Chris' R34 GTT

[hoodedreeper]

SarGara said:

I'd missed the past updates since i posted previously about the tyre sizes. How are you finding the new wheels having such small clearance on the arches, are you getting any rubbing when turning? My LMGT4's are rubbing on the front if i turn while driving over a raised section (speed bump, sloping drive etc) I cant raise the front due to the rear BC's already being at their highest setting, perhaps a stiffer spring will help.

The only scrubbing i get is very very occasionally on full lock when i'm pulling out of a parking space (or reversing in). The rears clear fine even under hard accelerating.

SarGara said:

I've found Nengun to be more expensive than RHDJapan who seem more reasonable on shipping prices, worth trying them next time if you haven't looked. Carbon fibre door inserts next to match the other bits perhaps?

I've looking through their site once or twice but never thought of using them. Probably because its all in YEN while nengun is in GBP, but i'll certainly give them another look.

[Zarco]

Love this. Great work.

[selym]

Very nice car and a well thought out line of upgrades. The livery is very classy.

[SarGara]

hoodedreeper said:

I've looking through their site once or twice but never thought of using them. Probably because its all in YEN while nengun is in GBP, but i'll certainly give them another look.

You can change the currency top-right with the drop-down, or make an account and then it will remember your currency selection as well. They have a few new OEM bits too as i bought a red foglight housing for the side of the rear number-plate in November as the original clear housing was bodged with red reflective tape for the MOT

[hoodedreeper]

It was a very nismo christmas this year! Lu spoilt me rotten by buying me a Nismo speedo cluster







I also treated myself to some Nismo goodies from Nengun and Yahoo Auctions



Spent Boxing Day afternoon fitting it all



















Which brings me to my next mini update, engine cover stickers!



Keeping with the Nismo theme, i purchased an R33 strut brace with brake stopper on eBay. The brace had certainly seen better days so i started to refurb it.







And heres the finished item









Another little change I made was to swap the bulb in the ignition barrel to an amber one, to help match the red/orange illumination in the cabin

[Butter Face]

Nice updates, I bet that Nismo speedo wasn’t cheap either!

[Manmoths]

Superb! I like that you've gone the route of using genuine parts too, a lot of people don't.

[hoodedreeper]

We headed over to Blickling Hall here in Norfolk, they had an arrangement of lights for the festive period which was a great photo opportunity 





The LED lights had produced an intermittent fault. The first set, the outer tail light ring was missing half of the LEDs and the second set of lights had an issue with the brake light occasionally not working. Driftworks accepted a return and arranged the refund very quickly, I can't fault them for that. The OEM lights were refitted, i think i prefer them lol



Although the interior was clean looking and stock, I felt it needed a lil bit more. I had a Nardi Deep Corn steering wheel stored away from the MX5, Driftworks supplied a HKB boss kit and the Nardi was promptly fitted.





Upon fitting the boss kit and testing it, i noticed something on the floor mat. I had only gone and snapped the locating pin on the clock spring....fk! I removed the hicas fuse to temporally disable it until i could sort it. I had a couple of options, replace the clock spring and potentially have it happen again or delete the hicas.....which brings me to my next update

Driftworks Hicas Delete



H&S Performance took care of fitting the kit and aligning the car, as always they've done a fantastic job!



Last photo of this update is one i took this evening as the sun was setting, no real reason just a random photo. Its also the first using my new photography watermark teaming up with

Modificata Culture

[TheJimi]

That is really nice indeed, and I'm not usually a fan of the GTT.

Good work

[hoodedreeper]

TheJimi said:

That is really nice indeed, and I'm not usually a fan of the GTT.

Good work

Thank you

[hoodedreeper]

Small update

Fitted a tsurikawa and a hannya omamori to the 34







I've finally got fuse box diagram sticker fitted, it finishes off the carbon a treat









While the camera was out I couldnt help but take a few more photos

[SarGara]

Great pics as always. Are you using it much while the salt is out? Mine is tucked away on a trickle charger!

[hoodedreeper]

Only when the salt is washed away and I can get it out for a short drive inbetween. The original battery died so been trying to keep on top of it

[terry237]

Awesome car and great attention to detail. It's the little things that really make the difference, such as the stickers on the carbon bits.
If only I had the vision/patience to get my RX7 in a similar state

[hoodedreeper]

After reading up on a Speedhunters article by Jordan about his RS4 audio upgrade, I was that impressed I decided to bite the bullet and treat myself to one too.



The DMX7017DAB is a double din mechless unit with a large touch screen display. The minimal buttons along the bottom edge gives it a more modern look without distracting you much.

It has the bells and whistles you expect to find on a modern aftermarket stereo like DAB, Bluetooth, rear USB, steering controls etc. What drew me to this was a couple of things. The first being the integrated dash cam.



With the dash cam plugging into the back of the unit, you can view the Camera aswell as play back recorded footage and photos. The camera has a built in shock sensor, a message promptly appears if the car has been hit in your absence, and you can review the footage straight away.



The second feature that I loved was the ability to mirror what my phone does. For Android an app called Android Auto is required. This allows you to mirror Google Maps/Waze onto the stereo, while still being able to listen to Spotify/Google Music and make/receive phone calls! Very handy for those road trips or convoys to car shows



Another feature the Kenwood unit has is a reverse camera. You can pick up a generic camera off eBay or Amazon for not a lot of money but I didn’t want the extra grief of splicing and hoping the built quality would last. So I went with Kenwoods unit and I’m glad I did. Direct plug and play and all I had to do was splice into the reverse light loom



I finished the install when darkness fell so I’m eager to see the quality in the daylight



The rear speakers have been crackling for awhile so this was one job that needed addressing more than anything. I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for until I was half way through it…



The rear seats, door cards and trim had to be removed before I could touch the parcel shelf. The parcel shelf area was covered in a black dust, thinking it was the parcel shelf material disintegrating, I was wrong.



