New to forum and R34 Skylines

[1Antonio1]

Greetings!
I'm obviously new to the forum, name is Antonio, since I'm posting here, but just wanted to give some information about myself.

Living in the US (Maryland), and waiting for my 1998 25GTT to come in May of 2023. I wanted to get a head start on getting parts and learning about the platform so when it arrives, I'll be very much more knowledgable and can hit the ground running.

My experience with cars is limited, but I've done some mechanical work on my friend's cars and some on my 2002 C240. Everything I know about the 25GTT / RB25DET is from Youtube so that's why I am here.

Hoping to start out learning about the general maintenance and required fluids/belts the car needs. I ordered the complete engine gasket kit from NISSAN parts USA, but don't know about the rest.

Hopefully I can provide some knowledge to others in here as well. Peace!

 

[Duncan]

Welcome, you must be pretty patient to wait at least a year for the car. What is the hold up?

[1Antonio1]

On 3/4/2022 at 5:32 PM, Duncan said:

Welcome, you must be pretty patient to wait at least a year for the car. What is the hold up?

Hey Duncan, thanks for the welcome!

So the USA has a law stating we can't import cars that are younger than 25 years old. I believe it deals with safety/emissions and some say that it was passed in order to keep people from not buying cars made in the USA. There are loopholes, however, but I really don't want to deal with that and the dealer I bought it from also wont ship it until it's legal.

But I'm okay with waiting, it gives me time to learn about the platform as much as I can, get parts, and be ready to enjoy it when it arrives!

[joshuaho96]

The entire R34 factory service manual is online. It's in Japanese but you can use Google Translate for pretty much all of it. Use the EPC/electronic parts catalog to figure out what parts to order. Did you get the car PPI'd prior to purchase? I don't see any undercarriage photos. Hopefully you got the VIN and got some vehicle history as well. 

[1Antonio1]

On 3/5/2022 at 12:40 AM, joshuaho96 said:

The entire R34 factory service manual is online. It's in Japanese but you can use Google Translate for pretty much all of it. Use the EPC/electronic parts catalog to figure out what parts to order. Did you get the car PPI'd prior to purchase? I don't see any undercarriage photos. Hopefully you got the VIN and got some vehicle history as well. 

Thanks for the tip! I'll search up the manual, maybe someone already has it translated too.

Unfortunately, and I know it's not a smart move, but I did not get the vehicle privately inspected. I do have photos from the undercarriage and a video walk around with startup and a little rev. I know you can't tell much from it but I went with it, and will have to deal with whatever comes at me.

 

Wasn't sure how many photos I could attach and didn't want to flood the thread, but here are the undercarriage

[GTSBoy]

The car actually seems to be in unreasonably good condition. Must have been locked up in storage for a while.

[1Antonio1]

On 3/7/2022 at 8:10 PM, GTSBoy said:

The car actually seems to be in unreasonably good condition. Must have been locked up in storage for a while.

Let's hope! haha

Would you still think that if I told you it has 187,000 km?

The interior is pretty worn down though

[niZmO_Man]

Looks like a used car from the late 90's. I wouldn't pay the inflated prices people are asking these days, but that looks okay for $15k-ish. Undercarriage looks great (at first glance).

[1Antonio1]

On 3/7/2022 at 8:44 PM, niZmO_Man said:

Looks like a used car from the late 90's. I wouldn't pay the inflated prices people are asking these days, but that looks okay for $15k-ish. Undercarriage looks great (at first glance).

Wow, $15k? If I could buy a GTT for that much, it would be heaven sent. But since I'm in the US, import fees are high, storage fees are as well, and the inflated prices are real /:

[joshuaho96]

On 3/7/2022 at 5:44 PM, niZmO_Man said:

Looks like a used car from the late 90's. I wouldn't pay the inflated prices people are asking these days, but that looks okay for $15k-ish. Undercarriage looks great (at first glance).

R34 GTTs haven't been at that price for 5+ years now. I agree the undercarriage seems ok but I can tell there is rust on the sills at the front. Hard for me to say how bad it is without better pictures or seeing it in person.

[GoHashiriya]

Looks good! Dare I say my undercarriage was in better (looking) condition when I bought the car at 230k kms in 2020. It looks like a clean car - I'd advise changing all suspension bushes/ball joints off the bat. Definitely replace the steering rack bushes to avoid alignment nightmares.

[1Antonio1]

On 3/28/2022 at 1:15 AM, GoHashiriya said:

Looks good! Dare I say my undercarriage was in better (looking) condition when I bought the car at 230k kms in 2020. It looks like a clean car - I'd advise changing all suspension bushes/ball joints off the bat. Definitely replace the steering rack bushes to avoid alignment nightmares.

Thanks for the tip! I'm definitely going to do that as well as all fluids and I just received the gasket kit for the engine