Mad's GT-R

[themadscientist]

They finally pushed it into the shop, into the corner, but at least it's inside. The cylinder head is still MIA. I sat in the car for a few minutes depressed at this never-ending wait and the knowledge that the engine will be a constant source of concern wondering if when it's done I'll just immediately sell it and move on, but standing next to it, looking at it, even with the bumper ripped off and the rusty door that will have to be replaced, I still dig the car.

Just finish it, dude, even if it's full of shortcuts so I can enjoy it again in some capacity.

[Kris86]

Just finish it!!! Awesome build and awesome updates ! I truly enjoy wondering, what's next

[themadscientist]

After they pull it out of the corner and start on it, first will be the fuel system. They are going to mount the surge tank and the pumps, wire em up with a direct line to the battery for maximum steady power using the factory pump power as a relay trigger and run a pair of new large bore hard lines to the engine bay and probably use the factory delivery line as the return.

While they are working on that, I'll be working on the interior, mounting the gauges and there are a ton of them; I think the little kid who wanted to fly fighter planes likes all the gauges. It would probably be a good idea to mount the roll cage at that point. I can't speak to the R33-R35, but the R32 is not a stiff chassis. You can feel it twist and torque all the time and the ones I've seen take hits from the side just collapse like a soda can. The BRZ has really opened my eyes to just how bad these old Nissans are, it's a block of iron by comparison, stiff as John Holmes. Since the car will be a saturday night toy, ah, who am I kidding? I would do it this hard even as a DD, My Silvia had a jungle gym in it and a raw steel interior and I DDed that, Gotta price out this one.



I forget how Cusco counts points, that's at 12 point I think if you include where it ties into the B pillar seat belt mounting points. Leave out the X bars during the week, go full Duke boys Saturday night.



Really, fuck all the bling, I just want to drive the old girl again. I would be happy with a fresh, but essentially stock car just so I could drive it again. I went an jumped off the deep end, though and picked some guys to do the work that don't have the organization skills, attention to detail and focus that is required for such an endeavor. I guess I have to take the blame for that.

[Kris86]

Dude, you should type a book

[themadscientist]

My used head came back from their machine shop early this week. Actually, it wasn't my head, it was another head. ??? They tell me my head failed a pressure test after they installed the seats and they sent another one up. OK, why was I not told about this? I suspect I will be charged for both of these and I'm not happy about it.

Additionally, when they opened the box, the cam saddles and bolts were just rattling around loose in there. Seriously, WTF? Who thinks that's ok? I started to think there's no way I'm putting my spanking new Tomei cams in there. Fuck that. I guess I can use the old Apexi cams. This is so much bullshit.


I walked in today and my car is still in the corner untouched and they are fucking with installing a window into a car that rolled in last week. They saw my face and said, "we start next week." Yeah, I think will do. I said "no, we are done." They say I owe them another $5Gs. I'm certain they are fucking me, but I'll pay it just to be done with this.This has not been enjoyable, but I do feel a lot better knowing this is the end. It actually feels more liberating than my divorce.

Not sure what the engine situation will be. I'll focus on getting the rolling shell into a body shop for now. That should take a couple of months to finish which will give me time to save up money and figure out what the next step is. Either I will have a trustworthy guy pull the stroker kit out of the cracked black and build monster for me on one of the new blocks when they finally get here or I will carefully build a much lower power engine myself. The latter appeals to me. I think I'd rather have a slightly fast car I built and tuned to the best of my ability than a beast that a great mechanic built for me.

After it comes back from the body shop I'll throw it up on stands and start going through the suspension replacing the bushings and links and refreshing or upgrading all the fuel, hydraulic and brake plumbing and probably overhauling the factory calipers. I'm going to have to dig into emergency funds to salvage this project and I can do big brakes and diffs and shit later after my bank account and my emotional state recovers.

To the guys at Speed Factory, well....

[themadscientist]

Well, might as well pack up all that cool shit and stick in storage. I won't be needing it soon, possibly at all. Sadness.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by themadscientist

Well, might as well pack up all that cool shit and stick in storage. I won't be needing it soon, possibly at all. Sadness.

SHIT! I was following this with interest.

[KnightRyderx2]

I was in Okinawa for 3 years starting in 2006, I loved it there and of course want to go back. That aside as I read your story and seeing some of these pictures I was thinking this all sounds and looks familiar. Then when you said it was Speed Factory, I said, "ahh, that explains it".

I heard horror stories of builds that went through that place. How one guys build took them 2 years to do and they didn't even finish it. I believe that was RB26 into a 180sx. Another was an Evo 2 that all it needed was an engine swap took them 6 months to complete.

I feel you. When I was there I took my cars to Manabu out Kadena gate 3. His shop was on the right just past Camp Shields. He always did great work and was very knowledgeable and straight forward. Good turn around times too even though he seamed to be very busy.

We all know how frustrating the car game can be especially when you have to deal with shady mechanics and shops that do whatever they want. I hope that you get everything worked out and get what you want in the end.

