frankiman

i wouldn't want to overload another thread, since my original build thread as been up for ages, so heres the links to the most interesting bits of it

if you have any questions/comment please post here

thx for looking

i'll post the full first chapter below to give you guys a taste of the ?epicness?
the real project starts at chapter 13

i'll update the links here as i write more chapters (i'm already ~4 chapters behind..)

click here to jump to;

chapter 1 - where it all began
chapter 2 - out with the old, in with the new
chapter 2,1 - answers
chapter 3 - bringing home baby, part 1 / part2
chapter 4 - SSTLC - some skyline tender loving care
chapter 5 - blood sweat and tears part1 / part2
Tech article 1 - rant about BBKs
chapter 6 - Tuning sessions, #1, dyno style
Tech article 2 - how to make an effective ''for sale'' forum ad
chapter 7 - 2009 track days, part1 / part2 / part3 **videos**
chapter 8 - 2009 meets, and GTRC members
chapter 9 - the UltraRide 2009 **videos**
chapter 10 - The Master Plan, part1 / part2
chapter 11 - GoPro photos galore
chapter 12 - Remembering the fallen (2008), part1 / part2
chapter 13 - Theworkinprogress, week1, part1 / part2
chapter 14 - Theworkinprogress, week2, part1 / part2
chapter 15 - Theworkinprogress, week3, part1 / part2
chapter 16 - Themoreworkinprogresshaagettingtired, week4
chapter 17 - Theworkinprogressgotcustomstuff, week5
chapter 18 - Theworkstillinprogress, week6
chapter 19 - Theworkinprogress, week7
chapter 20 - Theprojectthatshouldbedonebutstillinprogress, week8, part1 / part2
chapter 21 - The Epic CustomWerks week, week10, part1 / part2 / part3 / part4
chapter 22 - Finally some results, week11, part1 / part2 / part3 / part4
chapter 23 - Almost there, week12-13, part1 / part2 / part3
chapter 24 - Because MOAR is MORE, week14, part1 / part2 / part3
chapter 25 - Bolt-on? not so much, week15, part1 / part2
chapter 26 - And she lives, week16
chapter 27 - And she drives, week17
chapter 28 - Tuning sessions, #2, dyno revisited
chapter 29 - Tuning sessions, #3, Suspension Calibration
chapter 30 – Needs restraining
chapter 31 – Patience, it'll get done, part1 / part2
chapter 32 - The Mad Dash
chapter 33 - 2010 photoshoots of teh GTR
chapter 34 - The Ultraride 2010, part 1 / part 2
chapter 35 - 'The' trackday 2010, part 1 / part 2
chapter 36 - The Fix

^^ you wouldn't want to see the code behind this link dump

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

frankiman

Chapter 1 - where it all began

took me a long time to come around to starting my own project thread

before i get started, heres some info on me
-i'm 21 years old as of june 23rd 2009
-my only car prior to buying a skyline was a beat-up mazda 323
-i'm a student in Mechanical Engineering @ ETS university
-i've never had a full time job, only compensated internships
-i have never worked as a mechanic
-everything in this build i learned doing by myself or just searching the internet

so here we go, got alot of stuff to cover


i got my first GTR back in august 2007
pretty much stock car, with coilovers, cat back exhaust, oldschool HIDs and AVS wheels
good interior fully stock
stock exterior with worn paint and moldings
A1++ mechanical condition, engine had just been replaced as a condition of purchase
well worth the 12,5k i paid worth it back then, from JDM Montreal, tip top shop !



took the car to the drag strip a couple times (since i had the most powerfull car (wow stock GTR) out of all my friends
also took it to the track for half a dozen 20min sessions, but unfortunately it was all in the rain

then, i started pilling up parts for it,
so i decided to jack the car up for a couple weeks for well deserved upgrades




finally took me 3 months to do the lot, because of parts beeing on back order,
and also it was my first time doing some heavy mechanical work on a car (compared to changing brake pads and air filter on my beater mazda 323)
and i'm proud to say i did everything on my own, without any support except for my dad's advices, but he never touched my car out of respect
(didn't know GTRC existed back then)



i was really proud of what i had accomplished, even if i hadn't driven the car for the full summer
then, exactly a week after the car was off the blocks, i signed up for the "UltraRide", which is basically just a cruise, with 40 others cars

