Bnr32 Project - Building A Uscc Contender

[frankiman]

i wouldn't want to overload another thread, since my original build thread as been up for ages, so heres the links to the most interesting bits of it

if you have any questions/comment please post here

thx for looking

i'll post the full first chapter below to give you guys a taste of the ?epicness?

the real project starts at chapter 13

i'll update the links here as i write more chapters (i'm already ~4 chapters behind..)

click here to jump to;

chapter 1 - where it all began

chapter 2 - out with the old, in with the new

chapter 2,1 - answers

chapter 3 - bringing home baby, part 1 / part2

chapter 4 - SSTLC - some skyline tender loving care

chapter 5 - blood sweat and tears part1 / part2

Tech article 1 - rant about BBKs

chapter 6 - Tuning sessions, #1, dyno style

Tech article 2 - how to make an effective ''for sale'' forum ad

chapter 7 - 2009 track days, part1 / part2 / part3 **videos**

chapter 8 - 2009 meets, and GTRC members

chapter 9 - the UltraRide 2009 **videos**

chapter 10 - The Master Plan, part1 / part2

chapter 11 - GoPro photos galore

chapter 12 - Remembering the fallen (2008), part1 / part2

chapter 13 - Theworkinprogress, week1, part1 / part2

chapter 14 - Theworkinprogress, week2, part1 / part2

chapter 15 - Theworkinprogress, week3, part1 / part2

chapter 16 - Themoreworkinprogresshaagettingtired, week4

chapter 17 - Theworkinprogressgotcustomstuff, week5

chapter 18 - Theworkstillinprogress, week6

chapter 19 - Theworkinprogress, week7

chapter 20 - Theprojectthatshouldbedonebutstillinprogress, week8, part1 / part2

chapter 21 - The Epic CustomWerks week, week10, part1 / part2 / part3 / part4

chapter 22 - Finally some results, week11, part1 / part2 / part3 / part4

chapter 23 - Almost there, week12-13, part1 / part2 / part3

chapter 24 - Because MOAR is MORE, week14, part1 / part2 / part3

chapter 25 - Bolt-on? not so much, week15, part1 / part2

chapter 26 - And she lives, week16

chapter 27 - And she drives, week17

chapter 28 - Tuning sessions, #2, dyno revisited

chapter 29 - Tuning sessions, #3, Suspension Calibration

chapter 30 – Needs restraining

chapter 31 – Patience, it'll get done, part1 / part2

^^ you wouldn't want to see the code behind this link dump

[paulR32gtr]

Excellent build up. Love the vented valley cover - engine bay is looking schmick.

[frankiman]

Chapter 1 - where it all began

took me a long time to come around to starting my own project thread

before i get started, heres some info on me

-i'm 21 years old as of june 23rd 2009

-my only car prior to buying a skyline was a beat-up mazda 323

-i'm a student in Mechanical Engineering @ ETS university

-i've never had a full time job, only compensated internships

-i have never worked as a mechanic

-everything in this build i learned doing by myself or just searching the internet

so here we go, got alot of stuff to cover

i got my first GTR back in august 2007

pretty much stock car, with coilovers, cat back exhaust, oldschool HIDs and AVS wheels

good interior fully stock

stock exterior with worn paint and moldings

A1++ mechanical condition, engine had just been replaced as a condition of purchase

well worth the 12,5k i paid worth it back then, from JDM Montreal, tip top shop !

took the car to the drag strip a couple times (since i had the most powerfull car (wow stock GTR) out of all my friends

also took it to the track for half a dozen 20min sessions, but unfortunately it was all in the rain

then, i started pilling up parts for it,

so i decided to jack the car up for a couple weeks for well deserved upgrades

finally took me 3 months to do the lot, because of parts beeing on back order,

and also it was my first time doing some heavy mechanical work on a car (compared to changing brake pads and air filter on my beater mazda 323)

and i'm proud to say i did everything on my own, without any support except for my dad's advices, but he never touched my car out of respect