[Kris86]

noooooooooooooooo!!!!!! don't store them away!! call Manabu and finish what you started dude


and soon as you get back your car, make sure you do a healthy burnout in front of speed factory ( just make sure you don't break down doing so )

[themadscientist]

Could have been worse. Could have taken it to Blue Eye for a paint job.

no. This is not the end. I just need to get it back to the house, assess where I am at and go at it from a new angle. I have a line on a body shop that someone I trust trusts so that's the next step. He is also uncompromising so if that shop works on his cars then they will probably pass muster with me. I just need them to go through the body and find any of that insidious hidden rust that eats a car away right under your ass. Stabilize is the the name of the game right now. Okinawa eats cars that sit. I can't let it sit. I have an R30 in the driveway that went out like that.

As far as the engine, the 2.8 kit that's in the cracked block is still brand new. I will use that block to store the kit for now. I talked to Nissan and they are still giving me an ETA on the blocks of next month. I know a great builder who can prep one and get the 2.8 kit loaded into it and I kept one of the new heads untouched as a blank canvas for his porting philosophy which I agree with.

Part of me, though, really wants to push back hard and see what I can build. I've watched smarter guys build and I know a ton, but have never actually built an engine. It's scary to do something that involved for the first time and on something as expensive as an RB26, a rapidly dwindling commodity. If I take my time, though, set a realistic goal for the build and don't try to do too much too fast, I think I can do something nice. 400hp engine I built myself -vs- 800hp engine someone else built? I have to say, my pride is very strong and I am fresh off swallowing it with no result.

The car comes home saturday and I'll get the rest of the parts out next week. I'm going to wash it real good, sit in it for a while and brainstorm. In a way, as weird as it might sound to some, but probably resonates with a lot of the car guys, it's good that this went down like this. I don't have a choice but to do it myself.

[themadscientist]

Busy day today. I finalized the divorce and I took custody of my kid. They towed it to their shop for free when this whole thing started, but I had to pay to take it home; classy,




One of the few things that got done, probably not coincidentally because another shop did it for them, the engine bay and radiator support were gone through, repaired and painted a fresh coat of gloss black. That's something, I guess.



I gave it a quick scrubbing to get the, what, seven months of crud off from it sitting and pushed it back in the yard for now. You might be a redneck if you mow your grass and find a car. Well, Jeff, I ain't got no grass, so nyaaa!



Back to their shop with my little van to pick up the parts. They tried wheeling the transmission out on a jack. It fell off and crashed onto the shop floor. At this point, with these guys, I just thought "yeah, of course, why wouldn't that happen?" We got everything piled into my little truck: the transmission, the short block and a box of miscellaneous stuff.




The deck of the short block is starting to show the slightest hint of rust from being exposed to the humidity of their shop.




Whatever. That's not why this block is shit. look at that sealant smearing in the water jacket like it's a legitimate fix for the spiderweb of cracks running through the casting.



Nope, it's nothing but a carrying case for my stroker kit. It will sit in my truck till it's time to pull the kit out and put it in a new block. Then, I will likely destroy it with a sledgehammer.



A bit of good news and it really recharged my battery. I went to the body shop that was recommended to me. The guy was super cool, the shop was pretty clean and organized and he had a long line of resto projects coming through. He was in the middle of working on a 56' Ford, and had a Skyline Japan coming in next. The bad news, he's busy and can't get to my car until April at the earliest. The good news, he seems solid and I get a good vibe that he will be worth the wait. There is plenty I can do in the interim and he can pull my car in, possibly next month and do some quick repairs on any rust he finds, basically to stabilize the car until it can come in for a real going through and repaint.

I'll start gutting the interior in preparation for the checkup so he doesn't have to do it and I can plan out and acquire the rest of the parts for the car. I need to spend some time zeroing in on a vision for the build to keep me on task. It's been all over the place, ups and downs, dead ends, direction changes, well, chaos. I own my part of that. I think I've wasted a lot of time and a lot of money, but today really made me feel like I've regained control of the spinning project, kept it off the tire wall and while I am sitting in the grass, I can get this thing back on the track and finish. It's a great feeling.

[Kris86]

sweet, so u plan on going back with the same colour?

[KnightRyderx2]

Nice, good to see there is a couple chapters closing up and you get to move on to better things. Congrats on finalizing and getting custody, that is rare there.

I haven't see the proper build of an R32 since I left that place, once you get it in full swing this will be very interesting.

[themadscientist]

With me having to wait 9 months for it to get in the body shop I have plenty of time to pick a color. The pearl is quite lovely, but there are so many white ones out there. It's no hit on the color, I just want to try something new. Yellow is a remote possibility, but it's so hard to get that perfect shade of yellow. If you miss it by even a little bit, yellow looks bad. Basic, bright-ass Toyota red is the safe color; it always looks stunning.



It also benefits from being rather unique on an R. It's not the factory red an I've only seen a few R's close to that color, OEM red is a dark metallic that really fails as a color IMO.



The crazy hail mary color would be a Mopar green combo. That could really fail in apocalyptic fashion, but if it worked, wow, would it pop. Hopefully, someone can get their Photoshop on and let us see what that might look like.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...18#post2753018