Nissan Skyline R32 GTR - Group.. A?

[alexcrosse]

Sorry its been a while. I've been selling loads of stuff. FYI I haven't bought window trim and don't intend to pay that much. I'd rather buy goggles.

[alexcrosse]

Gallons Per Mile said:

That's an obscene amount of money for window trim. I thought BMW took the mickey with some of their prices but that's a bit mad.

I liked the shiny bits in the box

Yeah I know man, I'm trying to get half of it from nissan and the other half from some company in America. But its annoyed me so much I just can't even be bothered to order it.

Rocket. said:

Loving the updates as usual.

Jesse Streeter helped me out too with bits for my Honda Beat, but 2 day delivery I can only dream of! Some stuff seems to get held up in customs for a while.

Keep up the great work

Cheers dude! What delivery option did you use? I always go for DHL with stuff from Japan, you know you're going to get stung for tax but can pay for it before its even shipped. I used to do EMS, sometimes it slips through with no charges, but can get caught up too.

[alexcrosse]

Jon_Bmw said:

Ah mate that's fantastic! JS have such an important part in the R32's history, and one of the only true factory motorsport connections in the UK. It's really sad that so much of the history went so quickly because of obvious events and the way the company seemed to adapt afterwards. I did send quite a few photos which hopefully reached him and helped him get a bit engaged. I love a grumpy 70 yearold, its what I aspire to be.

Yeah it was definitely group N only, but they had the cage that was homologated in the group A cert (was on a VO). It got me wondering what else may have come across, either literature or parts. I've heard of UK group N cars existing with group A suspension components, but you can hear a lot of rubbish.

I have a fascination with how, in 1989/1990, you buy a Group A(N) shell from Nissan. And what comes with it? The material isn't a normal carbon steel or anything, and they even had air jacks etc, I just cant believe the shells were fabricated here.

I'm very excitingly waiting for the email response now. Thanks for sending a reply mate, and I'll be sure to PM you if I have any more. Let me know if you find a full set of group A suspension components on the shelf

[alexcrosse]

frayz said:

Ive never got anything constructive to say... so i'll just sit and watch.
More great work Alex, gotta love opening a box of new engine components. Looking forward to you building the RB motor back up

Youtube is for unboxing, right?

Yeah me too man, only another 60 hours worth of die grinding and I can finally get everything machined...

[alexcrosse]

So a while ago I was building an R32.

Had a month I had to spend finishing up the house for some new arrivals. Managed to get some time on the car over the weekend though so I thought I'd wrap up a video and update where I am.



I think there's so more stuff coming up maybe.. finally got window trims. Got all the stuff for machining. Been mapping out the wiring looms. We'll get there.

[alexcrosse]

GreatGranny said:

Just watched this, great work and very brave doing it yourself on a £1000 head.1060 subscribers!

Cheers! Sub count really crawls these days, I don't put enough BS out really, but don't intend to. YouTube is designed for people doing '3rd gear pull on highway billet rb30' videos really. Yawn.

Superhoop said:

I was thinking about trying to find this thread this morning to ask if there were any updates.. More progress and you are definitely a braver man than many.. Still, what's the worst that could happen.. I'm sure they'll be ten a penny

Still here! Wish I could get more time on it, but house really took over. It's all tidy and in plaster now though. So I can calm down and be a bit more 'sharing' with time. Exactly, what's the worst that can happen! It's all just metal

My next mistake is the consideration of fitting glass myself.

trails said:

I’ve been looking forward to an update...good luck with new arrivals

Cheers mate, much excitement! two little future fabricators on the way.

[alexcrosse]

Got some time down last night too, so here's the finished inlets. Exhausts are done too.



Quite pleased, its the first head I've ever done I think. Actually I might have done a C16XE one ~10 years ago. About 40-45 hours in these ports. I can see why it's all CNC these days.

Edited by alexcrosse on Tuesday 16th March 08:09

[alexcrosse]

eezeh said:

Porting looks excellent, expect you'll probably spend the next 45hrs trying to tidy up all of the aluminum shavings dispersed throughout the workshop.

thanks man, I caught most of it in my eyes luckily.

MDifficult said:

Based on progress so far - I’ve 100% confidence in you! There seems to be no limits to what you’re capable of

It’s really inspiring stuff. I shy away from anything but the most basic mechanical stuff, but this build encourages me to give some more things a go.

Cheers mate! I'm well used to glass in older cars where you just use a piece of rope to put them in, but this seems a bit much. Still... fitting is expensive, and I'd like to be in a place where I dont have to pay it in the future... I've got some time to pull it over I guess

B'stard Child said:

Did the bee escape in the end - or did you have to be an assistant?

Hey buddy! Escape would imply he didn't want to be there... He was in on Monday, helped out with some polishing work. I didn't see him yesterday though... I'm sure he'll be back. Lovely chap.

