Husky's Yard - Subaru Transmitted Infection

[Aquarelle]

Kia ora guys

I doubt anyone would have noticed but I've been away, I've moved back to the countryside after having quite enough of the city life.
Of course, since I'm now able to have a car again, I wasted no time in doing so.

This is my new baby, at least until I get something RWD and manual of course. (Looking to be a 280ZX but I'm terribly indecisive..)

This Nissan Maxima is a 1996 model, featuring beautiful 'luxury' fake wood, electric seats with leather as grey as a pentioner.

The mighty powerhouse is a 3 litre V6 producing 196 BHP as of now.

She was left sitting out in the weather for 2 months and was grossly mistreated by the previous owner, I've begun restoring her and sourcing replacement panels so within the next few weeks she should be as good as new.

I honestly don't have any plans performance wise beyond some strut braces, she handles well enough (although she will understeer if you push her too hard through a corner, even while under the speed limit.)

Parts to get as of now are

New Steering Wheel
New left rear tyre + new spare (Spare included was a 17 inch, 2 inches too large. May replace all 4 but I'm not certain yet)
Brake Pads
Strut Braces (F & R)
New Panels (F & R bumpers, Hood, Boot lid, right rear door)

I also need to seek out a leak as upon picking up the car I discovered a lovely little pond in the right rear passenger seat.. which took a wee journey into the drivers footwell upon setting off... I rather liked those shoes too.

Either way, the interior and exterior has been cleaned thoroughly and I'm taking her in on Monday for a new WoF and to renew the Rego.

I'll update as I can if anyone cares, cheers.

 

[Mini Stiggy]

Congrats on your new car:tup:

 

[Aquarelle]

Congrats on your new car:tup:

Thank you very much, i really do appreciate it. it's certainly very nice to not have to rely on others again.

Today was a very expensive day, bought some new Goodyear's to replace the shoddy bargain bin tyres previously fitted. Too exhausted to go for a drive right now but I certainly look forward to giving them a good go.

I also sorted out the rego, pleasantly not as expensive as I had first thought.

Next week comes the new head unit & brake pads.

(I also accidentally grabbed dot 4 brake fluid without thinking to check what the maxima uses... oops! shows what waking up at 4 can do to ya)

 

[SVX]

Nice Maxima. 👍

My grandmother had one of those a few years ago (abiet in Cefiro guise), until it was in a major crash. Very safe car. Very comfy as well. 👍

 

[Aquarelle]

Nice Maxima. 👍

My grandmother had one of those a few years ago (abiet in Cefiro guise), until it was in a major crash. Very safe car. Very comfy as well. 👍

The safety and comfort is the least of my concerns it's a very good car, becoming better as I modify it further.

Second car has been purchased, a 1994 Audi 80 in nigh on pristine condition - will be selling on in the next couple weeks after I service and prep it for sale but I figured I'd put it here in the mean time

 

[Aquarelle]

As of last night I am now the owner of a 1995 Nissan Skyline R33

The car is located in Wellington and I will be setting off tomorrow to collect it, 2,000 kms of solid driving!

The car its self is a 2.5 litre RB25DE with a 5 speed box, she's in desperate need of a respray (or whole new panels) on the front right quarter but is otherwise in fabulous condition - and frankly for only 2.7k I can't really complain.

Given that the car isn't in my driveway just yet, a photo from the trader will have to suffice for the moment.

I swear.. I can never escape Advanti Rims..

 

[SVX]

As of last night I am now the owner of a 1995 Nissan Skyline R33

The car is located in Wellington and I will be setting off tomorrow to collect it, 2,000 kms of solid driving!

The car its self is a 2.5 litre RB25DE with a 5 speed box, she's in desperate need of a respray (or whole new panels) on the front right quarter but is otherwise in fabulous condition - and frankly for only 2.7k I can't really complain.

Given that the car isn't in my driveway just yet, a photo from the trader will have to suffice for the moment.



I swear.. I can never escape Advanti Rims..

Wellington? Might see you go past.

 

[Aquarelle]

I'll be sure to toot as I go past! can't really stop off anywhere because I'm dragging my best friend along with his XR6 Turbo as a back up vehicle in case the car isn't quite as described, better safe than sorry.

