Installing the New Headlights

OK, so FINALLY - installing the new headlights - all nicely protected with 3M protection film. Sure, I did my research - everyone on the forums say that only 3 or 4 bolts hold it in... and these people say you don't have to remove the bumper. Wow, sounds easy. WRONG! (Well, wrong if you have an oil cooler installed...)

People generally say that the headlights on the R33 GTR are easy to replace. First, there are two bolts that are accessible from the top - begin by removing the center grill. Easy enough.



Then, to access the third bolt that screws in from the side, peel back the plastic inner fender lining (take off the front wheels to do this), and you'll be able to access that bolt from inside the fender. That much is true.


As they claimed, the driver's side headlight was pretty easy. Undo all the bolts, and pull to the front and side, and lift out - the burner unit is attached to the underside of the plastic housing.



In retrospect however, I would take off the bumper next time, as even on this side the plastic inner fender liners were NOT really pliable, meaning I had to pull and bend just enough for my hand and a wrench to get through. Not fun.

The problem, and reason why the bumper should have come off in the first place, is because if you have an oil cooler installed like I do - then it is physically impossible to access the third bolt that screws in from the side - because the oil cooler core blocks access from the rear.

So, what I ended up doing was taking off the front bumper (which necessitated undoing a bunch of bolts on the bottom of the bumper, where it attaches to the front lip spoiler and the brake cooling ducts, as well as unbolting two bolts that are immediately behind the plastic inner fender lining), after which I had enough space to access that last bolt.

Here is the left side. You will notice two things - the oil cooler hoses, as well as a bracket attached to the frame upon which is mounted the burner unit.


Here is a closer look at the bracket and burner unit, once I removed it from the frame.


Apparently, with the oil cooler hoses, the headlights would not fit as usual, as the burner unit mounted underneath the plastic headlight housing would interfere with the hoses. Hence, the custom bracket (I assume it came with the HKS Oil Cooler kit, Nissan Prince installed it for me so I don't know for sure) which relocates the burner unit safely out of the way.

Here is the new headlight unit on the right of the old one. I've yet to remove the standard bracket underneath the plastic housing and relocate the burner unit.


You can see here, how this side bracket (also came in the HKS kit) is also required, as the original bracket which had this side piece has been removed to relocate the burner unit. This is the side bolt where the most inaccessible bolt is screwed in from the side.


Anyway - once everything was hooked up, and bolted in, the lights were tested, and everything turned on no problem.

By the way, here is what the old light (plastic cracked inside) looked like:


And here is the new light - so clean! Still haven't driven the car at night since the install, looking forward to seeing the difference.


My only worry is that I haven't aimed the headlights... maybe I'll have Nissan Prince do that for me next time I swing by for a visit!

Project: New Headlights and 3M Headlight Protection Film!

So... this was a project that was long in the making...It had long bothered me that my car's headlights were clouded over. Not on the outside plastic - this is me, Mr. OCD (Obsessive Car Detailer) - of course I had used the kits and Porter Cable on the headlights in order to remove the typical yellowing of plastic. But to no avail.

I had even taken one unit apart, in the hope that I could polish the INSIDE of the lens. What I found though was that, whether through age or heat or whatever, the plastic lens covering both the Xenon low beam and the Halogen high beam had formed small fissures in them. This is how it looked:


So I had always wanted to replace the headlights with new units. But, checking on Yahoo Auctions here in Japan, most "slightly used" units were expensive (about 120,00 yen per pair) and there was no guarantee that they would be any good. No returns, either. And inquiry at Nissan Prince - new units were available, but just the housings alone would cost 100,000 yen - EACH!

So I was resigned to putting this on the back burner until I found BRAND NEW UNITS on sale in the US - on Ebay, being sold by a Nissan dealership... for about half the price they are in Japan. A phone call and credit card transaction later, I was in business. Don't ask me why a US Nissan dealership would have them in stock, but heck for the price I paid, I'm not complaining.

Anyway, I had actually ordered new R33 Series 3 Xenon headlamp units last year... I think it was around Christmas? So I guess you can say this is one of the two boxes Santa dropped off on my front door! Nice huh?!


Of course I opened the box up to find this:


And then after digging through the cushioning:


These things are wrapped really really well!


