vegie

ah sweet, cheers for those. was hoping someone got some pics of me. lol at my helmet...

well its all running again. i think the old fuel pump is rooted and loaded up the fuse box. the buzzing was a back feed due to one of the other fuses not connecting properly. replaced the whole lot as they all looked a bit nasty, and its all gravy again. new fuel pump next on the to do list...

well my track day went well, not so the drive home. got a trailer ride back to Auckland electrics had a spaz just out of rotorua, and car completely died. melted fuses, but not blown!? all sorts of weird buzzing and shit going on in the dash too.

will have it out for the trackday in taupo this weekend for the nat's all going to plan. you gonna be there?

sweet, what did you get? im picking a ca18et powered one? theres a few floating around chch, including the same model as mine. yeah FJ ones are rare, but i did buy it 10 odd years ago, when they were still around (sorta)

i may be wrong,but from what i can tell, the caliper isnt actually smaller its only the slot that the disc runs in is narrower. my calipers are the same design as the R32 gtst ones. i think your R33 calipers are the more rounded type ones? i didnt know that any 4 pots were different until i got these ones. as it turns out, maybe it's lucky i used them, as the clearance from the bottom arms is like 1mm at best...

haha yeah kept it a bit quiet. though it wasnt "datsun" enough for a build thread to be honest.

brand new? hell no! priced them up at $3800 NZ before shipping after i got them. i got them from GTR city in chch. apparently they were on a non compliable R32 GTR. paid $1000 for the set second hand. a bargain it turned out! im using R31 import turbo front struts with shortened koni inserts (not my first choice but not many options). platformed as you might have seen. the hubs are also R31 turbo, redrilled for 5 stud. wasnt keen to pay silly dollars for late z31 turbo ones that are essentially the same. the calipers im using are off an early z32 NA 300zx. turns out it was a bad choice, as they are the only ones to use a 27mm thick disc. every other model uses 30mm discs. lucky i know someone in the trade, or i would have been up for nearly $200 dollars a disc the offset is ok, but the caliper sits around 1mm to far outward, that is slightly off centre. still clears, but i had to remove the anti rattle pad (0.6mm)on the inner of the caliper as new pads were only just rubbing the disc. once the pads wear, it'll be sweet!

decided to refit the original airbox for the show at ardmore this weekend. needed a bit of a tidy up and repaint also, my new discs for the front arrived... Z32 300zx discs and rebuilt 4 pots to suit. below is the old calipers and the new discs and calipers all fitted turns out i'll have to take them all off again for a while. the lower arms at full lock with a small amount of spring compression just touch the inside edge of the discs. i'll have to clearance a little bit off the arm. never picked up on it, as there's heaps of clearance when its up on stands nevertheless, they stop heaps better.

bit of circus really. couldnt use the manual rack i had, as the input spline was smaller, and couldnt get a connector shaft to suit. wouldnt have mattered as the crossmember is different too, as it turns out finally tracked a mint one down at a dismantlers in CHCH. $250 later, all was good! its out of a late model (86-87) S12, and had to modify a boot to fit passenger side, as it was different to what was listed for S12's. also has about 1/4 turn less lock to lock, so win win really. cheers for your help there BTW. cheers man, S12 lust is not a bad thing (till you got to find bits lol) generally there are pretty much lego, but my model being one of the first built, is a bit of parts bin special. everything seems to reused off something else, its figuring out what that is, thats the problem!

