GT Wing Emblems

I don't know what it so about wing emblems, but the standard red and white badges just don't do it for me. They stick out like a sore thumb and after a while the thin coat of enamel starts to wear away around the edges, making them a feature I could quite happily live without.
Saying that, having some sort of defining badge is okay and unusual. I used to have the R32 gold option emblems on mine befoe swapping them for a tidy 'quick fix' set of newer ones with a lick of gold paint.
However now I am going to run a new set of alloy wheels in matt black, the time has come to think again.
At first I planned just to slap some Matt black over a set of R32 badges, stick them on and have done with it. However this would have been too easy, so in the spirit of making things as difficult as possible, an investigation into hydrograpic dipping was required.
Hydrograpic dipping or wet transfer dipping is a simple process of laying a print into water, spraying the back liberally with some agent, dipping the component through the transfer and then finishing with clear coat.
Google hydrograpic printing for the process to try it yourself, all the components are readily available at small cost.
I decided to try a carbon finish on the wing badges/emblems and although not quite perfection, they are reasonably close. Judge for yourselves.

NISMO Spoiler end caps

I spotted a post on the Skyline Owners Forum for a GT-R spoiler for sale. Oh my... Can it be? Yes it is, genuine NISMO end caps for the GT-R spoiler!

Way back when I first got hold of my GT-R spoiler it came with GT-R end caps, (which I peeled off and sold to help fund the spoiler). At that time I wanted to change to a set of NISMO branded ones but they had been out of production for ages at that point. After much searching I had to settle for an unbranded Carbon Fibre end cap. This was okay (I suppose) although it was not as good a cover as the plastic GT-R one that it replaced (Chinese junk (and I don't mean a boat)).

So back to the forum... The deal was done and another spoiler was acquired at a bargain basement price.

A quick assault with a hair dryer soon loosened my prize bits of carbon and they easily came away. I then cleaned the backs with some sticky remover and replaced with double sided tape from eBay.. Talk about strong tape, this stuff could hold up shelves! The end caps were sprayed black, dried and covers glued firmly into place.

Pleased to fly the flag! 

Now all I have to decide is if I should keep the GT-R spoiler as a spare or sell it on for a quick profit!

New Wheels

It's the plan to finish the car off at some point underneath and shortly the Drift-works Lock out kit will be being fitted and this will be one of the last points to the underside. I was going to keep the HICAS unit in place originally as it works okay and as they say 'if it ain't broke'. However my warning light does come on from time to time, so this is the ideal excuse.

I digress slightly from the point (not unusual for me!) and that point is in the future the brakes could really do with being improved. Currently I have grooved and dimpled disks on the front, which work pretty well, although they could probably be a little better. I suppose I have put this change off for a while now as one, it's expensive and two, bigger callipers will not fit behind my alloy wheels... So it makes it really expensive!

However this modification lark is an evolution of thoughts and I decided to go bite the bullet and blow the bank account on a new set of alloys and rubber. No messing about with 8.5 front 9.5 back etc. That's all well and good for looks and probably some nonsense about getting rubber down. But it is harder to live with and prevents swapping around wheels. Admittedly I had quite a cheap set (comparatively) of alloys there in the past but for a Jap car there are only a few makes that will really do on bragging rights.


Sorry for the dull photo's, I come from a very dull country where the Sun does not seem to ever shine! Rains well though!

I now have bags of space to fit a bigger brake conversion (in fact I think the car now cries out for one!). I was surprised at how much it changed the looks of the car as well.

Rota Fighter Drift alloy wheels in Matt bronze

Previous Alloys

18" X 8.5"
5x114 / 5x100 ET30
They are wrapped in Falken Ziex 235/40/18 tyres

LED Dashboard lights - revisited

Gah, Per my previous post. The lack of being able to dim the LED set up is frustrating. The lights have gone from super dim originals to super bright now and I can only have described the night time driving experience as a bit too bright for my liking!
So abandon and go back or search out something a bit more subtle? Well I can't leave well enough alone at standard now can I? So says I, if the set up is a bit too bright then the ideal solution is to go for less bulbs and instead of a nine SMD bulb, I thought I would try a five SMD. Additionally as I would prefer a green illumination I would get coloured bulbs this time instead of the blinding white ones (good for a Sun tan though).

5 X 5 SMD LED 501 T10 W5W PUSH WEDGE 360 HID GREEN SIDE LIGHT BULB

The bulbs were obtained from eBay and were just under £7 UK Pounds and at Pocket money price I didn't mind if it was going to be a disaster!

As previously, I whipped out the dash and replaced the five bulbs one at a time ensuring that they lit up before reassembling the dashboard (remember polarity is critical on these and to just turn the bulb around if not lit).

The camera makes them appear brighter up close

This time around I think I cracked the problem. and the instruments lit up a brighter than standard, yet not 'super nova' bright. You can see on the last picture that they are slightly dimmer towards the bottom, which in my book says that this is about right on brightness!

 I naturally can't vouch for how long the bulbs will last out though and with the white set I tried previously, one bulb did go 'out' although this was due to it moving in its holder (they were big long bulbs though).

I'm going to call this mod complete!