Wow, the smell of new! NO scratches, no blemishes, clear plastic! Ahhhh..


Of course - how do I keep them looking new? Whether on the track or the expressway, cars ahead of me kick up debris - so I decided to apply some 3M headlight protection film. Unfortunately, no kits exist for the R33 GT-R (nor for the R32/R34 GT-Rs either) so I had to make my own. So, I ordered a batch of bulk film (their "Lightgard" product) from these guys:
http://www.clearmask.com

First step was to make a template. I got some tracing paper, taped two pieces together as these headlights are quite big:


I cut where I could, then taped along the sides to the headlight unit to try to get the shape correct...


...and ended up with this.


This I used to trace onto two clean pieces of paper that were taped together...


Which I then cut out, and laid over the film, traced the pattern on the film, and finally cut the film...


ending up with this film that fit perfectly on the headlight unit.


Now - time to apply the film onto the headlights. The film itself stretches slightly, so I actually trimmed the template to be slightly smaller - say about 5mm from the actual edge of the headlight housing, in anticipation of having to do some last minute adjustments.

First, apply the 50/50 soap/water solution to the headlight (after cleaning the headlight, of course... nothing like loose dirt getting caught under the film to ruin your day):


Peel back the film to expose the sticky side, and similarly spray with soap solution:


Apply the film to the headlight unit. I've already applied some water/alcohol solution by spray in order to start the bonding process - otherwise the film would be sliding all over...


And here it is, almost done. All of the solution between the film and the headlight is the water/alcohol solution.


Using a plastic squeegee (the end of which I covered in cloth to avoid scratching), I carefully pushed the water solution out from between the film and plastic...


To get this. No bubbles! Any slight fogging, I learned, disappears over time.


Next post - headlight replacement and installation!

A Retroactive Post... Stop Gap Measure Brake Pads!

I apologize for the backdating of this post (I'm writing this on May 16) but wanted to ensure I did not post things out of order.

Anyway, my front brakes had been making the worst squealing noise... time for new pads! OR a new brake system project! Well, I do have something in mind, but meanwhile, thought it would be best and most economical if I could "borrow" some pads until I get that project launched.

So, at our last Daikoku meet, I had asked my friend Thomas, another R33 owner, to see if he had any spares he could bring. And boy did he deliver!

That following weekend - April 16, I found myself loosening the brake fluid cap, jacking the car up, taking the front wheel off:


Removed the retaining pins and the spring, and voila! Removed the front brake pads. Easy enough task, but something I hadn't attempted at home. I was horrified to see how badly worn the old pads (PFC Race) were compared to the used replacement pads I got from Thomas. Check out the difference!



These stop gap measure used pads are pretty good, too - Ferodo DS2500 pads.


Driving impression - clearly not as sharp as the PFCs, but they feel progressive enough. Of course, I probably won't be driving with these on the circuit, although I understand they are not bad there either. But no more SQUEALING!!

Being me, of course, I used this opportunity to scrub down my front wheels for a quick clean (thank you glass coating for making my life easy)


And here is Thomas' car. I was going to do a short thank you highlight of his car, but when I asked him for a short spec list, he sent me an Excel sheet about 4000 pages long! (just kidding, but longer than I expected). So I'll have to do a post on his Midnight Purple Asphalt Jet in the near future - but it'll have to be more than just a summary.


Thanks again Thomas!

As Things Have Calmed Down...

First, thank you to all of you out there who contacted me after the big earthquake and the resulting nuclear power plant mess. Suffice to say it was crazy, but of course the suffering of me, my family and others around me was nothing compared to what those poor folk up in Fukushima have gone through, and continue to do so today.

But anyway - yes, I'm ok. My family and friends are ok. And yes, my car is OK. Thanks.

Obviously after March 11, not much was happening but as things have gradually returned to normal... what better way to "normalize" than to have a get together at Daikoku PA the usual second Wednesday night of the month (April 13)?

So we did...Thanks to Dino, who took these photos and posted on the Speedhunters.com Facebook page:

Dino and Russ (RE-xtreme) perhaps the two most famous gaijin car guys in Japan? At least in my circle, LOL.


Kaz decided to ditch the R35 and come in a nostalgic blast from the past!


