1975 C110 (KHGC110 240K) Build

[Adzmax]

Hi everyone, I thought I'd share the build of my C110 coupé.

A bit of a back story, I purchased a white coupé back in 2008 sight unseen (just pictures on eBay). While the car looked OK the listing wasn't completely truthful and the car was really rough and full of rust.







It had been patched up very poorly and a lot of the rust was hidden. As I dismantled the car, the more parts I removed and the more filler I stripped, the bigger the problems were. Sure it was repairable but it was not the base I was looking for and it was too incomplete. The floor pan, around the windows and the sills etc were all rusted out so it was more than just your usual 240K rust.

[Adzmax]

Whilst I owned this car I managed to get onto another 240K though a work mate. His friend’s father was into Datsun in a big way and had many Z's and what he thought was a 240K. It turned out he was correct and the owner also had a shed full of panels and parts. I picked up this car and all the spare parts in December 2008. It was a tidy looking car, It was filled in the usual places and had a back yard spray job so it was a bit of an unknown quantity but along with all the spares it made for a good deal. It was also running and resisted. Some pictures at purchase -







Between 2008 and 2012 I bought a house and part of a business so I became pretty weighed down, at one point I had both cars for sale. I was lucky enough to get rid of the white car and a lot of parts for a reasonable price and decided to keep the blue car, this was a good decision

[Adzmax]

Over the last few years I've been collecting a lot of parts locally and from Japan and I've now got pretty much everything I need including JDM tail lights, badges, mirrors, centre console, dash and other interior parts. My plan is a full rebuild from the ground up, a GTR replica in white. I started stripping the car down recently and as I remove a piece, I'm restoring it, bubble wrapping it and then shelving it. As time and space is a problem for me this is the easiest way. Once I'm left with a shell it's off to the body shop.

I started by stripping out the carpet to get a closer look at the floor pan etc. I will need to redo the whole interior as this coupé has a blue interior to match the factory blue paint job. Not a fan :P This isn't really as issue though as it's pretty crummy and not really up to standard.









Next I removed the front and rear end, I also took of the guards to have a peek, very little rust so far which is a good sign!

[Adzmax]

My first task was the tail lights. I picked these up from Yahoo Japan. They were complete with genuine GTR surrounds but they had seen some hard times. The lenses were very faded and the chrome on the rings was chipped and marked. I disassembled the tailed lights and removed the lenses and stainless steel rings. I also removed the reflectors inside which had started to corrode. The seals on the lenses were deteriorated and had let water into the housings. One of the lenses had taken a hit and was cracked inside. The lens had to be repaired and we had to re-facet the larger red lens to remove a chip from the hit.







With the help of my good friend Troy I cleaned and prepared the lenses then a layer of clear was applied, the end result is pretty nice.

[Adzmax]

I had the small stainless rings polished and the reflective housings plated in the same coating they use in modern head lights. This should provide some serious light! The actual housings had some damaged and missing threads so I ended up using another set I had. I cleaned these up as best possible.







I also cleaned up the bulb holders that screw into the back of the lenses.



I pulled a nicer set of backings off a 3rd set of lights and started to reassemble the tail light assemblies. I bought all new stainless screws and used mastic to reseal the lenses after cleaning the seals as best possible. Mastic is horrible, horrible stuff to work with, it's so messy. If you don't get it right the first time or used to much, you'll spend a while cleaning up!



I was missing a cover from the back which I managed to source here in Australia



The other cover was really dirty and scuffed so I hit it with some wet/dry and the polished it. It came up like new in the end. I then finished reassembling the housings and swapped over the JDM loom.







Over all I'm very happy with the way these turned out!

[Adzmax]

I picked up a new horn pad and Skyline "S" emblem. It was a GTR badge but had cracked with age which seems to be pretty common from what I've seen.



I dissembled the pad and removed the badge. I rubbed back the original backing paint and then hit the font of the badge with progressive finer grades of wet/dry to remove the cracks which appears only surface deep. We then polished the surface and sprayed the backing in a candy red.

[Adzmax]

I started on the headlights next.





