Looked At Another R33 Today

[juzz88]

I'm officially looking at importing. I can't afford to be spending $290 on a SateRoads inspection every time I wanna seriously look at a 33 on Carsales.

This thing failed a compression test (cylinder 4 was stuffed), oil leaks, rust and water leaks in the boot, bottom of the exhaust was damaged, breather pipes damaged, turbo bolts were damaged, damaged front bar, AC wasn't hooked up correctly after FMIC was installed, dodgy paintwork, interior was a pigsty... I could go on.

I'm spewing I chose to look at this car before adis's white R33 that he posted up on here, but I really wanted a black one. Ahhhh well.

I will continue to look at cars in the for sale section here, because I think you guys probably look after your Skylines more than the average Joe. But if the Chef finds me something before I find something on here, I will be importing.

[Ten Four]

Where are you located?

I've said this before. You can tell a lot about the owner and the condition of the car by the way the advertisement is written.

Bet you if you gave me your location and a price bracket, I could find some pretty nice examples

[alr33x]

dont you already have a thread going about this? aint nobody interested in your life story chief. importing an r33 is like moving to new zealand and taking your own sheep with you.

[samuri]

dont you already have a thread going about this? aint nobody interested in your life story chief. importing an r33 is like moving to new zealand and taking your own sheep with you.

What kind of sheep would you take?

[juzz88]

Where are you located?

I've said this before. You can tell a lot about the owner and the condition of the car by the way the advertisement is written.

Bet you if you gave me your location and a price bracket, I could find some pretty nice examples

Under 15k

3038 postcode

200rwkw+

Cheers.

[Ten Four]

Ok.

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat...6&silo=1011 Fairly cheap for the mods its got. "How" flow turbo means highflow = at least 300rwhp.

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat...6&silo=1011 Nice mods, service history and dyno report.

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat...6&silo=1011 Mostly stock mechanically, looks very clean. Leaves you with plenty to do your own modifications.

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat...&__Qpb=true Nice mods, good price, again high flow = quick car. (Plus anniversary edition)

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat...9&silo=1011 Some nice mods, seems looked after.

And a rediculously cheap R34 http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/privat...2&silo=1011 Looks the goods, especially with the description the seller's given.

Goodluck

[juzz88]

Thanks mate.

I've looked at all of them before (bar the 34), and the Anniversary edition caught my eye the most. Don't know how I missed that 34 though, I was searching Skylines from 96-98. I'll probably give them a try.

But if another $290 goes down the train because I cop another dud Skyline I think I'll cry.

If I get these two checked out and StateRoads give less than favourable reports (will post reports), can I import with the blessing of the forum? lol

Because by that stage my stateroad reports will have covered a brokers fee for importing!

Edit: Also, excuse my ignornace. But is a high flow turbo an aftermarket turbo? Is it a specific brand, or just a broad term?

Edited September 7, 2010 by juzz88

[mad082]

why don't you do 1 of the following to save you paying $290 everytime you want to look at the car

1: find a mechanic who will go look at the cars with you. even if you give him $50 for his trouble if it's outside of work hours

2: find a friend or family member who knows a bit about cars to come and have a look at them with you. anyone who knows a bit about cars is going to be able to tell you just as much about the car. also go to a local autoparts store and buy a compression tester, then you can test it yourself.

highflow turbo means the stock turbo has been removed, gutted, bored out and had bigger internals fitted to allow it to flow more air and produce more power.

[Ten Four]

^What he said. If you know absolutely nothing about cars, bring a mate who does.

Then just look for the obvious - rust underneath/in boot, oil leaks, paint, gearbox + engine noises etc

[juzz88]

I have a mechanic in Airport West that I can take the car to that doesn't charge much because he's a friend of my uncle, but I just need to find cars in this area so I can take them down. I need to stop looking at cars in the eastern suburbs lol.

As for friends who know about cars, I have none.

So I'll just try and look for cars in the western suburbs and be a bit more patient, rather than try and have my car by next week.

Cheers guys.

[xALmoN]

most importantly, compression and rust, and aircon.

