Black Thirtythree

[151nochase]

June 2011
I bought this car in June 2011. At the time I did not know much about tuning cars and wanted something I could work with while not spending **** tons of money. The car initially came loaded with decals, a number of after market parts, and a BN body kit. My goal with the car is to make it a fun street car that I can track once in a while. Here is what the car came with.

Engine
3" twin pipe catback exhaust
hks Turbo Intake
Greddy front mount intercooler
HKS Waste gate Actuator
Nissan recirc valve
Greddy EBC
Greddy Turbo Timer

Drivetrain
HICAS Deleted
LSD

Interior
HKS Boost gauge
HKS coolant temp gauge
Recaro drivers seat with a 4 point harness
Momo steering wheel

Exterior
BN-Sport Body kit
LED tail lights
After market LED side view mirrors
Barder fiberglass hood with carbon fiber wrap

Wheels / Suspension
Tien Super Street Coilovers
AVS Rims 18" on the Front, 19" on the back

This is what the car looked like when I bought it.






June – November 2011
I first proceeded with changing all of the fluids and filters. I also cleaned the MAF which stopped the idle from bouncing around. I replaced the spark plugs as well with copper NGK's. The car was running much better after that but still had a ton of stickers that needed removing. After a couple days and a lot of work with a heat gun and goof off, I cleaned her up. Afterwards I took a clay bar and polished her up. After waxing the end result was better than I expected and had the paint looking almost new. I took some degreaser and sprayed the engine bay to clean it up as it was annoying working on an engine with a thick layer of grease and dust. Around mid November I put the car away for winter storage.



Winter 2011

I kept the car stored over winter.


We rattle canned a few body panels that I bought. I planned to get rid of the BN kit and just keep the car simple.


BN rear bumper removed, stock bumper installed.


Spring - Summer 2012

I took the car out of storage and had some fun driving. In the photo is a 94 twin turbo supra.


A lancer evo, TT supra, and my r33.




Driving on some local mountain roads.




Snapped a photo of my car near the Vancouver airport in October 2012.


I will upload the winter build portion of this thread later.

[Kunzz]

I think I remember Ben (dah_hunter) showing some pictures of this car a while back. Great buy! Looking forward to more updates

[dah_hunter]

The Decals came off this thing super nice.. way better then i expected to be honest..

Car looks good.. Glad to see your still loving it.

[151nochase]

The Decals came off this thing super nice.. way better then i expected to be honest..

Car looks good.. Glad to see your still loving it.

Thanks, how's your car coming along? I'd really like to see what kind of power is capable with the mods you selected.

[dah_hunter]

She still living in the shop.. lol.. hoping to have her on the road this summer..

Finger's crossed.

[GTR-Garage]

It looks like the first owner was a big Haraguchi fan.

[151nochase]

Winter upgrade - November 2012 to March 2013

I put my car away and immediately started work on it. It ran about 8 pounds of boost. I didn't plan on making any huge changes to the engine yet. I first want to get comfortable driving the car at its limit and the estimated 240 hp at the wheels is enough. Here is what I had planned for the winter.

- New front tires (I bought the Achilles ATR)
- Modify the seat so that it can be mounted further back on the seat rails
- Change the LED tail lights back to stock
- Polish and refit the exhaust tighter to the rear bumper
- Polish the hood
- Buy a new steering wheel, something that goes better with the overall look of the car
- Buy new leather shifter and ebrake boots
- Buy new brake pads
- Replace shitty ngk copper spark plugs with iridium ones.
- Polish cam shaft covers
- Sand / grind away any rust spots on the body
- Lower the car about half an inch, bring in the two front coilovers to MonkeyNutz because they are shot

I took the exhaust tip off and polished it down until I was happy with the results.


I cut two 1/4'' peices of metal and drilled holes in them so I could attach the seat further back. I flipped the rear plate over so the holes would automatically be 2 1/2'' further back. Worked well. Will it hold? I don't know, so I use some zap straps in case the metal peices snap. While checking out the seat closely I found a Nissan key hidden between the seat padding. I checked to see if the car would start with it and it did.


While the seat was out of place, I vacuumed the carpet and cleaned it up nice. This picture gives you an idea of what the car looked like inside. The steering wheel in the photo was pretty chewed up.


So I bought a new Nardi steering wheel 350 mm deep corn with perforated leather, and new leather boots. I also re-wrapped the ebc and tt plastic cover with better looking carbonfiber wrap (not in photo).


I started sanding the hood. It was in pretty rough shape. I started with 320 grit and moved all the way up to 2000. Then gave it a final clear coat with a rattle can. I also got rid of the old rusty hood latches for these nice aerocatch ones.






I replaced the LED tail lights with stock ones. I applied a thick film of caulking so that the new ones wont leak.
A common occurrence with these, especially with all of the rain in Vancouver. I didnt take a picture of the stock tail lights but you can imagine what they look like.




I bought a new battery and new terminal wiring since the old ones were meant for the smaller terminals.


I replaced the BN bumper for a Jun style one I found for cheap. I'm still not happy with the fitment, it was actually meant for a GTR but I managed to squeeze it in. Eventually I will source out a stock gtst bumper or some kind of gtr style bumper, I am not sure yet.




I am currently working on the engine, checking over every nut and bolt to make sure everything is in good shape. I am sanding the cam covers to get rid of all the grime built up over the years. All the belts looked good. One thing I found was that the coilpack cover had an old cracked rubber surround. I thought nothing of it before but noticed that when I washed the engine, water managed to get in and fill up the area where the #3 coilpack sat. I had to get rid of all this water before changing the spark plugs.



The current issue I have with the car is that after boosting, you will sometimes smell burning oil. I think this may be the turbo seals leaking but I am not sure. I also noticed that the valve cover bolts were finger tight thus oil was slowly leaking out the sides. I will see if the problem persists once I get the car back on the road.

[supersayianjim]

sweet build!!

[151nochase]

UPDATE 09/26/14:

During the winter of 2013/14 I got a few things done.

I lowered the car which improved handling considerably. The car still has a drift oriented background with the suspension setting though. the rear coilovers are very stiff. I dont know the kg/mm but they are stiff. The front have more give however I will probably change them out later since I want to make this car a responsive, fast, street car that handles well on more than just smooth pavement. Here is a pic of the rear tires. It is 245/35/r19, however theyre pretty bald and will be getting some new wider ones soon.


I was not happy with how the Jun bumper fit on my car. I also wanted to get rid of the side vents on the bumper as I see them as unecessary and ugly looking. So I bought a fiber glass and a can of bondo and got to work.


I cut it down the center so it would be wider when i put it back together. I test fitted it on my car and when I fiberglassed it back together the fitment was PERFECT so I was pretty happy about the results. The bondo work took forever!






This is what my interior looks like.


What do you guys think of the side-skirtless look on this R33? I have a pair but I dont know if I will put them on.




I lowered the car too much and snagged something so the bumper ended up cracking. Its ok though, this year I'm going to re-fiberglass it so it fits closer to the headlights and smooth out some rough spots on it that are hard to tell from camera shots.


I also plan to make a flat spoiler for this car to fill the gap with the quarter panels and the trunk.


My plan for 2014/2015:

- fix up the bumper some more
- Start building up the engine. My goal is 450-500 hp. Do any of you guys run this kind of power and how do you find it works with traction?
- New rear tires
- build a rear spoiler
- paint job maybe?
- rear over fenders maybe?