My 350GT project

[Tom_K]

(Firstly, not 100% sure if this can go in the '350z' modifications, so admin, please move if you want)

UPDATED 03.03.18 so that pictures work after Photobucket decided to fail.

 

As per my introduction thread, I'll give you all a little a summary here;

I was looking for an R33 GTST, so I searched for 'Skyline' every day on the various sites. One day, this 350GT Skyline popped up, which I dismissed at first.

Then I thought I'd click on the advert and found out a couple of things that made me reconsider! After a call to the owner, I was even more sold on it, so I arranged to see it.

It needed some work, the biggest of which was/is the clutch; the release bearing was wining and the clutch was very stiff but other than that, it was a really honest car so I snapped it up!

 

As you can see from my BMW in the 'other cars' forum, I'm a little OCD and love getting stuck in, so the 350 was going to be the next 'rolling project'.

These were the first pictures I tool when I bought it, and as my friend had a ramp, it was up there within minutes:

 

We had a good old root around and diagnosed it was a nice solid car

I've bought a few cars in my time so I was pretty certain I'd got a good one, but it was nice to confirm so soon.

 

First things first was the brakes; they were vibrating and pretty worn, so I rebuild the calipers (new seals and bolts) and replaced the discs / pads.

My and a friend from work tried skimming the discs but that didn't work.

 

 

 

 

While it was up in the air I thought I'd tackle the broken exhaust; the flange between the centre section and backbox had rusted and it was just sleeved. With nothing to lose, as it was pretty much scrap anyway, I thought I'd replace the flange and try and make it sound a little nicer:

 

Again, while it was all apart I thought the wheels should be done as they were pretty poor.

This is a bit of a sore point as I do miss the shadow-chrome type original finish.

 

Next up were the rather cloudy headlights, here are the after pics:

 

One day, while reaching to reset the trip computer, I nearly touched the rev counter...as in...the face of it. I hadn't even noticed but the perspex screen was missing! No idea why! All I can think is someone tried to fix something and broke it.

Rather painfully, I had to get another from the dealer, but while I was there, I fixed the ignition 'ring light' that was broken. (Tip: One from a Primera fits)

 

 

With those few things done (oh, gave it a service too...obviously!), it was time to take it on a nice long weekend away (clutch still stiff but once you were motorway it was fine)

 

After staring at it lovingly for a while, I started to really hate the caravan style rear fog light! So that had to go. While I was there, I noticed that the rear numberplate light holder was...well...made of rust. So I made a new one out of some stainless steel I had laying around:

 

aaaaaand I've hit the limit of pictures I'm able to post, so more will come in the following reply.

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[Tom_K]

Now came the really dirty stuff.

I hate rust. There. I said it.

Bit by bit, I'm cleaning and painting all the brackets underneath the car and eventually painting the floor pan itself.

The 'W' beam was in a very sorry state, so I drilled out the spot welds to get out all the rust, then welded it back together with some extra strength.

 

 

When I bought it, the washer jets were pretty poor. I investigated and at first noticed the one way valves were just working against me, so removed them. Then noticed the motor was a little sticky. Now I know I could buy a new one for about £5 but I didn't have time and thought I'd try and re-build it. So far so good!

Also though, when I went to take the front bumper off to get to the washer bottle, nearly all the fixing were rusted/snapped, so I set about repairing the undertray and bumper with riv-nuts etc:

 

Since I bought it, I always found it kind of amusing how all the buttons were in Japanese. After a hunt around some American breakers on ebay however, I thought I'd try and convert it to english, so took a bit of a punt on a whole sat-nav unit from a G35.

Long story, that didn't work, but I now at least have buttons in english.

 

While I was there, I also cleaned up the gear surround bezel as it had a couple of marks:

 

Of all days, one very rainy day, the drivers side window decided to stop working...while it was down :|

Luckily I managed to get in the garage and set-about sorting that out. Luckily it was just a case of cleaning the motor up as the brushes were a bit worn. Resetting the position so the window didn't bounce back however was a pain! This worked for a while until the problem happened again and I decided to replace the worn motor brushes.

