HICAS Lock out kit

Hello, hello, It is probably true that notable by my absence from blogging and previous comments about the car being complete. The casual reader may think that I am done with this annoyance of a 'car', well I'm happy to report that I'm a long way from having picked up a fine pair of slippers and changing vehicle to a Nissan Juke (although I have always fancied a pipe). In the back ground I have been 'Beavering away'. Real life has slowed me down somewhat with such annoyances like cash flow being diverted to everyday living, but I'm hopeful that I can recover my strangled bank balance, back to a more healthy shade and start the year again with a bang!

The funny thing with blogging or keeping a diary is, that you have to be pretty firm about keeping it up to date, making a habit of even the most boring news? I have practically missed the whole summer on here and in some respects missed the point of what the blog was about, which is me, not you!

Still anyway enough of my musings on the subject, lets get to something fresh on the table.

HICAS Lock Out

It was never my intention to remove the HICAS (rear wheel steering) from the car. However randomly I do get the warning light pop up just to say 'hello'. Naturally I have fiddled no end with such convincing things such as cleaning connections and light oil spray. The problem would be impossible to diagnose as I have a APEXi Power FC ECU on the car and can't easily generate a fault code. Nor can I say I have tried that hard as it quite takes my fancy to junk the whole of the HICAS system in favour of a Driftworks Lockout Kit (or HICAS Eliminator as they call it).

Kit including Toe rods, Polybushes, Brackets and Mounting Hardware.

Replaces Hicas rear steering on Hicas equipped Nissans

Improves Predictability of handling.

What you get in the box

As it arrives - Slightly less glamorous!

As mentioned I am holding off fitting just yet, as there are some other suspension geometry parts I'm interested in. Additionally as tracking will be required, it would be a better idea to fit all the bits in one go, rather than keep chuck in tracking (wheel alignment) costs at £100 (UK Pounds) a go. 

Light Up Rear Panel Part Two

And some fella said 'let there be light'..

So previously we had a clear panel with a bad paint job and two whacking great holes cut in the back. Not the most promising of starts I hear you cry. Ah, but remember that sometimes you need to destroy to be able to create! pffft... say the philosophers. Get on with it cry the readers...

So as to remain legal in the UK the rear panel must 'light up' red. Anything else is of course possible but you will be breaking the law on UK roads. Personally I like the red as it fits in with the lights. It is possible to purchase paint from Foliatec known as 'Glow Bulb' I like this as it's quick and easy only requiring one coat. However you can use Tamiya clear red etc, you get the idea. For instance on my car the internals are painted Tamiya red.

I did not paint this... This is not the finish

Characters painted internally with clear red

 Next up get tin foil or some adhesive backed foil. Stick this to where the centre lug is. What we want to do is cover all the way along behind the lettering with this. When the sun shines on the car during the day it helps make the lettering stand out, additionally it also helps the brightness when the panel is lit with reflected light.

Exhaust tape (but tin foil will do)

Remember to cover center section behind lug

 I was keen to 'try' a different LED set this time and picked some bright red 30CM strips up from ebay for very small money. These run off 12 volts and can be easily wired into the lighting circuit. However I think that  probably a 60CM would be better. I'm going to try out a 60CM strip to see how well it works. Currently I attached strips top and bottom.

pre wired Red LED, this is a 30CM strip 60 would be best.

 Using some plastic card, two strips were made to cover the holes made previously. Foil was attached to these as mentioned previously.

'PlastiCard cut to fit over holes with foil attached to 'inside' part

 The strips were then glued back into place. Probably does not matter what glue as long as it sticks. I like my glue gun, the bodgers tool!

Glue (or two part epoxy into place)

 As I used two light strips, I neatened up the wiring and tinned the wires. Ready for installation.

lets not have any messy wiring!

 Here is the finished product (from the lighting perspective). It is actually quite hard to take a photo as the camera dwells on the light source making it appear that the bulbs are brighter than they actually are. However it is fair comment to say that the S and the E are slightly dull in the flesh. Hence my final hurrah at trying a 60CM strip in the unit.

Some product?

I hope you enjoyed this outing into something practical and yet at the same time quite useless. Naturally the panel can be wired to the lights or if you have a sad copy type spoiler without brake light it could be wired to that.

