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Project Updates EP.19
About this episode
Bobby and Aaron share exciting updates on their personal car projects, diving into modifications and future plans for their R33 and R32 GTRs. Bobby discusses lowering his R33's suspension and addressing crankcase pressure issues, while Aaron details interior upgrades and suspension work on his R32. They also touch on sourcing parts from Japan, the challenges of tuning, and the appeal of restoring classic cars. Their camaraderie and shared experiences make for an engaging discussion about the joys and trials of car ownership.
Topics:
suspension upgrades
interior modifications
tuning challenges
sourcing parts from japan
project car updates
crankcase pressure issues
restoration plans
wheel selection
We go over everything we have going on now and in the future with our various projects.
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Nissan R33
"...h, and it's just begun so Yeah, so for meWith the R33 GTR that I have here in the StatesI had been I'd ..."
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Nissan Gtr
"...nd it's just begun so Yeah, so for meWith the R33 GTR that I have here in the StatesI had been I'd been..."
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We're back. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. Yeah, yeah. And this is the right hand drive guys podcast.
Today, episode 19, we're gonna update you on our personal projects or cars andwhat we've been doing to them and maybe what we got planned. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so
Yeah, we kind of figured we'd been doing the Japan stuff and then you know how to buy a right hand drive and we're likeWell, we haven't really even talked about what we're doing to our cars. Right, right. It's been a busy little summer. Yeah. Yeah, and it's just begun so
Yeah, so for meWith the R33 GTR that I have here in the StatesI had been I'd been pretty lifted on my suspension. Oh, yeah, yeah, it was it was it was the spec
Yeah, really it's the spec that Olens recommendsFor the R33 GTR based on like that suspension and whatever they ran. I'm not sure
But we just set it to what they recommended and it was like pretty high. Yeah, yeah, I mean it looked good
And but you didn't have to roll your fenders nothing like that right yeah, but yeah, barely any rubbing yeah, yeahDefinitely could have been lower. Yeah, so
You know, I've kind of done everything elseThat I could for this summer to my car and I decided after seeing Aaron's new setupWhich I'm sure you're about to hear about yeah, I was like all right. I can't keep doing this
I look like one of those jacked up Subaru's that you know rolls aroundYeah, so no, soI was like all right. We got a you know, we got to lower this so I got to adjusting and you know I
Have like like I said the Olens road and track. I think it is. Yeah, some like that. Yes, they're they're great great
It's great suspension and so I lowered them down andIt looked great, but the front was likeLike an a frame. Yeah, yeah, super camera. I mean obviously that happens. Yeah, yeah, so
You know, we decided well he told me I you should probably just get someAdjustable upper control right right that'll be able to that'll make it where you're able to pull the camber back out andHave it look correct. Yeah, so
I got on GK tech site andThey have pretty much every piece of suspension. Yeah, they did like ever for these vehicles. Yeah, it's kind of wild
Yeah, I was like dang alright like get the whole catalog to max out a credit cardIt's just like shoot, but I ended up getting out of there with aThe upper control arms that we're talking about the camber arms and then a rear hi-kiss deleteBecause that's something I've been meaning to get rid of and just hadn't really gotten around to right, right? Yeah, so
Getting rid of the hi-kiss and then they have a really coolBlack fan like for your clutch fan and it'sSupposedly pushes 40% more air right and it's black. Yeah, yeah, it looks way better looks way better and I have the on that car
I have the billionradiator hose and the stock fan wasChafing it. I think it was the orientation of the hose, but the stock fan was chafing it and it kind of got
I don't know likeDiscombobbily. I don't know. It's like all weird now that it's deformed
So I was trying to kill two birds of one stone. So I'm looking forward to kind of getting that on there, right?
But yeah, so that's that's kind of what I've been doingbeyond likeJust some little interior stuff. I spilled the whole Starbucks refresher all over my
Yeah, like I try not to get too mad about like things that happen because I understand when you drive the carsSometimes things are gonna happen a rock chip or window chip or door ding, you know, so I try not to likeAnd I can generally brush things off like like my brand new truck a drag through the woods and I literally just I just brushed it offEven though the whole thing is covered with dings on one side now, right?
Right I spill a refresher in this car and I damn near lost my mind dude. Yeah, I was sweating. I was stressed out
I was crying at one point I ran into the store and I told one of our teammates. I'm like dude
I and he's like what's going on? You can be talking. I'm like I just need a microfiber
You know, yeah, is that where is that where a couple of those great hairs came from?
