Yeah, I Could Not Resist the Cupholder Mod

Curious about how I stumbled on this mod? See this post.

Inspired by Murray, and very much against my own strict rule of no food or drink in the car, I went ahead and decided to see how this mod would work for me. (Note - so now water only ok...maybe...?)

Yahoo Auction to the rescue. The seller sent me the GTST center console, all nicely wrapped up. Note that this part is apparently no longer offered new - plus I knew that some work would be required to make it fit properly and thus being an experiment, I preferred working with a used piece anyway.

But talk about DISGUSTING...(shocking for Japan!)

So after thoroughly cleaning AND disinfecting the relevant part, I tried to see if it would fit as is:

Green arrows show where, despite firm pushing and pressure, the piece did not fit snugly

But unfortunately, given the extra thickness of the drop in location due to the awesome leather work by my friend Cesar about 5 years ago (already!), some judicious sanding down was required.

But getting it to fit properly was only one concern - is it me or do you see wear and tear and small scratches?

No? Well here is a close-up. Note the circular patterns from obvious use.

Oh and here is a scratch I found on the side as well. Wonder how this happened?

For you guys who need to look for this piece for your own mod - here is the part number, although you may just want to pick up the entire center console - just remember that this cupholder part will NOT work unless you have swapped out the OEM G-sensor for the new, flatter digital ones available from Do-Luck and other tuners:

Green arrows points to the part number WITH the hole for the GT-R logo

The scratch remover ended up removing more dirt than scratches:

So after another attempt to lessen the scratches, I decided that the quickest and easiest way to lessen the presence of the wear and tear and scratches was to use up the remaining matte black paint I had that I had used on the dashboard surround refresh I did a few months ago.

Before painting

So it looks somewhat thickly laid on here but just the lighting.

As you can see I still kept the fake leather grooves:

Here is a comparison of how it looks the next day after drying, along with the other versions I currently have - wrapped in Alcantara or matte carbon-ized (both from the leather interior project)

I thought I was finished - looks pretty good close-up, right? - but then noticed this. Wear and tear on my car's original GT-R logo.

I tried to use a permanent ink marker to try to touch up the left side of the logo piece

But in the end it was easier to just replace it with new.

New vs. Old. Part number included just in case

So not as perfect as I want - the paint job could have been better, actually - but now the coloring matches the shift surround and the main cluster surround. Plus the new GT-R logo is nice. Details, man!

All done! Still not perfect but good enough fit and finish for now

But the REAL issue is - since no one uses coins anymore at toll gates - it's all electronic now - do you think I should modify those coin holders to the left of the GT-R badge? If so what kind of switches should go there - putting aside the inevitable ejection seat jokes - what do modern cars have in the center console? I need some inspiration! Thanks for reading everyone, looking forward to the feedback.

It's Always the Details that Count!

 In my last post, I showed you how I changed out the ceiling lights - both front and middle - to OEM S15 pieces which came in black, versus the light grey for the R33 parts, in order to match the new Alcantara headliner I had first modified at Robson Leather and then installed at Nismo Omori Factory back in July of last year as part of a lot of extra work I had them take care of.

However, there was one small detail that had been bothering me ever since I got the headliner installed, which I had actually forgotten about, but then in the course of swapping out the lights this little problem made itself apparent, which forced me to find and then have this sent to me.

What is it? Well, take a close look. Yep, another pair of S15 sunvisors. And in this case, the only difference being the printed lettering on the warning label:

Blue arrow pointing to the mount - note it is DIFFERENT than how the current visors were mounted at Nismo Omori Factory.

Can you tell that the ones installed in the car already (top) have smeared lettering? At the time I found them on Yahoo Auctions, they were the cleanest sample I could find. Luckily this time around, I found an even CLEANER pair.  You can see clearly how bad it was in this next photo, after I removed it and lined it up with the one I had newly bought.  

After I unbolted the one installed on my car, laid it out with the one I just got.

The one on the passenger side, however, did not require replacement as it was super clean to begin with:

In fact the one that was already installed seemed to have slightly more vivid colors...

The better condition driver's side visor wasn't perfect:

Can you see how there seems to be a scratch on the mirror cover, as well as a small indent on the right as indicated by the arrows? Nothing I can't polish out and also apply a heat gun to (which is what I did to eliminate the indent).

The bigger problem was, as I indicated above, the mounts on both of these were different. Here is what the one one on the newly purchased ones looked like:

And as you can see here, the ones on the Nismo installed ones looked like this.

Took a bit of heat and some muscle, but finally loosened the teeth on wider mounts:

Then all I had to do was to undo the cover, held in place by two small indents on each side (as shown by the blue arrows):

Which then revealed two screws:

And then the sunvisor simply came off and left this hole:

The final step was to swap out the mounts, and then reinstall the cleaner sunvisor. Hard to tell how good it looks as I took the next two photos at night, under artificial light, but I think you get the idea!

