Nose job and bum tuck picture post

Confucius say, man who runs behind car will get exhausted, but man who runs in front of car will get tired.

So anyway following on from my last post, here is the collection of dynamic action shots of car parts in various stages of paint. Naturally it will get added to as the work progresses... unless things go horribly wrong... that's when this post vanishes and we never speak of it again. 

Gratuitous link and thanks to the following folk - included for reference and delight.

Fully Loaded Cars (Paint Shop) 

EastBear sports (Body Kit)

TGR Motorsport (Wheel Nuts)
EFI Solutions (Wing Emblems)

N1 Detail on vent

Masterpiece Bumper (Fnaarrrr!)

Bumper and splitter

Winkers ... (snigger)

Test Fit

Hidden parts need love too

Side skirt supports and crash bar

Front upright for grill/bonnet catch

Front splitter

Intercooler now devoid of stone chips

Primer coat

Vent work

There are things in life where you think "I could do that, given the tools and time" well fabricating vents in the fenders is one that given the tools and a lot of time... I reckon I would still be struggling to pass 'go' let alone be on the beach vigorously towelling myself off. As it is my car these photos hold a strange and worrying fascination. I have always advocated hitting things with a hammer, but not usually bodywork!

Action shot

You are all encouraged to try this at home.

Assorted Musings: If you are compelled to ask 'how much?' then you probably can't afford it. 

If I was clever I would have just brought another pair of wings to have chopped up and kept the others as spares. But then owning the car isn't particularly clever in the first place, so it all balances out.

Automotive art, is it a thing? Or is that John Lennon's badly painted Rolls Royce?

18/01/2019 progress pictures

Progress on vents

Clearer shot of mesh in vents

21/01/2019

Parts Order of new GT emblems for fenders. At least I will be back to standard on something. A pair ordered brand new from EFI Solutions in Australia.

Steady progress is being made on the vented wings at Fully Loaded Cars and they are starting to look respectable again!

22/01/2019

The wings/fenders are moving on at a good pace now and starting to look like wings/fenders again. 

More assorted musings (I know.. I love to muse)

When is a fender a wing?

"Back in the day" British designers (yes Britain used to design and manufacture cars, just reference the Austin Allegro) after putting down their HB pencils from designing Spitfires etc. Looked upon the flowing sweeping curves with poetic eyes, finding them to resemble the wings of birds. So in the UK, fenders became wings. 

Meanwhile 'over there' in the USA the designers gave them the name fenders, which reflects their purpose. To stop rubbish being thrown up from the road, fending off the detritus. 

In the UK we still call fenders wings although the meaning has now been lost with them becoming more integrated into a cars overall shape. 1-0 to the USA then. Personally I quite like the word "fender" as it means in an accident we can have "fender benders". However no one in the UK would say that for fear of being adjudged to be an "idiot" or in the USA a "dumb ass". 

The Japanese use the word fender which translated is fendaa 

22/01/2019 (PM)

Body work - Nose job and bum tuck

Welcome back!

Oh my God, things have been so busy since buying a new house that the car has really taken a back seat, I remember a time when I had a hobby/habit. However they may chain my body to drill bits and paint brushes, but they can't chain my mind! Or in other words, I have been planning in secret and when I say secret it is mainly because I have no friends and my wife isn't interested..

So confession is good for the soul. Well obviously mine could do with a jolly good tidy up.

I have no issues with the GTS-25t ECR33 front bumper (also known as KOUKI in Japanese made from 1996 to 1998). It's okay, the indicators in original form were a bit 'hmmm' but I had changed them to a (in my opinion) cooler four door single lens option. Plus I had the front lip or splitter Nissan option which really helped finish the car and was a great (if hard to find) addition.

Specification 2 GTS cars are hard to find decent fitting parts for, especially on the front of the car. When Nissan gave the car its midlife update for engine and styling, the only areas they changed externally (in a physical can't swap parts way) was the front end. Having a different bumper, lights and bonnet. Nissan moving the car away from GT-R looks and creating a similar but distinctively different car. This was not so great when it came to aftermarket parts and although parts were made it was for a short time and production has long ceased and the spec two is naturally the rarer of the species. So options were limited and although there is a healthy market in the UK for repro parts in fibreglass they are all a little bit "shonky" (a new word for sh*t and wonky).

