The R32 Chronicles
- Thread starter nissanr34cal
- Start date
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
Yeah man. All through my welding apprenticeship i was always taught to Corona is the welding beer, Stella is the hammering beerYea keep em coming mate welds look nice too I must drink a croney instead of a Stella next time I got the mig out, I reckon that's where I'm going wrong !
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
So it turns out i have been a massive fucking helmet. I've been trying to figure out why the tubs looked so different to others. Now i know why, because they are wrong. I have made them too small like a bellend so they are actually smaller than stock in the part that matters most hahaha. What a penis.
If you use the hole in the upper wing as a reference point you will see how much of a retard i have been.
Back to the drawing board. Where's the grinder
If you use the hole in the upper wing as a reference point you will see how much of a retard i have been.
Back to the drawing board. Where's the grinder
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
Yes i have indeed. Mega pissed off at myself for it too. I dont know why i did it like that hahahaha
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
I wasn't planning too buddy.
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
So I haven't completely forgotten about the car. I have just been having a strop over ballsing up my tubs. However i have finally gotten over my fuck up and this weekend i am going to get back on with the car.
dandadude
Active Member
I feel your pain, doing things twice is my biggest pet hate, especially when you done such a nice job welding it up! On the plus side you can now go back to the first side and make that lower front part out of one piece of metal instead of 2 which you wanted to do really 
Good luck! keep us posted 
Good luck! keep us posted 
George_LDN
Member
Awesome build fella. Tubs looking sweet !
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
So. I haven't touched the car lately, and this has been for 3 reasons. 1 me and the car had a fall out over my fuck up on the tubs. 2. Its sunny outside the car will still be there when its pissing it down with rain. 3. Ive been waiting on some parts.
However in the mean time i have been busy with a few different things. I went with my buddy Ash to look at a car with him at Japwest mods. Saw the stunning s15 he had bought over.
Then we bought this. Manual jzx90
The exhaust was only placed on for a giggle and yes we are fully aware the wheels are dreadful.
Speaking of wheels. Carl was polishing some of his collection and took this awesome photo.
Then after that it was time for a trip to Teesside for a drift day with the boys.
We took 3 s15s and broke some necks on the way. Jacks. The black one is 600bhp forged rb25. Ross's the sliver one is also rb25 and Adams is sr. We took a drive up there and had a blast of a day. All the cars played ball and it was another track ticked off the list for Adam.
In the mean time ive also been busy at a couple of rounds of BDC and enjoying the weather.
I also have found some inspiration that makes me think i will be tubbing the firewall side of the struts too. As well as re doing the ones i fucked up. Something like this.
I feel like im going to need all the room i can get.
Next up was a little project to try and keep the driveshaft together. I spoke to Alex Law the king of UK lows and his fix for this was to shorten the rear lower arms. So thats what i have done too. Its only a small amount but it apparently makes all the difference. Also i should mean better alignment and maybe even more grip.
So this shows the difference. Its not much but could be all the difference.
Now. The next thing is much like the dmax wings. Something I've wanted forever and is rare as balls to find. A genuine Dmax bonnet. i now have one and i am over the moon. I literally never knew fiberglass could make a man so happy. But it really has. So i collected it today. Turns out my shit daily wasnt quite big enough. So wound the window down and pulled some interior pannels out and got it in and even an s15 rear bumper too for Adams s15.
The 3 hour drive home sucked lengtg but it was so worth it. I also stopped in at Steve Richardson's shop and picked up some direct replacement r32 full outer sills. I will get some pictures of them soon.
Anyway i got back to the unit and couldn't help myself. I had to lay it on the car and place a wing on. Get all my awesome rare parts together. I have an image in my head for the car and with all these parts its really started to get somewhere asthetically.
Im very happy to own one at last.
Now its time to sort the rust situation out so thats the plan. Hopefully get some time into the car this weekend. I have a new found motivation for it after leaving it in the corner for a few months. So watch this space. Hopefully I'll have more to share soon.
However in the mean time i have been busy with a few different things. I went with my buddy Ash to look at a car with him at Japwest mods. Saw the stunning s15 he had bought over.
Then we bought this. Manual jzx90
The exhaust was only placed on for a giggle and yes we are fully aware the wheels are dreadful.
Speaking of wheels. Carl was polishing some of his collection and took this awesome photo.
Then after that it was time for a trip to Teesside for a drift day with the boys.