I stripped whole assemblies down and removed the nylon grommets by shaving some material from the back of the plugs with a dremel. I took off just enough material so I could push the plugs through with some force. I then hit them rust with a wire wheel and sent the assemblies off for gold zinc plating. The springs and clips were acid bathed and coated in blue zinc. I managed to source some head lamp retaining brackets from a local NOS dealer. The parts came back looking like new!





I re-fitted the plugs and used epoxy to fasten them. They are used to adjust the lamps so it's pretty important that they stay in place.



I reassembled the housings and polished up the lamps. They came up looking fantastic, especially next to an old set!

[Adzmax]

The sealed beam lamps are not the brightest of lights so in keeping with the Japanese theme I picked up a set of Koito semi-sealed head lights. These use a standard H4 and H1 halogen light which means I can fit any bulb for optimum brightness! Here's the new compared to old and the finished light.

[Adzmax]

Fender mirrors are expensive! I've seen sets go anywhere from $500-$1000 delivered which is pricey for a set of mirrors. I picked up a separate left and right hand side mirror from Yahoo Japan. The finish of the mirrors didn't match but this wasn't really a concern as I planned to rub them back and respray them anyhow. One was NOS and the other was used.





You can see how different they were in these pictures and the damage is apparent close up. I rubbed them back to remove any imperfections and them masked them up for respraying.









My friend Troy sprayed them. While I was moving them to bake I managed to bump a door frame and gouge the fresh paint but Troy with his expertise was able to fill the gouge then once baked, rub the overfill back and then buffed them to perfection! :wink:





I have another lot of parts to be electroplated so I'll send the bases down and have them refinished also. More pics to come soon!

[240KtoGTR]

Looking good,
I wondered where the blue coupe ended up. Good to see you're restoring it properly and methodically.
A white G.T.R clone? That's what I'm planning as well with my coupe. But I'm going to be building
a new house soon, so my coupe has taken a step back for now. I'm just collecting parts now for the
future build. Your progress so far is inspiring, I'll be waiting for updates.

[blk180]

Damn those front lights are so sexy.

[uras1]

nice, good to see another one under way

[uras1]

where and how much to get the inner taillight parts rechromed?

[Adzmax]

Yeah it was a tough choice between silver and white but I think white has won out, my Father likes white too. I'm going for the full classic factory look and some nice deep dish Watanabe's with a silver polished lip. It will pretty much be a clone of this I'm hoping.



I hear you with the house etc, I bought a place about 2 years ago and part of a business before that so it's hard to find the time and money!

The tail light insides were done here in Melbourne at Vinny's in Dandenong. I was told it's not chrome, it's another type of reflective finish. I'm not sure what though.

Not sure on price sorry as it was done with some other stuff. I 'think' it was around 30 or so per piece? Don't quote me though sorry.

http://www.vinneys.com.au

[Alfadog]

Love this! Your attention to detail is just fantastic. This is what makes the difference between an ordinary resto and a top notch one. Awesome!

[Disco Bob]

Beautiful work. Wish I could find the time to work on mine.
I've had my headlight assembelies at work for months with the idea doing what you've done, and haven't even taken them out of the bag.

[Adzmax]

Some things are a bit more tricky than others and this is certianly the case for the combination parkers/indicators on the front bumper bar. Inside these units there is a thin reflector which is held in place by the bulb socket. The sockets are actually pressed into the housing and the only way to remove them is to grind back the lip of the bulb socket. I figured that I would remove the old sockets for plating and then replace them with some generic sealed press in sockets.





I had a lot of trouble finding something to suit, I ordered many different shapes and sizes and most either did not fit or would house the bulb too far forward meaning the lens would not fit. I was also going to have some issues trying to make sure the unit was well sealed again so I decided that this might not be the best path. I was lucky enough to pick up a second set of housings from Gerry (Kid-K) - Thanks! Seeing as though I had a second set of reflectors (which may not even be necessary) I wasn't really worried about acid dipping them. I cut the plug off the end of the loom, removed the wiring, spring and grommet which just press out and sent the housings away for Zinc plating in Blue Zinc. When I got them back other than looking great, the reflectors had been vaporised!