Yeah, probably just spilling that refresher because like I said normally I can handle it pretty goodBut yeah, I mean that's kind of what I've been doing to my car and thenAs far as what's in oh no actually I also threw in the two breathers on my oil catch canOh, yeah, yeah, so I was yeah, I was having some crankcasepressure problems, butIt was because it's it wasn't
Properly ventilated so therefore pressure was building up pushing through the turbos getting intel on my inner cooler pipingRight, so for now IVented my catch can it's not like myFinal but it's a I can drive it right right? It's definitely way better than it was right
So and I don't really beat on the car anyways because I would like to get it toA really reputable person that can make sure that what was done was done right, you knowSo but you know, I love the car anyways, so the future for the R33 GTRIMean ideally I would absolutely love to completely pull it apart and get it on a rotisserieYou know have it done right right because
There was when the car was resprayed they didn't do the most amazing job taping and it looks good, but it's justI would if I had the time in the opportunity I would I would like to do thatBut what I need to do first is make sure that my engine is good and that I'm getting all the power that I amSupposed to be getting out of my setupWhich I'm hoping starts with a retune which I've been talking to a few guys about doing right it is hard because like everybody's busy
Yeah, yeah, you know, I also have to have the time to have an internet connection to be able to do pulls and logsLike you know to like live e-tuneBecause we're we're at you knowI'm sure I could have it done, but like I'm trying to have it done by guys that do it all the time every dayRight, right, so you're not running the same issueYes, there's a lot of good tuners out there, but if you work with one motor specifically all day every day like yeahYou're gonna know that thing inside out. Yeah
So I mean as far as that car. It's it's really just getting the motor good and then
Hopefully eventually doing like a full restore on it if I get the opportunity that would be yeahThat'd be sick. I think that's like one of those things that's on everyone's list
Right don't win their car on a retisserie and like stripping it out completely and yeahI don't know why that's so appealing to some people but likeLike guys like right now right right and just likeI don't know that'd be like so much fun. It seems like I mean it would suck
But it right at parts it would suck right fuck this is not fitting back the first time you flip it overYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes and all the rust comes falling out of theOh, no, but you know and that would be part of it right is that knowing you know you've you'veYou know straight and everything how you then you know it's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure and and then you're confident
Right, there's no secrets because you already found them all and you stomped your feet and threw a fitcried about a little bitBut so yeah, that's about it. What about you? What's up with the what's up with the 32 dude? So the 32?
I've been pulling up parts for the last few months just haven't had a chance to work on it really butLet's see. Well, it's starting with the interior. I replaced an old
Bread brixie with a nice Riccoro confetti SR3 classic classic. Yeah, so did that that was pretty cool
I also replaced a steering wheel with a nardi that I found in Japan at Nupgarage. Yeah, that's gonna be a flip
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was but then I was like he flipped it right onHe flipped it right on of my hub. Yeah, dude. How could I not you know? Yeah, for sure
So I did that and just gave the interior a good cleaning and just started noticing some of the panels falling apart andYou know like the the grills for the speakers on the door panels and stuff coming loose and so I just took the time toTake the door panels off and kind of refit those and get them on their tight andwhile I was doing that IWell, I had the door panel off. I just looked inside the door panel and you found a dead mouse
You would thinkI just took some time tolike grease the the regulator tracks and all that andthat aloneThat simple little thing made the biggest difference in rolling my windows up and down like they used to struggle and kind ofNot want to and then you know, I just spray a little squirt and heyYeah, she's solid now and I'm like, oh wow. That's all I took. I thought I was about to have to get a new regulator
Motor switch like all this crazy stuff, butReally, it just needed a little bit of maintenance right it was just old right right exactly so did that andI was pretty much it for the interior. I was all the parts I had for it then
Started working on the front suspension whichBack on black Friday. I believe I got the GK tech
Super lock package. Yeah, yeah complete package front knuckle kit and all that and
Yeah, I started putting that on and that was a bit of a taskbigger than I imagined it first butprevailed got it done got everything on there got it aligned andYes, pretty cool. I mean I
Haven't driven a drift event or anything and likeOver a millennium. Yeah, yeah, probably it probably like eight to ten years or so
But I got all this stuff and I'm like, why did I even do this?
