“Rbn1” R32 Gtr - 7 Years In Storage – Time To Restore And Rebuild.

[RBN1]

THEN…

Brief History

Where to even start? Back in 2004 I decided to sell my ’93 R32 GTS-T and move to a GTR. I imported my 89 GTR back in 2004/5 under the old 15 year rule. It took a few months before this “highly modified” example finally turned up.


Few inspection pics from the car in Japan:

She is bleck.


Oh hurro.


Brembo calipers + 2piece disks & 17x9" TE37's


Sparco Steering Wheel, Nismo 300kph speedo, Blitz boost controller and Turbo Timer


Oil Cooler









All very exciting at the time. Put down the $ for the car and even bought the plates “RBN1”
Long story short, would never import a car again. Importer took around 8-10 months after payment in full to get the car to Australia (at one stage didn’t even know where in Japan it was).


After all the drama the car arrived home on Feb 15^th 2005.







Didn't Take Me Long After Getting It To Take The Front Bar Off



A few unwelcome surprises - No bucket seat, just a standard (bent) drivers seat, at least they gave me a replacement Recaro. Also it seems the wharfies took the liberty of taking a screw driver to the car and relieving it of the side badges, Rays wheel nuts & the nice clips that held the fibreglass boot lid down.

To begin with, annoyed at the seat situation I decided to take it to Meridian Motorsport to get some Sparco Pro 2000’s and 1 piece alloy rails with some custom fab work to get them bolted in. They were fantastic to deal with and the work speaks for itself.




Next I took the car to Centreline to have some worn suspension bushes replaced. Around then the car dies on the way home on the freeway. Was dyno’ed at 260rwkw before this. Took it to a local workshop (a bad idea in retrospect) who replaced the CAS among other things and after months it ends up being the fuel pump. (probably shouldn’t have run the tank so low).

Custom fuel setup installed with 2 lift Pumps in tank>2L surge Tank with a high pressure 250L/h pump. (Can’t remember what brand the pumps are now)



Also got a Sparco Suede 353 steering wheel + horn kit to replace the red Sparco one


Hauled the car to Deca for the 2005 SAU Deca day. Exhaust is a stainless steel straight through with no mufflers. Loud.

So car is still unregistered at this stage with quite a bit of work left to get it to a stage where it can be road registered. Took it to the same workshop to get to my timing adjusted, seeing as they put a new CAS in. As I sat there watching, low and behold they blew the motor up on the dyno. As I found out later they knew it was running lean and still continued to advance the timing.


After all this drama I gave up on anything car related for a while. Put her in in the garage and she has sat there for almost 7 years………..

Just Before She Was Covered For Storage




fast forward 7 years.......

[GTRsean]

Nice base to build up. Good luck with the revival!!!

[ZRBE]

Can't wait to see this come together!

[Ants]

I get the feeling I'm going to like this build thread.

What are you going to do to her? She's a beautiful bleck beast!

[Notorius]

Looks good, can't wait to see what your plans are!

[SABBAi]

Wow, you're not dead!

You forgot the story about the cops tailing you up the highway... until the 110kmh sign!

[R32Big_boy]

Whoa, good to see you back Shiv. Been a long time!

[RBN1]

Thanks guys. Yes been a long time

Anyhow.....

Spec Sheet Of The Car As Given To Me By The Importer -

"GTR R33 N1 engine with N1 turbos

Engine travelled 34,500km, was rebuilt, and has since done 3,000km.

Horizontal oil cooler with filter relocation kit

All alloy 3 layer radiator

All stainless exhaust pipe

Metal head gasket

HKS intake piping kit

Apexi N1 intercooler

Apexi N1 height adjustable suspension

Volk TE-37 wheels

Brake master cylinder brace

Nismo front and rear strut tower braces

Cusco upper arms

Multi point roll cage

Brembo front brakes with 2 piece disks

Brake pad (PFC front pads, Endless rears)　

Additional meters

Nismo 320kph speedo

Ganador aero mirror

FRP trunk (GT wing not included)

Recaro driver's seat

Car has been built with endurance in mind."

Present Day…..

7 Years later…. Spent quite a lot of time thinking about her sitting in the garage over the years. But when to start the rebuild?

With an impending wedding date it was decided that the Mrs-to-be and I would need two cars between us, for the foreseeable future. Hence we hatched a perfect excuse for me to breathe life back into the GT-R.

The Plan -

keep the car capable of Motorkhana’s, twisties, track days etc but without the fuss of having an extensive roll-cage, noisy fuel system, rock hard suspension etc. Sort out the engine, then send it into a body shop to pull out the cage and get the exterior including the underbody restored.

First things first, she’s been sitting still for a while. Time to take the fuel tank out and see what has happened to the 7 year old fuel. Not looking forward to this.

Luckily nothing to worry about here. Thankfully GTR tanks are plastic so no rust.

Fuel Tank - All Cleaned Up.

The Old Fuel System With Dual Lift pumps.

