Epic A31 Restoration

[Nic_A31]

Hey dudes,

This did once upon-a-time have another thread here, but I figured I'd start a new one, given the new course this is heading.

Some of you will recognize this vehicle, I picked up when I was 19 or 20.

I got it shipped to WA, and was intending to just clean up the 20DET, paint the inside of the door jambs, engine bay, etc black, get the car sprayed, then register it and be done.

I did crack the shits with the car more than once due due to various reasons (uncertainty about the chassis integrity, peer pressure & personal problems)

Around April 2010 I bought what is now my daily driver, and that was largely responsible for me barely even looking at this car over the last 2 years.

Most aftermarket parts I bought for this bigger project were stripped off it in desperate bids to keep the other one up to scratch.

2012 was a pretty smooth year, the motor blew around January, as soon as the 25DET went it, it was smooth sailing, and after a decent sized panel and paint job on it, I can confidently say that car is "finished".

I've been spending a bit more time on this one the last couple of months.

Don't mind the mess, it's been hiding for 24 months. Most of that shit was in/on the car.

Genuine works on the rear make up for the...whatever they are on the front.

The engine bay is entirely stripped out, and has been for some time.

I've been cleaning up some surface rust, removing glue between panels, other bits n pieces.

HICAS has been completely removed, as have HICAS+fuel lines and the rear cradle.

I dropped the cradle about a year and a half ago, and pulled the diff out.

Turned out to be a Tomei, and is now in my daily.

It's 5 stud hubs and R33 brakes also went onto the daily, so it's rolling on 4 stud at the moment.

I've got 5 stud hubs on the way from Japan, along with a set of R33 Brembo's

Basic breakdown of plan.

Powerplant/drivetrain

RB26DETT

R33 gearbox

R32 GT-R rear cradle

Keeping with the standard twin turbo's, at least until it's engineered and registered with the 2.6L, then I might up it to a medium single.

Usual mods under the bonnet, magic mushrooms, solid intake, up the boost, 32 GT-R FMIC, coilpacks, out some kind of aftermarket dump pipes, down pipe, high flow cat and into these.

Yep, they rocked up from Japan a few weeks ago, rear hanger has been modified to poke the tips out at a wider angle

Haven't had the time of daylight to take some pictures of it here yet.

Interior

R34 GT-R Seats

C33 Laurel Dash

Gauges (boost + oil press. visible full time, water temp, oil temp, and wideband in the glovebox for the few occasions I'll actually need to look at them)

Bodywork

Old sections of chassis rails chopped out, new sections welded in

Sodablast / wallnut shell blast, inside and out

Full respray inside and out, probably Deep Blue Pearl (R35 GT-R)

Mixed body kit (TBO 1 front bar, Autech side skirts and rear bar) with a similar two-tonne scheme to what I had done to my other Cef.

Big bunch of parts (interior, grille, hubs, air cond.) + kit + brembo's on due in Mid-Oct/2012, around the halfway mark of tracking down all the little fiddly shit I need to finish her off.

I've loosely bolted all the panels back onto it, and it's rolling on bare-essential suspension (very difficult to roll when there's no castor rods on either end and steering rack isn't bolt down very well), I'll probably relocate it again soon, put a bunch of parts into storage, finish stripping the interior, then it'll be time to blast it, then panel and paint, then onto running gear.

I've written a 4.5 page "budget" / List of things I need to finish her off to the goal I'm aiming for, and the pricelist came in at $25'000 - $30'000, so, very long road ahead (that includes some parts I've already bought, ~$7k panel and paint work, $7k on motor, box, mods, etc, new windshield, brand new semi moving parts (master and slave cylinders), etc etc)

Got a few bits of paper to fill out for engineering / rego process with the 26DETT.

That's pretty much it for the entry post.

I did some work on it the last couple of nights.

This is how the intercooler piping inlet/outlet section was cut when I first got the car.

Very sloppy.

I cut that section out from my Laurel halfcut (factory turbo), and got a mate to MIG weld it in.

It needs some bog to fill in the areas too big to fill with the welder, but that's easy.

It's all lined up where it should be (used the fasteners on both panels to line it up before welding, tacked it in, then trimmed it down again)

I did have a pic just of that area after priming to give you a better idea, but my SD card is being difficult again.

Finally here is a pic of the engine bay.

Don't mind all the runny primer, I've only been sanding back area's to clean rust and other funky shit, then spraying rattle can stuff straight over the top.

Haven't found that much rust in there though, there was a fair bit under the brake master cylinder, as you'd expect.

None on the batter tray

It'll all go back to bare metal before it gets sprayed.

Bedroom and shed are filling up with parts pretty quickly, I'll keep you guys posted on progress as it slowly happens.

Edited August 8, 2012 by Nic_A31

[Tai1or Made]

Followed.

Gonna be pretty special with 26, GT-R interior and 35 paint.

Can't wait to see the finished result.

[Dan_J]

nice, good to see another ceffy build to the list

with the chassis rail depending the the sheet metal folder your metal guy has you may only be able to go as deep as it is wide, eg if its 50mm wide some folders will only let it go 50mm in depth so best to chase that up first for rwc n reg

[Nic_A31]

This will all be done stealth spec. prior to rego. and hopefully stay off the engineer's attention.

