R33 GTR Restoration

[EmilA]

Thought it's about time to start a readers car thread on here considering that I have been a members for quite a few years but can't recall making one before. I will have to warn everyone in advance that I have a tendency to type alot so sorry if I waffle on abit.. This is my forever car and something that I will never part with. Will try to cover things chronologically.

The project is actually about 85% complete now, its been a work in progress since 2016 from when I brought the car and started to buy parts knowing that this was the journey I would be taking with this car from the start.

I've been fortunate enough to have been around Skyline's for 20 years now, having owned a few models from non turbo automatics through to GTR's, covering the R32 through to the R35.

My dad brought an R33 GTR and it was something that my siblings and I cherished. The memories created from that car is the reason why I brought this R33 GTR and didn't go for an R34 GTR at the time, even with hindsight I'm 100% happy with the direction that I have taken considering the values of all of them.

The idea of buying another R33 GTR popped into my head as I use to have a Tamiya 1/24 scale R33 GTR box on a shelf that was infront of my cross trainer at home. Looking at it every day planted the seed. We started looking at GTR's for sale, condition was not a concern for me since I knew that I would go through a full restoration so all cars would be considered.

When we viewed this car it had 2 child seats in the back. This convinced the wife that the car would be suitable for a family and she was on board! This car was apparently built up from a bare shell by someone who I thought knew what they were doing.

Collection day came around and sadly the car didn't even make it home, breaking down 1 mile away! It would just crank over and nothing. Eventually it started and I drove home, but this problem would plague me..

Being a weekend/project car it was used sparingly, I think I only drove it maybe a dozen times over a period of 4 months. The last drive resulted in a similar problem with the car breaking down and not starting again. Eventually it did and I got it home but that was the end of it, it wouldn't fire up again so my friends and I started to investigate what the problem/s were.

We had spark but no fuel. The fuel pump is within the tank and "easy" to remove once you got everything else out of the way. It simply needs a firm pull and it comes loose but for us, it didn't budge at all. Even had what I think was a 3ft crowbar trying to dislodge it.
In the end we decided that the tank would have to come out. Gathered some friends, cousins and neighbours and we got the car pushed uphill into the garage and we started on removing the fuel tank.
Subframe removed, fuel tank taken out and cut open to see what the problem was. The pump is held in place on a cradle, the cradle has a small notch on it to stop it from coming loose hence you need a firm pull to remove it. On my cradle, someone had bent the notch, affectively locking the cradle in place hence why I could not remove it.

With the replacement tank installed with a stock pump fitted, the car started! We got it back together and thought this was it, the car is fixed. A few days week later, the same problem returned..
At this point the car was put on the back burner as my wife and I welcomed our first child in 2017. I tried to work on it here and there and noticed that the car had some rust in some odd places like around the inside of the wheel arch of the drivers side.

The car was booked in for strut tops early 2017 since there is a fault with the design and they rust from the inside out. Upon discovering the additional rust and knowing about other shell issues, that plan was scrapped and I set about going in for a full restoration. Late 2017 I ended up getting a job in Belgium so the car got shelved. I ended up sending the car to DynoTorque in Birmingham to get it up and running. They found a number of faults with the ECU wiring, leaking fuel pipes, incorrect fuel lines etc. Unsure what the exact fault was since there were a few mitigating factors.
While DynoTorque were working on the car I got the GTR booked in with SR Autobodies and waited till summer 2019 before they picked it up. SR Autobodies specialise on the Nissan brand, particularly on the Silvia and Skyline makes. I'll go more indepth about them on a different post.

I'll stop typing now and move onto some pictures. Thanks for reading so far!

Viewing day


Some other pictures;

[EmilA]

more photos;

Incorrect jacking of the car resulted in a raised passenger footwell


Mixed media blasting. Entire shell bar the roof blasted to highlight all the flaws, there were hundreds ha





Sprayed in a Novel base coat of some sort to prevent any shell oxidisation after blasting.



Found out that the car had a replacement drivers side rear quarter panel at some point, hence the rust that was on the inside of the arch.
Que replacement panels, not all mine but some shared with other SR customers


SR then started to cut the shell in order to start the metal work

Edited by EmilA on Wednesday 6th September 13:20

[EmilA]

More images





Upon discovering the damaged panels behind the rear quarter, I had to source some replacement parts to swap out some pieces. In the end I brought a cut off from another car from mainland Europe as it was he cheapest way to do it.



The engine. Don't have a lot of images of the rebuild sadly, a story for another day.



