Stang

After looking around for a newer model chrome grille for the Cefiro for a while, I finally managed to track one down from a fellow Skylines Australia forum member. A few days later some packages came in the mail; the new grille and a couple of cool 1:24 scale model cars I'd ordered around the same time. Following the hills run in the last post, there was some much more sedate driving around the suburbs for a bit. It wasn't quite as clean as before, my girlfriend Sally wrote my name in the dirt so I would remember which car was mine. But I did use the backseat to transport a radio control battleship, which is a pretty cool toy for $50. I had the old Cefiro tail light garnish and the new grille sitting in the boot as well. We then headed over to a friend's house, to show him what the new (and slightly dirty) paint and panel work looked like. The dusk light was quite nice for taking a few snaps of our cars. His Pintara, which I've mentioned in previous posts, is faster than my car, with the CA18DET engine making 160rwkw, compared to my 139. Coming up in Post #23; another drive up to Hahndorf.

Fair enough. I was wondering if Bride seats can be engineered?

Anyone have an RB25 Neo turbo in very good condition?

+1. Good side bolstering really helps with hills runs...love my Bride seat.

I did mention that to the panel beater who resprayed some bits for me, it's one of the few exterior details that still bothers me. Was mostly worried about having an obvious whiter line where the strip used to be. Right rear door is actually a little yellower than the front, so may give that a going over again anyway though.

April 2010. August 2011. Build thread here: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/363022-my-ceffy/

I was thinking about it after seeing Tom Monkhouse's Ceffy. Focusing on more fasts at the moment though, pretty happy with the exterior now.

Thanks. Haven't been pulled up as yet, touch wood, but probably just a matter of time. With the car all white it doesn't stand out like it used to with the black bonnet though. Here's a comparison of how the rear of the Ceffy looked when I first bought it, and after the respray a couple of months ago.

Couple of my car...

Couple of my car...

Saw Nightcrawler's black V35 on Salisbury Highway at about 2:30. Then a Corolla that almost ran me off the road at 100.

Continuing down Gorge Road towards Adelaide, I stopped in the same spot where I took photos on the very first Gorge Road run back in mid 2010. Just for a comparison, here are photos taken with my little Canon Powershot digital compact camera last year, and then this run with the aesthetic changes in between. So as you can see, there's definitely a substantial and much improved difference in the Ceffy's appearance between the two hills runs.

From Inglewood I had a decent drive for quite a while, going up to Lobethal, before heading back to Adelaide on Gorge Road. It's one of my favourite bits of tarmac, with some really nice bends and epic scenery along the wall. After achieving a fuel economy level that would be bad for a V8, I stopped at one of the lookouts.

Although I was really not feeling too good, I still thought it would be worth going for a hills run to get some photos, while the Ceffy was freshly sprayed, clean and polished. After heading up North-East Road from Cameron's workshop, I made it into the hills, and put my foot down as the road curved steeply upwards ahead. After enjoying some nice corners for a little while, I pulled up on a side road near Houghton to snap a few photos of the Cefiro. You'll see from the photos that the 'CEFIRO' tail-light centre garnish has been replaced with the more subtle 'Nissan' one. In combination with the de-badging on the boot, it was now fairly anonymous, unless you know what a Cefiro is. I'd talked to both the RAA and an auto electrician previously, and had to explain to both what kind of car it was and how to spell it, which I thought was kind of funny. Photos taken with a Nikon D90 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, and Nikon D300 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D lens. After taking these pics, I headed off again down the road, enjoying the corners and sound of the exhaust and turbo. My stomach wasn't very happy, but at least a hills run was a good distraction from it. A few kilometres further along I rolled into the small town of Inglewood, a again turned down a picturesque side road. Burbling down the steep grade, there was a small bridge going over a creek. It looked like a nice spot for some more photos, so I pulled up in the middle of it, grabbed my D90 and 50mm lens, and wandered around to get some different angles. This is the view from the side of the bridge, which was quite idyllic with the gently flowing stream surrounded by trees and lush greenery. The blue Ford F-Series pickup in the background looked pretty cool, so I got back in the car and drove up to the top of the slope to get a better picture of it, followed by a couple of the front of my car.

Looks good, nice and clean.

Saw black 35 GT-R and nice blue Stag east of the CBD mid afternoon.

Cheers dude. Yeah I go up and down Military Road fairly often to friends' houses, so that would likely be me.

With the car freshly sprayed and polished, on the 12th of August, I headed back up to Cameron's workshop to pick up the Ceffy. As I walked up the driveway, I saw it was parked outside the spray booth, looking very tidy. Just respraying and repairing those few front panels, as well as painting over the black strips on the bumpers, made a huge difference aesthetically to the car's appearance. With the gouges and mismatched panels gone, it finally just looked really nice, simple and clean, which is the look I had been wanting all along. I was curious as to how a blue pearl was blended with the white paint, so Cameron took me into his paint storage shed and showed how the paint and pearl combination was mixed. I was very happy with how clean the Cefiro looked after the fresh paint job. So if you need some quality paint or panel work done, give Cameron a call at Mullers Road Crash Repairs, on 8261 2328. After chatting for a little while about cars, I handed over some cash for the work, and then stopped in at a BP to fill up the tank. I snapped a few more photos as well. Premium wasn't cheap that day at $1.64 a litre, but after ten months of having the same tank of fuel while the Ceffy was sitting idle in the garage, I figured it didn't matter that much. With the fuel topped up, I thought that since the weather wasn't too bad, it would be a good time for an afternoon hills run to get some nice updated photos of it, while still looking clean and polished. Coming up in Post #21; photos from the hills run.

Thanks guys, yeah that was taken from Grange Jetty on my birthday on Tuesday.

Yep, JMS had it right way back in 2003. Still one of my favourite 33s for both looks and sound. Nah that crash was a couple of years ago now I think...pretty nasty.

What can happen when you go too fast in one...