Announcement

**frankiman** · 09-21-2009, 01:45 AM

Chapter 1 - where it all began

took me a long time to come around to starting my own project thread

before i get started, heres some info on me
-i'm 21 years old as of june 23rd 2009
-my only car prior to buying a skyline was a beat-up mazda 323
-i'm a student in Mechanical Engineering @ ETS university
-i've never had a full time job, only compensated internships
-i have never worked as a mechanic
-and i'm like a freaking SHAMWOW with all car related information, mostly driving physics and mechanism, i absorb them

so here we go, got alot of stuff to cover

i got my first GTR back in august 2007
pretty much stock car, with coilovers, cat back exhaust, oldschool HIDs and AVS wheels
good interior fully stock
stock exterior with worn paint and moldings
A1++ mechanical condition, engine had just been replaced as a condition of purchase
well worth the 12,5k i paid worth it back then, from JDM Montreal, tip top shop !

took the car to the drag strip a couple times (since i had the most powerfull car (wow stock GTR) out of all my friends
also took it to the track for half a dozen 20min sessions, but unfortunately it was all in the rain

then, i started pilling up parts for it,
so i decided to jack the car up for a couple weeks for well deserved upgrades

finally took me 3 months to do the lot, because of parts beeing on back order,
and also it was my first time doing some heavy mechanical work on a car (compared to changing brake pads and air filter on my beater mazda 323)
and i'm proud to say i did everything on my own, without any support except for my dad's advices, but he never touched my car out of respect
(didn't know GTRC existed back then)

i was really proud of what i had accomplished, even if i hadn't driven the car for the full summer
then, exactly a week after the car was off the blocks, i signed up for the "UltraRide", which is basically just a cruise, with 40 others cars

i got overconfident, as many young drivers get with powerfull machines

and this happened, scroll down
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

nobody got hurt, i only had a couple scratches from getting out of the car
the body was so badly damaged, there was just no chance in hell of getting the car back into shape

mechanicaly, the car was fine, only the front had gotten damaged (bumper to plastic fan)
and while the car was upside down and i was waiting for the tow truck, me and my buddies found some rust behing the passenger tailight, which really got me pissed for some reason

and to make things worst, THE SAME DAY, september 21st 2008, about 10 hours after the accident, my garage caught fire

because of an old leaking air compressor

so i swallowed my pride

, decided to buy the car back from the insurance and got it towed home, next to the burnt garage,
my neighbourgs were all like WTF

and the car sat there all winter, while i reflected ont the situation

lets just say i kept the insurance compagny really busy for a while
-
-
-
-
-
-
after having sorted all the insurance stuff out, my dad decided to get a new and improved garage
so i said, F**K YEAH, me too

so we had a new garage built to our spec, knowing that we would actually put a car in this one

as soon as the garage was done, we put the old GTR in it, and started taking it the F**K apart

so now all the parts are up for sale
and obviously, i'm only selling parts that are still in perfect condition

so thats all about my old GTR

Chapter 2 - out with the old, in with the new

so fast forward to february 2009,

i was an intern @ Pratt & Whitney Canada, working on a energy saving project
so i had alot of time on my hanbs :wink:

at this point, i had reflected alot on my situation and the idea of leasing a brand new car (mazda3) was coming back to me all the time like a boomerang

but my thirst for GTR godliness was still unquenshed

and my "wise" father said that i would never be satisfied with anything else than another GTR, to finish what i had started

so before making an actual decision, i had to make sure what options were financialy feasable first
so i got really serious about it, everything was going to be planned in advanced, everything would be calculated to the last penny
i started building a budget considering the next 72 weeks (till my next internship)
and i didn't want to miss a payment again

so the moment i realized that i actually could buy another GTR, i picked up the phone, call the bank and got another loan the same day (my first loan was cleared after my insurance money for the car and the garage got in)

so there i was, with an extra 12,5k sitting in my bank account, waiting to be spent on a new set of wheels

but i had still not checked the Montreal JDM market yet for GTRs, so i had the money, but nowhere to go with it

so i started peaking around the JDM shops, my first stops were JDM Montreal and JDM Nagoya Auto Parts since i had good connections there, but they didn't have what i was looking for, which basically was the exact same car i had and placing a special order would have taken months

and my father had warned me about this, he called it "car rebound", i just wanted my old car back

so finally got over the fact that my car was gone forever

finally found a good candidate at Japan Domestic Motors in Montreal
a black 1990 GTR, with not many mods, seamed to be in really good condition, but interior was a bit worn out