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

dont you already have a thread going about this? aint nobody interested in your life story chief. importing an r33 is like moving to new zealand and taking your own sheep with you.

fkn lol

[SMOKEYV35]

lol, you live in the western suburbs of melbourne and you can't find an R33. try tieing a blindfold to your head, doing 30 spins on the spot, and walking in any given direction - the first thing you hit will be an R33.

in all seriousness, what makes you think you'll get a better deal importing an unknown quantity. all you have to go off is an auction sheet plus a guaranteed 3 month wait. based on that, you can spend the next 3 months looking for a car locally and still be in front.

as has been said, if you know nothing about cars, find someone who does and take them with - or buy off this forum - a good tip i have learnt when looking at cars off forums is to go back through that members posts, you usually learn a LOT about the history of the car ;-)

you could also use the reports you have from your previous checks, photocopy them and do your own assessments on cars you view. you'll start to know the common model specific problems to look for.

but ultimately, if you know nothing about cars - is a 15 year old performance car really the best car for you - i would think not.

Edited September 8, 2010 by SLYLINER

[Beelzebub89]

^^ +1 to the above. If you don't know much about cars then there is never a better time to learn lol. Search through this forum for common problems and that will give you some idea what to look for when you go to inspect a car. f**k paying $290 for an inspection for every car. Weed out all the shit cars with obvious problems then when you've narrowed it down get a proper inspection.

[juzz88]

lol, you live in the western suburbs of melbourne and you can't find an R33. try tieing a blindfold to your head, doing 30 spins on the spot, and walking in any given direction - the first thing you hit will be an R33.

in all seriousness, what makes you think you'll get a better deal importing an unknown quantity. all you have to go off is an auction sheet plus a guaranteed 3 month wait. based on that, you can spend the next 3 months looking for a car locally and still be in front.

as has been said, if you know nothing about cars, find someone who does and take them with - or buy off this forum - a good tip i have learnt when looking at cars off forums is to go back through that members posts, you usually learn a LOT about the history of the car ;-)

you could also use the reports you have from your previous checks, photocopy them and do your own assessments on cars you view. you'll start to know the common model specific problems to look for.

but ultimately, if you know nothing about cars - is a 15 year old performance car really the best car for you - i would think not.

I'm learning slowly, slowly. And it's not that I can't find one here, but I just don't see one with enough mods. There is one literally 3 minutes from my house, but it's stock (maybe it has an exhaust and that's it) and he wants 13 for it. I've found a cheap R34 in Roxy though that I wanna have a look at, I'm just waiting on the owner to message me back.

There is one more I wanna go east and have a look at though. White R33

Nothing that should be too expensive roadworthy wise. No BOV, stock airbox with FMIC. The only thing is whether or not the exhaust passes. And has engineers certificate. HOPEFULLY that one is the goods. Also awaiting reply from this guy.

^^ +1 to the above. If you don't know much about cars then there is never a better time to learn lol. Search through this forum for common problems and that will give you some idea what to look for when you go to inspect a car. f**k paying $290 for an inspection for every car. Weed out all the shit cars with obvious problems then when you've narrowed it down get a proper inspection.

Yeah Dad just suggested this to me about 30 minutes ago. I've just been too impatient and want to get an inspection over and done with so I can buy the thing already. Wasn't expecting to find cars with this many problems. I can't wait for daylight savings to start so I can look at cars on weekends after I finish work, will make life much easier.

[Touge Kyousou]

To be honest, MOST r33's will come up pretty poor on a states road inspection because it's a sports car so an owner is likely to give it some instead of granpa'ing around. R33's also tend to be getting on in the years now, as a previous poster mentioend - 15 years.

The states road inspections check almost everything right down to nitty gritty stuff like a small bushing that even alot of enthusiasts won't bother checking/replacing. So realistically, most 15 yo's cars aren't gonna check up well.. you are much better taking the car to a local import performance shop and get them to inspect for around $100 or so and they will know to check for the common problems of an r33 whilst also giving you a better idea of how that r33 stacks up against the general/average one.. not just objective data that a state roads report gives.

Not saying the state roads reports are bad...but imho should only consider using them when buying newish/expensive-ish cars.

I guess at the end of the day, you just gotta understand you're looking at a 15yo import performance car that was extremely popular with us Aussie petrolheads.

I recently bought an r33 and i went in knowing what these cars are like so my requirements was mods done (get 'em for free that way), rebuilt preferably (seeing as most have wound back odo's and the hard life most of these cars go through) and enough km's on the rebuild to know the rebuild will last.

I ended up getting an r33 with almost all mods i would want done, done. A rebuilt motor that had covered 66xxxkms, an ok exterior and good interior. Well looked after/maintained and puts out decent power.

