes to clean out the engine bay, and interior a little bit.

heres some pics... the last one is just some stupid thing i got carried away in photo shop.

ill get a video up asap of the BOV's sound and exhaust sound... i promise! lol



finally i was thinking about my buddy Ty's car, and i remembered he had his apexi intake kit polished, which i really liked... so, i spent the afternoon, and did the same thing myself,

after removing the intake system, the process was as follows:

1) wire brush wheel off any dirt and as much of the surface as possible2) use 320 grit wet dry sand paper and have it..3) repeat using 600 grit.. then 1000, then 1500, and finally 2000 grit wet/dry4) use polishing compound and highspeed dremel with felt wheel disc, and polish until the surface is like a mirror...

i think it turned out to what i was looking for,

there is one minor sid-effect.. i have no fingerprints left! lol! time for some crime! hah, jks.

anyways, tomorrow if i have the time id like to do the same to the "twin turbo" pipe, and the back inlet pipe.. then also a few other small parts. its a great cost effective way of adding some good looks to the old looking engine bay i feel.. lemme know what u guys think.

AFTER THE FIRST SANDING WITH 600 GRIT:AFTER SANDING WITH 200 GRIT:AFTER POLISHING WITH DREMEL AND COMPOUND.. WOW LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE!

Sweet R I love it. as with all R32's as long as they are taken care of

thank you guys for all the encouragement! im glad to see you all like it so far!..

a couple more updates!

so today took apart the "twin turbo" pipe, cleaned it and followed the same procedure as yesterday, its now polished.. heres some pics.

also as promised ive managed to upload to short videos featuring some spirited driving, the point is to try and hear the BOV's... those blitz's are like music to my ears, lemme know what u guys think...

http://www.vimeo.com/4123922

http://www.vimeo.com/4123848



well, here they are! my new rims... (yes they are used obviously, but in fantastic shape) and the tires on them are brand new... so im not complaining.. if the faded stickers bother me in the long run i will just get them refinished, it doesnt cost that much compared to the cost of these rims BRAND new... i checked the pricing to get them here from japan... they cost $4000.00 canadian.. with out tires! .. and with out shipping or duties... so landed with tires.. we're looking near the $6000.00 range!.anyways heres the spec on the wheels:

Bronze Volk TE37 18" Forged, one piece, leight weight, Rays Engineering racing mags.

FRONT RIMS: 18" x 9" J offset +40FRONT TIRES: Falken Azenis i think 255 235/40R18

REAR RIMS: 18" x 9.5" J offset +40REAR TIRES: Dunlop (forget name) 265/35R18

***so if you compute the rolling diameter difference, you'll see there is less than 1% difference front to back.. so i have no issues with my AWD system!

ill put some pics below, lemme know what u guys think, compared to the stock rims i had before?

also, i can tell you from a driving point of view, holy god do these bigger and wider tires make such a big difference, its like im glued to the road now...



So... today i got the alignment done.. wow OMG what a difference it makes while driving, its unreal how much better the car handles now,

so now i will measure the gap and order some spacers for the wheels!

There will be another REALLY big update in a few more days! .. ill give you all a hint.. its brakes and handling related

anyways, i just got back a few days ago, and picked up some H & R +20mm spacers for my front wheels, along with some +20mm nismo studs to accomodate the new offset.

i also picked up a claybar kit and did a super clean of my car,

i washed and shammyed it, then claybar'd it, then waxed and buffed it...

so heres some pics of the final result, and the new spacers!

ill get them put on in a few weeks when i go in for an oil change!

what a difference the clay bar makes eh?

**Note the reflection of the girl in the paint.. sooo smooth**

so, i went to autoworx on thursday, got my oil and oil filter changed, got the headlights repositioned to north american directions, (they used to point to the wrong side of the road).

the mechanic also noticed the vehicle speed sensor had come loose from the transfercase, so he tightened up all that.

they did a thorough inspection and found everything to be in great shape!.

oh yah, they also installed the 20mm HnR spacers + 60mm nismo studs for the front rims... check the new fitment! finally, looking better i feel.



There will be another REALLY big update in a few more days! .. ill give you all a hint.. its brakes and handling related

so i KNOW its been a while since my last update on this build, but ive been super busy with work all summer.

regardless the car has been for an oil change a few weeks back. all looks good still.

heres what i just did now...