i got overconfident, as many young drivers get with powerfull machines

and this happened, scroll down
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nobody got hurt, i only had a couple scratches from getting out of the car
the body was so badly damaged, there was just no chance in hell of getting the car back into shape

mechanicaly, the car was fine, only the front had gotten damaged (bumper to plastic fan)
and while the car was upside down and i was waiting for the tow truck, me and my buddies found some rust behing the passenger tailight, which really got me pissed for some reason

and to make things worst, THE SAME DAY, september 21st 2008, about 10 hours after the accident, my garage caught fire:furious::furious::furious:
because of an old leaking air compressor


so i swallowed my pride :banghead:, decided to buy the car back from the insurance and got it towed home, next to the burnt garage,
my neighbourgs were all like WTF:dunno:

and the car sat there all winter, while i reflected ont the situation

lets just say i kept the insurance compagny really busy for a while
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after having sorted all the insurance stuff out, my dad decided to get a new and improved garage
so i said, F**K YEAH, me too

so we had a new garage built to our spec, knowing that we would actually put a car in this one

as soon as the garage was done, we put the old GTR in it, and started taking it the F**K apart








so now all the parts are up for sale
and obviously, i'm only selling parts that are still in perfect condition

so thats all about my old GTR






Chapter 2 - out with the old, in with the new

so fast forward to february 2009,

i was an intern @ Pratt & Whitney Canada, working on a energy saving project
so i had alot of time on my hanbs :wink:

at this point, i had reflected alot on my situation and the idea of leasing a brand new car (mazda3) was coming back to me all the time like a boomerang

but my thirst for GTR godliness was still unquenshed

and my "wise" father said that i would never be satisfied with anything else than another GTR, to finish what i had started

so before making an actual decision, i had to make sure what options were financialy feasable first
so i got really serious about it, everything was going to be planned in advanced, everything would be calculated to the last penny
i started building a budget considering the next 72 weeks (till my next internship)
and i didn't want to miss a payment again

so the moment i realized that i actually could buy another GTR, i picked up the phone, call the bank and got another loan the same day (my first loan was cleared after my insurance money for the car and the garage got in)

so there i was, with an extra 12,5k sitting in my bank account, waiting to be spent on a new set of wheels

but i had still not checked the Montreal JDM market yet for GTRs, so i had the money, but nowhere to go with it

so i started peaking around the JDM shops, my first stops were JDM Montreal and JDM Nagoya Auto Parts since i had good connections there, but they didn't have what i was looking for, which basically was the exact same car i had and placing a special order would have taken months

and my father had warned me about this, he called it "car rebound", i just wanted my old car back

so finally got over the fact that my car was gone forever


finally found a good candidate at Japan Domestic Motors in Montreal
a black 1990 GTR, with not many mods, seamed to be in really good condition, but interior was a bit worn out



but it was clear the engine was runnig on only 5 cylinders
since i was really interested in buying the car, i asked them to get it check by a professionnal shop (i.e autoworx)
so after a couple visits to the shop, they never got the car checked and it was still running weird, and they argued me that it had old sparks plugs, the engine wasn't up to temp, needed more gaz (they kept the gas tanks of all their cars practically empty, wtf)
so just for argument's sake, i asked to take it out for a test drive
engine kept stalling repeatedly on my way out of the shop, on a stock clutch, the engine was just no good
so the vendor got pissed, told me he would drive it, since i "couldn't drive manual JDMs"
he had to rev the engine like a mother fu**er not to stall it, drove around the block, again, it was clear the engine wasn't doing well

so i got out the car and litteraly told them to suck my nutsack

at this point, i had visited pretty much all the shops i knew existed in montreal, but still no luck finding my "precious" and felt a bit beat

but right after i left Japan domestic motors, i drove around the block next to a shop i never knew was there,
and laid my sight upon this gem..


feels like i'm writhing a story more than an actual build documentation..that will change soon

click on the links in first post to keep reading...

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

TNPerformance

I blame you for keeping me up far past when I wanted to go to bed! I am only on chapter 10, but having to get up for work in 6 hrs, I am calling it quits. Will finish tomorrow when I get back home. Loving it so far man! I love these kind of builds/stories!

bboyoracle

ahhhh same here will finish this tomorrow

TNPerformance

FML, I figured I'd get another chapter in before heading to work, but too many people have looked at it and exceeded your photobucket bandwidth! You need to upgrade to a pro account STAT!

frankiman

^^ doing so asap

it usuasly happened towards the very last days of the month back when i was posting multiple chapters a week, viewed only by the GTRC peeps, but zilvia is crazy

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

stockbee

Hey I like where this is going, haha, keep us updated please!

omgRWDgoodness!

