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KGC10 Skyline 2000GT Build


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Hey nice hakosuka. I have 2 questions for you how do you order stuff from victory 50 and i couldn't find SSS automotive page wont come, not if you have the same problem.

Victory 50 I've never ordered from directly, it's usually when someone (who can speak Japanese) orders from them and I just piggyback on their order.

 

Oh, and SSS Automotive is the old name for the workshop, it's now called: http://www.swmotorsport.com.au/

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lately I've been noticing a bit of a rattle from the exhaust when I start her up, and when I tap the pipes with a hammer, it does seem like maybe one of the baffles inside are loose. So it's out with the old :)

 

The old setup was a Trust Dual, which is to say that the headers go from six into two, and then there are two separate pipes all the way down the car, that don't merge until they enter a common rear muffler. In fact, back in the early 70s, Trust was the supplier for some of the Nissan Sports Corner exhaust systems, and their dual systems for the older Nissans were still available until quite recently.

CHEZorst001.jpg

 

So really, it's like two 3cyl, 1 '3/4 inch exhaust systems running in parallel. This was the original design of the 2000GT-R exhaust, and back in the day the optional Sports Corner street and race systems followed the same format. So to this day, Japanese aftermarket systems for the Hako are almost always dual systems like this.

CHEZorst002.jpg

 

After a bit of discussion, one option was to fit a 2.5in single system. My initial thoughts were that from a cross section area point of view, the existing twin 1.75in setup would have more cross sectional area than a single 2.5in. But the guys at Castle Hill Exhaust pointed out that all six cylinders don't fire at the same time, so each "puff" of exhaust would be less restricted if it had a 2.5in tunnel to flow down, and it would be significantly less restrictive than the current setup. Good point....but eventually we decided to follow the original twin pipe format, but in a bigger 2inch size. So it all starts with this Genie twin entry muffler.

CHEZorst003.jpg

 

First, the old pipes were removed, and the Trust flange cut off and welded to a pair of 2in pipes that lead to two 12in resonators. The collectors on the Trust headers were 2in, too.

CHEZorst005.jpg

 

A new bung was welded on for the wideband sensor...

CHEZorst007.jpg

 

Going neatly all the way back...

CHEZorst010.jpg

 

To the new muffler.

CHEZorst008.jpg

 

CHE did a great job, and I'm very happy with it. The Trust system was very good in the sense that it was very quiet, in fact most of the time the exhaust note was drowned out by the induction noise. But the new system is certainly a bit louder and has a much more crackly, snarly tone to it :D

 

And the overall appearance is still close to the original, too. I need to drive it a bit more, but so far it seems to have uncorked the top end power a little, which is a good thing and it has a really nice bark to it when it's in the powerband. Much more rude, anti-social and uncouth, and well-suited to the car :D

CHEZorst019.jpg

 

CHEZorst018.jpg

 

...more mods to come in the next couple of days :D

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One of the things I've been meaning to have a go at was the rear spring rate. When I was setting up the car initially, it sounded about right to have 250 pounds front and 600 pounds rear, but while the front is about spot on, the rear is too soft. It's fine on the road, and has a high grip limit before pushing the front slightly. But it understeers at track speeds, and when I have 4ppl on board, the rear tyres touch the guards on hard acceleration. The new GAB shocks and raising the bumpstops helped a little, but eventually I figured I'd have to change the springs.

 

Rubber-Soul (which is the Japanese shop I get most of my parts from) offers a few sets of springs, and their stage-2 set is 250/900 (or 4.4:16 kg/mm):

http://www.rubber-soul.net/p-asimawari.htm

 

But they have another set, which they call the Suzuka Works spring set, and that's 275/1090 (or 5:19.8 kg/mm). My problem is that springs intended for Datto 510s or 240Ks are 240mm, whereas I'm using 225mm long rear springs. A bit of research unearthed some 1100pound springs at http://www.datsport.com, which were of a 225mm free length. Baz from Datsport recommended 275/1100 for a track oriented 510, and figured that with the heavier Skyline, it would work very well on the road. Baz by the way, is currently laid up in hospital recuperating from a bit of a health wobble, so get well soon, mate.

 

Here they are, the Datsport springs are the yellow pair in the middle. The blue is the current 600pound/225mm spring and the red one is the soft one that came with the car, that even with that 20mm spacer had the car sitting on its bumpstops all the time :D Surprisingly, there isn't that much visual difference between the 600 pound blue spring and the 1100 pound yellow springs, the coil material is the same thickness, but the yellow spring has 6 coils, vs 7 for the blue one, so the yellow one is stiffer.

Datsportsprings005.jpg

 

So in go the springs, which as usual, requires the shock and halfshafts to be unbolted, so that the suspension arm can swing low enough to release the spring. I figure that since the yellow springs are the same free length as the old blue ones, and since they're almost twice as stiff, that the ride height will go up a bit...the question is how much?

