Passenger side front moulding fix

when i bought the GTR it was in pretty good nick but there were a few things needing done to make it functional. Fuel cap didn't release properly, boot lid struts were definitely dead and the front passenger side mudguard moulding was hanging off the wing. Not a huge deal as you can see below but annoying enough. 

As part of the slowly slowly building up the car to be 'fixed' but standard I had bought some body clips to get the issue fixed but on checking the car the mechanic found that although I needed the body clips I also needed the moulding clips as well to allow the two wing and moulding to fit into each other. This was put on the back burner for a while as basically I was lazy. Fast forward a year or so and I started looking for the clips for the mouldings. I couldn't find them anywhere as a stand alone part though i could buy a complete set of clips for all the body mouldings but it was kerching.... Anyhow, I did a bit of asking around on the forums and somehow managed to find a part number which then lead to another of those GTR ownership moments. Yep you can get the part brand new in the UK / EU but kerching! So i searched the Japanese market and lo there were at a more sensible price and with postage to the UK I could get few clips for less than the price of one sourced locally. As it turns out, handy I did buy a few...

So with the clips in hand and about 5 months after I had actually received them today i tackled the problem. Moulding clips below and a spare body mount as well.

Since I do not have access to ramps at home a supplemental tool was required to locate the screws holding the bottom of the moulding to the car.

Doesn't have to be fancy it just needs to work :)  So underbody fasteners removed (two of) and the two wing mounted fasteners removed

Pull the moulding off and tada there you have it. What this first picture doesn't show you is there are three body clips required

and it was only when I looked at the car itself that I noticed the three body clips looking all lonely for a moulding clip to fit

Another quick look at the moulding and yes there is the third clip position to match the body. Luckily i had bought more than the one clip I thought I needed. Zero clips in place originally (well from previous owner), no wonder it hung a bit out in the breeze eh ? So, three brand new clips in place and now to squeeze it back onto the car.

All back together again and matching the drivers side. Job done and knuckles and tools intact.

Spring Break run to Applecross

 so the weather was forecast to be dry and sunny daytime but cold cold at night. At first I'd booked a wee camping spot but then quickly realised that was a stupid idea and upgraded myself to one of the cabins in the Applecross Campsite. Brilliant wee things, the one i booked was for two folks but they all have big thick foam mattresses either 2 or 4 depending on cabin size, a light inside, light outside and a heater! The also have at least one power point in them for charging phones etc. Cracking deal, highly recommend it. 

So I'm not one for taking tonnes of pictures but I took a few.

Run down the north side of the Pass of the Cattle, purpose built layby with viewpoint and good photo op

Got to the Applecross campsite and unpacked the sleeping bag(s) and sorted out the mattress. What that lurking in the background there?

After getting everything sorted in the cabin, time for some beers in the sun while drinking in the view. Then I walked to the Inn for some more beers, bit of chat and some dinner. Right outside the campsite I met these two just happily grazing on the local grass

This is the view from the seats outside the Applecross Inn and is mighty fine to sit outside when the weather is warm however don't be fooled by the sunny view here, it wasn't exactly warm by this time of the evening as the chill in  the May weather was beginning to bite. Still, it is warm and dry and cosy in the Inn

After a fine fish and chips, time for the walk home and what a view at night

Next morning set off early after a shower and headed for breakfast at the Waterside Cafe in Loch Carron. A mighty fine warm sunny morning it was so breakfast outside it was. Views and a fry up with the Bru, perfect.

After that mighty feed it was back into the car and heading for home. I will have to change my route to get home and potentially the route up there as the traffic was pretty bad and almost no opportunities to overtake safely. Far too many cars / vans on the road and it was a long trip sitting behind folks. I did however manage and avg of 25mpg which for the GTR is a poor reflection or my driving haha. Should be into the low 10s' :) 

New tyres fitted - GTR

 so the march towards getting the GTR ready for spring / summer progresses, not at the quickest pace but better than last year that's for sure. As it still has the stock 9x17inch wheels i plumbed for 255x40 same as fitted by previous owner but Michelin PS4 tyres and all four corners replaced. I would have gone 245x45 as per spec to get a slightly higher rolling radius to help the front splitter but remembering the MR2 and it's 245x45 on a 9inch width, it just looked a bit stretched and with our potholed roads we need all the rim protection going. 255x40 just looks nice on the rim so there it is. Next stop, alignment then see it if still tracks a bit under braking.

Approaching spring time - list of things to do

 so yes spring is around the corner and we must prepare for this time of year. Normally that'd mean gardening stuff but in fact I am talking about car stuff. Specifically the GTR as its MOT is due mid April... Squeaky bottom time.

So to prepare for this event I decided to awaken it from its winter slumber and do some really basic checks like

• does the car actually fire up - it did and sounded fab
• does anything leak out of the bottom of it - nothing did
• is there a burning smell  - no there is not

So once the above was done I figured while I'm here I'll check the lights work and boom it happened. Passenger side low beam comes on and then fades away... GTR headlight bulb change is a bumper off shot in most cases. Sigh. 

