My Other New Ceffy

[Stang]

Certainly starting to take shape. Do you get hassled much with the RH side looking like that?

[Nic_A31]

Dunno yet. Been like that for a week. It only gets driven for 30 mins at a time, max, couple of times a week, and I avoid main roads / hot spots, etc.

Once I strip all 4 door bumpers I'll get the guard and both bumpers resprayed...should be a half decent Ceffy then.

[Stang]

Fair enough. I'm kinda edgy driving mine with a black bonnet, so been sticking to puttering around the block to keep it going. But should be taking it in for a respray this week once I get the quote back.

[Nic_A31]

A fair bit of work done on this lately.

I got booted from my job which had the joys of a company car, so I'm leaning on this once again.

My first concern was that gearbox leak that ALWAYS, somehow came back..

I decided to revert back to 2 piece, regardless of the cost. I'd used Kermit Engineering a few times before to get some shit welded up, keep in touch with the guy on Facebook and he knew what kind of situation I'd been put into recently, so he kept the cost nice and low for me. Couple of hundred bucks it set me back. Cut the centre bearing carrier mount open, took out the broken nut, hung a new bolt in (hanging downwards like the opposite side) from the floorpan...although mounting this was going to be nearly impossible...we/he eventually decided to weld plates to the bolt and near the bolt, it actually free floats inside the floor, but stops moving around once it's tightened down with a nut.

I was worried this would still rattle around or wear out the centre bearing, but after 1 test drive, those concerns disappeared quickly. All good now, I just need to be careful when I touch those bolts anytime I'm working on the floorpan.

Big thanks to Mark for helping me out on that one. Was indeed a very unusual problem, and a massive headf**k to find a viable and realistic solution for.

The only 2 piece Cefiro tailshafts I had were in ABS length, so I needed to go back to using an ABS diff.

The only ABS diff I had....just so conveniently happened to be my Tomei 2-Way mechanical diff, which has 5 bolt driveshaft flanges.

Also just by conincidence, I couldn't find any ABS diff housings with 6 bolt flanges....and I've never been that savy about diff internals, so the Tomei mechanical went in.

I did ponder alot about what was causing issues with my clutch fan and radiators....and the clashing of the two.

After killing radiator number three and clutch fan number two, that was another point of interest.

I replaced the water pump, got my hands on ANOTHER alloy radiator, and got a very nifty electric thermo fan.

The fan mounted into the shroud ok, but I ended up removing it from the shroud and mounting it hard up on the radiator with a very small spacer in between.

For comparison, WITHOUT the shroud, this is how close it sits to the motor. With a retail of over $400 I'd rather not run it any closer.

Wiring the fan up was a bit of a head-f**k in itself.

The temp switch at the bottom of the radiator (which triggers the smaller fan to the passenger side up front) happens to be the same thread size and pitch as the trigger/sensor for the fans relay, so I pulled that sensor out, and wired both the aftermarket thermo fan (pull) and the air-con overheat fan up front (push) to the same wires, off the same relay, triggered by the temp switch.

The switch has a trigger range of 85 degrees on, 80 degrees off. The Alloy radiator is doing it's job probably too well, as currently, the relay hasn't triggered the fans on, not once....both when idling and under load. I've checked the switch and relay and both are in working order. It's weird. The temp still runs cooler than it used to with stock radiator / ISC alloy radiator (bigger than this one) / GTR radiator.

This is what happens when your RB20DET very badly needs a tune, and sits without running for weeks on end.

Other shit I've done:

Re-seated my air con ducts behind dash, for better air flow

Broke my air con controls, for no air flow at all

Wired up the clcok on the Laurel dash....this amazingly works, is well lit up, and it stays on time!!

Plans for next fortnight:

Get it detailed by a pro

Darkest legal tint

Respray guard, bumpers, couple of other spots

Photoshoot (Stay tuned)

Edited July 27, 2011 by Nic_A31

[toffy]

OOooh , that's looking good in the top pic nic , your giving me motivation to finish old purple off , or start on another

[Kris..]

no idea what was making the fan go into the rad? ive got the same problem

[Nic_A31]

Toffy:

You should definately finish the purple one, that one is awesome!

Kris:

The shaft on my water pump had a very little amount of play, possible that the bearing was gonners. I replaced the water pump with a brand newie, soo far it hasn't scratched my thermo fan. Other than that, no idea, was a very very odd problem...I was suprised especially the first time, since it had well over 60mm clearance between the fan and the stock radiator.

Apparently quiet common for the bearings to go and slip the fan forwards and into the radiator, so that would be my best guess.

It's a bit hard to say in my position if I've definately fixed it. I replaced water pump, went thermo fans, new radiator rubber mounts top and bottom, 2 piece driveshaft, and (not yet installed) new engine and gearbox mounts.

[toffy]

no idea what was making the fan go into the rad? ive got the same problem

your water pump would be new yes? what type was it? . i couldn't see the whole engine/gearbox flexing that far?

Toffy:

You should definately finish the purple one, that one is awesome!

it was kinda , looks pig atm std 33 rims , still half damaged rear guard pieces hanging out of inside it everywhere , i bought a r34 so it went on the back burner for a bit , once i finish the 34 i will get back to it (like with the laurel ) , i may have another one very soon aaaand a mate rang me today to tell me of one in tas wrecking! pilfer time!

[Nic_A31]

your water pump would be new yes? what type was it? . i couldn't see the whole engine/gearbox flexing that far?

it was kinda , looks pig atm std 33 rims , still half damaged rear guard pieces hanging out of inside it everywhere , i bought a r34 so it went on the back burner for a bit , once i finish the 34 i will get back to it (like with the laurel ) , i may have another one very soon aaaand a mate rang me today to tell me of one in tas wrecking! pilfer time!