[alexcrosse]

Penguinracer said:

Alex, as usual, lovely work.

You've put your heart & soul into this car - so what's the planned mode of usage once completed.
Are you looking to enter period/historic events?
Tim

Thanks buddy. I'm not sure anymore. The cage/car is actually eligible for both modern and historic, and the plan before I started this build was CSCC Future Classics. Having said that, the car was going to be very different to how it's turned out.

Realistically unless I can secure some sort of support then that wont happen financially. My aim now, other than to carry on enjoying the build and making videos, is to just shake down the car at Brands and Donnington and reassess then. That'll be a pretty significant milestone and achievement for me anyway.

B'stard Child said:

Good to hear

I don't know if I said here or elsewhere but I'm not a huge fan of video blogs when it comes to car builds I find them really hard work and not as enjoyable as build threads on forums but having watched yours from the start it somehow hits the right balance between entertainment, information and the journey 11/10 keep going and looking forward to seeing it on a "hill" soon

Thanks I try to film updates in the same way I used to update build threads so hopefully it comes across.

Yeah I'd love to bring the car to one of the events once its done. Really hoping the weekender will go ahead this year so I can have a stroll around and soak up some motivation.

[alexcrosse]

Gallons Per Mile said:

Good video, as always! I'm really enjoying your v-log but I can see a break coming up if you're having kids. Mini GPM takes up time in ways I didn't know was possible 18 months ago...

Yeah man, frequency will get even worse than it already is!

I've been trying to think of a few things I can dip in and out of at home and still add some value. Loom progress, potentially plating things in the garage, bits like that.

I don't mind it slowing down though, there's more important things going on, and its made a lot of progress over the last year

[alexcrosse]

Thanks for the kind comments, yeah the updates aren't going to get any more frequent but the project certainly isn't on hold

Here's an update, maximum head frustration. And if you don't find these turbo elbows exciting you're on the wrong build thread.



Next day or two will see me dropping all the parts off at Thurston, so the next couple of jobs are body / interior. I borrowed an N1 rear spat off a friend of mine so I might try my hand at mould making. Welcome break from die grinders.

Edited by alexcrosse on Monday 29th March 08:54

[alexcrosse]

Superhoop said:

Another enjoyable video.. keep up the great work..

How much time do you spend searching the net looking for some of the parts you are obtaining..??

cheers bud. Every morning, have a load of bookmarked things I just scan through quickly to make sure.

[alexcrosse]

MDifficult said:

Another great update - I think I'm understanding about 60% now, which is great!

You must have been made up when you found those turbo pipes? I can't begin to imagine how rare something like that must be. What approach would you have taken without them?

Ah you'll have to explain it to me because my understanding is at about 20% at the moment.

Yeah, happy when I found them, even happier when they turned up.

Well before I found them there was no documentation or pictures available, so I would have had to freestyle. Either ported standard elbows, or some sheet metal fabricated things.

Looking forward to making the exhaust now, should be relatively straight forwards.

[alexcrosse]

Been a bit slow I'm afraid. I've been trying to do some bits of fabrication for others as well as house renovation.

Also the unit is becoming a bit of an issue too. The rent has gone up and the value is no longer there for me really, so I'm looking to build a 'shed' at the end of the garden instead. It'll pay for itself within a couple of years.

Anyway, enough excuses.

[alexcrosse]

B'stard Child said:

Cheers dude!

Finding places is really difficult huh! I've been quite lucky with this unit, although its stopped working for me. Half way through cutting that interior panel all the power went off. Geezer in the unit behind had three electric space heaters running and blew something, we didn't have power for three days. Was definitely the catalyst for doing this 'shed' build. I'm also amazed every time I turn up to find it hasn't burnt down.

[alexcrosse]

I've been busy so I've missed these last few comments. LOL, its never good when someone uses the term 'interference engine' in a sentence. I'm going to fly over to your thread in a minute to observe the damage!

There's plenty going on here. I've got two lovely babies to look after now, Oscar & Lily. I'm trying to teach them tig wire feeding techniques but they're not quite there yet.

As mentioned before, I've realised I need out of the unit. So during the 2 hour sleep shifts the babies were doing I managed to get quite a lot done. First of all I fitted a kitchen so I could get away with working in the garden. Then I took down the existing garage, shed, pulled the slab up, and removed a tree.

I'm still figuring out how much of the garage I want to cover, if any, but I'll be sure to keep PH thread updated with it as a minimum.

I've finally finished my 'nice' video, which is an m&s style delicious sump baffle I made for someone. It incorporates the best bits from many baffles over the last 25 years. You'll also see at the end a sump extension I put together for someone else. I would like to do some more of this, but I can only entertain it once the new home is built.

