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Hey all. Restoring a plastic Altia body kit ive got and spraying it white to match my car, and had a few questions So I have been pulling the mesh grills off, ready for spray painting, and was going to re-coat the grills in Black. The grills are metal, not plastic, as some spots the coating has lifted and i can see theyre metal. It seems the coating on them is some sort of thick rubberised coating with a smooth finish. It’s definitely much thicker than powder coat and has a different texture. Has anyone stripped this sort of part back and re-coated it? What did you use to strip it back and what coating did you go with afterwards? I was going to try and blast it, but not sure if that’s the best option for this kind of coating Also on the black plastic “SKYLINE” section at the bottom, it’s obviously just raw black plastic, unpainted. Unfortunately there is a small scuff on it, what can i do to get that looking nice and remove the scuff? I also have a dent in the rear bar, seems heat has deformed it, i didnt want to just sand it back as the dent may be too deep and cause the plastic to be too thin in that area, how can I shape it back ready to light sand and maybe a little high fill? Lastly, on the rear bar are some “grill” checkered plastic feature bits that are unpainted, and have faded to grey. Whats the best way to restore them to a nice black? thanks heaps in advance!

Hey guys, Photos below: Got this car from the auctions, grey import, has skyline printed all over but rego doesn't specify model, it's listed only as 2002 Nissan sedan so I'm not sure what model I should be looking at for parts etc. It's obviously been modified by previous owner, suspension has been lowered, possibly chopped, don't know for sure. Local mechanic sent me this photo after I took it in for a service and told me the front suspension (mainly bushes) are destroyed, and the steering column is about to fall off... He's said it'll take 6 weeks to source bushes/bushings for repair from Nissan, but doesn't seem sure about what parts will suit... Any advice on what model's parts will be compatible and where to source them? Possibly quicker/cheaper? Or a recommendation for a more specialised mechanic? Any help would be much appreciated, I'm at a loss! Thanks

At first glance, how easy would it be to repair the front end of this r34. Mechanically it is fine and rad support is in tact. Would it be as simple as buying a new bonnet, bumper and fender or will it take more than that.

So as an old R32 GTR my drivers seat had seen better days. Was going to get some knock of brides but in better judgment I got mine repaired. Here are the results.

I baught a half cut for a project of mine where I only needed the floor and inner skin. The panels are straight and would suit anyone that may have tapped a pole, tyre barrier or gotten a little too close proximity to another vehicle. $150ono - R33 Rear Qtr Panels - colour black, but if welding on would require a re-paint anyway. Parts are located in Croydon - Vic. Pick up required but happy to drop off if local. Will attach pics when I get home.

Hey Gurls & Guys, Yes, I've searched but the results are old and some places don't exist anymore and there are new places that might have popped up then. So I recently acquired a pretty worn Recaro SR3 seat off another forum for a good price with the intention of reupholstering it and fixing up the bolsters. The bolsters are replaceable through a UK lot called Capital Seating http://www.capitalseating.co.uk/productlist.asp?type=s&view=range&rid=61&mid=2 they stock all the spares, also at a good price. Now the retrim part, I'm not too sure where to go. I know back in the days GTrim was pretty good/decent but I've heard they have shut shop. Any suggestions? I just want to retrim the wings and bolster areas. I'm hoping under $200 to trim in just fabric, nothing flash. I prefer the standard RECARO look if you know what I mean. Thanks!

Yesterday I was driving through the car park at work and managed to scrape my rear wheel on the gutter (2nd photo) Upon arriving home today i noticed my front wheel also had a chunk missing (no idea how that occurred) and to my stupidity i ran my thumb over it and now have a chunk of work emotion in my thumb that i cant get out Anyway... Im just wondering what the best way it to go about repairing them, other then the obvious sand it back and respray.