*** IF ANYONE IS HAVING AN ISSUE WITH THEIR POWER WINDOWS YOU NEED TO READ THIS! ITS A COMPLETE WALK THROUGH OF DIAGNOSING + FIXING THE PROBLEM***

about 2 months ago, the passenger side electric window switch stopped working... the thing would only respond to putting the window up! and refused to put the window down, but i could still control it from the drivers side main switch.

also at the same time the drivers side main switch was becoming fussy about the electric mirrors.

anyways 2 nights ago i was driving home from work and i noticed the electric windows suddenly stopped working, ALL of them! wouldnt go up and they were stuck in the down position!!

along with that the central locking no longer worked as well.

so i drove home a little upset and parked in the garage then scoured the internet for any idea of what was going on. and heres the conclusion AND solution i arrived at.

- pretty much every nissan on the V, S, RB, and VQ chassis has issues with faulty electric windows!

1) listen! when you click the switch for window up and down what do you hear?- grinding and whirring = broken gear on power window motor- clicking or no clicking = the relay for the power windows... clicking = its still good.- if you hear NO clicking and NO whirring (my situation) then you're not getting power to the system.LOOK! - are you're locks working or no? (if yes then its not the circuit system at fault, and its an isolated issue with the window alone)- is it BOTH windows or just one? (if its both windows then its a circuit related problem, if its just one then its a relay or motor)

*DONT JUST BANG ON THE DOOR AND HOPE THAT MAKES IT WORK... if electricals are not working.. there is a REASON why they`re not working*

2) check the fuses.... theres the power window fuse in the engine bay. its a 25A strange little brown fuse (i found my replacement from my local auto parts store)



***THIS IS WHAT A BURNT FUSE LOOKS LIKE.. THE COPPER CONNECTION WILL HAVE MELTED IN THE MIDDLE!!**



3) if your fuse is good... then your problem lies in either the relay, or the motor itself.

NEXT... you must remove the door panel, its really easy... 3 screws along the bottom, one screw in the handle under a plastic cap, and once you pull out the switch assemby theres a screw under there.. lift up and outwards on the door panel and it should all come off..

then you should see a little black box in the bottom right corner... thats the relay.

also you will see the power window motor.

use a multi-meter/volt meter to verify if the relay is good... if its bad, remove it... open it... and first try re-soldering all those connections as they sometimes come loose. if not a new relay from nissan is about $60 i believe.

then if the relay is good... grab a car battery hook up 2 wires to it.. put one wire to the positive of the power window motor and the other to the negative (make sure your car battery is disconnected BEFORE you do this or you risk blowing all your fuses). if the motor responds and makes the window move up and down as you reverse the polarity of the connections, then your motor is fine.

if its making a grinding noise then the most common problem is the plastic gear, probably has come off, or broken..

if there is no response from the motor... then you have to buy a whole new assembly (about $300 from nissan dealership.. OUCH!) but if its broken anyways, take it out of the door, and try your best to repair it... probably one of the brushes has come off or something.

so that covers relay, fuse, and motor.. the only other component which can fail is the switch assembly... be weary. the switch assembly causes almost every problem! what happens is the contacts INSIDE get carbon build it and they stop conducting properly.. leading to excessive heat production in the switch and a breakdown of components.

SO! i asked myself.. why did my fuse blow!? and the only thing i could think of .. was due to the resistance being created by moldy contacts inside the switch...

so here is a detailed procedure for how to clean and re-assemble the switches... and just so u all know.. once i put it all back together.. EVERYTHING WORKED 100% PERFECTLY including the passenger window switch which was fishy before and the electric mirror switch!

1) remove the switch assemblys from both sides. and unplug the 2 plugs from the drivers side

2) crack open the passenger side first as there is no plug to remove it... and just BE CAREFULE not to lose the 2 copper pieces which go flying once you open it.



3) you can see right away what the problem is... see that black garbage on the ends!?? thats whats making things not work properly!!!



4) use automotive electrical contact cleaner, and some sand paper to clean those suckers until they look like this:

5) put the passenger side swithc back together and plug it back into the door hole.. and your good to go on that side.

6) remove the 4 screws that hold the window switch to the surround and theres 4 clips to remove the power mirror switch assembly

7) crack open the power mirror assembly and you can again see right away what the issue is!Clean off all that black garbage spray some contact cleaner and apply di-electric grease if you have it

8) then you can snap that all back together and now you open up the power window part... first remove the white plastic covering, i used an exacto knife to pry apart the sides.



