Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Custom Car Covers - Thank you Bitelblack!


So while I was overseas and my car was at Nismo Omori Factory, our friend Dino recommended I reach out to his friends at Bitelblack Cover Car Custom and inquire about a custom car cover.

I know - I have a fully covered and insulated garage - why would I need a cover? Well, if you have OCD tendencies like me, the answer is - to keep the dust off so the car always looks 100% super clean, of course.

Yes, I could alway buy a cover in Japan, but nothing I found really fit the bill -  they are either super expensive and do not fit snugly,  designed for outdoor use, or they are cheap and do not fit well either.  I wanted something strictly for indoor use, and so I was looking for a stretchy kind of lightweight material that would show off the car's curves. Did not have to be waterproof, or protect from UV, etc. 

If you check out the link above, you can see that Bitelblack does some pretty crazy car covers, with some printing stuff onto the car cover itself like headlight, windshield, etc. to make it look like the car itself! (which I was not interested in, obviously - keep it simple!)

Anyway, once I got back, shortly thereafter this arrived:

Opening it up, I found this:

I had ordered one in grey, and one in black, with the black supposedly being the more premium cloth. The other option I had asked for was the R33 GTR logo on the front and back, where the actual badges are, as well as the Skyline lettering on the trunk valance and the ClubR33 logo on the side to replicate placement on the rear quarter window of our Club sticker, as many of our club members have done.

I first used some quick detailer to remove all the dust that had built up over the last 2 weeks since I got the car back:
Unretouched photo taken with my Sony Xperia 1 iii. 

Yes, I am enjoying the camera feature on this phone. Much harder than on the iPhone to get a great photo, because very little correction by the software

Then, I tried on the grey one.
Very nice fit! And thin enough to see details like the outlines of the headlights, etc.

So I thought the SKYLINE lettering (in the correct font too!) might be a nice touch...

And the Club logo is spot on perfectly replicated!

Except unfortunately not located exactly where I wanted.

Then, the black one.
Due to the color, can't see the detail outlines as well

Unfortunately it also had the same problem with the Club logo being located not exactly where I wanted.



And I guess I should have asked for the SKYLINE lettering to be closer to the background color... or maybe just in outline form?

In addition to these minor issues, I also noticed that the GT-R logo font was slightly off. Take a look at this LED sign I have in my garage, made by Kusaka Engineering. You can study the small differences amongst the 32, 33 and 34 logos - once you memorize you can be a true nerd like me. 



So, given the very competitive pricing, I have to say I am fairly happy, even though the product could be better.  I think if the Club decides they want to offer this to members I can measure how much the logos should be shifted up and forward, and I can also try to educate Bitelblack on the proper log. As for the thickness, I really could not tell the difference.

This is how the backside of the cloth looks btw.



Meanwhile, these color coordinated carry/storage bags were a nice touch:

What to do you all think?

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Another Short Stay at Nismo Omori Factory!

Yes friends, it has been awhile since my last post... but truth be told I was traveling outside of Japan for a few weeks, and figured - why not leave the car with Nismo Omori and get some work done while I am away?  It was also nice having piece of mind that my car was safe and secure in a 24 hour guarded, super secure facility! So I drove over and left the car there in early June and watched Ochiai-san park it in next to an RS260 Stagea...

So what work? I would describe it as some relatively minor work - some dent removal (barely visible except of course to me) on my left front fender from an errant mop handle, replacing the deteriorating door window film - both doors, in order to make sure the tint matched, and finally a weird one - the driver's side window rail had come loose!  Oh, and the aircon seemed to not be blowing enough cold air...

Anyway, even though I had been back for awhile, Nismo Omori was waiting for ONE MORE PART to arrive to do another small repair but then was told earlier this week that the part would not be available until mid-October!  So, as I have a few projects in mind, I decided to retrieve the car even though my Lexus and I have recently been enjoying more open garage space.

I arrived early in the morning on a weekday and found myself the only customer.

Yep, lights all off...

So of course I took a quick peek...

And then after I managed to scrounge up some yen that I found in my wallet and make another donation to Nismo, they let me into the garage area.

The color on the CRS car inspires me.  I like how it brings out the car's curves really well.
Notice how the exhaust doesn't quite work on the Nismo rear bumper? LOL.
Solution coming apparently

In contrast, the KR4 on my car - is it the same as the color on the 400R?...
Looks a bit lonely huh...

So I like how the KR4 can seem to look really light, like here:

Same KR4, but looks different from this angle, right?
And yes, did not adjust the camera settings...

But under different light, can look a bit darker

Anyway - back to the parts I had replaced. This one is a bit unfocused as I was using my new phone and I am still fiddling with the advanced camera function, but as you can tell this is the temperature sensor for the aircon.  This was apparently the culprit as to why the air started out cold but would gradually turn warm, even when the desired temperature was lowered on the HVAC controls.

And this is the rusted out window rail.  The piece on the bottom is bolted to the door frame, and in turn is welded onto the frame itself. The rust causes the two pieces to separate, something I noticed when I was installing my door speakers last year

Photo that shows both pieces:

Interestingly, I did not know that the triangular rubber section where the door mirrors are attached, is actually part of this window rail unit.

Below, you can see my finger pointing towards the hole. And you can see that within the green ring, there appears to be a blackish material... and you would be right!  This is actually anti-rust paint I applied when I discovered this area rusting. So now, the right side is brand new and rust free, while the left side is...?? I guess I will look into getting the left side replaced too, next time at Omori Factory! 

Finally, I also picked up a little something (one for me, one for a friend), which I will reveal in an upcoming post. 

Any guesses? Stay tuned!