The lenses on these lights are all pretty rough, being so close to the ground and plastic the get a lot of stone chips and cracks. The plastic also tends to deteriorate over time. My plan was to sand back the lenses and then clear them the same as I did the tail lights.



I spotted some clear lenses on Yahoo Japan which I was considering using when what do you know, a brand new set popped up on eBay from the UK! I was wrapped when I found these.



The last part is the gaskets to seal the units. There are some on Yahoo Japan which I'm looking to get, I could make a set but these are pretty cheap. The old gaskets are too hard and cracked with age, I'm pretty sure they leak at the first sign of water.



I'll assemble these when the gaskets arrive and post some pictures.

[Adzmax]

I called into my parents placed recently to pick up some parts they are kindly storing for me, I've got pretty limited space at home so I only take parts around as I'm really to deal with them. I picked up a lot of this gear back in 2008/9 and it's been sitting in their roof since so it was nice to pull it out and get it cleaned up.









They came up really well. I'll remove the wood grain inserts from the centre console (although it almost seems a shame) and fit some stainless inserts to match the GTR. Pics to come.

[Adzmax]

The GTR tail lights I brought out from Japan were in reasonably good condition but the ring surrounds had been knocked about and the chrome was stained and damaged. I considered buying some replica rings but I'm keen to use as many genuine parts as possible so I looked into having them stripped and re-chrome plated.









I also wanted to have the rear bumper indicator housings cleaned up too. A common problem with these die-cast housings is that the bolts used to hold them rust. Because the housings are under so much stress, the rust seems to make the plastic swell and crack and eventually the mounts snap off.





I stripped the chrome plating off these parts by soaking them in household bleach. I planned to clean then up then etch prime and high fill but ultimately this proved to be messy, time consuming and a waste as the electro platers could easily strip the chrome and would prep them as part of the job. I should have called first ops:



I received the parts back this week after about 2 months of waiting but it was certianly worth it! The finish on them is perfect.





The mounts for the reflectors are all fixed!



I also went to work on the reflectors when the housings were away. They were pretty dull and scratched so I hit them with some Novus plastic polish. I highly recommend this stuff, it worked really well! Here's a before and after shot of the completed units.





Now all that is left to do is mask and spray the tail lights rings

[uras1]

keen to sell wood grain insert?

[Adzmax]

Yeah I don't see why not if I decide to replace it. I'll let you know when it's out.

[Laggy6]

You are such a perfectionist!, keep up the awesome work.

[240K&Beyond]

WoW - Thats going to be a new car once you have finished.
I'm green with envy.

Inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&fe...&v=JIRIh30oxcQ

[Adzmax]

This is my inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLjGFtln45g

Yeah I'm a self confessed perfectionist. It's a blessing and a curse!

[uras1]

looks neat, shame it's not a real gtr but i would be happy to own it still haha

[Adzmax]

Yeah it's an extremely clean car! I love it. One thing that bugs me is the way the bonnet sits though, needs to be aligned.

[uras1]

will you be running chin spoiler/boot spoiler?

[Adzmax]

Yep, I'll pick up the kit including the grille etc locally from Otomoto. Not sure where to get the chin spoiler, I thought they had them.

[uras1]

yahoo is where i got mine

[Adzmax]

I had these door skins (cards) delivered from Japan last week. They are in pretty good condition overall but will need some work. They are from a late model GTX and had the extended arm rests which have been filled. The finish leaves a bit to be desired but it's nothing that can't be fixed. I'll drop them into the Auto trimmer I'm using this week.

[uras1]

nice work

[Adzmax]

After getting my tail light rings back from chroming the next parts to do were the fuel cap and breather.



I pulled apart the fuel cap completely so I could send the cover alone. The pin in held in place with a small cir-clip, once removed it just slides out with the spring etc. I'm going to look at fixing the lock up also, it's pretty sloppy. Not sure what the options are here at the moment.





Just got the parts back today and they look great.







Next I need to mask them off then respray the parts that should be black. No doubt this will be a fiddly job because the top of the fins need to be chrome. I'll have to wipe the paint of by hand with a cotton tip and some thinners after it's sprayed. I'd LOVE to know how this was done from factory

I've also got some centre caps coming which I'll mask with the "R" logo and then spray in a metallic black to complete the original look.