9) there theres this strange little brown and blue thing... turn it 90 degrees and pull it out.. it should come out super easy.

10) STOP! dont try to pry apart the circuit board any further.. as you will break it.. if you look at this picture you can see that due to this whole assembly being screwed down THEN soldered in the nissan factory.. its not possible to remove this, so i just sprayed the cleaner as much as possible inside and re-assembeled everything, i suppose if it got really broken in there you could cut the circuit board to remove those 2 tiny little screws you see in the pic and get in there... because a new switch form nissan is quite costly... so do what you can.



anyways, this all fixed my problems and i hope this helps everyone else too...

another big update!

car went in yesterday and got the following:

Nismo N1 Front + Rear Cross Drilled Rotors - made by bremboHawk HPS Performance Brake Pads Front + RearStainless Steel Brake line kit Front + RearFlushed out the old brake fluid put in Hi-Temp RBF660new NGK Type - R x6 spark plugsNew Nissan Fuel FilterRear Subframe Red alloy spacers (to stiffen up the rear)Rear Diff Red Alloy Spacers (again to stiffen things up)Hicas Pump & Rack Mod - to lock out the Hicascoated all the rotors in Zinc anti-rust.

and finally my favorite part! All 4 Calipers went for a sandblast + grinding.... then gold paint... then a polish of the Nissan logo then a coat of clear.

some pretty good stuff to get done.. the car handles SO much better in corners... its sooo solid at the rear... and the brakes feel awesome. the guys at Autoworx do amazing work... i never even asked for the special attention to grind down the calipers.. they just did it cause it would look better...

lemme know what you all think of the new look!?

this is them modding the PS pump.

then they did some touch ups on the caliper brackets



then they installed the new brake lines... (im glad they chose red Stainless!)

this is where they were sandblasting and grinding:

then the paint!

these are the painted front calipers resting on the box that the new rotors came in.

heres rotors and calipers re-installed:

heres the new brake pads:

they of course prepped the brake pads with some anti-squeal

then they put it all together:

and heres the rear with the rims back on... ill get a photo of the front + rim soon.

so the blue stuff on the rotors is the special zinc coating.

tell me what you guys think!

I think it looks fantastic. You have a beautiful, incredibly clean car there. You've been getting busy as hell with it too! Keep it up.

Well time for some more updates!

Last week, a buddy and I went out for a run at the JDM shops here in Canada. We know they just extended the ban on RHD in Canada for another 6 months so we figured now would be a great time to get some good deals on parts. If you can find what you're looking for! LOL. In these shops it's really sort of tough to find anything, and a lot of times if you find something, they tell you it's not for a Skyline. And you buy it anyways because you KNOW it is of course for a Skyline ...lol

Anyways, peeped this nice little beauty under the hood of a front clip from a GTR. Gave the guy some $ + my OEM oil cap for it.

Genuine NISMO alloy oil cap... wooot!

I wanted a nice picture of it installed but since its dark in the garage and my camera has recently been acting up I couldn't get a nice shot of it. Regardless, it's installed! lol


=================================================================== I've felt in the dark for a long time, using only the OEM gauges...and since I'm a huge Defi fan I couldn't resist.

Defi Link Meter Controller System with BF gauges Amber in color: Oil Pressure + Oil Temperature + Water Temperature + Boost Pressure (the lenses aren't scratched just my stupid camera flash make it look that way and the controller is covered in dust apparently lol).

I have also converted the bulbs in the AC unit from green to RED now as well. I'm just waiting for a few bits for my speedo cluster and I'll be converting that to RED too. Pics will be later in the season of those once they're completed.


I'll do a separate post for what came next as its a pretty awesome piece... !!!

so here its.. my new intercooler... its a little longer than oem... and also 10mm thicker than oem.. i wanted to stay relatively small as i don't want too much pressure drop since i don't run crazy high boost, and i probably won't be running high boost for a year or so.

anyways its an ARC Front Mount Intercooler, lucky find... how ever its clearly been burried away a long time... it was in REALLY rough shape when i picked it up (Neslonxmarc can testify to that! lol) the bottom was all mashed in, it was very discolored, and there was oil visibly inside. so! heres what i did:

you can see here the gunk/corrosion all over the aluminum channel tanks:



so i whipped out my old faithful Dremel and began working with that tiny little wire brush wheel to remove all the old corrosion and not damage any more fins, i also fixed the bottom where it was all mashed... i couldnt fix ALL the fins there.. but the majority came out ok.

