Messiah

well, if you dont mind and its not a conflict of interest i'd still like to look at writing an account of my experiences. I figure that it might be a good thing to increase awareness of the import process/options to an audience that might not normally look into the grey import scene. general stuff really... why i chose to import (basically great value when compared to equivalent specs of adm cars) the problems and hurdles you'd need to be aware of, etiquette like i asked about earlier, some info about some of the people who work as import brokers, all wrapped up in a kind of diary of my experiences. kinda like the HPI project car stories.

funny you should mention that i work for news ltd and very closely with cars guide so if you guys dont mind i might pull some of this for a story/blog that i'm thinking about working on. I was going to ask you about that in the not too distant future too Kristian, i was just waiting on us finding and securing a car before i pumped u for more info. currently pondering 2 stories, one is about the mess i've made of my current import and me trying to get in engineered... the other about the trials and tribulations of importing your own car from japan.

Well that all seems fair enough (i'm referring to Beer Barons biiiiiiggg post btw), thats probably the most complete, straight forward and succint summary i've seen around really, it might be a good idea to stick it in the importing FAQ. I'd imagine is pretty hard for a broker to find a polite way of saying "crap all happens for most of the week so dont bug me all the time, i'll tell you when stuffs happening" without sounding like they're just brushing someone off. So yeah, based on the above i'm going to do what i've been doing so far, which is stick with the one broker, but with the addition of shutting the F up for most of the week and letting him get on with his job. IC, is there some inside joke regarding USS Tokyo that i'm not aware of? Also am i reading this right, it says grade 4.5b, however it looks like they have "scratch - fist sized" labelled on almost every panel. Also does anyone have a link to a translated version of one of those sheets just so i can see what the different sections mean?

Yeah thats kind of what i thought. My main concern was simply that if i'm looking for something rare or specific was if its a case of sit and wait or if i should be taking other proactive steps. My main problem is that at times i can be an impatient bugger so i tend to want to do "something" to try and help the process along. That said Kristian, you know the business (thats why your my broker after all) so i guess i'll just have to sit tight and hope japan gets sick of black v35's and decides to sell them all.

see http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Pr...ck-t264991.html for the full details

dint get a reply at all when i emailed.... did anyone elsE?

Hi all, As some of you may have noticed i'm currently looking to to purchase an import, quite possible involving importing from japan. Now i have spoken to some people about this however i'm wondering about the do's and donts when it comes to searching for the right car and dealing with brokers. Can anyone advise me what is or isnt "bad form", eg is dealing with more than one broker a good or bad thing, or a waste of time entirely as they might all be looking at the same sources. If you've asked a broker to look for a vehicle (but havent paid any fees) should you automatically restrict your dealings to him only. Also what about the obligations of the broker, if your looking for a fairly specific vehicle, should you only expect emails/calls from them when one that fits the bill exactly comes up, or should you expect some kind of "nothings come up, but keep an eye on this space or have a look at some almost-rights i found". As i'm being pretty specific when it comes to what i'm looking for i dont know what time frame i should be looking at or how pro-active i should be in finding a car that fits the bill. Above all i just want to make sure i do what i can to find the car i want while not messing around the people i'm dealing with. Cheers Simon

Hi all, just an update on my position at the current time. Yes i am interested in a 350 and yes i have finance. I am currently working with a broker to try and find a car in japan but i missed a chance last week to bid on a very nice example and nothing new has come up yet so i'm still looking. the specs have tightened up a little to a black manual 350 premium coupe. and as new/as low km's as possible for my money. i have some preferred options but these are negociable. Now to be honest as this broker has started poking around for me i would like to get the car through him and pay him for his time, but also being realistic if there isnt much appearing at auction then i'd be a fool to pass up anything fitting the bill that others have on offer. So basically as far as sourcing a car from japan goes i'm pretty commited to the crew i'm working through, however if anyone out there has a car that meets my specs then by all means shoot me a pm.

Hi all, i'm still searching or the car but while i'm at it i thought i'd start planning the modification list for a 350gt Seeing as the good ol' pfc route isnt an option can anyone recommend a good ecu to go with a 350gt. i've done a search and seen some mentions of flash tunes etc etc but i'm stuck in old habits from my gtst, so i'm looking for something a little more capable. I was looking at the vipec for my gtst, has anyone tried one in combination with a 350gt, i know that it might be wasting some of the nifty features that the vipec offers but from all reports its the bees knees in all other aspects. Any first hand knowledge/experience with AM 350 ecu's would be greatly appreciated.

I've read through the entire thread, and it looks like the programmer has been finalising the software for quite some time. As stated, the reason for my interest is that I'm looking to buy a 350GT, and I'm trying to balance the compatibility of a language conversion with getting the newest model possible.

Hi guys... any word/update on the jap to english conversion yet? On a related note can i just clarify a few things as i'm looking at buying a 350gt in the next few weeks. I understand that the gps isnt going to be converted, my main concerns are the computer on the premium. From this thread am i right to assume that the conversion is only planned for the series 1 350gt. Is there any language conversion done at all on later series?? obviously if late model 350's have no translation planned/possible then i should be looking at a nice condition series 1. thanks for the help.

