Removing My Most Annoying Mod Of Choice

 So after removing the crap car alarm and stereo that WORX Auto Alarm had installed in my car, I decided that without an alarm, I needed to figure out some ways to make my car harder to steal.

Enter the removable steering wheel idea.

This required changing the after market Daikei  boss I had installed several years ago to fit my steering wheel and replacing it with the WorksBell RAPFIX II wheel lock system.  

Installation was easy, but there was one problem - it moved the steering wheel a few centimeters closer to the driver, and in my case, made using the turn signal lever a bit of a stretch. Oh and given my short legs, I had to recline the seat to give my arms some space too. Anyway, it always felt unnatural.

It was a good idea otherwise, with removal of the wheel very easy - just pull on the silver tab (green arrow pointing) and the entire wheel unlocks due to the very clever mechanism - in essence a column side "male" steel column and the steering wheel with a matching "female" coupler.

Unlocked, it looks like this. And yes, WorksBell sells a steel cap that locks on top of this, with a key lock, to prevent thieves from walking around with their own steering wheel with the matching coupler. (I have one but no photos sorry...)

Anyway, I went into my cabinets and found the previous non-lockable/removable Daikei boss, along with the packaging for the RAPFIX II.

And then took the wheel up to the work bench, to begin the surgery.

Pretty easy actually. Just undo the allen bolts...

The female coupler on the right - note the wiring for the horn button

Next was to remove the steering column side coupler.

Again, super easy, just undo the allen bolts - here you can see the electrical coupler, along with the round metal ground between then column and the coupler.

And yes, this one was a bit of a struggle to remove. Despite using this breaker bar, I kept applying so much torque the front wheels kept moving on the epoxy floor...

Alas success was soon found, but it did cause me to wonder what I would do if I was unsuccessful in getting that bolt off...

Note the green arrow pointing to the resistor which came with the RAPFIX II - I removed it and put back on the resistor that came with the original short boss. This becomes important later...

This is a very chunky piece of aluminum...

So now, I had to reinstall the old boss.  And this time, I want to make sure I do not over or under torque. Enter one of my newest tools, a KTC electronic torque wrench!

I had picked it up a while ago but had no reason to use it, until this project!

Packaging is beautiful, as can be expected of Japan.

And yes, thanks for pre-charging this for me so I had no down time since I did not need to charge it up!

So the owner's manual gave a range, 29-39 N-m.

I decided to go on the higher side

Then it was making sure the wiring for the horn and the resistor isn't pinched.

The black coupler is for the horn. The resistor has been tucked underneath the sleeve that slips on over the boss.

And here is the metal plate that is needed to act as the ground for the horn button.

The Ital Volanti wheel fits nicely over this plate

Complete!

So it was super nice to get this back on - the wheel position felt natural, I could easily reach the turn signal stalk with my pinky finger, and my arm and seating positions felt natural again and not cramped. Nice!

Except... there was one small problem. The Airbag warning light kept flashing. I tried the driver's side door switch trick, yes, and even tried switching the resistor back to the one that came with the RAPFIX II. Nothing worked.  So guess who I called....

Minor Electrical Issue Was Worth Fixing!

So you all will remember the nightmare that happened a few years ago when a rogue stereo /alarm installer decided he would use my car as his experimental test bed and not apologize for all the goofs? Well, one consequence of that was that a lot of the wiring harness got chopped and so many connectors on the harness were lost.

One of these was the connector to the cigarette lighter.  It's only 3 leads, but... And I recall it was because he had relocated the HVAC controls to this lower area, obliviating the need for a cigarette socket. Sure, I guess you then don't need the connector to the cigarette lighter but what if I changed my mind later?

Anyway, recently I realized I was having problems with this compact cigarette socket USB charger.  I would plug cables into it that I knew were not defective, but my phone would not charge.

Excuse the dust! Also, this unit is supposed to light up when power is flowing to it...

I would tinker with the backside wiring, and sometimes end up with the cigarette socket surround lit up (not the unit itself - it needs acc power) when the lights were off, and vice versa. Or no power at all, even when the engine was on.  Finally it dawned on me that this USB power thing might be broken. So...

24 hours later - Amazon to the rescue... yeah the box got crushed

But the unit inside was fine.

Bright red so I wouldn't get confused with the current one. Plus, anodized red is always nice

Obligatory comparison photo.

So what happened then? Obviously, a simple successful swap would not result in a blog post. 

Well both good news and bad. Good, in that as the red unit lit up, I knew the black unit had failed.

But bad, because it STILL wouldn't charge my phone.  The phone would recognize power being sent but the current seemed to fluctuate on/off/on/off/on/off... and then nothing. So annoying...

So it was removing the shift surround panel to access the wiring once again and...

And yes, the tape deck is working perfectly, and sounds awesome too!

I finally figured out that the wiring being inserted into the cigarette socket circuit was wrong, even though it was lighting up properly.  Actually, without the ignition on, turning the lights on gave a "buzz" sound so I knew something was off.  So I swapped some wires around and...

Proper wiring positions - for my records, just in case!

Success! Power to finally charge my phone.  I celebrated by buying a USB-C charging cable with both Lightning and USB-C ends to allow for charging of both of my phones (and anyone riding with me with an older iPhone).

So really just minor stuff. What's next? That reminds me I need to talk to Ochiai-san at Omori Factory...

Real Life TOMICA Transporter?

So I goofed.  I forgot to have my GT-R undergo the annual "shaken" process back in June.  Normally, I would simply drive my car to the nearest dealership and have them take care of the shaken required various checks, tax payments, etc. but given my position at work, I decided that from a compliance perspective, it simply was not appropriate for me to engage in non-legal behavior. Especially involving a Nissan vehicle.

As a result, I called around and found an alternative way to get my car to a dealer - by special transport of course.  In the past the transporters I have used were gigantic but uncovered.  Perhaps this is special compared to transport services outside of Japan, but in Japan these flatbed types are often used for cars with low ground clearance - hence you see a lot of sports cars and expensive vehicles being transported this way. Sucks when it rains though, like this incident four years ago.

From an older post - http://www.r33gt-r.com/2018/09/electrical-gremlinargh.html

So I was pleasantly surprised to discover upon meeting up with the driver at the prearranged spot in my neighborhood, that this transport looked a bit different.

Note the interior lights as well as the open right side. Interesting!

And yes it started raining on this day too...

So having the driver pull the car onto the loader was one thing but... does it bother you that the red third brake light looks more red than the afterburners? Or is this a function of the camera? Remind me to check next time...

Anyway when I asked the driver about the transporter style, he told me that normally this transporter was used to haul race cars and special cars such as development mules, prototypes, and demo cars.  Hence the covered construction.  Yes, I got lucky!

So I then stepped back and let him do his thing:

Note the use of flat wooden boards prior to the ramps

Fits perfectly

So check out this video clip. Love the engine rev!

Then it was a matter of getting everything tied down securely. I guess compared to race cars and secret prototypes my car isn't a big deal.

Once secured, the entire platform moved up onto the bed of the truck.

Yeah, hard to see so I took this video of the hoist up and then the sides getting locked up.

So what do you guys think? Gigantic TOMICA, right? On the other hand I don't expect to always get this kind of treatment, but wow this was special. 

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!