and YES we pressure tested it and it doesnt have any leaks



After hours of grinding and sanding with the poor little dremel.. it gave up.. so i went to replace the motor brushes inside and the old ones got SO HOT.. that they melted some stuff around them.. anyways cleared it all out, replaced them.. plugged it back in.. and i guess it melted a wire or soemthing inside too! cause when i plugged it in.. it burst into flames!!!!... no more dremel... LOL



alright so i was able to bring the entire thing to a pretty awesome shine and clean:





but now i had to address the cleanliness of the inside.. so i went to the bathtub... and filled the tub with scalding hot water... a few rinses through the intercooler revealed a slurry of oilly crud that just didnt seem to want to end regardless of how many rinses... so i poured in some harsh chemicals... and all of a sudden a neon green (engine coolant) and oil came flushing out...

i did 4 passes with the solvent chemicals and hot water untill the liquid went in one side and came out the other clean.. then did 4 more passes of just hot water to confirm nothing was left.. finally it was clean on the inside and out!

brought it back downstairs, made an "ARC" stencel and enlarged logo... sprayed on some metal black to put the logo back on the intercooler.. and got a supply of clear coat to help protect it from corroding ever again... i swear this was a 30+ hour job!..

anyways heres the finished product:



got a lot planned for winter so stay tuned!

this next update is brought to you by nelsonxmarc himself! lol!

thanks to the generousity of marc, i was able to replace 2 parts of my car today that have been bothering me for a long time!

#1... that stupid power steering reservoir wire sensor thing broke off on me while i was removing the intake last summer... he hooked me up with a new one.

#2 the reverse light!.. some old bro in a bimmer backed into me in the parking lot last year, anyway he apologized and i was able to use some epoxy to repair the hole he put in the lense for the light, anyways marc hooked up a new one! woohoo!



out with the old:

in with the new:

my god out with the old:

and in with the new:

side by side compairison!

ALSO ....just picked up some smaller parts, but important none the less!

- Ground wiring earthing kit

- Greddy radiator hose adaptor for the Defi water temp sensor

- Greddy Full Auto Timer w/ extension harness and IGN harness

Also just dropped the car off for another oil change I'll put up more pics once things start getting installed or if i happen to buy anything more!

Hey guys, i know the photos are dead at the moment but i assure you they will be back within a few hourse (new month).. stupid photobucket!

anyways im trying the new google picasa 3 program instead, see how you guys like it...

anyways a lot happened since last update!

i brought the car into autoworx for the end of season oil and filter change... but before anything else i wanted to make sure i was in good health (motor wise) before investing another $ into this car.

so i had a compression test done and i took photos of the whole thing to prove the awesome #'s

for the first 2 cylinders, they only let it crank 3 times cause they figured anything over 150 is fine... but for the others i wanted to crank 4 times to see if a higher reading was found... and it was. so thats why the first 2 cylinders seem low (usually its the last 2 cylinders that get low first!)

heres the #'s... and the proof!

Cylinder 1 @ 155.5 (PSI)Cylinder 2 @ 154.5Cylinder 3 @ 167.5Cylinder 4 @ 163.0Cylinder 5 @ 167.5Cylinder 6 @ 160.0

and thats after a year of me driving it! im proud to say im a responsible GTR owner officially!! lol

heres the photos:

at the same time i was getting my Defi sensors installed into the proper locations, when they took off the upper rad hose to install the water temp sensor the top of the rad crumble away!

now i knew thats a pretty common problem so no blame to be laid.. it would've broke soon enough anyways!... and i had been meaning to replace my old worn rad for a while now.. just needed a kick in the pants!

so heres what we got:

they did a clean install, and i topped it off with a new 1.3 bar rad cap



then i also picked up one of these bad boys....

ive also just placed some orders from online spots... so check back soon theres more to come!!!

hey guys, in the spirit of living of all things custom.. ive taken the plunge...

ill be honost it wasnt easy to do this... and im still not even close to finished (based on my final product in my mind)

so heres what i did.. i decided today would be a good day to tackle the following:

1) relocate climate control unit to replace cigarette lighter and ashtray (allowing me to free up one DIN slot in center console)

2) install wiring for Defi control unit and 4 gauges

3) install Greddy Full Auto Timer

4) replace green lamps in AC unit with new theme to match Defi gauges... amber RED...

