Bobbo's build

[bobbo]

I've been on here for a few years and learned a lot from a few people and I'm certainly a fan of this site.
I have finally taken the time to sit down and share the history with my GTR.
Here goes!

From 2004 to 2009 I was big into bikes after I sold my '94 Integra GS-R. I learned on a '98 Honda VTR-1000 and after riding the wheels off of that I bought my "dream bike" after I returned from a 6 month deployment. A 2007 Suzuki GSX-R750. It was tuned as well.
My Integra:

My VTR:

My Gixxer:

So after becoming more and more interested in bike racing I started taking my wife to the track and once she saw how often (and at times badly) riders were getting hurt she made the statement "You can do anything else you want as long as we can afford it"...
Enter this (after a few months of looking):



My goals for the car were (and still are) to build an accurate example of the R32 and with that in mind it won't have carbon fiber body panels and gauges all over the interior. I wanted it to always look fairly stock.
At the same time I wanted to improve the non visible aspects of the car to maximize performance. All of this while maintaining a car that I can take to a car show and be proud.
We found the car at Japan Domestic Imports in Montreal and after several conversations and numerous emailed pictures we bought plane tickets and flew out. I was terrified that I was going to get there and it would be a basket case and at this time I had little knowledge of these cars and had only ever laid eyes on two.
I was very pleased to see almost exactly what I was promised. There were a few bugs to work out that the dealer did look after for me. The A/C didn't work, the wheels were in worse shape than described and the tires were done.
He fixed the A/C and let me take a look through the shop and find a satisfactory set of wheels with the end result being this:

[bobbo]

On the drive home further problems were discovered. A misfire which ended up being a tired ignitor, a slipping clutch and I had unknowingly picked out a staggered set of wheels/tires.
I drove the car a few times and then brought into my little garage and set to work for what I told my wife was going to be "all I was ever going to do to this car"
I stripped the intake manifold, cam cover assembly and charge piping out to be painted and powder coated.
Thoroughly cleaned the engine bay. Castrol Super Clean is a great product btw.
Removed the existing garbage brakes and replaced them with the AMS R33 BBK and installed braided lines.
Detailed the wheel wells.
Before:

After:

With the current brake set up:

A new set of Work Emotion CRKs 18x9.5 +20 with 255/38/18 Dunlop StarSpecs.

Installed an OS Giken TS2B bla bla multi disk clutch with Nismo reinforced pivot and braided line.
Replaced some gaskets and did all of the usual maintenance work.
You saw the engine bay pics from when I picked it up. Here is the end result of a lot of effort:

And the car:

I had a great time with the car that year. We picked up a few car show trophies and earned some respect at the track with a couple of FTDs and some top three finishes.
I was even invited to do a walk around by the local BMW club at one of their show and tells hosted by our local Porsche dealership:

There wasn't very much done to the car the following year other than maintenance and a few other details as I was starting to build a new house and was travelling too much with work.
Then a good friend told me about the Boston BMW Club HPDS at Mont Tremblant which led to this...

http://forums.gtrcanada.com/general-skyline-discussion/54960-gtr-faith.html?highlight=GTR+Faith

That led to this winter and had the plan to only have the front end repainted, new front rotors and rebuild or replace my turbos. Things got a little out of hand...
Sorry about the iPhone pics. I was too lazy to carry another camera around in the garage.


I found out thanks to suspicions from Robin at Almasi that I didn't have stock R32 turbos and found out once I started disassembly that I had R34 turbos. They are only partially rebuildable and I wanted to get rid of the ceramic turbine wheels.
Then (thanks to Marus92) I found out GTR-Garage was looking to sponsor a Canadian car so I sent them a PM and a few days I got back this (there was more to it but you'll get the idea):
Rob,

Let me start of by saying I really appreciated the way you approached your message with such professionalism. We are extremely interested in offering you a sponsorship.

... and so it began (Thanks to Kunio at GTR-Garage):

[bobbo]

I stripped basically everything off of the sides of the motor as you saw above.
Kunio at GTR-Garage found me an incredible deal on a new set of N1 turbos and associated plumbing and a used set of HKS actuators. A little work was done to bring it all up to standard.


Some of the piping was redone and the intercooler needed some love:



My exhaust needed some work to allow for the demands of the new turbos and some new plumbing was aquired from Halifax Car Audio (gotta support the local guys too).


With all of the other money spent I couldn't go the extra mile to get headers so I did my best with the manifolds. Here are some before and after with some progress pics. I don't have any internal shots of the finished product unfortunately.



Out with the old:

In with the new:



I had a little rattle up front which I finally figured out it was a bad bushing in my FUCAS. So...


While I had it all apart I took some time to freshen up my head lights as the black was pealing off and the rubber covers behind the lights were showing their age so I went to work on them as well.




Some clean up was required. Before:

After:

Some other progress being made.


Just about done.