Light Up Rear Panel

I was asked recently if I would 'make' a light up rear SKYLINE panel. The origins of the original light up panels have been lost in time now and fetch quite a high figure within the community. Although they seem reasonably pointless here in the UK as it is illegal to display anything other than a red light on the back of cars here. The original panel was of the clear design and rather cleverly just lit up the letters of skyline in a greenish 'teal' back light.

That isn't what I plan to show you all though, this is UK specific although naturally with a change of some ingredients anything is possible.

Firstly you will need to get hold of a Spec 1 Skyline panel. The irony being that the letters were originally painted silver and the rest of the panel was clear. We now need to turn this on its head and have clear letters and a painted panel. The one that I am using is a badly painted unit that a friend abandoned to my care. More about painting later.

As this is step one, it's reasonably easy. You will need to cut away two sections either side of the central locating lug at the back of the unit.

Note it may be possible to heat the unit and separate it's parts, although personally I have never tried doing this. This step only takes 30 odd minutes anyway.

With trusty drill and hacksaw blade. Not a hammer in sight. 

note this picture is wrong and you will need to go beyond the rubber air vent pipe.

Get your self a small drill and machine gun around the following area. From the central lug all the way along to include just beyond the small air vent. Then with hacksaw blade 'join the dots', naturally you will have to ensure that you got all the bits out of the unit although these usually rinse out okay.

This concludes part one, part two will be painting the letters and lighting.

Schism – winning the internet

I have a passing interest in cars, not I hasten to add that I think it takes over my life to the detriment of everything else. Although as it certainly seems to, I can only but guess that it is fact. It’s certainly strange having this true borderline obsession, a complete and singular focus on one thing, to reach a goal and damnation to everything else. Obviously I appreciate it is ‘just a car’ and have said this many times, although it is a car born of my own imagination, created by me, my hard labour, my dreams. Sometimes it is at odds with my own humility and am not sure if this is derived from my humble beginnings or just a desire not to show off. Although when complimented or even abused over it, my thought process are, that the other party has not earned the right to comment.  

Although there is also the need for acceptance, which is perhaps why I belong to a car club, whatever my original motivations were are probably lost in time now. With the shrinking multitude, I am also just another number passing comment, not quite the forum warrior that some feel the need to be. Yesterday I had the distinct displeasure of watching two tribes going to battle publicly over, nothing much. An argument that had simmered for sometime just went on to prove that things which happen in your head only happen in your mind. I often feel that my intelligence is a distinct disadvantage when on the forum.

Of course it resulted in various ejections of a small group of users, who are now firmly bonded together under the flag of injustice, a powerful force. Perhaps they will be able to build upon this, the very fact that this has happened in the past is proof positive that those with vision can overcome. However personal experience in a different field shows just how much dedication this can require. One irony being, that the group where they now fly their flags of allegiance are also talking about introducing the same rules that they pushed so hard to take down in the first place.

A friend of mine who has an interest in various forms of communication enquired of me about random status updates happening on Face book and eagerly studied the forums.

Their comment was as follows:

“They tried to win the internet, they lost”  

Perhaps there is a moral to this post, although I find it highly unlikely anyone in the same scenario will care. I however will continue to focus my ‘obsession’ on the car rather than focus it on the thoughts of others. 

The end of the road?

To Modify.

I'm not talking about saving a wreck or bringing a classic back to life. R33's are old, but not that old. They were pretty quick in their time, although now they struggle with, handling, acceleration, level of trim and fuel economy. Basically everything really is what you would expect from a car that ended production some 14 ish years ago.

To me Ms Skyline isn't a living and breathing thing. Who would want to drive 'high art' which basically is what I strove to create. What would be the point of it? Well ultimately there isn't a point, just the obsession that fills people to strive to create something.
Compared to other car marques it is a lonely existence, I have made some good friends but they are scattered to the winds and met some real BS merchants.

Most bizarre was the blog perhaps, that people would drop in and out of my 'Adventure' was unexpected. Although it is a big world out there, I guess that they can't all be bot's or wrong addresses?

Question is, would I do it again? Wah! You nuts?? No freaking way!

I think I will continue the blog for as long as anyone is interested.

As a last hurrah and whilst the car and myself are still intact. I had some photo's taken.
No Photo shop, just lighting involved.

Looks cool but Carbon is a pain

I have three centre consoles now..

