Luckily for me I work in a highly technical field. I'm a Systems and Network Engineer dealing with ISPs and hosting company network and server infrastructures. I'm used to highly technical.
I originally bought this car way back in August 2005. It was completely misrepresented from the get go. Was listed as 'good mechanical condition' It was far from it (for example, compression was down on two cylinders, top end rattles became apparent not long after I got it, a bearing on the input shaft in the gear box was as noisy as hell, 4WD system wasn't working front wheel bearings were shagged etc etc). There was also significant rust in the body that needed fixing prior to road registration.
After months of persistent negotiation, I got a pittance of a sum from the seller to go towards the rust work, and he also paid for a really very good half cut to replace the rooted engine, gearbox and rear diff.
Getting someone to do the work proved to be a challenge. At first I took the car to a known good panel workshop. It sat there for 6 months until they went out of business. I was lucky to get the car back. An employee who was also a GTR enthusiast took my car back to his rented house. I bumped into him by chance when I went to the then out-of-business workshop and caught him as he was leaving. I suspect he was attempting to thieve my car.
Quite a few months later I found another automotive workshop to do the work on my vehicle: Steve's Shed, located in Malaga.
Steve eventually was able to start after he moved to a new workshop in Wangara. The GTR Spent approximately 18 months in the workshop until it was ready for me to bring home and finish off prior to road registration. Work included quite alot of rust repairs - re-engineering the strength into the doorsills and floorpan area as well as fixing all the mechanical issues by transplanting all the good bits from the half-cut into the now rust free and painted body. Both myself and my Dad, Terry, spent a considerable amount of time at Steve's workshop helping to do the work. We got our hands dirty throughout the job doing welding, structural stuff, panel work, a bit of painting, and the mechanical works. I personally gained alot of knowledge and experience and now know the car back to front and inside out, barring the insides of the engine or gearbox.
The car was finally road registered in December 2008.
Since then, I've done a few mods, electronic boost controller was the first, a high-flow cat to compliment the 3" straight-through high flowing exhaust system, and the latest was a set of Tomei Poncam B's with adjustable cam gears that are still yet to be dialed in. The Poncams are designed to be a 'drop-in' replacement for the factory items and to a very large degree they are.
I've just had a Import101/Garage101 sump extension welded onto a spare sump. This is now off having the diff rebuilt with all new bearings, seals etc and I should have it back next weekend ready to fit.
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