Datsportsprings004.jpg

 

But before we get the car back on the ground there was a bit of maintenance I had to do on the rear drums.

Datsportsprings006.jpg

 

If you haven't done this before, it's pretty easy. First you remove the locating pins, which are held in with these buttons. Press down the spring with one hand, and rotate the button, and the pin slides out of its slot.

Datsportsprings007.jpg

 

The brake shoes can then be manhandled out, I find that if you pull one side out of its slot first, the spring slackens off and it's easy to get the other side off.

Datsportsprings009.jpg

 

I'm replacing the shoes with these, which are upgraded shoes from Rubber-Soul. I think they might be made for Rubber-Soul by Endless, since they're painted the same colour as the Endless Street-Spec pads we have in the front brakes.

Datsportsprings010.jpg

 

The shoes slide on these raised oval pads, so it's a good idea to give them a smear of brake grease before fitting the new ones.

Datsportsprings011.jpg

 

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly :D

Datsportsprings012.jpg

 

But the new shoes are thicker than the old ones, so the drum won't be able to slide on in place. So you next need to slacken off the adjuster here at the back (it's that square peg sticking out at 12 o clock on the brake backing plate).

Datsportsprings013.jpg

 

I loosen it, and it will draw the shoes inwards, until I can slide the drum on. You then tighten the adjuster until you feel the drum start to bind, then back it off one click. Then I give the brake pedal a few prods to center the shoes in the drum, and re-adjust it again. And then it's all done.

Datsportsprings014.jpg

 

Now that it's back on the ground the ride height is 10mm higher.

Datsportsprings015.jpg

 

I took it for a drive to let the springs settle, and maybe a bit more driving will settle it some more, but it's definitely sitting noticeably higher. The solution is simple, which is cutting a tiny bit off the coil....I figure 10mm at the wheel is probably more like 5mm at the coil, so I'd just have to Makita off maybe 1/8th of the bottom coil, which shouldn't affect the spring rate.

Datsportsprings017.jpg

 

To drive, it's definitely lost that soft-in-the-rear feeling, and now seems more balanced. It's not too stiff at all, and is just nicely firm, rather than race car hard. I haven't thrown it into any hard corners yet, but we'll see :)

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Ok, here's how it looks with the new springs:

Datsportsprings018.jpg

 

Datsportsprings020.jpg

 

Datsportsprings019.jpg

 

....it's about 10mm higher than before. At this height, there is about 90mm of bump travel (bumpstop in play after 70mm) so I think we can lower it 10-15mm without any worries, and the stiffer springs should help it stay off the bumpstops too. I reckon I'll drive it a bit more to see if it settles some more, before we get the angle grinder out.

 

So far, the handling balance is definitely changed. It's staying noticeably flatter at the back, and instead of starting to nose into understeer mid corner, it's quite neutral and edges the tail out under power a lot more easily. One downside is that traction is reduced, and it spins up the inside wheel on corner exit more easily now too. Need to drive it more, but I would say that it's definitely more neutral and balanced, if a bit more challenging to drive.

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I figured that I should probably drive the car for a few days to see if the springs settle down some more, but...well, I am not a very patient person :D

 

So out come the new springs, and I've marked how much I have to cut for a 5mm reduction in free-length.

Datsportsprings023.jpg

 

Interestingly, the 2 springs aren't quite the same, and the angle of the bottom-most coil is slightly different....This means that to reduce the height of the springs from 220mm to 215mm, I am cutting off more on one spring than the other. It isn't a big difference, maybe 1/4 of a coil vs 1/3. Cutting a coil does make it stiffer, but given that we're only cutting off 1/4 and 1/3 of a coil, I think that it's only going to make a small difference.

Datsportsprings024.jpg

 

So it's out with the angle grinder and the metal cutting disc....

Datsportsprings025.jpg

 

The first one done, 5mm difference.

Datsportsprings026.jpg

 

And then the second, and now they are both 215mm.

Datsportsprings027.jpg

 

Even though they are slightly shorter, because the GAB shocks are short-stroke, the springs are still lightly trapped at full droop.

Datsportsprings028.jpg

 

And here's the result:

Datsportsprings033.jpg

 

It's 15mm lower, which is back to the height it was before, and it looks to have about a half degree more camber thanit did at yesterday's ride height.

Datsportsprings034.jpg

 

At this ride height, there is 70mm of bump travel (and the bumpstop is in play for the last 20mm of that).

Datsportsprings030.jpg

 

Which I think is just fine for road use.