[uras1]

Best way to repaint these is mask off the bulk and use basecoast black mixed with alittle hardener and let dry for a few minuts.

I use a product called high strenght degreaser and its made by PPG http://www.ppg.com/COATINGS/REFINISH...cillaries.aspx


Its between normal prepsol and thinners and works well for cleaning paint off without taking heaps off like thinners does.

[Adzmax]

Nice, thanks for the tip. I'll give this ago in the coming weeks

[uras1]

i can do a demo on mine if you want and show the results, let me know.

[Adzmax]

That would be ace

Did you have any luck with that right hand A pillar trim? Mine is in two pieces and past repair. Sorry to be a pest.

[uras1]

out of the 3 i have i got 1 mint 1 and another is split in 2 but i could save it and you cant even see the crack and the other one has a piece missing. will take a pic of the split one if you want.

[Adzmax]

That would be great, I'm happy to repair and refinish the broken part if it's not warped etc

[Adzmax]

Work has been incredibly busy so I haven't found much time to do any work on the car recently. Last night I finally found time to complete the tail light rings and breather/fuel caps. Masking them was a pretty fiddly task as there are many small faces and lots of angles.





Once the parts were fully masked off Troy hit them with some 3M adhesion promoter to help the paint stick to the chrome surface and then a 2 part black with flat clear. Then I had to use some thinners and cotton tips to remove paint off the top of the fins.



Then time for some dinner. Troy's shop is just down the road from one of the best Curry shops I've been to, and they make a great curry pizza too!



So finally these parts are complete, they now look brand new again, much nicer than the way they started out.

Before -





After -









Now all I need is some replacement centre caps. I'm not sure if I'll get these from City Auto in Japan or make them yet....

[uras1]

super fresh

[Adzmax]

I dug out this gem tonight. I picked it up from Japan a few years ago as new old stock. It suffered some minor damage in storage, a couple of scuffs on the paint work. We tried using some thinners to clean off the paint scuffs and the original paint wiped straight off. It turns out The original paint is acrylic (duh...) so its a bit of a blessing in disguise, I'd much rather repaint the whole piece in 2 pack and match the over fenders and grill. The thing I'm most pleased about is that having this part will allow us to colour match to factory spec.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

This is just freaking nuts. You sir are my new hero. Your attention to detail is epic. And your patience is being rewarded with every single part you assemble.

[Hoybo]

Very nice build! Great attention to detail.. and these parts you've got hiding. :O

[Adzmax]

I sent my bumpers away to be straightened and re-chromed a couple of month ago or so. They were in pretty poor shape with a lot of dents and surface rust etc. I used the same place that did my electroplating on the headlights and tail lamps.













I picked them up from Vinny's (http://www.vinneys.com.au) yesterday and the results are spectacular. They look better than new, I don't think the chrome finish would have been this good from factory! I'd highly recommend them for any Australians looking for metal work. The turn around time on work is generally very good and the cost per bumper is $300ex tax. When you consider the finish of these bumpers and the work that goes into this I think it's very good value!












The next thing I need to do its fit some stainless bolts into the reflectors so I can fix them to the bumpers and then source some replacement chrome plated fixing bolts for the bumpers, I'll try Rare Spares or worst case, Yahoo Japan. I'm also goign to assemble the parkers/reflectors and fix them back into the bumper so I'll take some shots of the finished product

[tez240k]

I will be looking at doing my bumpers also. 300 is a very good price id be happy with that!!

[Adzmax]

Yep! You can just send them down and they'll send them back to you.

[uras1]

thats unreal for the price, we had some merc bars done for a resto and they where 900ish each and they didnt look that good

[uras1]

try a hardware shop for the bolts maybe?

[sik 240k]

good work adm

[sik 240k]

good work adm

[KID-K]

bill thompson in bayswater.......

[Adzmax]

This one hey?

http://www.autorubbers.com.au/

Thanks mate.

[KID-K]

no probs...

[Adzmax]

I've been doing some more work on the interior today. The pillar covers in C110's seems to deteriorate really badly from UV exposure. I have two problems, my interior is blue, and most of my pillar trims are warped and cracked beyond repair. I sourced a passenger side c-pillar trim from Japan and a forum member was kind enough to donate a snapped drivers side a-pillar trim.



