Very nice looking good pick with pony made me laugh thought it was go a be dance pony dance by the gtr

 

Cheers mate, was in the new forest and the ponys came wondering over and I couldn't resist, loads more updates to come!!

Will

 

Nice Will buddy. Knowing and seeing whats been going on with the car, shes going to be a cracker when you have finished.
Cant wait to see it on the road.

 

Cheers wills, I certainly hope so mate. I can't wait to see it on the road either.
I saw the picture of your 260 at Wilton, I wish I could have made it over but was
Unable to make it, agree with will d you should get it printed and up on the wall
It is a stunning picture. Hope to catch up soon, probably japfest.

Will

 

Too many Wills!

Will,

Great to read a bit of history behind the car and how you got there. I love reading about the backgrounds to the cars and the little niggles and problems that people overcome on the way. Subscribed buddy and keep it going, can't wait to see the rest of the bits and photos etc.

Will.

 

Good grief do I love those wheels!!!

Any surprises in store as far as the engine's concerned?

 

Cheers mate, as soon as I saw them I knew they were the only wheels I wanted.

No surprises really as for the engine, just slightly stronger than before in the
Guise of forged pistons, rod bolts, tomei sump baffle, acl bearings and ported head.

Thanks for reading dude.

Will

 

Subscribed, looking forward to more details

 

Cheers will,

Glad you enjoyed the read there is plenty more to add to it as you well
Know. You're right too many wills, the same problem we had a month or
Two ago. Haha. Thanks for looking buddy. I'm looking forward to a catch up
Soon.

Will

 

Nice car buddy - I'm working on an LM at the moment. Lovely wheels you have for it.

 

Seeing as Will's car has been staying at our place for a while now Will asked me to update his project thread
to keep everyone up to date with the resto work we're doing on his LM.

Ready on the lift for the strip down to begin.



Love the LM blue really compliments the curves of the R33.


:clap:

First step was to remove the engine and gearbox, the engine was suspected to have bottom end damage so
Will had a fresh build underway, should be good for 5-600 bhp



As many of these engines/gearboxes as Ive seen now out of the car I'm always blown away by the shear size of the GTR power train.





Rear subframe/diff/Hicas assembly removed ready for a full strip down and resto.



Stripping the suspension components down ready for balsting and fresh powder coating.



A few weeks of hard work and elbow grease and the rear subframe comes up a treat! Better than Nissan ever made them!
Fully equipt with SuperPro and Whiteline bushes throughout.:thumbsup:





Front subframe had the same full restoration treatment, Will is a very particular chap, which is great!:clap:



New SuperPro steering rack bushes, brand new OEM inner and outer ball joints and track rod ends were fitted.







:thumbsup:
bob

 

Very nice - looks very much like my LM at the moment. Just wish I could pay for somebody else to do the work on mine as work on the underside sucks.

 

Will's strut tops had been repaired, (By a very, very bad person) Some time in the past. They needed doing again needless to say! :wavey:
You could see the rust bubbling and growing below the paint.



There was nothing for it but to cut out all of the layers of rusty metal and replace with new metal, patch ups just don't last and just wont do!



Even we were shocked at the extent of the rust hiding below the botched patching of the strut tops.



Shocking stuff!



So we cut out all of the rusty metal until we just had bright clean metal, this was then treated and the donor rust free strut top was fitted.



You can see from below how well the new panel fits!:thumbsup:



You can see the brace we made to keep things from distorting while we cut out the passengers side strut top. One down one to go!




bob

 

great work love the detail keep it coming

 

Continued.......
Next on the to do list was tackle the underside of Will's car.
After spending so much love on the subframes/suspension we couldn't possibly bolt them onto the tired looking underside.

The car had at some time in it's life been undersealed, Im really not a fan of the stuff, it generally can hide a multitude of sins,
once applied the good/bad quality of rust removal underneath can be hidden easily. If there is any rust and it's not treated it can continue to spread from the inside out.
It's generally not til it's removed that the full horror story can be revealed, which in Will's LM case was pretty terrible.
(much prefer total rust eradication to bare metal and then something like Rustbuster Epoxy resin 121 or POR 15 be applied).
We found sections that had literally had bathroom silicone sealant squeezed in to fill up rusty holes, smoothed over and then coverered over with a thick layer of underseal. uke:

The rear of the front wheel arches had holes in them that once you cleared the rust and underseal you could actually see the interior carpet through.



