Ross's 1995 R33 GTR

[Robin026]

This car is lovely to see.
Good luck with the updates.

[den80]

Good build,let us know how that front camber kit is,as i am thinking to get one or go with upper control arms instead

[R33-East]

Finally got a chance to work on the car again yesterday and solved the problem I had with the dampening adjustment on the rear coilovers. The adjustment tools that came with the coilovers were to long and stuck up about an inch. I wanted the knobs to sit flush with the parcel shelf so this is what I came up with.

I couldn't cut the springy rod on the HKS tools so after much looking around I found this. Its a magnetic pick up tool, it flex's perfectly for my application and can be easily cut!


First I enlarged the holes in the HKS knobs and end pieces to fit the flexible rod of the pickup tool.




Then I just cut the rod to the lengths I needed and attached the knobs and end pieces. This is the finished product.



The knobs do rise and fall a little between min and max adjustment but it looks so much better now



Under the shelf on the drivers side is the fuel pump ecu(this should help you out ColinR33) in its normal position it does not allow the adjustment tool to reach the coilover. My plan was to drill a new hole in the ecu bracket and mount it over to the side a little. When I looked at the bracket to find a spot for the hole I noticed there was one already there, awesome! The bracket still mounts to the same point on the back but the front is now moved to the left making way for the tool.



The ecu connector was still in the way and catching on one of the set screws attaching the tool the the top of the coilover. So I just put a couple washers under the bracket to raise it up enough for the connector to clear the tool.



Now for the funny part, a few hours after I did all that I was looking at the HKS install manual for the coilovers. It was all in Japanese so I never really payed any attention to it before but as I was browsing through it I found this.



The picture on the left shows the fuel pump ecu bracket mounted using that hole I found and a spacer under it where I had used washers. I had no idea what that spacer was for until now, so when I finally realized its purpose I yelled "Oh yeah that's where it goes" lol. I later went back and swapped the washers for the spacer.



Next was the front camber kit. I managed to get the old bushings out with everything on the car, but when it came to putting the new ones in I ended up pulling the whole arm out. I took them to a local garage to get them installed.




The upper control arm fits much tighter over the new bushings than the old ones. This means its more solid but I find it can be difficult to adjust the camber as everything is so tight.



Just a few more things to do before the car is ready for the road!

[cschepp]

Nice to see some updates. Looks good. And wow what a tight fit back there, looks great though.

As far as the bushings go, do you know if there offer any for a 32? These look great

[R33-East]

Nice to see some updates. Looks good. And wow what a tight fit back there, looks great though.

As far as the bushings go, do you know if there offer any for a 32? These look great

Yes they do, here is the link http://www.whiteline.com.au/product_..._number=KCA336

[MrGrimm]

Looking fantastic, any power mods in your future? I am starting a search for an R33 as well.

[R33-East]

Looking fantastic, any power mods in your future? I am starting a search for an R33 as well.

Just an intake and exhaust for now then save up for a big build. I would like a reliable and responsive 400awhp(maybe more:P) in the long run. I need to get a compression test done sometime in the next month or so to see what I have to work with.

[R33-East]

Ok update time. Back before Christmas I bought a set of R34 rims with tires from Tokyo Motor Imports......what a complete rip off! On their website they listed them as "Used but in excellent condition" and they looked good in the pictures. I gave them a call to find out a little more, the guy said they were "very clean" and in "great shape", I then made the mistake of trusting him and bought the wheels.

They could not ship them directly to me for some reason, the closest they could ship them was 3 hours away. Yet when I went to the shipping depot to pick them up the guys there said that they could have been dropped off much closer(only an hour from my house) and couldn't believe why the seller didn't know this???

So when I finally got the wheels I lost it. Every one of them had curbing and pitting on all the spokes, not to mention they were completely filthy! The tread wear on the tires wasn't to bad but you could tell that they were very old and dried out. They had outright lied about the condition of these wheels. I took a few minutes to calm down then gave them a call and explained my displeasure and how they were not worth what I paid for them($1800 Shipping inc). I said I either wanted to return them for a full refund or keep them and get a partial refund to pay for their repair. The guy refuses to talk like an adult and just starts yelling nonsense about you get what you pay for and we don't do refunds, finally he just says "send pictures" then hangs up on me.

I took over a dozen pictures and sent them four times over the following couple months and never got a reply. In the end I got frustrated and just got them repaired myself. I went to Radical Advantage where I got my calipers done, they fixed them up and painted them a gunmetal color.

