Alkatraz

I have spent the past two hours trying to reinstall my HID Globes in the 370 and cannot figure out what i am doing wrong. The compliance workshop sent me the globes as well as this plug and brass clip. I dont know what the brass clip is for??? Below is a picture of the two wires that the new globe had been wired up to. They wired up red and black wires to the green and grey ones so I assumed (possibly incorrectly) that they had cut the plug, shown above, off from here. I reconnected the plug and plugged it into the Ballast seen at the back. The Red and Black wires that they had connected to the green and grey ran though a hole that they drilled and then one connected to the back of the globe and the other to the top of the bracket, as seen below. I found the Ignitor tucked into the headlight, pulled it out and plugged the HID globe in. Then mounted it into the bracket and tested it but get nothing. Please let me know what may be doing wrong or any obvious reason why this isnt working. It all seemed very simple as I was doing it so I am suprised that it hasnt worked? (Keeping in mind that I am an idiot) I hate to admit defeat on such a small job but I just dont know what is wrong. Cheers guys. Al

Hey guys, Can anyone enlighten me on how to mount a standard size WA plate on the rear of my 370GT? Dimensions of the WA plates are 372mm x 134mm. I'm asking because I want to get some custom plates but to fit the standard plates when I got the car, (which are the same size) I had to bend in about 1 cm on each end of the plate to fit it. I would rather not have to bend the new custom plates and if I get the Acrylic ones it will probably be a nightmare to do. Actually now that I think about it, I need to get the acrylic ones so that I can get 9 letters on it. Cheers Al

Great to hear, well done. I normally dont like white but the 350's and 370's do look really good in white. I can picture that thing jumping up out of the snow and mauling a deer. Looks mean but also very sofisticated in white. Just my opinion.

Im not quite sure what search you are doing, I see at least one in every state on cars sales??? The only 370gt sedan is at FabCar here in Perth, if you go that way I know that they ship interstate (at your expense im sure) and you can always haggle for an extended warranty, eg 5 years. From experience you can knock at least 10-15% off of their asking price as well.

Thanks for the replys. Basically confirms what I was thinking. Any other brand suggestions welcome.......Where in Perth sells good quality batteries, I have a feeling Supercheap etc only sell basic stuff.

Ok, my 370gt just arrived and of course the Battery is completely dead. Probably has been for some time now as the car is actually unlocked and now I dont know how to lock it again. My question is, should I just fork out for a new battery or can I use this thing that I have lieing around to jump start it. http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Best-Buy-Jumpstart-600Amp.aspx?pid=213237#Description Basically I am worried about it frying something ie. Computer and even if there is only a tiny chance of it doing so I would rather pay the money for a new battery. I bought it for my old bike but havent used it for at least 1 year so I am charging it as I type. Mine isnt EXACTLY the same as the picture (mines red) but it IS the 600 Amp one, which I think may not be strong enough to kick the engine over anyway.

I couldnt find any mention of it. HBF do, add about $60, hire car too. Good thing with HBF is that they have shopfronts as well which always speeds up any claims process. The only downside is this damn 20% per year depreciation.

My 370gt is getting closer and closer, it will be waiting in the garage for me when I get back from holiday I have run some online quotes through the usual suspects and will need to ring around to places like Shannans as they dont list the v36 Skyline on their system, so far they are all in a similar ballpark. Around $1100 - $1300 pa. for 31yo, rating 1, excess about $300 - $400 and to have the gf listed only costs a little more (shes 24). Thats with a value around the $45000 mark. One of the better quotes comes from HBF, who I actually didnt think would cover imports until they were suggested to me for my RX7, the only issue is that they insist on dropping the value of the car by 20% EVERY year!?!? Does anyone know whether this is the standard when insuring imports? Will Just Cars etc do the same? I realise that some imports do drop in value very quickly but I'll be F&%Ked if my 370gt is going to drop in value quicker than a dime a dozen, top end Holden or Ford. Obviously I can bump up the premium to raise the agreed value, but this seems pretty harsh to me.

If you know of anyone in Perth that would be interested in an unmodified series 8 Rx7, mine will be for sale when I get back. Will be interesting to see what the music quality is like via blutooth.

Mike, the article that you link to about how to watch video whilst in motion, is written for the V35, according to the title. Do you know if the v36 is exactly the same, ie. need to ground light blue wire and cut the white one?

