Sunday, July 31, 2022

New Japanese Tools for the Marine Day Tinkering

So for years I have done my tinkering with relatively cheap tools - some not so bad ones like an old Craftsman standard/metric socket set I "borrowed" from my dad, but others from a random assortment of tools that I collected over the years - basically I would buy something when I needed it, without thinking much beyond that.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, however, that all changed.  I realized that now was the perfect time for me to build up my tools to high quality ones.  Working for Nissan, I also wanted to make sure that everything I bought was Made in Japan as well - hey gotta support Japan industry. If not Made in Japan, then at least a Japanese brand.  After all, both my cars are Japanese, so I figured why not get tools that match?

So over the past few months I have been doing my research and collecting when I can, certain tools.  A couple of these popped up on this blog previously

But only recently did I decide to go all out. For example, I discovered that Kyoto Tool Company ("KTC") specializes or at least is known for automotive repair related tools.  KTC is Japan's most popular brand and because I like supporting the underdog I wasn't automatically going to buy anything KTC so I did a lot of research.

But then I discovered that KTC and Nissan have a long standing relationship - KTC still makes tool kits for Nissan, for example, and in the past even supplied its Mirror Polish (now their super premium NEPROS brand) tools in Infiniti tool kits! 

In fact right now NEPROS are providing this tool kit for Nissan's Autech brand:
From https://ajcollection.theshop.jp/items/56720955

Anyway, this lead me to purchase a nice rolling tool cabinet - KTC offers several models but this is the only one fully Made in Japan.  It comes in silver, black, white or red so of course I got silver to match my car and the garage cabinets.

From https://ktc.jp/catalog/index-category/category-list/ekw-1005__1005bk

I also got the tool inserts designed for this tool cabinet - yes perfect for my OCD but in actuality really useful as it was easy to grab the right tool quickly, and also it made cleaning up so much more efficient too.
And yes perfect for my OCD...

However despite the cut outs for the KTC sockets and KTC socket wrench, you will note that even though I ended up filling up the socket holes with regular KTC sockets, I still went with another Japanese brand for more specialist sockets (not shown here) and a superlative socket wrench, Ko-Ken. 

Check out the difference between a KTC NEPROS 3/8inch socket wrench (bottom) and the Ko-Ken ZEAL 3/8 socket wrench (top).

Yep, the NEPROS wrench has a leather wrapped handle!



This company's wrenches are definitely superior to even the NEPROS socket wrench in terms of feel, balance and the ratchet resistance. With such light resistance, it really makes it easy to spin it by hand as well as return the wrench to the initial position.  The additional spinner wheel helps, as well as the cross hatch pattern on the extension bars, which Koken offers but KTC did not.

Note the cross hatch patterns on the socket extensions 

So everything other than what is circled is KTC

While I did order a set of KTC screwdrivers that fit nicely into the cutouts (and I had previously picked up the set of 3 KTC wrenches on sale), I still continue to rely heavily on this lifesaver, a rechargeable motorized screwdriver by Vessell, acknowledged as the premier screwdriver specialist in Japan. By using the motorized feature, much less tiring than spinning a screwdriver by hand, although of course for delicate work you can simply use as a regular screwdriver.  With the built in LED light, this kind of tool is particularly useful for doing work in dark places like the underside of the steering wheel.


Talking about dark places and lighting - I relied heavily on this LED headband as well as this magnetized COB LED work light by GENTOS - 1100 lumens, and a 10,000 mAh battery which lasts for 12 hours (if not more) easily on one charge.  Proper lighting is KEY when working under the dash.



But perhaps the SUPERSTAR of my recent project on Marine Day is this tool - can anyone guess what this does?

Merry HS175C Coupling Tool by Muromoto Tekko - btw I paid less than half retail on Amazon...

That's right it is a special tool designed specifically to quickly and easily remove those very annoying multi-pin automotive electrical connectors.  Made by Muromoto Tekko as part of their automotive speciality tools lineup and of course Made In Japan.  In the past, I had always struggled with those white electrical connectors - for example those that connect the power window switches to the main harness, or all those that connect the buttons on the main surround to the harness behind it.  Using this means my fingernails are no longer cracked, fingers are no longer sore, and since the tool makes disconnecting the connectors easy, it helps prevent damage to whatever interior piece that needs removal. Especially true as those plastics have all hardened with age and so require more force to disconnect than might be expected. 

I found this graphic which makes it easier to understand what I am saying...
Please check out the website where I found this graphic - tremendously helpful! Plus videos too!

In the same way, I also used this other tool a couple times for smaller connectors - it slips onto your thumb and gives you a built in plastic tip that you can press down on those small little disconnect tabs on the couplers.

It's called the Amon 2381 Music Project Harness Coupler Remover

So here is the rolling tool cabinet in action. Maybe in a future post I can show you how it arrived and how I had to unpack and put the wheels and side handle on, but in a word, it was super heavy! 74kg empty!!
Not sure about sticker tuning, frankly. Although I am tempted as I now have a large canvas for all those stickers I've collected from the parts I've installed on the GT-R.

There were several other tools I found and purchased in order to round out what I might need - except they were not need this time round. Like this 1/4 inch ratchet and socket set from Ko-Ken. Same super smooth low resistance ratchet as the 3/8 size.  And yes I do have the Ko-Ken Nut Grip Sockets, separate from this set and in both 1/4 and 3/8 sizes.


Not sure when I will be able to start really using these tools, but I feel pretty prepared for just about anything now, short of an engine or transmission removal!

Ok next post - back to more car stuff. Stay tuned and thanks for letting me talk about these tools. 

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Marine Day Holiday Full On OCD Tinkering... Part 2

So in addition to the mirror replacement, I decided to focus on some on aesthetic issues - both very minor and easy to do but the execution would take some time, so I was waiting for a day off like last Monday.  Actually, the nature of these tasks meant that I started and ended the day on one of these tasks, with the mirror project done in between! 

What task is this? Well if you have a Series 3 (kohki) version R33 GT-R you know how the dashboard surround - yes the black plastic with that slightly rough feeling - scratches very easily and it also picks up dirt easily too! And given that, despite what you might believe otherwise, I actually do drive my car around a bit...

So once again, I took off the panels, starting with the driver's side door window switch assembly, the ashtray, the shift surround, and the main surround.

Then cleared some space on my workbench to take a look at what I needed to do.

So here is one issue:

Look closely - there are also markings on the right corner too

Some other, more obvious examples.

And yes, cleaning with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) did not work. Nor did other mild solutions.

So, the solution is to paint! I have to use a special technique, which I describe below, but in preparation for paint that meant I had to remove all the switches, etc. 
Using a towel to make sure not to further scratch

It also means removing the leather shift boot from the shifter surround.


Which then gave me an excuse to properly clean, condition and protect the leather.

Which was badly needed. Bonus, I did not need to worry about any excess ending up on the black surround plastic, where it tends to smear. So, I could apply extra conditioner and let the leather all soak it up without worry!

Once all the switches were removed, and I taped up the cigarette lighter surround (I tried to remove but gave up) I did an IPA wipedown of all the parts using a clean, brand new microfiber cloth.


And then took a deep breath and...

So the technique I use is to use flat black spray paint, but I purposely hold the can further away from a normal painting stance. That allows the paint particles to dry slightly in mid-spray, which results in semi-dry particles landing on the surface.  If you recall the plastic itself started out with a slight rough, sandpaper feeling surface, so several passes of this painting technique were required to build up the particles on the surface.  So yes this took several hours, but again during this time I worked on replacing the mirror as I described in my previous post

While I had the surrounds off, I tackled another issue that had been slightly bothering me.  Can you tell?


So it may be my imagination, or else I have issues, but it seemed to me that the light bulbs used in the center HVAC unit did not seem to be as bright as the LEDs I used in the 3 gauge cluster - or for that matter, even the OEM cassette deck!

Suspecting it was time for the OEM bulbs to go, I found a seller on Yahoo Auctions who sent me this - they look like the COB type LEDs which I like, so promising!

After removing the HVAC unit from the center stack, I saw that the front face was held into place with clip like fingers - so I carefully squeezed and leveraged around until I got the face off!

I even taped up the front to make sure that in my efforts I did not accidentally cause any scratches.

And managed to get the face plate off in one piece! Except...I quickly realized I had made a mistake.

As removal of the face plate did not give me any access to the light bulbs. Oops!  Instead, I found two holes on the backside of the unit which allow replacement of the bulbs without ANY disassembly of the unit itself. 



So I used a screwdriver to remove them and

Found that the bulbs WERE LEDs. I can't remember when I did the install, maybe it was something that Worx did? 


In any case, it was easy to replace these with the new LEDs. Looks way brighter and cleaner, right?

Meanwhile several coats of flat black spray paint had dried and after confirming the pieces looked great, I started to reassemble.  Note that I forgot to take a photo before I reattached the switches to the main surround, I was getting pretty tired at this point. 


Before reassembling the driver's door switch surround, however, I noticed something.

Yeah, a lot of dust and dirt! Me being me, I had to clean this up before reassembly. So, with some IPA and some pointed cotton swabs designed for this kind of thing:

Oh my, oh my...

And this is the THIRD one I used...


Anyway, the switches were finally clean enough to satisfy me, so:


I reassembled the switch into the surround, very carefully to avoid any last minute scratching.


I mean that looks BRAND NEW! (actually as I am writing this I just realized I DO have a brand new part that I bought many years ago just in case... should have done a comparo photo).  I guess I could have simply replaced with the brand new part, but given that the center surrounds are no longer available, I reasoned that painting all of these pieces simultaneously with the same paint using the same method would result in a more uniform result.  Which it did!


So what's next? I actually had a couple more mods which I was planning to do, but simply ran out of time this time. So something to look forward to.  The next post however I think I will show you a few interesting tools I found that made my life SO MUCH EASIER doing both of these projects - tools can make a huge difference, as you will see.  Thanks for reading!

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Marine Day Holiday Full on OCD Tinkering... Part 1

So last Monday was Marine Day, a national holiday here in Japan, and it made for a nice 3 day weekend.  While many people take literal advantage of this day and go to the beach or participate in other water/ocean activities on this day - I decided instead to fix a couple of minor issues on my car - those who know me know that no issue is too small for me to ignore - the big ones I might have to pay to get fixed, but the smaller stuff I can do at home. Just need to find the time to do so.

Ready to go! Let the tinkering begin!

One thing that has been annoying me is the complete failure of the new rear view mirror that I installed a few months ago.  My thinking was, an Android powered mirror with the possibility of using all of those apps, including Google Maps, plus Bluetooth to connect to my phone, and a front facing camera to record in front, coupled with a back-up camera, was an all-in-one solution that could help modernize my car.

So many options! Except how to record what happens up front but still maintain rear view ability?
Could never quite figure it out...

Yes, Google Maps in the mirror is why I got this... except very slow...

Front camera showing display on screen


Back up camera... after it failed...nice lines though...

After installing it and using it, my conclusion is, I was wrong. Anyone tempted to use one of these mirrors, please be aware of the following.

First, the Android system (8.1) is very slow. Very frustrating. And somewhat disconcerting, since the mirror powers up slowly so you have to wait. Second, these mirrors with the built in drive recorders/dash cams are designed for left hand drive vehicles - in other words when I adjust the mirror from the right side driver's side so I can see back, the camera, which is adjustable side-to-side, does not have enough sweep to be able to fully to aim straight to the front (less side adjustment is needed if the mirror is adjusted for drivers on the left). Third, the supplied rear camera failed. (Although later I found out that it was not the camera itself).  Fourth, when you turn off the car, the mirror powers down very loudly with its electronic melody of sorts. But after a 5-10 second delay. So a bit jarring. 

So, I decided to go back to basics.  Not the OEM mirror, as I still wanted modern functionality but without the drawbacks of the Android one. After some searching, I found a modern, OEM-type windshield mounted mirror with dual 4.3 inch LED screens, allowing for 2 channels of video input each for a total of 4 video inputs!  

Not the highest resolution but it should work! From Amazon



Here it is, completely unboxed. A bit overwhelming (below) maybe but notice that there are two trigger wires, meaning that if the other video input is being used (or the video is off) a trigger will cause that video feed to be shown as priority.  Perfect for a back up camera, right?  Incidentally as seen below the back up camera was a separate order (hence the separate box) where I had to make sure its video feed was via RCA in order to work with this mirror!



But first, I had remove the old mirror. This was pretty easy, just unplug all the cables - power, GPS, and rear camera - and then unbolt from the windshield mount.
You can see the ETC antenna hanging down too, that had to be repositioned slightly

By comparing the old and new, you can see the old one is a bit wider. The old mirror is also designed to be attached to existing mirrors with rubber bands, so in the case of direct windshield mount it has a bracket that uses clips to latch onto the protusions designed for the rubber bands. This actually lead to some squeaking as well, for those of you who may have seen the livestream that Dino did on our way down to Mine's a few months ago when we took this car down there as Dino had an appointment to take photos of a very special build for a friend.

Showing the bracket before attaching to the back of the mirror. 


Light blue arrows point to those clips. New mirror is one piece, thankfully...

The new mirror is a one piece design - so looks very OEM - but this install had some challenges too!

A bit too long!    

Although like the old mirror you need to run the cable from the mirror to along the front side of the roof lining, it came with a cover to hide the cable. A nice touch, however I had to do some cutting to make it fit properly.

Good use of styrofoam here!
Rough cut but not to worry too much

Sandpaper to the rescue

Looks great, right?!

Love the flush look!

The next step was to remove all the old wiring. This meant I had to pop off the A-pillar cover again, and start snipping away at my white zip ties. Yes, I tend to use white zip ties to make it easy to spot what is NOT part of the OEM wire harness.

And then I followed the old wiring and disconnected everything - GPS antenna, power leads, and rear camera lead.  I initially thought I would use the existing power leads (which used those piggyback fuse holder things) but since the new mirror did not come with fuses in its harness, I decided I could find another circuit in the car to tap into without having to tap into the fuse box.

Luckily, I did not have to look too far.  Remember how Nismo Omori Factory had done their best to fix the damage done by Worx Auto Alarm to the wiring of the car? Well to recap, among other things they discovered that the wiring harness that fed into the OEM cigarette lighter was gone, so they had no choice but to reconstruct the best they could.  Part of that, my blue arrow below is pointing to - a bundle of red wiring that now provides power to the ETC reader but also leads to the cigarette lighter. Interestingly, in cutting out what was not needed, they left one male type connector. Lucky me, I simply found the female type connector that matched, crimped it onto the mirror's red power lead and I was in business (and of course after I found a bolt to attach the ground wire too - Sorry forgot to take pictures).


In any case, this meant two fewer wires crossing under the dash above my feet to the fusebox. Win! 

So now I had to install the new rear camera.

In addition to this camera having an RCA jack video out, it came with this optional plate which bolts to the camera so you can simply hook the entire assembly over the rear license plate. Every camera I've installed for the rear so far has used double stick tape to attach it to a plate above the license plate - meaning that too much vibration would shake the camera loose! Not a cool look to have, driving down the street with the camera dangling or swinging against the license plate...

So to prevent the assembly from sliding around too much on top of the license plate, I DID end up using double stick tape on the surface of the plate that makes contact with the rear of the plate. But at least now gravity is the least of my concerns.

No more worries about tape!

I tried to use the existing wiring from the previous camera install - but then when I had it all hooked up, the camera video imagine failed to appear when I engaged reverse. At first I thought it was the LED bulb - low resistance? - but the problem continued even with a regular incandescent S25 bulb. Using a multimeter, I finally traced the fault to one of those cheap scotch lock type connectors that had come with the previous mirror's kit. So that was the reason for why the camera failed on the previous mirror!  Can you believe that, even though the mirror was well built, a cheap connector was what pushed me over to get rid of it?

Anyway, I figured to prevent this problem in the future, for this kit I was going to do some soldering. Which I did in the trunk, being careful not to burn or melt anything...


And then - voila! Works perfectly!  Engage reverse, and I get this image. 
Surprisingly clear for a small screen!

The camera allows for optional guidelines, bubble view, etc. - just need to think about whether I need those or if the set up as fine as is. 

So of the four possible screens on the mirror, I now had 3 remaining. As noted above, one of the cool things about the previous mirror was that it had Google Maps built in.  However my Sony Xperia phone does a much better job, graphics and speed-wise, with Google Maps.  So I started thinking and...

It turns out the phone can mirror what is on its screen to a monitor via a USB-C to HDMI cable. 
From Amazon - funny the description said it may not work with Sony phones but....


Due to the RCA inputs on the mirror, I simply found an HDMI to RCA converter (pretty cheap - less than 1000 yen on Amazon!)
From Amazon Japan 


So I looped the USB-C cable into my center console, with the HDMI side ending up attached to this converter which I hid under the stereo in the center stack - exactly where the mirror power leads and RCA inputs also fit.

Then, every time I hook up the phone to the USB-C cable, it automatically displays what is on the phone onto the screen.  Obviously since I have to be in camera mode to take that photo, I cannot show you how Google Maps appears on the mirror, but trust me it works!

Look closely, it shows the camera view on my phone tilted 90 degrees on the right.  On Google Maps though if I turn the phone to landscape mode, it works just great.

So... quite a long post.  But remember this is only one thing I worked on.  Stay tuned for Part 2 for what I also got done!