I'm very fortunate to have some pretty amazing tools and friends that work in the dock yard. I needed a bracket made to support the oil filter relocation so it just so happens I have access to a 3-D printer that makes peices out of inconel steel. Over-kill? Maybe but wouldn't you?
The machine:

Attempt #1

Attempt #2 is in the works. Some angles and contours need to be changed.
I also was able to have our pipe shop test all of my braided oil lines and cooler for leaks before assembly. Glad I did as one did have a leak. Here's where I ended up mounting the cooler:

I will still be able to mount the under tray with some cutting and I've got an idea to further improve flow. I'll add pics once that develops.
Final engine bay pic as the car sits now:



With an intense work schedule, trying to build a deck, fulfilling spousal and social obligations, helping to raise a new puppy and spending almost a week working on my fathers '69 Barracuda time was FLYING by and I hadn't had much time to work on the car. To get caught up I only had one choice. I spent a week getting home from work, changing, a quick bite to eat and working in the garage from 17:00 until 2:00 and 3:00 A.M. It's pretty tough going to work on 3 and 4 hours of sleep but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

[bobbo]

I've had some huge support from my wife on this project as it has turned into a labour of love. She even offered to foot the grocery bill for a year to help with my progress.
I honestly thought it would have been a 69 Pro Touring Camaro or a '41 Willys but I'm quite pleased and proud of where I've ended up with this car but I'm not done yet
I'm off to Mont Tremblant again mid July for GTR Faith 2.0 and on the way visiting Robin at Almasi Tuning to do a final tune with the new set up. We're expecting to see around 400WHP. I'll let you know how it goes.
I have to thank Dan Goodine (Imation) from Focused Motorsports as he was a big help through earlier stages of this project.
Also some of the guys and girls in the CFB Halifax dockyard who took time out of their lunch breaks to help me out.
Lastly I can not give enough credit to Kunio at GTR-Garage for all the tecknical help, advise, patience, amazing communication and getting me parts so quickly.
I am extremely proud to be part of the GTR-Garage team to say the least.
GTR-Garage provided the following parts with great savings and exceptional service:
-Trust oil cooler and relocation kit,
-R34 N1 Turbos and required plumbing,
-HKS 550cc injectors,
-Nismo Fuel pump,
-Nismo oil filters,
-Nismo oil cap,
-Nismo oil separator,
-HKS actuators,
-Soon to arrive Project Mu 2 pc rotors; and
-Omari oil pressure gauge.

[MarusGTR]

I've had some huge support from my wife on this project as it has turned into a labour of love. She even offered to foot the grocery bill for a year to help with my progress.

Finally! Been waiting for you build thread in quite some time. You really did some incredible and detailed work, I can't say it enough. The car is a pure gem in every way, you can tell its not hiding scars, everything is just solid, straight and true. I also can't believe you did an expo on it, that's major respect-worthy there, I'd never be confortable doing the same with mine.

I also see you took the blue tinge from the Ti exhaust? Good man

PS: I have a hard time picturing you in an Integra, its as if Vin Diesel had been driving a civic before FnF.

[leeaspin]

Its about time bobbo! Great looking car!

[bobbo]

I've had a few people ask me to do this but honestly I never thought anyone would really care about what I was doing with my car and I never felt the need to share.
Thanks for the generous comments though!

[MarusGTR]

Question: Did you black out your door cards? Is your roof liner still light grey? I've just noticed in your pictures that your door cards fabric and handles are black. It would explain why the first time I sat in your car I remember it being so dark and spooky (in a good way).

[bobbo]

My interior is all stock except for the backing in the door pockets. They were badly faded so I painted them. Also the fabric door inserts are missing and i would love to rectify that. Its darker inside because the windows are tinted.

[R33-East]

Good to see you have a build thread, there are many people who are interested in what you have to share. Build threads often provide useful technical information and are also a source of inspiration, the more people who share their builds the better.

[GTR-Garage]

Looks great. I can't wait to see what kind of power you make when you get it tuned.

[frankiman]

how did you end up fixing the twin turbo pipe hairline crack leak ?

[bobbo]

how did you end up fixing the twin turbo pipe hairline crack leak ?

That would fall under the "Thanks to the guys and girls in the Dockyard" category. A friend took it, ground out the area that was leaking and rewelded it. It will definitely never leak again.

[cobrAA]

I've had some huge support from my wife on this project as it has turned into a labour of love. She even offered to foot the grocery bill for a year to help with my progress.
I honestly thought it would have been a 69 Pro Touring Camaro or a '41 Willys but I'm quite pleased and proud of where I've ended up with this car but I'm not done yet
I'm off to Mont Tremblant again mid July for GTR Faith 2.0 and on the way visiting Robin at Almasi Tuning to do a final tune with the new set up. We're expecting to see around 400WHP. I'll let you know how it goes.
I have to thank Dan Goodine (Imation) from Focused Motorsports as he was a big help through earlier stages of this project.
Also some of the guys and girls in the CFB Halifax dockyard who took time out of their lunch breaks to help me out.
Lastly I can not give enough credit to Kunio at GTR-Garage for all the tecknical help, advise, patience, amazing communication and getting me parts so quickly.
I am extremely proud to be part of the GTR-Garage team to say the least.
GTR-Garage provided the following parts with great savings and exceptional service:
-Trust oil cooler and relocation kit,
-R34 N1 Turbos and required plumbing,
-HKS 550cc injectors,
-Nismo Fuel pump,
-Nismo oil filters,
-Nismo oil cap,
-Nismo oil separator,
-HKS actuators,
-Soon to arrive Project Mu 2 pc rotors; and
-Omari oil pressure gauge.

You also need yo thanks your wife for our cooking skill which helped you go throught the night without wasting time cooking in the kitchen and play on the gtr instead hahah

[bobbo]

Haha! She wasn't cooking for me, she was at work making sure we had enough money
J/K of course. Sorry I wasn't able to give you the meal I had promised but hopefully my kitchen work was good enough. Allison has been working like crazy. I haven't spent much time with her in weeks.
Great meeting you Alex and thanks again for the AMAZING job you did on my cars. I hope to see you and Frank when I get there on the 18th or over the weekend.