R32 Gts-T Track Build

[samos69]

Should be ok but if your worries grab some washers and a slightly longer bolt and replace that original bolt, put the washers in that gap between body and D bracket. See how you go Nice thread building a 32 myself. Love the colour to

Thanks man, I'm gonna keep it green for a while yet, but as always getting the itch to change

Yeah that's exactly the solution I've come up with, longer bolt + spacer will sort it out.

Did a bit of work on the weekend:

Pulled the front upper arms, these have noltec bushes in them I replaced them probably about 6 years ago and they have done less than 1000km. In good condition so they'll go into the black R32 I'm building as a road car.

Compared them to my noltec adjustable units I picked up a while back:

Remembered why I hate installing the upper arms, what a prick of a job.

Now bear with me, this is a photo of the 8 inch wide rim, 35p offset with a 245 semi slick on. (other side but you get the idea). Bit tight for clearance..

now with R33 LCA and the noltec upper giving it good camber.. fitment!

Slapped in a 20mm spacer, back to guard rubbage..

Had a crank with the trusty guard roller (front guards are very flimsy, take your time if you do this!)

Heaps off space (looks like I've done too much at the back but thats just the photo angle..)

So onto the other side when I next get a chance.

Edited November 21, 2012 by samos69

[sweefu]

Awesome build man!
What has become of the car now?

Racing pictures??

[Calsonic14U]

nice man, love the detail in the cage and all the extra painted bits, all the extra time pays off. One day my 32 will get the extra love

[samos69]

Awesome build man!

What has become of the car now?

Racing pictures??

Unfortunately family (having a toddler soaks up an amazing amount of time!) comes first so progress has been slow, but there is progress - I'm just writing a new post

nice man, love the detail in the cage and all the extra painted bits, all the extra time pays off. One day my 32 will get the extra love

Thanks mate, this is the first go - a nice-ish track car. Then I'll have another go on the black one as time permits but as a road only car.

[samos69]

So where I left off the swaybar was being a right #$%^ and whiteline sent me some universal mounts. Unfortunately they were the wrong size.

So rather than wait for replacements I decided to mod the original brackets so that the bushes weren't distorting when tight. I only had a few scraps of 1.7mm steel floating about so this will look a bit, err, grassroots... but I'm confident it will be strong enough.

Grind the bracket for a good contact surface

A few scraps cut to size

Should look like this

Welded up (I ended up adding a few extra pieces to make that side taller again later on)

Installed with the bush fitted snugly with only a small bit of squash, I might pull it out and add a few mm of steel to make it perfect but for now I'm happy.

Some new end links to complete the install

Onto suspension, for years I ran on 150,000km shocks and one way adjustable springs (via the angle grinder ) luckily these were lying in the corner of the garage

The fronts come with a small ring attached as so

This faces in towards the hub, if you install it facing out the body of the shock hits the hub before you can do the nut up tight.

New adjustable castor arms, 3 bolts easy as. I recommend getting a cheap air rattle gun when doing suspension, makes taking all these bolts off much easier as most have been cranked up tight since coming of the production line.

Cleaned up and painted another set of calipers, these are R32 ones so will work with my adaptors.

Adaptors on

Comparison of the non M-Spec brakes to the 324mm discs.

And installed

I had to remove these twice, first time the pads weren't spread enough so off to spread them, then fitting the do-luck braided lines the caliper end is not a swivel type so they really need to be installed in the caliper before mounting.

One thing I'm not happy about is that the original line has two mounting points, the braided lines have one, and upon checking other brands of braided line they also have one.

The bracket where the second clip would go will rub so I'm going to have to do something to secure it... this bloody car fights me every step nothing is plug and play like they claim

[reNEGaDe88]

And installed

I had to remove these twice, first time the pads weren't spread enough so off to spread them, then fitting the do-luck braided lines the caliper end is not a swivel type so they really need to be installed in the caliper before mounting.

Did you have to machine away any of the dust cover or caliper bolts to get them to bolt on properly. Please add pics. Awesome build btw

[Tonks]

Good too see its still coming along! Goodluck with the rest of it, looks good

[samos69]

Did you have to machine away any of the dust cover or caliper bolts to get them to bolt on properly. Please add pics. Awesome build btw

Thanks, I ditched the stone guards ages ago, nothing else needed removing or machining to bolt these up. Will do the drivers side this week and take more detailed pics for you.

Good too see its still coming along! Goodluck with the rest of it, looks good

Thanks I've got another post to write but the pics are sitting at home so have to wait... I've got 4 weeks before it has to be drivable onto a trailer as the garage is needed to store furniture during our house renovations... so the pace will pick up.

[samos69]

Did some regular maintenance, 6 years of the same oil and plugs... hmm.

