A little progress...but not much.

After recovering most of Saturday from a big night out with the boys on Friday, Roy said he'd be in at the workshop so I trundled in around lunch time to do some work on the car.

The intention was to put some of the rear end together and get the brake and fuel lines bolted back up. So, once I got there my first job was to find a fuel tank - after checking a few cuts out the back, I found one on a car up the back of the workshop in top condition - no hits. Next I dragged the brake and fuel lines out and gave them a quick wipe down with some prepsol. Once clean, slid them back under and after a bit of cursing, had them bolted into position with the newly coated bolts. Looked great.

Next was the rear end. I had brought some old bits of carpet from home a few weeks before so I layed out a few bits so I didn't scratch any of the new paint on the concrete floors. I man handled the sub-frame out from under the car, and layed it over the differential which I then...damn I didn't get the nuts coated for the diff. After a quick sandblast I bolted the diff up. This was followed by the arms. It was only now I noticed I didn't get all the bits I needed for the diff to bolt up - missing were some rubber gromets and spacers. So I moved onto the hubs and hub assemblies, where I sandblasted the bolts, layed on some anti-sieze paste and bolted hub, brake disc shield, handbrake bracket and hub assembly together.

Sorry about no pics, but that's about when Roy was closing up shop and I didn't get a chance to snap a few off.

Oh, and I received my Cusco OST Brace in the mail from JDM Concept. Cost $190 for this brace which extends my Cusco OS Rear Strut Brace down to a bracket on the floor, essentially triangulating the brace for better stiffness. Will post some pics once it's been painted the same as the other braces.

Bye for now.
Brendan

Drum and Bass, I mean Hubs and Brakes (sorry, bad humour friday)

Here's a pic of the R33 GT-R hubs I cleaned up and painted last week. These will match up with the GT-R half-shafts and of course the 5-stud hubs I have for the front.





Also mentioned previously that I straightened and painted up the R33 GT-R rear brakes disc shields, so here's a pics, along with one of my new rear DBA4000 rotors sitting inside it. Fronts are on back-order from Victoria.

- DBA4000 4929 (Front of Disc)
- DBA4000 4929 (Back of Disc)
- DBA4000 4929 (Box)

Front DBA4000 Specifications:
- Model: DBA 4928S (S = Slotted)
- Diameter: 324mm
- Thickness: 30mm (Minimum 28mm)

Front DBA4000 Specifications:
- Model: DBA 4929S (S = Slotted)
- Diameter: 300mm
- Thickness: 22mm (Minimum 20mm)

This discs are specified to be used with the R32 GT-R V-spec, R33 GT-R and R34 GT-R Brembo brakes which I have. Back to the workshop tomorrow for (fingers crossed) some bolting things together.

Cheers
Brendan

Still no bolting together - but I can feel it getting close

I know I mentioned that I was going to be bolting some stuff together on Saturday, but it just wasn't meant to be. Roy called on Friday and said that I'd have to look at getting the GT-R hubs out from the back corner, as the Just Jap 5-stud ones won't work with the GT-R half-shafts (or something to that affect). So first up I go the hub carriers and hubs etc off of the subframe that I'd been using, then it was a matter of taking it all apart. Thankfully it all came off fairly easily, with Roy using the hub carriers for another C-Red project that's being bolted together for the Perth Autosalon at the end of this month.

While I was at it I had to disassemble the handbrake assemblies, picture above. These basically are a small drum brake system (mechanical rather than hydraulic though) that pushes the drums against the inside of the brake disc/rotor. The hubs themselves were a little rusty in parts, so after a little bit of a scrub with a drill and nylon abrasion wheel/brush, it was masked and hit with a light coating of black paint. Also part of this lot were the rear brake rotor guards, which after a little bit of bending back into shape, a good clean with the prepsol, were also treated to a quick coat of satin black too.



I mentioned also in my last post about getting a box of bolts etc re-coated in zinc (gold). Here they are, by no means are they the last of them, but it's a good start. Of course as soon as I looked under the car again, I spotted more that I should have done. Oh well, I know I'll have to do another batch anyway.

Thanks for listening.

Cheers
Brendan

Diff done

Dropped into C-Red today to check on some parts I left drying over the weekend. All looked good. While there, Roy and I quickly changed over the driveshaft flange on the GT-R diff to one from an S13 diff to match up with the S13 drive shaft (funny that). We also fitted the nice shiny rear cover (and new gasket) and the results speak for themselves.

- GT-R Diff with S13 Rear Cover 1
- GT-R Diff with S13 Rear Cover 2

Also put back together (after painting) the braces I got in last week - being the Do-Luck 'Style' Ladder bar brace, which ties the chassis rails together around the front section of the gearbox, and the rear lower tie rod brace, which ties the lower tie rods together where they bolt up to the somewhat thin part of the rear subframe. Look good don't they.

- Do-Luck 'Style' Ladder bar brace (Front Chassis Brace)
- Rear Lower Tie Rod Brace

Over this period of pulling apart the rear end, I've slowly been gathering an assorted of nuts and bolts - all looking a little tardy, so I grabbed the box that I was collecting them in, chucked in all the other assorted nuts and bolts around the car, and dropped the box off to the Zinc Coaters. Have asked to be ready on Saturday so I can bolt the stuff together.

Cheers
Brendan

No slacking off yet

First of all, no I haven't been slacking off. I have been doing work on the car, but it's really restricted to Saturday's and sometimes a little of Sunday's...would make a good reason why it's taking so long to finish the car too.

Couple of weeks ago on Saturday (wife calls it Saturday morning creche), it was time to get the rear sub-assemblies off (otherwise known as Hub Carrier or Spindle I believe). This was a right pain in the a$$. After the half shafts being in them for over a decade, they were well and truly stuck fast. After plenty of Rost Off, belting with a hammer and one worse for wear half shaft, the shaft finally broke free of the sub-assembly. That was just one side...thankfully the drivers side came free with only 10 or so bashes with the hammer.



While I was at it, I removed the rear arms for cleanup and paint. Now although these won't be fitted to the final product, I thought I'd make sure they were at least worthy of being bolted up temporarily.

You may recall me doing the diff and half-shafts from an R33 GT-R a few weeks ago, well as planned, I found an S13 Rear Diff Cover which didn't have too many munted fins and prepped and painted it. I started out with just a coat of VHT Cast Aluminium paint, but thought why not a coat of clear to make it easier to clean (same theory as brakes - smooth surface, easier to clean). So on went 3 coats of clear and the results were great. So great I also hit the gearbox housing and the new Trust Sump with the same treatment.

- S13 Diff Housing 1
- S13 Diff Housing 2
- Nissan Differential Gasket
- Trust Sump - painted Cast Aluminium and Clear

Last week I finally took delivery of my new Nismo Power Brace, rear lower tension-rod brace and Do-Luck 'Style' Ladder Bar brace (goes under the gearbox and ties the chassis rails together). The Power Brace will stay its standard Nismo silver, but the other two braces were a mix of blue and polished alloy. These have now been painted Satin Black as per the rest of the under body parts.

- S13 Nismo Power Brace
- Do-Luck 'Style' Ladder Bar Brace (crap photo)



With all these bits painted and ready to go, it's almost time to bolt some of this stuff onto the car! Doh, just remembered I need to get all the bolts zinc coated first...

Cheers
Brendan

Moved to www.sillbeer.com

Well, first up, many thanks to the domain owner Ryan for letting me use his domain name for my project - sillbeer.com, thanks mate.

So this is a move that should make it much easier to remember where to see the progress of the car.

Cheers
Brendan