Port and polished cylinder head


Replacement Tomei valves due to some pitting/scoring on the set that were in the engine



A key part to any GTR, turbos!


Upgraded quaife front diff. Since this goes on as part of the sum had to be fitted before the engine was back in the car


Good set of brakes to aid with stopping efficiently

Edited by EmilA on Wednesday 6th September 13:33

[EmilA]

I had always intended on changing the colour of the exterior and redoing the interior to my liking. The aim is to keep it all looking OEM as possible.

I'll start off with the interior. Everything bar the carpet has been or will be refinished. Alcantara/suede for the window line and above. Leather for the doorcards, centre console etc and also leather for the seats. As you can see in the image there are 3 different shades in use. I understand this may not be to everyones taste but as mentioned before, I do not intend on selling this car so not concerned about reselling it on.






Moving onto the exterior, the last photo above gives an indication of where I was going. The car was always going to be a shade of green. Originally I wanted Porsche Oak Green metallic, in the end I went with Porsche Jet Green metallic.

Edited by EmilA on Wednesday 6th September 13:44

[EmilA]

Two before and after photos. First one showing the rear subframe and the second set showing the attessa pump



[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/ogH98cP7[/url]

Sound proofing applied throughout the shell. I'm not worried about the weight this adds. The intended use for the car is touring with the family.




The build has taken abit longer than expected for various reasons, the benefit of this is that it allowed some funds to be put towards some items that are A, financial ruin and B, look nice. I mean who doesn't like carbon fibre? And its even better if its Nismo carbon fibre!




Speaking of carbon fibre.. In 2019 I also managed to get hold of a used R34 GTR rear diffuser. Some R33 owners have retrofitted this onto their cars.


In addition to that R34 item, since we'd have to make the holes for the diffuser mounts I also got a purely cosmetic item from Nismo, the R34 rear tow hook. Since this goes onto the boot floor it will be pointless to tow from as it will damage the boot floor, but I thought it would be a nice addition for aesthetics and it wasn't that expensive when you are able to buy it direct from Nismo via third party, avoiding the reseller prices. Coupled the purchase with the air filter as I needed one

Edited by EmilA on Wednesday 6th September 13:55

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Edited by EmilA on Wednesday 6th September 13:57

Edited by EmilA on Wednesday 6th September 13:57

[EmilA]

My last bundle of images for now









I'll end my photos with this one. When the car was loaded up onto the trailer to be taken to JM Imports. They have had the car for a few months now and are finishing off the wiring, then they will work with Romain from RaceCal to get a base map onto the car, run it in, then do final mapping before it returns to SR Autobodies to finish off.

Edited by EmilA on Wednesday 6th September 14:11

[Lord_Howit_Hertz]

Just WOW, that colour combo on that car is something else..... coming from someone who doesn't really like GTR's this looks amazing! In for the updates as they say.

[CKY]

Lovely shade of green, suits the shape really well Back in the early '00s a friend had a Nismo 400R rep in 'dayglo yellow' (got featured in Max Power which was amusing) which looked superb on the Nismo Rays wheels with the bodykit, however your car looks just as good in an understated darker shade.

[Jhonno]

Quite the build! Love it.. Will be interested to see final full images of body and interior!

[C7 JFW]

It's a stunning car and a spectacular build, so pleased to see someone deviate from the usual 'formula'.

Tremendous commitment both financially and emotionally and what a piece of work.

Look forward to seeing it in person.

[simon_harris]

Great choice on the colour and looks like a really comprehensive rebuild.

[jwwbowe]

Brilliant, great colour choice BTW.

[Sf_Manta]

Absolutely glorious rebuild
Love the attention to detail to the build. look forwards to updates.

[The Rotrex Kid]

Love it. Think the exterior and interior colours work fabulously together!!

[Mabbs9]

That's gorgeous. Thanks for sharing!

[EmilA]

Thank you all for your kind words. I have gone over every small detail in this build and have skipped out on years of discussions of choices and work that the team at SR have done. There would be quite a lot to speak about and I can always bring it on a post later on.

Going back to the build, one thing I didn't mention is that I am doing what my vision of an OEM+ plus build is like. Restoring the car with my take of a modern twist. Parts are getting harder to get hold off as they are slowly being discontinued, some are being introduced again through the heritage scheme and we're seeing prices rises come in aswell. There are some parts where a new part number sticker is placed over the existing one and the part is jumping up in price a few hundred percent sadly.