Troy has some plastic welding tools he uses to repair motorbike fairings which are perfect for this job. A soldering iron is used to join/melt to two pieces together and create a channel to fill with new material.



The channels are loaded with plastic which is heated by a heat gun, it's almost like soldering!



The end result is extremely strong, so strong in fact that you can actually flex the entire piece without breaking the join, it would probably snap elsewhere first.





Next I sanded back the piece and drilled out the fastening hole.





I bogged up the pillar cover, sanded it back and then sanded the entire piece ready for high fill.



I hit all the pieces with a soft pad ready for high filling, rubbing back and painting. Not sure what I'm goign to do with the texture yet but I'm sure it will come up nice.

[KID-K]

wrap the front ones in vinyl, Allan has a set on his K, they look pretty cool......good work

[Adzmax]

Not a bad idea mate, I'll check it out. I might spray them first and see how they look, I figure I can wrap them after if they don't look right.


I finally received the gaskets I've been waiting on from Japan for the parker/indicators. I've been keen to get these back together so I can fit them back into the bumper.



I didn't realise how bad the old gaskets were until I put them side by side. The old set had shrunk quite considerably.



The lights have come up pretty good I'll fit them back into the bumpers soon and take some more snaps.

[uras1]

are them gaskets off that seller with alll the other rubber parts?

[Adzmax]

I picked up the gaskets from Yahoo Japan, you might be thinking of Rubber Soul?

[uras1]

http://page5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e124567410

[Adzmax]

Yup that's them.

[Adzmax]

Fitted the lights etc back into the bumpers, man they look nice!





Time to bubble wrap and put them away.

[Laggy6]

Wow, they look absolutely perfect

[uras1]

epic, so tidy.

[Torby]

Thanks for sharing you work, truely inspirational! Keep it up!

[Adzmax]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

We finished off the pillar covers yesterday. Even though I cleaned the pieces down with Prepsol and rubbed them back, the rear pieces had some problems with the finish and there was still some slight bows where they rear pieces has been heated back into shape. I rubbed back the high fill and bogged up the problem spots them prepared them for painting again.





The final finish isn't true to the original pieces but I'm still quite impressed with the overall look.

[uras1]

gotta be happy with that, what brand texture coat is it?

[Adzmax]

It's actually high fill

I called into the auto trimmers last week and dropped off my door skins. The original interior is in really poor condition and it's blue anyhow so it all has to go. I've had a lot of trouble finding fabric to match the original vinyl but I think the pattern I've chosen should look pretty good once the whole car is trimmed.









These are the fabrics I've chosen.



The most difficultly part of the door trims to replicate is going to be the plastic chrome trim. The entire door skins are multi layered and when they are made, layers of vinyl including the plastic bright work are ultrasonicly welded together.....pretty much impossible to replicate.



The new trims is going to be sewn so I need to come up with a way to remake the chrome trim. At this stage I'm thinking I'll take a cast of the existing chrome work and then remake the strips using some kind of resin. I'll cast some threads into the strips to fix them though the door skins. Once they are make I'll send to them away to be chrome plated and then make and spray them.

[uras1]

are you goin to make gtr style door trims or retain the alloy bottom piece?

[Adzmax]

Going full GTR style with the entire car so no carpet or door badges. I was down at the trimmers last week and saw what he's done already. Looks awesome. I'm dropping my rear seats down this week so I'll take some more pics for you.

[uras1]

working fast

[Adzmax]

Thanks guys. I called into the motor trimmers this morning to drop in the rear seats. Alan had completed one of the rear panels and it looks awesome, hard to see in these crappy pictures though sorry. Alan sourced some 3mm dense rubber to fit behind the vinyl to replicate the original depth around the stitched areas. Without it the panels would have looked too one dimensional and the stitched detail would not be as visible. One problem we've found is that the bright work on the top of the passenger door is damaged, it looks etched. I'm need to track down a replacement from and old door panel...could be tough!

[fraz]

That looks insane! He's doing an awesome job, guessing he might get a few more datto owners in after they see this!

