Progress Photos

Carbon bonnet turned up - time for a photoshoot

With the Sunline Racing bonnet arriving from Japan we decided to get some pictures while it was all still perfect.

Car is on the road!

After just over 7 months the car is back on the road. It's been a long journey (with my level of patience) but it has certainly delivered and exceeded expectations.

Friday was spent frantically trying to finish the car as I was at the workshop without a ride home. Got away late and with a semi finished car I drove away wondering what to expect... A little worried it might not feel different, that it might feel worse, that it would be too uncomfortably loud with basically nothing in the car.

However, I drove down the road the car and within 10 minutes I had a smile from ear to ear. The chassis felt incredible, the steering sharper, the car felt torquer, motor running well after 7 months of neglect and it quite comfortable to drive despite it being a bit muggy.

Straight round to Matt's place to show it off and take a few pics. As you can see the car is absolutely filthy.

Awwhhh... its a vertex ridge party...

Then next day it was off to Unigroup where Matt's car was going back for a touch up tune. Then after that to John at UAS who was keen to see it. In the afternoon I had to go back to the workshop to finish off a few things and fabricate (two threads and all :P <-- AS + WS) a few pieces that we didn't quite finish.

The afternoon of work was rudely interupted by the arrival of a friend of Wayne and Andrew's who has a 400awkw R33 GTR. The next 3 hours were spent 'comparing' the two cars :-P

With only about a 3rd or what I wanted done completed and it getting late it was back to a friends place to help him finish changing his manifold to engine gasket  which had a few hassles and then for a drive in evening.

Up early on sunday and went to breakfast with a few friends who also wanted to see the finished product. Then after that had to rush back to James' place to have the car buffed as it wasn't quite finished. 4.5 hours later it was done.

The car now buffed, it looks a million bucks.

That was a blur of a weekend but very exciting. Still have a few more weekends of work finishing the final touches off that is a relative breeze.

Next step is getting the exhaust lengthened so it stops staining the rear bar.

Still getting there....!

The last few weeks have been testing the little patience I have. The car is very close but we've been fixing a number of issues the car has had for a long time and improving other areas.

Aircon came out. This was a milestone as I have resisted doing this for so long. This improves cooling and obviously weight.

Engine bay has been cleaned up while I was at it. This was a massive job. This was done in conjunction with the oil cooler being done. Air con removed really neatens up the engine bay as well.

Glass is finally back in! Had to use a universal rear window seal instead of the nissan one but I don't mind the look of it.

Oil cooler now in the open air. Previously it was between the intercooler and aircon condensor and oil temps were getting hot very quickly. This should improve things. It was a decent job and involved taking the inlet plenum off, removing the oil cooler and sandwich plate as well as the relocator. Cleaning the whole side of the engine bay up which was disgusting and took days. The battery tray was also cut out in the process and then some etch primer put on any bare metal until the engine bay is resprayed.

Then once that was complete we put the new N2 Tomei oil block one which is better than the previous Greddy screw on plate. The stainless braided lines were then bined and replaced with teflon braided lines.

The relocator was also moved and placed behind the oil cooler. The whole thing required custom brackets and a bit of fiddling around. Final result i'm really happy with though.

My headlights have always been really yellow and looked nasty. Neil sanded them and them brought them back with the buff. Made a massive difference and looks much better.

Saw these on Skylines Australia and just had to have them. When I found out they had R comps in decent sizes on them I was stoked.

This is comparing the 265's to the new tyres. These new ones won't be used any time soon as some more modifications have to be done to the car to fit them all round.

Only a couple more weeks to go...

Been a very busy few weeks. The interior wiring has been cleaned up significantly but is still not quite finished. The electric window on the drivers side has decided not to work after being off the car. The inlet plenum has been off as the oil cooler moved to a much better position. While the engine bay was apart I cleaned the engine bay which was an absolutely huge job. You will now be able to work on the car without getting handsful of grease.

The interior is going to be resprayed this weekend if all goes to plan. Then the dash needs to go back in, engine bay put back together and trim/rubbers put back in round the windscreen etc.

The car is finally painted!

Still a lot of work to do putting the car back together but its well on its way.

The car was painted on Saturday in 40 degree heat. Luckily white isn't susceptible to heat unlike metalics.

Ended up doing Clear Over Base (COB) that while more difficult gives a better result. We used expensive paint and thinners which paid dividends as the finish is really good. The car got 6 coats of base and then 3 coats of clear. The plan is to rub the body down with 2000 grit sandpaper and then buff giving a near glass like finish.

Progress... it's nearly ready for paint.

After 4 solid weekends of working on the car and learning a lot in the process about prepping a car it is now nearly ready for paint. Just need to cover the spots that were sanded through with acrylic and lightly sand them back.