yeah, every time I'm in MI I am amazed at what I see rolling down the roads over there.
Sometimes I wonder if I'll get hassled about my exhaust on the GT-R (it's LOUD with the cutout off) but then I just remember that and I'm pretty sure that I'm safe.

Tonight I thought I'd spruce up a very important part of the car. The fender mirrors. They are so iconic of old japanese cars that you can't afford to let them look poorly.

When I got the car the mirrors looked ok but some paint was flaking off. They looked ok from far away but up close needed some attention.



Off they come, and you can see that they are mounted quite simply. That rod goes into that spring loaded cup (which lives under the fender) and that's it. You can mount fender mirrors to any car, all you need to do is make a hole.





First feather the paint with some light emery paper.



Then mask off the mirror.



So I decided to capitalise on the mounting design and mount the mirrors on cardboard squares for painting.



This is my favourite DIY paint, it's VHT Roll Bar & Chassis Epoxy. It goes on super easy and it's hard to not get a nice even result. The trick is to remember to do very light, dusting coats of paint, and build up your coverage over 5 coats, with 15mins drying time in between.



Then you get this nice factory looking satin black finish, which I find also works well for things like wiper arms too.

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Nice write up Kev...

When I saw the part on the rear brake drums I was thinking "Hey! That's just like how you change brakes on a golf cart!"

On go the mirrors tonight, but not before a mod or two.

The problem with the mirrors before was that if you nudged them they would rotate, and as you can see there are some small scratches on the paint from this happening in the past. There's meant to be a rubber prong sticking out of the mirror base that locates in that little hole in the fender, but the jdm panelbeaters broke those removing the mirrors for the repaint.


So I drilled out a hole in the mounting cup to take a bolt (after removing all that rust and smothering it in POR15 antirust coating!)


Bolt it in place


And now when say a passer-by nudges against the mirror it will just tilt against its retaining spring rather than rotate.


Done! (Well one more little job out of the way)


Tomorrow it goes to the panelbeater.

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This is a fascinating thread.

That whole concept of "Japanese restoration" vs. "Western restoration" is incredible. It's like you're doing a restoration on a recently restored car.

Props to your patience. It'll obviously pay off.

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PM me if you need your classic detailed in RI/Southern MA

I should scan it but one pic in a JDM magazine symbolises the JDM approach to restoration for me...

There is a spot on the engine bay tower which is a common rust point on the C10 Skylines, it's that box section on the left edge of the pic here. You can see a separate box section welded onto the top of the fender at the left of this pic:


The top of that box section can develop rust because of moisture trapped inside (as you can see there's holes to allow water in but not to let it back out again)...and there is a magazine feature car which has a chromed plate riveted on top of this panel (one assumes to cover up a rusthole). It's folded carefully and matches the contours of the box section perfectly and is beautifully chromed.

But it makes you think...wouldn't it have been just as easy to fix it properly?

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I must say I love your car, I cant wait until I get one myself (hopefully the end of the year )


I really was pissed off when Grand JDM went offline, as I really enjoyed reading "Project Hakosuka"

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Well one of the objectives of Project Hakosuka and my doing an online build diary was so that you can see what's involved and the risks etc.

I have to say, that in comparison with newer imports that I've bought from Japan (mainly 80s cars including a DR30 like yours) going the oldschool route has been MUCH harder

I think it'll be worth it in the end, but as a comparison, the last grey import car I bought from Japan was registered and attending car club cruises no more than 48hrs after I took possession of it Very different to the Hakosuka!

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I've loved watching this car come together. I think I've fallen in love with them, damn you!! Haha, thanks for putting together such a great read.

Cheers,
Dan

Awesome thread this

Yes, a great thread and thanks for all the pics and info, Kev. This will help all of us a lot!

I noted in the pics of it coming off the truck that it had 'BF Goodrich' radial T/As on it, with the raised white lettering.
They actually suited the car (styling wise) Very 70's hotrod.
Will you be using them as drift tyres?

Hooks

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This space intentionally left blank.

Those tyres were cracked and dried out so they are now residing in the bin


They have been replaced by Yoko A352s


..and before we even think about drifting I have to fix the engine so that it produces more than 50hp

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hi there
my GF and i have have just returned from japan - while catching up on RSS stuff i was gutted to find out about grandJDM being hacked, but very glad project hakko has found a new home. fascinating read as always, looking forward to the next installment. after visiting Tsutomu at red megaphone while we were over there and seeing the cars in the flesh, my dream of owning one is even stronger now! looking forward to seeing that blue slip arrive, keep up the good work. Mike

Nice work

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Savanna 10a-PP racer...

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2209107

I love these cars! If your KGC10 is a GTR replica what is the actual GTR model called?

My car's model code is KGC10 whereas a GT-R would be KPGC10.

And my model is called 2000GT and the GT-R is 2000GT-R.

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.

Greetings From Thailand....


Hello Kev,


Just a week ago , I came by visiting JNC and found The Amazing KEV's Hakosuka thread.

I thought this could be a good story and reference to the Thai Enthus. I got a blessing from Kev , allowing me to convey the story to Thai.

Here it is ;

http://www.bangkokclassiccar.com/forum/ ... 0893.0;all


I almost catch up with you, Kev.


Visit our site sometime. We have a whole bunch of JNCs in Thailand.


Thanks to Kev. I will collect all the comments, they are all very positive, and will convey to you.


Cheers,


George Manont

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Hi George!

I'm you and the Bangkok crew are enjoying the thread, and after seeing BigJohn's thread on his Stanza I think we all have a lot more respect for what you guys have going on in Thailand!

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