1991 C33 Laurel Medalist Turbo

The only brands I can find are Carmodifywonder who do a lumpy style bonnet with a vent in it, Stage21 which is a CMF copy and D-Max do a carbon one but its twice the price of a CMF and four times the price of a Stage21.

Hadn't thought of sprayers! Ill have a look through my stash of junk and see if I have the parts.

 

So winter was supposed to be a time to get the body sorted with a new kit and make it look pretty again especially after last year’s mishap with a tyre wall BUT in I thought that whilst I continue to go gravel hunting on a regular basis, I may as well keep bodging this kit back together and get a new one when I’m less of a liability. So I glassed some strength back into it, threw in some better placed cable ties and called it quits. The rear bumper is beyond saving and never fitted that well anyway.



I gave my wheels a clean-up and polished them so the gravel rashed lips didn’t look so bad. Then fitted some new centre caps to my wheels because the gold ones were badly corroded and painted in Humbrol model paint on the coldest day of the year when I got them a couple of years back. They looked a mess close up.

I am waiting on some plain stainless bolts to show up so I can be rid of the gold.





Managed to get hold of a spare pair of these brackets. They are a unique length for the C33 Laurel & A31 Cefiro so I was happy to find a pair. My mate braced them for me inside then plated over the top so they are super strong now.





The money I saved by not buying a new kit I spent on a gearbox conversion. The fear of destroying another SR box was stressing me out every time I went drifting. Call it paranoia but after destroying my first SR box on my first drift day, I’d rather have peace of mind and not have a ticking time bomb of SR box explosion on my conscience every lap I considered all options of Z32, CD009, RB, BMW etc and in the end a good old RB25 box came up on eBay cheap not too far away so I grabbed it.

I wanted a nice factory looking install without hacking, bashing or a bent dick gear lever so I opted for the s Alpha Omega conversion kit. I chose this because they claimed if fitted correctly it’ll give a 100% stock feel with no bashing, cutting the transmission tunnel for the lever or making a bent cock lever. It all just bolts in and fits like factory (mostly) but it did take considerable more effort and being for an S chassis, it didn’t 100% fit my car but I made it work. The instructions are both brilliant and rubbish at the same time. So detailed in places they are confusing and so vague in other places they are more confusing. Every bolt is supplied in a bag but not labelled what bolt is for what job so its pure guess work in places.

I eventually managed to get it all built up though and in the car but it keeps dragging without my foot on the clutch not in gear. Im wondering if it’s the clutch release spacing or the thick soupy oil I put in it. I need to test it on the road really but Corona has got in the way of that.

Not too keen on the lever feel. Its a 17% short shifter but it feels really tight. I kinda liked the spoon in a bowl of soup OEM lever feel.









Keeping my factory install idea I used a Nissan Navara speedo drive with a R33 GTST cog on it to give me an accurate and working cable speedo. I can dig out the part numbers if anyone is interested.

Once piece propshaft made by Dunning & Fairbank in Leeds.



Since one of my tie rods had developed a huge amount of play in it I fitted some Ikeya Formula tie rods with rack spacers which were a nightmare to figure out because I’ve never used this style before and my Japanese skills are not up to the standard of reading instructions.



And on the subject of lock, I always wondered why my car felt like it had more lock than a stock Nissan would usually have. I found the answer. Someone in Japan has hammered back the lock stop on the bottom arms so the little stopper nub goes further in. Pikey but it works I guess.



The early 2000’s called, they want their strobe headlights back. Some will think its super cheesy but I like this sort of silly stuff. When trying to find a place for strobe bulbs to go I found the sidelights already had strobe bulbs in them but the wires were cut so they car has had a strobe kit on it in the past. I removed the old bulbs and fitted the new ones then hacked up a spare dash coin tray that was in the wrong colour anyway and had been drilled with holes before (junk basically) and mounted the control box to it in a “that’ll do” fashion. (I have kept the original correct colour coin tray for safe keeping).









