R32 Gts4 - Restoration/rebuild

[beemae30]

jesus mate. Going at it for sure. I would've turfed it and gotten another shell by now. More the credit to ya mate.

[fatz]

enjoy that interior dude

was mint

[Chris Rogers]

jesus mate. Going at it for sure. I would've turfed it and gotten another shell by now. More the credit to ya mate.

nope. started with this one and this is the one I intend to build. I have patience and plenty of it. cash - not so much but I make do

of the last 10 R32s I have done 8 of them have been sideswiped and ALL of them had bent sills. so while everyone thinks its easier to look for a better shell you really do not know WHAT you are buying until you get stuck into it like I have. even the guys that are buying non runners ex japan get the same thing.

I built a starlet a few years back and that was done in a similar fashion. new bits everywhere and some used ones.

pete,

and its going to stay that way too. the dash copped a spray of armour all before I wrapped it back up in plastic. the other plastics are STILL in the box you put them in and they are sitting in the next room behind me at home. carpets - those are folded up and put in a BIG box. hard boot items - boxes.

[beemae30]

Yes very true buy a 20+ yr old car is gonna have a few hidden secrets haha. Good luck with it ! Can't wait to see the finished product

[Chris Rogers]

near new car once I'm done. I was talking to a mate of mine who does things out of osaka and he's finally worked out what I am doing. if I was doing it to sell - I would not have bothered. I'm building it to keep for a number of years.

[Chris Rogers]

quick check off on the original list at the beginning of the topic:

----------------------------

Things to replace/repair: (I'll provide part numbers as I do them.)

ALL rubbers

both door sills (inner/outer)

repair front frame rails - due to someone lifting the car wrong..

inner front plastic guards - both sides.

rear parcel tray (this will be rebuilt)

seat belts - all 4

ALL interior covered trim - inc side window trims

heater vents - dash.

radio panel

rear console

panel under steering wheel. - someone bolted a turbo timer to it and made a horrible mess..

shifter cover

rubber shift boot that isolates the body from the inside cabin

A/C controller - mine does not light up - works fine.

Carpet - if I can still buy it.

instrument cluster panel - GTR version with clock.

every missing screw inside.

plastic screws in the sill panels

Sill panels with skyline logo

Floor mats - OEM.

things to tidy up / paint/clean

entire car - factory color with new decals and emblems

engine bay - factory flat red

black stone coat underneath/inside rear wheels

engine in factory black colors

small parts.

every clamp on the car - new if I can still get them.

---------------

not to mention the new panels I have bought.

front differential is in with Elite Racing Developments ( www.erd.com.au ) being cleaned up/rebuilt

I will have a number of spares left over out of the engine purchase. a 4 spd 4wd auto will be one of them.

[Chris Rogers]

RB25 DET 4WD block - came form a 09/97 C34 Stagea. I am going to change the intake to a GREDDY forward facing item so it all marries up with the GTR nose. the 4sped auto that is on it now will not be there when it goes in. the 5 spd will.

top shot. needs a GOOD clean.

front shot. it came with engine mounts as well. perfect as all I will need to do is drop it into the engine bay and wire it up.

for now it gets put on the shelf and oiled/turned once a week. I'm no where near ready for it to be fitted to the car.

[ShyBoi]

Looking good mate currently doing same engine swap into my R33 Gts4 with Stagea engine...but using 32Gtr gearbox

Let me know if you have any issues or questions with swap

[Chris Rogers]

Looking good mate currently doing same engine swap into my R33 Gts4 with Stagea engine...but using 32Gtr gearbox

Let me know if you have any issues or questions with swap

all I am doing with the engine at this point is checking it over and storing it. I'm a long way off from installing the thing. that engine is 6 months early..

[Bl4cK32]

awesome rebuild detail. Was contemplating how far to go with mine, this sorta puts it in perspective. Any chance you could take a pic of the new sunroof you sourced? Mine has worn rubbers in it, but the whole thing still works perfect. If i take it out, was wondering how easy it would be to slap some aftermarket rubber seals around it to reseal it.

[Chris Rogers]

certainly can. the roof glass is out of a 92 (bought new.) . I have it in storage as I really DO NOT want to destroy a $1200 piece of glass. mine worked sort of until I stripped it and gave it a good clean. now its much better.

get a good look at your glass panel as well mine was rusted underneath and that was NOT visible from the top

as for pulling the roof assy out- its a full upper interior gut. so A,B,C trims off. roof lining out and s second person to help with the s'roof assy. the thing is a bitch to get out by yourself and balance. once you have it out flip it over and drop 4 bolts out of the glass. glass will come off. realigning it is fun as its a in/out job a few times to get it in the right spot.

whilst you have it out have a good look at the main roof panel. if you see anything remotely like mine - get it fixed. otherwise its a glass out roof off exercise.

one request I do have since you have a s'roof car - where do your drains exit the car? there are 4 of them and they come out in the corners somewhere but I cannot find where.

a BIG thanks to DUH19 for letting me take 'useless' photos of his car. (white GTR)

I was having issues with the rear inner fuel tank bracket location and the actual bracket shape (FAST listed two different ones.) but it turns out that the bracket IS the same as the one I have here and it simply slides to the left one hole. his car helped me work that out

about to do a compression test on the engine - hopefully 150PSI + across all 6.

[Bl4cK32]

I have one small patch of rust, but its in the inner channel. The part where once the glass retracts into the roof you can then see it. As for the drainage, I assumed (havent had a chance to strip it out to look) that it was similar to other cars where it would start at the top corners and exit via drain tubes inside each panel to the closest corner of the car, like the two rear ones would be connected to tubes that go down inside the c pillars to exit out the bottom of the boot somewhere...? I dont have FAST avail, or I would spend some time looking. I know that when I worked building panels for holdens it was a similar setup.

[Chris Rogers]

on subaru the hoses exit cleanly from the car. I cannot find where they exit on this one. never looked at a holden one. FAST doesnt tell you where they exit. I wished it did.

[Chris Rogers]

ok compression test done:

1 - 142

2 - 150

3 - 138

4 - 160

5 - 147

6 - 143

done with a full battery , throttle fully open , used a snap on digi gauge.

3&4 concern me.

do I have to right to be worried??

[Craved]

drop some oil in the spark plug holes and try again - were all the spark plugs out also?

[Bl4cK32]

do a leak down test, then start looking further

[Chris Rogers]

drop some oil in the spark plug holes and try again - were all the spark plugs out also?

yet to do that. I did the test as I got the engine - on a pallet with oil in it. figure its been sitting for 4-5 months easy. all plugs IN

do a leak down test, then start looking further

really didn't want to go there just yet.

I was hoping to simply clean the thing up and use it. doesn't look like that is the case with this one.

I'm going to the shop in an hour or so anyway so I'll grab a squirt bottle and fill the bores with a bit of oil and repeat the process. ideally 150 + is good I take it?

[maclarenf1]

it basically 138 that you would not want correct !!!

[DR 32R]

Still following your fantastic build. When you get there, I think it deserves a better than GTR spec engine.

[Chris Rogers]

it basically 138 that you would not want correct !!!

it was the high variance of 4 that worried me. last time I saw that was on a chev V8 and I had a head gasket problem.

the understanding that I have of the L6 is that anything below 140 is rebuild time and I can see $15k going into this engine quite easily if I had to rebuild it from scratch.