[Adzmax]

Yeah I'd say so. He has owned, and owns a nice 240k 4 door at the moment. He was recommended to me by Kid-k, he's got some door trims there at the moment too. I like the fact he takes the time to get all the little details right.

[Adzmax]

I called in to Oztrim to drop off my other door trims for butchering. I decided using them would be easier than trying to find replacement chrome. Alan had pretty much finished the back seats and has sewn together the covers for the door trims. They haven't been fitted to the actual cards yet though. The seats look amazing, I'm super impressed. Even though the fabrics are different the overall look is factory.





This is the base of the back seat. It's pretty much finished but Alan wasn't quite happy with the overall fit so he's going to add some more padding. Looks pretty nice though.



This is one of the door skins ready to be fitted to the backing board.

[KID-K]

looks real cool, from passed experience with Allen, he won't let you down.......Allen even re-hand stitched my steering wheel!

[Adzmax]

He's VERY particular which is great, he knows I'm pretty picky too but he's doing a fantastic job. I'd highly recommend him to anyone looking to get work done. He'll be doing the entire car, new roof lining, parcel shelf, carpet etc.

[uras1]

looks good, i would be very happy with that

[Adzmax]

I picked up a LD28 crank too. I've been playing with the idea of building a L28 Stroker. I sent the crank away to be linished and tested. Came back all good. Standard size and nice and straight.



I'm goign to have a chat with Peter Mcdonnell about an engine build to try an get an idea of what's available and put together a budget, and maybe sell a kidney.

[uras1]

carbs or injection?

[JMT240KGTR]

all looking great, excellent work there. how much to trim the rear seats?

[Adzmax]

Carbs, triples. I've been playing with so many ideas but I really want to keep the car true to the JDM models.

I'll break the trimming costs down once I have the final invoice.

[240kconvertible]

Nice work, epic restoration progress!!

[khughes]

If you get a colour code on this can you let me know? it some point i need to repair and repaint my NOS GTR front grill (it has a little rust), pretty sure this paint colour should match (though havn't had them both out and side by side to be honest).

I dug out this gem tonight. I picked it up from Japan a few years ago as new old stock. It suffered some minor damage in storage, a couple of scuffs on the paint work. We tried using some thinners to clean off the paint scuffs and the original paint wiped straight off. It turns out The original paint is acrylic (duh...) so its a bit of a blessing in disguise, I'd much rather repaint the whole piece in 2 pack and match the over fenders and grill. The thing I'm most pleased about is that having this part will allow us to colour match to factory spec.

[Adzmax]

Yep I'll let you know for sure. I just picked up a rusty old GTR grill too so I'll have to do this at some point. I'll post it up for sure.

I picked up the trim pieces and seat today. All the work is top notch! These pictures are not the best sorry.





These are the door skins. They are not 'true' to GTR's of the time as they didn't have carpet on them, just vinyl. I made a mistake there but I'm not really concerned, I actually quite like it and it will help to protect the doors from scuffs.





Alan removed all of the chrome work and polished it. He also replaced the felt runners that sit against the windows.





The rear trim pieces.







And the completed rear seats!

I didn't bother putting holes for window winders as I picked up some switches and electric motors/mechanisms from Japan which I plan to service and fit. The motors/mechanisms just arrives today so I'll post up some shots. I figure it will be nice to have some mod cons!

[uras1]

nice trim work.

i got a power window control centre switch if you ever need a spare

[24ozed]

WOW the trims look really good !
Can you give an idea on how much it cost you.
Happy for you to PM me if thats better.

Your build is looking fantastic, great job mate.

[Adzmax]

Thanks for the offer buddy.

Trimming cost about $2500 all up, plus I've plenty of material left over. Very reasonable considering the quality and work involved.

[uras1]

how hard was it to pull apart your fuel flap pin?. mine is well rustied and wont budge

[coupe72001]

Adz, the interior looks great. Did Oztrim do all of that?

[Adzmax]

Sure did mate, he's going to be doing the parcel shelf, carpet and roof lining for me too.

[Adzmax]

Picked up these bad boys on the weekend.