And we don't have RWC over here.

Rego car, pay rego each year, that's it.

Only time you need to get inspection is when unregistered or to get a red/yellow sticker off.

Anyway, tonight, mate dropped off tailshaft and gearbox crossmember to suit 25 box A31, pretty stoked.

Slowly but surely.

[Nic_A31]

Pic of new panel section welded in and primed.

[Nic_A31]

Pointless update:

So, in container landing this/next week:

TBO1 FRP front bar

Autech FRP side skirts

Autech FRP rear bar

Dash cluster

5 stud wheel hubs (front)

Under tray / splash protector thing

Front running lights / side indicator assemblies

Air-Con canister thing

Series 2 front grille

Manual foot rest

Speedo sender (cable drive for RB25 box)

Next container should have

R34 GT-R seats and a set of Work Emotion CR Kai's [17x9.0 +17]

Still haven't got my shit together for panel and paint Should probably stop impulse buying parts, but it doesn't make much difference.

What do you lot think:

a) Panel and paint first, buy and fit parts, then buy and fit motor and gearbox

b) buy parts, panel and paint second, fit parts, buy and fit motor and gearbox

c) buy parts, buy motor and gearbox, panel and paint third, then fit everything

101 lines on the budget, 13 are complete. So, it's disproportionately ~13% complete.

Edited October 22, 2012 by Nic_A31

[Tai1or Made]

Ohhhhhh yum.

[RBC33]

Fuuuuuuuuuu, 34gtr seats are awesome.

So many quality parts

[Nic_A31]

Couple if surprises with last bunch of gear.

Only my front bar turned up, skirts and rear got left behind in Japan, as did half the other Cefiro kit in the same container for another guy hahaha.

I wasn't too fussed, apparently the other guy wasn't the same, so my supplier dude said something about a 20ft container to get the remnants of both our kits and some other gear over here sooner than the next 40 ?

Anyway, my series 2 grille has chrome on the inside.

Never seen it before (I've owned 3? of these grilles over the years), some weird-ass special edition shit going on here:

Also ridiculously glossy, also never seen, only seen matte finish... ?

Wheel hubs ended up being what looks like Attain.

Haven't checked the bearings yet, but they look good soo far.

"diffuser" / Splash tray thingy is in mint condition.

Turbo Manual dash cluster (did look endlessly for a late model cluster, but couldn't find any Cefiro ones with plugs)

(that's a scratch, not a crack...just went and checked after seeing that, haha)

/end CSB

I think I need more aero parts,

[Tai1or Made]

GTR Seats, Kais and overnight parts from Japan.

Naice.

[CEF33Y]

Yeah, my single slot grill has the chrome on the inside too, looks good I reckon.

Pretty sweet build thread dude.

[toffy]

the grill you sold me has chrome inside not that shiny though! . with the paint , do the insides first , let it dry thoroughly , cover it with pallet wrap when you're putting the drive line in (less chance of scratches ) .

[Nic_A31]

I don't even recall selling you a grille, let alone any chrome, haha.

I'm thinking after it's painted, drop just the motor straight in, then gut underneath it and mount the box from inside the tunnel.

Picked this up this afternoon, still waiting for speedo drive, side skirts and rear bar.

I'll need to hack up reinforcement bar to fit this on.

Contemplating which Cef to put it on.

Dummy fit on daily (couldn't mount it up properly because it bottoms out on the cooler and the reo bar)

Long exposure I took last night waiting for another Cef dude to come pick something up.

Completely pointless and unrelated to this build:

[Nic_A31]

I've been slack, I'll admit.

All I've done in the last 6 months is clean the shed, twice, to make room for more parts....then moved same parts inside.

GT-R seats and CR Kais both showed up in April

Ordering some blue decals for them tonight.

How my bedroom looks these days (I normally move it around every couple of months)

This is on its way from Japan too but which Cef' do I put it on...?

Still haven't done anything about panel or paint.

I'm unemployed at the moment and have a good amount of $$ in the bank, if I don't spent too much and get off my arse and get a job soonish I'll be able to smash it all out in one hit.

Soon.....

[Jswljones]

I want those door sils!! LOL!

Hit me up if you ever want to sell them!

Great work!

[konect]

Where are you getting all these lovely parts from? Scouring Yahoo?

[Nic_A31]

Mostly Yahoo, a little of local as well. With the YahooAuctions stuff, I use Google Chrome to translate the pages to English and a local business lays down the bids for me, ships them to his own yard and gets it put into his containers.
Usually cheaper than buying local, always ALWAYS in better condition though.
GT-R seats are mint, the build date on the stamps on the CR Kai's is 08/08/2012 and all 4 are perfect.

[CEF33Y]

Dem sill trims, damn, never seen them before!

[Nic_A31]

You know those days you're soo happy to see the postman on your doorstep that you try to kiss him....or is that just me.... ??

Dem CR KAI decals

[34GeeTeeTee]

Wow! Awesome build happening