1990 GTR in the USA

[submonkeyz]

Hi everyone! I have enjoyed the resources here and I'm sure I will in the future now that I own a GTR. I wanted to share my experience importing one to the USA for others that may be looking to do so.

I live near the border of BC so i have been jealous of the many JDM imports that have come across to Canada the last 10 years because of your 15 year exemption. The US has a similar exemption but it happens when the car is 25 years old. So being 2015 now we are getting into the 1990's for JDM vehicles.

I started saving about 5 years ago looking forward to 2014 when I could bring in a 1989 Skyline GTR. In July of 2014 I finally had enough saved and put up my 240sx for sale.

I traveled out to Vancouver Island and the seller met me at the ferry terminal where I inspected the car. I purchased the GTR and drove it back to the mainland and put it into storage for 6 months waiting for 2015 since it was a 1990 model.

IMG_4514 by bristu, on Flickr
Here is the pic from the Craigslist add.

IMG_4559 by bristu, on Flickr
in line for the ferry.

IMG_4580 by bristu, on Flickr
On the Ferry!

IMG_5607 by bristu, on Flickr
And into storage!

In my next post I'll explain how the import process went!

[Ho-Sik]

Congrats man! Looks good!

[Bruizer]

I always liked white! nice find considering it's 25 years old and needs minor body work.

[submonkeyz]

After a long wait of 6months with the car in storage in Canada, It was finally 2015 and time to bring it down! Here is a list of the paperwork I needed to complete the import: (Some of these details are specific to British Columbia and Washington State)

ICBC 1 day permit ($29 at a Auto Plan Broker) http://www.icbc.com/about-icbc/locat...s/Default.aspx

Washington Trip Permit 3 day ($25 at a DOL) http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistr...ippermits.html

A Bill of Sale http://www.dol.wa.gov/forms/420065.pdf

BC Vehicle transfer form (pick up from an Autoplan Broker) http://www.icbc.com/vehicle-registra...ownership.aspx

The BC vehicle registration

The NHTSA HS_7 form Check Box 1 for a vehicle over 25 years old http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/hs799short.pdf

The EPA form 3520-1 Check Box Code E for a vehicle over 21 years old http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/documents/3520-1.pdf

2.5% of the purchase price for the Terriff

I had all my paper work and drove to the US border and said I needed to import this vehicle I had purchased.
They had me hand over my paperwork, pull into a stall and go inside. I waited for an agent and talked through the details.
Everything was going good and they had me sit while they did some more research, and went out to look at the car and check the Vin #'s.

Then they came to me with a bunch of questions like where I was employed, where I found the vehicle, who I bought it from and if I had imported vehicles before. Their tone had totally changed and they asked many times if the Vehicle was "for personal use?"

Then they dropped the bomb, "Skylines are federally illegal to import. So we can't import your car." I asked under what law? and they said it was federal and there was nothing they could do.
I protesed a little bit, but i was caught off guard, and I said that it maybe used to be Illigal but now it was exempt because it was 25 years old.

They had me sit for a long time while they did more research.

They must have made calls and a few other officers were doing research and checking things but I was very nervous.

They asked a few more questions and i asked if it was coming up as illegal to import because it had been attempted to become a legal import but now it was exempt.

Anyway I could see that things were changing and it was going to work out. They stamped my forms and I filled another form out that they gave me to approve the import, i paid my fee and they let me go! What a relief!

I went to my DOL office with the form the Border gave me and they made a registration and plates for me, I paid the Tax 8.7% and paid for the plates and tabs and they said the title would come in the mail!

I sent my insurance company a copy of my registration and they insured it (Liability and Comprehensive) for $147 for 6 months!

It was done!

Hopefully the process is clear and any of you can repeat it, let me know if you have questions! I'm not an expert but I was able to pull it together and make it work with a bit of research!

Here is pic of it in my driveway!

IMG_5610 by bristu, on Flickr

and here are some pics of all the JDM stickers on it. (I wanted to document them because they are all coming off)

IMG_5616 by bristu, on Flickr

IMG_5617 by bristu, on Flickr

IMG_5618 by bristu, on Flickr

IMG_5619 by bristu, on Flickr

IMG_5620 by bristu, on Flickr

and the Instagram pic i posted to let my friends know it was home.

IMG_5623 by bristu, on Flickr

[davidmullis]

Great information here man, shot you a PM with some questions!

[caliber676]

Nice looking R

[submonkeyz]

I've had the car in the US for a month now and it has been an experience!

Im still not used to right hand drive...

I spend alot of time staring at it...

my first mod was an ebay shift knob, lol.

10929055_10152829531378124_725629533129309010_o by bristu, on Flickr

I also put new foam in the HKS super suction intakes.

and I noticed some of the injectors were wet so I ordered new Orings but I haven't installed them yet.

I also noticed the Advan wheels were staggered and the wide ones were in the front!

So I switched those around put the 17x8.5's with 245/40/17 in the rear and the 17x7.5 with 225/45/17 in the front.

As soon as I went for a drive the front torque gauge was jumping around just driving down the road! The narrower tires were actually taller than the wider tires! Thats obviously why they had them mounted that way. The 4WD would have been slightly delayed at engaging but that was probably better that engaging all the time!

I'm hoping no damage was done but I pulled the fuse and experienced a RWD GTR for a week. When the boost kicks in in second, there is just wheel spin, a very different experience that the surge I was used to in 4WD. And quite a handful in the rain.

[grapejuice]

Nice!! Glad to see another skyline in the states, great find with the white...just painted my gtst white (wishing it was a gtr )

[submonkeyz]

So the advans went on ebay and were shipped to Arizona where they ended up on an S2000.
IMG_5728 by bristu, on Flickr

[submonkeyz]

IMG_5788 by bristu, on Flickr

So now the hunt was on for new wheels! Thanks to the wheel fitment thread here I knew I wanted what seemed to be the perfect sized R32 GTR wheel 18x10.5 with a 15mm offset or as close as I could get to this.

[submonkeyz]

FullSizeRender by bristu, on Flickr

[LegitMcNasty]

Tax

Hey, did you have to pay any other Canadian taxes other then the border tax? In other words, when you registered it did you only get US tax? Thanks.