The "Ugly Duckling" R34 GTT

[ComTruise]

Good Evening All!

I am new to this forum and am very pleased to be here as it means I have finally bought my dream car, and 1998 R34 GTT. I have been coveting a skyline since I was a kid and after owning many many different cars I decided I would buy my lifer, the one I had really wanted but had fallen by the wayside.

There is just one problem.. It. Is. Ugly. As. Sin. Seriously the last owner must of not cleaned it the entire miserable time he owned it, not to mention deciding that carparks were the perfect place to practice his destruction derby skills, then covering it in "hilarious" bandaid stickers as if to say "whoops". There is a good chance this car is the ugliest one in NSW however under the dust and grime and cosmetic damage I could see a glimmer of potential. I was concerned for it when I saw it, and by the time I drove it home I was in love with it. 

Brace yourselves you may want a drink before looking at these, much to my wife's credit she trusted me to buy this (for a bargain of a price), keep in mind these pictures make the car actually look BETTER than it did in person. 

 

 

[admS15]

Well, it definitely has character. I see many hours of car bonding for you.

[Kinkstaah]

It's all fixable 

There's a certain amount of satisfaction in salvaging a previously unloved car that didn't quite get what you feel it deserved.

[PranK]

What a brilliant project! It looks all cosmetic.

Nice work, I look forward to updates. 

[The Bogan]

I expect it would have a full service history, angel tears for coolant, honey from the gods as lube...  hehe..lube...

Nothing that some clay baring and love cannot fix...

[ComTruise]

Thanks guys! yeah shes gonna take some loving to get back to a decent standard. First off the rank of course was a clean, nothing special just cleaning the thing out, its going to take a few more cleans before im happy not to mention all the buffing I have ahead of me. Picking up some replacement panels this weekend and will try salvage the front bumper and passenger headlight (drivers might be too bad though and need replacing).

The missus didn't even think it looked like the same car on the inside, but this is just the beginning.

[Burger]

Wheres the fun in buying something that's immaculate?

Looks to have cleaned up reasonably well though.

[ComTruise]

Yeah it has cleaned up alright for something that had so much dirt you could of planted seeds in it. Onto some minor stuff while I wait for the weekend. The headlights, now to be clear let me list the damage to the front end.

-Both front fenders damaged
-Bonnet damaged
-Front bumper damaged, brackets broken
-Both headlights brackets broken, driver side headlight case smashed in and lense damaged 
-Headlight brackets on the car bent

So I have alot of work ahead of me, considering the cost of these headlights I am going to salvage them. The passenger side is alright I can fabricate up some bracing for the broken brackets and glue them back together. The Drivers side however is going to require some love as per the below pics. I will have to fibre glass and repair the back of the headlight case and as for the lense, I am going to place a small amount of sicaflex into the crack temporarily until I buy a headlight repair kit from nengun. First up a bit of a clean and polish, first 2 pics are the passenger headlight before and after.

 

[PranK]

Looks much better.

I love the new clean headlights fad. I've been hating cloudy headlights my entire life and theres nothing better than seeing the improvement after somebody has cleaned their lights up. 

[ComTruise]

Yeah mate I cannot stand foggy headlights, it really makes a big difference to the car having them clean I will eventually have them like new but the repair kit is low on the list of priorities compared to the other things I need to fix.

[ComTruise]

Man, after a rough weekend of fighting with this to get it straight (still not perfect) here is where she is now, first pic is off the parts I got (with a ridiculous wrap that took forever to get off, I will never wrap my car) then a work in progress shot (defect? lol) then how she is now after a clean along with the wife and kids mobile. Unfortunately the bonnet has hail damage I couldn't see until the wrap was off so Ill be hopefully refunding or swapping it. 

 

[PranK]

I bet that was satisfying! 

[ComTruise]

It really was man, still lots to do but I am enjoying the car a lot too everything doesn't need to come at once (or so my wife tells me).

[ComTruise]

Little bit of work today, been so busy ive been unable to work on the car but when I can I do. Fixed up where the front bumper marries up to the fenders, it was buggered on both sides but now sits flush. Took her for a bit of a spirited drive today also and she didn't miss a beat! 

 

[hoodedreeper]

Great work so far, its coming together nicely

[ComTruise]

Cheers man, ive got some good plans in the works but one thing at a time. 

Today was polishing with a orbital polisher and by hand, all.. day.. I earned my beer I reckon.

 

 

[ComTruise]

I haven't updated this in a while but I have more things going on with the car, here's a little teaser.

 

 

[hoodedreeper]

Liking the new seats! Are they from another car or a branded seat?

[ComTruise]

Another car I believe man, the guy said a Toyota but he didn't really know. They are really good quality though and a pain in the arse to install. I will write up a post tommorrow about what ive done.

[ComTruise]

Alright so the seats are finally installed, man it was a big job. But worth it.

I found the seats on gumtree for a great price, the guy said he thinks they came out of a toyota but wasn't sure didnt matter to me though cause I gave them a quick measure and knew they would fit. Once I had them I ordered some R34 brackets from ebay (the kind you would hook up brides too) and bought an angle grinder from bunnings.

First cab off the rank was getting the old attaching points off the rails as I needed to reuse them, one things for sure is angles grinders don't f**k around, this did take me the better part of the weekend.

Once these were finally off I made sure the holes under the welds lined up with the holes on the brackets (which luckily they did or I would of had to drill). Then gave the rails a quick paint to tidy them up and prevent rust.

Removed the old seats and bolted up the brackets after checking it was all gonna fit.

And finally sweet sweet satisfaction, something that isn't visible but totally important is that with the seats out you can clean up all the dust/grass/20c coins that fall into impossible places, really satisfying to see it properly clean in those crevices.

And how she sits right now, stay tuned!.