Like this is this is like a drift spec right right? This is like all this stuff
I'm like, why don't they even do this? This is like a car that I want to drive every day and enjoy but also I'd love to
You know get out and rip on that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I guess you can right you got like both options now that you got the
GK tech super package. Yeah, yeah, and it's pretty cool like if you don't know what I'm talking about it
It comes with knuckles and also comes with front lower control armsThat also incorporate the tension rod. So it completely changes how the front steering works
So it allows for a lot more steering locksteering angle andYeah, good for drifting stuff lock outYeah, that's sweet. Yeah, now I
When you first turn the wheels and they are like completely sideways. I'm like what the heck is going on
Like do I think you forgot to connect something right? Right? Yeah, it kind of looks like cars almost broken
Yeah, for sureSo beyond that I oh how could I forget my wheels I put on IFinally got around to putting on the super advancedWas able to use the tire mount for the first time and the balancer over there as well garage. Oh, yeah, and
Yeah, first time mounting tires on a long long time on aFresh set of wheels is probably one of the most nerve-racking things I've had to doIt's kind of sweat the entire time for aBrand new wheels brand new mount. Yeah, yeah, it was a little sketchy, but you know
Got it done. Yeah, yeah, you know figured it out and got it done just like everything prevailed and
Got them on there. They look awesome
Had to do a little bit of work on the alignment and that took a little bit of time, butGot it done, you know, and it looks good it drives great and what do you have for tires on there theAdvent well had the advent will so I had to get the advent tires. Yeah, the a
808 Rs leave. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So
That's not though you wouldn't you wouldn't drift with any of that though if you went you would have to swap it overYou got something else you would swap it over too. Oh, no, I could I could do it for that
I mean there are just a little bit grippy of a tireBut no, I could definitely run that with that is that what you would doProbably not because I wouldn't need that and it would also just like maybe cost more money right right right soYeah, I mean that kind of squared away the suspensionI've pretty much done everything on that car that I can as far as that goes it's just gonna take some driving and dialing inIt'll be it'll be all set soAlso did some work on the engine
Just like you were talking about earlier the PCV system when your car needed to some workIt needed a little bit of work on mine the previous owner had plugged some things off andDid some other silly things freaking previous owners do they are always causing the biggest headaches dudeI swear any car guy any car guy just leave it alone right the previous owners always screw youI know it sounds like a cop out sometimes but likeSometimes you just like how much crap to this guy touch like what is going on here?
Yes, you know what I mean, and it's just like okayWell, this is why I was having this problem is because this was plugged off and it should have been notLike I just started blaming like normal things in my life like I stopped my tone like god damn previous ownerOh, yeah, yeah, seriously. Yeah, it just becomes a thing
You know if I can't find my phone. I'm like a damn previous owner of my car if it weren't for him like I would have been good
Dude, yeah, so I got all that squared away andYeah, I mean looking looking at the near future. I'm still trying to
Get some kinks figured out in the engine bay as far as like a little bit of wiring harness issue and just finding somevacuum leaks and things like thatBut beyond that I'm going to try to just though a normal RB 25 turbo on to it justfor reliability and try to get a retune sometimes soon just soTune is the biggest issue where we live. There's yeah, not it's hard
So it becomes like our biggest challenge and then we get to drive hours and hours and hours to get to like a reputable one with aDino right right it's so tough. Yeah, then you're kind of like okay
Well, do I just eat tune it like we were talking about before but thenLining up that schedule and then completely trusting that person to tune a car that's not in front of himIt's just in then having the road space right yeah, there's some and also I meanYeah, I mean say we find that guy right he's six hours awaySo we drive our car loaded up on the trailer drive it down rightFirst run on the dyno something breaks or there's some issue or there's some whatever or he wakes up sick that day right
Ray and what you just pack it up go six hours back home like another day of like yeah take the law. Yeah, yeah, so
Whenever like for me like right now like I'm trying to figure out all these things or all these potential issuesBefore I even try to find a tuner which I mean these issues and these problems. They should be figured out anyway
And to make things right but also I'm not trying to waste anyone's time including my ownYeah, it comes to something like thatNo, no, they don't like when you bring them a car with like any sort of like onYou know figured out issues because it always ends up wasting their time in the endThey either don't get the power that the car should have or it ends up messing up on the dyno right? Yeah
Bring your tuner a car with some spark plugs with 60,000 miles on them in 87 octaneThey don't yeah, that'sRight, so yeah, you got to fix all that stuff up. You got to get it all ready to go right right? I mean and
Yeah, it just sucks because the previous owner yeah, damn guy took it all apart. So I got to go back through it and
Like a mad scientist and fix the piston rings you forOpenNo doubtSo what out like any bigger bigger plans like maybe like in the next like forward to say maybe right after the season you got anythingThat's gonna, you know, no, not really nothing nothingWhat do you mean I thought you had a hood and a wide body kit?
