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Grey 32,strip and clean....kind of.

218K views 1K replies 172 participants last post by  Japtastic 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi all, this is my first attempt at a thread and don't really know what I'm doing, so please excuse my mistakes until I get in to my stride, then feel free to rip me a new one if that's what's needed.

Where to start??

Well as you can probably tell from the title I have an '89 gun metal grey r32 gtr that I've had for a few years now, believe it or not I actually bought the car to take to pieces and use the running gear for another project, knowing it had been bumped at the front and badly repaired. Once I had the car I got it on the ramp and realised it was only cosmetic damage and in quite good condition for it's age, and I didn't have the heart to take it apart. At this point I hadn't driven it yet, and once I did I fell in love with it and decided to run it for a bit, quite a bit, well five years or so, and to be honest apart from routine maintenance I haven't spent a penny on it. Then about eight months back I noticed a slight tapping from the engine on over run, so removed the engine to investigate, and yes you guessed it, it had spun a bearing on number one, luckily no damage to the crank.

Now this is where any sane person would have put new shells in and put it back together, but I was toying with the idea of a few mods and needed time to think, so I came home, had a bottle of bud or two (to help clear the mind). and with the engine already being out and all, it just didn't seem right to miss this opportunity to clean a few bits, plus it would give me something to do while I was making my mind up.

I've already stripped a good bit of the car over the last few months whenever I had a couple of hours spare, and some of the photos may be out of synch at first, but this is to try and fill you in on what's been happening.

It was never my intention to do a build thread , but my wife says I have issues, a lot of them, and talking to like minded people may help, because let's face it, when it comes to our GTR's we all have issues.

This was never going to be a big budget build, it's just me giving the car the TLC it deserves.This is probably going to be a slow process that will happen when time and money allows, but I hope some of you will find it worth a read.

I'm also trying to get my garage finished at the same time as working on the car, so that has a knock on effect on what gets done and when.

I'll try and keep up to date on that at the same time if anyone's interested, and believe me that's been a saga in it's own right. The things we put ourselves through to get a garage, but, if life was easy and all that!!!

Pictures to follow once I get my head round how to do it.

Wheel Automotive tail & brake light Car Vehicle Automotive lighting
 
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#2 ·
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Automotive lighting Nissan gt-r

Always loved the way it sat
Vehicle Car Tire Auto part Automotive wheel system

But it was showing it's age
Vehicle Engine Car Auto part Hood

And in need of some attention, and that was before it spun a shell. I did use it as a bit of a work horse, and always when it snowed, it would go anywhere and never get stuck, it definitely owes me nothing.
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Sedan Hood

This was taken just after it's untimely demise. So here it sat for quite a while, waiting to have it's heart removed and repaired, the only problem being, it's sat in the garage I've been building for the past three years to put it in, and as you can see it still needed some work before it was water tight.
It would have been finished a couple of years back, had my neighbours not decided I require planning permission for it, but that's a whole other story.
 
#3 ·
Anyway a few weeks later, to my total disbelief, the permission was granted, so away we went, the aim being, get the roof on before they change their mind.
Architecture Wall Vehicle Car Building

Beams on
Roof House Architecture Brickwork Home

Forgot to take picks of fitting the rafters, but I'm sure you get the idea
Roof Line Wood Daylighting Infrastructure

Sheets on, believe it or not, when we was doing the roof it was that hot I couldn't touch the sheets without burning myself, it made the day a long one but it was worth it.
Vehicle Car Parking Building Automobile repair shop

Nice and cool inside, but most of all bone dry.
 
#6 ·
Subscribed! Love the randomness of this thread already!
:thumbsup:
Bob
 
#8 · (Edited)
Cheers Bob, if you like random, your in for a ride.
I must admit you've made quite a jump from a ÂŁ20 gazebo on your drive to where you are now, it's made an interesting read.

And thanks for the kind words Lee, it's been a long time coming and it will evolve as it goes along. As I said at the beginning, I'll keep dropping bit in about the garage as it goes along, as long as there's an interest, I just don't want to bore people.

Sorry, forgot, Pontefract, ish.
 
#10 ·
It was never my intention to do a build thread , but my wife says I have issues, a lot of them, and talking to like minded people may help, because let's face it, when it comes to our GTR's we all have issues.
Lol welcome to the club mate!! We are all here for the same reason!!! :clap:

Looking forward to seeing you progress with this, garage is huge - well worth the hassle no doubt..

Perfect colour for your 32 too, beautifil:clap:

Keep it coming!

Sam (gtrocd club chairman) (GTR obsessive compulsive disorder)
 
#12 · (Edited)
Let the fun begin, strip down starts,






Engine in,



Engine out,



Nothing to it, honest.

Note to self, buy an engine lift.



One big dirty hole.



One big dirty engine.



Must admit the ORC twin plate was a bonus, I just thought the noise was because the thrust bearing was going.... only joking





Well one things for sure, it won't look like this when I'm done, this is going to be "literally" a nut and bolt strip down, every single piece removed, cleaned, painted, coated, then put back together,well that's the plan

Shit, the gravity of that statement just hit me, I need a bud.



