With the engine off, you might have say, 11.5V at your disposal. But with the engine and alternator going, the 14V you have might be enough to overcome poor connections and bad earths

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Well you were definitely right Kevin...

Fusible link is in need of some love
I'll post pics on Saturday but I was able to clean and salvage something...

Need to order more parts from Japan!

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

I took my old fusible links to an auto electrician and he made up new ones on the spot. Apparently the colour of the wire tells him what amp rating it is.

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Spot on kev, it usually goes
Orange 3A
Green 5A
Brown 10A
Blue 15A
Red 20A
White 40A

Well, it used to anyway

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1971 N360 - restoration project

Nice seeing a couple classic Skylines at C&C this morning.

Updates!


First, I owed you a pic of the C-pillar interior trim re-upholstered and back in the car. Here's a pic of driver side:




Then, going back to Alan's bodyshop pics of the red 4dr, I felt like I needed to share the following.
The grey/white one is 6yr old now. The dark one is still a kitten. They both have taken to the red car as well...





As mentioned last week, I repainted the trunk spare tire well:



Thanks to Kevin's pointing me in the right direction, I was able to track my odd lighting issue from last week down to this little jewel:



I pulled all the connectors, cleaned them as best I could with steel wool, added a dab of dielectric grease, found a matching Nissan 4pin connector, and put it all back together. Works fine now.

Unfortunately, I went to tighten a loose driver side sun visor, and the pot metal base shattered pretty completely...
Two steps forward, one step back... Will start looking for one driver side, or a pair of good sun visors...

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

Saturday morning I left the house at 6am to drive down to Irvine and meet up with Eric from Mission Viejo and his 4dr Hako.
We met up at the gas station around the corner from Cars & Coffee Irvine and rolled in together at 7am...



Unfortunately with Carroll Shelby's untimely passing last week, the turnout at C&C was bigger than usual. And at 7am the main lot was full and we were directed to the side lot... Note to self: get there just before 7am next time...



To be honest, the more 4drs I see, the more I like them!
This is the same NorCal car that was for sale on Craigslist and then eBay last month.
It sounds like Eric picked his up the same weekend I was in SLC with Jan picking up the red car...
I've never met so many other Eric's as since I got my Skyline... lol...



It sounds like Eric may want to part with his 14" SpeedStars in favor of something else... If you're interested, you should hit him up... He's "ImPo" here on JNC...

I left about an hour and a half, but at the exit, I was behind a white countach and in front of an enzo, and to my surprise I heard several people call out the Skyline as I waited for my turn to leave...

I got home an hour later, collected the wife and went out to breakfast with some friends...

Later that afternoon, I decided to take the car up Angeles Crest.
I ended up going all the way up & over first to Wrightwood, and then out to the Chevron gas station at I-15, only to turn around and come back the same way... Enjoy the pics...











Even found some leftover snow... and it was WARM up there... surprised me...




I stopped at a camp ground on the way down and hadn't parked for a minute that I got approached by two guys...
One guy had a RX3 and had heard me tearing up the hill an hour earlier and had been intrigued by the sound of the car.
Now that I was right there, he asked me the usual 20 questions about the car. He too was pretty stoked by it...

They got another earful as I took off and when I looked over my shoulder I saw them giving thumbs up... lol.

There's a single tunnel up there and I just got to it without any other traffic around me (coming or going), so I nailed it and man the sound was un believable... I need to find a way to record that... It was epic!


I stopped at Newcomb's Ranch for a beer and hung out with a throng of bikers discussing Dave Mustaine's guitar skills, and the hypothetical career Cliff Burton would have had if he had survived the bus crash... Bikers... more lols



So finally I have to ask if anyone knows what the opposite to "buyer's remorse" is?
Coming down the last part of Hwy 2, just before entering La Canada, I was over come with just how fantastic this car is...

RH Factory in Nagoya, if it really is them who are responsible for this engine, did an amazing job with it.
It's so perfect and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up every time I go through the gears...

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

So what exactly, have you got under the hood

BTW those c-pillar trims turned out great! And the plastic trim that goes at the bottom of that was quite inexpensive IIRC, they're available as repros.

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More internet love for the red car:

Depth of Speed video had been viewed about 55'000 times over its first week online, and now it just got posted again on autoblog here http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/12/depth-of-speed-does-track-time-in-a-classic-skyline-with-jdm-leg/


I'm going to turn into a "toddler & tiara" over-eager stage mom if this keeps up... lol


I want to thank all of you guys again for sharing all the love for this car...

-e

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

It's a shame that so many of the syndications of the video are getting it wrong. The autoblog.com blurb reads: "They let Clason take one of their vintage Skyline GT-R projects out on track for some sunset lens time..."

I saw it posted on the huge UK-based Pistonheads forum yesterday. Sure enough, they too mistake it for a GT-R: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... 7moment%27

"...we came here to talk old GT-Rs. And this one's a beaut..."

Frustrating.

I know
I know

I've got emails out to both to try and fix the situation - thus my desire to remove the badges...

Pistonheads just assumed from what I can tell, I don't think they did any fact checking before re-posting the video...

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

I think you can fix that pot metal sunvisor thing. From memory, it's hollow, and you can "fill" the back of the piece with QBond powder, when it sets hard, it might hold it all together. You can build it up in layers, so that the QBond is quite thick.