While I was there, I sound deadened and waxed the inside of the door too, oh, and did the passenger side too for good measure.

 

I enjoyed it like that for a few weeks but the latest job I'm working on is replacing the stupid, small import style battery with a proper one. At the same time, I'm going to replace some of the butchered wiring in that area.

I've already cleaned it all up and waxed the whole area (and removed the drain tube as the lip around it's edge creates a high point which means a small amount of water can still sit there without draining)

Oh yeah, and I also sanded and re-painted the wiper arms as they were a bit corroded.

 

 

So there we have it. That's all the work to date, and I'll be sure to update this as I go along.

Hope you enjoy

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[Robchriscross]

Great car my boss had 1 a few years ago I regularly got to use it

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

 

[martybhoy]

I love seeing these because they're quite unusual.

 

Great work on the car so far btw!

[Stutopia]

Good work bringing it back up to standard, they do have a certain something about them too

[Tom_K]

Thanks all.

Like I say, I wasn't really in the market for one but glad I came across this one!

[Tom_K]

Afternoon all, long overdue an update to this so here goes:

 

One thing that's always bothered me when opening the bonnet was the bubbles of corrosion. As you will probably all know, they're an aluminium bonnet with a steel sub-structure that supports the latch. Well, mine had various bubbles around the rivets and the edge was getting dangerously close to bubbling round to a point where you would see it on the leading edge.

So I sanded that all down, etch primed it and then painted it. The trick here was the factory paint in the engine bay isn't painted as thoroughly as the rest of the car, so I opted for some top-coat silver that doesn't need a lacquer, so it hopefully wouldn't stand out as too shiny.

 

And that's about it for now. Time to enjoy driving it for a bit before the next round of work.

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[GMballistic]

Very interesting read Tom and some great fixes so far.

[LRF4N]

Always had a soft spot for these

 

All you need now is a set of wide 19s, lip kit and drop it to the floor

[Tom_K]

Thanks both.

I'm trying not to turn it into toooo much of a project as I have a tendency to get carried away with working on them and they end up never leaving the garage. So with that in mind, I'm trying not to modify it....but I do keep browsing the for 'parts for sale' sale forums...

[veilside z]

Well done, great progress. Looks

[Tom_K]

Update time!

 

So, as you've all probably guessed by now, I quite like having the underside as clean as the top...and I find it quite therapeutic.

 

In no particular order, I've recently removed all the bracket/braces from the front end, cleaned them up and painted them. Along with removing the cats, cutting off the rusty, rattly heat shields and giving them a coat of high-temp paint.

 

 

 

 

While those are all off, I'm cleaning and painting any parts of the car body that these mount to before re-fitting.

Not your usual project thread on here I'm sure but I enjoy it

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[nissanjuke]

do my car next if you want

[Tom_K]

A bit of progress this weekend getting it back together (with some new manifold - cat nuts). It's not completely back, but it's getting there.

 

It'll all come off again at some point when I paint the body of the car (underbody I mean). The whole plan with this part of the project is to get it ready to come apart for when I do the clutch. I'll be borrowing my friends garage to do it and I'd rather not get stuck on rusty nuts/bolts and take 10x longer on his ramps.

This way, it should all come apart to plan (famous last words?) and I can get the new clutch in without too much ramp time.

 

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[davey_83]

Sterling work!! Lots of preventative maintenance going on, cars looking in great shape.

 

Sound clip of the exhaust?

[Tom_K]

Exactly that!!

What I didn't say was all the internals of those parts that I can get to have been filled with cavity wax too.

 

As for the exhaust; no sound clip but tbh it didn't sound any different

After that I removed all the wadding from the center section to see if that made any difference...no dice. So I think I'm going to hack up the back box even more as the way I see it is nothing small is making a blind bit of difference lol

[nissanjuke]

when are you coming to my house!

[Tom_K]

When you pay my ridiculous hourly rate

[nissanjuke]

how ridiculous???