Anyhow I check the fuses (in the rear boot shelf in case anyone wonders) and fuses are fine so we're looking at the bulb. So after much swearing I remove the airbox snorkel and have a squint at the bulb and I reckon I can get my small hands in there and get the case off and the bulb out. This is what it looks like

Not the biggest amount of space to work in but I managed to twist the plastic bulb cover off, release the spring holding the bulb in, thankfully the light unit does retain the spring and then get the bulb out. Quick test on the multimeter and yep bulb is toast. Luckily when I bought the car they had left a headlight bulb in the car and luckily i knew where said bulb was stored. Tested the new bulb (H1 55W in case anyone wonders ) with the multimeter and it seemed ok so plugged it into the wiring, shoved it back into the light unit and pushed the spring clip back over the bulb end. Moment of truth and both headlights now working fine, even the same shade of light on the garage door. Hoo raa. I wont bore with the details of trying to get the damned plastic screw on cap back on the headlight anything like that other than it really was a pain in the fingers and arms. 

The list of jobs to do before spring driving season include but not limited to

• new tyres to get fitted - ordered some Michelin PS4 which should be plenty grippy for me
• get tyre alignment done - tba
• get the floor inspected and any underseal top up done - tba but process started
• oil and filter change 
• MOT booked and er deal with any issues..

think that's it really.

R33 GT-R news and a run oop North

It has finally happened! Managed to get a dry weekend and meet up with a fellow petrol head and hit Ullapool and Applecross for a wee drive. It was brilliant. Such fun driving about up there, weather was perfect bar a small cloud / mist type thing for about 10miles but damn it felt just right flowing the cars through the corners up there. I'm not going to lie. I did have in the back of mind that this 29yo JDM vehicle might not be the best for those roads esp sitting on coilovers that are pretty stiff but not like I had a choice at that point and these are the roads this car was made for and certainly what I bought it for.

Now I must mention the Spring Service that was done during the MOT / timing belt change. So the timing belt was due for replacement by age rather than miles. We had no idea when the last service had been carried out, when fluids were changed yada yada but we did know 5th gear didn't like being shifted into when the box was hot. Not at medium to higher rpm anyways which made joining motorways and shifting into 5th a somewhat noisy and expensive sounding process if not done really really slowly. So the decision was made, easy really that we'd get everything changed and dear lord was that some shopping list.

Alt belt, Air con belt, Power steering belt, timing belt, tensioner for said timing belt, water pump previously confirmed as not needing replaced, engine oil and filter, power steering fluid, brake fluid, front diff fluid, gearbox fluid, transfer case fluid, rear diff fluid, HICAS steering fluid, new brake pads all round. Got all that done plus the MOT plus putting in the stock airbox and getting rid of the HKS mushroom super intake kit. Horrible thing. Anyhow, here is the new airbox snorkel and the 2nd hand airbox I managed to source

Yeah I know not very exciting but it works very well to way above what I'll ever run the car at and pretty much can ignore changing the filter for a long long time!  The great news from the service was that the coolant was also changed, cause it was manky as and the gearbox fluid change also got rid of the crunch into 5th gear. Still needed testing at higher rpms and after the car had had a good run out. Road trip you say eh? Sadly the weather from April to er September was shocking. I mean terrible, lucky to get three days dry in a row and then it was all hands to the garden to either enjoy having one and or do grass cutting weeding tidying up. Not a lot of driving was done at all, total let down. Then one September weekend stood out on the weather forecast. A plan was envisaged, contacts were reached out to and a plan was hatched. ROAD TRIP! A one nighter to Ullapool and then the Applecross and home. 

So the plan was, if the weather forecast held that we'd scoot to Ullapool on the Saturday and stay overnight before doing Applecross on the Sunday and heading home our separate ways.

Previously I was debating whether or not to change tyres on the GT-R as the ones on it were and are a bit old. Like really old but because the weather had been quite frankly mostly sht I'd not bothered my butt about it and now in 5 days I was heading on a near 700 mile road trip. Aw baws. After much humming and hawing over grippy tyres versus something that's good enough for summer / dry days driving I'd chosen and ordered tyres. I not only chose badly but i also chose the wrong fitting place. They delayed the fitting by a day and then on the day they'd picked they then couldn't fit them in the allotted time slot. Leave it with us and come back, we'll them fitted for you. Aye right, that doesn't suit my lunch break and how am I supposed to get home and back again so that was canned. Cue many a frustrating call to the suppliers and the short version is, I was going on the tyres already on the car. Naturally when I woke up on the Saturday I was raining here. Grand, just grand. Forecast said the destinations where going to be dry and sunning so stuff it, we're going!