Plugs came out, pic is blurry but cylinders 5 and 6 the tips were worn away quite badly. Bear in mind this car has done probably 2000kms on those plugs (almost all track use) so not great for the iridiums.

Swapped the fuel filter out, no pics

Remembered that years ago I had sheared off the two screws that secure the j-pipe so drilled and extracted

Tried to start it following this and no luck, weird starting troubleshooting everything, had spark etc. Checked tank and turns out there had been enough fuel to start it last week, but not this week...doh.

Fired up and warmed up, gave it a rev and *BANG* then running like a bag of crap. Was devastated until I looked under the bonnet and saw that the intercooler pipe clamp had snapped and a pipe had just popped off

Dumped the oil.

Heres a few tarty bits I had on the shelf..

HKS filler cap

DW magnetic sump plug

DW Braided clutch line

DW Steering bush replacement

Should get to fitting all the clutch line and alloy bush sometime this year.

This is the only oil I have in the shed... might be a bit thick for the old RB20... will only be for a few test days on track shaking the car down, no extended thrashing.

thoughts??

I've always hated pulling the fuel pump in the skyline, trying to get the fuel lines back on is a right #@%^, soooo

Gave the boot a lick of primer to stop and rust.. only had a rattle can so took ages, must pick up some for the spraygun this weekend..

Back onto the wiring loom, this had been abandoned when the car went in for it's cage so time to crack on with it.

All a bit of a mess

Anyone know what this door lock timer box does?

The blue tape made me think someone has had a crack at the loom before, but it's everywhere so seems factory.

Under the dash by the drivers knee you can undo some 10mm bolts and unplug the body loom.

Flathead screwdriver and the plugs pop out as well

Nice day out in Wellington so chucked a seat in the drive and went to work in the sun

Couple of different types of connector in the plug, you can remove them using a jewellers flathead, it can be a prick and ruined one of the plug holes on my second one. Remove the blue and black locking mechanisms (part out in this pic)

See the lug that holds it in

You go in via the back (calm down)

You want to push it in on the thin part of the H (bottom of each plug in this pic)

Lots of crap shares a common ground or power..

this plug traces back to the HICAS plugs so off it goes

I'm removing almost everything, next time I will probably just run 7 core trailer wire back for the brakes / indicators and a fat pair for the fuel pump, would take less time.

Can;t remember what these do (not labelled so must not have been plugged in before) but they are on the part of the loom that goes over to the passenger side so maybe handbrake light and some other stuff?

And that was it for the night... progress at least

Edited March 13, 2013 by samos69

[Tonks]

Looms, ew. Haha

I run Castrol edge 10-60w and I know a few others do as well, 25 might be slightly too heavy I think. But only heard good things about the 10-60.

Oh I also wouldnt worry about the iridiums i'd go coppers, bcp7res, if your running more than stock boost anything less i'd go the 6's

[samos69]

Yeah I ditched the iridiums and put in NGK R5671A-8 this time, copper and change them often is the motto.

For oil I was going to run something in a 10w-60 normally but for the shakedown test day I figured the 25w would be ok, might sap a bit of power. Otherwise the oil might sit in the garage for another year

[Calsonic14U]

Ah i see you havent painted the cage yet, just undercoated my half cage today. Might be an idea while wiring is out pull dash pad out give her a few coats would be painfull to cover all the wiring before spraying lol.

[samos69]

Ah i see you havent painted the cage yet, just undercoated my half cage today. Might be an idea while wiring is out pull dash pad out give her a few coats would be painfull to cover all the wiring before spraying lol.

Dash is out, need to cut it to go around the front legs of the cage. Will be primering and probably top coating while its masked up soon. Flat white except for cage front legs will be flat black (and maybe parcel tray to minimise reflection)

[Calsonic14U]

Yah sweet, just did mine purple lol, only half cage, but rest of interior will be flat black along with parcel tray. Will look good. Black cage white floor for that Panda look

[samos69]

Prepped the surface rust around the place... (partway through, left side has been treated) and gave all of the cage a going over as well

MAsked up, removed dash bar and everything except the heater setup and front part of the loom

Got onto flaring the passenger side front guard, had to undo the bottom of the guard to remove the guard liner and discovered half of Manfeild racetrack in there from 6 years ago when I last had a few big offs into the kitty litter

Test fit, not flared enough but had to pack so up back to it tomorrow

Also pro-tip - ensure you have refitted the bolts for the bottom of the guard before flaring commences. Much swearing was heard in the garage when I realised that I had not done this and trying to line the guard up was not going well..

[samos69]

New wheels! These are for the black road car, though may find their way onto the track car... 2 piece Blitz Racing Type 01s. GTR fitment 17x9 ET22 all round. Tyres are shot so plan to run a 235 or 245 on them (current 255) as fitment will be tight even with a guard massage.