So with that in mind I spoke to Eastbear Sports in Japan. They will still manufacture parts to order and after a few mail exchanges of my non existent Japanese and their interesting to decode English. We finally agreed on the "masterpiece" (feels like there should be a fanfare of trumpets whenever I use the word "masterpiece" perhaps you can mentally play one in your heads).

Link to Eastbear

Shipping was just out of this world... I mean, expensive and cost more than the bumper. However it was sent via DHL and amazingly efficient (Parcel Force take note! (Parcel Force being a UK delivery firm of ill repute)).

Anyway.. I got the bumper.
Masterpiece (fnarrrr!)

N1 vents (no moulded in copy crap)

Bumper and splitter

As you can see the splitter is a splitter and not some moulded on part (see Vents above)

Mesh in original Japanese newspaper (now framed and hanging in the toilet)

Umm... Side view!

Indicators (otherwise amusingly known as 'winkers'

There is a box of screws and assorted parts... But you know what screws are... right?

Other wish list requirements. or Unnecessary tinkering.

Always liked vented wings but never liked the shonky (there it is again, were you paying attention earlier?) fitment. Fiberglas parts... nothing wrong with them if made properly, preferably by a skilled artisan and not 'Fred in his shed'.

So the only way to do vented wings properly is to fabricate them from steel (hang the expense). 

This work is being carried out at Fully Loaded Cars and to use the word "artisan" they are real experts in paint and body work. Personally I think that they are beyond working on old Skylines now and have clients with some amazing cars these days (this isn't a paid promotion but just in case...)

Slam panel

Am having the slam panel tidied up. Mine was/is currently wrapped (by me!) and was shocking for being dented, scratched, badly repaired (by me!) 

Slam panel in it's current 'look'

Rear boot/trunk

I had the car de-locked at the rear, which is great although in the light you could always just about make out a faint outline of the old boot lock. This has obviously become more pronounced as time has ticked by, probably by the filler shrinking. So lets do it again! 

Intercooler

The black Mishimoto intercooler takes the brunt of stones being flung at it and had a few chips plus... well, it just wasn't painted very well from factory already showing signs of paint flaking from the aluminium. So this will have a blast and paint. 

Side skirts

The metal support structure for my NISMO side skirts was getting rusty as some of the paint/underseal had bee peeled back like a flap. 

Side skirt supports and bumper bar (details on things no one sees!) 

Front grill, bonnet catch support

Gratuitous strip down picture (always scary) 

The flying car that Back to the Future should have had?

Assorted musings

Watched a You tube video of a young chap fitting a bumper to his 33. Amusing, bubbly and excited as he was. It makes me wonder if this is the future, why read when you can watch. However as this is my diary of sorts and you are guests in my 'front room' I have decided I have a face made for text...

I did like his approach, no thought given to indicators, cutting the front crash bar or fitment (he got away with it as well) and it reminded me of the good old days.

A friend said "don't vent the wings, why do you want to do it?" (I paraphrase and remove rude words). To be honest, I have no idea! Why do anything.. Just because I think that they look cool and it is really hard to do? Did consider some Skyline bull shizz at this point and claim that the high power of the car made extra venting for the braking system a must.... brr I need a wash now. 

If you really want to ruin your car, modify it.

Fully Loaded Cars - Making dreams reality. 

EASTBEAR of quality and trust !  (yeah not sure about that tag lines translation to English)

My thanks and undying admiration go to Mr S. Iwamoto / EASTBEAR SPORTS and Marco Vasconcelos / Fully Loaded Cars

Coming soon: More progress! 

It has been a busy year for me personally and whilst still writing the blog most of the posts have been confined to the draft folder, awaiting pictures or project completions.

So what have I been up to? 

Toucan display 

The biggest project this year was fitting a Toucan display to the car. It required a lot more effort than at first thought, I unexpectedly found that I needed to fit oil pressure and temperature sensors. Not only for the Toucan to show the details, but also for the Link ECU to monitor them correctly. I brought into the Link selling razzmatazz, with them blowing the trumpet for all the safety features incorporated and assumed that the Link already monitored these two quite important aspects, well yes it can, but no not without sensors. 

Oil Pressure and Temperature sensors

The advantage of fitting sensors did mean that I could relocate the oil filter, which to say the least being buried under everything else was difficult to get to! The unit now resides at the front of the car with the work being done at Bells Auto Services in Ropley (near Winchester) UK. 