My trade offs to the above was exterior wasn't great but at least paint was good (some dings and dents here and there), a very small oil leak from an oil line that is easy to fix during major service, a very small leak from the radiator that's probably a cracked weld (it's an aftermarket alloy radiator), and an exhaust that was too loud (and upon closer inspection, some welds had broken).

So a new alloy radiator is approx 350, i spent about 1k getting an exhaust that i've always wanted (so i didn't mind), and come major service i will get a new gasket put in to stop the extremely small oil leak coming from an oil line.

Everyone tells me i got an awesome deal (previous owner spent over $20k on mods etc and he was a mechanic so he wouldn't have paid labour for much) yet if you take this car and do a stateroads inspection, it will likely not come up well due a leak, exhaust with holes, cracked weld in rad... but for a few measly dollars, the car will be in top nick.

Goodluck with the hunt, hope i didn't put you off getting one lol because if you get a good one.. you will definitely enjoy it!

[Kinks]

I'm learning slowly, slowly. And it's not that I can't find one here, but I just don't see one with enough mods.

To be blunt, every time you buy a car with mods you inherit every shortcut the previous owner has ever taken. When I bought a car I looked for the cleanest, most unmolested example I could find and it has been a joy to own. The only mistake I have ever made, and the only thing that has EVER caused me grief with the car, is giving it to a workshop for the 100k service based on a recommendation from a friend of a friend. Said guy was clearly a f-wit, and the mechanics were flat out driving a thumb up their arse. They replaced my cam seals as part of the service which later caused a nice oil leak, they chipped my harmonic balancer, they screwed down the washer reservoir over an alarm cable which gradually wore through until it shorted, and they mixed coolant types which clogged the radiator. Now that I've fixed all those problems (including new balancer NOT CHEAP + timing belt and a new radiator) I have a good car again.

The states road inspections check almost everything right down to nitty gritty stuff like a small bushing that even alot of enthusiasts won't bother checking/replacing.

This is true, they are very thorough but this is a good thing. Big ticket items like rust and shoddy accident repair are an instant dismissal, but minor things like my car had "noisy thrust bearing in clutch" at 33k and the car has now done 117k and the clutch is fine, and the noise is no worse because almost every R33 makes that noise. The trick is deciding what is important and what isn't.

Seriously, take a mate along who knows cars and is mechanically minded. Buy him a beer afterwards and when you see a car you both like THEN get an inspection. Don't bother importing.

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

EDIT

Actually you know what.. No comment..

[defari]

for what its worth think of it this way

yeah sure your wasting almost $300 bucks a pop - but whats worse - buying a dud because your impatient, next thing you've got a car sitting in the driveway thats f**ked which will cost a couple of grand to fix..

trust me, i was pulling my hair out for months trying to find a decent skyline. Luckily RACQ actually reduce the costs of an inspection if your bringing multiple cars in. I must have brought about 3 cars to racq, the worst of which the mechanics refused to give me the keys back as the front left wheel was just about to fall off. the mechanic said your f**king crazy for even driving this let alone thinking of buying it. but anyway.. i ended up buying my current car.. i was not 100% satisfied with it, but then again it was a decent price, made up a load of bs to the seller that the turbo was on its way out, got the car for about 3 grand less than what he wanted..

brought it to my mechanic, he said there are a few very minor problems but apart from that the car is in fantastic condition for its age (have had the car for 12 months, hasn't missed a beat) only problem i have a small clutch problem which is an easy fix.

all in all - you will never find a skyline that your 100% happy with, you just have to be patient, willing to spend a little bit to get the decent ones checked out.. but as a rule of thumb with imports.. if your budget is e.g $15k - try go for a skyline around the $12K mark - keep some cash in your wallet as your bound to run into a few problems.

Edited September 9, 2010 by defari

[juzz88]

all in all - you will never find a skyline that your 100% happy with, you just have to be patient, willing to spend a little bit to get the decent ones checked out.. but as a rule of thumb with imports.. if your budget is e.g $15k - try go for a skyline around the $12K mark - keep some cash in your wallet as your bound to run into a few problems.

That's what I'm trying to do now. I'm just waiting on people to get back to me now. I've already abandoned my initial idea of looking at only black ones, now I just wanna find one in the best condition possible that has a at least some of the mods I want so it leaves me with less to do later.

Thanks for the tips mate.

GimpS-R34, now you've got me wondering what you had originally posted! lol