My dream car, still, especially this spec:


Our friend Rich brought along his meticulously restored Bluebird (but it has an SR20 engine onboard...)


And of course:


Besides me is James Pearson's white R33, with recently rebuilt engine. What spec, he won't tell me! (but it's for sale right now so if anyone wants a white R33, post a comment...)

Oh - and to those who were wondering, given my last blog post - my car was only at Tomei for a week. And I posted a week after my visit.

At Tomei Powered... Again!

But this time to lend my car to Allen and his crew for some "testing"... not allowed to talk about it, but he was kind enough to "pimp" me on their website!

Check it out - my car all wrapped up in protective blue film (yes, they loved how clean it was!)



Here's the link so you can read Allen's write up:
http://www.tomeipowered.com/BTE/index.php/2011/03/08/ongoing-developments-for-the-gtr/

Update to Engine Cover Painting Episode of August 23 last year

Some of you may recall my little project last year - my friend Miguel encouraged me to paint some RB engine covers. Not for myself actually - I'm quite happy with the Mine's dark blue engine covers on my car. (click title to go to that post).

Well I remembered I had a picture of the completed project, after Miguel installed them in our friend Alex's R32 GT-R.



With the addition of the nice center plate, sure looks nice! I wish I had a before picture to show you, it looked so horrible before...

It's Been a While... UPDATE Time

Wow how time flies.

It turns out the last time I posted here was back in November! Well, I DO have a good excuse - my wife and I had our first child, and so for those of you who have kids, you know how it is...

There was also an issue with my PC - this thing I am typing on is now is 8 years old, and lately it wasn't physically possible to even type or surf the internet, it was operating so slowly... so I spent a few hours today deleting programs, and switched browsers. Working much better now, thankfully I didn't have to do a full re-format job.

Anyway, I thought I'd share what's been happening with the GT-R despite my limited time and the current COLD Yokohama weather which really makes it hard to do anything with the car.

Oh, first, here is the newest option that I've installed in my car:



Yes, baby seat!! This was tough - the scooped out rear seat means that there are not many models that work in the rear seat of the R33. But, I did my research, and Takata (yes, the same company that makes the racing harnesses and mass market airbags and seatbelts) also makes child safety seats - and the crash data shows this is one of the best seats out there... Good thing is this seat is designed in such a way that it will fit most cars, so I can take it out and put into other cars (e.g. second car) as well.

Anyway, my lack of time means I can only do some minor projects.

Here is one - it always bothered me how dirty the radiator brackets were:


So I bought some carbon ones on Yahoo Auction. Unfortunately, I will have to get out the Dremel and reshape to fit properly. Can't really tell from this angle, but needs to be a bit more narrow in order to fit into the depression. I'll be doing this soon.


I also decided, what the heck I will try to "Titanium-ize" my engine bay. So I did some research, and found a company that sells various bolts and nuts.


For example, here is one (poor) example - a bracket with the standard steel bolts:


And here it is after switching to titanium bolts:


Wasn't just titanium either. Decided to bling out the transistor pack by replacing the ugly screws (black, and differing lengths) with some shiny aluminum ones (titanium is not as good as a ground as aluminum is...as I run some grounding wires on these bolts).



Ok, not great examples. But I still have some other bits to swap out (for example on the Nismo titanium tower bar), so will try to get a better picture next time.

Oh yes, also did wash my car, almost froze my fingers off:


I also managed to take the car into Nissan Prince Shinagawa for an experiment - some friends had insisted I try the Redline Heavy Shockproof Transmission Oil, as my gearbox had started to make some bad sounds when occasionally shifting into 4th.



Well I'm happy to report that this stuff WORKS! Can't believe it!

Anyway... not my usual level of tuning. BUT, I do have a few projects in the works as you read this. Hopefully will be able to work on some of it this weekend/month, and will report back then.

In the meanwhile - as you know I'm thinking I need some new wheels - the RE30s I have are fine but I THINK could be better darker on a silver car. I wonder how dark silver or matte black would look?

My friend Russ (photoshop guru) decided to give me some other ideas - enjoy!

Hmm. Flat black looks good actually (not necessarily this wheel though).


Silver, blah.


Bronze, nope.


Chrome? No, no, no...


Dark silver/black. Hmmm...