Nissan Skyline R32 GTR - Group.. A?

[alexcrosse]

Hey everyone.

I'm building a car up for competition, I was hoping to share the build with a few of you. The details will unravel and adapt as I get further into it, and as my finances deplete.

I'm doing a bit of a twist on the usual build thread, dont worry, I've already ran past the moderators. I used to have build threads many years ago for a couple of my previous cars, back in the forum heydays before the rise of social media and the photobucket scandal, lest we forget. This time round... I'm going to make some videos. Honest build videos with a garnish of good old British negativity.

Hopefully you can find 10-20 minutes of enjoyment in these, maybe you can help me out with a few questions as I rattle on through this build that's quickly spiralling out of control.



Thanks! Alex.

[alexcrosse]

Hey Dave, incredible name.

I thought that! I had a read through the Terms and Conditions and saw it was a bit wavey so emailed info@pistonheads to make sure I didn't ruffle any feathers. PH have OKed the build and the mods have been made aware. I've been asked to make sure all videos are embedded so people don't have to leave the PH forums to follow the progress, which I'm more than happy to do!

Hopefully it works out OK, but if in the future PH position changes then it is what it is

[alexcrosse]

Cheers for the kind words and support guys! Hopefully the build doesn't disappoint any of us

[alexcrosse]

Morning! Another update for everyone happily nested below. A bit of a royal variety this time. It wouldnt be an old japanese car without rust repair. Also cut some chuffing great holes in the car, and accidently bought some wheels.

I need to spend more time down the garage. Need to update the daily (old E46 clubsport) so I've spend most of the week so far trawling through audi A6's on readers rides.

Anyway, enjoy, let me know what you think!

[alexcrosse]

Thanks buddy!

Ohhh there will be some upset people during this build I think! The shell will be 100% group A, all fabrication accurate and the cage is certified. Many bolt on systems will differ though. Some decisions driven by cost and attainability, some driven by better modern alternatives.

At some point.. I'll be making a side exit 'for a laugh'. But as we all know, it's never going to cut it during testing or competition!

[alexcrosse]

J.C... said:

Haha these videos are ace! So much better than the usual amateur YouTuber helmets.

Just out of interest - why is this site so menstrual about YouTube links?

I think its just to keep traffic on the forum which is fair enough. So many forums have died because of other media platforms sucking the life out of them. I really didnt want to upset anyone which is why I wanted to run this whole 'vibe' past pistonheads up front. Plus... no one likes having their threads taken down!

Glad you're enjoying the videos mate! Appreciate the nice words!

frayz said:

This is brilliant, loving the vids, and some pukka fabrication.
Finally something worth watching on YouTube in the sea of influencer bullst.

A guy building a Grp A GTR from scratch, love it

Cheers dude! Shell is 2 air jacks away from FIA group A accuracy, give me a week! But I intend to make some decisions going forwards that should upset a few people

alan-ix350 said:

Looking good .

I found Bilt Hamber weld through primer the best, also their zinc etch primer and wax oils.

Awesome cheers! I'll look into it. I've been meaning to order some more cans of etch.

CousinDupree said:

Great vids, enjoyed that. I was reminded of this famous Group A R32 and driver

Turn on the English subs.

yes yes yes! The shell rigidity in these videos really blows me away, so rigid it even seems to wind up the drivetrain. The cages are mega-special, clever, thin walled, really light, and they tie into subframe mounts and suspension links.

[alexcrosse]

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone!

Lord.Vader said:

Great videos, easy to watch and you are actually interesting.

Only thing I’d say for us absolute noobs a little more explanation for some things / what they are / why you are doing it

Sorry, i did check back on here and didn't see this comment or I would have replied earlier!

Its a good comment and I'll definitely take it on board. I edit out so much technical rubbish that comes out of my mouth because it all gets a bit nasel and detracts from the momentum in the videos. With them being here on PH I can (try) and answer any questions, or even ask them myself though.

Hopefully I can try to strike a balance between the humour and technicalities going forwards

[alexcrosse]

Hello everyone. another update embedded below.

This one was a bit painful for me, it took two weeks to get all of these in. Most of the time was in getting the fronts positioned correctly. It's super difficult because Nissan didn't seem to take too much care over certain parts of their builds... so you find all the Group A cars varied in places.

Anyway, I got there in the end, there's chuffy noises and everything in this one.

I'm into wire wheeling now... so I don't think I'll have a video update for a couple of weeks. I don't want to make videos unless they actually have some substance in them, so the next one will be paint.

Enjoy!

[alexcrosse]

Mark Benson said:

I've been enjoying catching up with these videos over the last week or so, quite Zen watching someone else welding.
Looking forward to catching up with the latest one this evening - keep doing what you're doing.

Cheers buddy, glad you’re enjoying them. I always find the TIG welding Zen and enjoyable to do, but MIG is just pain and misery if it’s hot in the unit.

[alexcrosse]

After a lot of stress, the first primer is finally on.

[alexcrosse]

Its in paint now. More exciting though... I got a new compressor and its huge.

[alexcrosse]

NewUsername said:

Great thread....subscribed

Cheers!

frayz said:

Sweet, been on holiday and come back to 2 videos.
Thats some of my lateshift sorted

Excellent hope it got you through lol!

Davie_GLA said:

Subbed. I don't know why PH have a dedicated section for projects / build threads. Even if they link out to other forums although I can see why a site wouldn't want that.

IT's refreshing to have a series that's not clickbait central.

