My HR31 GTS coupe aka Franks

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

A very delayed thread, i bought this car in 2018 but thought id pull the build info from r31skyline club.

 

I recently came to the conclusion that while i always wanted a GTS2, i prefer to do my own thing with cars. So i sold the GTS2 to a fella in Vic to continue the resto and have purchased this coupe off fatz.

Most of you should remember it from back in the day, Marks from MRC very neat coupe with a VH45TT. First pic is how it used to look.
https://forum.r31skylineclub.com/index.php?topic=111013.0

Unfortunately its gone a bit down hill since he sold it and needs a fair bit of work to make it presentable again.

My plans are to get it running again, and just enjoy it.

It needs to go through the engineering process as it was previously done.
This sucks in the ACT, done it before but hopefully my experience and my old man age will make it a bit easier this time.

No v8 this time, ive purchased a S2 RB25, just a fun drivers car with moderate power.

Once of the interesting things is when Mark rebuilt and engineered the car last time they had the odometer legally reset to zero. So its done 5,800km since 2011.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

So one of the challenges for engineering with this car is wheel track. The semi trailing arm IRS has been replaced with a r33 gts4 rear which is a fair bit wider.

VSB14 only allows an increase of +25mm which means that the front wheels will be around a +20 offset and the rears will need to be +45. Going to be 8in wide all round.

Im trying to find a set that i like that wont have more dish in the front than the rear, but aren't having much luck. I really wanted  watanbe or superlite but i dont think they'll look that great without some rear dish

Found a couple of companies that do custom sizing so i may go that way. 

Exterior wise, there will only be a auto spoiler (fixed) and gtsr wing.

 

July  2018

 

In other news, bits have started turning up.
bought a motor and box as a 'package' as im lazy. the motor has been freshened up, this is from the ad.

Less then 1000 kms since work been done. The motor is a s2 rb25 from a staega NOT NEO. Has the awd sump modified to suit rwd. Has a rb26 tomei baffle fitted, franklin engineering head drain kit, acl big end bearings, head skimmed, tomei 1.5mm multi layer headgasket, arp head studs, Gates racing water pump and timing belt, engine had 98 thousand kms from memory before the work got done.
New oil and water lines for the turbo. 3 inch dump pipe to suit r33
Turbo has minimum shaft play.
Comes with ecu and harness.
Doesnt come with engine mounts or cross member.
Gearbox in good condition with a short shift fitted and cushion ceramic clutch.

Also bought 31 rb25 gearbox crossmember from RB Factory, new engine mounts and a set of projectors. (they need a referb) Picked up a Ti wheel today, in reasonable nic.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

August 2018,

So you guys wanna hear a funny story?

I needed a clutch pedal for this car, spent effin ages trying totracking one down cause no one will sell now as they make more on a complete conversion. Flynns in Cooma has one, wanted $150, I say okay cause I can't find one anywhere, spend 2 hours to drive down today cause I'm on stand down, get it home, crouch down to fit it up and see this.  Fml

 

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

October 2018

ordered a new undertray and pedal set from ads. as a bonus this car came with the allusive front undertray too 
Ordered the wheels. changed my mind last minute and got these in a 16x8. hopefully will be ready in a couple weeks.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

November 2018

Bit of an update.

Biggest first is the wheels have finally arrived, good news and bad though.
Most obvious issue for me is they are the wrong colour, supposed to Anthracite (Dark, almost black grey). Not sure what im going to do about it.

Second is fitment. The rears are spot on, rear track measuring 1444mm – 1mm within max allowed. The front however are too wide at 1465mm – 15mm over.
The offset is +17.5, so 2.5mm under what I ordered (asked for +20). What I didn’t take into account are the r32 gtr brakes. I suspect that the hubs are z31 going off the wiki as they allow gtr brakes to be used without spacers due to a 5mm offset.
Im not sure what to do. Im think of maybe drilling new pickup points for the LCA’s in the subframe and moving them inboard 8-10mm aside. Assuming theres adjustment enough in the castor rods, camber plates and tierods.