Was tough getting the right lighting...

So again yes small details like this really add to making the car even more perfect! Ok nothing is perfect, but if a small issue can be fixed, then why not fix it? Maybe this year is where I do nothing major but just keep making small upgrades like this? Then again, we are already done with 2 months of 2021, better save up some more soon for some interesting projects in the back of my mind...

More Bad News from NISMO... But Progress...

Uchida-san still working to finish the interior this last week... note the temporary wheels the car is on...
More details (I hope) on why in an upcoming post!

So early Sunday morning, another text from Ochiai-san, with some "regretful" news.  It turns out that the wiring coming off the main body wiring harness for the cigarette lighter socket is gone!

Yep, another Worx decision apparently.  I asked why, seeing that in this photo I was sent the day before I was told the red wiring was ACC wiring, could they not simply tap into that?

The answer is simple - the red wiring is ACC wiring for audio items (and now repaired and ready to go to accept future accessories), but on the OEM harness the lighter socket wiring is on a separate circuit due to the current drain. So, we have two choices - we can run a lead to the battery (or fuse box) directly for the lighter socket, or we can try to find a new harness (what NISMO Omori Factory REALLY wants to do...).

Bad news #2 was, in investigating whether we could replace any of the wiring harnesses on the car in order to cleanly remove the alarm, Ochiai-san found out that all harnesses for my model year car were out of stock or out of production, meaning that even if I wanted to order new ones that would not be possible. I've been searching for used ones but two problems there - it doesn't guarantee modification hasn't occurred, and I'm now a bit cautious on ordering something that might work on Series 1 or 2 (zenki) cars but potentially not on Series 3 (kohki) cars.  This being Nismo, we have to get the parts numbers right! Maybe just wait for the Heritage Program?

In conclusion, for the time being and for this round of work, we will leave the alarm in (and hope it doesn't die),  and I won't be able to use the lighter socket to power any accessories like my cell phone. Oh well. Meanwhile, I will be discussing with Ochiai-san my options going forward to fix these problems. Sounds like I'll be bringing the car back to Nismo Omori Factory in the future for some more work...

On the other hand, good news the interior re-do is nearly done!

The other day Ochiai-san had sent me this video showing how they were installing vibration reducing panels (I guess like Dynamat) to the roof. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had read up on their CRS cars getting this treatment and I also wanted this on my car as part of the modernization aspect of the work.

In addition to these vibration suppressing panels, they are also using 3M Thinsulate between the roof and the headliner for sound and heat insulation.  

Installed, the interior roof now looks like this...thanks to Robson Leather again for the quick turnaround!

I need to find a black spotlamp and center lamp but otherwise this looks pretty good!

And the dashpanel looks like this.

WOW! Yeah, just need the ashtray now!
(And yes the shift boot is real leather, having swapped out the cheap plastic OEM one
for the custom one I had made by Cesar)

And so basically, while Nismo Omori Factory wasn't able to restore the interior to 100% OEM condition just yet, they were able to remove all the crap that Worx's Nakamura had installed and repair some of the damage he had caused.  As for the alarm removal, Ochiai-san is now working on finding an alarm shop that can assist in the removal.

So what next? Well, remember the temporary wheels on the car.... Stay tuned for details on that!

Robson Leather - Project #1

So as I mentioned in my previous post where I detailed my recent visit to Robson Leather, I have two projects with Robson planned. Honestly at this time I'm not sure whether project #2 will actually work, but for now I can show you project #1.

You may recall in my previous post that I was there dropping some things off. Well those were some interior parts that are no longer available new that I found on Yahoo Auctions - namely the plastic cover for the left side A pillar, and then covers for the B/C pillars.

In the box to the side of my car when I parked were two new items sent over by Nismo - the roof headliner (part number 73910-22U12) and the right side A pillar cover (part number 76911-22U00).

Roof headliner not shown, obviously

Together, these old and new parts comprise the upper half of the visible surfaces of the car's interior.  In order to modernize the car while returning the interior to OEM (which would involve removing the A pillars with the gigantic and view-obstructing Morel tweeters) I have decided to get it all wrapped in Charcoal (color code #9002) Alcantara.  This incidentally is the same color Alcantara previously used by Cesar (I had bought it and had it sent to him directly) when he lined the glovebox, center console, main gauge surround and door pockets with Alcantara. There is actually an even darker black color for Alcantara but everyone I've talked to has advised against it, saying it makes the interior feel less spacious and that it shows dirt better. 

Not an easy color to capture well on one's phone.

Sharp eyed readers will see that in the first photo above, I had brought an extra leftover roll of 9002 Alcantara with me to Robson to verify color matching with their stock (yes, spot on).