Although it does make me wince when I had the chance of buying a standard R32GTR years ago for £6500. If I only I knew then...

Thanks mate. I've had mine for years so it wasn't too far off that price. I'd struggle to justify cutting it around so much if I'd have paid £30k for it.

Saying that, they're certainly worth the money. I can't think of many other cars around 25-30k with the same motorsport pedigree.

[alexcrosse]

Davie_GLA said:

Right. Where’s episode 11????

I tried to fill the gap with some American pish. No deal. Even the boys at fasterproms are sullied by sponsors.

Yeah there's a lot of 'lets take a moment' guys, it drives me mad. I can't watch channels once they start advertising boom beach & stuff.

I've been juggling a house renovation and doing a timing chain on an R56 cooper s... never again. But finally got around to finishing this video, hopefully the next will be a bit more visually stimulating.

[alexcrosse]

Air jack props finished, and the car if finally off the jig. Have a watch if you want to see me almost paralyse myself.

[alexcrosse]

Das speck said:

Looking good.

I always thought those thread restorers were a gimmick, I’ll have to pick one up.

I 100% have that turn on the gas check feeling every time.

Gonna add when I’m sanding/grinding I have a fan blowing into half bucket of water, stops the air getting thick with dust, black bogies and it feels nicer breathing.

I admire the painting aspect as I’ve never tried to do it because of the gun prep “stuff” just puts me off.

The thread file is great! I think it was particularly successful because the casing is aluminium but it got the job done so quick I've not no doubt it'll sort out any high tensile bolts too.

Towards the end of the shell fab I just kept a 3m mask on, made me feel so much better. The bucket trick is cool though, might give it a go out of curiosity.

Painting the interior and cage I wouldn't do again. Would have been a lot nicer to just give it to someone else to do, but there were a few complexities. And I kind of like doing everything myself regardless of the pain, at least once anyway...

MikeInEssex said:

Mad, I found you on Youtube on Friday and watched through your progress on the GTR over the weekend.

Love your down to earth style and am enjoying watching it, makes me want to get some workshop space! Did feel for your back though when you got up a bit quick!

One question for you though, the bottom of the airjacks looked very low but it's hard to visualise without subframe/body on, how close to the ground will they end up being once it's on the floor?

Hey man, excellent, glad you're enjoying it.

They will be relatively low to the ground when it down, the actuation is only 230mm. They're designed to just bring the wheels away from the ground really, with the second stage to get your to a workable height underneath.

Here's a picture of the calsonic to give you an idea of where the bottoms are. They're not too bad once the other big systems are in, the bell housing is a similar height really.

[alexcrosse]

Davie_GLA said:

Good man. We need a PH campaign to get the channel more exposure but I don’t think you’re that bothered about subs.

How close are those jacks to the deck when it’s all back together?

I was answering it above as you replied!

Subs is a difficult one, but overall I do like to see the channel growing. Growth is the main metric you have that you're not producing rubbish. At the same time, limited exposure will restrict that. I'm an engineer, I get paid to overthink things.

[alexcrosse]

Davie_GLA said:

Are you aiming for a Calsonic rep? Nothing wrong with that if you do as that was brutal in it's day.

Nah, I've got a thing against replicas. I try to use calsonic as a reference because it was the most developed. It had some nice bits that the others didn't, even in the metalwork.

My shell is spot on now, and has a certified group A cage. Going forwards other subsystems will start to differ a bit because for now it's not being raced historically. I need to balance, cost, performance, timing and maintainability.

Critically if I wanted to work towards a complete historically correct group A car, I can, it would be bolt on bolt off, and I can see that happening one day.


reg. the other youtube stuff. I try not to involve anything outside of project car stuff in there. Although hopefully at some point that will involve a 3dr cosworth and an F350 ramp truck. See how it goes huh! A long as people are enjoying watching it that's good.

Edited by alexcrosse on Wednesday 26th August 11:08

[alexcrosse]

Thanks guys, really nice to read you're enjoying it. I'm even starting to enjoy the build a bit too. Also thanks for sharing, it does help get other people following the build so I really appreciate it.

Frayz - yeah man, those little stainless braid needles are horrendous!

Another update, the lines are done. The PTFE lines I used were really satisfying to put together actually. There's a bit of distraction towards the end of the video but being slightly on brand I thought I'd include some of it.

Not to worry, next video will be total self isolation metal work...

Edited by alexcrosse on Friday 28th August 13:07

[alexcrosse]

frayz said:

Black PTFE looks nice
Certainly much less of a bd than the stainless overbraid stuff.
Are you going to add some RTV (similar) sealant to the ally bulkhead plate when you finally fit?
Just for preventing moisture/dirt ingress etc or are you happy to leave as is?

It’s much nicer, still has stainless under the nylon, but the olive system is bliss.

Yeah I was planning on sealing it but I might run more things through, so until I figure that out it’ll stay dry. The rear brake line might loop back through the plate

Das speck said:

Just started watching and I’ve gotta to ask - how come you didn’t use hardline tubing for air jacks?

https://www.goodridge.co.uk/collections/stainless-...

Would have been lighter and self supporting.

Yep looked at those from kronic. Just went this way because the group A cars had black braided -6 on their jacks. Where I can it’s nice to copy them a bit, but plenty of things will deviate from now on.

[alexcrosse]

Back with a bit more of this then. This is where things start to deviate from the ideal a little bit.

I've been trying to work on a few things in parallel to drive some momentum back into the build. So hopefully lots of restored / new / shiny parts to come.

hope you enjoy!