Shoota_77

Welcome back to the scene! Godzilla Motorsports were well regarded back in the day. My GT-R had work done there prior to my ownership. SRS (Street Race Solutions) in Toowoomba worth a look. They've built some pretty wild Skylines. Their YouTube channel is comedic to watch! I'm sure they're all on the glass BBQ but they get shit done! 🤣

That's a given! Bit hard to powdercoat it properly without removing them! 😁

Well, it's taken me until the last week of 2024 to actually do something on the Skyline but I consider it a good head start to 2025's efforts! I managed to justify (to myself anyway...) my purchase of the lift table. It made taking the rear subframe out a lot easier than it would have been without anyway! Everything is out and stripped down ready for a clean then powdercoating. She's pretty grubby under there but pretty good condition for a 38 year old Japanese tin bucket. 12 years of zero street time have obviously helped that... I need to decide which of the factory suspension arms I will keep and replace so I only get what I'm keeping powdercoated. Baby steps but it's a start!

I liked it more than previous versions. Dumped it as soon as Stalker 2 came out and haven't played it since. Absolutely hooked on Stalker...

Don't give my son ideas....

I'll be sure not to put a full motor/transmission/subframe on it then! I've got a setup for that already so shouldn't have to use it for that.

I hope you're right and it somehow justifies it's existence!

Right, so God, it's been nearly 12 months since my last confession.... The main confession is I'm a horrible car modifier (amongst other things). Obviously the pool was a massive distraction for the entirety of last year but really doesn't excuse me for doing nothing at all on the car for this year. To be honest this year was a mental break to get over the extreme mental torment and pressure I put myself through putting the pool in! It really was a slog. The pool is still not completely finished but it might never be.... The kids love it and the wifey and I love it so mission success! I have spent a grand total of 30 minutes working on the car since when I commenced on the pool. I just have not had a spare brain cell to be able to focus on it. The thought of working on it just seems abhorrent to be honest. My heart is just not into it. Yet..... What I have done is decide that I'm a clown to not paint ALL of the underside of the car while I'm at it. Originally I was stopping at the start of the rear subframe to then "get back to it later on once I'm ready". Let's be honest, later on might never happen so may as well keep diving in! I'm already balls deep so may as well go a bit deeper! So...... I've just purchased a hydraulic scissor lift table to be able to take the rear subframe out as a whole unit without having to dick around with jack stands rolling around on the ground. Us 6' 8" blokes don't operate well at ground level! One of these- Anyway, will the investment in an expensive tool that I'll probably only ever use for one job motivate me to crack on? Only time will tell..... Wish me luck!

Bugger.... Thought I was on there for a second!

Enjoy Japan! Need someone to carry your bags........??

Woo hoo, nearly back in action! Heading in the right direction anyway!

Towards the end of Motives latest video it echoes exactly the discussion in here about the cycle of GT-R modification- stage 1 - bolt on parts from Japan, stage 2 - fab your own parts because Japanese parts are out of date…. Aussies (and the Kiwi choice bro’s) went through the cycle years ago, America is going through it now and then in time they will start to align with Aus/Inzid and get busy cranking out their own stuff which some companies obviously are but no where near the scale of Australia particularly given the size of the US market. When they do, it will be to the benefit of all!

Sounds amazing! Please share some body work inspiration! We all need to soak up each others progress to help us out with our own!

Any development on the mighty RB is always well and truly welcomed IMO. You do have to get to a point where you say enough is enough however.... Particularly for us non Sydney based "normal" GT-R owners that don't want or need 1000hp. It may be an unfair opinion but I really feel that the Japanese (tuners/worshops/performance part manufacturers) have become irrelevant in many ways. The vast majority of the "big name" tuners and workshops are just basic workshops using basic tools and basic principals. There are obviously some that are absolute artisans at what they do and for some, the work they do is what they're after. The Japanese have become famous for NOT innovating. Take cars and motorbikes for example. Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi to name a few sell very outdated, very basic vehicles. They're running "new" tech that Euro brands were using 5-10 years ago.... All of the motorbike brands we knew and loved as kids are now so outdated they're almost not relevant in todays offroad market (Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki are the main culprits). When I was 12 or 13 I would have given anything to own a KX80 or CR80 two stroke dirt bike. They were just so iconic back then. Now there's no chance I'm riding anything other than a KTM, Husky, etc as they're chalk and cheese in terms of tech, bike weight, ergonomics, etc. I bought a brand new Suzuki for my son a few years back and it was so bad (heavy, drum brakes, etc) that I sold it and bought him a 2 years older KTM 2 stroke that is 10 years more advanced than that bucket of a Suzuki. Greddy to name one previously massively respected and somewhat innovative brand has to a large part realised they're no longer relevant and are leaning on Aussie companies (PRP, Artec, etc) to supply "their" new tech. Maybe HKS are still big enough and relevant enough to actually pull off some significant RND and then produce some up to date components to bring to market? As previously stated however they're living in the past when they were still relevant when they work out their pricing. It's ludicrous what they charge for their "Fine Spec Engines". I'd go to CRD/Powertune/Dahtone/ETC and spend half the money for twice the outcome any day of the week. HKS are only relevant to American Youtubers who haven't caught on yet (yes you TommYFYeah you flop) that Japanese stuff is (unfortunately) not what is used to be. Who knows, maybe this will be the first big step in the right direction and inspires other Japanese performance shops to break the mould and move with the times! The yanks will no doubt really ramp things up over the next few years too. Through shear weight of numbers they will come to the party with development of new RB platform add ons. Copies of Aussie stuff to start with then they'll no doubt find their own lane and add their own spin on things. Either way it's awesome that so many businesses across the world are still developing a dirty stinken lump of steel block from back in 1985!

