# Shine On: Nissan Skyline R33 GTR V-Spec - with a twist



## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

A friend of mine, Gavin, lives in Holland and loves his Skyline's, already the proud owner of an R34 GTT heavily modified for track days and trips to the Ring. He spied this very original R33 GTR V-Spec on the owner's forum and asked me to go with him to see it the week before Christmas in Coventry.

When we met the guy selling it, it was pretty much as described. There were a few small bits of rust that would need attention here and there, some evidence of previous body repairs and it needed a bloody good clean thanks to being used very little and being stored in the direct firing line of loads of trees. Every corner and crevice was packed full of pine needles, leaves and moss! A good test drive showed it to be mechanically up to scratch, a deal was done and we drove it back to my house.

Over the Christmas period Gavin left it with me while he visited family, and asked me to give it the full detail treatment inside and out as his plan was to sell it as soon as he got it home to Amsterdam. As it happened, he also bought another car a couple of days later which he then drove home to Holland, leaving me to deal with 'Godzilla'.

It was a bit of a dull day, and my limited camera skills with my newly aquired SLR were thrown somewhat by a white car, but you get the idea. Rather grimy and dull.





































First to be dealt with were the panel gaps and drainage channels. First given a good soak with APC, and Megs Superdegreaser where appropriate, I scrapped out the muddy goo that was filling the spaces and then agitated the more glued in stuff with a Swissvax detail brush. This did a brilliant job, a gentle rinse with the hose saw it all looking good again. After drying with an old microfibre cloth I re-greased hinges and locks.





































Moving onto the engine bay, a good dousing with a citrus degreaser and agitating with a brush again was all it needed to make a massive improvement. It was never going to be a show winning engine, but I just wanted to see it clean. Once rinsed off it looked great, a final touch was to spray a light covering of Megs Hyper Dressing all over, then shut the bonnet and let it dry.





































Then:



















Really messy stuff done, I could now wash the outside of the car before it got too dark. Just because I felt like making a mess, I decided to foam it. There was a lot of moss and other contaminants on the paint, the flat panels in particular, so I made a super dooper foam mix - APC, de-greaser, citrus snow foam and a dash of shampoo, topped with hot water then launched all over the car.










It didn't actually do too bad a job, once rinsed off I gave it a thorough wash with a couple of mitt's before finally drying it off and putting it in the garage.










You can see from these pictures below just how dull and marred the paint was, and it was rough as a tree trunk.



















Over the Christmas period I needed a rest to let a back injury heal, so I did bits and pieces when I had time and when I felt like it, claying it (which took FOREVER!), machining a panel or two at a time. I found the paint to be surprisingly hard for a Skyline, compared at least to the few I've done before. This is the oldest one I've done, so maybe that's why.

This is the sort of correction I was achieving, shown on the nearside front wing:



















Once the whole car had been polished, I gave it a layer of Collinite 476s, Jetseal on the wheels, Britemax metal polish for the huge exhaust and some Gummi Pfledge for the rubber seals and Pneu for the tyres. Inside was thoroughly vacuumed, glass cleaned, all the plastics cleaned with APC and dressed with Poorboys Natural Look Dressing (because I love the smell!).

Just enough time (in failing light again, but a good excuse to use my new tripod) to get some shots outside.























































As everyone else went back to work, I had to deliver Godzilla to Gavin in Amsterdam. I booked myself a one way ferry ticket, grabbed my passport and headed off to Dover nice and early. Sadly, I wasn't even half way to the ferry before the rain started to lash down! Nevermind, it would be easy for Gavin to clean once I arrived. A good hearty breakfast on the ferry set me up for my drive the otherside, and I arrived in Dunkirk feeling refreshed and ready for my roadtrip.










Once off the ferry and into northern France, it was absolutely freezing so I had to take it a bit easy. One thing of note with this car was the rather tired Falken tyres gracing the rims, not something I wanted to see in a 1.6 tonne, 400bhp car in bad weather. So, with the first 100km's out of the way the weather started to improve and I really enjoyed my journey, taking just over 3 hours to get to Amsterdam (including a 'spirited' few miles coming out of Belgium with a French registered E46 M3….)

The weather was glorious upon arrival, cold but beautifully sunny, and once I found Gavin's place he and his girlfriend were good enough to take me into town for a quick tour of the 'Dam, before taking me to the airport to catch my flight home.




























So that was my trip - a long but very enjoyable day out, a great drive in a car I didn't think I was going to like, but actually completely fell in love with. Gavin had planned to get the car sold ASAP, and this is sadly where it goes a bit wrong.

Having been busy with his work he hadn't had the chance to advertise the car, so in the meantime was using it to potter about in. One night a couple of weeks ago the car was involved in a horrible accident that has seen it completely written off. It was a cold wet night, and for some reason Gavin lost control of the car, at which point it ended up hitting a large concrete barrier broadside and a considerable speed.

Gavin was un-hurt, his passenger suffered a broken sternum (chest bone), the car is utterly finished.




























While the cabin stood up pretty well to the large impact, the passenger seat twisted approx 45 degree's towards the driver, all the airbags went off, the drivetrain is bent and twisted and it appears that not even the engine is salvageable as it took a heavy impact to the front pulley's which in turn have damaged the block and apparently the crankshaft. Ultimately, it's just metal and I'm so glad my mate is ok. A sad end to a very enjoyable detail.

Thanks for reading.


