Shoota's R33 GT-R RB30/26

[Looney_Head]

On 4/6/2022 at 9:31 AM, Lithium said:

i mean he's not wrong...

[Shoota_77]

Celebrate the small wins.....

Finally finished off my transmission dolly today about 6 months after starting it..

Would love to think that this led to further advances but unlikely at this point. Still deep in dirtbike "season" so probably won't get much done again till September or thereabouts. 

Hope everyone else is getting shit done unlike me! 🤙🤙

[BK]

Your crazy ! Motocross after 40 - yeah / nah. I'd hate to have a bike injury at this age ! My broken arms and shoulder still give me shit.

Sort of getting things done. Just come off covid so that kinda stuffed everything up. I like the setup above, very cool. I still use adapter brackets on a floor jack for the box work, so will try and get the white 32s box in today.

[Shoota_77]

On 23/07/2022 at 9:14 AM, BK said:

Your crazy ! Motocross after 40 - yeah / nah. I'd hate to have a bike injury at this age ! My broken arms and shoulder still give me shit.

Sort of getting things done. Just come off covid so that kinda stuffed everything up. I like the setup above, very cool. I still use adapter brackets on a floor jack for the box work, so will try and get the white 32s box in today.

It's actually worse than motocross,  it's hard enduro so brutal on the body. Did a 4 hour race last weekend,  cooked me!

Glad you're getting into yours. I really want to but time (and laziness) are working against me.

[Shoota_77]

After having my gearbox back for about 12 months after getting the gearset put in it, its finally back together apart from the front cover which I've ordered a new gasket for. 

Decided to stick with my modified transfer case as opposed to the Race Pace modified one I picked up with a busted gearbox I bought. Hopefully I did it right all those years ago and doesn't come back to haunt me! 🤣

Not much progress to speak of but yet again, the small wins determine the success of the larger battle...

[Shoota_77]

Finished off the transmission front plate, fit the clutch and got the transmission bolted up to the engine. 

Decided to use a roller spigot bearing this time, anyone had any success/failure history with them?  Makes sense to use one to me...

I love seeing it like this. Almost starts to feel like it may actually get back in the car at some point!

 

[BK]

Roller spigot, I don't trust them. I use them in the XR6 because that's what they are factory, but in the Nissans I've thought about it, but thought it's  completely pointless in the end. I just stick to the good old genuine sintered ones that never give any trouble.

I hate to pull a box out just for that if it comes apart. Just a don't fix what's not broken kind of thing really.

[Shoota_77]

On 31/07/2022 at 8:04 PM, BK said:

Roller spigot, I don't trust them. I use them in the XR6 because that's what they are factory, but in the Nissans I've thought about it, but thought it's  completely pointless in the end. I just stick to the good old genuine sintered ones that never give any trouble.

I hate to pull a box out just for that if it comes apart. Just a don't fix what's not broken kind of thing really.

It might give me a reason to pull it out again for the 5th time....  Because that's what I want...

[BK]

Who knows. If it doesn't give you any shit then great 👌 You can be the test pilot 👍

[Shoota_77]

Had a quick play over the weekend.  Finished off a few small jobs on the engine (fit the oil baffles and splash guards into the valve covers, fit starter motor, alternator, etc) before it's ready to go back into the engine bay.  Onto re-wiring the whole shit-show again soon, oh joy..... 

 

Also had a bit of a play with firewall insulation.  Very hard to gather anything from the pic below as it looks completyely shit but hoping to use it to neaten the firewall but also to hide the brake hoses behind it as well.  I was going to completely re-route the hoses but if I can hide them behind the head shield and still look nice then I'll go that way.  I think I'll still re-route the brake lines to some degree.  Will probably use flexible braided hose just to allow a bit more flexibility moving the hoses around.  I'm thinking I may hide the wiring loom behind the shielding too for heat protection and for neatness.

Once I get the brake pipes out of the way and trim the shielding around the trans tunnel it will look a lot neater.  I think I will probably powdercoat the shielding black if I end up using it.  The sheeting from Car Builders website is really easy to work with.  will probably use it in other places too.

 

[Shoota_77]

Ordered all the fittings and hoses to make up custom PVC coated, braided brake lines.  

Still tossing up where I run it all.  Options are behind the heat shield as per my last post or seeing I'm going full custom now I may run the right front and the rear line across the k-frame under the engine instead of across the firewall where they currently run.  This will reduce the lines across the firewall to just 2.  I'll possibly then drop the lines down lower under the crease/join that they normally run above.  Then I can drop the heat shielding lower too so it doesn't have to sit as high and should look neater.  Is it a waste of time and money?  Yep but I'm determined to do it!