JapFest 2012 Show report

It's a show report.. of sorts, especially considering the efforts involved with us actually getting in the gate. I'm not entirely sure if the journey was more eventful than the actual show!

Cars congregate to convoy to the show. Yes she made it here and is in centre shot!

12th May 2012 held at Castle Coombe Circuit
Japfest is a celebration literally of all things four wheeled and Japanese. From ricers to shop fresh GT-Rs this small corner of Wiltshire is transformed into a small corner of Japan. The schedule of events is split into professional drifting and members of the public getting a taste of track action.

Without doubt the biggest and best Japanese car show, this year it celebrated its tenth anniversary in some style, even without knowing the attendance it must have had record crowds attending, although am not entirely sure that this was purely down to it being an anniversary show, or just the fact that the weather God's had decided to be kind to us poor pale English folk and blaze down upon us. Whatever it was, there was certainly some of the very best in Jap car culture to feast the eyes on.

Taken from the Japfest official site Ms Skyline on the right. 

Naturally there was a fair amount of crap too.

Touring the retailers is always a bit of a let down as mostly they cater for either lesser cars or are just fine purveyors of 'stickers' and rubbish you can probably live with out. We did find a few gems scattered around and my friend picked up a nice NISMO cap and D1 Rad cap for a bargain price.. No I don't know if the oil cap was a fake, it looked good enough!

To be honest at the time of day when we finally rolled in, it was lunch time. So we had a pretty busy afternoon, me insisting on looking at the club stands and my friend begging to look at some drifting action. I think the balance was about right and before we knew it we had to make our way back to the Skyline Owners Club stand to partake in the cavalcade.

The cavalcade itself was rather fun, we were told we would be doing a slow lap, well yes we did do one slow lap.. Followed by three rather quick ones. It was a real buzz and I think I was still giggling in schoolboy terms the next day. In fact there is the rumour that my friend Dal, tried to merge and be as one with the pace car that was leading them around the track.

On track. I don't normally put in personal appearances on the blog!

To cap a brilliant day out, the club won best stand in show. Although this should not be too surprising as the cars this year were simply stunning.

Some pictures from the day.. Without trying to be too boring.

Al_Star

Have a feeling this is my friend Dal in pole position

Ms Skyline and my ass

Nitros (fine fella that he is!)

taste of the queues

Tommo's smokey lady (slight case of over bombing)

JapFest 12th May 2012 the boring bit - part one

Show season for me finally begins..

Slightly different format this year, as I had a good friend over to stay at mine. So we could drive up to the show together. Not exactly sure how logical this plan actually was, as the early night got progressively later and the early start stayed exactly where it began, early. Still in only the way that men can do, the chat progressed from cars, to my terrible love life and back to putting the worlds to rights.

Up and away at 6:45 AM we set off on the half hour drive to the main meeting point for a glorious convoy of Skylines in all shapes and sizes. Naturally at that time of day we were rather exuberant, setting off with all of the cars horses, laying down a rubber road to glory. Suspiciously at this point I thought, "was that a hesitation, a sudden lack of power? No'oo, all is well" and we thundered off to the meeting point just outside of Newbury in Berkshire, in, as my friend and comrade said 'ridiculously quick time'. At the meeting point you had the usual men shuffling around coughing, hands in pockets, liberal use of swear words etc. Eventually we set off, naturally (as is my lot) I was caught at the lights pending the slip road, that would take us back onto the motorway (expressway). The light turned green and the hammer went down in anticipation of catching up my fellow comrades.
Bang...
"Bugger..."
Complete loss of power, combined with a 'flame out' from the rear. Hazards on I limped to the side of the road whilst most of the others thundered on by (Thanks' for that). Two people stopped and I'm really grateful to them. My friend who immediately said 'I won't leave you, when I told him to go on' and some complete strangers.
As it turned out, all I had done was blow the jubilee clip off, it's worm drive failing, the clip had popped, the silicone pipe then coming away from the turbo. There was nothing else for it than to push it back into place  by hand and totally drive 'off boost' like a normal person.. In fact probably slower than a normal person, oh the humiliation!
Actually, it was a massive relief that it was £1.70 worth of clip and not the turbo or for that matter something even worse!
Pushing the pipe back on was fun, especially on a red hot engine, although the burns are almost healed now.

