khughes

i should have got photo's as i did it, but i just didn't think i will get it out next weekend and show the comparison of the 2. I hope it doesn't crack either. the new pad is very very soft and spongy, as it would have left the factory, it doesn't have any cracks at all, but i wish i knew how i could protect it, i will keep a carpet protector over it, but i am sure that even that won't keep it good forever.. does anybody have any suggestions on protectants? i am very cautious with using armourall type products as i have heard a few reports that they actually make things worse (it apparently moisturises it, but also causes it to dry a lot more brittle eventually). surely other classic car enthusists have similar issues.

is the nose cone still available? i have a friend who is very very interested in it! can it be shipped to Sydney? can you please pm me your phone number so that he can contact you about it Kent

are these still available? i have a friend who is very very keen.. can you PM me your phone number Kent

Hi Guys, as probably most of you, my 240K coupe has a cracked dashboard right where the centre dash speaker is, well it did!!! A while ago, i visited the local wreckers and found a toirquise late model 240k sedan with an absolutely immaculate blue (yuk!) dashboard, very very strange considering that the car no longer had it's windscreen. Because the donor was a late model car, it had the round air vents as oppose to my square ones. The plan was for me to dye the dashboard with satin black dye and pop it in the car instead, using all of my square vents. well i placed my glovebox up onto the dash and quickly realised that it wasn't going to work, the metal skeleton of the dash gets in teh way. so i came across the wacky idea of trying to remove the skins from the dash and transplanting them onto the skeleton of my proper dash. There are a number of nuts holding the dashpad on underneath, once these have been removed i tried pulling the old dashpad off. I managed to rip it off but not before absolutely destroying it! it came off, but the area around the speaker was almost glued on due to the heat i guess that cracked the top. I decided to press on as i really didn't have a choice now. To my amazement, after unscrewing the nut, it took a little bit of gentle prying to get the studs out of the holes, but it then just slipped off, no damage what so ever! the dashpad seemed almost brand new! it had all the factory markings on the back! The dye worked really well when i sprayed it on before, so i gave it a few extra coats now since it was off the frame. I then compared the two dashpads, and apart from the massive cracks! the only modification needed was to cut out some of the padding on the right hand side of the glovebox section. I carefully cut the pad out to resemble the old dashpad, and slipped it back on the old frame. without too much effort it slipped on! The dashboard looks awesome now, just the way it came out of the factory! so we all now know that the old dashboards don't replace the newer style directly, but the pads can be interchanged with a little bit of effort! good luck finding those dashes! i am not sure why the blue one i found was in so good nick, maybe it was replaced very late in it's life, or maybe blue is better at resisting the heat!

Thanks Art, i read last night in the service manual that it was 33ohms in the middle, but i wasn't sure if that was linear either. I would appreciate it if you could have a look for me, fingers crossed that it would certainly save messing around trying to mount the autometer float

wow!, i checked the US autometer website and your right! no more metric guages! that isn't very good , luckily i bought my guages (well most of them) a year ago.. so i already have it I choose to go with the Carbon Fibre automoeter series because they were the best looking meter that came (then) in Metric, i ended up getting: Autometer carbon fibre series 3 3/8" Speedometer in KM/H 3 3/8" Tachometer 2 1/16" digital Air / Fuel meter 2 1/16" short sweep boost guage then, i was looking at getting an oil/water temp and oil pressure guages, but none of the autometer ones suited (all imperial), even a lot of the ones in Australia where imperial except for a few wich didn't really suite the look i was going for (VDO etc.), adn some that just looked like they wouldn't be reliable (autoguage). I ended up with: Speco Thomas performance range (Black face, silver bezel) http://www.speco.com.au/gauges_perf.html 235-20 2 5/8" 0-100psi electric oil pressure 235-15 2 5/8" 0-170c mech oil temperature 235-30 2 5/8" 40-120c electric water temperature luckily i got most of the speco guages for insanely cheap prices off ebay (around $20 each!). I was going to fit the speco guages down near the radio as they arn't often reffered to (so i didn't think it would be a problem down there?) The R32 and R33 GT-R's have torque spit, oil temperature and boost guages in a DIN space in the centre console, so i figured it would be okay. The only guage i am still to get is a 2 1/16" carbon fibre fuel guage. I havn't tested to see what the resistance values are yet of the stock fuel sender, but i assume that i am going to have to either modify it, or use an autometer generic sender to match one that matches their guages (empty-full: 0-90ohm, 73-10ohm, 240-33ohm) thanks for the web links, i will have to spend some time over the weekend and go through them all!