5) clean up ALL loose wiring, and re-do any shoddy connections

so it started with the usual tear out of the interior.. i took out everything. no more JDM radio, or oem gauges, then started to pass the wiring through all the holes and such.



got the defi sensor wiring through for water temp, oil temp, boost pressure, and oil pressure:



then i installed the Greddy turbo timer harness... i used the harness to get my power/ACC/IGN for my defi unit so as not to mess up the original factory wiring at all... since its in such pristine condition.



in the mean time i had the AC unit out.. so time for some surgery!



Very easy to just simply switch from lamp bulbs to LED's..



then i had to start on the hard part... getting the relocated AC unit to look good and still be functional.. i swear its not at all easy! lol i spent a solid few hours on fitting this thing alone!

so.. i started by trimming away the fat...





then a trial fit on the inside of things... awwhh god this is gonna be harder than i thought! lol



then i found the perfect balance for it.. and bolted it all in with some metal brackets i fabbed up.



thanks to the advice from CobrAA i picked up some plastic polish.. and wow does it ever work wonders! so i polished up the defi's and the AC unit bezel:



and the result!... well half result..lol

heres what the LED conversion does.. its significantly LESS pink and more actual RED in real life.. stupid camera is color blind.



and finally the big picture... im going to pick up some rubber gasket to make the edges of the installed AC unit look much cleaner and sharp, as far as functionality goes.. it works perfectly! as expected... and the brackets are sturdy enough for even the most agressive temperature changers lol..

so... ill update again hopefully soon... im waiting on a new cluster from the UK and and gauge pillar pod from the other side of canada... also plan on getting a new stereo (something simple) and making a backing plate double DIN in size to nicely hold the control unit, the turbo timer, and the soon to be Profec B spec II and 2 gauges... not sure if it will all fit yet. but we'll see! lol

Subscribed.

I really wanna see those photos.. have you thought about using Flickr?

I'm really sorry about the images from the first pages not showing up, i really don't know whats going on with my photobucket, i went in and deleted all the pics that werent being used so hopefully it comes back online soon! if it doesnt come back in a week or so, i will most likely have to migrate the thread to a new thread.. that`ll be a real big pain! lol..

in the meantime some more work i did today on the interior cockpit:

recieved my Veilside 340 clocks and my trust A- Pillar gauge holder.

so i started by installing the new veilside clocks, and i also swapped all the OEM bulbs out of the cluster and replaced them with red LED's to keep with the cockpit theme.

so heres the install of the cluster

and heres it going with the red LED's on... quite nice i think!it being winter and all i won't have the chance to confirm the speedo is accurate untill spring... dang! but everything else works A-ok on the cluster so i can only assume the guy who sold it to me was honost and the speedo works as it should! lol

Then i got to work on fitting the gauge holder, for some reason it wasnt a perfect fit for the 60mm defi's so a few passes with the dremel and it fits like a glove, the wiring that came with the defi's isnt long enough for the 2 gauges in the pillar holder so ill have to make an extension harness too

anyways then i ran out of time... only got to put an hour or so in today.. will update more when i get back next week after my first exam...but i can tell you whats next... the plan is to mount the pillar gauge holder, clean up the area around the climate control with some rubber foam padding i bought, and then design a carbon fiber insert to which the other 2 defis and control systems will be mounted to.

im torn though, do you guys think stainless steel or carbon fiber would look better for the center console backing plate?

Your car is siiiiick man. Fantastic work. If you ever think of selling it, I don't live too far away.

I'm gonna say the stainless. Mostly because the gauge pods have that silver rim around them, and it'd keep with that theme.

Keep up the great work bro!

hahaha thank you VERY much mzeo~! at this point the plan is to keep it.

with exam season here for school the build is going slowly, but at a steady pace forward at least! so tonight i just added a small piece of black foam below the AC unit. it filled the gap nicely and smoothly, it looks good now i think.

also i wried and mounted the 2 pressure gauges on the A-pillar, im pleased with it!

ARGH!!! I am soooo jealous! Living in the US sucks. Looking good man....I really love the choice in rims. volk TE-37s in bronze have been my favorites for years. A real classic rim.