Hi all, Im not sure if this topic has been covered before, but Im sure this might apply to some of you. Have front end damage on my car, where the xenon light "clips" or tabs for screwing onto headlight bracket has been broken. Also has some damage to the light housing itself. Anyone tried to fix this problem by fabricating a custom mounting plate instead of shelling out hundreds of $$$ to replace the whole unit? Any suggestions on where I can get this done or is it achievable as a DIY? Picture below as reference

Fiberglass Bumper Repair I have found lots of good info on this website and I am posting this to give something back to the community. I have not seen any tutorials on repairing a fiberglass bumpers on this site (if there are any, sorry for reposting) and since I recently did this, I thought I would post my experience. Hopefully some out there will find this information useful. Overview: Like many others out there, my Skyline has a fiberglass front bumper (which will be replaced with a genuine plastic one as soon as I can save up the money and find one). Until then I have I have a cracked, damaged, piece of $hit letting down the look of my car. So, I have decided to repair the fiberglass bumper and extend its life. I am no expert and I have never done this before so this is a guide only, but anyone with any practical skills can have a go at this. What you will need: Die grinder ($40 el-cheapo will do) Fiberglass repair kit (about $30) Body filler (about $8-10 if you don’t already have some) Sand paper (wet-n-dry about $1 per sheet) Paint ($30-50 depending on what type) Beer (could get expensive here depending on individual) Step 1: Remove the bumper If you are not confident, take lots of photos of the bumper, its mounting points and screws before you take it apart. This way you have a reference in case you forget how to put it back together again. My bumper was only held on by a couple of screws near the wheels and some behind the number plate. Other bumpers may also have screws under the front corners and various other places. Remove all the screws and slide the bumper forward. Visually check around your bumper and don’t pull too hard on it until you are sure you have all the screws removed. Step 2: Fiberglass Repair You will need a die grinder; a cheap $40 one from your local auto part supplier or hardware shop will do the trick if you don’t have one. Use a relatively flat grinding disc and grind away all the loose edges. Don’t be scared at this point, all the loose stuff needs to be gone. You will then need to grind a groove along the cracks. Also grind all dirt off the area around the back of the cracks (on the inside of the bumper) so the resin has a nice clean surface to adhere to. I also sanded out any smaller cracks in the paint using fine wet-n-dry sandpaper. I had to do some major work around one of the front vents, so I used some straps to hold everything in place. This helped to align everything and reduce movement while the resin is applied and curing. Get your Fiberglass Repair Kit out and read the instructions carefully. These kits contain the fiberglass resin, hardener, glass matting and applicators. Get the matting and cut it to size for each crack. It should overlap the crack by 10-20mm on all sides. This has to be done on the inside of the bumper, so it is not visible once the bumper is back on the car. Mix the resin and hardener as per instructions on the pack and apply it over the matting using applicator. I only mixed small amount and did 1-2 cracks at a time. If you mix up too much, the resin will harden before you finish all the repairs. I used a Paddle Pop stick to get the resin over the matting then used the brush provided in the repair kit to smooth it all out. Once the matting is wet with resin it remains in place and this part of the process is easier than I expected. Once the repairs were done from the back, I used some resin and matting to fill in any large grooves and craters from the front. Make sure you don’t put too much on and have high spots as once it has cured, it will be a lot of work to sand back. Better to be low and fill the remainder with auto body filler later. My bumper has a fairly thin and flimsy section across the bottom of the front air dam, so I took an old piece of metal and fiberglassed it as bracing across the bottom of this part. I also fiberglassed metal washers behind the screw holes; this helps to reinforce these points as they are under most stress and most likely to crack. While everything was off the car, I also added some mesh to the inside of the air intakes. I didn’t want to use screws to hold it on because they are visible from the outside, so I decided to fiberglass it on. To do this, I cut the mesh to shape, bent it and fiberglassed it on. I used the matting and pushed it through the mesh to make sure it was held on as securely as possible. Now wait for the resin to cure. Don't forget to keep yourself lubricated... Step 3: Painting Sand all the repairs until they are smooth and use auto body filler on any low spots. Then give the whole bumper a final sand so it is ready for paint. This isn’t a painting tutorial so I won’t go into the details here. I sprayed it with factory white base and clear 2 pak paint. The picture below is after two coats of white, prior to the final clear being applied. While the bumper was off, I also drilled new mounting points for the number plate because they were too low and the number plate hung over the air dam and had a gap above it. Mounting it 30mm higher made a world of difference to the look. The finished repair looks heaps better than I could have imagined. The only thing I would have done differently would be to paint the bumper before putting the mesh on. This would have saved me masking it up, but overall I have happy with the result of just one day’s work.