The version with the warning lights would be nice as i would probably be trying to add a few warning lights to it myself. The guages that i am using are autometer carbon series for speedo/tacho/boost/fuel and autoguage performance guages for oil pressure/temp/water temp (probably housed above the radio). so they are all metric, with plastic housings and plastic lenses (i think), but seeing as the guages are slightly bigger, i will need to enlarge some holes and build a better way of mounting them. i was worried about speedo calibration issues and ADR's if the guages where aftermarket, but i guess hot rods, kit cars etc. would use them so they must be passed somehow?

yeah, unfortunately for my bank balance.. i just wish i could get one of them finished!

postage is good for me! i will pm you with my details Thanks

great find by the way, i was was going to rip this panel off and get it sent off to somebody to do in aluminimum (the centre console bits too).. eventually that is

that brings me to something that i have been meaning to ask... has anyone got a spare dash fascia (including the plastic surround)? i don't need the guages etc. just the plastic surround and this front panel.. i need to start thinking about hacking mine up to fit all my autometer guages, but i don't want to kill my original one incase the aftermarket guages don't pass engineering (i hope they will!) pm me if you do and are willing to post to syd.... please please please please please !!!!

i think trying to find a 240K in a wreckers (let alone a manual pedal box) is pretty rare.. so you may have a little trouble finding one, plus all the centre dash bits you may need

woops, i missed this thread.. and i guess i should put in my opionion, i have to admit first up that i have taken possibly the most windy (and most probably costly) path to my goals, and i still have quite a way to go i wish i was a lot more logical in hindsight, but at the time i knew little about the engines involved (not much has changed and the whole modified car process to summarise i guess: L28: sound is #1 simply awesome! i chose not to upgrade to this probably a little out of ignorance, and because i know nothing about carb'd engines SR20: close! it's a nissan, but no skyline heritage! RB20 (NICS): tried it... i came to the conclusion that if i was going through the pain of the conversion, i may as well do it properly RB25: skyline heratige, 6 cylinders!, noises in all the right places, plenty of power, similar weight to the L24, plenty of parts available RB26: too $$$... spending 2x on the RB25 was obviously a better move Why did i go down the RB25DET path? well... the answer is pretty simple... i owned an R33 GT-R... and they are very very addictive! The skyline bug bit me so much so that i decided to build up a 240K into a GT-R replica as they were extremely rare and nobody in the SAU community (life and blood of Aussie skyline enthusiasts!) had really gone down the classic skyline path (well... before the R31) except a few rare cases. I couldn't justify $6.5K for an RB26DETT, and that was without a gearbox! (little did i realise, it probably would have been much cheaper for me to go down this route!) and meanwhile there was a HUGE thread on SAU about the RB30/25 hybrid, and that captured my imagination! An RB25DET +box was around $3k, and aftermarket parts are a LOT cheaper (except injectors!). The thought of an SR20 just didn't site well with me.. sure they are a great motor, but it is a 4 cylinder (phhht ;D) and if i was replacing the motor, i may as well replace it with a genuine skyline heart! well.. my plans deviated here and there as the plot thickened, originally i got my hands on an R33 RB25DE and a bought a $100 RB30E block out of an R31 skyline.. ripped them all apart began collecting the bits for the hybrid conversion (it would have been so much easier and cheaper buying a half cut).... to cut a long story short, i decided to fast track my hybrid plans, set them on the backburner and get the car running with an engine. so i bought an RB20DET (NICS) and gearbox out of an imported R31 race car from ebay for $750 The NICS engine was in pretty good shape, and importantly had all the bits that i didn't have for the hybrid.. wiring looms, computer, small intercooler, AFM's, turbo etc.. and because the mounts were the same and the engine is of a similar size, so that would have been an easier transition.. so i started out up that lane... it didn't take long for me to realise though it was a bad move, as the gearbox was smaller, and the engine would never put out any power that i would be happy with (even until the hybrid monster was ready), so i took an oportunity to sell it again for the price i paid for it (minus the costs of refreshing the oils, belts, plugs and powdercoating the cam covers). At this stage, i sort of came to the realisation that although common, the RB30 conversion would cause hassles for me down the track with engineering (and there is so much other stuff that needs to get through that i decided not to chance it, maybe one day i will bolt up the rb30 bottom). so I then decided to buy a full RB25DET + gearbox, it would give me most of what i would, it would be a good basis for as much power as i would want to put out (current goal is 300KW at the wheels), it was a modern engine with EFI (i sort of understand that!) and i could apply most of my knowledge and research from the RB26 on my GT-R to the RB25... so apart from a Greddy intake to keep the engine low in the engine bay and a few "in preperation" upgrades (like greddy top mount fuel rail, nismo 700cc GT-R injectors, bosch 044 and R32 GTR fuel pumps, ATI harmonic balancers, RB26 water pump, Apexi ECU) i am trying to keep the engine fairly intact and concentrate on getting the engine in the car, down the track it will end up getting a bigger turbo, cam's, cam wheels etc... all stuff that can be used on the RB30 so my recommendation is to pick a power band that you want to achieve and how much you are willing to spend... be reasonable though.. the more power you have the more you need to upgrade, and of course the more traction you will loose. pick one engine that you can upgrade later, and if it is an RB, get a half cut.. you will make life a lot easier when your trying to hook up all the emissions gear, and in the long run you will save money! RB25 and RB20 half cuts are getting very cheap now.. you can usually get half cuts for the price i would have payed for the engine alone 1-2 years ago. an L28 will certainly be cheaper, no need to get mounts or driveshafts made up, no need to engineer the car (saving $500+) etc., and still some room for improvements, but not enough power to really affect handling or drivetrain for a turbo RB you would certainly need to look into upgrade brakes, diff, cv halfshafts etc.. otherwise the car will be forever braking things I can certainly see the advantages of the L28 having been in Jim's C10.. but i can guarantee you that an RB powerd C110 on full throttle will also be something very VERY special! sorry for rambling a little...

