So this is a BendPak HD-9 model, designed for vehicles up to 9000 lbs (or 4082kg). Interestingly, the Japanese importer worked with Bendpak to make the usual precision improvements, including replacement of failure-prone rubber O-rings with those of a superior design.
Install took only one day - the crew arrived at a bit before 1000 and got to work immediately.
I found out later why a crane was needed
I appreciated how they took time to measure several times to ensure proper placement of the GT-R. This is going to be a tight fit!
I like how they wanted to get as close to the outer wall as possible.
A few moments later they had moved their tools inside and laid out a thin blue sheet to prevent scratches.
Massive! No way I could have done this with a friend. And later, I appreciated their experience (they say they do about 200 of these in Japan per year, mostly businesses though).
So here is what I was talking about - this technician is replacing the brass hydraulic fittings with ones improved with better O-rings, as otherwise the OEM ones tend to leak relatively easily.
Brass out, plastic in - but it's what is on the inside that counts!
As you can see, they stored their tools behind the garage, making for a quicker and more efficient install.
Getting the crane ready to haul those really heavy platforms that support the car.
And once in, they still kept measuring.
Finally, they tested this going up and down. But then asked if they could test with the GT-R on it, before bolting it down.
That main reason was to lift up to the max allowed height with the GT-R on, and make sure the Bendpak was sufficiently centered so that the car is centered into the cut-out in the roof.
Finally, it was time to bolt down into the concrete using these guys
These replace the OEMs, and yes they are made in Japan.
Two guys to drill. One guy drilling, the other one with the industrial vacuum to catch all the concrete dust.
And finally... amazing how large the GT-R looks. Also amazing how scratched up the car is on the bottom - before I made sure that the more visible areas were pristine, but now I am seeing all sorts of scratches on the lip and side skirts. Sounds like more projects for me!!
Thankfully the IS-F fits. If it hadn't, I was prepared to grind away some of the concrete floor to create extra breathing space between the car roof and the bottom of the Bendpak tray.
So... what next! I don't think I will ever be done with the GT-R...
So even though this blog is about my R33 GT-R, for me ownership of this car means I have a responsibility to make sure this car looks good all the time. That means keeping it clean, and that means that when I'm not driving it or making mods to it, I want to do what I can to keep it clean.
Up until now, most of my detailing work has been the result of trial and error, and by no means is the result perfect, but I recently decided that as I am lucky enough to have a decent sized garage, why not create an environment that would allow me to go full blow OCD when polishing my car?
You may have seen glimpses of my garage in this blog, or on Speedhunters here in detailing Dino's yellow 911 and here doing some interior work on the same car, but I always felt like while a good working space what we could do was limited by the amount of light - sunlight for paintwork and interior lighting for everything else.
So after doing some research, I found a set of 20 LED lamps with a claimed output of 2300 lumens each with 5000K coloring.
Yep, made in China but the price was right. Quality not bad actually!
I think there is more cardboard here than the LEDs themselves
And yeah came with a whole bunch of connectors and clips
Of course having ordered 20, the first thing I did was to try to figure out the best lay out for the garage. I did this by laying out all the cardboard tubes the LEDs came in on the garage floor to visualize spacing, as well as how to hook up the wiring between each LED lamp (they are modular so voltage goes in one side and out the other, into the next one, etc.)
The GT-R was freshly back from the R's Meeting
Did a quick detail, and made sure the LEDs worked properly. Yes!
But before installing on the ceiling, I took the easy way out, and installed 5 units alongside the far wall next to the Lexus.
All lights in the garage off, trying these 2 LED lights.
Installation was easy, so I went ahead and wired in 5 of them along this wall, using the mortar space between two tiles as my guide. I initially thought about horizontal placement but then realized it might be better to have the vertical length in order to see into the paint well, from all angles. So I went ahead and ordered several 1 meter long extension cords to run between each light.
The blue paint looks fantastic!!
Photo glare! Sorrry about that... but you can see how bright the LEDs are and the extension cords I have running between at least one pair (which I cleaned up later)
So while this looks provides plenty of light, I had 15 more LED lamp units to install on the ceiling. I then realized that I would need some help in order to ensure that I drilled the holes for the clips in a straight line. So went ahead and got this laser level:
Which let me generate some cool green lasers on the ceiling:
(After I drilled the hole)
Once I had one north-south and one east-west installed, then it was relatively easy to keep things straight.
Just the standard garage lamps
Overhead standard lamps and side LEDs
Standard overhead plus overhead LEDs!
All Lights On! (except of course the spotlights over the GT-R)
But remember, even though I was making good progress I still have 5 more LED lamp units left. So I proceeded to install this set up:
Which made things MUCH brighter, but I felt like I could do better. More LEDs in the center, plus create another equal rectangle on the left side. Which means 5 more LED units....
And so I decided that I would move the five 5000K LED lamp units that I had on the garage wall, and replace with five more newly purchased LED lamps - but this time with 6500K color, which is slightly more bluish than the 5000K - by having two different colors, the thinking is that this will give me better ability to spot fine scratches on lighter colored cars like the GT-R, at least from the side.
This is a well known brand, I've seen YouTubers install these.
Nicely packaged, yes.
But despite using the same couplers and cables, the form factor is thinner (Barrina on right)
Can you spot the difference in color?
Two on the left are 6500K, three on right are 5000K
And as for the ceiling, I was able to quickly do this with the 5 I took from the wall:
But sharp eyed readers will notice a few things
Given the very tight squeeze of the center lamps, I had to get clever, so broke out my new soldering iron and accessories.
Adjustable soldering iron from Hakko - Japan's leading manufacturer of soldering irons!
It was then that I realized I had run out of cable to power up the center bulbs, so even though I fashioned some out shortened connectors with flat cables (so as to be able to fit between the ceiling and lamps, instead of bending the cables at impossible angles over such lamps), I had to order some more connectors and cords to properly hook up the center lamps (the manufacturer recommends a maximum of 8 lamps on one circuit, so I have each of the large rectangles - at 6 lamps each - on a circuit, and will have the center 4 on their own dedicated circuit).
gotta say, even at this stage looks awesome!
A few days later:
3 circuits - left, right, and center lamps plus of course the separate circuit for the wall mounted lamps
So let's just say that I am SUPER excited by how bright the garage is now. And with all this light, the next step is to invest in some really good stuff in terms of car detailing. I have a Porter Cable orbital buffer, and just got some more new pads, but now the research shall begin on polishes and sealants. Something for me to do over the winter...
Ok so as I mentioned in my post where I described taking the car to Nismo Omori Factory (again), I mentioned that in addition to getting the biannual Shaken done, I also needed to replace the tires.
Traditionally, the Nissan race cars of this era were on Bridgestones too.
I took this photo of the LM racing car at Nismo Festival 2017
Taken at Nissan Global Headquarters Gallery
Also at the Gallery
Nismo has confirmed with me that traditionally, their recommended street tire used to be one of Yokohama Tire's top sports tires being offered at that time. As shown on the CRS cars.
But about 7 years ago, Michelin started making inroads with Nissan... witness their gigantic trailer parked at last year's Nismo Festival, for example.
My Lexus IS-F came OEM with the Michelin Pilot Sports, so I know that they are good tires. But then I stumbled on this video.
And if it's widely acknowledged that the Pilot Sports 4S is even better than the Pilot Sports...
However, just because Nismo now uses the Pilot Sports tires, doesn't mean I do. Putting price aside, I decided to do some research and compare the PS4S against the two tires I would normally decide between, the Bridgestone RE71R and the Yokohama Advan A052.
Interestingly, I found that on TireRack.com, they consider the RE71R and the Advans to be "Extreme Performance Summer Tires" ("Hyperfocused on extreme dry grip, but gives up wet traction, confort and life to get it") while the PS4S is a "Max Performance Summer Tire" (designed to "deliver the highest combination of dry and wet traction along with reasonable ride and treadwear").
In other words, the Extremes are for track/dry weather use, while the Max tires are for great all around use (except obviously snow and ice). Normally I would agree that, since I never drive the GT-R in the rain, I could focus and buy one of the Extremes. However, there were 2 things to also consider - what if I got caught in a downpour or end up on a road up in the mountains still wet from the day before, and second, is there a Max tire that has just as good dry performance as an Extreme tire?
Now, for those you who question my research at TireRack.com -while their categorization is useful, what I'm really interested in are the ratings by actual owners. Somewhat like how we check Customer Reviews on Amazon or feedback given in the App Store, I tend to disbelieve what the "experts" say - even in famous magazines or youTube channels - because most of the time those people are given some kind of financial incentive to not say anything negative about the products they review. The average consumer, however, is usually much more truthful because it's their experience and money. In fact I usually go to the negative reviews first, pissed off consumers are usually very informative (if not entertaining)! But I usually go along with what the majority say.
So first the customer experience on the RE71. Overwhelmingly, most people seem to buy these tires for track and/or autocross use. For those who do drive with these on an daily basis, these tires seem to not be as good in the wet as they are in the dry.
Second, what about the Advans? Very few reviews on the A052 but again the majority of reviews reflected track/autocross driving. Just in case I also checked out the reviews for the AD08R, the successor to the tires on my car, but the feedback was similar. And the overall rating, like the A052 and the RE71, showed only "good" and not "excellent" subjective wet performance.
Ok then what about the PS4S? Well first, this tire showed "excellent" in both wet and dry performance, but the reviewsshowed that overwhelmingly, this tire is not for the track. Some of the users who used this tire for the track had problems with premature wear, and some even outright mentioned the RE71 as a better tire on the track... and especially in the dry.
So in conclusion, the PS4S appears to be the best high performance street tire. And, given that I can currently get these tires at about half the price of the others, I can convince myself to go with them, even though I'll likely never drive in the rain, and I've been itching for a track day. If I ever get back to do a track day, I will have to mount some Advans or the RE71 (purchased as cheaply as possible) on my spare set of wheels (LMGT4s).
Incidentally, if pricing was comparable amongst all three tires, I would likely go with the Bridgestones, given their OEM association when the car first came out. Never mind that I don't take the car to the track these days and I don't drive it much (and when I do, and I wouldn't do so in the rain anyway). Just wearing JDM best might be good enough...
Stay tuned! Another post coming soon! Stay safe everyone.