cheers mate, yeah, was a bit of a struggle getting the wheels on there... back end was easy, just used Z31 300zx stub axles in the original rear arms. changed the rear drive cups from the 3x2 cv type to the 4x1 bolt r31 turbo type, as these axles/cv's are much stronger and fit straight into the r200. the rear rotors are also z31 turbo. it turns out they are the same diameter as my originals, just 5 stud. it looks like the rs-x model got a lot of the good bits off the bigger cars. fronts proved a little more work. i already had coilovers, but the original 300 lb springs were a tad too soft and short in length, which resulted in the coils binding before the strut ran out of travel. not good! sourced some 350lb springs in a longer flavour, which worked a treat to start with. it meant the platfroms were wound right down to get the right height which resulted in the springs chewing out the threads of the adjustable seats. started over again using R31 turbo skyline struts from an import, which mean they have slip on hat type rotors(easy to source) and 4pot gts-t calipers bolt straight on (which will also fit under the wheels). they have a short tube to start with so even lowered have plenty of travel. i had to remove the stock spring perch as its right where my tyre would sit. all of the coilover hardware i used came off an s14 set of tein coilovers which had rooted inserts. machind off the threaded tubes and welded them onto mine. i had to use a shorted gas insert shocks, koni's from what exactly i cant remember, as jap R31 inserts arent available here it worked out sweet as the teins run short springs with keeper springs, so "heaps" of tyre clearance(ish). i tried all sorts of front hubs but settled on one of these 2. the factory 5 stud z31 hub works, but would need machining to get a slip on rotor on them, and the push the wheel 12mm further out than the r31 turbo one i used. so i got the engineers at work to redrill them for 5 stud. fitted on using late 300zx discs (i think!) and used laurel front calipers. after sorting all that, i wasnt happy with the wheel studs. z31's have the fucking shortest wheel studs ever! like 2 turns of the nut on the watanabes was all you'd get. took a while to source the correct one to replace with and $250 bucks later, i had to cut them shorter as they were all too long. gah... finally all together and in it worked, but had to run a small spacer in the fronts as clearance is so tight that the clip on tyre weights had to come off as they hit the strut when they spin past. easy really. would NOT trade again

haha well the turbo/manifold is about the weight of a boat anchor, so yeah more grip? @dpns, my brother had a dr30 coupe (which i later bought). that got me hooked on fj's.

haha cheers, yeah, was reading up on the track day a little earlier. pretty keen, but most likely cant make a whole weekend of it though due to other commitments. will need to get some stuff sorted first, like the original fuel pump being on its last legs...lol and not owning a helmet!

cheers guys, the rocker cover does look a little orange in the pic. probably the flouro lights in the shed. its a bit brighter than i expected, buit im used to seeing the old faded red ones, so its hard to know what "original" red is...

click here for build thread build thread discuss/disgust...

bought some watanabe 16 X 9" +20's a while back and set about fitting them. settled on a 225/45/16 as it was the only tire i could get that wasnt "over" stretched and still cleared(ish) the guards. also had to convert to 5 stud, using a piece of pretty much every '80's nissan you can think of to make it work. and decided to tidy up the engine bay, by repainting the rocker cover in the "original" red... edit: a couple more pics from the auckland meet, taken by snoozin...

spent winter fixing up all sorts of bits. rusted steering rack and leaking pump, all ball joints/rod ends, leaking gearbox, and diff too. checked out the lsd out while it was in bits, but its proving harder to get bits for these now. want happy with "MK1" version of coilovers so remade them to suit. i had to do them as the new wheels wouldnt clear the springs, and the old struts were too low.

drove it like this for a year and found this about the same time, which is odd, as mines an unusual colour...

started out with an engine freshen up last year. ended up using my spare engine. compression was good, but head gasket was naffed. didnt need to do the bottom end as it seems it was done sometime recently, so maybe the head wasnt torqued properly??? had all new guides/chains etc done too. got the head checked/skimmed and all the valves seated/clearances set up. assembled it all up again added some adjustable cam gears too. made a small change that seems to have made some gain. all back together and running.

click her for discussion thread a couple of pics when i got it 2003ish... it had been well thrashed when i got it, but drove it for a while until it finally failed WOF. then stored for about 5 years until i got motivated to fix it...

thats cos rust and bog weigh less...

im keen as to be there too, if thats all good, in my S12 RS-X gazelle. would be good next to Ed's RS-X Skyline (and make his look even better!)

been ther done that with my dash, nissan is master at hiding screws lest it hasnt got vacuum operated heater, youd still be going tomorrow...

ive yet to see a honda that actually still has springs...

they are fucking awesome cars, my mate is running 8th in the series, driving the talon mr1 still sporting the chris amon name down the side...