Hazard warning switch randomly stopped working on me so that cost me $50 for a brand new one from Japan and its not here yet.

Whilst the dash was apart for the hazard switch I finally installed the 180SX digital climate panel I picked up in Japan last year. Just requires the plugs re-pinning and one wire adding in. Dead easy to do, just time consuming moving 36 wires about without getting all muddled.



Final upgrade was a new drivers rear light. It’s always been a bit pink and faded compared to the others which looks silly in some photos. Laurel lights are so expensive though.



More soon once Corona dies out and I can go crash it again.

 

Everything I buy has to be imported from Japan. I use Jesse Streeter for most parts I buy. I found the passenger side vent by buying a whole dashboard I found online at an Upgarage and Jesse stripped it down then sent me the bits I wanted off the dashboard.

 

Ever get the feeling you that instead of cars, it’d be better luck to buy a log cabin in the woods, find a random book made of human skin and read from it? (Evil Dead reference in case you’re not into cheesy horror). Whatever happens can’t be any worse than owning an old Nissan.

RB box conversion all buttoned up. Attempted a test drive and couldn’t find any gear when moving at all. Just a big box of crunches and painful noises. Did some head scratching and looking inside the bellhousing with a mirror on a stick to see the clutch release carrier was too long and not letting me disengage the clutch.

Box out.
Thinner clutch release carrier fitted.
Box in.
Test drive. Now clutch not engaging enough.
Box out.
Spacer behind release bearing.
Box in.
Better but not enough.
Box out. (shake it all about)
Bigger spacer behind release bearing.
Box in.
Solved.

Went on the first long test drive and holy mother of god it vibrated like hell. Could feel it at any speed and the entire car shook so bad. Definitely something wrong here.

Sent the prop back for rebalancing. All good but they did it again anyway.

No change.
Changed the pinion angle by spacing the box up.
No change.
Spaced the box down.
No change.
Sent the prop back to be checked again. All fine. D&F suggested trying a 2 piece just in case it didn’t like a 1 piece.
No more vibration.

To be fair to D&F, they only charged me for the one prop even though they did have it back 3 times, made two props and there was 3 lots of courier charges they paid for. Can’t fault them with their help and advice at all. They were very good at responding to my issue and fixing it quickly. Each time I had the prop back in under a week all freshly painted in a massive shipping box. I will definitely use them again in future.

Finally the RB box conversion saga was over but all that hassle meant I’d missed the Teesside test day in May and now the car had other plans on how to bleed my wallet dry.




On the first successful drive I remembered an issue that started on the way home from Teesside last September. I started with an intermittent steering vibration. It would come and go at a constant speed for no reason and the ferocity it shook varied too. I checked the wheels, checked the tracking, checked the tie rods and ends. All good but it was really un-nerving so that threw the June Teesside day out the window before I’d even booked it. Google eventually suggested it may be the self-centring spring that’s gone weak so I nabbed one from an old R32 GTR rack I had and fitted that which made a difference but not much as there was no guarantee that spring wasn’t weakened or the wrong strength either. Whilst doing the spring change I also noticed one of the rack seals had gone.



Quickly discovered that trying to find an S body rack that’s not shafted or £1m is very hard. Managed to find an S14 one from a breakers yard for a good price with a month’s warranty on it. Turns out that C33’s use near as damn it a S13 rack. The S14 rack bolted up OK but I needed the S14 bushes so had to buy those. Conceptua Tuning to the rescue.

Camera trickery below. They are the same length.




Is that the end? Of course not.

On the test drive for the rack I heard the distinct sound of metal on metal from the rear when braking. Time for some new pads I guess. Whipped the old pads out and found they were Project Mu ones that were absolutely trashed and my discs had a huge lip on them.