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## drive 'n' shine (Apr 22, 2006)

Bit of T-cut will sort that out mate 

Second pic in Dam is that one of the side roads that leads off Dam Sq?


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

Hmmmm....That joke didn't go down well when I offered it in jest!

And yes Bry, it is.


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

nice detail, it looked great, such a shame bout the crash though


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## uiuiuiui (Nov 2, 2008)

still with the falken tires on it?

very sad to see a such a car gone :/


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## caddyman (Dec 2, 2008)

been doing some speed to inflict that sort of damage!!

Shame really as you put alot of effort into making it look good


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

uiuiuiui said:


> still with the falken tires on it?


Yep, while I doubt they were the direct cause, I don't doubt they didn't help. A car like this needs proper rubber on the floor.


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Nice work fella real shame about the car but as you say at least your friend is o.k cars can be replaced people can't:thumb:


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## robsonj (Apr 14, 2007)

that was a nice car, nice turnaround as well, sad to see its departed


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## dw0510 (Oct 22, 2006)

Nice work but what a sad end


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## drive 'n' shine (Apr 22, 2006)

Shine On said:


> Hmmmm....That joke didn't go down well when I offered it in jest!
> 
> And yes Bry, it is.


Thought it looked familiar :thumb: Nice little bar on the left hand side


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## Offyourmarks (Jan 4, 2006)

i thought wax was supposed to protect the car ? 

nice work though mate - bet you were glad you never stuffed it on the drive though :thumb:


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## ANDY GTR (Dec 6, 2008)

a shame i bet you he was very pleased with your detailing at least hes still alive.


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Wasn't expecting that Paul, nice work as always though, just glad no one was seriously hurt.


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

Cheers guys. Apparently the first thing his girlfriend said when she found out what he'd done (before she even asked if he was ok) was 'Reggie's going to kill you!' You have to imagine that in a Dutch accent for full effect :lol:


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Jees, all of that work and effort to end so quickly in such a disaster. 

Car looked spot on though :thumb:


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## King Eric (Feb 27, 2006)

Paul showed me the email from the owner, from what I can recall it was titled

'I'm so sorry!'-got to feel for the guy.

Sometimes we end up in the hedge/armco etc. It makes you better behind the wheel that is for sure. Shame but he has his life thats the only thing that matters!


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

glad they survived - that looks very nasty 

detail looks great.


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## chr15barn3s (Apr 10, 2007)

That's really unlucky but as you say its only metal. It looked really good though before the crash!


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## banditbarron (Sep 1, 2007)

Is it me or do i see a trend of smashing up freshly detailed Skyline's?


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Greaet job but a shame about the accident.


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## Streeto (Apr 3, 2008)

looks like he ran out of talent


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## enigma1992 (Mar 11, 2007)

> One thing of note with this car was the rather tired Falken tyres gracing the rims, not something I wanted to see in a 1.6 tonne, 400bhp car in bad weather.


Your suspicion of the tyres was spot on. It's not the kind of car you want to have wearing worn out ditch-seeker tyres..


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## Serious Performance (Oct 26, 2005)

Job well done, great results and sure the drive over was fun! A shame about the car's demise.

Both my GTR and old Impreza STI were bought with their Jap tyres still on and to say they were lethal is an understatement!


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## freon warrior (May 31, 2006)

A great read Paul, was not expecting the sad end though! Glad he is ok.


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## Nick_S (Dec 20, 2008)

Nice detail and an enjoyable rear. Although my heart sank when I saw the pcitures of the car after the accident. Just glad everyone is ok:thumb:


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## KleenChris (Apr 4, 2008)

Nice work shame about the crash


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## chris l (Mar 5, 2007)

Ouch looked good though glad no one was hurt


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## KTR (Feb 1, 2009)

Damn, what a waste. White Skylines look superb


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## kenmac (Feb 19, 2008)

Hope you got paid before he stuffed it!!


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## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

Lovely work on the Liner mate, but a shame its now gone. Glad your friend is ok and speedy recovery to the other person involved.


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## Little Man (Aug 5, 2007)

No way, totally un-expected the crash photos, what a shame 

Nice detail non-the-less.


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## Nissan SE-R's (Jan 1, 2009)

MMM... what a shame.... Godzilla died with all reflective dignitity. Thank god your friend is ok.


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## Dan Clark (Jun 25, 2007)

Awesome looking Skyline, shame about the crash.


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## mi16joe (Dec 29, 2007)

nice car bet you enjoyed driving it not as much as he did by the looks of things hope he heals soon and it must have been doin some to snap off back wheel and reck the whole side and front nice detail thou.


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

Estimated speed at impact was approx *cough* 70mph *cough*.

Or possibly a little more......


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

oohh..i was really enjoying the read until the bad news. sorry to hear about the car but glad nobody was hurt!


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

Lovely work, sorry about the ending


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## ZERO (Aug 11, 2008)

This is the first detail ive seen with a road trip thrown in, yet alone a crash aswell!

Nice work all the same, pity it ended the way it did but at least your friend is okay


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## chr15barn3s (Apr 10, 2007)

Shine On said:


> Estimated speed at impact was approx *cough* 70mph *cough*.
> 
> Or possibly a little more......


Was there a 1 on the front of that?


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## slickboy (Sep 10, 2008)

Great writeup on an awesome car. Sad to see it go so soon after it's potential was seen. Very glad that your friend was ok.


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