Bells also helped set up the Toucan (My Link knowledge being little to non existent). A word of warning here though, the Toucan needs an unlocked map to function correctly. A lot of mappers will lock and password protect their maps these days. You need to check with your mapper before purchasing a Toucan or other display. 

Traction Coil overs, Differentials and Tyres

Traction in a 600hp rear wheel drive car can be just a bit of an issue.
Just how do you convert the power and torque into something a bit more useful than spinning wheels? It seemed everything I did just knocked the problem on a step. The car was running standard shocks and Tein springs poly bushed all round.
The Auto diff I had been running (which was great when at 350 hp) had to go, for drifting it would be great but for driving it was a liability. 

So the diff ratio was changed to a 4.1 and a Kaaz 1.5 way locking differential fitted. The shocks and springs were changed to MeisterR CRDs and the wheel widths were changed from 8.5 to 9.5 for good measure.

MeisterR

Kaaz 1.5 way fitted

Traction was greatly improved although the car was still on 'normal' road going tyres. So I then upgraded these as well to Yokohama Advan AD08r's.
Although buying the exact same size as what was already fitted to the car, the contact between the tyre and the road is a lot squarer (the road going tyres having a chamfered edge) and this meant that the new tyres were rubbing on the wheel arch lip at the rear (who knew!). So this also meant that I either had to have the arches rolled or buy new tyres. I opted for rolling the arches (arch enemy UK). Again I found myself working on something completely different when wrongly assuming it was a straight forward task! 

Yokohama AD08R

Wheel Arches rolled by 'Arch Enemy'

Am confident that wheel spin from this point on is more the fault of the driver (me) rather than anything mechanical that can be added to the car! (in it's current configuration). 

Associated yearly problems.

After a very hot summer in the UK I was finding it alarming to have an alarm, with the engine light flickering after a run and restarting the car.Turns out that this was heat soak in the bay and the Link ECU warning me about ambient temperatures! Solution.. turn up the setting! 

Had some issues with the gearbox thrust bearing that got progressively worse. Annoyingly the car still worked fine but now and again the box/clutch would make a terrific grinding noise. Being on the gearbox this would go all the way through the car and rattle my fillings. So had the box removed and the bearing replaced at Bells Auto Services. 

Small water leak. Had to replace a Nissan clip on a hose near the cold side inlet. Still have no idea where the hose actually goes or why it is there! On start up the car would leak a little fluid (only on start!) and leave a small puddle on the floor. I had been puzzling over this for ages and having to top up the expansion tank until I caught the culprit at it! I actually had to go to Bells and asked them to take a look. Pressure testing the system they found no leaks, however they changed the clip for me (I couldn't get the darn thing off!) and the problem was solved. Nothing made sense about this, am convinced Bells Autos thought I was making it up and just wanted the attention!

Thanks

It would be a disservice to Richard at Bells Auto Services not to take a moment to thank them not only for their patience with me this year but also the fantastic work and assistance offered to me. Find them on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/bellsautoservices.co.uk/

What's next?

A Nismo short shifter is winging it's way to my door. 

I am currently looking at changing the front end of the old girl and giving her a face lift in favour of an East Bear Masterpiece front bumper. Communication can be laboured with both parties being fluent in other languages! However at the time of writing I believe they are preparing an invoice, I just hope it is not taking time because the figures are so large! 

Warning: Like a fiend for nicotine, power figures can be addictive.

Thought it would be a jolly wheeze to see what the maximum potential of the car would be in it's current form. Okay with a couple more modifications to it's fueling.

To that end I fitted a bigger 100mm core intercooler (Misimoto R Line) and 450LPH fuel pump (Walbro).

Both jobs were a pain in the butt to do, Although probably not world ending and certainly do'able at home they were both awkward to get at and both needed 'special' love and attention to detail.

Intercooler. As a standard generic fit I could just about squeeze this into the front space 'as was' already cut for my old Japspeed intercooler. The fittings being slightly different I did have to drill a couple of holes in the crash bar (after making a bazillion measurements) and fabricating a couple of brackets from some flat Iron bar (they aint going nowhere). Biggest pain was the front bumper, after a trim and refit it wanted just a little more off.. five goes later and job done.
Of course the fitting of the intercooler didn't really help the horns much and having previously made a gorgeous bracket to mount my 'Scooby' horns on. It soon became apparent that they were not looking great being squished by the intercooler (these have since been removed for an alternative horn).