@ 1cardude thanks man! much appreciated, definitley one of my favorite rims too, im torn between getting them refreshed, or selling them and getting a new set!

thanks for all the kind words and support guys! Christmas came and went and i got a bunch of tools to help me along with my build, so starting in the new year I will definitley be posting up more progress for the build.

i've got some really interesting ideas coming along, some real custom stuff! super excited to get started!!

Good build, makes me want to move to Canada. Keep the updates coming.

j240sx, thanks buddy! Ill try hard to keep the updates comming!

I should first mention that from now on ill be posting all updates on my recently released blog as well, so check it out, its the same just less BS from the forums and more direct to the point reading and photos.

http://www.rpm-skyline-gtr.blogspot.com

After much deliberation I finally bit the bullet and decided on a set of rims I would be really pleased to keep for a long time, it's not that the TE37's weren't awesome, mine were just in a sore state being all scratched, and dinged up.

My requirements before even going shopping were simple, the new rims HAD to be 18" by at least 9" wide, I wanted a bronze color, and something simple that would show the brakes well, it also had to be genuinely made in Japan, and forged (I really like the light weight wheel designs) I also definitley wanted to buy new, so i was sure the rims were in good condition

So when I found these I jumped on them!

they met ALL my requirements and then some! they're litterally brand new! never been mounted on a car before! the paint was immaculate, and the sizing was awesome, just what i was looking for!

my last rims were staggered quite a bit, 18x9.5 and 18x10.5... the New SSR wheels are:

FRONT: 18x9.0 wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R 235/40 R18REAR: 18.9.5 wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R 265/35 R18

usually people don't like different sizing front to back on GTR's cause of the AWD system, but Having experienced first hand the difference a wider rear makes, I really wanted to stick with it, again crunched the #'s the rolling diamater difference is less than 1.5%... so it won't affect the AWD system at all, the bigger rear actually helps to keep the torque more rear biased, which I prefer. Anyways ill be getting a ET-S system to control the AWD soon, so no biggy.

and below are a couple of shots of the new set up installed, I love the look, the fitment is bang on, and it all worked out well with because i have the longer nismo studs up front and 20mm spacers etc, so it all sits perfectly, and holy god those rear tires are monsters! ... ahhh peace and happiness!... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well i spent the last hour or so crossing on thing off my very long list of things to do this winter.



- rear wiper delete! ... so i did it, at the same time, i think i wont be re-installing a stereo ...i never EVER listened to it for some reason. nelsonmxmarc could testify to that! god i mean, the car came with a non-functioning JDM stereo that could only pick up AM radio.. and i kept it installed for 2 years! lol... so ya, that wasnt a hard call to make.

anyways in the spirit of not getting a new stereo.. i though i may aswell remove those clunky alpine units... so out they came.



Then it was time to get to the wiper, i tell you its no easy task, i read through a few peoples post on removing it and saw a couple people smash the rear window glass in the process so i wanted to be super careful! took my time... y`know?

anyways its pretty easy, simply just:

1) un-do 3 screws inside the trunk/boot that hold a black plastic cover over all the assembly2) unplug 2 wire connectors3) remove plastic cap covering wiper arm assembly on the outside4) undo nut holding down wiper arm5) bizzarely enough you have to unscrew the wiper arm..lol feels very stupid to be twirling around the wiper arm like that, but it comes off in 5 turns.6) hard part... now this is where i realized how the glass gets broken.. theres obviously a nut sandwiching things together to not allow water in... and that nut is SOOO seized and rusty!!

its a 22mm nut if you'rs isnt rust ridden, but my dremel made some very quick work of that whole situation... cut down the center of the nut on each side, popped it off and the whole wiper motor assembly just falls out the bottom and into the trunk. job done!?well then i removed the spray nozzle as well, just simply tug the black hose off and use a 12mm socket to undo the nozzle from underside of the trunk... hard to get to and gave me a sore back! lol

...annnd then,,, ohh nooo she's taking a leak!

haha no, i was just draining the washer fluid system out.



ill be making a plug for the rear windows very shortly to not allow water in, but i really like the look of the wiper removed.

theres somethign special planned for the whole washer system though, have to wait and see!

Anyways heres the finished product.

it looks as though it was just removing the wiper arm and nothing else, but i had to make it in such a way to be water proof! so, its a bolt, and a nut, that sandwich a bunch of gaskets and washers together,... its a clean result, and i no longer have the clunky motor assembly in the boot. what you guys think of the end result?






Modified by archaeicbloke at 3:47 PM 1/2/2010