Datsportsprings031.jpg

 

With the old 600 pound springs, it would use up all of that 70mm of travel quite often (usually with a few ppl on board and under hard accel) but with the new 1100 pound springs being almost twice as stiff, I think that shouldn't be a problem anymore. I'll do the zip-tie thing on the shock rod and see....

Datsportsprings032.jpg

 

I'll take it for a proper drive tomorrow, but hey...at least it looks good again :D

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Just read this whole thread, I'm amazed at how much work and time you've put into actually showing us how you've done everything. I used to be intimidated by working on carbs but now I'm definitely interested in getting some Webers for my 510 and I'm not worried about toying around with a carb anymore. I'll probably tear the stock carb apart and rebuild it so that I can have something to learn on. Thanks for the information and I can't wait to read more. I'm definitely "watching" this thread.

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Here's a couple of pics I took today in the daylight, I'd say aesthetically the ride heignt is where I want it.

SAUGTRCruise010.jpg

 

I tagged along to the Skylines Australia cruise to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the R32 GT-R, and the route took in some winding roads which were a bit slippy and wet today. I'd say the handling turns in much faster now, and is more neutral mid corner, but feels a bit twitchy for the first part of the corner, almost as if there is now a bit of toe-out at the back or something (shouldn't be...it's the same height as before and it's rolling less). Maybe I just need to get used to it :D

SAUGTRCruise011.jpg

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One job I've been putting off for a while, is to attend to the torn front seat.

Datsportsprings001.jpg

 

The car came with a bit of a tear in this area, and over the years, everytime someone sits in the passenger seat, that tear gets bigger and bigger, to the point where I thought it might not be saveable anymore.

Datsportsprings002.jpg

 

So I dropped off the stricken seat at T Wall & Son, who have trimmed many concours winners and it's actually now the 3rd generation of the Wall family running the trim shop on Orchard Rd Brookvale (it's always full of interesting classic cars). And a week later, it's done!

TWallSeatRepair001.jpg

 

Craig Wall initially thought that the original material might be saveable, by sewing a layer of calico fabric on the back to reinforce it, and then renewing the stitching. But unfortunately when the seat was taken apart, many areas of the vinyl were badly rotted and torn.

TWallSeatRepair009.jpg

 

And the vinyl had lost its elasticity, and instead of being nice ans supple, was now thin, stiff and hard, like plastic sheet.

TWallSeatRepair010.jpg

 

So the decision was made to retrim the whole seat from scratch.

TWallSeatRepair005.jpg

 

And I'm verrry happy with the results.

TWallSeatRepair002.jpg

 

The seat looks plumper than before, which Craig explained as because the some of the original foam backing to the vinyl had detriorated and crumbled away, and so the seat had a flat, saggy appearance. New foam makes all the difference.

TWallSeatRepair004.jpg

 

...with the new vinyl being much softer and stretchier feeling than the old. It's much more comfy to sit in now!

TWallSeatRepair003.jpg

 

The seat back was also retrimmed.

TWallSeatRepair011.jpg

 

TWallSeatRepair013.jpg

 

One last job for Craig Wall was to repair the seat frame. As you can see from the vid, there was quite a bit of play in the seat back, but not really anything wrong with the seat tilting mechanism itself. Instead, it's the captive nuts on the inner frame which have flogged out, and as you can see, at some point in the past the previous Japanese owner plugged in a bigger bolt in an attempt to take up the slack, but the only proper repair is to strip the seat down to the frame, and then weld on fresh new captive nuts. Being a Datsun owner himself, Craig even had the right countersunk bolts to use.

 

 

This turned out so well, I'm now thinking of having the rear seat re-done too :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's been over a year since the Hako's last trackday, and with the car handling well after the new rear springs were installed, I was pretty keen to have another go. The opportunity arose not at Wakefield Park (as it was last yr) but at the Marulan Driver Training Centre, which is about 2hrs south of Sydney. Rather than a full-sized racetrack, MDTC is more like one of those little gymkhana-style club tracks you see dotted around Japan. It's quite narrow, very twisty and packs many corners (many of them hairpins) into its 1km lap length. At Wakefield last yr, we were really struggling with understeer, so this would be a pretty stern test: if a car is going to understeer, it'll be here.

 

 

Some great pics from my mate Robert Ing:

IMG_8709_.jpg

 

IMG_8819.jpg

 

IMG_8820.jpg

 

IMG_8831_.jpg

 

Straight away, I noticed that the handling was a lot pointier than before, with hardly any understeer. Even though we've nearly doubled the rear spring rate, it's still squatting a lot under power, and in the vid you can hear the rear tyres touch the inner guards at a few points every lap under full power. Even with the softer old springs, it wasn't doing that at Wakefield, so I'm putting that down as an anomaly due to MDTC's many slow, bumpy corners where I'm coming out under full power in second gear (at Wakefield I didn't drop below 3rd gear).