This is all going to be a bit of an experiment as I'm going to TRY to convert the fittings on the master and ABS module from M10 flares to banjos.  May mean I have to machine a tiny bit off each of the outlet/inlet points on the ABS module and the master cylinder to create a sealing face for the banjo washers but it should work.  If it was easy it would be boring....

Went with black for the PVC coating so should hopefully look nice-

Wish me luck, it could get ugly.....

[Shoota_77]

Decisions were made and regrets were had today.

No turning back from here, looks like the engine bay IS getting painted. I've procrastinated that many times over this but finally decided to do it after all.

God I hope I can make it back from here!  And I thought I was in deep before! 🤣

A bit nervous as I've never done any real body work or painting before.  Surely nothing can go wrong......

[Piggaz]

Going to seam weld it? Why not? 

[Shoota_77]

On 21/08/2022 at 7:55 PM, Piggaz said:

Going to seam weld it? Why not? 

Probably not. Will never drive it fast enough for it to matter!

[Shoota_77]

Put up a whiteboard so I could keep track of where I'm at. Kicked things off with some inspirational words. Seemed to have worked!

Got absolutely everything out of the bay today. Ain't no turning back from here!

Not going to go crazy in terms of filling holes or smoothing everything off.  Just going to clean up all of the (horrible) factory seam sealer and reapply it neatly. 

Trim it all up like this and then transition everything nicely. 

 

Waiting on a set of heavy duty 1000kg casters so i can make up a dolly to be able to roll the car outside when I'm sanding.  I refuse to completely destroy my shed cleanliness with body filler dust!  Unsure as to whether I'll paint it on the hoist or outside on the concrete pad.  I'll make up my mind when I'm ready to paint. Obviously advantages to both. Would make painting under the chassis rails and getting inside the engine bay a hell of a lot easier doing it on the hoist so will likely go that way. 

I barely slept last night, all I could think about was stripping it all down and painting. Bit sad really 🤣🤣 but I'm excited to see it sparkly white!

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Fark it, tube front end. Might as well 🥲

[Shoota_77]

On 22/08/2022 at 8:45 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Fark it, tube front end. Might as well 🥲

Yeah you're right, I may as well! If it was chock full of rust I probably would.  Very happy with how little rust there is actually.  Just a couple of the bolt holes where the alloy guards bolt to the body have a touch of surface rust, everywhere else is perfect.

 

 

[Shoota_77]

Ordered a new spray gun yesterday.  Read a few reviews and watched a few Youtube vids and even though it's a pretty cheap gun even some well regarded painters rated it as a good beginner gun.

It's a Devilbiss FLG-5.  Hopefully when  they were referring to "beginners" they meant absolute retards.  Should be fine if so!

Will most likely practice a bit of painting on a spare bonnet I have or just pinch some transit damaged panels from work that just get chucked in scrap metal.  Looking forward to learning a bit of the art of proper spray painting.  I'm a highly advanced guru of the rattle can but aren't we all! 🤣

Hopefully my dolly wheels arrive soon so I can get cracking while the motivation juices are still flowing strong!  They have a tendency of running dry if I'm held up for too long.

[Shoota_77]

Shoota's workshop tool construction post # 57.....

Got a start on my front dolly last night (until I ran out of MIG gas....).  

 

Getting more gas after work today then hopefully by tonight I can get it finished off and rolled out of the shed for a wash for the first time in I can only guess at 5 or 6 years.....  It looks like it to.  If I'd died people would have stumbled over this thing thinking it was the best find in 10 years....  There are rat foot prints up over the roof...

I found some munted rims at work to put it on to roll it out (don't wanna scratch or get paint on the Advans....) and as an upside I'm pretty sure I now have V-tec.  Yo.

[Shoota_77]

Ok, I admit it...  Tool version 1, massive fail.  Right from the start I was going to have it on legs but in the excitement of getting it finished I completely dodged that step of the (unwritten) plans...

Couldn't even get the dolly caster wheels to the ground when I lowered it down...  

Version 1-

Back to the drawing board...

Version 2 (code name lanky legs)-

Quick lick of paint and she's good to go-

Once the paint dries I'll get it mounted up and drop her on the floor.  Hopefully my welds hold....

 

I probably should triangulate the bottom corners but it should be fine. With nothing in the engine bay it's probably a few hundred kgs lighter than normal.