Fully Restored Triple 44mm Mikunis restored to factory new condition
Genuine Mikuni Manifold & Linkages
Genuine Mikuni 50mm Trumpets
Genuine Mikuni Soft Mounts
All new jets, pump diaphragms and gaskets etc
All hardware replated

[uras1]

car porn

[fraz]

wowsers......

[Hoybo]

yummy

[240KtoGTR]

Very Nice!!
These were off Auszcar site I believe.
Now you have to build a L28 stroker. Looking forward to seeing this project completed.

[Adzmax]

Yep that's them. I managed to get him down on price, worked out pretty reasonably in the end considering they are basically brand new inside and out after the re-co.

I spoke with Peter Mc regarding an engine build. Not sure where I'm going to go to be honest. I'm going to focus on the body and forget about the engine for a while I think.

[Laggy6]

Great work as usual!, keep the updates coming...

[Adzmax]

I removed more of the dash and fittings from the car over the weekend. I also had a play with a spare cluster surround I had to see how easy it was to remove the wood grain finish. As most of you are probably aware, underneath that wood grain trim is the raw aluminium finish used in the GTR. Obviously the same piece was used, it was simply covered for the non GTR models.

It turns out thinners or gun wash is very effective! I tested this on my spare piece and it worked a treat. The only common problem is a lot of pieces have corrosion "worms" in the finish. I'm not sure if this is a result of the trimming process or what. The first piece I tested was petty bad so I decided I'd make something similar to a mitre box and line the base with either 1500 wet and dry or 3M steel pad then pass the alloy through to get a new uniform brushed finish.

I decided I'd remove the second panel last night more carefully than the test piece so I wouldn't damage or bend the alloy. I tried using a heat gun but it's not fantastic. It looks like a contact adhesive is used on the back of the alloy panel to fix it to the plastic. I ended up pouring some gun wash in between the alloy and the plastic and then waited for it to dissolve the glue. Not great for the plastic but I do have a spare which I plan on spraying.



Once the alloy was off I make up a make shift bath with foil and left the piece if for about 30 mins or so.



Once the thinners does it's work the wood grain cover is reduced to a balloon like rubber and simply peels off. It's a bit tricky to get off the edges but with some care it all comes off.



The contact adhesive also peels off the back



Once all the glue and rubber is removed, if you are REALLY lucky you might fine a virtually perfect aluminium panel like I did. It's still a bit grubby in this pictures so I'll brush it with some more thinners tonight and give it a good scrub. It has some very minor corrosion spots but I'm not going to both fixing them, if anything we may try and clear it.



A word of advice, make sure your bath doesn't leak. My garage is going to smell like a spray shop for a while

[Adzmax]

I removed the remainder of the stainless trim from the car last night with a heat gun. It was glued down real good which was a major pain in the ass. That's the entire outside of the car done now. I have sent most of the bright work away for straightening and polishing. Will post pics when it comes back.

It doesn't look like a whole lot has changed really but it's good progress. I'll gut the rest of the interior soon I reckon and have the parcel shelf and other trim pieces remade.

I'm waiting on some space to shift the car before I remove the engine and blast the car, I need it running to move from the garage. I may remove bonnet, boot and doors etc and start work on them before hand.

[Adzmax]

Progress is a bit slow at this point, I've got stuff away being worked on which I'm hoping to pick up this week and some parts coming from Japan also.

I pulled the cluster and gauges from the car when the interior came out. I'm always amazed my how much dust I find and where I find it. I guess I have to remember the car is 37 years old, older than me! Anyhow I wanted to clean and service the lot, make sure that they were OK electronically and reset the ODO as the car is really being reborn, so it deserves 0 on the clock.







I've removed the clock on these as the GTR's had a 'Nissan' blanking plate instead of the clock. Hoping that should arrive this week.







Reset the back to 0, looking much cleaner now too.



I cut and polished up all the lenses, cleaned the housings, dials and needles, checked the circuit boards and components and then reassembled the lot. I'm trying to decide if I change the globes out for LED's or stick with bulbs for the warm glow they give. It's interesting how the bulb housings are painted in certain areas to restrict where the light shines. I think I'll have to play with this and see what looks right.