Hope you guys enjoy it, its still skyline based, just not my one.

[alexcrosse]

trails said:

Congrats on the Tiddlers, photos required of garage build in order to provide appropriate advice/abuse

Cheers buddy photos incoming

shalmaneser said:

I love a garage build thread almost as much as I love a car build thread

Then I shall try and keep everything updated! I'm not sure about filming any of it though. Not really confident enough to be stood in my garden with a camera.

Gallons Per Mile said:

Congrats on the kids, I don't know how you can have two at the same time, one was enough for me over the last 19 months

Not knowing any different is certainly an advantage

B'stard Child said:

Like most things it's practice that is required - keep going they will get there

Oh and congrats on the little ones

aha thanks man, yeah once they get in front of an arc hopefully their feeding will improve.



Here's what I've been up to over the last couple weekends then. This is what i started with, its been like this since I moved in, just used the garage for all my house renovation tools and to store the odd car parts



Shed moved close to my house, and the garage got picked up by a friend. Coincidently with the best sounding pickup around, a dodge with a 5.7 hemi in. woof.



Then the old man popped down. He thought when I messaged the other day I was saying to went down the garage, not that I'd taken the garage down. We rented a kango he set to work on the slab. Was also a sodding great tree stump we had a go at digging out. All the slabs I moved to the side, I'll break them up for hardcore.



This weekend I rented a mini digger. I think I'm going to give up on trackdays and motorsport, these things are considerable more fun. I was a bit worried about the weather, but it never got bad enough to stop proceedings. With the help of a legendary friend we managed to get a nice level surface 300mm below where the slab will finish.



Filled an 8yd with soil, the ruined my lawn as we had to chuck the other ~10 tonnes there. Should have it swapped over today or tomorrow, then I've got to get rid of the rest, see the mini digger and track barrow away, and start breaking up the first layer of hardcore.

I have to keep below building regs size, so inside will be 5.5 x 5.45m. I'm going to have a separate pair of sheds outside though. One will be a heavily soundproofed container for the compressor, the other will be a dirty room (oo eerr madam) for the shot blast cabinet and maybe a parts washer in the future.

It'll be smaller than what I'm used to, but it'll be a lot cleaner, lighter, and 5 seconds from my back door.

Why am I going through the pain of doing all of it myself? Because all trades are so busy around here I couldn't even get a quote for ground work.

Edited by alexcrosse on Monday 17th May 08:40

[alexcrosse]

B'stard Child said:

Is there access behind your fence or has the car got to come thro the garden??

There's side access, so drive between the houses. I've fitted LWB vans & stuff through before, its a bit tight but its OK

[alexcrosse]

trails said:

Good progress, nothing more fun than a mini-digger

Internal dimensions are optimal for permitted development, good work! Timber frame or blockwork? I'll be knocking my existing garage/workshop down in the next few weeks for a rebuild too. Cant wait

Progress seems good yeah! I cant wait until a slab is down.

It'll be one or two courses of bricks with a DPC, then timber frame on that. Was thinking ~4" studs, full of sound insulation, with OSB either side. Then it'll have to be clad in cement board so its not 'substantially combustible'.

Also after reading plenty of regs, height is measured from the highest natural level immediately adjacent to the building. Because my garden has a 10" rise from right to left, it means I can get away with 2.75m height, rather than 2.5m. If that makes sense...

[alexcrosse]

Fastdruid said:

Yes you are correct in that the height is measured immediately adjacent, mine seriously slopes and must be is nearly 3m at the fence line! It's firmly with the 2.5m limit if you take it from the other side of the workshop.

I went for a 6mx4m again to keep under building regs size.

Looks fantastic man! Yeah I'd be interested to try and get a bricky to do a couple courses for me, but no doubt none will be available. Because the drive is on the right where my garden is lower, I'm hoping to get some extra ceiling height because of the regs.

I heard some people interpret it as having the ground coming right up to the building and bitumen coating where it does, but that ref to the natural height just makes me think I can get around it. Worst case fill some dirt in... Not to mention the neighbours garage is about 2.8m for no reason.

trails said:

That sounds abut right, I'm going full timber frame with this stuff on three sides and fancy-pants cedar for the bit I can see from the house. Means the neighbours got to chose the colour, so they are happy. Will be splitting it up into mildly insulated garage and fully insulated workshop - or home office when we decide to move.

I'm in a similar position; live on a hill, neighbours plot is stepped up so I could go 2.75 and be under 2.5 from their property...but my square footage is slightly greater than 30m2 so I'm gonna stick with 2.5 from my plot...just in case!

Oooo so you're using roof cladding on the sides and back? With the corrugations vertical? Thats a pretty good idea, lots of money saving there. Hmm.

Be careful with that >30m2 lol. I was tempted to go over, but just wasn't worth the risk of getting caught.