but it was clear the engine was runnig on only 5 cylinders
since i was really interested in buying the car, i asked them to get it check by a professionnal shop (i.e autoworx)
so after a couple visits to the shop, they never got the car checked and it was still running weird, and they argued me that it had old sparks plugs, the engine wasn't up to temp, needed more gaz (they kept the gas tanks of all their cars practically empty, wtf)
so just for argument's sake, i asked to take it out for a test drive
engine kept stalling repeatedly on my way out of the shop, on a stock clutch, the engine was just no good
so the vendor got pissed, told me he would drive it, since i "couldn't drive manual JDMs"
he had to rev the engine like a mother fu**er not to stall it, drove around the block, again, it was clear the engine wasn't doing well

so i got out the car and litteraly told them to suck my nutsack

at this point, i had visited pretty much all the shops i knew existed in montreal, but still no luck finding my "precious" and felt a bit beat

but right after i left Japan domestic motors, i drove around the block next to a shop i never knew was there,
and laid my sight upon this gem..

to be continued tomorrow... edit story continued on page 2

feels like i'm writhing a story more than an actual build documentation..that will change soon

**archaeic_bloke** · 09-21-2009, 10:21 AM

wow frank, thats a pretty fantastic story! can't wait to see more.

i won't be at the track i have to work today, but awesome stuff~! ...that looks fantastic, ive always really liked white GTR's.

what happened with the accident? how did you roll the car like that? speed?

**greddytrustGTR** · 09-21-2009, 11:09 AM

holy hell, thats quite a flip glad to hear no one was hurt and thats not the first time i heard of Japan Domestic Motor being assholes. a buddy and i went down to that shop cause we heard they had a lot of nice wheels for sale and they did, but i would have to give them my first born for a set... bronze TE37's 18x7.5 for my STi they wanted 3k for em, and the dumb salesman kid kept telling me i didnt know anything and would never find a set for cheaper than 4k, he had a broken toe in a bandage so i "accidentally" dropped one on his toe and left... hate that shop... oh and they pour oil in their motor cylinders through the sparkplugs to clear Compression tests and Leakdown tests, we caught them once.

**NismoS-tune** · 09-21-2009, 02:13 PM

Crazy story I gotta say. Why didn't you get a stock GTR the first time rather than a fast one..? Also, I gotta ask, how does a student afford all this?

**PopolZ** · 09-21-2009, 02:52 PM

Originally posted by frankiman View Post

to be continued tomorrow...

but I want to know the story now!!!!!

**dah_hunter** · 09-21-2009, 04:50 PM

More story needed..

**klys** · 09-21-2009, 10:43 PM

Well for having met Frank in person today and his GTR at the track, it's a nice one.

but do continue the story hehe

**Oakville** · 09-22-2009, 05:04 PM

This is quite the story, glad to see all is well now. and I've never seen that before, a chop top GTR LOL

**archaeic_bloke** · 09-22-2009, 08:14 PM

ya frank why did you chop the top off the GTr shell!? couldnt you sell it as a shell? or no one would take it? bent frame? lemme know what happend!

**frankiman** · 09-23-2009, 01:07 AM

answers

Chapter 2,1 - answers

Originally posted by archaeic_bloke View Post

what happened with the accident? how did you roll the car like that? speed?

yeah speed, but if it had been my 4th year driving and tracking the car, i would have made it trough the corner no prob

what hapenned is i was following a MS3, but didn't see it going through the second bend/crest of a S twist, so i went in too fast, and basically reacted like anyone with a lack of experience and slammed the brakes instead of letting off the gas a bit and smoothly turning in,
when the road started going down, the car lifted, went straight into the ditch, hit the bottom, did a full second of air time, did half a barrel roll, landed on the roof and skidded for 20 feet

no one got hurt thank god

Originally posted by NismoS-tune View Post

Crazy story I gotta say. Why didn't you get a stock GTR the first time rather than a fast one..? Also, I gotta ask, how does a student afford all this?

it was a stock GTR, the only power mod was a cat-back exhaust..
how can i afford this? two things
a 4 months paid internship every year
bank loan

Originally posted by archaeic_bloke View Post

ya frank why did you chop the top off the GTr shell!? couldnt you sell it as a shell? or no one would take it? bent frame? lemme know what happend!

well, one thing i didn't mention is, that the tow truck driver was an absolute idiot, (he told me my car handled like ****, and that his crown victoria pocile pack was a race car compared to mine

)
instead of using his flat-bed to flip the track, he tried to pull it with hooks till it flipped,
he dragged it for 20 feet till it finally flipped, every feet he dragged it made the roof collaspe even more

Nissan Murcielago ?? i think not

some of you might have realized my now that my Avatar's picture was taken right after the crash by a fellow UltraRide participant

i got the car towed home about 2 weeks later, since the car had been dropped at a local garage, 180km away from my home
a couple days after, i found this picture surfing the pages of local car enthusiats forum MontrealRacing.com with the caption "spotted, skyline on A15 south

" some dude actually took a picture of the car on the flatbed coming home

anyway, i would never have been able to take the whole interior apart without taking the roof off

interior was still ok.. i sold the seats to a friend, who custom fitted them in his track civic
the dash was still mint, helped a friend swapped it with his, since his had a bubble like many R32 dashes

and i sold alot of other interior parts to GTRC members and local skyline owners

most of the damage was absorbed by the car's body, like its meant to

alright lets keep going on with the story...