Can't remember the brand name off the top of my head, it's a brand newie, but just a standard replacement.

It's possible that it's a combination of the motor mounts and the water pump bearing.

When I did the clutch, I tilted the engine, I picked the engine up from that bracket that constrains the alternator pulley which rigs up to 2 bolts on the water pump (as well as 2 other points)....I may have twisted the pump or somehow pushed the fins on the pump into the block when I did that.

On the A31 and R32 radiators, the pattern that the fan dug into the radiator cut in a semi circle on the right hand side of the radiator, on the big ISC it dug almost an entire circle but again the right hand side had a deaper cut into the radiator, so whatever was going off balance was biased to the right side. That's why I thought maybe the 1 piece driveshaft was pushing the gearbox out to the right side at high revs, in turn twisting the engine and putting the right side of the clutch fan's rotation closer to the radiator. But now I remember when I rolled up at my mate's place with the R32 radiator pissing out coolant, I free revved it to 7000rpm and the fan took out 3 big chunks off the radiator shroud (one chunk must've missed my mate's face by mere inches) so I guess it was the bearing.

The shaft play was really not alot, to feel it the pump needed to be mounted to the motor or in a vice so you could actually get some leverage. Still, the brand spanker new one has no shaft play at all.

I had probably half a dozen people look at it, and were all baffled by how it kept managing to do what it did.

Your purple Ceffy sounds like my primer grey Ceffy, in a bazillion pieces and as bunky as they come - so keep going on yours, so I've got motivation to keep going on mine.

[Kris..]

your water pump would be new yes? what type was it? . i couldn't see the whole engine/gearbox flexing that far?

yeh mine is brand new, genuine Nissan water pump

[works 510]

could it be a rad support / chassis strength problem in the front causing a slight ammount of flex?

previous crash so everything isnt aligned?

Some may call me a spastic, but I dont see how a water pump can make the fan move that much..

lol at Kris's signature

[CEF33Y]

Fan blades will be flexing is my bet, any evidence of small cracking at base of fins? Just skimmed over thread, but have you tried another fan?

[Nic_A31]

Problem is all sorted, refer to my last update and recent posts

[toffy]

Yeah old purple is pretty sad atm , still looks like a show car compared to the one i bought tonight! , i'll find a pic and put it in my thread

[Nic_A31]

Cosmetic updates:

Removed those horrible door bumpers on the driver's side.

Passenger side is yet to be done, but atleast the passenger side look(s)/(ed) decent before I rip the bumpers off.

Cleared some room in the car port, striped back the spare guard. It's sitting in primer at the moment.

Going to let it sit out in the sun for a couple of days before I put it on. Ceffy will be multi-colored again but atleast it'll have a proper guard on it, and grey pulls way less attention than black.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Nic_A31

[Nic_A31]

Put out the word I was after some camber arms, had a couple of people make some offers but ended up taking a last second offer for some Cusco arms.

Gotta take some more pics later on of the car how it sits now.

I'm happy with it's stance now, going to leave it as is. Guards don't need rolling/flaring, don't need any spacers. Just naturally good wheel fitment, and it looks good.

Fitted up that primed guard, car stands out a bit the way it is, so I might (yet again) revert back to the dented guard until panel work is organised.

[Nic_A31]

Finally got off my arse today and finished the door bumpers.

At first it came up a bit yucky, looking a little yellowish, and I couldn't get rid of alot of the dirt, but after some degreaser, a quick buff and a drenching, it turned up alright.

A while ago I got around to fitting this late model auto console.

Big thanks to Fatz for sending me these.

As you can see, it doesn't quiet match up to the manual armrest console, but with some trimming of that joining piece it should do the trick.

I might see if I can use an R33 console instead (refer to topic I posted a while ago about these consoles).

Car is booked in this Tuesday for darkest legal tint and a wheel alignment.

I also got my local YahooJapan broker dude to lay down the winning bid on THIS for me.

Bee*R, 3-in. cat back exhaust for A31/C33.

Was up for around $110 or so, but didn't get it when it was Buy-It-Now, so ended up bidding on it and scored it for around $88.

SCORE!

It's a little bit banged up, but in much better shape than my current exhaust, and I've got BeeR bragging rights now.

Waiting for that to be shipped to Japan yard, then it's on container to Perth.

Edited September 4, 2011 by Nic_A31

[Ceffboxx]

What did u use to get the glue off from the strips, a mate pulled my drivers side off and only the glue is left but i still have the strips on the passenger side. glue wont come off.

[Nic_A31]

I made a thread about it out in the main section.

http://www.skylinesa...ng-door-bumper/

What I did was soaked the f**k out of it with "bug and tar remover", which softens up the glue, and the scraped it off with a razor blade for a scraper.

the first 2-5 runs takes off most of the glue, gotta keep spraying that stuff on it though, and then after that, either keep scraping along, or run circles keeping the blade facing (relatively) the same direction, that gets off most of the really thin stuff, just keep doing it until it's all gone, you'll see when it's all gone by the difference in the clear coat.

You'll cut the clear coat at least once per door but that's nothing that buffing can't fix.

Also whatever you do, don't heat it up like some Google research sugguests. I tried this on my old dented door, and all it did was break down the glue and it spreads all over the door, which makes it harder to clean.

Keep the glue cool, soften in, and scrape it off.

Edited September 4, 2011 by Nic_A31

[Ceffboxx]

lol Sounds like too much effort for mycar, paints f**ked and its got a dent in every panel. I might just start getting itready for paint and sand that shit off.

I wish i kept my r33 gtr wheels tho, i liked them but sold them for lots of profits.