So I’m going a bit out of order and am leaving out quite a bit of work that has been done to get the car in it’s current state but I just wanted to show you guys where the car is at right now. Hopefully I can play a bit of catchup after the car is all done to fill in the blanks. I just recently got the car and wheels out of the paint shop and have been spending quite a bit of time tiding up the engine bay and putting everything back together. First off, I had to get new tires to go on the newly refurbished wats because the old ones were so cracked and worn that they were just plain unsafe.
See what I mean? These are much nicer…..
And thank God for that, I’ve been looking at this thing for way too long on rolling around on stock skinny Celica wheels and let me tell you it wasn’t pretty. Nothing worse than skinny wheels on a car with over fenders.
I would show them on the car but I would hate to have you blow chunks on your keyboard So now with the car reassembled it’s time for a washing…….
And my attempt at a couple of artsy shots with my trusty old point and shoot. Don’t expect too much, this is the same camera that sits on the shop bench as I grind and weld.
Oh yeah, I mounted the Rubber Soul chin spoiler…. like I said, skipping ahead here a bit. Hopefully I can fill you in later.
I can’t tell you how good it feels every time after putting a bunch of hard work into these cars to finally see them all together again. And I am VERY pleased in the way this one turned out.
Just a couple of basic exterior shots here that I use in our vehicle inspection sheets. You may notice that I have made the decision to remove the GT-R badges. Even though GT-R clones are probably more prevalent in Japan than actual S20 equipped ones, I have come to the decision that I just have too much respect for the KPGC10’s than to be slapping GT-R badges on non-GT-R’s. Don’t worry though, I still have all the GT-R badges and they will be sold with the car and the new owner is more than happy to do whatever they please with them.
Engine bay looking pretty factory fresh.
One thing I have to say about this car is that it has THE best chrome I have ever seen one of these yet….
Seriously, look at it!! I think I see me in there And as you can see I also went through and polished all the plastics until they looked like new, but more on that later.
Now with the majority of the aesthetics taken care of there is still a bit work to be done to make sure the car is mechanically sound as well. As soon as we received the car I went directly into getting the bodywork out of the way so I actually haven’t had much of a chance to drive it yet. I have already gone through and performed a compression and leakdown test on the motor so I know it’s in tip top shape.
And the brakes have been flushed and bled……. vacuum bleeders are very handy if you don’t have anyone around to pump the brakes for you.
All fluids checked and/or replaced and everything else appears to be in great shape so now it’s time to get this thing on the road! ……………………………………………. So far so good, suspension feels good, steering is tight, motor is humming along nicely, good times……. wait a minute, what is that hissing noise? And why is there coolant spraying on my foot?!! Uh oh, that’s not good. Luckily the leak is pretty small and I’m not far from the shop.
Looks like the old heater hoses were finally done for. Bummer, I was really hoping to have this car ready for sale this weekend. I could just cap off the hoses and sell it without a heater but once again that’s not how we do it. And this is also another perfect example of why there is such a big difference between just bringing these cars in and just reselling them, and actually going through the cars to make sure they are actually fit to be driven, If you have seen Kev’s thread on the JNC forums he could probably tell you exactly what I’m talking about. It’s much better that this happens to me on a test drive than the new owner.
Not too big of a deal though, just a hose replacement right? but as you may notice that hose just disappears into the heater core assembly…… hmm….. It just so turns out (and believe me I tried) there is no way to access the other end of that hose without completely removing the entire heater core assembly.
And after a good deal of sweating my @%& off under the dashboard here is the assembly out of the car, I also noticed that the valve that controls the amount of coolant (circled) that enters the core was pretty seized up so I might as well fix that at the same time.
More disassembly…….. where does that hose go, and where is that heater core?
Jackpot!!! While I’m in there I’m also going to do a little more preventative maintenance and replace the other hoses at the same time so hopefully the heater core won’t have to be removed for another 40 years
So this brings me to the state the car is currently at as I type this. Hopefully I will get it all back together early next week and this thing will be ready to go! I will keep you updated………
Well, it took a little longer than I had hoped but I will say they were definitely worth the wait. I stopped by my paint guy’s place this morning on the way into work in the uhhh….. “shop delivery car” to pick up those Watanabes I have been restoring. You would be surprised how much I can actually fit in this little clown car
I took a couple of pictures outside so you could hopefully get a better idea of how they actually look.
Up close…. so fresh and so clean, if I didn’t let you in on my little secrets I could most definitely pass these off as a brand new set.
Just need some rubber stuff to put around them….. it’s getting close now, can’t wait!!
A few things to wrap up and we’ll be on the road……
Love them or hate them, they will probably always be around the classic Japanese car scene. Most of you know they first appeared on the Hakosuka race cars in the early 70’s.
I understand them on track cars, the mounting always seemed to me to be very functional. But the super long oil lines have always bothered me. I guess on a race car its always about functionality over anything else and straight fittings are just plain simpler. Don’t get me wrong, I love this Celica to death but in my opinion the oil cooler lines are just plain silly, no matter what style you’re going for.
