Today's update: I have QUESTIONS!
Have you owned or do own an AVC-R boost controller? Have you owned or do own a power FC?
I made mondo progress last Saturday at the shop- I am about to post my video from a week ago, where I put the car on the ground in prep for being able to start the car, so the videos will not match this post but here goes.
The Plan
I basically had most of this car taken apart; to refinish, replace and refurbish just about everything. It is well known I am planning a full underbody restoration, using one of two shops here in the UK (one of them is called Auto Torque, very impressive work), which will include cutting out a lot of rusted metal in the inner and outer sills of the car, and the inner wheel well in the rear. Both common rust places on R33's, which I do not think are helped at all by living in England.
I am also going to have the sill seam reconstructed, because just like every 240sx in the US, the jacking points on the R33 are fucked on mine too. It is actually where the rust started from I suspect.
The Issue
Everything in England is fucking expensive. Like, EVERYTHING. Renting a trailer and a massive F250 to tow the skyline to shops for in-depth restoration quotes is impossible. Paying someone to do it for me is expensive (probably will spend $400 just to trailer the car to the few shops a few times before I decide where I will do the work) and I can't trust anyone as far as I can throw them here. Been burned too many times, and most people don't seem to take most jobs seriously, but I digress.
So I have decided to out the entire car back together, get it running, drivable, maybe not perfect, but at least good enough to go down the highway. Thus I need to get my car to pass the dreaded MOT test.
The MOT can fail your car for emissions, lights, suspension, power steering rack leaks, RUST, just about everything. So I am trying to eliminate as many potential failure points as possible. The rust, MOSTLY wont be noticeable, but if someone pokes around in the inner wheel wells in the rear they might see it. Thus my solution is to find a dodgy MOT shop to pay an extra few quid to in order to pass the car. Should be possible just like it is possible to pass SMOG in cali...
Results?
I put in about 10 hrs on Sat at the shop and got the ole girl running. In general, I am very happy.
Some highlights of the day:
1. Jamming pieces of metal into the battery terminal lead, to bridge the gap between my new Japanese terminal battery and cables made for a US or Euro battery
2. Removing a GPS tracker, hard wired into the rear fuse box of my car (part number came up a call phone module for BMW or Merc, but also as a tracker
3. Filling the car with oil and praying my oil pan chamfered washer stopped it from leaking (watch my vlogs for more info on this)
4. Fitted the HKS hi-power silent exhaust (sounds nice)
5. Attached the PowerFC commander I bought, which seems to work correctly.
6. Installing the new coil pack harness from wiring specialties
Untitled by
gabednconfused, on Flickr
Wiring Specialties harness installed:
Untitled by
gabednconfused, on Flickr
Hooked up the OEM HID's and they look pretty, damn...
Untitled by
gabednconfused, on Flickr
Untitled by
gabednconfused, on Flickr