In any case, given how busy they are I was very surprised to learn a week later that they were DONE with the Alcantara wrap and ready to send all the pieces to Nismo, but first they sent me the following photos as proof.

Yep, I thought the same... is that the right color?

A little better on the color... nice stitching though!

Ah, much better on the color.
And thank you for NOT putting stitching down the middle of the panel.

Robson Leather's Daihi-san reassured me that the color was all the same, consistent with the color code and that in person it looked darker. And that they had undergone a steaming process to remove all the wrinkles. Having still not seen it in person, I will have to take his word on this.  And regarding my comment above about stitching - when Robson had done an Alcantara wrap on the roof headliner of a friend's BNR34, they had put stitching down the middle.  This was because my friend did not want a rear glass out install, and so in order to get the roof headliner into the car, it had to be cut in half, with the stitching holding the two cut sides together. Not so on the BCNR33 however as it has a larger cabin and the doors open wider...The headliner can be installed via the doors with just a slight bend according to Nismo. WIN!

I finally got word from Nismo yesterday that, having passed Shaken and then having gotten back the Ohlins DFV coilovers that had been rebuilt to original specifications without issue, they were finally working on getting ready to install the new roof headliner. 

Sound deadening!

I had read somewhere that Nismo had installed sound deadening to their CRS cars, so I requested the same of my car, in conjunction with the roof liner replacement.  Here you can see they are halfway through the roof area (they also sent me a short video demonstrating the difference in sound when the roof is tapped in various places).  Good to see the roof looking clean without any weird holes or rust. But it also shows how the roof is very simply constructed, without anything that appears to increase body rigidity - you literally cut the roof off panel and leave the center bit in, like a targa roof... HMMMMM???  Nah, don't worry it will never happen!

Trip To Robson Leather - Two New Projects!

So it's been over 8 years since I last visited Robson Leather at their shop in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, but from what I recall, things haven't changed much - the same high quality leather and carbon interior parts, for all types of cars - even the shop's interior looks the same...except of course for Masa Nakamura's son Daihi, fluent in English, is now around to deal with their international clients (if you message them on FB in English, you will get a proper response in English!).

I had been communicating on and off with them both since last year's Nismo Festival, when Masa proudly informed me that, after several months of negotiations and having passed Nissan's stringent requirements, Robson had finally been given a license to use Nissan's trademarks on its products.   As far as I know, they are the only shop in the aftermarket interior space with such a license.  For those of you unfamiliar with what this means, having a license means that the owner of the intellectual property (such as a patent or trademark) has entrusted certain individuals/companies the right to use such intellectual property, under certain conditions.  In most cases, licenses are given only to those who pass certain criteria, such as quality, reputation, etc.  - not anyone can get the license. Those who do use the Nissan trademark without permission are technically, stealing Nissan's property.

In any case, I had some ideas for my GT-R's interior, and despite the voluntary lockdown they agreed I could swing by for a short visit.  So last Saturday I arranged to drop in (with the Lexus) and as soon as I parked and stepped out of the car, both came out masked but with grins underneath to greet me.

I had a few things to show Masa so I unloaded the box in the rear seat and he immediately set about opening it up.

Meanwhile Daihi invited me to check out a prototype R32 GT-R office chair (it was a super used and cheap seat they bought on Yahoo Auctions - hence you can see it's actually bent!)

Still, a very comfy office chair. Hmm.... time to ditch my Herman Miller Aeron office chair?

Of course being a senior member of Nissan's legal department, I asked where the Nissan "official licensed product" tag was - while it wasn't on this chair, they did show me an actual product with the label - in this case a R32 GT-R seat headrest cover.

This means that Nissan has given permission to Robson to use the GT-R logo. 

They also showed me an R35 seat office chair - but it clearly wasn't as comfortable as the R32 seat.

After discussing my potential projects with them, this being my first visit in 8 years, I asked if I could go upstairs to check out their office. It hadn't changed much in that time, that's for sure!

So here is where customers can sit down and choose various options for their leather/alcantara/carbon fiber orders

Here you can see some of the different colored leather samples they have. On the table a craftsman was working on adding some Alcanatara to a car dashboard...

Pink steering wheel? Or light green? Gold too. No problem!

Finally, if you happen to drop in but aren't ready to place an order, you can at least walk out with SOMETHING by Robson - check out their stock of seatbelt covers, shift boots, and seat headrests...

So if you drop in and absolutely HAVE to buy something...

Clearly these guys are GT-R centric, even though when you check out their website you see lots of BMWs and Benz's (and other JDM cars, of course) with their work.

More importantly and for the purposes of my car - I can tell you that we have two projects going. One is relatively straightforward and I hope to reveal in the next few weeks. The other - I may have to bring my car in for them to take precise measurements. If we do move forward on this I will be the world's first, but it will take a few months to complete. Stay tuned!