junkie

I been reading this and heres my 2c: Something isnt right with this car. If its actually flexing as much as described, its either been badly bent and not repaired properly, has huge mileage or been hammered over bad roads for a long period of time. Skylines are pretty robust in general and take a lot of punishment but any car has its limits. Even my 35 sedan flexes a tiny bit, but lubricating the door seals gets rid of all the noises As suggested above, take it to a pro first before buying bracing bits. A decent panelbater would be a good place to start, chuck it up on a hoist and check the rails, floors, subframe mounting points, rust, cracks, bad repairs etc. A lot of stuff can be hidden under sound deadener And if it really is that bad, the cost of fixing wont be worth it. Part it out and scrap the shell instead

its not hard. here is my list for not picking up too much crap: 1. Main point, keep your OS patched and up to date. Thats not just for Windows, applies to OSX and Linux as well. I know a lot of people love to turn off auto updates, thinking stuff will break, but that rarely happens and regular security updates come out to fix serious security problems 2. Keep installed software up to date, especially browser plugins like Flash and Java. A lot of malware uses security holes in installed software, Adobe and Oracle products are some of the worst for it 3. Dont use IE (duh) Chrome or FIrefox will give you a lot more security. If you need IE, update to newest versions for your OS 4. Buy a decent router with a SPI firewall, and keeps its firmware up to date 5. Run a semi decent AV - I use MSE and never notice any performance issues, but there are plenty of other options. Just stay away from the bloated all in one products theyre a waste of time and money 6. Uninstall any software you dont use 7. Install ad/malware blocking broswer plugins, like AdBlock Plus. They block known malware and ad serving domains, speeding up your browsing 8. Finally, dont dowload random junk you dont need. Be careful with cracked software and games too, no shortage of packages going around with hidden trojans, etc thats prety much it

i haven't got one of those calls yet, waiting for my chance to troll them. did get a car accident scam call a few weeks ago but they hung up on me when i tried to ask them what company they were calling from, another troll opportunity missed

its a precaution for jump starting, in case there's a bit of hydrogen around the battery and you create some sparks with jumper leads. leave your charger powered off, then hook it up to the battery, then power the charger on, it will be fine

fark im a noob i did two similar replies to this topic ill try explain it... claying is more of a maintenance thing, while wetsanding is defect rectification. clay will only remove the crap thats stuck to your clear coat, stuff like brake dust, tree sap, etc but it wont fix any issues with the paint itself. its also pretty genetle on the paint, if done properly wetsanding on the other hand, its more of an extreme method of fixing paint defects like deep scratches, clear runs and orange peel. its normally used in place of machine polishing for a smaller area to save time and effort. and since it takes off a thin layer of clear everytime, its not something you want to do often. plus, machine polishing is needed afterwards as youre left with a matte surface. if you want to try it yourself, id suggest buy a scrap panel from a wrecker, then get some 1500/2000/2500/3000 grit paper and go nuts.

By the time you get anything to line up and close properly... it will still look shit, with bits of bog falling out.

Another vote for LSV here. I'm paying half of what Shannon's used to charge for pretty much the same policy

Epic result, I think I need to get me a tub of that Sonax wax. The wheel cleaner is excellent too, bought some a while ago, doesn't stink as bad as some other similar products Wetsanding is basically sanding the clear coat with really fine sandpaper and water for lubrication. Works great for taking off blemishes or flattening "orange peel" that some cars either have from factory of after paint repairs. But, wouldn't recommend anyone trying it (if you haven't done it before) without some practice on scrap panels first, especially around sharp creases and edges, doesn't take much to go thru the clear if not very careful

I'd probably do brake fluid and power steering fluid at the same time.

Hard to say from the pictures but the roof looks like water spots which is a light etching but can be removed. The guard I can't really tell... Call a pro detailer you'd be surprised as to what they can fix without repainting and at a decent cost. Its probably due to the chemicals in those places, its all designed to be quick and easy but with overly strong products that can mess up your paint, plastic trim and wheels. you are much better off washing the car yourself, or at least bring your own car wash and just use the high pressure water, then dry the car shortly after as driving a wet car home will attract dirt and dust that you will rub into your paint when polishing or waxing

That is correct

yeah, its basically what a decent quality car wash will do, provide a lubricated layer between your paint and whatever you wash your car with, helping to minimise swirling and "suspending" dirt particles ph ratings mainly apply to strong chemicals like wheel cleaners, as some use acid based ingredients and others will use strong alkaline ingredients and you really need to know where to apply a certain product without harming the surface... as far as dishwashing liquid goes, its basically a degreaser and wax is an "oily" coating on the surface. by that i mean, only the really expensive stuff will be made with a high content of real carnauba wax and everything else will have some kind of petroleum product in it, mixed with wax to make the stuff cheaper to produce and aid the application process. however, some new sealants will probably be a lot more resistant to dishwasher liquid

It won't matter once mixed with water. Typical recommendations are one cupful per bucket so in the end you will end up with a tiny amount t of shampoo to water ratio. More important is lubricity of the product and it's ability to clean without stripping wax or sealant on the surface of the paint

Any missed spots from the factory under the carpet and rear seat would be a good start, followed by boot floor and boot lid. Doors are good for aftermarket audio and roof probably won't make a lot of difference

Swift GTI. Too bad they're flimsy and most have been trashed or worn out. Lots of fun for very little cash otherwise. Hard to recommend the R31 I had one for a couple of years and found that all the Australian made bits on them are awful, the diff especially. The whine will send you deaf on the freeway. Other crappy bits are the seats (frames break), door trims (peel apart) and the steering racks (love to leak fluid). They are easy to fix though and the engines will go forever...

Had to add this... g

They went to the extra effort of winding the odometer forward to avoid warranty work. Now that's not very common, as far as I know

The 250 is a nice unique daily but not a performance car. I suggest saving for something later down the track and just enjoy what you have now... I bought mine without any performance expectations and not going to mod it, just stick to general maintenance and replacing stuff as it wears our or breaks

Swann camera setups are good. Got one after some scumbags broke into my garage a while ago and took all the tools that took years to collect, then ransacked the house for good measure. I'm still pissed about it

Headlights too clean for a year out on the sun

Sounds like my old R31 with the massive thump from 1st to 2nd :-p

United servos have e85 usually. But not a good idea in a car that hasn't been set up for it

Too much effort IMO. Always better off with factory performance cars, everything is ready to go. Its not just about the engine, the auto box will need work if its to survive for a decent period of time, diff may not be strong enough, brakes will not be up to the task, then you will want to upgrade the suspension, replace the flat seats... etc Basically, once you add up the cost of parts, labour, upgrades to other bits, and fixing stuff that breaks along the way (this will always happen) all of a sudden you have spent R33 GTR money

Car bras are last century and freaking ugly. Clear tape is where its at

I get the odd "is it for sale?" question when filling up my 200...