White Bucket - Reconstruction

Hey guys,

Having owned a GTiR over 10 years ago, I got bitten by the bug again last year, and purchased this unfinished project on a bit of a whim, site unseen from interstate!  After it arrived, I realised I probably overpaid, and got a bit down about the project, which delayed progress.  That, and the missus having since had a baby, progress was almost non-existent until a month or so back.

Anyway, enough life story.

It's a 1994 Autech RB model, that has been fully stripped (apart from engine/box and top of dash), to complete an underbody restoration and some rust repair. It came with almost all of the bits to put back on, including quite a few brand new Nissan OEM trim pieces, and a bunch of recent bush/suspension component replacements.  As a whole, it's really quite stock, but allegedly had a recent engine and gearbox rebuild prior to being taken off the road.  As a bonus, I also purchased a brand new AM Performance 3" V-band exhaust from the seller as part of the sale.

So over Easter, I got stuck into it with my brother.  I got most of the underbody painted, the rear subframe bushes installed and the fuel tank installed and plumbed up.  Subframe back up, and the rear end is done for now.  One of the driveshaft rubber boots is knackered, so will get that sorted down the track when it's rolling. On the front end, the turbo exhaust housing had a few missing studs, so we were installing some new ones, and of course one snapped.  Was too hard to get to in the car, so off came the manifold and turbo.  It was then I became concerned over the turbo shaft play, and sure enough, it's time for repair.  After speaking with a turbo shop the past couple of weeks, I'm likely to pull the trigger on a rebuild with garrett 2860 cartridge and hiflowed housings.  

Haven't started on the interior as yet, apart from adapting some seat rails to take the Bride replica seats I purchased for it.  I may need to source a set of stock seats to start with though, for registration purposes, but will cross that bridge when it comes.  The exterior is also pretty rough in patches, lots of scratches and you can tell it's been sitting around for a couple of years.  Likely it'll get a full respray within a couple of years, but that is by no means a priority right now.  

Hope to keep chipping away at it and get it driving again in the next month or 2.

Looking forward to watching the progress mate, good to have another Aus member on the forum

You can never pay to much for an rb autech!
Nice rare find there mate.
Good to hear you are over crying about it and finally getting the jobs done
Welcome aboard

Welcome and good to see you share the project

Thanks guys.

Turbo should be ready to pick up in a couple of days. Ended up going with the hiflowed housings and 2860 ball bearing cartridge. Should be a good fit for the intended use of the car. Also getting the exhaust housing ceramic coated. The dump pipe I have is coated, and with my last R (nothing coated), I ended up melting the thermo closest to the turbo/dump.

Looking forward to getting back into it over the weekend.

Turbo and mani is back on, as well as radiator/thermos, dump pipe, intake. Popped some coolant in, and threw some fuel into the tank in the hopes of kicking it over. I've got 12v at the ignition barrel, but no fuel pump power or starter motor love. Will attack the mess under the dash next to try and see what's going on.

Turbo and dump look great mate. Hopefully get that wiring sorted then.

Yeah it'll take some patience When the last owner stripped the interior, not much attention was paid to making the job of putting things back together more straight forward. Hopefully nothing a few diagrams, some scraped knuckles, a steady supply of beer, and persistence won't fix.

Very happy with the job the turbo shop did.

Whats the make of the downpipe ??? Or is it a custom job ???

It was made by AM Performance in Adelaide, Aus I believe. I bought the full exhaust as an extra off the seller when I bought the car.

Bit more progress on this bucket over the weekend.  Had my brother over again and we got proper pissed on Friday night as we ticked a few things off.  Front end panels and lights all back on and hooked up, main carpet in, cluster, centre dash console supports in, along with a few of the other bits and pieces.  Gauge set, cluster etc in.  Rear wing on, fuel flap reinstalled, along with the fuel flap release and boot release mechanisms and lever.  

We were able to finally kick it over yesterday after troubleshooting the not-starting issue from earlier.  Was the fuel pump wiring between the relay and the tank lid plugs.  Bypassed that loom and after a bunch of kicking, she chugged into life.  I believe it's been almost 3 years since it's run, so it was good to hear it turn over and then idle smoothly (albeit loudly and like a tractor).  No leaks too, which is a bonus.

So I'll throw a new run of cabling in for the fuel pump (aftermarket pump of some description, so wise to increase the size of this anyway), and then get onto the next issue I've found.  When I bought the car, old mate sent 2 gauge clusters with it.  After we started it, tacho/fuel gauge/temp gauge didn't seem to respond at all, so I had a closer look.  This is a 94 model, and the cluster from the front is a series 2 (non antilock), but the contact membrane on the rear is series 1.  The spare cluster is series 1 clocks and contact membrane.  So I've got no idea what's going on there, but it looks like I may need to find a series 2 cluster, or at least a series 2 membrane.  