Thanks for the replies all. Yeah i have to say the 19's are very nice indeed. Ultimately tho i'm at the mercy of the mrs when it comes to features and so forth so we'll have to see what she says (officially the car will be hers but i've reserved all tinkering rights). I'm just waiting for word regarding the money end of things, so when and if i get good news i'll be in touch (i should know by this time tomorrow). So i take it my 35k landed and complied is a fair number?

sorry forgot a few details that would make this post a little less lame. idealy i'm looking for grade 4b+ probably manual although thats not a certainty. I've looked at a few places like j-spec and iron chef and i'm thinkinh $35k be about the right price? Anyone care to comment?

G'day guys, I'm looking at finding a 350GT to import, but before I contact anyone to find one for me, I want to make sure I know what price I'm looking at. I've had a look at some of the available options and have an idea about exactly what I'm looking for. Can anyone give me an idea of what the following would most likely cost: - Series 1 (03/04) premium coupe - Black or silver or white (preferably black) - Sunroof - Brembos - 18" rims - reversing pack Obviously with the Km's, the lower the better (how does the price vary between 20,000, 40,000 and 60,000kms?). Any information or advice would be much appreciated. I know a few importers lurk on this forum, so if any of you have access to a good supply of 350's, shoot me a pm. cheers, simon

Great timing, i was just looking into tuning recently. I'm in

Cheers GT, that sounds like a plan to me. I can always save the current tune to the laptop anyway if i need to go back to a known safe point. Regarding safety margins, is the knock meter on the pfc up to scratch when it comes to tuning and can its reading be trusted? From reading, most guides seem to say "alter timing and fuel until knock is detected and back off 3 degrees or so " or something similar. If the pfc's knock meter is rudimentary at best i'm worried that by the time i pick up that its knocking the damage is already done... even if it is below say 20.

^^^^ Good thread. Heh so you never did write the pfc tuning guide eh?? oh well no probs... looks the the entire thread became it.

Yeah thats not cheap at all... and they dont have it in the colour i like... AFR it is then . As far as basic compared to advanced tuning tasks go, i understand that tuning to a goal, be it max power or lower emissions isnt as simple as sit down plug in and away you go. But i normally find that i learn best by applying what i'm learning, can you suggest any tasks that would be good when tuning purely for the sake of learning? it seems that without a dyno tuning for power isnt sane and that basing the results on seat of your pants feeling isnt all that empirical. Would detuning for different fuels be classified as a big job eg down to a safe tune for 95 octane then back to a safe tune for 98?? What were the milestones you set yourself when it came to learning???

yeah i know things like that arent cheap. but i prefer to spend the cash in the right place and learn to do things properly. I figure that if i'm willing to risk my engine learning least i can do is spend some cash on some kit to help me detect bad things.

Excellent thread, i've been considering the same thing myself, just picked up a datalogit for my pfc so thats a start... although i didnt thinkabout the inverter for the laptop... i guess i will need a few hours of battery to do things properly. As far as the other kit you mentioned GT are there any specific bits of kit you'd recommend. I noticed you seemed pretty happy with the gizzmo knock amp thing (cant recall its name). Would you say one of these is a must. Also if i'm looking to consider the emmisions side of things (lets say i wanted to do an emissions friendly tune for if i get epa'd) do you have any thinoughts or suggestions on what to look at in that area. Much like you mentioned i'm looking for guidance as opposed to outright answers. I'd much prefer to understand what i'm doing as opposed to doing it because someone told me to. Someone mentioned the motec stuff above (courses knowledge base etc) does anyone else have any other resources they care to share. I know that this or last months HPI magazine had some tech articles on tuning.

just to put some myths to bed regardings exhausts and cats etc etc. In all but extreme power uses there is no need for huge catless exhausts. As gases cool they contract and as such the requirement for hight flow rates reduces. The times that cats do get hit by masses of flaming hot shit is normally when you close the throttle and rich spot travels down the exhaust. I think most people will agree that during lift off is one time when your really not going to give a crap about exhaust restrictions. Just get a good high flow and inconjunction with a good exhaust and you'll be just fine.

Hi All, r I've recently been working on cleaning up the interior of my 33 gtst, replacing the boot trim, fixing dash lights etc etc and i've found that my car is missing a range of screws, bolts and fasteners from all over. Does anyone know of a good place to source things like the screws that hold the dash panels on or the plastic screw things that hold the boot trim in place. I want to avoid getting screws with the wrong thread or end size and places like bunnings dont really stock screws that are suitable for auto uses. Also while i'm at it does anyone have any pictures of what the inside of a 33 gtst boot looks like from factory, my boot carpet seems to have all sorts of odd holes in it and there looks to be far too much access for things to dissapear into the quarter panels (although i think i've fixed this with a nifty carbon fibre boot floor i had made up ... pics of that to come ) so i'm wondering if the previous owner went a bit scissor happy.

*fights back a comment about the south africans in St Ives*

i dont think vibrating was sold as an included extra.... so you must have paid extra for it. On a more serious note.... no it shoudnt be the norm, but define vibrate... you mean the whole car??? the block??? the wheel??? need to narrow this down some

the cats not going to be the cause. Work methodically. First reset your ecu, i take it its a stocker. If not then a retune is the way to go. next up look at the fuel pressure reg, you might need to reset the ecu after each adjustment (not sure). You havnt modded enough to really have complex issues, and the only thing thats really variable in your set up is the ecu's learned maps... your pressure reg and your boost. define fcked on boost. are you slamming your head into the dash?? or is it just doing bugger all. If your getting boost, wind down the bleed valve and start with modest boost levels to get an ok base line