 

You can see here the difference in offset and why it was a headache – for me at least.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

December 2018

Barra came out on the weekend. Im going to give the bay a tidy up before the 25 goes back in. looks like the body loom has been bastardised so wish me luck with that

No pics for these but
I bought a new intercooler, about half the size of this behemoth- yes, those are 4in inlets...

a Misihimoto Z-line. Sized for the response and power levels I want.
New battery as well, Lithiumax 450CCA. Thing weighs 2kg!
And a new front bar from Ads, as whoever cutout the bar for the intercooler cut past the waistband ffs. I have a replacement reo to go in aswell

The other bit of news is I recently bought what was supposed to be a 32GTR diff and axles from a guy in Melbourne on Gumtree. However what I got was a s15 diff and axles, and he stopped replying when I asked for my money back.
Once I got over having the shits about it, I decided to use them as it does have a Torsen centre. Again, im only wanting around 200kw and theres plenty silvias with that so of power so axles shouldn’t have an issue.

I have a complete stagea rear subframe, so I stole the hubs from it – one side needed stud so I bought GKTech extended ones and slapped it all together. I love 90’s nissans, you can mix and match. So far im counting bits from Stagea, S15, R32gtr and R33

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

January 2019

sourced a new front bar from Ads, as the old one was cut past the waistband.

 

Actually spent a bit of time on it today. The engine bay was completely covered in oil/dirt (the whole underside is, suspect from one of the blown motors). So got all the stick on shielding off - glue was a nightmare, and took a wire wheel to the damaged paint underneath the clutch master.
Then pulled the guards off to check for the usual rust spot, none there thankfully and then spent the day degreasing and high pressure washing it all down.
I forgot to get a pic beforehand, but the crossmember was completely black.

Had a go a knocking the dents out, but I'll need to pick up the proper tools from my father. I'll get it smoother then hi fill and then off to a painter for a bay spray. Its not going to be a show car but I'd like it to at least look ok.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

January 2019

Unfortunately I managed to crack the windscreen when I cleaned the bay, so new windscreen is in now as well.
And I've spent a little time with a dolly and made some progress with the dent. Little more to go.

 

May 2019

Spent a bit of time on this lately but I'll skip past all the boring parts.

Basically bay is painted with stuff going back in and cleaning up/replacing as I go, painted the wheel wells and calipers.

Pull out some of the dodgiest wiring from the old alarm, gauges and not looking forward to fixing the body loom from the last v8.

Nearly ready for the motor to go in. Can't wait

 

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

June 2019

Well, I dun stuffed up.

I messed up the backspace measurements for the rear wheels. I forgot to lock down the disks with a wheel nut and took the measurements as 12mm instead of 16mm. This means the spokes are fouling on the calipers and can't be used without a spacer which is a no go for engineering.

So plan going forward is I found some of the shelf wheels with the correct offsets which will be used for rego and the old ones will be used shows or something.
Pretty annoying but these things happen.

New ones are Enkie PF07s in 17x8.5 et35 and et55. After quadruple checking everything the track works out to be 1435mm front and rear. They should fit nicely, with brake clearance as well, just not in a style I was after.
Friend photoshoped them on for me.

In other news, I dropped the motor and gearbox on last weekend. Went in well, gojacks and hoist balance tool really help but I'd say we're well outta practice being the old farts we are now haha. Thanks to these to legends for the help.

Just slowly connecting everything up now.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

There is a hole in the boot floor from a fuel cell (I think). Luckily I am in the middle of remounting the cell in grumblebee and had a bit of section spare. Ready to be welded in.

Chipping away at it, been busy building a cubby house with my dad the last few weekends but been able to get a few things done.

Boots finished, not perfect but as it's covered by carpet and a fuel tank I don't care.
Fuel tank has been neatened up and I replaced the pump with a Walbro 255.
New gktech braided clutch line.
Noticed the harmonic balancer was cracked so replaced it, will be nice to see the timing marks.

 

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

August 2019

So the rego wheels have arrived but there's a small problem with this too. (I'm really getting sick of wheels now)

The faces have different profiles, I think they look odd as it's deeper concave on the front.
I'm kinda torn whether to do anything about it as there is no indication on the distributor or enkeis website stating this. But also they are supposed to just get through engineering so should I care? Anything I do will push back it getting completed.

silver linings they fit without fouling on anything, the track measurements are spot on in the middle of whats allowed and the colour is what I wanted for the original rims so that how I'll get them resprayed.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

October 2019

Been chipping away at wiring lately. I've basically been re wrapping any wiring that I need to touch at the moment. Jaycar loves me.

Made a board in the boot pass through to mount the lipo battery to, including a breaker as the cable is going through the car.

