Mad's GT-R

[Kris86]

I'm loving the bright red, but not liking the idea of the car been down and nothing being done even mechanically for the 9 months tho
Would be nice to see you drive her out of the body shop

[themadscientist]

I'll be doing stuff to it. Gut the interior, see if I can sort out the wiring harness, maybe work out a tuck so it's clean under the hood, fit the bolt in cage so the cutouts and all that are ready, order new carpet and seats, Nismo control arms, etc, plumb the fuel system and new brake plumbing and wash it, constantly to keep it from getting crusty.

[themadscientist]

It was a nice day yesterday! Let's be productive!

I still don't have confirmation from the body shop when, if at all, he can get the car in. Fine; there's a ton of stuff I can do in the meantime.

The project started as fresh engine and back on the road, low level goals. Along the way I flipped out and tried to turn it into going through the whole car and achieving epicness. The shop couldn't deliver any semblance of attention to detail or understand what I wanted, plug pulled. Now the car is back in my driveway. This is all me now and whatever support I can coordinate.

I don't have a shop. I have good tools, heavy equipment and the muscle to get shit done, but bodywork is out of the question. Good bodywork is an art form and takes a level of skill, patience, prep and specialized equipment I don't have and couldn't get a decent result if I did. I'm a wrench spinner and a theorist, not a body guy. Gotta get that done by someone else. if this guy can't do it, I'll keep searching.

Engine building takes a lot of those same things too. I have the tools and the patience, but have a leaflet's worth of skill and damned near zero experience. I am not afraid of building the engine. In fact, I'm excited to do it, but, what I can build will be substantially modest and I may make a mistake and blow it. With that in mind, power figure? Who the fuck knows? How about running clean and reliably; how about that? After that, how about cutting my teeth on EMS tuning without having a $20G engine on the line? Yeah, backyard build with stuff I have laying around, get it running. Unlike the bodywork, engines are comparatively easy to deal with. If it blows or underwhelms, pull it out and put a different one in. Either one that I built using the experience from the first one or by someone more skilled. All the top shelf stuff will stay safe in boxes for that eventuality.

Interior, now, THIS is a cakewalk by comparison. Any body shop I go to with this project will need to gut the car to inspect the shell and repair any problems they find. I can do that myself. That means I will already have some idea what's up, I will save the time and money incurred by having someone else do something I can do at the cost of a weekend or two and a couple of rum and cokes and I will feel closer to the build and take emotional ownership.

The car shredded the last turbo so quick after I bought it, I never really had time to bond with it. I want to; it's a good car that has had bad luck and needs help. I've tore up enough cars in the past; I have a karmic debt here and I still want a GT-R. I wouldn't have dove into something this involved by choice, but circumstance has brought me here and I ain't backing down. Let's strip out this 22 year old interior!

The seats are just nasty. No uncertainty here, they are not getting reused. I'll see if someone will give me actual money for them. Maybe.



Pulled the carpet up, carefully, trying not to tear it. It could be scrubbed and be reused with some new jute padding glued on it. the old jute is deteriorating. If I decide to make the car nice inside I'll price out new carpet. Knowing Nissan they'll probably say some outlandish amount like $1000.00 so I'm not tossing the carpet yet.



The door panels and rear side panels, really, any vinyl or cloth surface is warped, tore, or coming unglued. If I can still get the parts and I decide the car will not be a stripped out race car, I'll get new stuff. 22 years ain't bad, new stuff might get me another 15 if I take care of it.

Somebody had some amps in the trunk, there are the power wires on the passenger side floor. The wires hanging out on the driver's side were the hot wired power to the fuel pumps. That will be getting redone and done properly.



If I recall, that gizmo on the trans tunnel is the G sensor for the AWD system. R32s only read front to rear axis, later models added side to side axis. That's how I know Easy-E was driving an R thirty FO.

[themadscientist]

With the panels and carpet up I started poking around. This car took a light shot behind the passenger door. Looks like simple dent repair, not a serious collision so that's good.




Let's find the rust! Little bit on that junction between the wheel well and the quarter panel and also where it meets the door sill.




There's a little bit down in that side's frame rail interior and the interior sid of the door sill. Nothing insane and easily repaired if done soon.




Similar rust on the passenger's side kick panel. Need to get on top of it.



Got all the loose jute padding scraped off and vacuumed it out. I have to say, I'm pretty happy so far. This is an old ass car on a salty aired little island in the Pacific; not so bad, considering and certainly fixable.




Next step is to finish pulling the rest of the dash out. I only got the cover pulled. The driver's side footwell was ever so slightly wet. I'll be looking for a rotting wiper tray. That's common on these cars. We'll see.



While the dash is out I need to order the roll cage. I want the kind that goes through the dash, not the wraparound "escape" type. I had one of those in the Silvia and used to bang my knee on it all the time and it's not as strong. I'll also see if I can fit a cross bar behind the dash to tie the left and right legs together and also tie the cage into the front strut towers. It will already have tabs on the main hoop to attach at the seat belt bolts on the B pillars, a lower cross bar behind the seats and bars to tie the rear legs down to the bases of the main hoop. Stiff as a 15 year old's boner.

Gotta get some dry ice next to pop up all that sound deadening. I'm not sure at this point if the car will be a stripped out race car or a nicely appointed street car. Either way, the sound deadening needs to come up to check for rust. If I decide I want it quiet I'll put some fresh stuff back down.

[themadscientist]

I earned ¥7 and $.25!



Some items I pulled out and some will be going back in. PLX Air/Fuel meter, solid brass shifter ball, blue e-brake spin button, Power FC commander, and meter panel.



I love the Nismo gauges. 10K tach and 320KPH speedo.

[Kris86]

DUDE?!


you went awfully quiet! hope all is well!

[Scrappydoo]

Originally Posted by Kris86

DUDE?!


you went awfully quiet! hope all is well!

Couldn't you see where it was heading?

From the first post tbh.

[Kris86]

Originally Posted by Scrappydoo

Couldn't you see where it was heading?

From the first post tbh.

saw it turning into a beast!

[Scrappydoo]

Originally Posted by Kris86

saw it turning into a beast!

Ok.

[laextreme5]

Fuck. and now I'm back to wanting a r32. thanks. a lot.