As you can see, there wasn’t much left of the stock Clarion speakers, no wonder the sound quality was so poor! The new speakers dropped in a treat and I managed to reuse the original fixings. At the point I wished I had bought the wiring adapters but nevermind.





With the rear interior put back together it was time to tackle the front speakers. This was ALOT easier, a few trim clips and screws and access was easy. Luckily the front speakers already had the adapters (weirdly enough) so that was plain sailing.



I did buy some sound deadening pads to put on the inside but space is limited and daylight was becoming less and less. I’ll tackle this at a later date.

The last thing on the list was to install the slim subwoofer. I was hoping it would fit under the seat, but upon removing it I didn’t realise the centre is humped and tapers down. So I decided to put it behind the seat instead.



The wiring is a lot simpler, all of the wires go into a single plug, none of those nasty terminal screws we had ‘back in the day’. The hardest part was routing the live cable through the bulk head (wheel and arch liner off and it’s straight forward from there)

So there we have it, a full multimedia upgrade! I still need to play around with the equaliser, then I’ll get a video sorted

[hoodedreeper]

Not long after I purchased the car I used the Turtle Wax headlight restoration kit. Unfortunately it didnt last long before the lights became cloudy again. I got recommended by a friend of a mobile company who do them for a very reasonable price. So I got the car booked in and well....the photos speak for themselves!







Since the Nismo addiction started I've been on the hunt for an S-Tune boot spoiler. As you can imagine these are rare as rocking horse st and near on impossible to find. I found a company in Australia who makes a copy but its no longer available.





I did find one on Yahoo Auctions, but it came complete with the spoiler blade and the price landed was £800+ 

I happened to see a post on the Skyline Owners Forum facebook page about someone's own design for some spoiler legs. Messages were sent back and forth for a lil while and I made a purchase.

His friend was developing some covers but there would be a delay due to finishing the mould, getting orders etc. I went with the Carbon Fibre option, who doesn't like carbon?!

These took approx 4 months and they landed on my door today (12th April). The delay was due to the raw and painted versions being made and delivered first before the carbon versions got put into production.

Fitting was quite straight forward as its all been moulded to the underneath of the OEM spoiler,so it fits like a glove. The spoiler bases have adjustment so you can put it where you like (within reason)

[IanH755]

Looks fantastic!

One minor issue you may face with that front bumper when it comes time to fit the FMIC and map the new turbo etc is that, with the current license plate and the thickness of the bumper bar in the middle, there will be quite a lot of the FMIC not getting any direct airflow.

I had an Gen 1 OEM bumper with a HKS Type-S FMIC running 400hp and I had to swap to a smaller number plate first and then a Top Secret style bumper which showed more of the FMIC face to the airflow and then had to chop that bumper even more as the inlet temps were getting higher than I was happy with, especially in summer.

However, given how nice yours currently looks I'm not sure that going as drastic as I did with mine would be a benefit in visual vs performance terms so you may have to live with higher inlet temps.

OEM with FMIC and smaller plate.



Stock TS bumper with small plate - showed around 1/4 more FMIC face.



Modded TS bumper with small plate - showed around another 1/4 at the top so getting around 45%+ more area being cooled.



EDIT - my spelling is awful!

Edited by IanH755 on Saturday 13th April 12:45

[hoodedreeper]

I'll look into a smaller plate, dont really want to have to paint the bumper again to chop it, but thanks for the heads up

[hoodedreeper]

Hanami is one of THE most beautiful things on this planet, and I'm extremely envious and jealous of the Japanese and this beautiful season. With my social media exploding with various images of this iconic scenery, I knew I had to try and replicate it as best as i could.

In the UK its a relatively small window when the blossom is in full bloom and how long it lasts for (also adding a lack of spare time to get such photos) makes a good challenge. I spent a couple of weeks driving round the city trying to find the perfect backdrop, this was harder than I thought.

I finally found somewhere good enough and I did my best with what I had









I've been going to a car show called Modified Nationals for the past 11 years. This year it moved date and location which ended up being scorching hot and a far better surrounding, win win!









Myself and a couple of others have started our own Cars & Coffee meets and today (28th April) was the first meet of the year. The weather just about stayed dry for the majority of the morning, I was met with a couple of more R34s





Seeing this V-Spec 2 Nur roll in made me go complete fan boy. You just dont get to see this car out in the 'wild' very often.



The full album can be seen here > https://www.flickr.com/photos/93923515@N07/albums/...

[hoodedreeper]

I've been looking at replacement seats for a couple of months but have always been undecided on which ones. Last week we took a visit to GSM Performance to consult with the sales team on various seats and to try them.



Being a 'bigger build' comfort was top priority, and trying the seats out before commiting was a major advantage. It was a tough decision as there were so many nice seats,but in the end I went for the Recaro.



I managed to source some R34 GTR Bride rails that had been modified to fit the GTT. Upon ftting I noticed the Recaro seat mounts were alot wider than the rail. Several hours of swearing later, I had some brackets made up and everything bolted together.









I'm unsure if the GTR seat rail is different height wise, but the seats do slope down which has changed the driving position abit







One feature I really like is the reclining lever that's neatly camouflaged into the harness cut outs.



The suede centres make the seats pop alot more than the all leather equivalent











Its abit snug inside, the side bolster does currently touch the doorcard. I'm hoping I can modify the mounts I made to bring it over abit.