**NismoS-tune** · 09-23-2009, 01:28 AM

Thankfully you weren't in a rwd sports car cause it coulda been sooner, when the rear end kicks out easier. Atleast you're ok.

**frankiman** · 09-23-2009, 02:40 AM

story continued, bringing home baby

Chapter 3 - bringing home baby

so i turn around the block to see this shop

JDM Advance Motor Import

and saw these two parked outside

since i had nothing to lose just taking a look at them, i did just that

the silver one caught my attention first, since it wasn't a stock color,and that flat black lip looked nice

but the white one had that "wow i can't believe its not butter" (replace butter by new) factor

so after circling the two car for about 5 mins, the vendor came out with the keys of both cars, opened them both and said "take a look"

screw the silver car, the white one had me hooked, with its full nismo body kit

then i opened the hood, since i was used to the stock oily engine of my previous GTR, looking at the engine bay i took a step back and said "wooh" (picture to follow)

my budget for my 2nd GTR was about 10k, so when the vendor said "well the white goes for 12,5k",
i went "ishh"

so i went home, fiddled with my budget's inputs and outputs again,
and pretty much went "fawk it, i'll make it work"

so i came back a week later with a blank 1000$ check in my back pocket and my father, i wanted him there to make sure i wasn't rushing my decision

at that moment, the car was sitting in the shop, so we took advantage of that fact and jacked it up,
did a thorough inspection of the car (as thorough as we could without hand tools), making sure there wasn't any weird sounds, no leaks, every electric feature worked and that the engine was running perfect

at first i didn't like the interior too much, worn out bride driver seat, stained stock passenger seat, plenty of wires coming out from the rear of the dash,
but it had some carbon fiber leathery goodness
and anyway, i said to myself "i can fix this, anything can be customized)

the paint looked ultra mint, as did the modlings, except for a couple big scratches (that after all were just stuck on grease) and a huge dent on the front passanger side fender

so i stepped to the back of the shop to reflect with my dad,
him ; are you sure you really like it?
me; fawk yeah
him; you're not going to change your mind after you buy it are you?!
me; no no
him; i don't like the color, you sure you wouldn't prefer a gunmetal again?
me; nah, white is perrrfect
him; ok then, you got my consent

so we walked back to vendor,
who told us another buyer had dibs on the car, but hadn't dropped a deposit yet

at that moment, i yelled "well now I call dibs" and yanked the 1000 check out
we filled the papers and asked them to keep the car for a month, so we could finish taking the other one apart

so this is what i bought

1991 Nissan Skyline GTR
138,000km
(all the following pictures were taken by the shop weeks ealier, or by me that exact day)

modifications at time of purchase

Nismo front bumper vents
Nismo front hood lip
Nismo side pods
Nismo rear trunk spoiler
Nismo N1 headlights
Nismo shift knob
Nismo 555cc injectors
Nismo frp
Nismo N1 turbos (which i found out much later)
Nismo downpipe
Nismo fuel pump
Nismo solid shift
Nismo (suspected) single plate clutch, probly Gmax
HKS coilovers
HKS EVC1 boost controller (type that in google, its so old its not documented)
HKS suction intake kit
BeTime turbo timer
Sparco boss kit
MOMO RACE steering wheel
Bride bucket driver seat
Greddy GREX oil filter relocator with oil cooler
Greddy FMIC with a mix of Greddy and HKS hard piping and couplers
Blitz rad cap
EXAS 4,5" cat back exhaust
R33 GTR wheels with unkown Bridgestone potenzas
SS braided brake lines (which i also found out later, after buying another set.. whatever..)
Garage Saurus rear "big brake" conversion (it took awhile to find info on this thing)
Cusco brake master cylinder stopper
Carozziera speakers
Sony deck
"carbon fiber" shift boot and handbrake boot
unkown a/m pedal covers

no too bad huh?

click here to jump to chapter 3 part 2

**Rapier46** · 09-23-2009, 09:47 AM

White is the sexiest GTR color. and that thing is hot. bet it pulled pretty good.

**m_melen** · 09-23-2009, 10:20 AM

wow! id say with all those mods you got it for a great price!
congrats!

Announcement

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

Frankiman's street/track GTR project

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment