Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Time for some (real) CARBON BLING

First, began prying off the center plastic housing:


Remove the center plastic hosing


after removing many electrical clips, finally got the gauge cluster out:


and


Here is the gauge cluster, with the clear cover off:


The carbon overlay is held in by double stick tape:


After re-installation.


Now I have to remove all those scratches I made...

Sunday, June 22, 2008

More Parts!

This being the last Sunday before we moved, I decided to get some more parts work done.

4 POINT SABELT HARNESS Installation.
First, begn by removing the rear seat cushion.


This only requires removing two bolts, albeit they are TORX bolts.


Lift up, and presto. Seat bottom comes off. And hey, what do you know - Nissan already drilled out a hole for one anchor bolt.


Bolt installed.


Mounted one of these adapter clips to the bolt used to mount the retracting seat belt.


And here is how the two look installed.


Installed the lap belts by finding bolts next to the seat - one mounted on the railing, one attached to the body sidesill.


How it looks with the shoulder harnesses threaded through the seat.


I know have to figure out how to prevent wear and tear to the seat where the harness passes through. Clearly, another trip to Tokyu Hands is in order.

NEW MINE'S STICKER:
The old one looked great, it was subtle, but I wanted it to stand out a bit more.


And, Nori-san at Mine's did send me some, but really, this design is somewhat long!


But I'm not complaining, I set about removing the old stickers.


And here is how it looks now! Yes, it does make it much more noticeable!


I wonder if I should keep the blue and grey part on the left side of the Mine's lettering. Might look better without it?

HKS KANSAI CARBON FRONT UNDERCOVER - REPAIRED!

I managed to use glass fiber cloth and resin to patch up some cracks and add material to replace what had broken off.

Here is the undercover before repair - using the other side, I created a template for the broken side. This was all done a few weeks ago.


I then drilled holes, through which I passed fiberglass string which I figured would provide more support to the soon to be added cloth


With string passed through:


After application of the cloth and resin. Then let it dry for about 2 weeks.


So, Before:


After:


After a test fitting, I had to saw off some excess:


Here is how the standard undercover part looks:



I managed to install the HKS part, and realized that the reason it had cracked and broken before was that after a power check at car store, the techs had failed to reinstall properly - with the lip spoiler being larger on the series 3 R33 GTR, this necessitates some spacers - and it fits much better, yes.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Daikoku Gathering

Just some random shots I took this evening.












My friend Nick also brought along a Mine's carbon air duct for the R34 - we thought it would fit an R33, but we were wrong. But beautiful piece, though!



Sunday, June 8, 2008

My Birthday!

For my birhtday, my wife got me this - from the GT-R Collection, a coin purse - that's real carbon fiber!



She also got me at Tumi Slim Deluxe Leather Portfolio from their Alpha Travel & Business collection:


Because apparently my other bag is simply kakko warui. Hey, I'm not complaining, I love both of these. The leather on the Tumi smells and feels fantastic!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

LapShot lap timer and ATTESSA 4WD controller install

So I spent some time at my in-law's today, in order to observe the 49th day ritual of my father-in-law's passing.

Afterward, my brother-in-law and I took out the center console of my car, in order to do some electrical wiring.


Got out the portable soldering iron (thanks Richard!) and installed the power leads for this Lap Timer - called the LAPSHOT - so I don't have to mess with a cigarette lighter plug. http://item.rakuten.co.jp/avco/lp-02-m12/

Also installed the ATTESSA controller - from the UK GTROC online shop - http://www.gtr.co.uk/products-80-toView_160-skylab_torque_split_controller_members_.html

Here is the wiring, ready to go...




As for the LapShot, I don't know where/how to mount it yet. Fiddling with some suction cups, this might be one place, but it's not very stable.


For wiring the ATTESSA controller, had to make sure we didn't mess up around this unit, the YAW sensor for the ATTESSA:


As for the controller itself, no photos...yet.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Yamano Handling Club PLUS at Motegi

ok, it's been awhile since I last posted...my apologies. Been fixing up my car, adding some new parts...we are moving soon, to a place with only mechanical parking, so I am trying to get everything done to the extent possible in the garage space I currently have. (see insert link here)

Anyway - about Yamano Handling Club PLUS... it's an all day event held at a special area at Motegi raceway, the concept is basically to explore your car's limit in a safe, non-high speed course - somewhat like an autocross, but not timed.
http://www.mobilityland.co.jp/yamano_m/

I found out about this through my friend Tom (http://tweety-roadster.blogspot.com/), and so myself, my SDIJ friends Richard and Rumman spent the day at Motegi - Richard in his 2008 Honda S2000 (http://featherking.blogspot.com/), and Rumman in his 2008 BMW 335 sedan (turbo!!).

Richard and I, both not being early bird people, decided to stay the night before at the hotel at Motegi. Highly recommended (note, ladies, Richard and I were in SEPARATE rooms, of course). Rumman met us downstairs during breakfast the day of.

Here's what my room looked like:


Richard and Rumman:


Here I am getting ready:


There were a lot of high performance cars that day:


Richard's S2000:


Richard and me on the course, with Richard driving (too bad you can't hear me screaming...)


Afterwards, we headed back to Tokyo. Rumman saved me and Richard from certain capture by an undercover police car by blocking the chase (thank you!), and then we stopped off for some fast food curry-rice at a Parking Area:



On the way home, the odometer hit 90,000 kms!




I made it back in time to have the local Shell gas station guys give my car a hand wash:





Very happy with this, it shows that my repaint job on the front lower lip spoiler survived!! (see related post, previous day)