This is getting pulled out as I’ve bought one of these…

Nismo Fuel Pump

While the tank was out decided to give everything under there a bit of a clean/degrease and steam clean. After reading about 32’s getting rusty, was good to see not a hint of rust under there at least.

Should really start taking some before/after shots as it really was filthy before I did the clean - the diff cover was black. (Did this all before deciding to make a build thread)

Hmm seems my efforts aren't as good as some of the guns on this restoration section. May leave the hard work to the professionals and stick to doing the basics.

Still deciding on what to do with the engine at this stage. Rebuild, buy a stocker and get it on the road first, buy a crate motor? Decisions, decisions.

While still deciding I did at least make up my mind to get the 17x9” +12 TE37’s that came with the car re-sprayed in gloss black as they were in poor cosmetic shape.

Hand sanded wheels, these are a bitch to do by hand. I’ve since learnt my lesson. Two are washed and clean, other two still to go.

While spending a couple of weekends slowing sanding back the wheels I ordered some Falken RT615's (255 40 17)

Wheels Primed up and ready for some paint.

Finished in gloss black with clear coat and baking in the sun

All done with new genuine Rays stickers, valves etc. Ends up one of the wheels has a slight buckle in it. Will need to get this fixed by a wheel repair place....

OK, will start taking some better pics. Promise.

Bought some standard parts too while deciding on the engine.

Standard Rear Seats In Good Condition & Seat Belts With All Nuts/Bolts - I’m probably the only one who gets excited to see standard parts as all this never came with my car.

All standard boot & A pillar trim in spotless condition! Yep definitely the only person who gets excited by standard parts.

OK, enough with the standard parts for now. They're harder to source in good condition than aftermarket you know!

PowerFC & Hand Controller

… and some genuine Nismo 3 Piece Side skirts in awesome condition. These cost me big dorra & yes I have all the other pieces for it too. We all know what they look like.

Absolutely love these….but they don’t help much seeing as that the car isn’t going yet right? More on the engine on the next update

[nismad]

Nice write up man, I know what's in the next update

[RBN1]

Already managed to break a few of the links to the pics in the first post - fixed now.

Oh and in case no ones noticed from the previous photos, that't not a standard bootlid and that's not a N1 lip that came with it. Seems to be some sorta Firebre glass job with a large lip built in. Kinda cool. Anyone think it'll pass a VIC Roadworthy cert?

I didn't think so either.

So I got this

Never understood why anyone would want to remove weight from the back while keeping the front the same in these cars....

Anyhoo, always loved the standard spoiler & full Nismo kit...

Thats why I also bought these....

Fibreglass bonnet and boot lips. The only copy/non genuine body parts i'd consider getting as the originals are rubber and warp. The lip has been modified with LED Brake lights. Haven't decided if i'll keep them that way yet.

[Ants]

Good stuff buddy.

The wheels look really good.

You are correct in saying that the oem nismo boot lip warp and I did the same by replacing my oem one with a fibre glass one. They are also noticeably lighter.

P.S. you got a bonus nismo sticker with your boot. I have purchased a brand new one from nismo which cost an arm and leg!

Keep it up. You will be surprised what you can do by yourself when you put your mind to it.

BTW you are not the only who gets excited on oem parts as they are worth every penny when restoring a car.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Ants

[trustr32]

Wow looking really good man glad to see you have pulled this out of retirement and are giving it the attention it deserves. Reminds me alot of my car in the first few photos also has a bit in common in that it sounds like weve both driven them about the same amount lol. Good luck with the build and I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

[RBN1]

Ants - been reading your restore thread mate. Impressive stuff. You've given me a healthy paranoia about rust too! Looking everywhere for it now! The bootlid will need to be resprayed so the sticker has to go (bootlid is gun-grey, car is black)

Yup haven't driven the car much, that will change soon

I finally had a look at the block from underneath and it seems it’s just a standard 05U and not a N1 as specified by the importer so I’ve decided what to do with the engine moving forward but more on that later

Time to find out what happened to this engine.

Strip down time! Got a lot done in 2 days.

Day One

Apexi Hybrid Intercooler -will get some cleaning love soon.

The radiator is a Ron Davis triple core, didn't take any photos of it but it's in the pic of the engine bay shown earlier. Good ol' Ron.

All the little bits and pieces are being marked and placed in re-sealable bags.

Day two almost ready for engine out now.

Just need to undo the drive shafts and transmission and it's time.

After seeing rust forming in a lot 32's because of their age I took the guards off. Relieved. The yellow gunky looking stuff on the right is just fish oil that I sprayed under guards ears ago before storing. Yummy fish oil.

There's a tiny bit of surface rust forming around the door hinge that i manged to scrape off with a screw driver. Will point all this out to the body shop. (not much for DIY am I? )

Still don't know what kind of Brembos these are. Don't seem to be GTR calipers?

Am going to nurse my sore old man body now..

Oh right back to the engine.....here's a (blurry) hint of what I've got coming

[Roy]

Along with my mates blue R32 GTR in Sydney this GTR goes down in the history books as being "TOUGH"...Just plain old tough. Looked tough, souned tough, stance ... tough.

Good to see it is making a comeback!

