R34 GTT to GTR conversion, which body shop??

[gillsl500]

Right fellas can anyone tell me which body shop in the uk is capable of fitting a GTR body kit conversion to an R34 GTT....you see Ive seen a mint example that I'm trying to finalise however the project is only half complete and want to price up how much it will cost to Finnish it all?

Ive been told previously that only an experiences body shop should be considered? So any info would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

[Fuggles]

Do you mean fitting, or supplying and fitting and spraying/finishing? Do you have the kit? A lot of them aren't good fits if they are replicas and a genuine GTR front end wont go straight on it will need some work. The rear arches are a major headache as well

[gillsl500]

right mate lets say im starting from scratch....i know that Jap salon do a very good fitting kit, but my problem is finding someone who could efficiantly/confidently fit it paint it, consisting of a full respray??

cheers

Sat

[jim-lm]

I would say gaz from Jap Salon would be more than up to the task, I have seen some of his cars and the work is top notch, I got a carbon bonnet off him for my LM and he was a brilliant guy to talk to and know...

[Fuggles]

Japsalon would be my choice. There is a spray shop out the back of Gary's so have a chat with them and get and price as well as look at some of their work

[turbob12]

Wasn't there a thread on SO.com where he'd bought the kit from Japsalon and ended up having to cut the top intake in the front bumper and extend it and even then it wasn't a good fit against the bonnet. I think the guy was happy enough though.

I bought the JDL kit and it's a good fit but the bonnet was useless, on the standard GTT motor it sat on the throttle body and traction control unit and I had to remove the strut brace or the bonnet would sit about 2" high at the front (that's not a typo, I do mean about 50mm), it took months to get them to agree to take it back after trying every option. I would buy the rest of the kit from them again though as they have been straight up and easy to deal with, just a bit slow.

This is a pic of the bonnet with the standard strut brace fitted, it's sitting on the strut brace. JDL said that they had sold 14 other kits and not encountered this problem. I have my own views on that.


This is a pic of the JDL bumper sitting roughly in place, I was trimming it at the intercooler pipes, more of a cut out at the drivers side due to the Plazmaman inlet manifold to intercooler pipework (you can see the difference in the pic above), the bumper isn't screwed to the wing at the drivers side hence it looking a bit low there.



I've had no problems fitting the front bumper, front wings and rear bumper myself never having done this before and have probably over engineered it by making various metal brackets to make sure any stress when tightening screws is moved away from the fibreglass.

I had a kit for my GTST from Japsalon and found Gary to be a nice bloke and easy to deal with, the body shop said the kit was a nightmare to fit though. I say Gary's thread (also on SO.com) about his build of his GTT-GTR conversion and thought the lines between the panels didn't look right. I've got no agenda or axes to grind, just letting you know my experiences.

Can't help you on the body shop as you not really in the same neck of the woods as me.

[gillsl500]

Turbob12 many thanks dude I totally appreciate your time and effort you put into get that info written up :-)

I will check out what SO.com says then matey but have also e
emailed Gaz for some info, il see what he says and take it from there!!

But with regards to being in the same neck of the woods mate I'd happily travel where I needed to in order to achieve quality, but am sure that there will be a body shop near by who could do the job??

To be fair after reading your little bit above has got me thinkin I might try and do what I can my self?? Were the wings bolt on and bolt off mate, did they need any adjusting? Ive heard of somthing called wing runners but have no idea what that is? With regards to the front bumper, what tool did you use to shave the unwanted bits? Also was the problem area just by the Intercooler piping? So do you gave any ideas how you going to fit the rear fenders? And if you wouldn't mind could you pm me what you think this will have cost you by the time it's painted and complete?

And if you do know of a decent body shop matey plse feel free to tell me?

Thanks again for every ones input

[turbob12]

The wings are easy to change, there's only a few bolts that hold them on. I fitted the wings and lined them up with my standard bonnet. I didn't need to do any height adjustment. I had to weld extra plates onto the bonnet hinges and move the bonnet catch up when I fitted the standard GTR bonnet.