We took 3 s15s and broke some necks on the way. Jacks. The black one is 600bhp forged rb25. Ross's the sliver one is also rb25 and Adams is sr. We took a drive up there and had a blast of a day. All the cars played ball and it was another track ticked off the list for Adam.
In the mean time ive also been busy at a couple of rounds of BDC and enjoying the weather.
I also have found some inspiration that makes me think i will be tubbing the firewall side of the struts too. As well as re doing the ones i fucked up. Something like this.
I feel like im going to need all the room i can get.
Next up was a little project to try and keep the driveshaft together. I spoke to Alex Law the king of UK lows and his fix for this was to shorten the rear lower arms. So thats what i have done too. Its only a small amount but it apparently makes all the difference. Also i should mean better alignment and maybe even more grip.
So this shows the difference. Its not much but could be all the difference.
Now. The next thing is much like the dmax wings. Something I've wanted forever and is rare as balls to find. A genuine Dmax bonnet. i now have one and i am over the moon. I literally never knew fiberglass could make a man so happy. But it really has. So i collected it today. Turns out my shit daily wasnt quite big enough. So wound the window down and pulled some interior pannels out and got it in and even an s15 rear bumper too for Adams s15.
The 3 hour drive home sucked lengtg but it was so worth it. I also stopped in at Steve Richardson's shop and picked up some direct replacement r32 full outer sills. I will get some pictures of them soon.
Anyway i got back to the unit and couldn't help myself. I had to lay it on the car and place a wing on. Get all my awesome rare parts together. I have an image in my head for the car and with all these parts its really started to get somewhere asthetically.
Im very happy to own one at last.
Now its time to sort the rust situation out so thats the plan. Hopefully get some time into the car this weekend. I have a new found motivation for it after leaving it in the corner for a few months. So watch this space. Hopefully I'll have more to share soon.
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
So finally, after too long, i have started to deal with the rust situation my 32 has going on.
First things first was to get the car in a position where it was comfortable to work on. This involved the temporary theft of my mates mega jack.
Dont panic i put some wheels under it to avoid instant death if it fell.
Then it was time to do one of the strangest feeling things I've done to a skyline. Cut it open.
The first cut revealed what i can only describe as aids. However not to worry i still had a grinder in my hand so I performed a swift aids delete.
In the form of a fucking great hole in my car. Now. I figured id struggle to mount the cage to a hole. So i better fill it. So made a template out of cardboard, copied it to steel. Ghetto engineered a bender out of a vice and a couple of bits of steel and made a pannel.
Then i welded that pannel in place.
Not the prettiest however welding to a car never really is. However i would 100% recommend the wire wheels for a grinder. Makes cleaning the metal up a million times easier but without thinning the metal by grinding it. Meaning you stand a chance of being able to weld something presentable.
Anyway. Then made a pannel for the inner sil.
Then welded that in. And laid a nice weld between the new pannel to make sure it was nice and solid.
Tickled off any high spots with a grinder.
Then on what will become the inside of the sill i weld one of the factory gussets to the new pannel and gave it all a coat of zinc primer.
I didn't get as much done as i wanted because the shitty daily decided to take up my time instead. However now i have the replacement outer sills i am going to keep plugging away at getting this rust shit sorted and the car back on the ground asap.
I also masked up the rear quarter and drew roughly where i will tub it too.
What do you guys think. Is that where you would tub it too. Im interested to hear what you think. Especially if you have a 32.
First things first was to get the car in a position where it was comfortable to work on. This involved the temporary theft of my mates mega jack.
Dont panic i put some wheels under it to avoid instant death if it fell.
Then it was time to do one of the strangest feeling things I've done to a skyline. Cut it open.
The first cut revealed what i can only describe as aids. However not to worry i still had a grinder in my hand so I performed a swift aids delete.
In the form of a fucking great hole in my car. Now. I figured id struggle to mount the cage to a hole. So i better fill it. So made a template out of cardboard, copied it to steel. Ghetto engineered a bender out of a vice and a couple of bits of steel and made a pannel.
Then i welded that pannel in place.
Not the prettiest however welding to a car never really is. However i would 100% recommend the wire wheels for a grinder. Makes cleaning the metal up a million times easier but without thinning the metal by grinding it. Meaning you stand a chance of being able to weld something presentable.
Anyway. Then made a pannel for the inner sil.
Then welded that in. And laid a nice weld between the new pannel to make sure it was nice and solid.