[Ants]

Ants - been reading your restore thread mate. Impressive stuff. You've given me a healthy paranoia about rust too! Looking everywhere for it now! The bootlid will need to be resprayed so the sticker has to go (bootlid is gun-grey, car is black)

Yup haven't driven the car much, that will change soon

I finally had a look at the block from underneath and it seems it’s just a standard 05U and not a N1 as specified by the importer so I’ve decided what to do with the engine moving forward but more on that later

Time to find out what happened to this engine.

Strip down time! Got a lot done in 2 days.

Day One

Apexi Hybrid Intercooler -will get some cleaning love soon.

The radiator is a Ron Davis triple core, didn't take any photos of it but it's in the pic of the engine bay shown earlier. Good ol' Ron.

All the little bits and pieces are being marked and placed in re-sealable bags.

Day two almost ready for engine out now.

Just need to undo the drive shafts and transmission and it's time.

After seeing rust forming in a lot 32's because of their age I took the guards off. Relieved. The yellow gunky looking stuff on the right is just fish oil that I sprayed under guards ears ago before storing. Yummy fish oil.

There's a tiny bit of surface rust forming around the door hinge that i manged to scrape off with a screw driver. Will point all this out to the body shop. (not much for DIY am I? )

Still don't know what kind of Brembos these are. Don't seem to be GTR calipers?

Am going to nurse my sore old man body now..

Oh right back to the engine.....here's a (blurry) hint of what I've got coming

Don't panic mate . I can already tell you that your car appears to be nice and straight unlike mine which has been seriously neglected in Japan. If I had endless pockets I would in fact buy a brand new chassis, treat for rust everywhere and then some...maybe in a few years time.

These cars are getting on with age and rust will get to it if you don't bother taking the necessary time to diagnose it and treat it as early as possible (pretty much like cancer).

Sad to hear about the block but (not being N1) but who care's because your getting one

But I'm really keen to see the whole engine if you know what I mean

I maybe completely wrong but the brembo's resemble to R32 vspec brembo's (could be R33 GTR calipers too )

[RBN1]

Think you're right Ants. They do like like 32Vspec/33GTR calipers.

Troy - I might be "de-toughing" the GTR a little bit. Cage is coming out and i'm going to look into getting a quieter exhaust (Don't hate me). Seat's will remain for track days and i'm going to hold on to the cage.

Still awaiting on a whole heap of engine related parts......

In the meantime picked these up -

18 x 9.5" +12 TE37's in Satin Black with red valves & Rays Wheel Nuts. Thanks Aaron! (Importmonster). These will be for road use. Rays don't make the old school TE37 stickers in red so I got a red set off eBay.

While I'm at it, the existing Apexi suspension & spring setup is very harsh. Was considering just getting some softer springs for them but then these came up....

Whiteline Height Adj. - 7kg/mm Front, 5kg/mm Rear. Revalved by Sydneykid off a winning production car & Whiteline Adj Front & Rear Sway bars with extra holes - a little chipped up but meh - they go under the car. (thanks RowdyR32)

Last but not least for now - some (dirty) Cusco adj. upper rear arms

[RBN1]

Haven't had much time to spend on the car lately however the Engine has arrived.

N1 Long Motor

Tomei Type-A Cams

The idea was to use the accessories of the existing motor and just get the car up and running then revisit the motor rebuild wise later on.

While waiting for this motor I kinda went nuts buying performance parts so plans have changed.

So off I went to a well known Melbourne workshop to discuss options......

[Ants]

Sweet. This is going interesting. Wanna more about the go fast bits!

[RBN1]

Will post up pics soon as they arrive! (First lot should arrive soon).

Workshop pictured above is Race Pace.

Spoke with Chris regarding their Stage 1 build - $10k at time of writing.

For those that are curious there is some information floating around as to what their Stage 1 build is. Here is what info they give :

Stage 1 – RPMRB26 Engine

Suitable for applications up to 400kw@wheels

-Block/Head inspected, water and oil gallery plugs removed, hot tanked, crack and pressure tested.

-Block bored and honed (strainer plate), decked to correct compression height, crank tunnel line honed to RPM specs. Strengthen weak points in the block (similar to N1 block)

-Oil galleries modified, tap galleries, fit thread plugs, modify water galleries, new welsh plugs.

-Conrods resized, bushes, replaced and individually honed to suit piston pins

-New OEM R34 GTR crankshaft, rotating assembly fully balanced

-Race Pace Custom Forged Piston and ring set

-Improved combustion chamber shape

-Nissan N1 Oil Pump (Modified), Nissan N1 water pump

-New Nissan or Nismo thermostat, New OEM Nissan gasket kit

-Race Pace custom main and big end bearings

-Cylinder Head : Replace valve guides/stem seals, cut seats, face valves, match chambers, surface, re-shim valve clearances to RPM specs.

-New OEM cambelt, new tensioner and idler pulleys

-Fully blueprinted, block painted and precision assembly

My build will include some extras/changes to the above and I will post the pics of the additional components soon as they arrive.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Love it! Looks tough....