Bugger, oh well, guess I will definitely be burning CD's then, or using bluetooth. Chris, what format does the music box burn to? I hope that it doesnt compress the files and therefore lower quality. Ipods not that popular in Japan or is there another reason they took away support? WA-CVK, I know exactly which car yours is, you got it through Geoff @ Prestige, was on the same boat from Japan as mine, was at the same compliance centre at the same time as mine (Bruce said that they both looked practically new) and is now probably on the same boat as mine to Perth lol. Only difference is that you didnt get the FM expander put in at the same time!!! *Face Slap! Chris, I think that my FM expander came from someone else, a new plug in version, sorry if you lost the business. Hopefully it is decent or I will be pissed that they didnt just go for your version. i only really got the FM expander for the missus and for resale, I would rather sing to myself than listen to the s&%t on the radio these days. I cant ever remember the electric aerial on my RX7 going up. It would completely mess up the balance and aerodynamics of the car as well I am pretty sure that you will find someone here in Perth that can put one in for you. CVK, It was an awesome time to buy, just after the earthquake/tsunami (Sorry Japan), from what I have been seeing them sell for recently, we both got an AWESOME deal! You must be dieing to drive it by now, you bought yours a week or two before mine and have been delayed on shipping twice. one advantage you have is that you will probably be in Perth when it gets here, I'm going on holiday overseas tomorrow for two weeks. Good thing to come back to though. When I get back we will have to catch up for a cruise.

R33 and 34 Skylines must be the easiest cars on the planet to break into or something? This seems to be a daily event.....maybe older Skylines should come with a free tiger snake as standard from now on. Leave it on the front seat when you park at night......That'll fix the f&%kers!

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/private/details.aspx?Cr=3&R=10577102&trecs=4&__Ns=pCar_RankSort_Int32|1||pCar_PriceSort_Decimal|1||pCar_Make_String|0||pCar_Model_String|0&__sid=1307A02EF90A&__Nne=20&__Qpb=1&SearchAction=N&seot=1&__N=1247%201282%201252%201246%204294963846%204294963593%204294800970%201216%20904&silo=1011 This one is for sale in Perth. Looks like he went the whole way and change practically everything to english......and is now selling it......bit of a waste of time and money.......You can see from his asking price that it obviously cost him an arm and a leg (and possibly his left nut). He was asking more at one stage I think, its been for sale for a few weeks. My car is currently on a boat from Brisbane to Perth so I dont have any first hand experience, but my plan is to look at hooking either an Iphone (which has been done before) or and Ipad 2 (dont know if this has been done, dont know if it will even work) via the AV cables (will be picking both of these up in Hong Kong in a few weeks, Ipad2 is $200 cheaper ex Apple Store Hong Kong, we really get bent over here in Aus). I have played around with a couple of the sat nav apps and whilst not perfect (what sat nav is???), for the price its a pretty awesome option. Plus you can then basically run any app through the main screen and even surf the net etc etc. Keeping in mind that I will need to figure out some sort of stand for the device for when the Missus isnt sitting next to me to control it. The above option is obviously going to handle the ipod issues but I think there is also a pretty simple cable for sale that lets you hook the Ipod up through the centre console and control it through the steering wheel. I will also burn a mountain of 50c CD's and copy my 4000 song itunes library to the Music Box anyway. Actually by the time I go through the thing and ditch all of the crap it will be more like 2000 songs......if that. I have seen buttons for sale from the US, not cheap and once everything is setup most options can be controlled via the steering wheel anyway. No real point spending the money for my own use, but when I go to sell it in a couple of years it might be worth considering. This seems to be the only real BUDGET solution available, anything else will require a trip to a car audio expert which will again involve big $$$. If I lived on the east coast then having the sat nav converted would mean a lot more to me, but here in Perth, if you manage to get REALLY lost, theres something wrong with your head. Probably why I bought the missus a sat nav.....................thank god she wont read that!

I dont know anything about what you can or cant drive on your P's and I am pretty new to the skyline scene, long time car enthusiest though, but have you considered a v35 skyline? http://carsales.mobi/cars/details/?R=10835883&Cr=7&trecs=13 (sorry, thats from my phone) I know that it is on a completely different tangent to a 33 or 34 and definitely not as tough but trust me, you will get more loving from the ladies in one, especially at your age. I think the na v35 would be quicker than the 33 or 34, not to mention the better interior etc. Anyone is welcome to rip apart any of this because I really have extremely little Skyline knowledge.

My car is getting closer so I thought I would bump this up. Can anyone answer the question above about Nissan / Infiniti compatability, specifically body parts for now? Also has anyone found any good looking body kits, I have found a couple but nothing that jumps out at me. Al