Fuel Pump: Although aware vaguely that there was a wiring mod, this was not initially done and we soon found out why it is required as the 450 lph pump can't draw enough voltage to pump the fuel.
So just a side note, if you’re installing a current hungry fuel pump I suggest the fuel pump be wired using a relay directly to the battery. The stock wiring and fuel pump controller cannot cope with the new current draw resulting in a drop in voltage causing lack of performance and further issues. Or in my case less HP than when I started!
Here is a good link for the actual process of physical fitting.
Here is a good link for the wiring direct feed.

Awaiting Dyno and the last view of the horns!

Results: Well things were not exactly running super smooth on mapping the car. There was a boost leak due to a few pennies worth of cable tie. The car then failing to deliver enough fuel and after the wiring modification, the car still refused to deliver enough fuel, with the injectors (850cc Denso's) being at capacity.
Having already eaten up a good chunk of dyno time for practically zero gain and all loss, we upped the fuel pressure. Now we were nicely back on track. However, this meant that the fuel map was no longer any good and the 'tweak' to the map was no longer an option. A full map it was to be then.

Dyno readout taken at hubs

So all in all a big bill, a lot of work and an actual 12HP more. Although for the increase in torque it was probably worth it (this is what I tell myself). People get so hung up on BHP it actually does not mean a lot when you get past a certain level. Or put as a very simple example: Two engines may have the same torque to pull up a 1 in 4 slope, but if one has more BHP, it will pull the car up the slope faster. Torque is a measure of the force available to accelerate the car.

Japanese petrol Vs the world!

Here in the UK we often speculate about such things as RON levels, who is the best supplier of gas and why can't we be more like Japan who do not seem as encumbered by green issues like the rest of us. We all know that Japanese petrol is 99 RON (if not 101) and made by the great petrol Gods of mount speedy. Well lets take my perspective and get a British low down on any Skyline Owners second home.

I hate busy petrol stations! 

In the US and UK, whether or not there is a difference at all is actually up for debate. The general idea with cheap petrol in England, at least, is that it's used to attract customers to what is usually a supermarket (remember all the petrol stations we used to have?). In Japan, the cheap petrol is from "unnamed" standalone stations (i.e. not the big players like Shell etc). There doesn't seem to be any solid proof that anyone's gas is better or worse than anyone elses. However much like in the UK would you put an unknown in your tank? It is pretty universal in the UK that no one buys BP for instance and even though one hears many claims as to why, no one actually can definitely prove its terribly bad. Equally no one can prove Shell or Tesco are really good.

One day we will all be looking for a socket to plug in?

You've probably heard of the Japanese gas station attendants and their ridiculous over-courtesy. It's true, but there are also self-service stands which will save a couple of yen per litre. These stand out with the セルフ (serufu) sign. So, for the cheapest fuel find a city relatively close to a port (at least without mountains in the way) and go self-service.

The universal language of petrol cars

It's possible to also save a few yen with store discount cards, so when on holidays in Japan snap one up if you see them at your local Eneos or Cosmo etc.Now it this all sounds depressingly familiar consider those that do not live in the city it's much more expensive to fill your tank there than in other places. in the mountains, Petrol tankers aren't allowed to drive through tunnels because of the potentially devastating results of an accident, so to get to cities they need to do some massive detours. This results in an almost 10% markup.

Admit it, we have all been here! 

The current price of fuel in Japan sits at 120 to 124 yen per liter (about £0.88) compare that to the UK at £1.20+ for a high RON, so with purely this in mind I am starting to think that there is a bonus attached to Japanese petrol, the price!

TAKING A SPIN THROUGH DRIVETRIBE

Seasons Greetings to all!

The blog has been getting a little dusty, not that I have not been being industrious in my imaginings, but more due to efforts being focused elsewhere. There was a lot of froth and hoo'ha being directed at a motoring television show called the Grand Tour, here (and abroad) a resurrection (at least in presenters) of the BBC show Top Gear. A further off shoot of this new show is a new social media platform called Drive Tribe. As an 'admin' on Facebook's Skyline Owners Forum I felt compelled to investigate this new media and create a presence. Well as an early VIP and creator of a 'tribe' now I have dipped my electronic toe into the water I can say, it's okay. Bit pointless, but okay. Here is my review!

What's that coming over the hill?

Drive Tribe... A digital media platform for petrol heads. You join, you make a tribe, you hope others will join.