I warn anyone who is thinking of buying something from TOKYO MOTOR IMPORTS to steer clear. This is the first and the last time I buy something from a place like this without personally going to check out the item first. I hope others will learn from my mistakes and be careful when buying online, there are a lot of shady people out there who want your money and will tell you anything to get it.

Some pics of the damage.









After I picked them up from Radical Advantage.



On the car!




The car had only been on the road a week when I got a flat yesterday I could see that the right front tire was a little low when I left work. Home is only 4km away so I thought I would be able to make it there no problem, I got half way and the tire was completely flat. I had to put the spare on to get home, then I went to the closest garage I could find to get the tire checked out. Turns out the bead had broken on the old dried out tire and created a huge leak. The car is now off the road again until I can get a new set.


The car had been pulling to the right after I had an alignment done and this tire may have been part of the problem. If it still pulls with the new set ill be going back for more adjustments.

On the bright side I am really excited about a part I have on order, should be here in the next couple weeks!

[Nexsys]

Wow, your guy did an amazing job on those tims, love em!

[R33-East]

Finally got a new set of tires! I went with some Continental Extreme Contact DW's, I was looking for something that would ride good on the rough roads we have around here and provide good grip and performance as well. I have over 500km on them so far and must say they are a huge improvement over the set of Bridgestone GEIII's that came with the rims. They are very comfortable, partly due to going with a larger profile(40 to 45) and with a rainy week ahead I will be able to see how they preform in the wet.

I bought them on tire rack and had them shipped to the states then drove over to pick them up. Doing this I saved around $400 on the set!

Here are a few pics of the car from last weekend.

[R33-East]

Just got my new Tomei Expreme Ti Cat-back exhaust last week and installed it today!



It is incredibly well made, the guys at Tomei did an amazing job.



Just look at those perfect welds!









The stock system came off surprisingly easy, I sprayed some fluid film on the nuts holding it to the cat and one of the two came off no problem. The second one brought the stud with it and no matter what I tried the nut was not coming off. I ended up going to Napa and getting a new stud.



20 minutes later the Tomei exhaust was on and ready to go!







Here is a video I took on my phone of the stock exhaust.

Now with the Tomei exhaust installed.......way louder lol. It puts a smile on my face every time I start it up When driving the noise peaks around 3k then really drops off after that. The car also seems to boost a little quicker which is nice.

Another clip with the silencer in, noticeably quieter. The silencer fits in there very tight I had a hard time pulling it out.

Dad wanted to give it a go so I took the opportunity to get some video as he drove by. (Just watch the first 10 seconds of the first clip, after that he gets to far away)

[ColinR33]

Sweet sound on that, have to start saving my nickles!

[caribougtr]

Got mine coming in this week and sound clips are few and far between on the nets so thanks for sharing the clips!!!! pumped!!

[PurpleStreak]

Sounds great!

[R33-East]

Well its been over a year since I have updated this thread which is just ridiculous. Now that I have some time off I will do my best to bring everything up to date.

So in the fall of 2012 I started to collect a few parts to install over the winter.

Apexi Power FC/Hand Controller
Datalogit
Innovate MTX-L Wideband
Used aftermarket downpipe
Decat
Used HKS IC hard piping with divided twin turbo pipe
FRP Full length cooling panel
Nismo Solid Shifter

First up was the the Nismo Solid Shifter. Not a huge difference from stock, only slightly shorter. It does however feel more "solid" compared to the worn stock shifter.



Before I tackled the IC piping I wanted to test fit the cooling panel. As soon as I unpacked it was clear that it was a piece of $hit. It was flimsy and the hole's hadn't been drilled accurately or even round for that matter! As you can the guess the fitment was terrible. A two year old with cardboard and scissors could have done better.





Very unimpressed with the panel I moved on to the IC piping.



With all the stock piping removed I began to fit the HKS kit but ran into another problem...



....it didn't line up

This piping is for an R32 which is just slightly different than the R33/R34 kit. I contacted Feast about this and the poor quality cooling panel. Turns out the seller had listed the piping incorrectly so Adam agreed to help me sell it and ended up making me a few extra bucks for my trouble. As for the panel it wasn't worth the price of shipping to return it so its collecting dust until I can find a use for it.

I will continue updating over the coming weeks. Also sorry for the low quality pictures, I have a go pro now which I will be using in the future.