Sunroof repair Hey guys, so one day out of the blue, my sunroof started making crunching noises when I tried opening it. Then it didn't even end up closing properly and got stuck open right at the end in an awkward and titled position. I immediately got my mechanic friend to manually close it. He told me that one of the sides had literally come off the rails. So does anyone know who does cheap and reliable sunroof repairs in or around Adelaide. Any help will be appreciated. Thanx

Blown Neo bottom end - Next steps? Welcome to the continuation thread to Blown Neo head gasket - Next steps https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/467066-blown-neo-head-gasket-next-steps/ Soooooo another track day, another drama. Did Sandown yesterday, first session went well but started having more and more issues as the day wore on. The engine starting pushing coolant again and had boiling coolant in the overflow despite checking and re-bleeding the system (thanks once again for lending a hand Bill!!). In the last slow session it decided to blow off the PCV hose and push oil + smoke from rocker cover breathers. Sounded like a Rex too. I got it towed to the workshop and the verdict came in this afternoon, bottom end is gone. It's lost compression on cylinders 3, 5 and 6, and I'm guessing that's probably the root cause for the originally presumed head gasket issues too, so all that expense is likely to have been in vain. If 2016 was the year of dead celebrities looks like 2017 is the year of dead RB25's (hi Johnny)... This one lasted about 150k and ~10 track days @ 275 rwkw so there you go. Silver lining: My last Sandown PB was 1:34.06 from December 2015 (!) because I was s__t and/or #becausedrama every single time in 2016 ... I only got some 20 laps in yesterday but did grab a string of PB's: 1:32.36 1:32.17 1:31.81 1:30.73 1:29.58 So at least this Neo died in style. Sidenote: The RDA rotors worked wonders with the Intima SR's & brake air guides, and the Nismo 1.5-way is absolute magic on the track. Anyhow, onto the next steps: I think it's time to get out whilst winning and stop throwing good money after bad. Other than the engine, it's a good sorted car with a 5-page long mod list. The options are: Find a replacement engine, get it swapped over and sell is as a sorted, running & regoed street and track car Buy a replacement block, get the freshened up head transferred onto it, then as above Stop spending stupid money, pull out all the parts worth anything, and unload as a rolling shell Something else, you tell me? Cost of options 1 & 2 will probably be in the 3-5k range (workshop labour) but you'll also get more in selling a proper running car. Flip side, second hand engines or blocks rarely come with warranty. Having spent hundreds and hundreds of hours and many many more $$$ on this car I was kinda hoping to sell it as a turnkey street & track package for someone else to enjoy, so would really hate to part it out... Plus I don't think it's worth much that way, and you'd end up dealing with a whole heap of tyre kickers. What do you guys reckon?

Blown Neo head gasket - Next steps? Ok so I am 95% certain I have blown the head gasket in my Neo. Symptoms: The engine is pushing coolant into the overflow bottle when pushed even moderately. I tried it out at Sandown today with an eye on the temps at all times and returned back to the pits whenever it hit over 90C -> overflow is at max or beyond. I added a second overflow bottle for the day too. Coolant in the overflow bottle not clean/clear, it's bubbly/foamy after a run, and also there's occasionally 'floaties' (black sediment) on the surface. Doesn't smell the best either; not quite like combustion gases but not like clean coolant either. I also noticed that the exhaust is popping on more than usual on gear changes, running rich perhaps? Also it doesn't feel like it's hitting/holding boost quite as well as normal (not that I pushed it a 100% but still). Unsure if this is related. What's weird is that I had a tee kay test done earlier this week and it came back all clear. Comp test was 155,155,155,140,146,150 so not top of class but within the 10% tolerance. The back story is that I had a small coolant leak at Sandown last time two months ago -> lost coolant and pressure -> temps shot up to 125. What I'm not 100% sure about is whether that's the root cause. The engine is currently at 153,000 kms and it's been running ~20psi for the past 20,000 kms, with about half a dozen track days on it. Now, to the questions. I know that I'm up for a head gasket and head studs at a minimum, plus probably a head skim. Some would recommend a head reco too. With the studs, I'm guessing ARP over OEM? With the gasket, OEM should do with stock bottom end at up to low-300 kw's, no? From what I understand it's a bit more forgiving to an uneven surface than a metal one. Where in Melbourne should I go for some quotes, who knows this stuff well? What should I expect to pay? Also, some other options: An alternative to all that work is just buying another Neo, which can probably be had for say 2k? Lots of labour to change it over though, plus the condition would be anyone's guess. Or just go crazy and buy someone else's 24/30... What else might I look at doing when the head is off? Built bottom end would be nice but gets pricey very quickly. Also poncams would be cool but I'm not sure how much they add without any other mods. Anyway all I really want is a track ready ~300rwkw @ 98 car that is reliable... Thanks guys! Also big hat tip to Bill and Greg for troubleshooting this with me at Sandown today!

