$60 to flatbed the car to the shop, then I spent my 2nd half of the day clearing space to keep it and just cleaning the shop in general. The shop has no rhyme or reason to the madness, everything is basically just a ******* mess. Another one of my projects is to clean up and eventually organize the whole place.

Now I just need to order everything and start the work. I hope to be done by April if all goes well.

Here's a couple pictures I took while I was down there.

 

YOu should start doing the strikethrough to your main list. Sooooo satisfying to cross things off a list when you finish. Looking forward to actually seeing this thing.

 

That's a good idea. lol

I have a few other random things I want to try and do while I have the bodyshop to use. Come this time next month I'll lose my use of the spray booth and everything else he lets me use or borrow.

If any of you CT guys are down for a drive to Danbury and want to stop by the shop one night to help out or just have a couple beers, you're more than welcome to. Now that I have my makeshift office I'm down there almost on a daily basis.

 

Why do you need the shop again? Just to replace the turbo?

 

I don't "need" the shop, I just prefer it. For the record I've probably done more work to the car outside in the backyard as opposed to inside the shop. lol

At the shop I have a roof over my head and lights to work well into the night without having to use a light that attracts mosquitoes. Not to mention I have access to air tools, lift, parts washer, etc etc. Only downside is lots of people pop in and out making it almost impossible to work without any distractions.

 

That looks like a fairly decent place to work. I drive for an hour to use a friend's workshop with a hoist and I still think it's worthwhile.

 

for some reason, I love the look of this pic



I just love the dusty dirt on the tires, I have no idea why.

 

Because it accentuates the tread pattern?

 

Nice body kit, Spilner.

 

Because dirt on car means it sees use. You know it (soon) won't be a garage queen.

 

Christ on a crutch, are you ******* serious?

 

The shop is local and my home away from home. I'm actually thinking about moving a couch and plasma down there to make it semi-livable.

I'm looking around at lifts and I'll probably end up getting one soon. I hate having to ask the other guys if its cool to use theirs.

I had to stop and get my camera to take this picture. Every time I walked by I kept thinking I wanted to take a picture of it like that.

I'm thinking I might swap rear bumpers this year, but thanks for the compliment Mia

When the car is on the road I drive it year round. Snow, rain, sleet, dirt parking lot at the shop, concrete all over the inside, I don't give a ****. lol

I wash it and try to take good care of it, but it definitely has seen a lot of use over the years.

 

I'd love to do this but I'm afraid of rust eating the car away. How do you keep up with the salt and rust problem?

 

This is really the first time the rust has been a issue. All the other years I would just drive the car year round like normal and just clean it up in the spring.

It also doesn't hurt that the body shop is right next door to our shop either. He's done some kind of paint work on the car almost yearly since I've owned it. lol

 

I just got off the phone with Jim and Gerry from GPOPSHOP. The turbo has been taken apart and inspected with no issues found. I opted for the performance rebuild over the regular one. $475 including shipping. They said I should have it by the 20th.

So between now and them I'll be ordering everything I need to have it back up and running. Anyone interested in a china 2871 that's already set for an external wastegate setup? I'll be posting it in the classifieds within the week I'm sure.

EDIT: I should also mention that I had a talk with Gerry about restrictors and asked him his opinion on the subject. According to him it doesn't matter what type of bearing the turbo has (how some people say its ball bearing or journal bearing dependant), its dependent on the application. So some turbos might need a restrictor while others don't. He suggested to stay away from them and only use one if absolutely necessary.

 

I am no expert but i have never seen a journal bearing turbo that required a restrictor, at the same time i think every single ball bearing garret turbo i have seen does require one, maybe not some of the oem nissan ball bearing turbos, idk.

 

Whoa whoa, I knew he drives it.

I love dirt on tires because I hate garage queens. It's proof that the car is being used to drive as intended.

 

<<< 3000

I've heard so many different opinions over the years about restrictors that its led me to question my own experience with them. When my car had the Greddy turbo on it I had no restictor and that setup was pretty damn solid. This Garrett that came with the FM3 kit I bought didnt have a restrictor come with it, as far as I know at least.

For now I'm going to throw the turbo on without a restictor and go from there.

I'm thinking I might try and pull the motor out this week and get the car into the paint booth. I'd like to spray the engine bay properly this time around.

Also need to decide on a damn battery and order it with all the other little **** I need to get. Weeks are going by like days and before I know it the summer will be here and the car will still be sitting in the shop covered in dust.

 

You haven't heard? It's September man. Summer's over...

 

Just got the turbo back from the guys at GPOPSHOP! I had an excellent experience with them and will use them for future rebuilds for sure. Jim and Gerry are the kind of guys I like doing business with. I highly recommend them!

I already had my photo booth set up so I took some model pictures of the turbo.











Now that the turbo is here hopefully I can get around to ordering the rest of the parts needed to put the car back together!