Remote battery post and fuseable link, tried to reroute the loom to it a little better.

I've bought new Nissan plugs for the alternator, starter and oil pressure sensor, new turbo studs, o2 sensor, 33 gearknob speedo cable etc, made a new gearbox loom and now I have reverse lights 

Hardest bit has been confirming the wiring due to the last conversion. Next up is the ecu wiring in the cabin.

Oh and So far this car has a Stagea engine and rear hubs, r33 Gearbox loom and ecu , s14 front struts, z31 front hubs. S15 diff and axles, R32 gtr cradle, brakes and sump, FWD and RWD wheels. Even early hr31 model tail lights and late model lights.

Think I've got a name for it now. Frankenstein, Franks for short.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

December 2019

Hmmm, thought I'd updated this thread, oh well. Heap more stuff done, getting pretty close now. Not in order, just trying to remember everything I've done.

Car starts and runs now, with a couple of test drives up the street. Start almost first go, if not for a difference in the s1/s2 series wiring which is covered here > https://forum.r31skylineclub.com/index.php?topic=145691.0

Bought a airbox from yahoo, first time importing from Japan, man those rates hurt the back pocket. Since then bought a genuine GTSR wing (to replace the copy that my son bumped off the boot and cracked) rear washer pump and assorted rubber bumpstops.

Intercooler mounted, new rad support Exhaust and intercooler piping is done, interior is back together. Stereo system had to be completely rewired due to heaps of dodgy wiring.

Got every instrument on the dash working! Has to be my first 31 to have that. Resistor worked for the tacho, bought a whole bloody fuel tank to get the fuel sender out of it and r33 boost sensor sorted it all out. The wiper motor died, so had to buy another and redo it to.

Sourced another reo and painted it.
Front bar from Ads, autospoiler from Angry and vents have been painted, to be fitted this weekend.
Drip tray and new pedal rubbers from Ads also been fitted.

New whiteline front swaybar and new mounting for the rear.

Decided not to use the jjr grill and filler panel, just too flimsy. So I've been trawling every site to find a late model GTS grill, if you have one for sale please hit me up.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

January 2020

1.5 years later and this jerk is now registered!

Couple of members suggested trying nsw on the dodgy, as I'm act addressed and licensed, which I was trying to work out and stressing about until the missus said just call the Rms and ask. Which I did, and they were only too happy to do it as long as my garage address was nsw (thanks mum)

Passed blueslip no problems and now is on the road, fair to say I'm pretty stocked. Now I can worry about engineering at a more leisurely pace.

Big thanks to Masters for the grill, just waiting on the wing and a few other bits now.

Edit, for some reason tapatalk is turning my pic into a potato...

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

Mate gave the car a cut and polish on the weekend, looks a heap better now.

Does anyone have suggestions for restoring/rechroming the reflectors in projectors?

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

February 2020

Had the car ran on the dyno today, just wanted to get an idea of the state of health.

Afr's are little lean but otherwise pretty healthy. The ecu is a Toshi tune for 12psi, so going to bump it up to there.

 

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

December 2020

Fair while since my last post. Mostly just been enjoying the car and driving it every opportunity i get.

Since last time i have ordered another set of centres for the original wheels after the original stuff up.

Now that i have a set of rego wheels i decided to have these made as centre mount, safe to say i measured everything like 10 times. Im really happy with how they turned out.

Ive also spent some time playing with the suspension. Reducing the spring rates to 6/4kg and setting the basehights for bumpstops and then lowering it a little on spring. No more jarring which is excellent, no tyre rubbing either.

Im tackling a dash out alarm installation now, not fun. But at least it'll be better than the old ratsnest!

 

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

February 2022

Another long time between posts.
Have really done much other than driving which is probably why.
Ive replaced a couple of buttons and printed a mount for the old profec.

The water pump was leaking so i resealed it, cam seals and replaced the belt and coilpack covers with some nice carbon items at the same time.

 

 

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

Went to the GTR festival last year

Ive attended a couple of events with the Heritage Nissan club, including 7th day cruise and the Camp Quality super cruise which was cool.

And last week hit up Marulan dtc with three mates. Managed to score the track to ourselves for the day which was awesome
 

[Duncan]

Awesome updates, thanks for posting. Did I get it right that the auto you bought had a clutch pedal installed 

BTW how is grumblebee? haven't seen it in a long time.....