i wonder how he will screw screw up the auction this time.. can't wait for him to relist it for $56,000

10chars? is that some new signoff?

that reminds me, does anybody know what colour the grill should be? i think it is a gunmetal grey type colour, got any paint codes to match? should it match the rear beaver panel colour?

Hi Guys, i have been in contact with Phil, and he is confident that it will be fine. I just have to make up a mounting template off the car to ensure that the mounts don't move when he fixes it and then i will ship them down to him for moulding. He is confident that he can re-create the steel brackets, rivets as well, and will also search around to source the same type of grill material, so fingers crossed you will be able to buy the whole thing from him Kent

Hi Guys, i have approached Phil at challange fibreglass, and have sent a bunch of photo's to him of the parts.. just awaiting a responce and hopefully we can get the ball rolling! higher res photo's are attached for those interested (they show how the grill brackets and mesh is riveted on, i am not sure if Phil will do this, or you will have to) grill.zip

i wonder that myself! I will ask phil, if he is not prepared to fix it, then i will need to find somebody else who is prepared to (given the money he will make out of the moulds i don't see why he would have a problem with it). heres hoping

shame it isn't a coupe though

my mistake, the regular MR30 had 258x10mm disks, the DR30 has 290x10mm disks... so it should atleast match my fronts (i am sticking them under 16" watanabe's, so can't go much larger)

here you go

Hi Guys, The spoilers and grill arrived yesterday! unfortunately it looks like the postman was a little careless, and the grill coped a bit of a beating, but it should be fixable for the mould. I will ring the fibreglass guy next week and start organising! pics attached for those interested Kent

that is what i am afraid off, not knowing that much about brake balancing etc. Do you have any suggestions on what will match 290mm 4 spot fronts and retain a handbrake cable? there obviously isn't an easy answer if SWR suggestion was going commodore rears with a banksia brake.. and i really can't afford to spend $2000+ on the rears at the moment. obviously though if i can do it properly i would prefer to. every nissan rear that i have seen have been single pot with handbrake cable, or twin spot with an integrated banksia cable, and i assumed that converting one of these would be too hard for a basic backyard mechanic such as myself. my GTT brakes certainly don't match up to the C210 struts (100mm vs 75mm i think), or are you talking about of the same vintage?

are you putting new bearings into the Cv's while your doing this? i looked up nissan FAST, and found a part number for the boot kits, but it doesn't show this bearing cage in the diagram... wierd! my shafts will need reconditioning, so i assume this means new bearings and boots.