Interior Change

Well after assuring everyone, including my nearest and dearest that I was done, finished, had enough and would just maintain Ms Skyline. I went and sourced a GT-R interior, I know your all thinking why mimic what is probably in comparison to mine, a lesser car (I know I was), although it does have a decent front pair of seats, even if they are of what feels an older style in comparison to the later Spec 2 GTS 25t offerings.

The seller was located in Tamworth near Birmingham which made for an entertaining mornings run. He also had a GTS 25t, at some point it must have been a well looked after car, although was starting to show signs of wear it's past glories fading rapidly into the scrap man's sweet embrace. He had brought the car for drifting, removing the interior for a set of buckets, (which needing to fund he took out the interior) much better I have them I say and so a zippy hour and a bit later I was bombing back home with my prize filling every inch of my boot space.

Obviously not as a factory fit to a GTS 25t this must be this interiors third outing in a different Skyline! However the seats and door cards were in excellent condition for age only requiring a good clean up and some TLC.

Having had to fit various parts on and off the car for sometime now. I think I have become a bit of an expert in interior trim. The front seats are held in by four bolts, so removal was simple, what did suprise me is that the standard GTS 25t front seats are somewhat heavier that the GT-R replacements, another bonus I guess.
The rear seats put up their usual fight, although I find that to remove the rear lower bench (after removing its two securing bolts) if you squat in the middle, resting against the back seat, one almighty tug is enough to release it (and near launch you into the boot). With the back rest, again remove the two securing bolts and push the back rest up to free it from its hooks.
It's been very warm in the UK lately and apparently we are in the midst of a heatwave.. This isn't as nice as it sounds, although by no means would I actively complain and welcome back the rain. However when removing and fitting the rear seats it did get a tad 'hot' with the Sun blasting through the rear window and I darn near cooked!
Next off were the door cards in the back, these do require the front seatbelt lower and upper bolts undoing to free them, there is also a small screw in the seatbelt recess that needs to come out. Otherwise these are simplicity to remove. The front door cards were their usual pain in the butt to remove, mainly because I always forget how the plastic trims around the handles comes away (for information it is pull towards the back of the car to release).

Interior Fitted

Then it was a simple case of bolting in the new interior. Reversal of removal.. I love that expression, but in this case it is reasonably accurate. To bring the door cards in the front up to scratch I fitted the pull handle and plastics from my old door cards. The previous, previous owner had done a not too good a job of painting the interior plastic surrounds, they had to go!

 

LED Side Light Bulbs and DRL's

Wah! It has been a busy time for the girl and myself. Car shows piling on top of car shows it's all I can do to keep up. Met loads of people, did some work, upset some Welsh princess and generally had a good car time. Even if some bit's of that 'car time' were less than enjoyable!

One of those less enjoyable moments happened when changing the side light bulb. I have been working on the headlights, changing them over to High Intensity Discharge on dipped beam. The dark tint being removed for a much lighter shade of film protection and lastly to change the sidelights for something with a little more 'oomf' (technical term).

Replacement LED's

So, I had already replaced the sidelights for a much better LED (shown on right of picture) but now I have explored the LED world (as it were) I thought I would try something different again.

The side lights are somewhat awkward to get at generally, although the opposite side to the fuse box isn't so bad and I thought I would just pop a bulb in to see how it looked. Well after fiddling about trying to get the bulb in, it fell out of its holder and into the lens! Oh my... I tried fishing with wire, sticky tape on a stick, you name it. But it soon became apparent that the only way I would get the darn thing out would be to remove the headlight unit. This in itself is not too bad apart from one really stupid bolt located on the inner wing, what were Nissan thinking of and did they do this deliberately just to spite me??
Anyway after much 'MUCH' battling, the headlight gave in and off she popped. The irony is that as I removed it the bulb dropped straight out, bounced off my foot and under the car. I swear it giggled at me.

With the headlight removed I was impressed at how much space it offered me. Seemed a shame to just put it back together as was, so (not being too bright) I thought a set of Daylight Running Lights would do the trick and these were wired in and hidden away behind the headlight.

DRL's fitted

As for my pesky side lights. I used a little electrical tape to secure them to their holders and fitted them in. Naturally the drivers side is a complete pain to do, as you have to remove the expansion tank, move the water bottle and the fuse box to get 'proper access.

So a five minute job, took at least six hours. We do it for love, I swear (and sweat).