So our club long gone and us limping along, I had the vague recollection of what junction we were supposed to get off at, which oddly was the one after the one recommended. I had complete faith in what I was told and we did this expecting to see some signage to Castle Coombe racetrack, of which there was none. So quickly fumbling around I found out my phone and as we hurtled down country lanes, set the Sat Nav by shouting at it. Not being one to always follow a robot blindly we didn't really have a choice this time and it merrily took our gleaming cars up a tight, bendy and above all MUDDY lane. We eventually found the queue for Japfest which we then enjoyed immensely for a few hours. Actually I can't complain, at least we made it that far and could stand around chatting in the long 'no motion' parts of the wait and by now were grimly determined to arrive. I then heard from the organiser of our group who I think was hoping we weren't coming as the stand didn't have enough space. Although in the end we were squeezed in and actually had a nice spot. We did encounter some resistance on the way from the Police who tried to make us go in with the public and a rather over zealous gate 'monkey' who was determined to send us miles out of our way. By now I was patient enough to calmly explain, several times that me and the idiot behind me were VIPs of great standing and we were allowed on our way.

Best picture of the drama I can come up with is my friend Dal, cleaning the soot and muck from my exhaust off his pristine white GTST Spec 1.

Ms Skylines Rear and Dal's Rear.... Not so nice.

So drama for the want of a clip and screwdriver. Which I usually carry.. I certainly do now!

Ch, ch, changes..

Hi everyone, I have been away most of May. Interesting times I have endured as well, but am basically unscathed.
I got a year older in the 'merriest' of the months, it rained a lot followed by boiling hot sunshine and to add a challenge to your dear author Google have decided that blogging can be made 'easier' by moving all the buttons around.

So I'm older, non the wiser, but much more streamlined now.

Not being one to complain (oh go on) but it also requires Google Chrome to work... Although it did wring a wry smile from my face as the installer popped up telling me in no uncertain terms 'Your Amazing, Thank you for trying Google Chrome'.

Anyway, probably this will be the least read post ever created in history, although it does allow me to at least 'get going' in Bloggers 'great new look'. Pausing only slightly to swallow down the small amount of sick that Googles marketing team have managed to illicit from me.

Next up... Car stuff.. Oh my, do you think it will catch on?

Listen to the Law

Well I took my flare home and mounted it in pride of place, it actually took me longer to take a photo than it did to mount. Interestingly flares are not actually legal in the UK and although I can't claim to be expert on the law (I'm not a barrack room lawyer). It turns out that as they are an 'explosive' type device they fall under legislation, admittedly fuzzy legislation and not exactly specific as far as I can tell. It does appear that for the the Single Vehicle Approval scheme (SVA test for importing cars) most people have the flares removed and then quite simply pop them back in after the test.

Flare in place, looking suspiciously like an emergency 'sex toy'

As mine isn't for use as it were, I am happy just to have the cover itself in place, removing the offending 'explosive component' and stay on the right side of the law.
It's interesting my touching on the subject of law though, as whilst channel hopping I tuned into one of those 'cheap' reality (as in the sense they cost nothing to make) TV shows here the other day, where you have a 'D' list reporter tagging along with the long arm of the law. The basic idea of the show is to highlight bad drivers doing such naughty things as speeding, driving without insurance or having defective tires, lights, etc. You get it.
The show was dedicated to modified cars and naturally they focused on the Japanese scene, getting stuck into such horrors as small number plates and horror of horrors, loud exhausts! Whilst being relatively fair comment on the actual 'law' it was pretty unbalanced when looking at group meets, going from a static group of car owners to what was obviously a different piece of filming, showing more 'enthusiastic' driving. The film then flicked over to a group of younger drivers in small cars like Fiesta's and Focuses. Having a group meet and generally doing what 'young folk' of a certain age do. The presenter was actually outraged that one of them should 'moon' (bare his bottom) to the camera. The vibe of the piece was poor and presented to Mr and Mrs Joe Public as an underground culture almost akin to drug taking! I'm sure that elements of bad behaviour do exist (I have seen them) but then they exist everywhere, in business, in sports etc. Even I may have broken the speed limit on occasion. However TV programmes like this are unhelpful as all they do is create barriers, drive the culture underground and attract people to whom the rebel image is appealing.

