Shoota_77

All these painted engine bays making me realise how stupid I am for not doing it! Looking awesome mate!

I can't remember who did it. It was a few years ago now. The guy was located in the inner Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne but he would travel around and pickup the parts. I was tempted to clear coat the stuff I had done to try and keep it looking that good for longer.

Hydroblasting is amazing! I highly rate its results. Makes stuff look new again. Apart from my engine mounts I've never ended up using anything I had blasted but hey, it looks good in a box somewhere!

It's not actually LPG running the taxis, it's pressurised Start Ya Bastard they bought in bulk at Supercheap when it was on sale 2 cans for the price of 1.

These are the guys that have done a number of Japanese to English workshop manual convertsions- https://jpnz.co.nz/product/nissan-stagea-owners-user-manual-in-english-2001-2007/ Pretty good value really.

Ha ha, I wish! It’s because I’m married that it’s so long between each time I’m allowed buy stuff that I forget I’ve already bought it! That’s actually entirely untrue. It’s because I buy so many parts that I don’t realise I’ve already bought them! I just buy shit with reckless abandon! If I was as good at fitting parts as I was at buying them I’d be done years ago! 😅

I hate BMWs. I can’t comment on the latest stuff but up till 2015 they all drive like a bucket of saggy ball bags. They’re the “drivers car” cause if you ain’t hanging off the steering wheel you’re in the gutter. #waitingfortheflames Youll never sell the Skyline, you’ve only just made it pretty! If you can hook up enough Start Ya Bastard cans who needs injectors?

Another day of masking things up and then powdercoating them then taking 2 hours of masking off in 20 seconds... Masking is a laborious task at best! Intake plenum spacer, oil pickup and turbo exhaust housing all done now. I THINK that's the bulk of things sorted now that would hold me up were I to start bolting it all together. Time will tell how resilient the high temp powdercoat is especially on the turbo.... I'm still a little torn as to whether I do the front housing on the turbo. I don't want to end up with too much black. It's already going to be very black in there... Today's pics-

Wow, Santa has been kind to you! Best part of any build for me is the accumulation of nice bits. I enjoy it that much I've even bought shit twice! Look forward to seeing it all come together for you.

Looks stunning! I do love a Bayside Blue 34. I presume buying it in 2019 you beat the crazy price rises or did you have to pay big ¥¥ for it? You say "currently living in Japan", does that mean it's not permanent? I desperately want to get to Japan at some point before I get too old to appreciate it! 🤣

After avoiding working on the GT-R for the vast majority of the last few lockdowns I absolutely banned myself from doing anything BUT work on the Skyline today. Nek minnit I'm reallocation power points in the shed and watching BMX Bandits with the kids. Oh FFS.... But I did manage to get my exhaust manifold and the intake plenum prepped and powdercoated. The exhaust I was always going to do but the intake was one of those things I was just going to stop dicking around and whack it on. So glad I did it though as it came up awesome! I'm really happy with it. The exhaust came up so-so. It has a few lumps and blemishes in it but by the time I've run it a few times I'm sure they'll be invisible anyway. Just got the plenum to head spacer to do tomorrow then both sides are done. I'm going to have to get the local powdercoater to do my dump pipe and wastegate pipes as they're too big to fit in my oven in the shed. Might need to update to a newer/larger model! I made up a bit of a jig to hold the exhaust upright in the oven to stop it touching on anything. It worked quite well. The exhaust is a high temp powdercoat and just satin black for the cold side. Really don't know how the high temp powdercoat will hold up. Presumably not as good as ceramic coating but as long as it holds the rust at bay it's worth it! Some action shots from the day-

I put mine on wheels. Makes it super easy to keep moving it from one side of the shed to another when it constantly gets in the way!

Yeah no doubt. I'm tempted to buy another one and join them together but too hard because of the collector/hopper needing to be joined too. Too hard... With your dishwasher and my household oven (for powdercoating parts) in our sheds we could run cooking and home keeping classes for men to raise money for our projects? Just an idea..... 🤣

Mine has given up on the whining. She knows she’s wasting her time. She also understands that if/when I sell it, it’s a nice little investment!