Awesome! So..... Have they given you the FULL story as to what it was? Warped sleeve, cocked sleeve, cracked, driver error 🤪...??

You are killing it with the progress!!! God I wish I was that focussed!! Looking good, keep it up!

Yeah enjoy installing that fitting with everything in place!!

Awesome work! You'll be able to get a job with "Home Built by Jeff" with that trimming work!

That means it's a level of love beyond the normal levels of care for an object. It's your primal urge to maintain and care for it and nurture it back to health like a wounded dog. I wonder at what point it became a primal urge for a bloke to start tending to the lawns around his cave/humpy? They would have all laughed at the first Neanderthal as he sharpened up a stick purely for the purposes of tending to his patch of dirt! Next minute everyone has a garden shed full of sharp sticks. I digress..... you love that bloody car!! 🤣

God you've got fancy! Starting to think you really love that car. Contrary to all the nasty things you say about it!

Better off not knowing....

Gave myself a few little tingles through the angle grinder from all the water splashing around!! Ended up wearing a few sets of gloves for more insulation..... 😐

It's about 3 or 4 ZF conversions....

Ok, final pool build photos (unless there's something worth bragging about! 🤣 Pool is fully functional but like a project car will never be finished. Christmas was the first test for it and was great to see my kids and cousins having a ball. Weather was horrid but we got a narrow window of sunshine where we all piled in! So, since last post I have done a massive amount of work. It's been the toughest 8 months of my life. Every non working hour I'm out there doing something. So concrete poured (only thing I didn't do!) Removing the Styrofoam inner boxing was a nightmare! Shit everywhere as it all broke up into little pieces... After that was getting a lifting platform to put the roof on. It's too bloody high to be crawling around up there on a ladder! Next step was the concrete grinding. The concrete grinding was MASSIVE. I'd say it took me at least 5 x 10 hour days. It was a huge undertaking with my little grinder! It came up amazing in the end so well worth it but fark me, what a mission!! I then made up a jig to hold my 8" hand grinder 90° to the pool deck to get a nice flat, parallel inner edge. It worked amazing! Made it super easy to buzz the edge off. received_1014910813124867.mp4 I then modified the cradle to hold the ggrinder at 180° degrees to the deck to buzz a chamfer on the edge. I then rounded of that edge with the grinder by hand to make it nice and rounded and smooth. That made the water like milk having so much concrete dust in the water. Took many days of the robot going flat out (and emptying it multiple times per day), plus putting flocculant in the water to drag the solids to the bottom before vacuuming the sludge straight to waste. Very time consuming. Next step was cutting the expansion grooves in the concrete. Didn't really have a plan, just cut 45° from every corner and then over the top of my pipes for the hidden drainage. Actually worked out almost decorative! Next up was sealing the concrete. I used a penetrating sealer that basically soaks into the concrete to make it waterproof. It was 2 coats, one thinned down and then a full thickness coat with a grip additive in it. Still a bit slippery when it's wet so I may need to do another coat with the grip media in it. No running ya little bastards... I also ground the existing path around the pool area to match the finish of the new concrete. Actually came up quite good for standard concrete! Next up was the back wall on the pool house. That really gave it a more finished feel. After that I put the glass fencing back up plus added the new section to make the laundry door outside the pool area (can't have a door from the house opening into the pool area). I spent waaaay to long building the gate post to make it look good and be solid. Lots of welding and grinding. It doesn't look like much but a lot of work went into it! The piece de resistance was my bar! Prior to pouring the concrete I made a mould to pour the table top so it was the same concrete as the pool area. I gave it all the same grinding treatment as the concrete. To hold it I used left over steel from the pool house and made up a massively over engineered monstrosity to hold it. The top weights at least 150-200kgs so I wanted it to be strong. It's on heavy duty locking casters and has wind down legs for adjusting the height/angle if it's on an uneven area. Absolutely stoked with how it came out and to have a beer around it with family and friends on Christmas night was pretty special. This part of the puzzle meant a lot as it was for ME. Everything else was for EVERYONE ELSE where this was for my enjoyment and appreciation. I spent DAYS working on it. I had to modify the cross beams each side which meant cutting them out, welding in capping plates to cover the holes and then rewelding them back in closer to the middle post. A huge waste of time but had to happen. Every piece of RHS is either welded blind to it's next piece or it has been capped off. The amount of hours spent making end caps, welding and then grinding back smooth was massive. All worth it in the end I think though! So, still a huge amount left to but time for a bit of a break to enjoy it for a while. After that I'll finish off little bits and pieces as I go (lining roof and walls of pool house, rock border around the outside, etc, etc, etc). Here's a few more pics of the semi completed area- It's been a massive project and the longest my ADHD has ever let me stick to one project. Hopefully it gives me another burst once I hit the GT-R next.....

Great progress mate, good to see you back into it!