GT Wing Emblems

I don't know what it so about wing emblems, but the standard red and white badges just don't do it for me. They stick out like a sore thumb and after a while the thin coat of enamel starts to wear away around the edges, making them a feature I could quite happily live without.
Saying that, having some sort of defining badge is okay and unusual. I used to have the R32 gold option emblems on mine befoe swapping them for a tidy 'quick fix' set of newer ones with a lick of gold paint.
However now I am going to run a new set of alloy wheels in matt black, the time has come to think again.
At first I planned just to slap some Matt black over a set of R32 badges, stick them on and have done with it. However this would have been too easy, so in the spirit of making things as difficult as possible, an investigation into hydrograpic dipping was required.
Hydrograpic dipping or wet transfer dipping is a simple process of laying a print into water, spraying the back liberally with some agent, dipping the component through the transfer and then finishing with clear coat.
Google hydrograpic printing for the process to try it yourself, all the components are readily available at small cost.
I decided to try a carbon finish on the wing badges/emblems and although not quite perfection, they are reasonably close. Judge for yourselves.

NISMO Spoiler end caps

I spotted a post on the Skyline Owners Forum for a GT-R spoiler for sale. Oh my... Can it be? Yes it is, genuine NISMO end caps for the GT-R spoiler!

Way back when I first got hold of my GT-R spoiler it came with GT-R end caps, (which I peeled off and sold to help fund the spoiler). At that time I wanted to change to a set of NISMO branded ones but they had been out of production for ages at that point. After much searching I had to settle for an unbranded Carbon Fibre end cap. This was okay (I suppose) although it was not as good a cover as the plastic GT-R one that it replaced (Chinese junk (and I don't mean a boat)).

So back to the forum... The deal was done and another spoiler was acquired at a bargain basement price.

A quick assault with a hair dryer soon loosened my prize bits of carbon and they easily came away. I then cleaned the backs with some sticky remover and replaced with double sided tape from eBay.. Talk about strong tape, this stuff could hold up shelves! The end caps were sprayed black, dried and covers glued firmly into place.

Pleased to fly the flag! 

Now all I have to decide is if I should keep the GT-R spoiler as a spare or sell it on for a quick profit!

New Wheels

It's the plan to finish the car off at some point underneath and shortly the Drift-works Lock out kit will be being fitted and this will be one of the last points to the underside. I was going to keep the HICAS unit in place originally as it works okay and as they say 'if it ain't broke'. However my warning light does come on from time to time, so this is the ideal excuse.

I digress slightly from the point (not unusual for me!) and that point is in the future the brakes could really do with being improved. Currently I have grooved and dimpled disks on the front, which work pretty well, although they could probably be a little better. I suppose I have put this change off for a while now as one, it's expensive and two, bigger callipers will not fit behind my alloy wheels... So it makes it really expensive!

However this modification lark is an evolution of thoughts and I decided to go bite the bullet and blow the bank account on a new set of alloys and rubber. No messing about with 8.5 front 9.5 back etc. That's all well and good for looks and probably some nonsense about getting rubber down. But it is harder to live with and prevents swapping around wheels. Admittedly I had quite a cheap set (comparatively) of alloys there in the past but for a Jap car there are only a few makes that will really do on bragging rights.


Sorry for the dull photo's, I come from a very dull country where the Sun does not seem to ever shine! Rains well though!

I now have bags of space to fit a bigger brake conversion (in fact I think the car now cries out for one!). I was surprised at how much it changed the looks of the car as well.

Rota Fighter Drift alloy wheels in Matt bronze

Previous Alloys

18" X 8.5"
5x114 / 5x100 ET30
They are wrapped in Falken Ziex 235/40/18 tyres

LED Dashboard lights - revisited

Gah, Per my previous post. The lack of being able to dim the LED set up is frustrating. The lights have gone from super dim originals to super bright now and I can only have described the night time driving experience as a bit too bright for my liking!
So abandon and go back or search out something a bit more subtle? Well I can't leave well enough alone at standard now can I? So says I, if the set up is a bit too bright then the ideal solution is to go for less bulbs and instead of a nine SMD bulb, I thought I would try a five SMD. Additionally as I would prefer a green illumination I would get coloured bulbs this time instead of the blinding white ones (good for a Sun tan though).

5 X 5 SMD LED 501 T10 W5W PUSH WEDGE 360 HID GREEN SIDE LIGHT BULB

The bulbs were obtained from eBay and were just under £7 UK Pounds and at Pocket money price I didn't mind if it was going to be a disaster!

As previously, I whipped out the dash and replaced the five bulbs one at a time ensuring that they lit up before reassembling the dashboard (remember polarity is critical on these and to just turn the bulb around if not lit).