Parts wise, I have been getting parts since 2016 and amassed quite a few items. Everything that I could get my hand on was purchased over a few years. It started off by accident, where I purchased new indicator and wiper stalks as mine were worn and a bit sticky. Then I thought these will look out of place so got a new steering wheel surround, then new buttons, new dash surround, new ash tray and so on, things spiralled out of control and I'll be first to admit that I had a problem ha.
The only item within the interior that isn't being replaced with a new item is a vent on the top right of the dashboard, simply because this item was discontinued before I could get an order in and over 7 years of searching, still haven't come across one for sale. I'll still be keeping a look out for it, and have started to buy spare of some bits when I can for the interior.

I initially wanted to fit a snap off wheel and a Nardi steering wheel, but wanted to keep an airbag option so ended up purchasing an R34 GTR steering wheel setup. These can be retrofitted to the R33's and give it a nicer look IMO, keeping in line with my OEM+ vision. I've also got a set of R34 GTR pedals to fit aswell.

On the build itself, if an item isn't being replaced then it's being refurbished.
All arms have had the stock bushes removed and replaced with SuperPro items, with the arms themselves blasted then powder coated in silver, then coated in clear.
Driveshafts all stripped down and built back up, same for the propshaft.
New fuel lines and brake lines installed, these have been custom made where needed using new lines and scoped to be able to come up some further upgrades in the future if needed.

[hunt123]

Lovely car OP, great photos, I owned 1 in 2019 not a patch on yours. Mine was solid apart from some minor rust on the front strut tops, how are yours?
Can i mention 1 thing please? You b-o-u-g-h-t a car etc, nor b-R-o-u-g-h-t. a car

Edited by hunt123 on Thursday 7th September 11:18

[EmilA]

Twice is the number of times that I have owned what is my ultimate car combination. Always wanted a C7 RS6 and was able to get my first one in 2018, and the second one in 2021. Sadly both times the Audi has left my ownership due to issues outside of my control. Somehow I managed to get the RS6's to colour match the R33 at the time of my ownership.

This is the only time that I had the R33 alongside my first RS6. Was over in the UK for a long weekend, this was the day that I took it over to DynoTorque.


This RS6 was an AUC car, sadly it had a gearbox issue causing the whole car to shake in and out of 4th. I had only had it for less than a month by then, bringing it to Audi Birmingham instead of the supplying dealer showed that there was over £5k worth of work that the car needs. Things that would have been picked up on during their point checks which clearly weren't.
The car was eventually rejected, and I got my money back. Always said I'd buy another once the R33 was finished, staying AUC for the protection it provided.

Late summer of 2021, came across a green C7 RS6 that was an AUC car. Spec that I wanted and though I said I'd get one after the R33 was done, the chance to have one in green in the spec I wanted was too good of an opportunity to miss out on.
PH members may have seen my posts about it before but sadly this car was stolen 6 weeks after I got it, it was found and recovered and given back to me. Turned out that this car had been remapped and was sold like this by as an AUC, which ended up with the car being rejected back to the dealership.
Sadly this RS6 never got next to the R33, they came close being separated by a brick wall so I used some tech to get some pictures of the car shades together.




The RS6 thieves were arrested and serving time in prison at this moment in time. The sad thing is the owner of the white RS6 has it stolen from him a few weeks after he owned it back in 2018 aswell. I want another RS6 one day..

[EmilA]

hunt123 said:

Lovely car OP, great photos, I owned 1 in 2019 not a patch on yours. Mine was solid apart from some minor rust on the front strut tops, how are yours?
Can i mention 1 thing please? You b-o-u-g-h-t a car etc, nor b-R-o-u-g-h-t. a car

Edited by hunt123 on Thursday 7th September 11:18

haha thanks for that, as i've gotten older I've realised my spelling isn't as good as it could be.

My strut tops were actually ok in comparison to the rest of the car, still needed replacing though. I've got roughly 5000 photos from the build so trying to be selective with the ones that I share

[hunt123]

EmilA said:

haha thanks for that, as i've gotten older I've realised my spelling isn't as good as it could be.

My strut tops were actually ok in comparison to the rest of the car, still needed replacing though. I've got roughly 5000 photos from the build so trying to be selective with the ones that I share

It's great that you've documented your car and its build, i regret not having many photos of previous cars i've owned.

The strut tops on mine going played a big factor in why i sold it tbh. I just didn't have the funds or probably the necessary contacts and patience to sort it.
I really like cars from this era but it's rust that sadly puts me off them.

About your spelling, in my humble opinion your English is really good, you can tell you're not daft put it that way! The brought/bought thing is really common. I make mistakes too, hence my posts often having edits.

Edited by hunt123 on Thursday 7th September 12:05