I have a flare for this car building!

Okay, bad jokes aside... At last! A flare!! Now I have something to put into my holder in the car. Been waiting ages to get hold of an original one of these. They are more difficult to buy here as it is an 'explosive, combustable' device. So that means places like eBay would pull the listing and that putting it in the post is a bit of a 'no, no'. However why let that stop me, live dangerous eh?

Can't wait to get it into it's bracket! Yet another piece of the puzzle finished.

one flare, not for the use of, but for the looking at!

Bed time for Ms Skyline

Annoyed with the amount of dust that settles on the car, something had to be done. I don't know where all the dust comes from where I park it but after a week, the car is literally covered in a fine coating of dust and dead spiders etc.
So I decided rather than use my bedding I would invest a few English Pounds in a car cover.

Shh! She's asleep..

I obtained the car cover from Hamilton Classic Ltd  Here is their sales blurb.

Supertex Luxury Fleece Lined Dust Cover

Supertex is a professional Luxury THREE layer dust cover with a soft fleece lining to protect your car. It is fully breathable and non-hydroscopic meaning it will NOT absorb any air-bound moisture, this is very important as a cotton or natural fiber cover will absorb moisture making the car damp, the Supertex cover will not allow this to happen. Supertex is a man made fiber so it is not a woven fabric, this makes it completely dust proof and better than any cotton or natural fiber cover. The elasticated ends ensure a snug fit but not too snug to allow the car to breathe in the garage. Supertex is perfect as an effective garage cover or long term storage without the cost of a fully tailored cover, many car storage companies use this cover as it represents the best value for money. Size E cover will fit cars similar to Mercedes C class, W123, Mustang, Nissan Skyline etc The cover is actually a very good fit, putting it on was a little like making a bed with the cover sliding off the smooth paint one side whilst I was tugging at another. However that's part of the fun and there is space a plenty even with the wing mirrors extended!

NISMO Carbon Bonnet

 As per usual I find that I have not been quite keeping up with events on the car, sometimes weeks can pass without anything spectacular happening and then it will seemingly all happen at once!

Recently I had my bonnet resprayed black, after a rather annoying stone chip incident was made exponentially worse by yours truly attempting an 'invisible repair'. The resulting spray work was of a high quality, although didn't quite match up to my own personal super high standards, in the respect that it appeared a very different shade of black in certain light conditions. To me this was pretty much unacceptable and although I did listen to those that said "it doesn't notice", I could see it. In fact I went along to a local Japanese car meet, parking under the artificial street lighting and it was awful! So, something had to be done.

What though? Respray again? respray more and blend it in? Respray the whole car??? Eeek! Reality check!

How about loosing the bonnet altogether and going with carbon then. At least this is 'supposed' to be a different colour, would lose a lot of weight at the same time and possibly be kind of cool.

I have already flirted with carbon a reasonable amount from the carbon blade and end caps to the stick on Nismo B pillars. So felt that a huge expanse of bonnet would not be too out of place, besides if it offended me that much I could always paint it.. Although this would be straight back to square one.

At first I wanted to get hold of a standard 'aero' bonnet, unsurprisingly these are not so many of these available out there for the R33 GTS-25t and the ones that were seemed 'questionable' as to how real they were in the carbon sense. To me a sheet of carbon fibre laid over a fibreglass shell is not a carbon bonnet!

Naturally I looked at Seibon bonnets and knew I couldn't go wrong with these (probably) but then I also took a look at Knight Racers selection.

I quite liked the look of the Nismo style bonnet, as it retained most of the features of the original and just added to them with vents in the central section. Naturally I was not all that keen on these being permanently open to the elements although the bonnet also comes with a cover that fits neatly into place to keep the rain out (although we currently have a drought in the UK its still a wet place to live!).

So in the end I went for a Hybrid Carbon Bonnet, Nismo style from Knight Racer. I could give the low down of it all on the blog, although probably this would be better coming from Knight Racer themselves. Check out their Hybrid Carbon Page here

What I can comment on is fitment. I decided that I had to go with Aerocatches, no getting away from this for safety reasons. I have heard that the bonnet is pretty robust and will probably stay in place at very high speed, although Aerocatches are recommended. Well the words 'probably and recommended' kind of mean 'must have' in my book.