Dropped the bottom end off for a closer look, it had spun number one, did have a shot of the bearing but can't find it, it's probably on my old phone.

This was where the weather picked up a bit, so decided to do some more on the garage,



Space started to get a bit cluttered outside.



So moved all the crap out of the way, dug some of the stone out from under the trees where I'd been storing it for the past few years, and cracked on.





Right that's enough of that, back to the car.









The strip down continues.













Went on a hunt for all the rust that would normally be associated with a 24 year old car, but some bast**d had nicked it.

If I'm honest, I was really impressed at the condition, far better than expected

The next couple of days we were finishing a job off down the road, and I ended up with a few plaster boards left, (I'm a builder by the way) so they came back and were instantly put to good use.







I also decided it was time I had some benches to work on, don't know if you spotted them in the first of the last three pictures, they're in flat pack form bottom right.







Welded





Primed





Painted

I think It's time for a Bud.
 
#19 ·
Hi all, back after a really long day, showered and a full belly, ready for a bit of an update.

Please keep in mind, I'm still trying to bring things up to date, these first few post are what's been going on over the last few months, and not what I'm doing at present.

I'd also like to thank every one who's had a look, it makes the effort worth while.

Started to remove the interior, and still on the hunt for the rust.













Also managed to get some paint on the walls, well half of them, and the wheel rack up in position ready for welding.



Dropped the front subframe, must get an engine lift.





Also boarded the main entrance up till I get round to making some doors, and fitted an old door that was removed from a job I was doing, just so I can lock the place up on a night, not that security is a problem, the security guard has four legs and great big f**k you teeth.

Dropped a sheet of ply on top of one of the benches so I had somewhere to strip things down, going to make some proper tops from some 9x3 when I get the time.



Stripped the front subframe, just didn't take any photos, then stripped this rear one, which is a spare, part of a full set of running gear I got for another project.





Removed the bushes.





Decided to add the strengthening plates to the suspension hangers, but I'll get to that latter.



Then spent a quite a bit of time removing all the welding spatter, and other annoying imperfections.





Once I'd stripped the subframes, I got the bumper on the bench and removed the vents, mesh, and all the fixings.



The paint work on the bumper is in quite bad shape.





And I think that's where I'm going to leave for tonight, I'm knacked.
 
#23 ·
Hi all, you know sometimes when you just need a quick moral booster, a few weeks back I removed the rear bumper took the number plate lights out also the reversing light and fog light, gave them a bit of a clean.



Before









Can't find the before photo's of the fog and reverse lights, which is annoying, anyway they were just as bad, you get the idea.

after something as simple as a wash.

















Can I just thank you guys again for all the positive comments, and also say, maybe this should just be GOC (garage owners club) I can't believe how much you all like the garage, I've not done a thing to it since I boarded the door up, but now I feel like I should out of respect for you guys.

The next couple of weeks I'll do some more and get plenty of photos, stay tuned.
 
#28 ·
Glad you like, I thought they were clean till I uploaded the photos, then I spotted the dirt between the letters on the number plate lights, small finger nail brush soon sorted it though.

No I'm not that anal really, just sometimes the small stuff annoys me.
 
#32 ·
Another small update, wanted to have a go at strengthening the rear suspension, love the nismo stuff but can't really afford it (read, more important things to spend my money on) so' thought I'd have a go myself.

started with this.



Made some cardboard templates.







Also did the same for the other arms as well, then took the templates to my local laser cutters and had them cut me a couple of each out of 2mm plate.



massaged them with a tapping stick (hammer).



Had the rear sub frame blasted, then trial fitted them.





Then welded them in place.

















Then took them and had them blasted, along with a lot of other parts, but I'll post those latter.





I only made the top two plates in the next photo, the bottom two are original.



Not really happy with the centre weld in the next photo, going to re-weld it.











The remaining bushes will be removed, then they are going to be zinc plated, then powder coated, the zinc is mainly to protect the internal parts that the powder coating doesn't reach.

If any one is interested in having a go at this them selves, I could put a 12 piece kit of these laser cut brackets together for about ÂŁ50 a set, plus postage of coarse.
 
#37 ·
Quick update.

Had some more parts blasted, all of which are going to be zink plated then some are to be powder coated.



The factory welding isn't the best, but it's still lasted over 20 years.










The guy I use for the blasting is usually quite good, but he's started missing bits that are easy to spot, I'm not to bothered because it's easily fixed, it's still annoying though.

It doesn't matter how trivial the job, you should always do it to the best of your ability, at least that's what I think.



Another example of factory welding, looks like they forgot to turn the gas on.









Majority of the pipe work will be left just zink.



If I'm honest I still haven't made a decision on what colour to have the parts coated, I'm leaning towards satin black (factory), or maybe gloss gun metal to match the body.

I'm thinking as long as there's a colour between the grey sub frame assembly, and the grey body, say the black under seal, then it could work, opinions welcome.
 
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