I'll be sure to update when I return with some better photos.

 

[SVX]

I'll be sure to toot as I go past! can't really stop off anywhere because I'm dragging my best friend along with his XR6 Turbo as a back up vehicle in case the car isn't quite as described, better safe than sorry.

I'll be sure to update when I return with some better photos.

Depending what time, I might be at school. Would get some funny looks if this random R33 stops and talks to a student.

 

[Aquarelle]

Depending what time, I might be at school. Would get some funny looks if this random R33 stops and talks to a student.

sorry I couldn't make it, we had to make it a quick trip with no stops.

The R33 is now here, had an incident on the way home when a Police Officer pulled me over. Turns out the previous owner was a criminal and because the ownership hadn't transferred into my name yet it showed up on their system.

The car runs well, unfortunately it has a big bore exhaust and no head unit... which made for an agonising journey home with just a constant droan behind my head.

First on the agenda is the new head unit and putting on a nice and quite twin tip exhaust, I'll probably just install the old head unit from the Maxima and steal the rear speakers from it as well and replace them with new ones.
Then I'll replace the bonnet and front right quarter and she'll practically be new!

Managed to talk the price down even further as well due to the missing head unit that we weren't informed of

Now, so this isn't just a wall of text - how about some photos?

And a little establishing shot of all the cars

Bit hard to see but the blue Falcon in the shed is an XR8 Ute, has an electrical issue which is preventing the immobiliser from disengaging. It starts and runs fine but you need to wait until it's in the mood.

The closer Falcon is an XR6 Turbo

 

[JrDarknes]

Always had a soft spot for r33's. Sucks we never got them. Interior looks clean to.

 

[Aquarelle]

Always had a soft spot for r33's. Sucks we never got them. Interior looks clean to.

The interior is in fairly good condition, there's a couple pieces of broken plastic that I'll replace once I sell the Audi but that's about it.

Currently cleaning the car inside and out, new head unit will be installed within the hour.

 

[SVX]

Wow, it's looks to be in pretty good condition, considering how much you paid. Just needs some love and TLC.

Congrats. 👍

 

[Aquarelle]

Wow, it's looks to be in pretty good condition, considering how much you paid. Just needs some love and TLC.

Congrats. 👍

Thank you =) I couldn't be happier!

Today was fairly productive despite the rain.
I cleaned the headlights to bring them back to their factory clarity, the yellow taint is a thing of the past! I've also flushed the radiator fluid, the colour that came out of the plug was a healthy shade of rusty brown.. yuck!

I've also bought a replacement thermostat so I can actually read the engine temperature, which tends to help!

I then took it for a proper shake down, the big bore exhaust drove me insane on the 900 odd km journey home; but here? now? in the back roads of Whangarei? god it's just so much fun.

Replacing the head unit has been delayed until I get new speakers (otherwise what's the point) but I'm currently waiting for a response from a man in the area selling interior parts for R33's because there are a couple of pieces of broken plastic ruining the otherwise mint interior.

I'm going out tomorrow if the weather improves to take some photos, I'm very much lookin forward to how they turn out.

 

[homeforsummer]

Nice R33 👍 Always oddly nice to see one that isn't a GT-R.

Those wheels need changing asap though. Rather naff. And is it just a trick of the light, or is the front nearside wing a different colour from the door?

 

[Aquarelle]

Nice R33 👍 Always oddly nice to see one that isn't a GT-R.

Those wheels need changing asap though. Rather naff. And is it just a trick of the light, or is the front nearside wing a different colour from the door?

Thank you, I'd love to claim I chose the GTS25 out of choice but really it's because GTRs go for upwards of 25 grand and that's a great deal of money to spend on a car that has to traverse gravel roads.

Yeah the front quarter is a shade or two ligter than gunmetal, it's rather bothersome but until I get a new hood there's no point in respraying panels.

I'm going to get some new rims once I sell the current ones, alternatively I may spray the current rims black.. time will tell I suppose

 

[Aquarelle]

With the stormy weather of late it's been slow progress, I have however made a start on replacing the missing head unit (which wasn't stolen as I had originally thought from the quality of the job but was removed by the previous owner... shoddy work)

Because of this less than brilliant wiring I've hard wired my ground and literally nothing else.. I'm
actually just sitting in the car with my soldering iron on the passenger foot well trying to work out this dodgy wiring.