(didn't know GTRC existed back then)

i was really proud of what i had accomplished, even if i hadn't driven the car for the full summer

then, exactly a week after the car was off the blocks, i signed up for the "UltraRide", which is basically just a cruise, with 40 others cars

i got overconfident, as many young drivers get with powerfull machines

and this happened, scroll down

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nobody got hurt, i only had a couple scratches from getting out of the car

the body was so badly damaged, there was just no chance in hell of getting the car back into shape

mechanicaly, the car was fine, only the front had gotten damaged (bumper to plastic fan)

and while the car was upside down and i was waiting for the tow truck, me and my buddies found some rust behing the passenger tailight, which really got me pissed for some reason

and to make things worst, THE SAME DAY, september 21st 2008, about 10 hours after the accident, my garage caught fire:furious::furious::furious:

because of an old leaking air compressor

so i swallowed my pride :banghead:, decided to buy the car back from the insurance and got it towed home, next to the burnt garage,

my neighbourgs were all like WTF:dunno:

and the car sat there all winter, while i reflected ont the situation

lets just say i kept the insurance compagny really busy for a while

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after having sorted all the insurance stuff out, my dad decided to get a new and improved garage

so i said, F**K YEAH, me too

so we had a new garage built to our spec, knowing that we would actually put a car in this one

as soon as the garage was done, we put the old GTR in it, and started taking it the F**K apart

so now all the parts are up for sale

and obviously, i'm only selling parts that are still in perfect condition

so thats all about my old GTR

Chapter 2 - out with the old, in with the new

so fast forward to february 2009,

i was an intern @ Pratt & Whitney Canada, working on a energy saving project

so i had alot of time on my hanbs

at this point, i had reflected alot on my situation and the idea of leasing a brand new car (mazda3) was coming back to me all the time like a boomerang

but my thirst for GTR godliness was still unquenshed

and my "wise" father said that i would never be satisfied with anything else than another GTR, to finish what i had started

so before making an actual decision, i had to make sure what options were financialy feasable first

so i got really serious about it, everything was going to be planned in advanced, everything would be calculated to the last penny

i started building a budget considering the next 72 weeks (till my next internship)

and i didn't want to miss a payment again

so the moment i realized that i actually could buy another GTR, i picked up the phone, call the bank and got another loan the same day (my first loan was cleared after my insurance money for the car and the garage got in)

so there i was, with an extra 12,5k sitting in my bank account, waiting to be spent on a new set of wheels

but i had still not checked the Montreal JDM market yet for GTRs, so i had the money, but nowhere to go with it

so i started peaking around the JDM shops, my first stops were JDM Montreal and JDM Nagoya Auto Parts since i had good connections there, but they didn't have what i was looking for, which basically was the exact same car i had and placing a special order would have taken months

and my father had warned me about this, he called it "car rebound", i just wanted my old car back

so finally got over the fact that my car was gone forever :cry:

finally found a good candidate at Japan Domestic Motors in Montreal

a black 1990 GTR, with not many mods, seamed to be in really good condition, but interior was a bit worn out

but it was clear the engine was runnig on only 5 cylinders

since i was really interested in buying the car, i asked them to get it check by a professionnal shop (i.e autoworx)

so after a couple visits to the shop, they never got the car checked and it was still running weird, and they argued me that it had old sparks plugs, the engine wasn't up to temp, needed more gaz (they kept the gas tanks of all their cars practically empty, wtf)

so just for argument's sake, i asked to take it out for a test drive

engine kept stalling repeatedly on my way out of the shop, on a stock clutch, the engine was just no good

so the vendor got pissed, told me he would drive it, since i "couldn't drive manual JDMs"

he had to rev the engine like a mother fu**er not to stall it, drove around the block, again, it was clear the engine wasn't doing well

so i got out the car and litteraly told them to suck my nutsack

at this point, i had visited pretty much all the shops i knew existed in montreal, but still no luck finding my "precious" and felt a bit beat

but right after i left Japan domestic motors, i drove around the block next to a shop i never knew was there,

and laid my sight upon this gem..

feels like i'm writhing a story more than an actual build documentation..that will change soon

click on the links in first post to keep reading...

[frankiman]

New Chapter !!!

chapter 32 - The Mad Dash

Edited November 29, 2010 by frankiman

[frankiman]

New chapter!!

chapter 33 - 2010 photoshoots of the GTR

[frankiman]

alot has been added since the last time i've updated this topic

chapter 32 - The Mad Dash

chapter 33 - 2010 photoshoots of teh GTR

chapter 34 - The Ultraride 2010, part 1 / part 2

chapter 35 - 'The' trackday 2010, part 1 / part 2

chapter 36 - The Fix

chapter 37 - The end of an epic summer, part 1 / part 2

chapter 38 - 2011, The master plan continues

[frankiman]

Chapter 39 - That good ol' feeling of hard work, week2 - 2011

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between May 1st and 8th 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, endure with me

on week 1, the old oil had been emptied when the turbos were removed,

but it wasn't actually, not all of it,

since some oil was still stuck between the filter relocation plate and the oil cooler

but it was all thought out in the design of my oil cooler setup,

you see, the -10AN lines that join the filter to the cooler aren't whole

i made them in two sections each, that join directly underneath the car, almost in the same spot, where they are easily accessible

because of this, the lines could simply be seperated in the middle to empty for remaining oil,

you just let gravity work its magic (because gravity is magic, Newton was wrong )

but the cooler is pretty slow since the passages inside it are so small, it creates small pockets of suction,

so i found that pushing a low amount of air (~40psi) in one side of the cooler helped tremendously;

after that i could get on with the dreaded removal of the oil filter,

why dreaded?