Anyways, I’m rambling again. The only reason I even brought up this topic of externally mounted oil coolers is because I came across the first tastefully mounted one I’ve ever seen on a Hakosuka.
Ooooohhhh that’s clean! See what a couple of 90 degree fittings and clever mounting will get you? Then again maybe I’m missing the point, and they’re supposed to be mounted all crudely and mad max style. Just like anything else I guess it’s all a matter of preference. But If I do ever build a track ready Hakosuka, the oil cooler will not have 2 feet of extra line And because that C10 Skyline is so damn sexy how about another pic?
So simple, so clean, so in love.
And you can do whatever you want with your oil coolers, but let’s at least keep your intercoolers where they’re supposed to be…… ha ha!!
Well, it’s that time again. If any of you have been reading this blog you will know that we just received a 71 Skyline 2000 GT and a 73 Celica GTV. http://www.jdmlegends.com/blog/?p=709 The car had a restoration performed a few years ago and it actually looks pretty good, but as always I tend to be a bit of perfectionist and there will always be something that needs a little bit of TLC.
The first thing I had noticed that was a bit off was the badge orientation on the right front fender.
Holy moly! Really?!!! Those two extra holes aren’t supposed to be there are they? Hmmmm……. let’s have a look at the other side.
This one looks right. For those of you that don’t know the “Skyline” is always supposed to be in front of the “GT” badge. So it turns out those extra hole are actually supposed to be there, it’s just that some nimrod decided they liked the badges mounted in their own special way. Whatever, no big deal. Hopefully they’re just stuck on incorrectly and I can just reposition them and be done. Wrong!!
They liked the badges mounted that way so much they actually decided to drill their own hole to remount them, disregarding the extra holes just hanging out. Whoever you are, you are a genius. Thank you. Now I could just leave it as it is but what self-respecting Japanese restoration shop sells legends like these with the badges mounted all jacked up? Not us Time for some body work, first up is to bring the holes down to the bare metal enough that I can weld them up.
Little bit more work to make sure everything ends up all nice and straight and we’re about ready for paint.
Now while I’m at it you may have noticed those badges weren’t looking exactly factory fresh if you know what I mean.
Same with the ones on the rear quarter panels.
First up is removing the old paint so you can put down a nice even new coat. Different badges will require different methods of removal but I found with these I could actually just chip off the old paint with an x-acto knife without doing any damage to the chrome plating underneath.
Next up is to get your paint. On these ones I had to use a candy red that is actually a bit transparent so it allows the chrome textured surface underneath to show through, duplicating the factory finish. You will also need some VERY fine brushes as there are some very small nooks and crannies to get in. Some Q-tips for cleanup, and a steady hand will also be quite handy so no Redbulls beforehand
And there you go, much better right?
Hmmm…. wait a minute, something’s missing. Time to refer to to some of the GT-R Bibles I have here for reference.
Aha!!! I forgot the “G” !!! After I took all the red off I forgot. It’s the little things that will get you. There, that’s better.
Rear ones were pretty straightforward.
And back from the paint shop the right front fender now looks just like Nissan intended….
Now onto one other thing on the car that was looking a bit tired and definitely in need of some TLC were the wheels. After quite a few years of wear and tear and what appears to be a couple of parrallel parking mishaps, they were in need of some serious refurbishing. Most looked like this, a little chipping and some minor rash.
But the left front was the worst. Major curbage and this one was actually a bit bent as well. If your Watanabe’s look like this you should be ashamed of yourself. Rotas, go ahead
Bent wheels are actually a bit out of my league so luckily I have a great wheel shop in town that specializes in this stuff. After I had the wheel straightened, I had to remove the old paint so we could lay down a nice new even coat to get them looking like they just came out of the box. There are a couple of ways to do this, some require a bit more elbow grease and chemicals than others. Luckily I just so happen to have an awesome paint guy that has some connections down at the local High School autobody shop that just so happens to have a media blaster I can use. Schweet!!!
That there is the tank that holds the media. We kept having issues with the media clogging up so we had to disassemble it to figure out what was going on.
That would be what was causing our issues. GUM!!! WTF?!! Well, I guess that’s what you get when you use High School shop equipment The teacher there was a pretty cool guy. Super knowledgeable and he had the raddest old Econoline van I have ever seen.
Time to put on the crazy spaceman suit and get to blasting!!! Sorry I don’t have any pics, hard to take pics while your all geared up and sandy. You have to be very careful with the media you use because I have actually had a set of forged Prodrives end up looking like orange peels when they were done due to the redneck I had do them using way too coarse of media on them. Live and learn I guess, If you want something done right, do it yourself.
There they are in all their raw, aluminum glory. As you can see, the Watanabe’s actually have a cast finish in the center and a machined lip. We were only able to keep that finish by using very fine media. Now they were getting close, but they still needed some work. Here’s the bent curbed one after I got it back from the wheel shop.