The camera makes them appear brighter up close

This time around I think I cracked the problem. and the instruments lit up a brighter than standard, yet not 'super nova' bright. You can see on the last picture that they are slightly dimmer towards the bottom, which in my book says that this is about right on brightness!

 I naturally can't vouch for how long the bulbs will last out though and with the white set I tried previously, one bulb did go 'out' although this was due to it moving in its holder (they were big long bulbs though).

I'm going to call this mod complete!

LED Dashboard lights

Yaay, I'm happy to confirm that I fitted the LED bulbs as mentioned previously and they work beautifully!

Yes, am surprised at myself! What I can't understand is people selling 'bulb kits' for a substantial amount of money over the odds compared to how much the LED's actually cost.

New and old bulbs

Obviously the instrument panel has to come out. This has been covered in the blog elsewhere, although it's reasonably easy compared to modern cars and there isn't anything to be scared of here. First timers should be able to take the dash apart in thirty odd minutes.

Rear of instrument cluster

It's the brown bulb holders we want to replace, there are five in total and they simply twist out. the bulbs pull free and the new ones simply push in. Note that LED's are sensitive to polarity, you won't blow the bulb but equally if its in 'arse about face' it won't work either. With this in mind it's 'VITAL' to try the bulbs before you do everything back up! I managed to have one the wrong way round, simply remove and refit.

Let there be light! 

The photo shows the instrument panel in all its new glowing glory. Naturally there is a bit of light creep as it was taken without a flash and on a mobile phone, so the photo appears even brighter than reality. However it is gives off a much brighter, crisp light and beats the old dull glow. 

So there we are, a cheap and easy yet almost pointless improvement!

LED Dashboard

Just for fun I am going to try out some LED bulbs on my dashboard. This is just a little 'aside' to working on the clocks and dials. Really I have not a clue what I'm doing, although it should work out. Last famous words!

Anyway to start. I recall that there are about five bulbs in the back of a GTST dashboard (I'm not doing the gauges in the centre console as I don't actually have any!).

I'm going with 9 LED SMD T10 W5W 501 light Bulbs Ultra White (so you can search the web).

LED Bulbs

These are pretty inexpensive at £3.50 UK Pounds per pair, even if it does mean I will have one left over! 

Will post the results shortly, should be interesting to see if my instruments blind me!

Front End Facelift

I was pretty happy with the front end of the car. It had a similar 'but different' front splitter mounted on the original GTST front bumper and it looked quite the part. However as it was a FRP (fibreglass) item and being on the lowest part of the car, it was susceptible to no end of stone chips. Additionally having a true 'splitter' front lip sticking out, extending the length of the front end it would annoyingly 'ground out' on the slightest incline.
It was after another of my grounding incidents and hasty repair jobs at the end of last summer that I finally decided enough is enough, a replacement front of some description being needed.
Now as the casual reader may already know, I do have a habit of forming ideas on what I want to achieve and collecting parts. Be it over weeks or even months!

So my parts list was as follows. Standard GTST bumper, GTST Nissan front spoiler and a set of four door front light indicator units. With these standard bits I set about creating something a bit more distinctive, whilst staying true to the original car and not bolting something vulgar to it!
So lets start with the light units...

Four Door Light Units

Now everyone knows that the specification 2, two door variant comes with a round headlight and indicator unit. The four doors however are fitted with a specification 1 style 'straight' light unit. It is exactly the same style as the dual unit and drops into the light aperture of the bumper with no modification required.

Four door front indicator unit.

You will note from the picture that the four door unit has a grill unit also built into its styling. The amber of the indicator can be clearly seen, giving a 'fried egg' look to the overall design. The aperture for the fog light is there, but no fog light/driving light unit is fitted.

Unit with lens removed

The first order of work was to remove the lens from the unit, allowing me to get to work on the inside. This is done by placing the light in the oven at around 100 degrees for 8 minutes. This allows the gunky glue to get tacky and the lens to pull away from the light.

Indicator lens for that fried egg look.

First thing to go is the indicator lens. This basically allows a white bulb to flash amber! I later replaced the bulb with a silver tech amber bulb. This gives a nice 'clean' look to the lens

Driving Light

As there are no fog light units fitted I obtained these after market items. Happily they slotted into the opening with only a slight modification to the bracket.

Unit with fog light fitted

Once drilled and bolted  up the new light looked as though it had always belonged there.

Lamin-x covering

The lens needed to be reattached, as there was plenty of original glue it was cooked again for five minutes and the lens was pushed home into place. Finally some tinted light protection film was applied.