Nissan Skyline R32 GTR - Partial Restore

[Japtastic]

Managed to get the 1/4 on and some what welded on. The spot welding was hit and miss. I decided against the copper weld through as after lots of research, it appeared to be a great choice to weld / spot weld through but it offers little to no protection in the seem and most of the areas I'm spot welding will see lots of water so I stripped it all back and replaced it with Bilt Hamber Electrox which has the highest Zinc content I could find. This will sacrifice its self first rather than the other way around with the copper weld through.

Now, the only issue with that is that its not exactly a weld through primer, although lots use it that way, so I had to mark the areas with 13mm stickers on both the body and the 1/4 for the spot weld points.

The TIG spot welding was very inconsistent with some spots coming out great and others just not wanting to no matter what I tried. The common issue I came across was the top layer burning a hole before the heat had a chance to hit the second layer. The only upside to this failure was that it left the perfect size hole to MIG plug weld through. So I reckon I have about 1/2 spot welds and 1/2 plug. Either way, its on and on well. The other failure was just an almost immediate burn through of both layers!

I am really happy with the way the 1/4 went on fitment wise, boot, door, arch all great and is actually better than the factory fit and finish. This took flipping ages. Must have taken it off and on about 50 times while continually tweaking things The gaps and lines are spot on so really happy about that

The last pic is what an absolute mess I'm working in currently LOL. Car also looks like its just been pulled out the Fukushima fall out zone, ha ha!

Good progress all in all. More to come over the next few weeks.


Bad!

Decent...

 

[Haz87]

Must have been a good feeling to step back and see it looking like a car again. Top work

 

[Japtastic]

Thanks man, yeah I did actually just sit there looking at it for about half and hour last night congratulating my self on the work so far lol

 

[Japtastic]

A bit more progress again. Had to end up pulling apart the front end to clear all the bits in the front arch area in preparation for Epoxy. This did give me the opportunity to get rid of the air con and lots of other bits I didnt need any more and got to have a good look at the turbos. I wasn't 100% sure what they were before but looks like they are HKS made by Garrett.

Also managed to get this beast out with some help from a friend. Wrestling 100kg of gearbox is not fun!

Upgraded clutch and flywheel which is nice

Back to bare metal before Epoxy

Finding more rot on the chassis rails

Ready to cut out the rot

Rot cut out which included part of the rail and floor! Also had an idea to use my slide hammer hub puller to get rid of the beaten in rail for years of abuse of people jacking it up on that spot and it actually worked pretty well. It's not perfect but a lot better. I'm considering cutting out that entire bit but working in this area is a true pain in the ass. You are either on your back or sat down with your neck bent over the whole time.

Gearbox mount, chassis rail eroded away. Had to cut this out and clean up before making a new bit.

 

[Japtastic]

Continued

Epoxy on front wheel arch. Feels like progress when this happens!

 

[arther dailey]

good to see the work quality of work your putting in , great stuff , I am geussing its starting to feel well worth while now its getting there .

 

[Puglet1]

Fantastic work. Keep the photos coming.

 

[Blobber]

Good progress
Ive done nothing on the Carlton since the end of November

 

[Japtastic]

Thanks guys. Jan was a good month for progress. Yeah, don’t want to stop for too long Blobber, I know far too well the longer you leave it the harder it is to start again!

This made me laugh, thought it was worth sharing this quality bodge job I recently pulled out, complete with Japanese news paper stuffed in there, a random bit of aluminium and some kind of hard setting goo!