I've been through Skyline owners forums and tried a few different wiring diagrams but none match up to what I have before me.

Duplicate wires and wires that aren't mentioned by any diagram is meaning I have no faith in any other colour leading to where they should.. which with no multimeter means I have a brand new head unit just sitting on my kitchen table..

I could not have asked for a worse first experience of hard wiring.

 

[Aquarelle]

Today started off so nicely and quickly turned into a nightmare.

I took my friend Keith up to Mt Tiger for a nice drive trough the pass down to the Heads, he ended up taking a short impromptu video on the way back which I'll try and upload when I can.

When we got home I roped Keith into assisting me with the absolute mess of wiring since he's experienced with electrical work.

5 hours were spent removing trim and seats to access all the wires, by the time we were done we had removed 10 meters worth of redundant and even entirely disconnected wires.

Keith then had to spend well over an hour in the boot of the car trying to solder the rear speakers in... how hard would it have been for the previous owner to leave the plugs in...

I also got a hell of a fright when I was moving a wire I has thought to be dead, it brushed against a metal frame and sparked violently, fusing some of the wire to the metal.
We then tested the wire with Keith's multimeter, it immediately glowed bright red and began melting onto the probe... I'm so glad I always had the battery unplugged when fiddling around in the centre console now..

Tomorrow we finish installing the speakers and then try to make a start on solving the maze of mismatched wiring to install the head unit.

 

[Lock2Lock]

I am envious of that R33 Urie. Looks to be in good condition.

 

[Aquarelle]

Don't envy the amount of finicky work I have to do =P

I finally got my head unit hard wired in.. unfortunately it's not working for some reason - and with nothing to diagnose it with I'm just going to have to suffer having no radio.

Still, it looks nicer than having a big empty hole.

 

[Mini Stiggy]

Can I have your car?
In return, you can have a virtual Nissan from GT5

 

[Aquarelle]

Ooh how very tempting! Unfortunately however I'm going to have to decline

I forgot to mention that I got a new camera yesterday, which means I can now make videos! I just need to figure out a way to mount it to my dash without having too much vibration.. suggestions?

 

[Aquarelle]

The feral 'chromies' have been covered up as a temporary measure.

Bless the person who invented plasti-dip.

 

[Mini Stiggy]

Nice!

 

[Aquarelle]

Interior is all back together, missing parts replaced bar the gearstick surround which is still broken.

My wiring was perfect as it turned out, the problem was a blown fuse.

This weekend I'm spending my time with my mate stripping his Skyline sedan of its blown engine and dropping a new one in.
He's a Skyline expert and has been helping me source replacement and upgraded parts.

He's also putting me in touch with an his friend who's an ECU expert, he will chip the ECU to unleash any and all power held back by the factory tune once all supporting mods have been implemented.

According to him the chassis is solid, it feels like it's done half the K's the clock reads which I'm really pleased with.

It's looking to be a bright future for both the Skyline and myself.

 

[Aquarelle]

Today was a learning adventure as I spent it stripping down and removing an RB25+T from my friends R33 Sedan.

While largely uneventful it was a great experience to get intimate with the RB before I begin work on my own - I also scored some free spares from the melted engine which is always a plus!

Delicious oil in the manifold and dump pipe

And after much tinkering, we got the head off.

Due to a lack of time we had to leave the bottom end attached to the box until this evening or tomorrow, but I'm thoroughly looking forward to painting the car and then reassembling everything.

 

[Mini Stiggy]

What color are you going to paint it?

 

[Aquarelle]

We're thinking a deep gloss black.

It isn't my car we're painting, at least not yet.
I need to get a new hood before I get the paint gun out for my R33.

 

[Bc4]

What color do you want to paint yours?

Looks great by the way, must be super fun to drive.

 

[Aquarelle]

It really is, I spun it for the first time yesterday while listening to the Initial D soundtrack.. got a bit carried away and forgot I was on a gravel road

I'm not entirely sure yet. I'd like to paint it a pure white but I also quite like the gunmetal grey it currently is, however the clear coat is fading so it needs a new coat regardless.