Still Working On the Interior...

First, apologies to all you readers - especially those who inquired to see if I was still alive. Good news, yes I am, bad news I have been so busy with my awesome new job I started in May of last year that this blog has suffered. Of course, I think I still have to some PTSD from the whole fiasco at WORX last year (to make it perfect again I am saving up)...

Anyway, so truth be told, both the LED back up lamp replacement and the muffler silencer parts I discussed in my last two posts, I took care of shortly after rescuing my car from WORX Auto Alarm in October of last year.  As you've seen, in my very limited free time (lately I've been busy with family stuff on the weekends too, never mind my crazy work schedule) I've been working on fixing all the items that Nakamura at WORX essentially either broke, ignored my requests on, or threw out.

One item that was not finished was the installation of the matte carbon fiber door cups that Marc Binet from Xclusiv Carbon had made for me.

Or door handle surrounds, or whatever their proper name is...

It was obvious that when I went to pick the car up (after 6 months) that Nakamura was rushing to finish, barely putting the finishing touches on the Navi unit, and so items such as these cups as well as the leatherized ignition key surround, he simply did not have time for. He did manage to wrap up the red LED that I had installed as a courtesy lamp a long time ago, which actually now prevents placement of the LED in the space I had drilled out for the LED. Again, an example of linear thinking and not the creative thinking that is needed for these kinds of mods.  Anyway, in a future post I will show you how I got around this...

In any case, not installing the door cups turned out to be a blessing of sorts, as I began thinking about replacing the door handles themselves with chrome versions that were available for the R33 sedan. I had seen these on Yahoo Auction so many times, yet never pulled the trigger, and now it was too late, as no one now seems to be selling them new any more.

from: https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/306146/car/200234/1339412/parts.aspx

Maybe someday Nissan will make them again, or a used set in very good condition pops up. Until then, I had to figure out way to bring some "pop" to this area of the car.

Enter my friend and fellow R33 GT-R owner Tom S. He has an AMAZING black R33 GT-R:

This is his Facebook background photo - my kind of guy!! No way I could stay sane and keep black as clean as that!!

When I mentioned that I was looking for the chrome door handles, he first tried to find them in the UK for me, but when that didn't work out, came up with a better idea - he has a friend, James B. who could paint a set in a nice color. Oh, and James paints for Aston Martin(!) and LandRover(!!) (prototype work) and could be convinced to help(!!!!)?

But first I had to tell Tom what color I wanted. Naturally, we have to use OEM paint colors, so I went over to the Nissan Global Headquarters gallery to check out not only the cars on display but to see what OEM colors are currently being sold.

A bunch of tourists... ok I'm one too I guess

Hidden behind the service counter are these trays labelled with vehicle model names

Here are the colors available for the R35 GT-R

Not a GT-R color but a silver I liked called TRN (titanium) that we ended up going with.

I like this GT-R color, KAD (dark metallic grey) too, but thought the lighter titanium would work better.

After I told Tom about the color choice, he had James paint the used handles - as the following photos show.

Tom then sent me a photo showing the finished result. Looks fantastic, but until I see them with my own naked eyes...

Goodies from the UK!

Ok so my wife likes Malteasers (red thing on top left) and I was interested in what was wrapped in white

Look pretty good!

I think the coloring is perfect! Not too silver, not too shiny.

So I took the door panel off, unbolted the door handle assembly and unhooked these two metal roads from the backside.

Finished! Ok might look a bit weird (shiny) due to the flash at night but during the day it looks fantastic, will get some daytime photos later!

Actually, now that I have my oem handles removed from the car, I have another idea... but meanwhile my next blog post will be a repair of another kind... this one unbelievable not the fault of WORX...

Big thanks to Tom and James for your help on making my car that much better!!

Interior Modernization Project, Part 7. Some Optional Stuff!

With the leather fiasco behind us, it was time for Cesar and me to start thinking about exactly what would be covered in leather, what would be left alone, and what parts might end up being covered in a material other than leather.

Cesar initiated the conversation by sending me the following photos, with the wooden stick pointing at the part he was wondering about.  A keen eye will also spot the white pin stripe taping, which indicates where we were discussing where the red stitching might go.

Instrument Gauge Surround

For the gauge surround, Cesar pointed out that this trim piece is very susceptible to scratches. He proposed to cover it in leather, unless I was going to cover in a special plastic paint or made into carbon fiber.  After some discussion, we agreed wrapping in Alcantara would be the best solution.

This central dashboard piece.

 Since mine is a Series 3 (kohki) version, the finish of this central dash piece feels almost sandpaper like. Cesar didn't know that, and due to it being easily scratched proposed it also be wrapped in leather.  I told him no need, I would order a new piece in Japan, with a new driver's side window controls to match.

Center console coin tray

Next was this center console bit.  As you can see, whoever owned this previously had installed two switches or lightbulbs and had drilled out two holes there.  Cesar again proposed leather.  I was more interested in carbon fiber, except I wasn't sure who I could find who could do so. Since this piece pops out of the console, we agreed to worry about this piece later.

Handbrake and handbrake boot

 Cesar wanted me to send him my handbrake and boot, which he would rewrap in the Cardinal leather to match the rest of car.  Easier said than one, because I still wanted to keep my car operational so I wasn't about to remove the handbrake.  Instead, I found one on eBay, however the seller refused to send to Mexico, so I had it sent to me instead here in Japan, and I would forward it on...

Shift boot and plastic frame

Cesar offered to wrap the plastic piece in leather. Again however since I planned to get a new piece that would match the central dash and the driver's side window switch controls, I told him that I would send him my shift boot (which I had to modify to work with the Getrag) as well as the plastic frame. I sent him the below annotated photo, just in case:

Red - leather; Yellow - leave alone; Pink - carbon, hopefully

As for the piping, I thought it looked great (he had actually sent me a video showing the white tape applied all over the interior) because it was actually fairly conservatively done. Too much red stitching might look over the top, but we wanted a look that was OEM, and the stitching to be actually functional, as if the cow hide had to be stitched together by design.

Incidentally, I had also proposed some ideas as well. Being that no one is allowed to smoke, eat or drink in my car, I decided that the ashtray at the rear of the center console was useless.  I had a couple of ideas:

Apologies to the copyright holder of this photo. 

Again, sorry to the copyright holder.

Cesar liked both ideas. I thought that the air vent would be useful, however while the USB outlet would only require two wires running to it, the air vent would require not only, some kind of tubing from the air con unit, I would have to find a third party vent that would fit in the rear console space. So the air vent would be a technical challenge.

And then, as fortune would have it, one of my fellow R33 GT-R owners by the name of Marc Binet (Belgian guy) showed me some R33 GT-R interior parts he had himself reskinned in carbon fiber:

I was particularly impressed with how cleanly the carbon weave was - it's straight everywhere.

Wow! Except for the gloss, this might work very well. 

 When I talked to Marc about doing this coin tray in full carbon, it turned out that all the extra curves, not just in the coin holder area but in the larger square area, would make the job more difficult.

This was for reference only. I wanted this piece to be leather.

Choices, choices. 

So I had found my carbon fiber part supplier. For anyone interested, I would advise them to contact Marc. His pricing is incredibly affordable, and as you can see the work quality is fantastic! (You can see more of his work here.) Tell him I sent you!

The hard part for me was, trying to decide what parts in the car interior to do in carbon, versus Alcantara or leather.  But meanwhile Cesar started work on the dashboard...