Cool thread and all but Scam-Wow doesn't absorb anything. Fuck that shit, one of the worst $20 you could ever spend. I want to kill that Lance or Vince headset-wearing motherfucker right now

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tricky_ab

I've seen your thread over on GTR Canada. It's sucks a great thread, you get sucked in and you totally lose your sense of time. You've all been warned

310R

Read your whole thread,shit is fucking sick son.I wish I could have a gtr in states,fucking man is cracking down on that.Good luck with that car.

frankiman

you read the whole 52 pages? shit son, you got time on your hands.... love it!

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

tqstarburst

you sob! haha im supposed to be doing my ultimate 10 pg paper for my class thats due right in about in 12 hrs! i couldve been done by now,o well 6 pgs more to go lol,badass build

edmorl

I've been following your build on GTRC for a while now. Amazing, I love how everything is well detailed and explained, keep up the good work!

iamtheyi

wow... this is the best story/build thread I've ever read. The first 2 chapters on here and I was already like "man... what's gonna happen next" lol

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frankiman

heres a teaser from a photoshoot done in september by a good friend of mine







plus two of my own pics

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

ROOSEY

Nice Pickup!!! that things sick man. sorry to see the accident in the beginning glad to see your okay though. things are looking good though.

frankiman

New Chapter!
chapter 32 - The Mad Dash

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

tricky_ab

Sweet! Now I can put off this report I have to do for my boxx today till after lunch!

1on1

just read all of it and holy shit i am impressed. keep up the good work!!

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instagram

Sthrteen

Just spent like 3 hrs reading. You should make a book out of this, Awesome build/story.

frankiman

yeah i've been told and i'm actually thinking about it, lol, thx !

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

Sthrteen

No Problem, I'm also majoring in M.E. Something like this really helps become more Mechanically inclined. Can't wait for the next update, Subscribed.

ZilviaKid

i cant believe i read that entire thread

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1989 Nissan 240sx - Hatch - Sr
2006 Honda Ruckus - Fat & Low

tricky_ab

Believe it! It's that good!

blueshark123

I actually remember reading about when that gtr crash happened. I finally was able to read the entire thread looks real clean so far

s13dan

Good to see you are okay after that wreck. Looked pretty badass.
And I think white looks better anyway...Great build!

But im slightly confused, I thought USCC died with the greatest car magazine of all time.
Since SCC is gone I thought USCC was too. ?? So whats the deallio??

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89 240sx hatch #933-the hot rod
91 240sx coupe #131,603-the daily

frankiman

you're perfectly right

what i mean is that this car (when ultimatly done..) would be the perfect contender for a USCC type competition

now since THE greatest car mag died, i've gotten Modified Mag in the mail, an in one editorial early this summer, there was talk of starting another USCC (with the SCC guys working at Modified)
but this competition would be a battle between the car forum top dogs

meaning a handfull of big car forums would be selected to participate in the competition
and each forum would have to select a contender

thats why i've been posting my build around on many many forum board, to get some visiblity
so that in the event the competition is a go, i'd get as many votes as possible from people that have seen my build and know about my car

its all just a grand scheme

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32

blueshark123

Honestly the only thing that makes your car special is the context of the build but not the scale of the build. I have seen a lot of crazy cars come from here. Your car really has no omg factor in it. No crazy fab work or body styling. The car is just a really clean looking stock gtr. Im not trying to bash at all on your car but to each their own i guess.

iamtheyi

^ Thanks for being a debby downer.

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frankiman

you have to keep in mind that the point of the build is also showing off ways of building a nice/fast/clean/condy/trackable car on a budget while doing everything by myself with no background into mechanics

i know some people do "from the ground up" builds with more money than sence, with most of the job not done by the owner
we have one too on GTRC; Project Horny
most of the time these cars take years to build, cost many times more than a brand new cars, and get insta-sold the moment they are done, or simply get babied in a garage or trailered to shows,

i really respect build that show more hard work than hard cash,
that are driven on a daily basis, often tracked
performance - price - reliability - confort ; i choose all

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445whp stock engine, epic street/track BNR32