fixing a buckled guard - worth it? I had a minor accident a couple of months ago where someone reversed into my guard and buckled it and broke my headlight too. The guard got pushed in a bit (could tell because the line between the bonnet and the guard was much less than it was before). The repair guy told me he could fix the current guard but im having doubts. His gonna have to use bog on the guard obviously so im wondering if the paint finish would still come out 100% perfect as if he just painted steel, also how would it last the test of time? The mounts might be bent and all and im kinda worried that it wont come out 100% perfect. Could these buckled guards still be saved or am i best of just buying another perfect guard and making him paint that? Anyone have past experiences with fixing and painting a badly damaged guard? Its just that i plan on keeping my skyline for a long time and i want it to be perfect. Im mostly worried about how the paint finish will look now and over time and if he could pull the guard out from where the bolts are in the engine bay and line them up mint and and i want the mounts to line up 100% i.e i want it to be like a brand new guard. Is that possible for the smash repairer to do or should i just give him a new guard and get him to paint that? Thanks Here is the picture of the guard in question :

Ahhh! Put a hole in my dash! So i've just bought a v36 coupe. While putting in my fm expander (cheers for the write up guys) i scraped two chunks out of my dash. I'm absolutely gutted and i dont know how it happened as i was being extra careful. I think when trying to reach around and plug the antenna back in. Anyway anyone know of a good service or a possible fix for this. It ruins the whole interior for me. Cheers guys

Training courses on Car maintenance and body creation in sydney Hi, I currently have a full time job, but am interested in learning how to service cars (mechanical and electrical), create bodies for existing car (remodelling old cars), paint cars etc, and was wondering if anyone out there knows of course(s) that teach people these skills. I know a similar post was created in 2009. But I guess it's pretty outdated. Moreover I want to know if it's taught as a evening course. I would love to acquire a skill that interests me. i live in Sydney, so I saw few tafe courses out there but I am not sure if part time evening will be available and even if it is, I am not sure if if it requires industrial experience ( something that i cant obtain) Cheers

Hi guys, long time lurker, finally decided to make an account coz I need a bit of help. I was involved in an accident yesterday around the corner from my home. I stopped mid way across the oncoming lane in a right turn T - intersection to let a hesitant elderly pedestrian through and another driver somehow didn't see me from 200m away to brake in time and slammed into my front left. Damage looks pretty bad but I'm hoping it can be repaired. I've only got third party insurance and at this point of time, the police reckon its my fault even though I explained its a 50km/h zone and I had to stop to wave the hesitant pedestrian through. I'm after someone reliable and honest to work on my car to fix it up. Hopefully someone who won't overcharge on parts and labour since money is tight. I live in the northern suburbs so something close would be good however honesty on pricing is main thing. Can SAU please recommend someone? I've attached picture of the damage in case someone on here can give me a rough estimate on pricing, etc.

Long story short, rolled into a saftey pole and my front lip cracked into two seperate piece. Is it better for me to get a professional quote for a fix, or is it relatively simply enough and with some paitences to fix it myself.

So my turbo is going, going, soon to be gone... I have a 2003 M35 Stagea, 120xxx km's. Stock - except for some mad-as wheel nuts! My mechanic has told me that to rebuild the turbo will be around the 2.5k mark based on the following: Engine removal (as the turbo cannot be reached any other way) Rebuild the turbo (as a replacement from Nissan will be too expensive) Refit the new turbo Replace Engine So my question to all you fellow Stag drivers is this: Is the price/quote correct & must the engine be removed to replace/rebuild the standard turbo?

Hi guys, some bloke backed into me with his Prado yesterday and smashed my mirror. Right now, he's trying to pull a fast one by pushing the blame onto me, and I can forsee a long argument for the insurance and all that jazz. all i want to do is get the mirror fixed so that i can drive comfortably again without the fear of being pulled over, and the hassle of not having the mirror. I'm thinking of buying a mirror and putting it on myself. i had to take it out before I went home as it was going to flap against the door and cause more damage. Problem is, in my frustration, I chopped the wire to the motor to get the mirror off. not sureif it was a wise thing to do. Right now I am just trying to find out how hard a job it is to replace the mirror, and if anyone here has a white gtst s2 RHS mirror for sale. The frame seems a bit bent, but i think i can live with that as long as it doesn't affect anything else. Any advice would be welcome... thanks all.