Airjet I don't know. I'll kind of stuff. Yeah, you're right. I do have I do I did get a wide body kit for it
I'm not still undecided on it because I'm just always torn on the bodywork and like on that type of thing and whether I want to paint it or wrap itI'm still likeVery undecided on that front. So I wasn't gonna mention it
But it's gotta it's gonna happen you got the stuffI mean at least the hood's gonna go on yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure the hood's going to go onI'm just not positive on the wide body at this point. Yeah, but
Yeah, that's a big undertakingYeah, and then you know cutting up a car that you can't necessarily go out and buyQuarter panels forThat's for sure. It's kind of I mean some are gonna start ending up in junk yards here. Yeah, you're right
It's kind of true if you think about it. I mean there's gonna be a turnover. Yeah, you know
Like obviously your model car has been legal for a little while, right? So like
Some of that's probably even already happened. You just don't know about it
But a lot of these things like you can only save so much right if somebody gets in a three car wreck andFronten rear gets smashed on a R33 GTR like right there's only so much you can do depending on how thatHappened right so it could very well go to a junkyard. Yeah, I mean if it's a sedan and you like you cannot find parts
Not first sedan specific on 32s 33s and I don't even think 34s really. Yeah, and like that all that body type stuff is all
Different on those models. Yeah, and that's what gets smashed when you get a three car. Yeah
Yeah, so I yeah, I hear you there on maybe not taking the riskBecause you'd never know you know if you could get though if you want to go backwards if you could findThe panels to fix it. Yeah, yeah, it's just one of those things, you know
Yeah, that's true. So it's a commitment
So for meFor the other my other whip the R34 GTR that's still got plenty of time. Yeah, it's got plenty of time in Japan
So I we figured we'd just touch on kind of how this works and you know my plans with this carSo if you looked at our Instagram or anything like that and you've probably seen the car andWhen I got it it had the nismo front lip on it and um, I don't know any anySkyline guys that see in R34 with just an ismo front lip it just doesn't if it's a base mod like a base
GTR, you know, and it has just an ismo front lip it just the front bumper looks huge right rightIt's like way lower than the rest of the lower. Yeah, it looks like yeah dude like a kid with like head gear on with the braces thing
Like it's just like all like so, you knowThat was something, you know, it has theGenuine nismo front lip on itSo I was like okay, little let's do the side skirts and the rear spats right had to ha yeah because that's the only way it's gonna lookHalfway decent with that front lip so umAgain, if you haven't listened to our earlier episodes, I purchased the car through top rankAnd so I work with them directly to get anything done to the car that I would like to get done
while it's in Japan andWe are going to do a future episode on like the type of work that you should get done in Japan and the type of workYou should wait on until you get the car home right soUm look for that, but what I'm having done is yeah, those side skirts and rear spats um and so what happens is is theySource them for me and they paint them for meAnd they work with trust kai kaku
Yep, they work with them directly to get these parts that makes sense and then umThey work with a body ship body ship body shop directlyUm to get everything painted the correct colorSo and everything you knowTop rank is charging me whatKai kaku would charge me on the parts yeah, that's great um, you know paint was reasonable like it was like450 or something to have this side skirts and the spats painted somebody at all like dope, you know like that's great
so they're really good to work with andYou know when we were talking about buying a right hand drive car these are some of those perks of buying a right hand drive carA certain way right right right through a place like top rank right right like yes would TrevorAs like assist me in these things right the best that he could absolutely butLike does he personally have the resources to make it happen like trust kai kaku?
I'm not sure but it was super easy for me. I mean sorry like top rank. It was super easy for me with them and so
That's kind of one of the benefitsYeah, very understandableBecause like yeah, I mean you being over here in the states and then being a world awayLike it's gonna be kind of hard for you to find a body shop or whatever it might be and talk to them or even right right in the communication and all that soRight that and you know some guys are probably well why didn't you just wait till you get over here? Well cars over there until
December of 25 like that's like a long time right and plus shipping on some of those body parts like yeah, those big boxesPlus getting that stuff painted the correct color. Yeah, 4 450 right nope right right just for just for a front lip and
A bumper I paid like quite a bit more than that. So uh, yeah anyways
That's definitely a benefit. So I went I went and I did that um and
So I alsoCould not handle theT37Tires the great spec, but yeah 10 and a half YT 3722 offset and the the with the chrome lip dog. Yeah, that's the thing that really got me is is a chrome polished rather or yeah
Polish lip with the umStretch tired kind of look like they weren't stretched, but they were just right as a 265 on a would you say 10 and a half?
