34 Happenings… Pt.2

As I alluded to in part 1 (here) I have been busy with some changes on the R34. Nothing drastic, I want to get the ‘base’ car level up to a high standard, what’s the point of having a shiny new turbo if you can’t turn a corner for example!

Something that I have done that is purely aesthetic, is tidy the engine bay up a bit, as parts age they loose their shine, corrosion starts forming, etc. The only problem with this is once you start you find more and more parts that need to be cleaned up! This rings true for any area of the car…

Here is on of the bolts (fender in this case) I have replaced, you’ll notice the car has been sitting too long as there is a fine layer of dust fotming on the outside!

I used a range of Pro Bolt parts, there is a huge range of options (from many manufacturers) titanium, stainless steel, etc. One potential ‘gotcha’ is mixing of metals causing corrosion, the bolts I used came with plastic washers for this reason but I also went a step further and applied Tef-Gel (a non toxic, corrosion eliminating gel) as I was putting everything back together. Interesting to note the Z tune fenders mount differently from the regular ones helping alleviate this issue. A big thanks to fellow owners who helped me compile a list of the bolts I would need!

New radiator mounting rubbers as well painting the mount itself, only thing is once you start you see more and more little details that need to be cleaned up! Of course super zoomed in, high resolution pics always show things in a good light haha.

I also painted a few select pieces in the engine bay to help keep everything ‘clean’.

Some new bolts and painted brackets, if you look really closely you will see the Tef-Gel, I haven’t done every bolt yet, the headlight mount still being the original. A friend did ask if I was worried that changing the bolts might make people think the car had been in an accident. Something that I didn’t really consider as I don’t plan on selling but an interesting observation none the less.

Moving to the back of the car a big piece of work has been restoring the rear carbon diffuser, these were quite a big selling point for the V Spec + models and to me, one of the real main points of difference over the standard model. Considering Nissan charge in the region of $11,000 AUD for these – if you can get one, they’re worth looking after.

The first hurdle was removing it from the car itself, there are a range of bolts that hold it in. Fortunately, there was nothing too major required to get to them and take them off, just time and patience!

After removal disassembly of the actual diffuser is required, something that requires even more patience! I am sure Nissan used rivets as they were the cheapest/easiest way to mount the brackets to the diffuser. However, after removing 37 of them on the diffuser itself I can tell you they’re a pain, I don’t like them so I hope to use a different method when I reassemble everything!

You have to remove the rivets to allow the mounting hardware to come off, note the washer looking a bit second hand here.

As you can see, this is probably the first time since it was assembled back in 1999 in Japan that these parts had been taken apart. There was plenty of road debris that had worked its way between the pieces. By the way if anyone wants some authentic JDM road debris I am selling it now on Yahoo Japan for an over inflated price….

It was cool to unearth details that you would never otherwise see!

Amazing what just a clean can do! Le Mans anyone?

So that is where I am currently at with the diffuser, which will be clear coated, something I will get my local shop to do – I don’t think a few coats of rattle can clear will do the job! I will then look to reassemble everything and make a few upgrades. I need to repaint the existing brackets, there is some slight surface rust but nothing major and I am happy with their overall condition.

I looked at the control arms but then decided to look away again haha – a job for another time!

The rear lights also came out whilst I was at it, a friend pointing out they have gone a bit ‘yellow’… hey what are friends for haha.

Of course when I went to remove the light I noticed behind the number plate one of the mounting bolts was rusty…. can’t have that! No one will ever see it but I will know…

Going through the process of restoring various parts is a fantastic way to pick up in-depth knowledge about your car, how else would you learn the rear fog lights slightly differ between series 1 and 2?

As I write this I am not 100% sure what i will do with the rear reverse/fog lights. I like the Quest alternatives (which use the Nissan housings but feature LEDs retro fitted) but they are more expensive than the stock items. Time will tell… I do also worry about the environmental impact of swapping ‘functioning’ parts out with new but will have to offset this in a different way! For the moment I have polished up the existing ones but I am yet to fit them again.

Whilst I have access to the back of the car I have removed the rear muffler, as I will be redoing the exhaust shield as well, whilst it is off the muffler may as well be polished.

When I removed the rear diffuser I finally saw the muffler, I doubt it had seen daylight since fitted many years ago…

The exhaust hangers took me a while to figure out, well initially anyway…

I tried to get the muffle off for a good hour or two before giving up and reassessing! A subsequent day with the correct tool and off it came easy enough! Some people say a poor tradesman blames their tools but it has to be said, sometimes you need the right tool for the job!

Here’s the exhaust shield whilst still fitted under the car, again no one will ever see this but I will know it is there. It will be cleaned up before I fit it again…

Talking about exhaust parts, I have been sitting on a new Fujitsubo front pipe for a little while now, if nothing else it looks amazing! I hope to get it heat treated (the coating is black – no one will see it under the car anyway) before I have it fitted. Hopefully it liberates a few ponies all without making the car too loud…

Beautiful! A shame to get it coated but I need to try and control the heat some how, the stock unit is wrapped/covered to help keep the heat/noise down.

I can hear people now ‘BuT iTs NoT EqUaL lEnGtH’… I wanted to go with a bolt on unit that is not going to make the car unbearable to drive, having a Fujitsubo cat back exhaust already made it a pretty easy choice in my mind. I do need to get a high flow cat as well…

Pretty! Shortly after this photo it rolled off the box and down the road – doh!

Finally, one change that was in the back of my mind from a few years ago was the washer bottle and specifically the mounting bracket. I will be honest, I had forgotten about it a bit and when Ale from BNR34 GT-R reminded me I wasn’t too fussed, thinking to myself ‘my car is always garaged, well maintained, clean, etc. it is not going to be an issue for me!’ Well after undoing the 3 bolts it was time to eat humble pie!

As explained by Ale here it turns out there is an issue with these brackets (combined with filling the washer bottle past the ‘fill’ line) corroding over time, the metal on metal contact causing rust. You can see that perfectly with what I uncovered on my car.

Here is the corroded mounting bracket, obviously I have ordered the new one made from an improved material.

WHOA! How embarrassing, well so I initially thought – I didn’t think I would include this picture. However, then I realised now that I have found it, I will make sure it is fixed and better than when it left the factory! Fortunately, despite how it might look the rust is only really on the surface.

Courtesy of BNR34GT-R.com this is what the bottle area should look like!

Here is the culprit well part of the problem anyway, the fill line is approximately half way up the unit and you can see the liquid is way above that point. When cornering, etc. the fluid can slosh around, leak and corrode with the bracket. Yessss the washer bottle will be cleaned/replaced.

I will be removing the rust and then refitting everything with the knowledge I have fixed another potential issue on the car.

So there we are, my quick clean up job over the Christmas holidays has resulted in the car being off the road for two months and counting haha! I will be sure to follow up with another post once I have more progress, thanks for reading this far!