Brock's GTSt Build Page

[Boot]

Well I debated making a build page for a long time and felt inspired today so why not!

I bought the car roughly a year ago. Pretty well stock. The only aftermarket parts were...

Apexi cone intake
FET turbo timer
HKS shift knob
17" Blitz Technospeed wheels

and that is it. This car was bare bones!

89'
RB20
120XXX km

This is how she stood the day I picked it up. (I did some photoshop enhancement)




Like I said, almost bone stock. Paint is in great shape. Virtually no rust.

First things first I ditched the stock exhaust system and installed an HKS catback and a test pipe. And other then that and a SARD R2D2 BOV I drove it as it was for the remainder of last summer.

Thankfully my parents decided to build a large heated shop during the summer so I had a great place to work during the winter just a short drive from my own house! The to-do list included...
- install a FMIC
- GTR Bumper
- fix BOV mount
- repaint the chipping mirror and tail light bezels
- intall a boost controller
- RB25 turbo
- cut GTS hood and buy n1 lip and gtr grille
It's not much but building a car while in University is 'fiscally' challenging to say the least. Because I wasnt planning on having a build page I didnt take too many pictures, but Ill put up the few I do have.

First things first was a fmic. I cheaped out and got a 'Speed Daddy' ebay IC kit. Before I get roasted for 'china' crap just understand that I would much rather buy name-brand products. However I prioritized my cash so I could buy a name-brand exhaust, turbo, and boost controller. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised at the decent quality of the core, welding, silicone couplers, and bolt-type hose clamps. The mounting system sucked so I had to fabricate my own brackets out of aluminum but that only took an hour or so.



Out with the old!


Next was to build an aluminum mounting bracket for the SARD BOV. I wanted to use the stock mounting point up by the throttle body. So I cut a bracket out of aluminum and used a drill to make the three holes for the bov. The result...


Installing the FMIC was easy but time consuming. Cutting the front bumper mount/rebar went smoothly. I decided to clean it up and paint it matte black for a cleaner looking install.


This takes the build up to the turbo fiasco...

[Boot]

I found a used rb25 turbo from a friend for a pretty good price. I figured what the hell. Why not. The only catch was that he had turned the compressor and exhaust housings to fit the turbo onto a top mount manifold.

I found out quickly that the exhaust side is a real PITA to turn. This resulted in me using a block of wood and a hammer to try loosen it... which in turn resulted in also learning a stiff lesson about patience. The hammer worked... but it worked too well and the exhaust housing flew off and chipped a few of the ceramic impeller fins!


I was frustrated because I knew it was my own idiotic fault. I had already bought braided line and aluminum fittings to run new coolant lines (needed new lines because the benjo bolt size is different for the coolant on the rb25 turbo). I had also already tapped a hole and installed a vacuum line nipple into my IC piping for the wastegate.

At this point I made another poor decision and decided I wanted to run the broken turbo anyway... just because... i wanted to see what would happen. So I bolted everything up, turned it on and knew strait away it was a bad idea. All the holes in the wheel made the turbo sound like a jet engine. Needless to say I turned it off right away and removed the turbo sans' further damage.

I knew I didnt have the money to do a proper turbo at the moment, so I decided I would just run my stock turbo for another year. So I bought more aluminum fittings for the stock turbo to work with the -6 braided line I had already installed for the rb25 turbo. However while removing the final nut securing the rb25 turbo to the manifold... it cross threaded and snapped the stud clearly in half.

This takes the build up to yesterday. I tried welding a nut on the stud and using the box end of a wrench to 'impact' it out. No luck. I got impatient again and figured I should call it a day before I just broke the stud further down. Gonna try again on saturday...

[Skym]

I like.

Curious, how heavy was the stock SMIC???

[Boot]

So after growing impatient with the broken stud I decided to turn my focus towards the puke green coloured gtr bumper I had bought early in the fall and been too busy too start prepping for silver paint. I tried using some Mar-Hyde urethane safe paint stripper to get a head start on the sanding. Worked with mixed result. Ill post pictures later tonight of the bumper and lip.

Also trying to find a good way of mounting the lip using bolts as opposed to zip ties. Unfortunately A friend of mine found out the hard way that using zip-ties is probably not the best idea when he drove over his freshly painted lip on the highway this summer haha

Next on the list yesterday was to cut my GTS hood and install a hood lip and GTR grille. I bought a replica GTR grille made for GTS' with a little slot for an adjusted GTS hood latch from 4XToys in Colehurst AB. I also ordered a carbon fiber hood lip from Marc Nelson from NelsonMX. Grand total was something like $120 bucks for both. I plan on using this set up until I find a silver GTR hood near by for sale.