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

chapter 39 - That good ol' feeling of hard work, week2

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 40 - Carbolicious, week3 - 2011, part 1

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between May 11 and 20 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, endure with me

you may have read in the last chapter that my steering rack had been leaking for quite a while,

so i took it off and sent it off to get rebuilt

i took it to ''Monsieur Cremaillère'' which translates as ''Mr. Rack&Pinion'' pretty straight forward name,

thats all that shop does, they must have thousands of tie rods and rod ends in storage, its crazy

the shop i situated on the south shore of MTL

first i ask if only the input shaft seal could be replaced and was told that the head of the rack&pinion needed to be taken completely apart and polished and put back together with new seals in order to make as good as new,

but he also said the my rack would probly need a complete rebuilt, with the rack seals as well, and that he couldn't garantee the job if he only did half of it,

since i didn't want this overhaul to cost me an arm, i was reluctant to get to whole package done

so the boss took the steering rack off the counter and asked me to follow him inside the shop,

he put it in a vice on a test bench, took both rubber boots off the tie rods and it was evident there was p/s fluid mixed into the grease,

so i agreed for a full overhaul, but in the end i got a great deal because my dad has a compagny and sometimes has stuff done on his trucks by that shop, lets just say i got a 25% discount (pm for price)

2 days later i got it back and it looked like this;

i put a spare rack (from my old GTR) next to it for comparison

he told me that the tie rods didn't need replacing yet, but since they were just a bit used, he punched the inner portion of it to make it more fit,

you can see here that the tie rod stays up because its so tight;

instead of using an OEM dust cover, which would have taken 5 weeks to get from Nissan Japan, a generic Toyota rubber cover was used instead,

here is the comparison, the broken OEM and the new Toyota;

when the rack was taken off the week prior, this was the gaping hole left behind;

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

chapter 40 - Carbolicious, week3

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 41 - Caged in

week4 - 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between May 22 and 26 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, endure with me

if you've read the last chapter, you have probably been wondering what the last picture was about?

well during the winter, i worked my arse off to find something i needed rather than wanted,

so i got this;

long story short, i couldn't find an affordable cage in Quebec, and didn't want to have it shipped since it would cost so much,

the reason i needed it was simple, to be allowed to use a racing harness during a time attack event, a roll bar was needed,

but the only things i saw for sale were full cages when i only wanted the rear half, and no one wanted to sell half of theirs,

so i got in contact with a shaddy caracter here in Quebec, who said he'd sell me his full cage cheap,

but then he tells me he sold it to someone else.. crap,

luckily that someone else knew what i was looking for and contacted me and offered to sell me only the rear portion of the cage he had just bought since he needed just the front bits,

and that person was GTRC's SKYGTR,

he even agreed to drive halfway (between Montreal and Quebec City) to meet, super cool guy,

what i got was 3 pieces of the rear section of a genuine Cusco roll cage, it was all wrapped with a protective foam,

i took it all off, and threw it in the garbage (i think)

so since at the time of the install, i was working full time at an internship, and i wanted so modding done to the cage, my dad jumped in again to help,

he brought the cage to a welding shop, literally around the corner from my house,

since i wanted to fit an harness bar to the cage itself, i had brackets welded to the cage at particular spot that i had measured;

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

chapter 41 - Caged in, week4

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 42 - Interior works

week5 - 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between May 27 and june 4 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, endure with me

if you've read the last chapter, you know i had been working on modifying a Cusco roll cage during week4

after all the hole were drilled in the brackets and the harness bar, i bolted it all together to check for fitment;

since the harness bar was a bit too long for no good reason, i cut off bits of it at each end;

then i buffed alot of the rust off the feet of the main hoop, i don't know why it was so corroded there and where the paint had gone;