This is just my opinion and will not help in any way but...... Cars are built to be driven. If you are like me then you could never buy a car, stick it in a garage, admire it on the weekend and never drive it. No matter what kind of car it is. I believe that a TRUE car enthusiast could never buy a car as a proper investment. If I had the cash to spend on something expensive and rare, then I would probably start recieving hate mail from people who dont think that I should be driving it and telling me that I am devaluing the car and will lose money. If i want to make money from an investment then I will buy shares or a nice rare painting or some other boring S&%tT. Everytime that I purchase a car, I accept the fact that it is a big black hole for my money and I try not to think about it. I look at it this way, whatever money I am losing on the car is the price that I am paying to have a smile on my face and a boner in my pants everytime that I drive the thing. If you are seriously that worried about the car no longer being 100% original, (which i also would be worried about, i like to leave my cars the way that the manufacturer intended, to a point), then sell it and buy something else. Obviously this is the expensive way to do it, but if you really think that you may be somewhat disappointed every time that you get in the car because it is no longer completely original, then why would you want to keep it? Cars die eventually, so either you need to be happy knowing that you own a car that was built as a Nur Spec (it was still built in the same factury with the same parts as the others) or you need to accept the fact that you will no longer be happy with the car once it has a different engine and get rid of it to buy something else. I am completely comfortable with the fact that I will never become a "Car Collector" and will always be a "Car Enthusiast" because I would jump in something 100 years old with 5km on the clock and drive it around the world. The pleasure that I would get out of that is the exact reason that I would have bought the car in the first place, screw anyone who says it shouldnt be done. If I was a car manufacturer, I would want people driving my cars and not looking at them on the weekend. When I go to a car museum I enjoy myself but I also think "what a waste, someone should be enjoying that car in the way that was originally intended". Anyone who disagrees and would prefer just to rub their car with a diaper on the weekend instead of driving it, Flame away. Everyone else, I'm off to thrash my 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO for a little while.......the car will be gone eventually, the memories will last forever. Al P.S If you have to ask if I really have the GTO dont reply to this post!

I should be working, but I think that I just found what you're after http://www.exportcar.jp/en/component/auctstat/?view=auctstatdetail&id=jAPO8JPx6vOgPt5 You said that you dont like black and this is as far from black as you can get........but DAMN! thats a lot of money for a 7 year old car, imacculate as it is. Would end up costing around $40,000+ to get it on the road.

I dont know anything about Toyotas but go here http://www.exportcar...0&view=auctstat Im on my phone so i dont know how well that will come out, if it doesnt work just use the first part up to /en. Here you can see what they are selling for and then figure out the rest. Also you can see how rare the manuals are. Yeah....it didnt work.......go here http://www.exportcar.jp/en and do the search yourself.........this has been one of the most useful sites for importing that I have come across. Updated Daily

As stated it is definitely not cheap. The government makes it as difficult and as expensive as possible to import. Its called "Free market economy" where you must protect inefficient sectors from efficient ones......have a look at what GT-R's sell for at auction compared to their price here........democracy at work. Anyway to give you an example, I have a 370gt going through the process at the moment which cost about $27000 FOB in Japan. After all of the bulls%&t it will eventually be costing $42000 - $43000 to get it on the road, including rego. The majority of that is tax and then tax on the tax...... All that being said, the car will have more gagets and toys than a any locally built car under $70000. I would definitely suggest going through an import broker such as Iron Chef or Prestige Motorsport who is also in Perth. Unless you have done it before and know about all of the little do's and donts it would be EXTREMELY difficult and time consuming, they will be able to guide you through the entire process. Being in Perth is a disadvantage as well as there are only 1 or 2 compliance workshops, who will bend you over on price and there is extra shipping involved. I spoke with one of them who quoted $5-6000 for compliance, so on Prestige motorsports advice i had it done in Brisvegas for $2400. Even with $1500 in extra shipping I am still better off. If you get in touch with a couple of the brokers, who can all be found on here, have a chat and pick one that you feel comfortable with. From experience the difference in price will be minimal, any decent ones will have access to almost all of the same cars as the others, just find someone who answers all of your questions quickly, who returns calls and you are comfortable with. Now that I have been through almost the entire import process I would be more confident to try it myself, but even then, my time is very valuable to me and to pay someone else $1000 to take care of most of it and to guide me through everything is definitely worth the money. Good luck to you, I hope you get what you are after! Al

I dont know what these cost to comply but you can buy a later model ie. 04 or 05 for about $10000 in japan. I saw a 4.5 grade 03 go for just over $7000. If you have the spare cash you could see how much it would cost to import one yourself. Why would someone go to all of the trouble of importing one, having the satnav done etc. and then sell it within a month? I would definitely be getting it checked out thoroughly.

I'm suddenly feeling happy in my pants.

If the dealer can't show you the auction sheet, walk away. I think that most of these guys will be looking to import the cheapest ones they can find which would generally mean they have issues. If they can cover up any faults then they can make good money on them.

Wierd that it would use ANY battery when it is charging!? Did you jailbreak the phone? How do you find the accuracy and the GPS connection? Does it keep connected? I still think that a full size GPS is the way to go but if you don't really want to spend $'000's then this looks good.

Thats true, not that many people simply have the cash lying around or are even able to get an unsecured personal loam, especially for $40-50,000 to get a v36. That said, it is definitely the way to go if you do have the spare cash.

V36 370gt premium models all come with leather, I'm 99.9% certain of that. The v35 and v36 have totally different spec levels. I just realised that the title of this thread is very misleading and I must apologise to all of the respectable importers on this forum. I was refering to used car dealers who import and not all importers in general. If it is possible to change the thread title I will.