Digital media platform Drivetribe has completed a USD5.5 million Series A funding round led by Breyer Capital with additional participation by Atomico and other individual investors.

We know that quite probably Drive Tribe was not simply invented "just for us petrol heads" (even though that is the claim) and someone needs to get paid. In fact it is headed up by a chap called Ernesto Schmitt. German Schmitt was named as one of the richest young entrepreneurs in the UK by The Guardian in 2000, with the newspaper putting his net worth at £17 million ($22.5 million). As for Amazon, they are said to be relaxed about Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May setting up what could be seen as a rival motoring brand to "The Grand Tour." All I wonder is where does the payoff come from?

Cunningly artistic point.

What is to keep you the reader coming back? The whole premise does seem to rely quite heavily on the main protagonists (Clarkson, Hammond and May) keeping on posting. Am sure this is great for  fluffy motoring gentle banter (you guys.. sheesh) of "I don't like motorbikes, to shall I stick some stripes on my car and lets not forget the classic 'gentleman's area' gags".
But surely that is the point isn't it? It is a case of, they are 'celebrity'. I can't for one moment imagine that the readers will be at all excited about my individual thoughts on BGW's or what Fred has done to his car. However perhaps you would all get excited on the paint code of Nissan KH3 and if it is described as Super Black or Obsidian.

Random car shots... Keep em coming

Currently the posts I am seeing are a large majority of Instagram style posts. A photo of a car. This is marvelous especially if you want to show off your pride and joy. However isn't that Instagram?... "No, no" they cry, "here you can see everything in a tribe, you know, like Facebook?"
Umm... Of course it does not help that (this being a democracy) everyone can make a tribe (competition is good) although does dilute the content somewhat and simply encourage more photo's. Also the fact that this tribal system is being set up as an adversary type of system does not help anyone. Drive Tribe themselves are sending out messages like this:

"Your Tribe is roaring along, your Tribe members are flocking in and you’re busy creating awesome new stories. Fist bump the person nearest to you: life is good. What if we could make it great? Introducing the Super Heavyweight TRIBE Competition. We’re talking about a unique prize: a creative collaboration between you and the guys. Yes. Really. In early 2017, you could be working alongside them to produce a video, co-author an article or create something that no one has ever done before. So how do you win?

Here’s what we’re looking for:

Grow your Tribe faster than anyone else by adding more new members to your Tribe

Rack up a mountain of bumps and shares by posting the sort of content that has your members bumping until their fingers cramp. We’re talking about really blowing their socks off with stuff that inspires, excites and provokes them to the point of distraction.

 The two best ways to do this?

Post your Tribe page link using "Share & Promote" on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, email

Create and share eye-poppingly good stuff that spreads far and wide across the internet"

Fist bump? Marketing 101 right there.

Yaay.

Nothing wrong with spamming the world to drive visitors here is there? Posting a load of individual photo's and getting people to bump them? Or reducing your article to a "Quote" and calling it an article. Add to that the imbalance of how Drive Tribe was initially set up, where some groups were sent early invites and others not, where if you get a mention from Hammond you are guaranteed a bazillion followers overnight. Who would want to be a 'Tribe Leader' anyway. Personally I can think of nothing worse than being a legend in my own mind and (like the current UK government) I defaulted to a position of power and respect without actually having a clue what I was on about.

So following the money: Scouring the internet (so you don't have to) the plan is to offer paid and native advertising across the site and presumably across Facebook. There's no doubt this could be a potentially very powerful tool for the automotive sector. Knowing what types of content users are engaging with, alongside all their Facebook data, will surely mean that manufacturers could easily find a valuable target audience here. They could create their own content, too, if DriveTribe eventually allows for official manufacturer accounts. I must admit at first I thought that there must be some agreement with Facebook as that was the required login path.

I don't know about the rest of the members there, but I do seem to be getting a lot of sexy followers... Just what I and the world needs a new way to have porn shoved into our collective face!

There is a time and place for your bottom young lady. 

DRIVETRIBE also have a powerful algorithm that only directs content that you are interested in. Does it work? No, not at all. I'm not sure I have ever been interested in Italian super-cars, Mini's or whatever else is trending at the moment! I would consider myself as the absence of a trend (although Skylines seem to be hot at the moment now finally legal in the USA).

DriveTribe, is it a force of good that will take over the world or just a pile of dingos kidneys?

Clarkson pie in face? Check out security mans dance moves!