I have to also say that the thought of cutting holes in the (somewhat expensive) bonnet did not fill me with joy, nor the thought of drilling and fitting the posts for the Aerocatches in the slam panel. This was another job for knight racer and looking at the amount of effort involved in the end. I was more than happy to spend a little extra getting the fitting done. The fit itself is pretty good and the bonnet sits in line with both front wings. The only thing missing are the rubber seals around the lights etc. that stops the dust getting in.

 Living with the bonnet is reasonably easy, it does not rattle etc. and am sure if I were to remove the cover it would dissipate a lot of heat . Unlike the metal bonnet this one does not get red hot to the touch in certain places after a run either. A weird feature is being able to see Sunlight through the weave when the bonnet is open!

A downside is that water can pool in the vents when the cover is on. This wouldn't be a problem when moving although could possibly be a drag in a good downpour of rain. Also when cleaning the car it's a good idea to put a cloth over the engine bay and open up the bonnet to 'drain it' after a wash.

So really this is the final? piece of the jigsaw for Ms Skyline. All the bits are done (and a few more). Everything is in place. I can stop molesting her now!

So what would you do with something that you spent all your time, sweat, blood and tears on? Ah a photo shoot. Here is a teaser picture of Ms Skylines glamour shooting session. More to come in the next posts. 

Plunge Studio Photo Shoot coming soon!

All in a days work

Well the Sun has come up on us English and as we stagger blinking into the light. My thoughts turn to how much time I have put in at work, the fact that its Friday and the thought that I could have a couple of hours quality time in peace, working on the car!

Bulb replacements.
A while back I replaced both front wings (fenders) indicators (repeaters, winkers) with clear lens Nismo ones. For some odd reason Nissan supply the amber bulbs shown and naturally being a clear indicator you can see little amber bulbs. Who's bright idea was that!

 So having hunted around in my local motor factors shop I found a grand total of nothing! To eBay I went and turned up a plentiful supply! As you can see I have a 'chromed' bulb.

Fitting is simple when you know how and all you have to do to remove the indicator is pull forwards (towards the front of the car) and towards you. The unit simply pops out, which on reflection is a little alarming considering the cost of clear indicators!!

Pop in your new bulb, click the indicator back into place and the jobs a good one. All in all it takes all of a minute!

Replacing the Grill

The hardest part about replacing the grill is releasing the clips at the back. Ideally get yourself a pair of long nose pliers to compress the clips at the back, applying a small amount of forward force, pulling the grill towards you with your free hand.
As your aware I had already picked up and considerably reworked a Spec 2 grill. It was okay but not perfect, especially the logo and I strongly believe that the logo 'is' the car.

 As you can see the above shot is of my reworked grill, the S logo was damaged and the mesh was corroded when I obtained it originally. I replaced the mesh and cleaned up the logo as best I could. But as you can see, although still technically a Skyline logo, it has lost a lot of definition.

The above is a shot of the new grill in place. As you can see the mesh is larger and thicker. Made from steel it has a heavy, thick plastic coating, very similar to powder coat. The S logo is much more sharply defined and was in the original red colouring when I laid my hands on it. This was sprayed with enamel paint in gold leaf. It's quite interesting comparing the two different shades and effects of the Gold.

Re branding the Cusco Strut Brace
I obtained the logo from a place in Hong Kong, it is of very high quality and was difficult to apply. The decal came on it's own carrier sheet for positioning, although it was difficult removing the backing sheet without parts of the logo detaching themselves and I had to carefully peel back using a craft knife to keep all the component parts in place. Equally when positioning it in place again I had to employ the knife to remove the carrier film.

Although more difficult to do than first thought (its just a sticker right?) I was quite pleased with the end result.

Cleaning up the Intercooler.

Intercoolers are nasty.. they go dull, are dirt magnets and hard to get at. I got out the kitchen bowl and some 400 and 1200 grit sand paper. Laying on the ground, squatting and generally getting into all kinds of curious uncomfortable positions I cleaned it up, using the 400 and then 1200 to finish. Lastly some metal polish cleaned up the big sides.

 That job done, I had a quick wipe around the engine bay. Little and often works for me! Although it always amuses me when people say "duh, you must spend hours under the bonnet cleaning", really, it isn't that hard folks... Maybe getting to this point is a bit of work and a few hours!