R33 Gtst Comfy Racecar Project

[jmannings]

Hi all!

I picked up a 1993 (imported 2003) R33 GTST Manual, I’m currently still on my P’s until the end of June, so I’ve got some time to work on it! (Please forgive the lack of pictures, I’ll snap a few more and upload tomorrow!)

When I first got her!

On temporary wheels

Current specs:

- 110xxx

- Recent respray in a light blue metallic

- Series 1 with a series 2 motor

- Front mount (ebay spec I think)

- R34 high flowed turbo

- 40th anniversary seats

- Mspec front bar

- Sunroof

The aim for the car is a comfortable daily car that I can rip around when the mood hits, I want responsive power but not over the top power, great handling, properly sealed cabin, I’m going to try and fight the nissan rattle and fill all the holes haha.

Suspension:

It had KYB shocks and cut kings when I first got it, surprising drove quite well albeit a tad bit rough. It also had some very heavy RJR Wheels on it which I got rid of very quickly.

- Cusco Zero 2 Coilovers (arrived, installing next week)

- Whiteline front and rear sway bar kit (ordered, installing next week)

- Whiteline strutbrace (ordered, installing next week)

- Stern 1 piece forged alloy wheels, these are currently getting the lip machined, the bore machined from lexus to r33, the face sandblasted fixed and painted and the whole lot cleared. Then getting RE003's for the rubber. These are 17's, so not a super aggressive size, hopefully having the little extra chunkiness on the wheels will somewhat offset the aggressive coil setup. I'm spending quite a bit on these since I love the design of them, and I think it will suit the look I'm going for.

- Check all suspension bushes and mounts, the don’t look flogged visually but always good to check!

Sterns pre-restoration

Engine:

Apparently it was running 220rwkw tune, but it seems the stock ECU is back in it atm, so im on the lookout for a ECU then I’ll get it tune when I fix the boost leaks coming from a few places!

- Fix leak on BOV (it was cabled tied on………)

- Re-do intercooling piping in black

- Change coil pack loom plugs (one has been cut and soldered, not that keen)

- Clean up dodgy wiring and sensor wiring that’s everywhere

- Move and secure HID ballasts

- ECU & tune (thinking haltech elite?)

- Paint everything black (one of the most important mods)

- Full service, new oil/filter

- Secure air filter

- Change boost-T to electronic boost controller

Audio:

Originally this had some horrendous kicker + option audio setup that made baby jesus cry with a touchscreen pioneer. I've since ditched the whole lot (sounded rubbish) in favor of a properly set up system.

- Ping jing'ing the whole car, currently in the process of ripping every bit of interior out

- Laying 3mm thick marine sound foam absolutely everywhere I can, helps seal the car, and fills gaps and makes everything fit a bit tighter which is nice

- Alpine V9 to run the whole system

- 2x Cresendo etude 2.10 subs, which will both be in custom made sealed boxes on either side of the boot

- Cresendo Opus 7B tweeters & crossovers with Opus 9 mids

- Nakamichi NA88 (Haven't ordered this yet still deciding)

Interior:

Interior is in really good nic for its age, no cracks in dash, carpets clean, seats clean

- Fix boost gauge it broke on the way home :’(

- Wrap the dash piece in black suede instead of the blue it currently is..

- Remove random whistle noise switch someone installed

- Build fiberglass speaker boxes in doors to enclose audio

- Properly mount dash (fix loose air con vents, cluster etc)

When I first picked it up! tad messy!

Future plans:

- 280rwkw is the aim

- FFP and a high mount (just looks so god damn good)

- Change the front bar (any ideas??)

- Much much more to come!

TL;DR

Overall I’m really happy with it for what I paid, I’m going fairly no expensive spared on this project, which doesn’t mean I’ll spend as much as possible but I’m more then happy to spend where needed! I’m building this to be a reliable, quick, comfortable car, that I can drive ‘spritely’ happily, the plan is to take it on a driving holiday around tassy June next year!

More HD pictures: http://imgur.com/a/KoNM6

Thanks for checking this post out, I’ll try and keep it updated as much as possible!

Edited April 4, 2016 by jmannings

[jmannings]

Reserved

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Cusco Zero 2 coilovers won't be comfy for your comfy build

[AngryRB]

Random whistle noise switch? thats a good one!! lol

Car looks fairly clean, sunroof's are nice

[jmannings]

Cusco Zero 2 coilovers won't be comfy for your comfy build

Comfy being relative, as long as my backs not broken i'm happy haha. I'm hoping 17's with chunky rubber will provide a little more cushion!

Random whistle noise switch? thats a good one!! lol

Car looks fairly clean, sunroof's are nice

Yeh I actually have no idea what its purpose is haha.. just whistles when you flick it...

