Its fast

Mmmmm. The skyline. This is the 7th car I've owned in this life. The 1200 being the 8th and the 200B the 9th. The skyline has not had much love of late. It deserves heaps of love. Its a 1989 R32 GTR Skyline for any car nuts out there. 2.6 litre motor with twin turbos and damn is it fast. Ask the Lexus that wanted a race last Thursday :) we were doing well in excess of 200Km/h. I can never tell exactly cos the speedo stops at 180!! But remember speeding is bad!

Struts are in!

Got the struts in today! Woo. It's taken some time but its finally happened. I just need to make the rest of the car look like the struts now :)







I had to wait for someone to come give me a hand to bleed the brakes. By the time that happened I'd taken the seats out. So I havent got them back in yet and therefore....havent taken it for a test drive yet. Busting!

Interior lift

While I was waiting for someone to help bleed the brakes today I got excited and took the front seats out. I then took the aluminim trims off the door sills ready for some love and vacuumed all the dust and crap up. Came up nice!



I also did a little painting. The blue just doesnt look sexy anymore so....Satin black it is. I painted where you can see in the photo below on both sides. I also painted the bottom strips of the doors. Not sure why I stopped there but I did :) For now anyway.



Been thinking of investing in some moulded carpets. See how that goes later when I have some money.

More painted things

OK I couldn't resist! I went down and painted the final thing that needed finishing off. The wheel bearing covers. I sanded them a bit and with a little work would of come up good. But, I decided to paint them with some aluminium paint instead. Now everything will be ready to go completly back together next time!



Brake lines I sanded to a reasonable finish and painted the ends black. Why? Cos there a bitch to sand evenly to the rest :)


Here they are with the tape off. Note the no paint on the used parts of the threads.

Strut tops finished

Finished prepping the strut tops and all the nuts washers and bolts today. Also did the Bearing covers. Missing something like a nut can make it really stand out and take away from all the hard work you have put in! I just give the little bits and pieces a quick metal brushing then maybe a clean with some grease remover followed by some paint. Dont have to be to hardcore with them as they'll get scratched when you put them back on. Still it makes a big difference to the finished product.

1200 Strut top.


These are 120Y strut tops the one above looked about the same before I painted it up.

1200 Vs 120Y Strut Differences

Here are some pics of the strut tops of a 1200 Datsun and a 120Y Datsun. You should use the original 1200 ones on your 120Y strut unless you want a bit more height in the front of your 1200.

120y at the top.


120Y on the left. 1200 to the right.


I said I'd take a pic of this earlier :) Lowered King Spring on the left, Original 1200 Spring in the centre and an original 120Y spring on the right.

Original 1200 Struts Out

Since the struts I've been working on for ages are about ready I Decided to get the ones in the 1200 out ready. I need the tops to put on the other struts so they need to be prepped first.

Getting the struts out is pretty easy once you've done it a few times.

Jack up the front end and take the wheel off.


Theres 2 bolts behind the hub that need to be taken out. Also the brake line needs to be undone. Have some rag and a little throw away container to catch any brake fluid that seeps out.


Under the bonnet these 3 nuts need to be undone from the strut tops. Do them last. Also if your planning on taking the strut apart to get to the spring , it's a good idea to loosen that middle nut while its still bolted into the car :) Just crack it and you will thank yourself later.


There it is all out! Note the brake line tucked up to stop the fluid dripping out.