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

chapter 42 - Interior Works, week5

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 43 - Interior Works continued

week6 - 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between June 6 and 11 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, give me a chance

if you've read the last chapter, you know i was hard at work making a custom rear seat section

you have to remember that this setup is not for seating people,

but since i knew my back seat couldn't be used anymore with my cage in place,

and i didn't want to simply remove the back seat and have to look at the ugly inner sheet metal,

so i decided to make something that looked oem, was much more practical but still lighter than stock

with the way the OEM GTR rear seats are its an assle to store anything on them,

but with the much thinner and flat panels, alot more stuff can be stored behing the front seats

last week i had acutally finished the install of the new panels, but some bodywork could still be seen in some places,

so i cut up a couple more pieces of fabric that i glued in those spost,

the middle and the inner fenders (pictured later);

also, still is how the surface of the panels looked when screwed into their support;

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

back to the cage,

the week prior, i had finished setting up the cage and was ready to paint it,

i sanded all of the parts down to a smooth matte surface,

then outside with a ladder and used a bunch of hook straps to hang all the cage parts in my good ol' maple tree;

i started with 2 coats of primer;

and tried to get the paint in every little spaces,

but doing this outside meant i had to work with a good amount of wind that day,

which made it all much more complicated;

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

chapter 43 - Interior Works continued, week6

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 44 - Carbolicious^2

week7 - 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between June 12 and 18 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, give me a chance

in the last weekly update, i finished most of the interior work i set out to do,

so i got back to installing some more exterior parts,

to go with the super sexy AB-Flug front diffuser, i also got this;

a Top Secret "replica" carbon fiber rear diffuser...........this is a budget build,

its looks amazing, comes with some brackets not all useful;

the first thing to do was to remove my Type-M mud guards i had installed the previous year;

these things had accumulated lots of debris over time;

the side pods that come with the diffuser fit pretty well, they actually better contour the body than the Type-M mudguards;

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

Chapter 44 - Carbolicious^2, week7

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 45 - Enlightening

week8 - 2011

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between June 20 and 28 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, give me a chance

if you've read the last chapter, you know i was working on making extra brackets to finish the installation of the Top Secret CF rear diffuser

the wheels were off (for some reason...) and the car was more looking like a hovership

when i was done with all the brackets, this is what i had come up with,

i was only able to reuse 1 bracket that came with the diffuser, but alot of bending and twisting was required,

i made all the others using aluminium flat bars, only painted to ones that would be seen;

i installed those between the bumper and the diffuser;

and even hid the screws with little caps;

for the front of the diffuser, there were already holes in it that could be used, so in the middle i bolted the twisted bracket to a fuel tank strap bolt i think;

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

Chapter 45 - Enlightening, week8

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 46 - So fresh and So clean

week9 – 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between June 29 and july 5 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, give me a chance

if you've read the last chapter, you know i had taken off all 4 wheels for no apparent reason..

well no, i took them off to get them re-painted (3rd time) and mount the new tires on,

so one night i packed my dad's 4x4 with 8 tires total;

the place where i was getting them painted was a 40 min drive from home, but in summer 2011 i had an engineering internship 60 minutes away, in the same direction

and that place closed as early as 5pm

so i took the 4x4 and stopped there on my way home after work, just before 5pm,

explained them which tires to put where and what type of paint job i wanted, this time

my phone was dead so i asked the secretary to take a picture and send it by email

this was to see the difference in total height (width) of the new and old tires;

meanwhile, i got something else done...

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

Chapter 46 - So fresh and so clean, week9

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[jahn-15]

Hey frank the other night I read your build thread and was blown away love it mate top job.

I was really hanging out for the next update I cannot wait to get my GTR and do the same thing. Thanks for the inspiration

Cheers jahn

[frankiman]

Chapter 47 - Playing Catch

week10 - 2011

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured between July 6 and july 12 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, give me a chance

so that week started with a trip to a Nissan dealership to get an alignment done, I have a Nissan so i thought the Nissan dealership would be the best place to get this done, i was wrong

if you have a modified car, bring it to a place where they know how to deal with one,

before i left for the dealership, i had to fix the extreme caster on my front wheels because of my previous alignments,

i had the passenger side wheel rubbing on the back of the inner fender and the beginning of the side skirt, while the driver side wheel was rubbing in the front of the inner fender

so all i did was reajuste the tension rods, but i hadn't checked the repercussion of this wrong doing, my camber and toe got all fawked up, but the dealer was only about 12 minutes away, normally

but with my alignment soooo much out of wack, i couldn't safely drive faster then 40km/h, so it took 25 minutes to get there, with my dad following me with his car

so i left it there when my appointment was the next day;

before leaving the car in their hands, i had actually printed pictures of my parts with written notes...