I'm loving the sunroof, overall it needs a bit of clean up, but nothing that's hard to fix, and its all aesthetic

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I do like the audio setup, I once too spent big money on car audio on my previous R33.. however gave up on that because once the gate cracks you can't even hear yourself think hahaha

[jmannings]

I do like the audio setup, I once too spent big money on car audio on my previous R33.. however gave up on that because once the gate cracks you can't even hear yourself think hahaha

I've spent reasonable money on some decent gear, only putting fronts in so that makes life easy. Haha yeh i'll see how it goes in the long run..

I'll be spending quite a bit of time getting the audio right, nothing annoys me more then bad audio

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

you get to a point where you realise money better spent on home audio

I just run basic Vifa splits at the front with no sound deadening, Jaycar kevlar rears, a simple 4x40 RMS junk Kenwood amp, 8" Port DD sub and a 300rms cadence mono... enough doof and clarity in the car when cruising to the race track lol

[jmannings]

you get to a point where you realise money better spent on home audio

I just run basic Vifa splits at the front with no sound deadening, Jaycar kevlar rears, a simple 4x40 RMS junk Kenwood amp, 8" Port DD sub and a 300rms cadence mono... enough doof and clarity in the car when cruising to the race track lol

Already spent the money on home audio

Sounds like an interest setup haha, I enjoy car audio quite a bit which is the main reason i have all of this gear

It comes down to installation moreso then gear a lot of the time, a shitty sub in a well built box will still sound quite good, and a focal in a rubbish prefab box will sound shit

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

100% on that.. old R33 had about $1k of sound deadening in it.. covered the doors, rear quarters, boot lid, etc.. sounded great

well the DD 8" I have is in a prefab ported box.. and if I never told you the size or what it was in you'll be thinking there's a 12" in the boot

[jmannings]

Thats my plan eventually

have to love a DD, pack a big punch for what they are!

on a side note, got any advice on ECU's? everyone seems to have a different idea on whats the best to go with it seems a nistune on the stock ecu should do the power levels im looking for

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Nistune is the best man, especially for a streeter.. it's a no brainer...

If budget permits a Haltech, Link, ViPec are great too.. I personally like Haltech as the software is easier to use, but all 3x do the same thing pretty much.

And if you're going to be doing some motorsports but can't afford the likes of the above ECUs mentioned, an Adaptronic is great.. it does have some idiosyncrasies but nothing too major.. and it's not 100% sequential as there are only 8 outputs.. so everything runs in pairs. Wasted Spark, semi-sequential injection.

[jmannings]

Nistune is its then. Leaves me money for other things

I doubt this car will ever see a track, I've got a track car build going on at the moment, so that should for fill those needs

[jmannings]

Things I ordered today:

- 45sqft of 2.2mm Pingjing butyl

- 45sqft of Thermo-acoustic foam (6mm)

- 25sqft of MLV acounstic foam carpet (for the boot)

- A few rolls of wiring loom tape

- Silicone black radiator hose kit

- Black intercooler piping kit

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

shit getting real with the audio haha...

Never heard of that brand.. tell me how it goes, I might get bored and sound dead the current car.. I've used eDead v2 and Dynamat in the past

[jmannings]

Got it all pretty well priced which is good. Its a competitor of dynamat, exactly the same stuff but 2.2mm thick instead of 1.8mm thick (and cheaper), a bunch of guys on MCA (melbourne car audio) recommended it so hopefully its decent!

I've got the acoustic foam layer as well to cut out a bunch of road noise

I've used dynamat, good stuff but expensive for the amount of area i want to cover

[jmannings]

Small update:

All the sound deadening has arrived

Black cooler piping and silicon joins is here

Whiteline front & rear swaybar + strut brace is here

Just ordered a glorious bonnet strut kit

Install for all suspension bits will be hopefully this weekend, as well as the cooler piping and radiator piping to black, i've been busy dealing with the horrendous wiring, patching and repairing it, decent pics soon when the Mrs gives the camera back haha.

Edited April 12, 2016 by jmannings

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

nice nice, have fun!

If you haven't yet... Stinger has these triple set flat RCAs which are great for running along the side of the car and under the carpet..

Very good sheilding too.. I don't get any noise.

[jmannings]

I had a look at those, but I manged to get some Harmonic Harmony Acapella IC's bundled with my cresendo splits, big thick and shielded to should go well

[jmannings]

Did quite a few things the last week, intercooler piping is being changed to black piping, i've got the coils in, stripped the interior and fixed up a heap of rust, and got it ready for putting the deadener in, the majority of the time I've spent has been on the wiring, which is improving which is good! I sanded the rust down,killed it with rust oxidiser, then covered in rust protectant primer. Should keep it happy even if it comes in contact with water.

Now to quickly spray that all black, then lay all the deadening!