In very average condition so will need to split them and do a refurb at some point when I have time.. probably do a black centre.

Looks like rust around the dish, but these are alloy so I'm thinking it may be brake dust embedded in the clear..

[samos69]

Right, laid some POR15 down on the cage

Ran into an issue on the drivers side, cage is too tight for the eyelet to wind in... bugger

Bit of zinc primer on the back

And laid some plain white on top, it's pretty rough as I'm in a rush to get the car out of the garage and well race car /= show car..

Bit of fisheye going on in the drivers footwell, must have missed a bit with the wax and grease remover..

Front legs done in matt black (less reflective)

Test fit 17x9 +22 wheel with 255 tyre and a 15mm spacer (so +7 effective spacing) just for shits and giggles

Heh. They should fit the other car with a bit of a guard roll, 245 tyre and no spacer..

A photo of what looks like rust but is actually baked on brake dust... much scrubbing to be done once the hose ban is lifted.

Went to tighten up the passenger side and realised the wheel was sitting funny

Pulled the castor rod and whoops had it a bit short.

Tried to wind it out and refit but that was never going to work. So reinstalled and started cranking it but can't seem to get it as far as I think it should go... still it's nearly the same length as the factory one so good enough for now.

Attacked the tie rods but this locking collar doesn't want to move... doesn't seem like a disposable item, but ran out of time so will have to leave it for now.

and that was all for now

[samos69]

Lots done today, a few disasters but nothing I can't fix

First up I refitted the boot on the tierod and decided to leave that to another day as time is short.

Next I fitted the drivers side swaybar bracket, unfortunately the nut that is inside the chassis rail was partially stripped from my first attempt at fitting the swaybar with factory brackets, and it just let go when fitting my new improved bracket today. Its an M12 fine thread which I do not have a tap or die for so I'm going to try and re-thread it with M12 medium or coarse (which I have)when the car is back in the garage, or I'll have to buy a bigger tap, drill it and tap it.

Fitted the castor arm on this side, it seems to be much easier to get more castor so I hope nothing is bent on the other side.... But went to tighten the lock nut and found one is stripped, I can move it back and forth by hand. > Pity I bought these so long ago... but it has to come out for the swaybar bracket anyway so will replace it then.

Someone on SAU asked about the caliper brackets so here are some more detailed photos

Fitted up the drivers side and noticed it wasn't square..hmmm

The supplied washers are a bit too big.. they aren't doing anything anyway so removed them and all is good. Jumped back to the passenger side and same issue so removed it all to remove the washers as well.

Removed old rear shocks, fitted shiny new

Noticed rust under the car where the cage footplates were welded in... will kill it and POR15 tomorrow..

Refitted boot seal and boot latch - first time in a year the boot hasn't been held down with a bungy (garage door hits it if up)

Plan is to ditch the boot springs and just pin the boot - the black skyline has already had this done so will be swapping boots (and refitting springs into the black one) at a later date.

Also checked all rear suspension bolts and reconnected the rear swaybar.

All in all not a bad day. Onto cutting and fitting the dash, refit factory gauges, refit loom and hopefully start it tomorrow. Then bleed brakes and hopefully on its wheels to go to a new home for a few months on Monday while we do some house renos..

[On Edge]

Great thread mate it coming along nicely!!!

[samos69]

Right so a mad dash to get the car running and onto its trailer.

Harness eyelets in

Wiring harness temporarily tied back

Because the dash bar was cut for the cage, had to remount the fuse board, almost looks factory!

Templating cutting the dash, what a pain in the ass.. dremel + jigsaw action

This turned out a bit rough even though I started out all careful I was over it and have a spare dash so zero f%^Ks were given

No photos of the following..

Then it was time to put it on its wheels, what a disaster.. too much castor and the wheels were hitting the back of the arch, and the car has never been on its coilovers so the height hasn't been set and it was too low to get the jacks out...

So jack it up, wood under the wheels, wind out some castor and jack it down.

Hmm somethings not right, masssive toe out - doh fitting the R33 LCAs has thrown the toe out. No time to fix so into the car, car starts fine after my wiring massacre but the windows no longer wish to go up or down.. so using the jumper pack we manually power up the windows and I get to backing out of the very tight garage.. again problems.. at lock the tyres are hitting the front of the side skirts (they are a bit ratty anyway but cracked it some more) and trying to eat the corner of the front bumper..

Soldier on and put it on the trailer but not without some louds bangs that scared the crap out of me. Turns out the increased track + toe means the tyres clip either side of the trailer bed..

Thats it for now, will get some photos of the mad toe and trailer fitment sometime this weekend..

Now onto some demolition!