So likeYeah, it's pushing it. Yeah, 275 looks a little stretched. Yeah, 275 or a 10 and a half. Yeah, so
So yeah, like I had said in an earlier episode every time we went and I'm garageI'm like looking at every wheel like yeah, you're trying to get out so I was just trying to find something there was nothingThere was absolutely nothing um andSo if anybody's familiar with the LMGT4 wheels, which is what I want because that is what I have on the R33 thereLimited drop by Nissan and it's like once a yearAnd all of these places like trust kakaku top rank global right
They all operate on it and they order their max of what Nissan will allow to get andSo these limited orders go quick very quick very quick andSo anyways the last drop was likeAlong like a while ago it was like nine 10 months ago or something like that and they were all 19s and so18sWhich is what I want because where we live there's a lot of potholes crappy roads like I prefer the extra tireEven though 19s would have looked really cool right it would have I just can't afford like to ruin these rims
Exactly so a little safer yeah, yeah, so um I talked to Brian from top rankHe said I can't get you a set I can put you on my list to get you the next set that comes throughI talked to global they said no dude we're keeping themI literally talked to everybody. I looked on eBay. I looked on of course all of the usual suspects as far as US distributors right
I looked and looked and looked I found this guy who has a brand new set in New Yorkfor an actualLike really good price price. I kind of felt like like was I getting scammed like was I gonna get tortured once I get down there like
Right, but no it was great brand new set right so now I have my LMGT4s for my R34 but they're in AmericaYeah, I got a good price on them sweet, right?
So now I need to send them over to my buddies at top rank in Chiba in JapanSo they can find me some tires and mouth these bad boys right wow, but I got a ship them thereAnd so these wheels okay, they've been around the world twice soonI were picking all these labels off these wheels these wheels went from Tokyo to Honolulufrom Honolulu to New York now from New York to Maine from Maine to Tokyo
These things are more traveled than most like millennials seriouslyThey went on a world tour seriously soAnd I talked to top rankYou know a few days ago and they said thatThey got the wheels they gave me some options becauseThe options that these tire companies sell here aren't the same options that they sell there right right it's a little differentSoWe're working that out, but I got some time before I'm gonna be there next anyways, so no stress
But what I do is I try to find some goodDeals on parts here in the US, right? Yeah, so I got a little stockpile of them
So that's what I'm gonna fill my carry on with the next time I go and bring them over and you know just little stuff like I gotMinds shift boot shift right right right boot, you know just some of these little things like mytrunk shocksWhere shot so I got a set of those because that thing kept slamming in it like was killing me right you know just some of these little thingsI got a nizmo cluster for it, you know and so I'll bring those over and those areBesides the cluster none of those effects shuck in so I can swap those out. It's no big deal. That's we yeah, it's cool
So just little things for that car because IAs I said and then and then next episode or one soon we'll talk about you know what I shouldn't do you knowBecause some people would say ohBuild the motor dude down do all these crazy things, but I don't know if that's the play soFor right now I'm just doing these little things. I still got a little over two years
I got like I saw a 30 months. Yeah, I'm always it's a long haul. It's a long haul which
That like I said like that's the only way I could get the car because it's 2000Nobody wants a 2000 right now because you got to pay for storage rightI don't mind paying for storage and be able to drive a little bit and do some of these little things in Japan and knowYeah, no, no, I had that I had that painted in Japan right, you know, soThat's good enough for me, but yeah, so for that car just just little stuffBut maybe once it gets back in the US as long as I still up the R33 I kind of want to make them like twins like same motor mods
sameLike wheels same brakes like all that type of stuff. So then it's just
Cool, yeah, like just listen to 32. I'm like super I'm just like super basic and like yeah
I'm like a hk s twin turbos v cam and some LMGT 4s with good but yeah, yeah, yeah, right. What else do I need?
I don't need any special flashy colors or anything. I'm just I'm basic
But that's all right, you know like I'm cool with it. Yeah, it's a good look. Yeah, yeah, it is good
And so yeah, I mean this is just we just kind of wanted to have this episode to go overOur own projects because sometimes that stuff gets lost in theIn the mix so to speak right right why not talk about it. Yeah, why not so
Yeah, I mean that's that's a big thing and again if like anybody has any questions like if theyAre curious about where we're sourcing parts or anything about JapanJust really anything periodOr hey, you want to chat with us on the podcast. Let's get you on the list
Hit us out. Yeah, yeah
So for today episode 19 the project reviewI'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See ya. I deos
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