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

Chapter 47 - Playing Catch, week10 - 2011

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 48 - Skymeet 2011 and more

part 1/2

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured on July 16 and july 23 2011

information is recalled purely from memory, so F off if it doesn’t seem perfectly accurate

on July 16, the first Skymeet (East) event at RightDrive Inc. was held

alot of GTRCers from Ontario where coming out to the event, so i wanted some Quebec representation, so i organized a little convoy of a few Quebec GTRCer

but since RightDrive is in Toronto (its actually is Vaughan, but to make things easier to digest, let's just say its TO), and is ~6.5 hours away from Montreal, we had to get up earlier to make it to TO for lunch

because of my size (+large) and the driving position in my GTR, i have problems keeping my right foot steedy during long highway drivers, and because hell be frozen over before i'd do a 12+ hours drive without some company, i enlisted a co-driver, Louis-Gil (Luigi) a fellow GTRCer (Vulcain) to come with

the plan was to leave home with my buddy at 5am to meet the other Montrealers at the most western place of Mtl and leave there at 6am, then meet some other guys in Brockville around 8;30am and to To afterwards, with a few pitstops

this would be our route, in general;

to leave at 5am , my buddy actually had to get up at 4am to get to my place before we could leave, ouch

around 6am, we arrived at the "Flying J" in Vaudreuil where others were already waiting on us;

Nelsonxmarc, Sunny, and DynamiteQC

3 GTS-Ts and 1 GTR

because my buddy forgot his sunglasses (since he got up at 4am) he bought some cheap 15$ gas station sun glasses, took the wheel and me where off the Brockville....

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

Chapter 48 - Skymeet 2011 and more

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[Ants]

Bonjour François,

Géniale ton blog!

Dommage que tu es aussi loin. J’aurai bien aimée te rencontrée et partager nos expériences aussi que discuter le bout gras envers la Skyline GTR.

Moi aussi j’ai une R32 presque comme la tienne et j’espère (tres) bientôt finir la majorité de mon projet.

Enfin bon courage

Edited January 17, 2013 by Ants

[frankiman]

Chapter 49 - Keep on rollin'

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured on July 28 and august 5 2011

details are recalled purely from memory, so F off if it doesn’t seem perfectly accurate

so on the last update, i talked about my front wheels rubbing inside the fenders in tight corners during spirited driving

so i picked up a friend's westwood fender roller and heat gun;

it was missing nut cups, so i had to improvise and use multiple washer to be able to bolt the roller on the hub;

to make sure the radius of the roller would roller a good part of the fender, i had to unscrew the nuts of the top plate and lower it by almost an inch,

i only rolled both front fenders since the rears were done in 2009 at Autoworx

but in theory, the front fenders would be much easier to roll than the rears since the front GTR fenders are made of aluminum

but by doing it on my own, i got pretty though, since normally one person holds the heat gun and keeps hot air on the fenders to make sure the paint is soft and doesn't chip/crack, while the other person adjust the roller and puts pressure on it and actually rolls the fenders

so on my own, i had to heat the area i would roll for about a minute or twom then roll it, then swtich between rolling and heating while changing the pressure and angle on the roller till i had the right shape

i only rolled the top 60deg on the fenders, since its the area where the wheels (tires) are mostly to rub

i rolled the fenders to get the smallest possible angle, almost a full 180deg, making the most space possible for the wheels under compression

this is a transition between a rolled and un-rolled section;

since on the GTR, the front fender lines are clipped on the fenders on the inside...

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

Chapter 49 - Keep on rollin'

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 50 - Hard Parking

disclaimer :

the following story depicts actions that occured on July 30 and august 6 2011

details are recalled purely from memory, so F off if it doesn’t seem perfectly accurate

by winning a trophy for best R32 GTR at Skymeet East 2011, i got overly confident and two weeks after i registered to my first ever car show, the Sherbrooke Sweet'n'Shiny

it was said to be a big event, with over 200 cars and local celebs like drifter Carl Nadeau and actress Annie Dufresne (google her), there was also compagny booths like Standard Suspension and StreetFreaks detailling and many more

there also was a DJ, a portable Mustang Dyno on the back of a big-rig trailer, even a dB competition

not knowing what i was getting into....

(...)

to keep on reading follow this link;

Chapter 50 - Hard Parking

or this link for the complete list of chapters

Frankiman's street/track GTR project