Victory

Back in my younger days (about 40 years ago) I had a number of trailer mishaps moving hotrods around on trailers and a few come to mind including: Looking out of the side rear view mirror and seeing a loaded car trailer attempting to pass our car at over 100 kmph - the tow ball nut had come off and the trailer was only attached to the car by the safety chain. Forgetting about the trailer and sliding the tow car around a nice corner on a dirt road and then looking in the mirror and seeing the car and trailer also sliding with the trailer taking out a series of white posts. Pulling over to the side of the road and bogging the car and trailer - we then found out from some of the many locals who stopped to assist that it had been raining in the area for the last week . It took that many people to get us out that it cost us a case of beer for their help to get us back on the road again. After these and many other life threatenng incidents I developed the ability to actually tow a car safely - but I do admit that back in the old days when the trailer and car weigh about twice that of the tow car it could be difficult to say the least.

Considering that Nissan want over $2,000 for a new G sensor this DIY could save people a lot of money. Nice work...

Do we have any SAU members who are panel beaters or have good mates in the business? From the pictures this does not look to be that big of a hit. From a body perspective you are just looking at a rear quarter and a rear bar (which you have already sourced) - the rest looks OK. I have recently spent some time at a mates panel shop having a R33 GTS-T repaired and you would not believe how quick and easily a good tradesman can replace a rear quarler and straighten the under panels. I took the same approach as you would in that I replaced the complete front suspension and damaged components on the rear suspension and had the panel shop do the body repairs I would have the body repairs completed by a good body shop and with contacts like Neil's wife you should be able to source new panels for a reasonable price (new panels are easier for the panel shop to work with -eg saves them time which equates to saving you money). As an example one of my GTS-T's has some rust around the rear window and I have purchased two rear quarters from Nissan and will have them installed in the near future. I would suggest getting a quote for the body repairs from a good panel shop so that you know what you are up for - from my experience the repairs did not cost that much when I supplied all of the parts.

If you cannot find a full set of barrels you can take the door and boot barrels out reasonably easy and go to a locksmith and have them modified to match the new ignition barrel. I have been down this path in the past and it provides another solution option.

When Skylines are cold they go into a "warm up mode" that makes them run extra rich and restricts power so that you do not do any engine damage when they are cold. If you install a large aluminium radiator you only make this situation worse because it will take even longer to get some tempreture into the motor. As well if you look at your oil pressure you will see that it is high while to oil is cold and only comes down to a normal level when it has warmed up and started to thin out. The simple solution to this is to not drive the car until you have some movement in the water tempreture gauge and a reduction in oil pressure. If you run an oil cooler it is good to have a thermostat in the line to allow the oil to warm up before it starts running through the cooler. What I normally do in the morning is to start the car and let it idle while I am getting my stuff together and packed into the car (the deep rumble pisses off the neighbours to no end) and then when it is showing that it is starting to warm up drive off and it works perfectly every time.

You have PM.

That should not be a problem Chris as I am sure that some of the boys could run your car for you in your absence - that way next year you will have a time to beat. I promise that we will take good care of it for you.....

I would be in for a Group A passanger ride any day - come on guys generate some interest.

I recently replaced a rack in a R33 and when we connected it up the wheels were pointing in the wrong direction. We started with the steering wheel in the straight ahead position and then measures the distance between the front edges of the tyres and the same for the rears to find that they wer 75 mm out. We simply then started adjusting them in by eye keeping the steering wheel in the centre position until we got both measurement to be about the same. This was good enough to allow us to drive the car to a mates workshop for a proper wheel alignment and we were only a few mm out when he put it on the machine. Another issue could be that the rack is in a different plan because it is mounted in a different location- again I would get it as good as you can and take it for a wheel alighment to find out exactly what is going on. Good luck.

I wanted to change to filler end on one of my R33's so I contacted the company who complied the car to find out what they used. They confirmed that they simply glued the fitting to the pipe with an exposy glue like araldite. They only used the slow drying version as it is not affected by petrol like the quick drying types are.

The spare shell has an even bigger hit in the passengers door and rear quarter but it does have a good right hand side and rear section.

You and Duncan seem to be having just too much fun with your R33 build so I thought that I should also get into the act with a dedicated track car. I just happened to pick up another R33 during the week. The guy said that it had a scratch on the drivers side rear quarter but with a bit of work it would polish out. It was lucky that I just happen to have another spare shell at the bottom of my garden to get some straight panels off. Now the fun starts all over again - or should this just be another parts car.........

On R33's there is a round hole in the door frame with a plastic cover over the hole directly behind the lock barrel. If you remove this cover you can see a 10 mm nut that holds the lock in place. Just use a 10mm socket on a short extension to remove the nut and the barrel just comes off. If you use a 1/4 drive socket set it is nice and small and gets in there easily, a larger drive (3/8 or 1/2) may also work but I have not tried it due to space.

I am sure that "Roy" will take these off your hands to add to his collection

You are looking at a new door skin at the least and considering labour costs for removal and installation a second hand door is probably a cheaper option. Check your local wreckers or the for sale adds on here.

All I can say is that it must get very hot is your part of the world or you guys are going soft in your old age.

This might sound a bit silly but one of the challenges is to identify exactly where the water is coming in. I thought mine was leaking around the tail light so I took it out and resealed it but this did not stop the leak. I then replaced by bootlid with a GTR bootlid and the leak was gone. When I was swaping over the lock to the new bootlid I noticed a lot of dirt around the rubber seal (where the water was coming in) and after cleaning it up and installing it nice and tightly in the new bootlid all was good. If I get any boot leaks in the future I will be doing the inside to boot with a torch trick while someone hoses down the car to identify exactly what I have to fix.

She is coming along great Neil. I will have to call past and check out Brad's handywork. That would have to be one of the best engineered cages that I have seen with all of the little things done right. After having a run at Eastern Creek last weekend in my street R33 GTS-T I will have to get stuck into my track car - bring on the R33's.

I hear that you and Ando are after a little more punch so I have found you an option on ebay - http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MX5-turbo-greddy-/170589445653?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27b7ec5e15 You know you want to........

One of my mates relocated to Perth and could not believe some of the cars on the roads over there (they do not have rego inspections). The best one so far was a Commodore that had a rust hole about abour 400 mm in diamater in the drivers door. To stop the rain from coming in the owner had taped the side of a VB carton on the inside of the door skin with the VB logo in the middle of the hole. Coming from NSW he had never seen anything like this before and because the rust was not in a structual part of the car it was legal.

I have one of these that I am not using that is in good condition. If you like I can take some pictures of it tomorrow and send them to you.

You have email.

I forgot to mention that you need to de-pressurise the fuel line before you remove the hoses. Start the car, remove the fuse for the fuel pump (located in the boot for a R33 not sure about a R34) and let the engine stall from lack of fuel. Otherwise you will be showered in fuel when you remove the line.

It is just under the brake booster and even though it looks easy to remove it often is far from it. Due to the amount of heat in a Skyline engine bay the hoses become hardened with time and stick to the filter and are hard to break the seal on (my GTR is a total pain to replace). If you have a hose remover it will be a bit easier if you can get it in there - good luck.

You have PM re headlights.