Tickled off any high spots with a grinder.
Then on what will become the inside of the sill i weld one of the factory gussets to the new pannel and gave it all a coat of zinc primer.
I didn't get as much done as i wanted because the shitty daily decided to take up my time instead. However now i have the replacement outer sills i am going to keep plugging away at getting this rust shit sorted and the car back on the ground asap.
I also masked up the rear quarter and drew roughly where i will tub it too.
What do you guys think. Is that where you would tub it too. Im interested to hear what you think. Especially if you have a 32.
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
So today we had a chilled day at the workshop.
Started with a bbq
Which was nice for the boys, im on an anti fat fuck diet which means I couldn't partake jn any bbq which sucked length.
Then we had a massive tidy up of the workshop. Its been kinda disorganised meyhem since we moved in so we finally have sorted it. However that shit took a lot longer than anticipated so i didnt get much sorted on the car.
I did find time to strip down my rear driftworks arms ready to go with the rest of the suspension for shot blasting and powder coating soon.
Some took a lot of persuasion to come apart.
But we got there in then end.
Then after id done that we moved onto getting Adams s15 sorted for an up and coming Drift day.
But dont panic. The r32 will be gettjng some more love very soon.
Started with a bbq
Which was nice for the boys, im on an anti fat fuck diet which means I couldn't partake jn any bbq which sucked length.
Then we had a massive tidy up of the workshop. Its been kinda disorganised meyhem since we moved in so we finally have sorted it. However that shit took a lot longer than anticipated so i didnt get much sorted on the car.
I did find time to strip down my rear driftworks arms ready to go with the rest of the suspension for shot blasting and powder coating soon.
Some took a lot of persuasion to come apart.
But we got there in then end.
Then after id done that we moved onto getting Adams s15 sorted for an up and coming Drift day.
But dont panic. The r32 will be gettjng some more love very soon.
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
So i have been a mega lazy bastard and not kept this up to date. Which means i now have the mission of updating progress.
If im honest there hasn’t been as much a there should of been as i have a 2 month tantrum with the car and didnt touch it.
However i have got some stuff done on. Whilst i was stripping the rear subframe down for powder coating i removed the top half of the driftworks solid subframe bushes. I took them to work and lathed them down to take the top hat off of them so they would raise the subframe in an effort to try and have some sort of semi respectable geometry.
Then i had to sort the exhaust on my friends fresh import jzx as a turbo back 3 inch straight pipe is slightly too asbo for the uk roads although it sounded awesome. That made for a good unit photo.
Then it was back onto some more rust removal. Starting with the front section of the sill. First i chopped it out.
Then i flattened it down and used it as a template to draw around.
Then cut that out.
Then welded that fucker back in.
Ignore the fact it doesn’t line up with the rest of the inner sill. I had made the pannels long so i could cut them straight and to the correct length on the car.
Then it was onto the back half of the sill. I fired up the grinder and soon had a big hole.
And a mess on the floor.
Excellent. I just keep telling myself. The more of my car that ends up on the floor the less car cancer the 32 has.
We kept cutting back and repairing parts. And making a bigger and bigger hole.
I decided id seen enough for one day. But in other news the bits i sent to shot blasting were back.
So that was a result. I called it a day Shut the roller door and headed home.
The following Friday i popped to my mate ash’s and powder coated my suspension we stated with the subframes.
In the mean time i acid dipped the driftworks arms.
I didnt get a picture of the front subframe painted. But i did of the rear and they were both done the same metallic gun metal grey.
I popped the modified solid subframe bushes in the rear.
Subframes done. Then i went onto the arms and a few other bits. I decided to go jazzy.
I went full numpty with the glitter. It just felt right hahaha. To be honest we were just playing around and I like how they ended up. They are only going under the car so it doesn’t matter too much.
In the mean time i also had aquired a Bride seat. Im not sure if i am going to keept this or not at the moment. However we placed it up on the mezzanine floor of the workshop so people could sit and survey what was happening from the newly named “Dmax Suite”.
A few weeks passed and then my good friend Ed returned and bullied me into doing some more work on the car. We started by rebuilding the rear inner sill
Then dropped down and rebuilt the lower sill.
Again we made the pannel long and you can see from the line where we had to cut to make it straight and true. Then we did some digging and found some terrible previous repairs and a lot of filler. So we cut all that out and made a new pannel. Now. Obviously its not perfect. But once cleaned up with a grinder and a skim of filler im sure it will be fine. That and it’s covered with skirts and over fenders.