To trim the front bumper I used a Dremmel with a flexible extension, you can see it lying in front of the car in the second picture. The only bits that I had to trim were for the intercooler pipework. I bolted the splitter to the bottom of the bumper, I didn't want to bond it on incase it gets damaged and needs to be repaired or replaced.

I've had the rear fenders held into place to see how they sit but need to trim the rear wheel arches to be able to fit them properly, the body shop will do that though and I don't want them screwed to the car as that just increases the risk of rust so they will bond them on. With the wheels I have I'm going to need 50mm wheel spacers on the back and 20mm on the front.

there's not a huge choice of body shops near me, I'm going to use a small local one, I haven't seen any cars that he's painted so I'm taking a bit of a chance I suppose, the good thing is that he's in the same small town as me so I can pop in regularly to see how things are going.

I've not been keeping an eye on the body price, I can't remember how much I paid for the JDL kit, I'd need to look back & check because I bartered with them and got a discount then got a refund for the bonnet.

I'm just getting the car painted the same colour (can't afford to change the colour) so that helps to keep the costs down.

I'm not a member on SO.com but Minter is a member on here and he did a thread on the conversion that he did on his GTT just looked for a link R34 GTT-R Project Number two - Skyline Owners Forum

Here's another one My R34 Project - Page 2 - Skyline Owners Forum

I hope they help.

[gillsl500]

Cheers mate, yeah it was minters R34 i was gonna buy....gutted that the finances dident work out :-(

However will still read up and learn about the process of how its all done, so when i do have the finances i can sort my self out!!

Minters example looks the dogs......fairplay to him!!

Cheers again

[Steveline]

Still got my GTR Alloy bonnet for sale, original Nissan so perfect fit every time! pm me if your interested £350ish!

[gillsl500]

Cheers Steve but dont think my budget will stretch that far but will let you know if it does...cheers

[Steveline]

Thought that was pretty cheap tbh, can you really get a fibreglass bonnet cheaper than that, which will open and close?! Good luck. Think I would just save up my pennies until I could afford a real GTR.

[gillsl500]

Its about making it fit, end of the day like you say its not meant to be on there, but i suppose working around that maybe a good challenge......mmm or not :-)

To be fair with all the money id have to spend to do this right, it might well be a good idea to just go for the real thing? ive seen a couple now going for about £21k, which isnt bad??

Cheers

[turbob12]

Originally Posted by Steveline

Thought that was pretty cheap tbh, can you really get a fibreglass bonnet cheaper than that, which will open and close?! Good luck. Think I would just save up my pennies until I could afford a real GTR.

£350 is pretty cheap for the bonnet and I would advise getting an original bonnet rather than a fibreglass one. The alloy bonnet on my car is actually lighter than the vented (Nismo style) fibreglass bonnet that was supplied with my bodykit.

I'm not sure how you meant your comment about affording a real GTR so I'll assume you didn't mean to cause offence. My GTT will be badged front & rear as a GTT, I'm not trying to pretend that my car is a GTR, I just think it'll look better with the kit as I think the front of the GTT is pretty weak looking the way the bonnet curves over the front onto the bumper.

I could have saved my pennies for another year and bought a real GTR but buying the GTT means I've had cash over the last year to do other things.

[gillsl500]

Thinks i might have to see what i can sort out then for that bonnet?? see i was told you could get one from around £200-250....maybe i was told wrong or misunderstood??

But yeah turbob12 i can see what your saying, for me its all about the look mate not too fussed about the speed!! i love my R32 GTR for how mean and angry she looks and il never sell her, yes could i could sell and add some savings and get an R34 GTR but end of the day if i can get a R34 GTT and make it look like a mother bitch then thats cool with me...but just need to guage realistically how much its gonna cost me in total??

Was looking at the EAST BEAR kits!! have emailed newera, lets see what they say?