One of the plastic bases on my fender mirrors cracked into three pieces, but because it too had a bit of a hollow in it, I filled it totally with QBond and it's held fine (touch wood) to this day

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We have JB Weld over here Kevin - probably same product, different name...
I guess I can give it a try... I just wonder what kind of torque the rotating sunvisor arm is going to put on this fragile pieced-together part... I guess it's worth a shot since it can't break more...


On another note, my exhaust hangs real low just forward of the rear axle... I've checked the mounting brackets and rubber hangers and while everything's properly secured, I figure there is some room to tuck it up into the body a hair more... It's also got the typical slip joint right there at mid-point of the car which is only held together by a U-bolt...

I was on a photoshoot with the red car yesterday (more about that later...) and we crossed a fair number of speedbumps to and from our shooting locations... with an extra passenger in the car there was a bit of rubbage, and by the end of the day i had sprung a minor exhaust leak...

I had a similar slip joint on the Z's exhaust that never sealed quite right, so I had it welded up so that from header flange back to muffler it's one piece... Granted this makes it a bit more unwieldy to remove / install - but at least no exhaust leak, and less fumes in the cabin...

So this morning at work I did some calling around town in Thousand Oaks and found a shop that several people pointed me too when I combined the words "weld" & "stainless exhaust" in the same sentence... A quick look up on Google Maps showed me that they are 5min away and located on "Skyline Drive"...... hahahahaha

Must be a good sign, yes?
I'm going in tomorrow - will snap pics of the mod.

-e

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

your stuff is in the mail Eric, hopefully this will prevent the identity crisis you car is going through. i get the same questions by japanese guys all the time, when i tell them its not a GTR they still check it out, but they lose interest quickly.

still gets a lot of love from both the old and the younger crowd.

some asshole on base told some friends of mine that i would no longer be able to ship the car because the policy has changed, i told them he was full of shit, and after checking into it, turns out i was RIGHT.. of course i was LOL, that kid has a nice 80's Z with an RB swap, but he is getting kicked out and selling his car, so i think he wants people to think that he can't take it back and thats the only reason he's selling.

asshole.

QBond isn't quite the same as JB Weld, it's a powder, which sets hard when you sprinkle a few drops of this fluid onto it. So I was thinking...maybe you can slowly build up layers of the hardened powder, until you get this solid hockey puck of material in the hollow of the pot metal piece.

You could then fill and sand the front of it, and after a lick of paint (in the event that it doesn't revert to a million broken pieces again... ) no one will be the wiser


My original exhaust was like this, it scraped everywhere, so when I had a new one made, they tucked the pipes as close to the floorpan as possible, and that made a world of difference

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The mounting tab at the center section is such that there's about an inch or more between the exhaust and the floor

The only other mounting points are the rubber hangers at the rear muffler, so I'm hoping there's enough give to scoot it up a bit.

I really don't want to cut into the exhaust if I don't have to...
Just want to tuck it out of the way and reduce the fumes.


Although, after a spirited drive, the back left of the car gets "hairy" with tiny little fiberglass pieces, so I'm guessing the muffler is slowly blowing itself out...
It's a shame as it looks fantastic... maybe one day it can be sliced open, the insides can be replaced, and it can be welded back up to look new again

i'll know more tomorrow after my appt

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

Over here we got this product called Maniseal, which is like this plasticine-like exhaust sealent.

You slather it on the slip joint, jam it all together, and when it heats up for the first time, the maniseal expands and sets hard. Works like a charm for slip joints

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First off, to avoid any further confusion, the "GT-R" badge is now off the car. It had been double stick taped on - & actually wasn't quite centered over the mounting holes where it was supposed to be. I just heard that the badges I wanted off of YAJ are on their way to me now!



I think I've changed my mind 18 times about the "Wind" badges...
The mounting holes are clearly visible inside the trunk so it would be easy to get them in exactly the right place.
I just don't know if I want to pierce through the red paint or not...



Thoughts?

Here's the MSD coil that the previous Japanese owner fitted to the car. The coil terminal kept getting loose which led to some misfire issues so I pulled it off and replaced it. The bracket for it was actually really nicely made using factory bolt holes.
Also notice how it says "for drag racing only"? To be honest, I'm unsure how a coil could be application specific?



I decided to stay with the same ignition that the car came with, so I ordered up a new MSD coil (this time NOT drag racing specific), and test fit a new bracket for it.



The car came with NGK BP7ES and they were running really black and sooty when I drove it down from SLC.
I swapped out to NGK BPR6ES and it looks better. This is the best pic I managed to snap. The insulator is mostly brown with slight spots of tan.

Does anyone think I should go one step hotter to BPR5ES?

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S

Maybe the old coil cuts out if you go around a corner? I've never been a fan of those badges on the rear fender. They're nice, but not very "racecar"

Plugs look ok to me, but we should probably take a look at your jetting. IMHO, japanese jetting is usually a click or two richer than recommended.

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The Solex 44 that came from Japan with the car have the following:
(I kept the jets and mailed off the carb bodies to WCR for a once over)

unknown jet body - no markings
230 main air jets
210 main jets
62.5 pilot jets


The Mikuni 44 I had Todd @ WCR rebuild for me for my 2949cc L28 build for the Z have the following:
(They are currently on the Skyline)

0A jet body
200 main air jets
155 main jets
65 pilot jets

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1970 Nissan Skyline GT + 1973 Datsun 240Z + 1974 VW Karmann Ghia + 1998 Toyota LandCruiser + 2006 MINI Cooper S