Also as you can see from what Ed is measuring up in the picture. We had to rebuild some of the inner arch due to previous poor repairs.
Now. When cutting the sills open. I noticed there was fuck all inside them in turns of bracing and gusseting. So i decided to do something about it with mine.
I’ve put a length of 48mm x 3mm tube into the sills of mine. The thinking behind this is. If i take a hit whilst tandeming. It should disperse some of the impact rather than just folding the floor up underneath me. The car will also have a cage. This is just a bit of addtional strength and whilst the sill is open. Why not. Its only stitched to the inner sill and will be welded either end too.
Once that was stitched in. I roughly. With my fucking eyes closed judging by how straight the line isnt. Cut the centre out of the sill.
This revealed another bit of lower inner sill that needed replacing. So we decicded fuck it and went to nandos.
Another day...... 2 months later. Another 1 hour 30 minute drive for Ed to come help. I truely am very greatful for Ed’s help so far he has been a fucking legend keeping me going with this shit rust welding bullshit. Despite being a welder by trade. Welding this car makes me want to stick pins in my eyes. Rust repairs are just the shittest thing ever. So i am massively greatful of ed taking time out of his weekends to come help.
The mission for this day was to finally get the outer sill on. So we started by replacing the fucked lower Sill that stopped play just 2 months previous. Hahahaha. I forgot to take any photos so it was onto the outer sill. Ed started cutting and trimming the rear of the car ready to recive the rear section of the replacement outer sill.
Once it was ready i tacked it in place.
Then we moved onto measuring and trimming up ready to take the front half of the outer sill.
Once that was all good we got that tacked in too.
Now this was a good feeling. Amazing how it makes the car look instantly better. It took most of the day to get them on mainly due to treating metal as we went to try and prevent the rust re occurring as well as me dicking around painting wheels for my daily at the same time.
However the boys headed home because it was a Sunday. No one wants a late night on a Sunday. So i stayed and fully welded the sills on the car.
I then ground them back.
Treated everything bare metal in magic anti rust potion.
Then finally some zinc primer.
The primer shows a few spots where the sill wasn’t perfectly flush when it was welded and that was my fault for not checking. However, More importantly. Its made of metal again. If i want i can put a skim of filler over it. But more likely i will just put a sideskirt over it. The front of the sill still needs capping off but i will do that soon.
If im honest there hasn’t been as much a there should of been as i have a 2 month tantrum with the car and didnt touch it.
However i have got some stuff done on. Whilst i was stripping the rear subframe down for powder coating i removed the top half of the driftworks solid subframe bushes. I took them to work and lathed them down to take the top hat off of them so they would raise the subframe in an effort to try and have some sort of semi respectable geometry.
Then i had to sort the exhaust on my friends fresh import jzx as a turbo back 3 inch straight pipe is slightly too asbo for the uk roads although it sounded awesome. That made for a good unit photo.
Then it was back onto some more rust removal. Starting with the front section of the sill. First i chopped it out.
Then i flattened it down and used it as a template to draw around.
Then cut that out.
Then welded that fucker back in.
Ignore the fact it doesn’t line up with the rest of the inner sill. I had made the pannels long so i could cut them straight and to the correct length on the car.
Then it was onto the back half of the sill. I fired up the grinder and soon had a big hole.
And a mess on the floor.
Excellent. I just keep telling myself. The more of my car that ends up on the floor the less car cancer the 32 has.
We kept cutting back and repairing parts. And making a bigger and bigger hole.
I decided id seen enough for one day. But in other news the bits i sent to shot blasting were back.
So that was a result. I called it a day Shut the roller door and headed home.
The following Friday i popped to my mate ash’s and powder coated my suspension we stated with the subframes.
In the mean time i acid dipped the driftworks arms.
I didnt get a picture of the front subframe painted. But i did of the rear and they were both done the same metallic gun metal grey.
Subframes done. Then i went onto the arms and a few other bits. I decided to go jazzy.
I went full numpty with the glitter. It just felt right hahaha. To be honest we were just playing around and I like how they ended up. They are only going under the car so it doesn’t matter too much.
In the mean time i also had aquired a Bride seat. Im not sure if i am going to keept this or not at the moment. However we placed it up on the mezzanine floor of the workshop so people could sit and survey what was happening from the newly named “Dmax Suite”.