That's a nice big clear lid. I've got the Supercheap unit but the window is a bit small and the whole thing is just a bit small internally when trying to do a manifold or something large and fiddly.

That’s bloody Alladins Cave in that room! Full of sweet, sweet trinkets! No point doing it all half arsed, balls and all, good to see!

Yeah it's a massive effort but well worth it. I should be doing mine while the engine is out but I just can't be bothered. If I do it it'll add another 2 years to the build!

Ha ha, that's some commitment to the paint! She's looking awesome. The paint looks amazing in the sun.

Happy birthday! I hit 44 in November. Fuark that's starting to sound old! I still think I'm in my 20's in my sub concious!

You're starting to sound like a 40+ year old.... Don't worry, I feel you! Doesn't stop one from buying parts they want not need however...

I've got a water/meth kit for my car but not fully got around to fitting the kit yet (bit like the car really...). I haven't been reading up on it for a while but from what I have seen is that people seem to be moving towards individual runner installs. Obviously a lot more complexity involved with an individual setup. There would still be sizeable gains to be had regardless of the setup. My recollection was that there was minimal gains to be had with higher content of methanol. I'd still love to see data on whether there are still gains to be had by going E85 AND Water/Meth as that was my plan to see if there were further benefits to be had over E85 on it's own. Obviously water/meth lowers the intake charge temp which is something that is not as much of an issue with E85.

I would definitely run the knock sensors especially if you’re pushing the performance envelope that most of us are. If you’re running decent boost and advanced timing I think it’s asking for trouble to not have some engine protection built in around a knock threshold.

Boring content apologies but I started the unenviable job of dismantling and cleaning pistons. Because I dicked around so much chasing initial start-up issues the first time around the pistons are filth! Definitely worth the effort of a clean. It makes it a bit more like starting from new again. I'm up in the air about whether I'll change the rings. They don't need changing but I'm still tempted to do it anyway. Hopefully I don't... I'm definitely replacing big end and main bearings however. Again, just because...

Definitely zero plans to add motion! Let's see if the steering wheel even gets out of the box first! I may have just inadvertently made a very comfy chair for the shed! That's what would have happened to that seat if it hadn't ended up on the sim. Well, one day it would have.... Maybe.

Yeah its a nice bit of kit. It may not be as pretty as it was before.... I was having a lot of dramas tigging the egt bung's on. The manifold was just not tigging nicely. It was popping and carrying on like it was contaminated. I tried super heating it with the blow torch to try and cook it out but it just wasn't playing. While lying on bed that night I thought "fu(€ it" I'm migging these pricks on... I turned down the settings, did some test welds and went to work. Wire feed was still a bit strong so the result is far from pretty but they ain't moving! Regret it? Yeah a little bit. Is it worth stewing on? Nope, it's progress so I'll see it as a positive! Still waiting on a replacement for the bung I killed and I'll butcher it the same way do it doesn't look out of place! 🤣 Pics for transparency (I'm normally not good at admitting to my mistakes) - Also, because I need another hobby (not) I decided to make a sim rig and do a bit of make believe Skyline driving seeing I may never drive my own! I'm not going to get too into it, just do it on the cheap. For now.... The seat I've had for 10 years so basically zero cost. It was supposed to go in my Datto ute but never made it in there prior to sale. There's about $65 worth of 50mm angle iron (so far). The second hand Thrustmaster TMX Pro steering wheel and pedals was $260 and the shifter was $300. Total investment under $650. Looking forward to the next Forza coming out in November. I've never really been into driving games which is a bit bizarre given my Skyline interests plus the fact I've worked in the automotive industry for my entire career! Hopefully this doesn't turn into an addiction! I'm just making it up as I go, no plan or measurements. I've build some adjustability into the base plus made multiple mounting points for the shifter to get it just right. Please leaves room for a hand brake if I decided to get into drifting. Just waiting for the steering wheel and pedals to turn up before I can finish it off. @Dose Pipe Sutututu has Skylines and home Reno's, I have Skylines and sim builds!