Once I was about halfway up the loch side the sun came out and the aircon was working fab. Car felt good and the gearbox and tyres were all keeping me rubber side down. Stopped for petrol halfway up and bought a bit of of a packed lunch for eating in a loch side parking area. Once back on the road north the weather was a bit so so and not exactly the brilliant sunshine I'd had til then. Met up with my mate on the road to Ullapool and he confirmed it was beautifully sunny at Ullapool. Right then, what we doing in the mist, lets go go go.

Onwards to Ullapool for an overnight camp and then the run to Applecross. Slightly nervous about the run and all the single track roads, the bumps the potholes and that damned front splitter over the crown of the roads and the many weird and wonderful undulations and of course having to move slightly off-road to allow other oncoming vehicles to pass. Well there were a few scrapes of that front lip and definitely some heavy braking moments to scrub off the speed before hitting the bumps / pot holed road but yeah the car and me made it with only a few er interesting moments. 

So, the Applecross is like, well this is the sign that greets you as approach it from the south 

Yes, that is 2053ft summit and hairpins. Oh yeah, we do all remember the GT-R's ae part time AWD yes ? So my thoughts were, please god do not fail me now and also wonder what the AWD is going to do when i try and hoof it out of the hairpins. The good news is that the AWD is quite happy for one to drop into first gear, get the car half way round the hairpin and then give some beans and lo the front drive kicks in and car hauls out of the corner and up the hill. Ah bliss. It is the simple things that amuse us.

So, can you in a Nissan even a 29yo model. Yes it turns out you can. Happy days.

Amazing, absolutely amazing. Time was a marching on at this point as we'd been delayed getting out of Ullapool so the decision was made not to head onwards down into Applecross for lunch at the pub but to head back down the way we'd come and grab lunch in Loch Carron if possible, it being a Sunday and all. It all worked out grand and then we scooted south for the run home and discovered pretty quickly that we weren't going to have the fuel to do the distance we thought we'd need to. I couldn't really understand why I seemed to have a quarter tank less fuel that I expected but I also wasn't going to argue and see if it was right so the choice was made and we changed our route to go 10miles further south than intended to where we knew we could get fuel. Yeah it turned out my gauge was lying to me but at least it wasn't going to cause me to run out fuel with a quarter full showing on the gauge. A winter time investigation I think. So we doubled back slightly, got onto a very lovely road only to be stuck behind some traffic that was stuck behind a bus that would not pull over into the passing passes. I mean really, that's just no on sir! Anyhow, we did the required turn and got some clean fresh roads and off we went and when the time came we waved our goodbyes and a flash of the lights and we parted towards our respective homes.

So, some 650miles later over two days of driving and I felt grand, no back pains no legs pains but i did have some ankle pain but that's to be expected with using the three pedals in the car. The GT-R seats are the best I've ever had in a car. I there are not the easiest to get in and out of but for the job of keeping you in place while driving and being comfy? Oh yes, beautiful to be sat in. Bliss indeed. 

Fixing the GTR spare / blank / coin cover

 so at some point in the GTR's life it got an alarm fitted with requisite LED and rather than use the coin holder on the dash or even drilling a hole in the dash / steering cover the fitter decided to take out the coin mask from the centre console arm rest and drill a hole in that... Not even swap it with a blank but actually drill a hole right through it. I suppose either way it's unlikely I'd have got the original included but damn what place to put completely out of eye line as well.

So, started off by having the LED moved, it was but left with this

luckily I had this already sitting waiting for the moment

side by side for comparison

and finally in the car. Easiest fix done yet ha.

er so I bought one lol

in its natural habit no ?

 yup I have gone and bought an R33 GTR, after the prices have already gone stupid and before they go really stupid (hopefully still upwards to get some cash back to me in the future). Car I'd always wanted after the MR2 but kept the MR2 for so long until it was rusted beyond repair (boot floor was rotten from wheel arches to the bumper) that I thought no more old 90's JDM for me and then full circle here I am. 

So why now? Well after my trip to Japan in 2020 for the Tokyo Auto Salon and going to the Daikoku Tokyo car meets, seeing all the JDM cars and tonnes of British / European and American cars as well, the R33 passion was relit and then the pandemic hit. But it has itched away at me since then and while I've nagged various mates about it I didn't really do anything about it til just before Christmas 2022 when i really started seriously looking at options. A few ups and downs later and here we are and I've only gone and done it. Did I need to do it, nope and certainly shouldn't have done it for many many reasons but you do only live once so er yeah why not!

So it's a Series 1, silver (obv) very basic mods of coilovers (too low and too stiff as the car skips over a series of bumps rather than ride them out) lovely Kakimoto exhaust that is not too loud and neighbour friendly ish and some daft HKS mushroom filters. Other than that, stock which is how it mostly will remain. Might update the mp3 CD head unit to a Sat Nav unit but that's a bit more awkward with the single DIN layout. Might just get a plug in Sat Nav display that does the Bluetooth for the phone / music as well. Choice choices.