 

And these shots are from my buddy Daniel Mackenna:

5130588582_c59702ec6f_o.jpg

 

5130561020_cc642108fc_o.jpg

 

And this nice shot is from Kevin Cheng:

5130563590_0fc7c111a7_o.jpg

 

Overall, I'm quite happy with the new handling, it's a lot more balanced than before, and you can even tease it into a drift. Mind you, this is on a very tight, low-speed track, so very possibly it might be too oversteery on a more wide open circuit with some fast corners. Ah we'll see. But an upside of the new balance is that I'm not having to trailbrake the car so heavily to get it to turn into a corner, and so I was relying less on the brakes and they were fresh as a daisy all day.

 

...and here's the vid!

The balance is about right, I think but the car's still a bit of a handful, breaking out in wheelspin and kicking the tail out quite suddenly. I think on a less bumpy and undulating track, this won't be so much of an issue....but it's nothing a good LSD can't fix :) I think I might have to get one now...

 

One amusing episode was that MDTC has a very strict 95dB noise limit, but with the Webers singing the Italian National Anthem at full volume and the Hako's angry new exhaust, we managed to exceed 95dB rather easily :) So track manager Garry Wilmington suggested a chicken-wire based solution, which worked like a charm and muffled the loud Hako bark just enough to sneak below the noise limit. It did...kinda...curtail the top end power a little, and as you can see, is very subtle and hardly noticeable :D

Marulan003.jpg

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I really enjoy the attention to detail you are putting into the car, as well as the awesome documentation that goes along with it. I love reading build threads where each build post is well thought out and well written.

 

With respect to you comment about the car being a handful on the track, you may want to take a look at the rear alignment. From what I have seen, the rear suspension of your car is very similar to that of a 510. With the 510, lowering the car can lead to excessive camber (as we all know) as well as excessive toe out. Not correcting the toe out can cause the handling characteristics that you are describing. I know Datsport makes a DIY kit for an adjustable rear crossmember that could possibly be adapted to work on your car.

 

Keep up the good work, I always look forward to updates.

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With the aussie dollar doing so well lately against the US$, it seemed a shame not to buy at least a few things from the 'States, so I started with this set of dimple dies that I found on Ebay. US$90 plus postage, they're normally quite expensive (like US$700 for a set of seven expensive) but I believe these are cheaper because they're not made of tool steel like the professional sets are. But for the occasional use (and mainly on aluminium) that I'll be using them for, they should be fine.

07d54e73.jpg

 

What's a dimple die, you say :) Ok, well bear with me....it'll be clear soon :D

 

I was itching to do "something" with them, and a logical first project seemed to be a horn bracket. When I installed the MSD6A ignition box a few months ago, it took up some of the space that the FIAMM twin air horns previously occupied. Using the steel strap bracket that came with the horns made one of them foul against the MSD unit.

MSD009.jpg

 

So I go down to the hardware store, and buy some 0.5mm aluminium sheet. Ideally I'd have bought something thicker, but this is all they had.

DimpleDie002.jpg

 

After cutting out the pattern, I'll be making holes with the step-drill. For making larger holes in sheetmetal, I find something like this a lot easier to use than a holesaw. And since the step-drill starts off with a small hole, it's much easier to get holes lined up and parallel.

DimpleDie003.jpg

 

To actually use the dimple dies, we need to use the hydraulic press. There are other types of dimple die which have a bolt going through the middle, and so you can just tighten the bolt to do the same thing, but since I already have a press, I got this kind.

DimpleDie021.jpg

 

After cutting, the metal tends to be a bit wonky from all the handling, and a nice side effect of the stamping is that as you go along, it straightens/flattens-out the metal again.

DimpleDie007.jpg

 

After a bit of cleaning up with the belt sander, and then a quick polish, it looks great!

DimpleDie009.jpg

 

0.5mm ally is quite delicate, so the curved edges that the dimple dies made actually add a lot of strength and stiffness to the metal. So not only are you removing material, you're also making it stronger by this process and the more dimple die'd holes you add, the stronger it gets. And let's face it, it does look nice too. But version 1.0 was a disaster, the ally was too thin and would allow the horns to wobble with the vibration from the motor.

DimpleDie015.jpg

 

So I rummaged around and found a bit of scrap 1.0mm ally, and made another one :D

DimpleDie022.jpg

 

Probably a bit of overkill for a horn bracket, but as we all know, he who dies with the most fabrication porn wins.

DimpleDie023.jpg

 

This time the new thicker material is perfect. Nice and strong

DimpleDie025.jpg

 

I mounted them so that one horn sits further in front of the other and the mouths tuck against each other. Clears both the MSD unit and the air filter nicely.

DimpleDie024.jpg

 

Hmm...*looks around engine bay at what else could be re-made*.....

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