A few weeks passed and then my good friend Ed returned and bullied me into doing some more work on the car. We started by rebuilding the rear inner sill
Then dropped down and rebuilt the lower sill.
Also as you can see from what Ed is measuring up in the picture. We had to rebuild some of the inner arch due to previous poor repairs.
Now. When cutting the sills open. I noticed there was fuck all inside them in turns of bracing and gusseting. So i decided to do something about it with mine.
I’ve put a length of 48mm x 3mm tube into the sills of mine. The thinking behind this is. If i take a hit whilst tandeming. It should disperse some of the impact rather than just folding the floor up underneath me. The car will also have a cage. This is just a bit of addtional strength and whilst the sill is open. Why not. Its only stitched to the inner sill and will be welded either end too.
Once that was stitched in. I roughly. With my fucking eyes closed judging by how straight the line isnt. Cut the centre out of the sill.
This revealed another bit of lower inner sill that needed replacing. So we decicded fuck it and went to nandos.
Another day...... 2 months later. Another 1 hour 30 minute drive for Ed to come help. I truely am very greatful for Ed’s help so far he has been a fucking legend keeping me going with this shit rust welding bullshit. Despite being a welder by trade. Welding this car makes me want to stick pins in my eyes. Rust repairs are just the shittest thing ever. So i am massively greatful of ed taking time out of his weekends to come help.
The mission for this day was to finally get the outer sill on. So we started by replacing the fucked lower Sill that stopped play just 2 months previous. Hahahaha. I forgot to take any photos so it was onto the outer sill. Ed started cutting and trimming the rear of the car ready to recive the rear section of the replacement outer sill.
Once it was ready i tacked it in place.
Then we moved onto measuring and trimming up ready to take the front half of the outer sill.
Now this was a good feeling. Amazing how it makes the car look instantly better. It took most of the day to get them on mainly due to treating metal as we went to try and prevent the rust re occurring as well as me dicking around painting wheels for my daily at the same time.
However the boys headed home because it was a Sunday. No one wants a late night on a Sunday. So i stayed and fully welded the sills on the car.
I then ground them back.
Treated everything bare metal in magic anti rust potion.
Then finally some zinc primer.
The primer shows a few spots where the sill wasn’t perfectly flush when it was welded and that was my fault for not checking. However, More importantly. Its made of metal again. If i want i can put a skim of filler over it. But more likely i will just put a sideskirt over it. The front of the sill still needs capping off but i will do that soon.
nissanr34cal
Well-Known Member
I also have made a purchase of an rb25 gearbox.
Now if you read previous posts you’ll know I initially wanted to put a cd009 350z gearbox in. However i only have so much money to chuck at the car a month and due to how much extra it will cost to get the 350 box in. I decided for now i would use an rb box. Also i have a nice 4:3 diff that i didnt want to get rid of. So that will be going back in the car. Also i plan on running the car very low and a few people that i know who run the 350 boxes have said they are hard to get in the tunnel and even once they are in they are the lowest point of the car. I dont fancy smashing my £1200 gearbox off the floor. I know the 25 box will fit the tunnel and sit above the chassis rails.
In other news i also have made an offer on my dream wheres. A Pair of SSR Minerva’s in 18x12 et7.
As seen on the left in the photo above. I am currently trying to secure them. Im hoping i get them as i think they will look awesome on the car.
So there is my update. Im sure most of you don’t care particularly and nor are you that interested. However i will try not to be such a lazy fucker and keep this updated as i go.
Now if you read previous posts you’ll know I initially wanted to put a cd009 350z gearbox in. However i only have so much money to chuck at the car a month and due to how much extra it will cost to get the 350 box in. I decided for now i would use an rb box. Also i have a nice 4:3 diff that i didnt want to get rid of. So that will be going back in the car. Also i plan on running the car very low and a few people that i know who run the 350 boxes have said they are hard to get in the tunnel and even once they are in they are the lowest point of the car. I dont fancy smashing my £1200 gearbox off the floor. I know the 25 box will fit the tunnel and sit above the chassis rails.
In other news i also have made an offer on my dream wheres. A Pair of SSR Minerva’s in 18x12 et7.
As seen on the left in the photo above. I am currently trying to secure them. Im hoping i get them as i think they will look awesome on the car.
So there is my update. Im sure most of you don’t care particularly and nor are you that interested. However i will try not to be such a lazy fucker and keep this updated as i go.