I am no stranger to buying cars from a distance or overseas and developed what I thought was a TRUSTED relationship with a recognised trader whom I'd purchased several more expensive cars from previously and even visited in Japan, however I should of remembered the wise words of our friend Fox Mulder and trusted no one.
Can you guess what's coming next? Yep, I got stung.
Mid 2013 I saw a absolutely BITCHIN' Nissan PS13. It's essentially a notchback version of the more common Nissan 200SX. It looked very much like the picture below and more than likely had an equally hard life.
The car was an amateur drift car, loaded up with all the toys and despite looking as rough as a night out in scunthurpe I kinda fell in love with it. So quickly I transferred over my hard earned pounds and having my first baby due imminently I decided it was better to pay now and worry later as the chance probably wouldn't happen again any time soon. A few weeks past and I was told that the deal fell through but the trader in Japan had my back and he was looking for another. A few more weeks later I received some low res pictures of cars I didn't want. Big lairy body kits, more max power than circuit hero.
I decided to ask for my money back and was assured he's find another, so time past, I kept asking for my money back politely and the replies became less and less frequent. Sad times. It was around this time I contacted his employer with the help of google translate and was informed that my buddy no longer worked for the company and had retained my money!!! DISASTER!!!
An even longer and more convoluted story later, the employer went and found me an R33 Skyline GTST, really not what I wanted but after a year of being messed around it was that or say goodbye to my cash... and here it is being collected from the the docks.
The drama didn't end there, had to pay for collection TWICE as the shipping invoice hadn't been received by the shippers so they couldn't release it. WHEN WILL THE DRAMA AND EXPENSES END!?
Externally it looks reasonably smart but inside is a bit doggy, the dashboard was obviously caked in gauges and cup holder which were pulled off
Internally... not so good. Stereo missing, ashtray missing, even the flipping gearknob is missing!!!
Externally from a distance it doesn't look too bad
When it's moving, it looks even better!
But get up close and you can see it's been unloved. Bonnet pins missing, poorly fitted FRP vented bonnet with a cracked gelcoat
Just before it arrived I accidentally had another little one so was too occupied to do anything with it. But that turned out to be a good thing. I've had a fair few skylines before from base spec non turbos to GTRs (32/33/34) and strangely enough despite the R33 being the unloved skyline, it was always my favourite to drive. As car than can be used on the road as well as the track I really appreciate the interior of a car and the small ergonomics which make it a nicer place to be. I was never a fan of the rotary controls on the R32, and the interiors of R34's just seem over plastickey... like imprezas (unless you have a GTR of course). From all this I thought to myself "let's make this car right" and from there I began ordering parts to get it looking how I want it to.
First up, missing parts as they bug me the most and luckily being that R33's aren't as popular as it's siblings means that parts are cheaper (less skyline/jdm fanboi tax), also more of them were made which means more get broken for parts. Happy days!
On the skyline owners forum I picked up a spec 1 grill easily and was delivered in record breaking time for the mighty sum of £20
Ebay provided me with some flush fit aero catches for the bonnet and a bargain set of OEM Touring wheels from a 350z (18x8 ET30)
I'm not a fan of fixed buckets which the driver seat has so I bought a Recaro seat, again from a well known auction site but before I even got round to trial fitting it a R32 GTR driver seat came available on the Driftworks forum so a deal on that was done and it was delivered. Wahey!
Underneath the car is pretty well set up with many aftermarket parts. Uprated ARB, coilovers, adjustable arms and so on. Probably more than what I need so I can either sell to spend money elsewhere or leave it for the next owner.
So from here on it's more of a case of giving it a bit of cosmetic attention on the outside (basically give me brother a polishing mop and a load of G3 while I make myself a cup of tea), a thorough going over on the inside, get the barge through an MOT and enjoy it! ...and by enjoy I mean go to some drift days and try not to break it.
Can you guess what's coming next? Yep, I got stung.
Mid 2013 I saw a absolutely BITCHIN' Nissan PS13. It's essentially a notchback version of the more common Nissan 200SX. It looked very much like the picture below and more than likely had an equally hard life.
The car was an amateur drift car, loaded up with all the toys and despite looking as rough as a night out in scunthurpe I kinda fell in love with it. So quickly I transferred over my hard earned pounds and having my first baby due imminently I decided it was better to pay now and worry later as the chance probably wouldn't happen again any time soon. A few weeks past and I was told that the deal fell through but the trader in Japan had my back and he was looking for another. A few more weeks later I received some low res pictures of cars I didn't want. Big lairy body kits, more max power than circuit hero.
I decided to ask for my money back and was assured he's find another, so time past, I kept asking for my money back politely and the replies became less and less frequent. Sad times. It was around this time I contacted his employer with the help of google translate and was informed that my buddy no longer worked for the company and had retained my money!!! DISASTER!!!
An even longer and more convoluted story later, the employer went and found me an R33 Skyline GTST, really not what I wanted but after a year of being messed around it was that or say goodbye to my cash... and here it is being collected from the the docks.
The drama didn't end there, had to pay for collection TWICE as the shipping invoice hadn't been received by the shippers so they couldn't release it. WHEN WILL THE DRAMA AND EXPENSES END!?
Externally it looks reasonably smart but inside is a bit doggy, the dashboard was obviously caked in gauges and cup holder which were pulled off
Internally... not so good. Stereo missing, ashtray missing, even the flipping gearknob is missing!!!
Externally from a distance it doesn't look too bad
When it's moving, it looks even better!
But get up close and you can see it's been unloved. Bonnet pins missing, poorly fitted FRP vented bonnet with a cracked gelcoat
Just before it arrived I accidentally had another little one so was too occupied to do anything with it. But that turned out to be a good thing. I've had a fair few skylines before from base spec non turbos to GTRs (32/33/34) and strangely enough despite the R33 being the unloved skyline, it was always my favourite to drive. As car than can be used on the road as well as the track I really appreciate the interior of a car and the small ergonomics which make it a nicer place to be. I was never a fan of the rotary controls on the R32, and the interiors of R34's just seem over plastickey... like imprezas (unless you have a GTR of course). From all this I thought to myself "let's make this car right" and from there I began ordering parts to get it looking how I want it to.
First up, missing parts as they bug me the most and luckily being that R33's aren't as popular as it's siblings means that parts are cheaper (less skyline/jdm fanboi tax), also more of them were made which means more get broken for parts. Happy days!
On the skyline owners forum I picked up a spec 1 grill easily and was delivered in record breaking time for the mighty sum of £20
Ebay provided me with some flush fit aero catches for the bonnet and a bargain set of OEM Touring wheels from a 350z (18x8 ET30)
I'm not a fan of fixed buckets which the driver seat has so I bought a Recaro seat, again from a well known auction site but before I even got round to trial fitting it a R32 GTR driver seat came available on the Driftworks forum so a deal on that was done and it was delivered. Wahey!
Underneath the car is pretty well set up with many aftermarket parts. Uprated ARB, coilovers, adjustable arms and so on. Probably more than what I need so I can either sell to spend money elsewhere or leave it for the next owner.
So from here on it's more of a case of giving it a bit of cosmetic attention on the outside (basically give me brother a polishing mop and a load of G3 while I make myself a cup of tea), a thorough going over on the inside, get the barge through an MOT and enjoy it! ...and by enjoy I mean go to some drift days and try not to break it.
In episode 2, see what sh1t we discover cleaning up the engine bay and pulling out the interior!