OK I’ll bang some discs and pads in. Pads were stock S13 ones but discs……yeah that was a hard one. With the car being converted to 5 stud in Japan I had no idea what brakes were on it. After some measuring and lots of googling in Japanese I eventually found out my discs were off a small oddball of cars like a bottom spec R34, Non-turbo Stagea, Gloria, Cedric and bottom spec C35 Laurel. Couldn’t find anything in the UK for sale so I phoned EBC and they said they don’t do anything in that size….and EBC do everything for everything. My only real option was to buy discs from Dixcel Japan who were the only supplier listing that size of disc or change my rear brake setup to something I could get pads for.

With Teesside Drift Weekender coming up the plan was to bang some new EBC pads in for now, grind the lip off the discs and deal with it at the end of the summer season. Got the first side done OK but the 2nd side was a right chew to get apart due to a seized slider, then I found the piston of the caliper was all wet. Blown seal. Fantastic……absolutely bloody fantastic.



No point rebuilding calipers I can’t get discs for so panic buying mode engaged and by the end of the night I’d bought a pair of R33 rear calipers, discs and pads to replace the lot.

Calipers came from Nippon Auto Spares and the service was brilliant. Ordered Tuesday evening at 9pm, arrived Thursday lunchtime. They even threw in all the bolts to mount them, Run-Max braided lines and they came with a nearly new set of Dixcel pads which it would seem rude to waste so the lot went on and Ill save the pads I bought for the future.



All bolted up with no issues. I cut the lip off the brake guards for disc clearance.





Also I made a crappy sump guard. It looks rubbish but it only took 5 minutes to make, has one job to do and it only has to do it once so I don't care. When it gets ruined I'll make a wider version that bolts up better. Improvise, adapt, overcome etc



Oh and in case you missed it on a picture above. I bought a private plate for it so I had to remake the light up lettering again.





Next up….Teesside Drift Weekender. See you there.....

 

Final push for Teessides Drift Weekender.

The 180SX digi climate panel had two blown bulbs so I bought some LED’s to do the whole car but being an idiot, I bought the wrong colour. I wanted white, bought pink. Actually doesn’t look as bad as I expected. Its growing on me.




Repainted by drift SA3R wheels in a hurry, in the rain, with a spitting spray can so I won’t show you the absolute arse of a job I made. Yet they still looked better than before.

Discovered I didn’t have the brake pad shims for the R33 rear calipers and oh, my, god the squeal noise is insane. Didn’t have time or money to get raped by a UK parts supplier for the kit so I copper greased the shit out of the pads, loaded the car and set off to Teesside. Copper grease didn’t work.

I only booked on the Saturday and was wanting to treat it as a test day really. Last time I was out was September 2019 and with the new RB box, rack and other parts I didn’t know how the car was would react. Also I’ve had an ankle operation since the last outing and I didn’t know how that would hold up. It was pouring with rain first thing which was a nice ease into things and feel everything out. The short shifter that’s part of the RB box conversion took some getting used to with some 3rd to 4th shifts instead of 3rd to 2nd which ruined a couple of runs that started out so well. It took until after lunch for me to get into the swing of things properly after putting in some truly abysmal laps. I wasn’t hammering lap after lap all day but kept taking a break just to check things over.

With all the pro’s twinning with each other, no one offered to twin with me so I just did solo runs all day. Probably for the best really.

Overall the car performed really well and there weren’t any issues to report. No trips into the gravel, didn’t hit anything and I only span out 3 times that I can remember. My ankle held up OK too. Now I just need more seat time to settle back into it and start pushing hard again.





I did keep getting sabotaged by my mates through. Every time I left the car alone, I came back to find more stuff stuck to it. I ended up with a “powered by bitchdust” sticker above the exhaust, a teeny tiny spoiler, an I love Cock sticker on the windscreen and my Instagram name on the window (I don’t like Instagram tag stickers). Payback was had when my mate later found out he couldn’t get into his E36 because someone had ductaped the driver’s door shut, taped his keys to the back window and late on his pizza was cabled tied shut inside the box so he couldn't get into it.