I used masking tape to mark up a good line to cut with the grinder and got to work. Using a super thin wheel I slowly cut my way across the front of the lip. Worked like a charm. The back side was much more challenging. In retrospect it would probably just be easiest to remove the hood entirely, but since I was working by myself I decided against it. The result...


Im afraid I may have cut the hood just a hair too high up. Im not sure though. Its always somewhat touch and go doing something like this for the first time when you only get one shot. I still think it looks pretty good. Only issue is that the 3m double sided tape was having a hard time keeping the lip down tight on the edges. Im not sure if it was just the way I cut the hood, or how the lip is moulded, but I tried using thicker 3M tape that I had kicking around and again no luck. Might try silicone next as I have no reason to ever remove the lip...

As of now I am undecided on whether I want to paint the grille silver when I paint the GTR bumper, mirrors, and tail light bezels or not. Part of me thinks it looks cool black with the carbon lip. Its hard to imagine without a silver bumper on tho...

[Boot]

I like.

Curious, how heavy was the stock SMIC???

Thanks Skym! I didnt put it on a scale but it was really heavy. Probably not a whole lot lighter than the entire 3' fmic actually! haha

[Skym]

You're welcome.

It's just I've noticed a stock GTR intercooler weighed somewhere around 24kg and Nismo GTR intercooler around 20kg. Was curious at the weight increase between the SMIC, FMIC. Also I think tube N fin FMIC is lighter than stock GTR FMIC (I think is bar N plate).

[Boot]

Interesting. Ill throw it on the scale on saturday just for kicks and see what it comes up as! Its surprising how heavy 15 years worth of Japanese dust and bugs can be

[nelsonmxmarc]

Nice! finally a build thread! lol

Nice work so far man, sucks about the turbo but, just another excuse to have it built bigger/better.

The lip SHOULD hold down fine on the hood with that two way tape.. Ive used it on a few other applications and so far no issues.. The best bet is to really clean the mounting surface beforehand - alcohol works best. If that doesn't work, silicone will do the truck guaranteed. My last lip was held on with that and i couldn't for the life of me even get the thing off. We could lift that hood (heavy as sh*t) by the lip without an issue as well..

Looks good so far though!

[Boot]

Ya Marc, its strange because I know how sticky that stuff is! The middle strip you had on there is holding like glue! But each end piece was pulling up after I put pressure on the opposite end. The cf has so much 'spring' that it lifts on the opposing end. I did clean the hood before applying but only with some water. Probably should have used some soap or something. I think the other issue is that it is only about 10 degrees C in the shop. I think it would stick better if the hood were warmer.

I guess I will try again with new 3M on sat when I head back out to the shop. Worst case I will just use silicone, some c-clamps, and let it dry over the weekend.

[RHDskyline]

dude. I don't think ive seen your car around town. You must of drove it in the summer??

IM driving mine right now. Are you driving yours?

[Boot]

Ya I drove it all summer! But I was working in BC for a good chunk of that time so I really only drove it on weekends and for the first month of the school year. Ive for sure seen your car around town once or twice but never when I was driving mine.

And no. If I can get that broken turbo stud removed and get the turbo back on I plan on putting insurance back on in april. I still need to find someone to paint my bumper, mirrors, and tail-light bezels first tho

[RHDskyline]

there are a ton of places in lethbridge that can paint your stuff. Unless your trying to keep it really low budget and want to spray it yourself.

I'm always driving around, so you probably have seen it.


There are enough skylines in lethbridge that its hard to keep track of them all.

Good luck with that turbo bolt. Patience is key, don't wanna make it worse

[Boot]

Haha, no kidding eh. This town is full of jdm cars. Just when you think you've seen them all another one pops up.

And I think im gonna get a guy I know with a body shop in Ft Macleod to paint my stuff. Ive known him for a long time so its just a matter of prepping everything. And thanks for the wishes with the broken stud! I will need all the patience I can get

[Boot]

Its out!!! Used a nut and a mig welder and soaked the stud in some fancy WD40.




Just gotta find a new stud this week and get the turbo back on!

Next I took off my spoiler. The spoilerless look has been growing on me but unfortunately I found....


RUST!
Im not sure what to do about it. Its only on the drivers side. I kinda wanna keep the spoiler off but the rust looks so bad.



I also got to mounting the cf hood lip and hood latch. I had to bend the hood latch release to work with the grille. But it was pretty easy. I had also been having some issues with how my hood was sitting too high so I drilled out the holes on the latch and got it to sit low and allow the hood to close tighter to the highlights. I also used more 3m double sided tape and some vise grips to keep the cf lip down. We'll see how it works when I get back out to the shop in a few days.

[94typem]

Its lookin good. Pretty sure ive seen it around before but like RHDskyline said theres lots of skylines here . . . since you guys live here in lethbridge have you seen any r33 skylines driving around cause i havent and kinda feel like a loaner lol