So we drilled out the spot welds and carefully removed the front panel to access the section behind it and to allow us to cut out the rust.
We would then repair the front panel and reinstate it.



This is how it looked before the clean up of the underseal. (drivers side).



The panel we removed from the front wheel arch.
It was cleaned up and all rust removed, then new sections were made and welded into the cleaned up panel.



Once this was done and we had hand made the new repair sections we put it all back the way we found it but this time with zero rust!:clap:



All protected and solid.






bob

 

Great great work, this looked a bit of a dog before but well on the way to being a minter. What did you use to remove the underseal Bob?

 

Those Subframes <3 Need me some Zealous stickers please

 

Both Sills needed replacing, the previous welding/repairs were awful, beyond repair and full of rust. The only way to make good was to cut them out and replace with new panels.

So glad we did as the inside of the sills were full of rust.



Both sides had suffered badly from rust eating its was through the sills.
(drivers side rear inside the sill).



All this was to be cut out back to good clean metal, no amount of rust treatment alone would stop this stuff!



Nasty evil brown stuff!!!!A time bomb waiting to destroy a beautiful car!



Crushed sills/jacking points had let even more of what the road had chucked up in over the years.
Once the layers have been separated its much easier to get the sill and jacking point straight and perfect again.



Bad...



Bad....



Both sills had all of the rust cut out and all surface rust removed back to bare metal.



New strengthening was added to replace the material that had rotted out. Once primed and protected we could fit the new sills.



Making sure the fit of the new panel is 100%.:thumbsup:



We then Plug welded where the old spot welds were drilled out for a spot on fit.



good as new!!!:clap:



The fit and quality of new Nissan panel was perfect!



One down one to go....









Drivers side sill goes on lovely too!



Inside the sills, all good clean and rust free!
These will be treated to a very liberal covering of Dynax S50.



With the new sills we even fitted 4mm 90 degree angled steel strengthening to the jacking points, the whole lower sill is brand new too as the original was terrible.



This is what was lying beneath the underseal, completely rotten rear arch section, the previous garage had just welded plated on top of the rust.



You can see here how bad the previous repairs were!
All this got cut out and replaced as a matter of course!:thumbsup:



Here's the new panels we hand made to replace the terrible rusty work that had been done previously!



All good and solid and protected throughout!



Hand made panels fit perfectly.



The other side was the same bad work, unbelievable that anyone could be happy to do such and botch job! You can see how they have welded untreated metal straight on top of the old rust.



Not cool!



All of the above was of course cut out, this pic below shows the layers that had to be fabricated to make the sills perfect again.
The ends are still to be made and reinstated.



More to come.......
:thumbsup:
bob

 

Cheers for updating with all our work bob, its been quite a journey already

Also your pictures look alot more artistic than mine

will

 

No worries Will bud, what I forgot to mention is Will has been there too every step of the way! Dismantling the whole car, nut and bolt, making metal replacement panels, welding, you name it he's done it!
It's been one hell of a journey! Couldn't ask for a nicer or keener guy to be on that journey with!:clap:
See you tomorrow Will mate!
:thumbsup:
Bob

 

beauty! ive seen this in flesh at bob's. all works that bob carried out is outstanding and top quality.:thumbsup:

waiting for more =)

 

Did you purchase the replacement panel direct from Nissan or was it from a motor factors?

Impressive work nonetheless.

Is the Le Mans a limited edition? If so, what's different about it?

 

Is the Le Mans a limited edition? If so, what's different about it?

Not much difference from the v-spec model - there were under 100 made and it had a bonnet spoiler thing and a carbon rear spoiler blade. Other than that only the colour as far as I know but others may correct me.

 

Amazing work, will follow this thread for sure

 

Loving this thread. Restoration the way it should be done.

 

Awesome work Bob!

 

That is an unbelievably extensive amount of work, cheers to both of you! I would have been gutted soon into this project, afraid of looking anywhere else not wanting to find more of the same.

Very happy for you to take it on and can't wait to see more progress pics!