I'm not sure what happened to the original, as this vehicle supposedly had 104,000km or so when it was taken off the road by previous owner.  The series 2 fronted cluster has 201xxxkm, and the series 1 has 94xxxkm.  Bizarre.

Identified a few more bits and pieces that I need to get hold of, so will likely be a trip to nisswreck in the next couple of weeks to try and get everything together.  Will be towing this thing up to a mates place in a couple of weeks to get the underbody finished off.  My back doesn't handle laying all over the floor.  Should be a nice quick job to get the exhaust, tailshaft, and other underbody stuff all buttoned up once it's up high.




Quick vid of firing it up.

Nice update mate it's coming along really well. By the way I think I have a series 2 membrane in the garage you can have if I can find it.

You're fast becoming my best mate, Chris! That'd be amazing!

Yeah I'm really happy with how it's coming along now. Can't wait for that first drive around the block. Hopefully just a few more weeks.

Not a problem mate, I'll have a dig around this week. If I find it, I can just post it out to you, saves driving

Nice update.
Youve got quite a lot done
Good to hear the engine is running

Thanks Chris!

I knew there was a reason I hardly throw shit out

Legend!

Spent a good chunk of time on this over the weekend. Managed to wipe a few things off the whiteboard. Lots of chasing connectors and wiring etc. Have now got all lights working, in and out. Dash is all in, and have mounted the seats, but will still need to get some stock ones before rego most likely.

Sorted fuel pump wiring and have got that all buttoned back up, as well as the cluster (thanks Chris!).

Car kicks over very quickly and easily, and alternator is pumping plenty of voltses.

Noticed that the tailshaft previous owner supplied with the car is missing one of the carrier/mounts. Am trying to source another.

Looking good, nice rare Gtir you have there.

Good stuff mate, glad you got that cluster sorted

Nice bride seats

Had a weekend off car related activities last week, but have now moved the car up to a mates place who has a big shed with a hoist.  Spent a solid half day on it today with him (he's an ex-mechanic).  So great working on it with a full suite of tools and gadgets haha!  

Anyway, sorted the split rear driveshaft boots, swaybar in, spanner checked the rear end (just need to button up the driveshaft nuts, as we didn't have a deep socket handy).  Handbrake and lines in, gear shifter and linkages in (nice and tight, feels great), tailshaft in.  Also got the exhaust all mounted up.  That was a cu&t.  AM Performance stainless exhaust with v-band flanges, was a prick to line up properly and is fouling in the rear end.  Will see how it goes, but may need some adjustments by an exhaust shop after rego.

Was running on 3 cylinders, but found one of the plugs fouled badly, and they all need to be changed anyway.  The lead for that plug also looks shitty on the bottom, so will clean it up and see how it goes.  May need to replace the leads, and likely will do just that. Will also check compression while the cooler is still off, just to see how the engine is.  Far as I'm aware, it's done bugger all km's since last build, so hopefully it's still healthy.

My mate lives on the way home from work, so dropped in this arvo and we got the plugs sorted, bled the coolant, clutch and brakes. He'd already sorted the rear shafts for me, which was tops.

Then I got to actually drive the thing

It was noisy, rattly, tyres were a bit flat and mega shit, but I'll sure be sleeping with a smile on my face tonight.  So now it's full steam ahead for rwc and rego.  Get a bit more interior in, source grommets for all the floor holes (used to have a cage), get the rear windows secured properly, source a couple of missing rubbers, and some stock seats.

Also seems like the handbrake line is fouling on the tailshaft, so will sort that and try to bend the heat shields a bit further from the exhaust.

Clutch and box feels good. All new bushes on the linkages mean the shift feels fantastic.  Engine idles very smoothly, and seems to rev smoothly. Boost built very quickly, but as a first drive I didn't take it above about 3.5krpm and 60kmh or so.

Will probably worry about trim strips, painting skirts and the front apron panel etc after rego is done.

That's awesome mate, so good to hear it's finally moving

Yeah, to say I'm stoked is an understatement. I found some stock s2 front seats for it, which I'll pick up on the weekend, and am spending tomorrow just tidying up a few things for roadworthy. There are also a few bits of underbody that I missed with the chassis black/rust protect paint, so will sort that as well. Currently sorting out a roadworthy for next week, and if that gets squared away, I should be on the road a few days later.