Oh and a slight mishap on the way home. Getting a lick on down a country road, came round a sweeping left hander, heard a brief scraping round, looked in the mirror to see my rear bumper in the middle of the road just as a Hilux ploughed through it. Whoops! We both stopped, his car was OK, my bumper was worse for wear so I broke out the cable ties and drill, cracked open a zesty beverage and sat down at the side of the road in the sun stitching it back together. Job done, on my way home again.






Next jobs to do:
Rear brake squeal shims!
Adjust handbrake.
Glass some strength back into the rear bumper.
Book another drift day.

 

I don't like you anymore...

Yes I know it should be lower and it looks rubbish as high as it is but I live in the middle of the countryside. It already chins its way down some roads and when its loaded up with all my shit for drift days, it scrapes along already. Also if it was any lower it wouldn't get down the hill to my garage and over the hump of the 2 post lift. I already have to remove the front bumper and reverse it down into the yard because it won't go down forwards. I run it as low as I can for the area I live in

Hey those advans already have a 5mm spacer on them! haha. I tried some 10s but didn't have enough stud length and I cant be arsed swapping studs out just so my drift wheels look better. The tiny 205/40/17's I run also don't help the aesthetics but its the cheapest size brand new 17" I can get from my local garage.

 

Yeah man I've always been caged. No way I'd drift an un-caged C33. Flex city! I wasn't really up for twinning if I'm honest so I'm glad no one offered because I can't say no when I'm asked but I was just quite happy feeling it out again on my own and getting used to things. Plus you'd leave me for dust in the lead and I'd spin out in the lead and ruin it anyway haha.

I cant bin the short shifter, its a built in part of the kit from Alpha Omega Racing kit that re-positions the lever in the stock location and not too far forward. Its only a 17% reduction or something but its really noticeable in the side to side movement. Ill get used to it. They say it shouldn't destroy synchros but I do kind of wish they did one that had an OEM feel to it. I'm stuck with it now so not a lot I can do.

 

Wow 3 years since this was updated so I’ll try to summarise.

Ditched all the stickers off the rear window and just kept the ones I liked the most. Mainly legit Japanese ones I’ve picked up in Japan.

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Swapped the Kranze ERM’s out for some 18X9 ET25 Work VSKF’s that I built.

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Did drift days. Crashed, broke my aero, repaired it, crashed, repaired it, crashed, repaired it, crashed. Rinse and repeat.


The entire kit now is absolutely ruined. Theres no shape to the rear bumper anymore, the sideskirts are barely held on and the front bumper is bashed too so I manager to import a brand new Final Konnexion kit which has been joined back together and just needs fitting before it can be painted. The plan is to run a kit for shows and then chuck this one on for drift days.


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Fitted oil temp and oil pressure Defi Racer gauges into the centre console so I can keep an eye on the vitals which you cant see in the pic. Also fitted some door bars.

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GK Tech catch can and viscous fan went on:

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Found a GT2871R for a bargain price so earlier this year I put that on and added some Tomei Poncams and BC valve springs. Unfortunately on first start up it decided to chuck a rocker which snapped the arm, snapped the shim and I ended up playing “hunt the metal shards in my engine” for a few hours. Luckily it was in the sump and no damage was done. After that it went to Protuner for a remap and made 360bhp BUT the engine is getting tired now. Its smoking a bit and smells a bit oily so a rebuilt is within its future when I can find the cash.



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I’ve got some Project Freedom Fighter knuckles made by Tezuka from D1GP that I want to fit during the winter down time. I will need kinked tension rods though and all my rose joints on the rear end are due replacing at the same time.

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Found some more of its history from Japan. Tracked down an ex-owner from 2011-2013 who used to go to Fuji Speedway in it and drift in his mates team. He sent me some pics of it in 2012 at an event

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So I went out and tracked down some SSR Kakimoto wheels as it wore in those pics and got them painted up to match. These are not my front drift wheels to save my road wheels from any potential damage.




And finally bought, built and restored a Suzuki Cappuccino.