Almost perfect!!! Hard to believe it’s the same wheel! Now, I said almost perfect because there were still a couple of nicks left in the wheel that were too deep for them to get out. Here’s one…..
Not a big deal though, fire up the TIG welder and add a bit of aluminum.
And very carefully grind it down to match the profile of the rest of the lip.
A little bit more minor rash on the other wheels that wasn’t very deep at all….. just a little more careful resurfacing.
And we now have a perfect set of Watanabe’s!!!
I just had some Satin Bronze paint matched to the original color that should add a bit more flavor to the plain Jane gunmetal on silver look the car had before. Should be back from paint next week, stay tuned!!!
Yes, yes, I know it’s been a little while since we have visited our RA29 project. It just so turns out that I have been working on cars quite a bit more than talking about working on them
With our new power plant in place we have decided that better brakes and and a LSD were next up on the list of mods. Once again we turn to the fabulous AE86 Corolla again for parts as the RA29 chassis actually has quite a bit in common with it making it a great donor. As some of you may know the GT-S Corollas came with factory LSD’s and rear disc brakes, a definite upgrade from our RA29’s open diff and drums. There is only one bad thing about the AE rear axle, is that if I recall correctly it’s about 40mm total, or 20mm per side wider then the RA axle. Being that I am opposed to running flares on our RA, I don’t want to mess with the front to rear track width, and I am trying to fit as wide of a wheel as possible all around, losing that amount of wheel width I can run is unacceptable.
The next option? Take all the goods from the the AE axle and swap them in the RA. The first thing you need to know is that you need a Zenki, or earlier model (83-85) donor axle due to the difference in axle diameters between the two. Here we have the two side by side.
The first thing that needs to be done is removing the RA axles and taking them to a machinist to turn down the hub flange (the side with the wheel studs on it) enough to fit under the new AE disc rotor. The best thing to do is match the AE axle, or bring down the rear rotor and make sure the axle fits inside it when it’s done. You also need to remove about 6mm off the splined end of each RA axle to make up for the difference of width in the AE diff. Next up is filling and re drilling the holes on the AE caliper brackets to match the RA axle. This shows a the different bolt pattern between the two.
After measurements are made to assure that the calipers end up on the RA axle in the exact same orientation as the AE, the holes need to be filled, smoothed and re drilled. This shows the approximate orientation and as you can see, all the holes need to be re drilled.
Holes welded up…
Ground flat….
And re drilled. Note the cutout on the bottom which allows the diff fluid to drain out the bottom and not on the rotor should there be a leak.
From here you will notice that the RR spring perch needs to be modified just a bit to clear the parking brake actuator.
Installed shot…
Since we are using all AE suspension and brake components front and rear we also decided to use the AE swaybars as well. This means we will need to remove the swaybar mounting brackets from the AE axle and re weld them on the RA one. I made a pretty simple jig to assure they would be mounted exactly the same way.
If you are careful with your die grinder you can cut them off without losing any material…
Here they are tacked into place on the RA axle. Don’t forget this means we will have to make mounts on the chassis as well but that is for later.
With all the major fabrication out of the way, it’s now time to install all new bearings, seals, and gaskets on the new rear axle and also rebuild the old differential.
Pressing out old bearings can be easy, or a huge pain. In this case, they were all pretty seized on which required cutting some of the old bearings off. You must be very careful when doing this though not to touch the surface that the bearing is mounted to. I usually don’t cut all the way through, instead I keep grinding until the surface is thin enough to crack. This will relieve enough pressure to release the bearing and assure you don’t nick the mounting surface. In other words, use the grinder like a surgeon uses a scalpel This is the Pinion gear bearing, and you can see the very slight crack after grinding…
Same on the wheel bearings, you can also see here where the hub flange has been machined.
Sometimes the hardest part about pressing bearings in and out is finding a way to mount whatever you are working on in the press. This will require some ingenuity and possibly even making some of your own specialized tools….
And cringing until you hear that big BANG!! and the bearing finally comes loose.
Good old fashioned puller here…
Installing the new bearings is a breeze as you can usually use the old bearings and races to press the new ones in…..
I actually had a hard time finding gaskets so I just made my own… don’t forget that important cutout.
Setting up the rear differential is a whole other complicated subject that I wont get too much into here but that yellow stuff on the ring gear shows the contact patch between the ring and pinion gears.
If it looks like this, you’re on the right track…
Now we can’t just slap a rusty old axle in there, so stay tuned for part 8 where I show you how to properly treat and re coat the axle with some POR 15. We will also be installing the AE86 front brakes, coilovers, and new bushings all around.
I don’t really consider myself much of a motorcycle guy, cars already take up all my spare time 2 wheels or 4, I find this guy very inspirational. To his craftsmanship, his attitude, his passion, and definitely his insane shop collection of cool old industrial stuff usually picked up at swap meets. Check out his blog @ http://shinyakimura.blogspot.com/
Still grinding on out two recent additions….. more updates soon!!!!
So now with the car reassembled it’s time for a washing…….
And as you can see I also went through and polished all the plastics until they looked like new, but more on that later.