[Tom_K]

Ridiculous enough for you to consider doing it yourself

[Jakeswheelbarrow]

Car is looking great

[Tom_K]

Small update as I've been spending a lot of time fixing the garden lately instead of the car

 

Before I put everything back together, I thought the front struts, top mounts and brake pipe brackets looked a little tired. So I took them off, took them apart and gave them a lick of paint:

 

Top mounts:

 

Struts:

 

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[Tom_K]

Evening all.

Tiny update just to prove things are still moving ever so slowly.

 

A mate bought me this little model when I first got the car and I've been meaning to take some pictures with it, so here are a couple;

 

You might notice the rear is up in the air as I'm removing the rear shocks to give them a lick of paint.

Unfortunately the job couldn't have gone more wrong :| The passenger side one came off fine, but the drivers side one was/is a nightmare.

The lower bolt is seized into the metal sleeve of the bush, so it ripped the bush apart trying to come undone. THEN it broke the nut off that's welded onto the base of the strut.

So I've ordered the new parts and when I pick them up, I'll be doing that.

 

Also finally ordered the clutch kit from Ewen at Clark Motorsport so that's the next big job!

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[Tom_K]

Afternoon all.

 

So this morning I set about doing the clutch and flywheel. Only spent a couple of hours getting this far at my mates garage, ready to crack on tomorrow.

 

I do need to confirm a couple of torque specs though, so I've got a post up in the technical section hoping that might help.

 

Anyhow, here's a selection of pictures:

 

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K

[Tom_K]

OK, update time!

 

So, the clutch and flywheel took a lot longer than planned for a couple of reasons but I'll go into that;

 

I've never done a clutch or flywheel on anything before but wanted to learn, so I ordered a flywheel, clutch, new slave cylinder and braided hose kit from Clark Motorsport (plus some oil but I didn't around to doing that, so that's another weekend)

 

This isn't a step by step, or how to of any kind as there are enough of those out there, so here's a load of pictures from the job:

 

In the previous post, I was nearly ready to remove the box, so after removing the cats and lower brace to make a bit more room, it was time to take it off. Easier said than done as it was pretty stuck on one of the locating dowels! So a lot of jiggling and WD40 later, it finally came free. (Not that I plan to, but I put a tiny bit of copper grease on both dowels before putting it back together)

 

The original pivot ball was pretty worn so I replaced that too, along with the clutch release bearing obviously, which btw was clearly worn as it makes a horrible noise spinning it by hand.

 

Now, I'm assuming this is the original clutch and flywheel, as it has Nissan stamped on the clutch. For ~100k I thought it looked remarkably good:

 

However, you can see some heat marks on the flywheel and pressure plate.

 

Now for my biggest headache, the pilot bush!

I tried packing bread behind it and hammering in the middle, to force it out from behind (exactly the same principal as using grease, but not as messy) I've seen others do it and heard great success stories...not in my case. The thing would not budge.

Reluctantly, I very carefully made a cut to relieve some pressure, going slow and by hand to check how deep I was going...

One cut didn't do it, so I had to make another and finally it moved!

 

Then I could get on with the task in hand.

I have an unhealthy fear of snapping/stripping bolts so doing up the flywheel and clutch cover was nerve wracking to say the least, but eventually got there.

 

Bleeding the slave cylinder took a while but when I eventually started the car again, I was very relieved...for a second.

Now, I'm extremely fussy as you might have already guessed and I was expecting silence from all the new parts, However, it seems the old release was masking the general gearbox noise. Now I know these boxes are known for being a bit agricultural but it was pretty gutting to say the least.

Like I said, I did get gearbox oil for it which I'll do soon but I also now want to look into molyslip.

 

Driving it back also highlighted that the slave still needs more bleeding I think as the biting point is very low BUT the clutch bites nicely and horrible judder from the failed dual mass is gone.

 

So it's not there just yet, but it's getting there and I learned a lot.

Edited March 3, 2018 by Tom_K