New Trust Power Extreme R Mufflers!

So even though I am SLOWLY breaking in the car, one very odd feature of this Skyline NISMO is how quiet it is. Even at full throttle.

Check out the OEM muffler tips - same as on the Z!

So, I began to research what kind of aftermarket muffers/exhaust systems were available for this car. Turns out, as the laws here in Japan are quite strict it means that there are very few offerings. Basically, each exhaust system has to be certified for a particular vehicle, and technically the Skyline Nismo is NOT the same car as the Skyline 400R on which it is based (as a limited edition car, the NISMO is homologated on an individual basis, not in a batch like the 400R), and so I couldn't buy an aftermarket exhaust for the 400R and be done. No, the paperwork has to say the exhaust is for the Skyline NISMO, otherwise the car will not pass shaken in the future. 

Being a NISMO car, of course Nismo offers a titanium version that saves over 10kg.

https://www.nismo.co.jp/products/web_catalogue/exhaust/sports_titanium_muffler_v37.html

But... why the DLC coating that makes the tips look black? Who thought of that? I mean they should offer a non black version! And of course the Nismo pricing... and it looks just as constrictive as the OEM system.

As I was pondering what to do, my friends at Mine's told me that Trust/Greddy was coming out with a system certified for the Skyline Nismo.  (The photo below shows the system for the 400R upon which it was based, looks like the page for the Skyline Nismo has been taken down...)

https://greddy-shop.com/?pid=168483153

The Nismo system has a pipe diameter of 51mm, and a tail diameter of 110mm. The Trust system has a pipe diameter that starts at 60mm and expands to 70mm, with a tail diameter of 115mm.  For any turbo charged car, better exhaust breathing should result in better response, right?  And just the straightish pipe arrangement should in itself mean less restriction!

So, I found a day where I was free and the guys at Mine's said they had time, and drove down (got honked at and a thumbs up by a trucker who was excited to see one out on the road, I guess?)

Still think I made the right choice on the color.

They had Nakayama-san pull it into their garage for me.

I don't understand why the engine bay was so exciting but I guess they wanted to check it out!  
A future VX-Rom for this car?

As I drove back home, the difference was immediate! To be honest the car still felt fast, but wow it sounds SO much better, befitting the twin turbo 3.0 VRDDTT it has!  And of course it looks fantastic too! 

But there was one weird thing, I started hearing a weird buzzing sound from the rear seats.  At first, I thought it was because I hadn't removed the factory clear plastic from the rear seats (yep...). Now, it turns out that this car has two electronic aids to adjust the ambient cabin noise. One is Nissan's Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), and the other is the Active Sound Enhancement to supplement the natural exhaust noise.  

And guess what - on its 1 year check up, the dealer figured out that the ANC was acting up by trying to counter the new exhaust tone! That led to a buzzing sound coming from the rear speaker that is used to cancel out ambient noise.  So I had them turn it off, but leave the ASE... so now the car sounds perfect! 

I wonder how many other owners out there with a Trust Power Extreme R muffler had the same issue?

Re-Doing the Paint Protection Film!

So the reason I haven't posted anything lately, is simply because it turned out that the paint protection film job by Watabe-san at the introduction of Prince Fukushima's Midorikawa-san, was simply no good. Or rather and more accurately, it was extremely bad. 

It started when both Dino and I noticed some weird lines in the hood. 

When I complained, Watabe-san reassured me that some time in the sun would cure it.  To me, that is NOT a correct answer. I was also not happy because I found that in certain areas, the film was beginning to peel off, there was some obvious dust trapped in some areas, and further Watabe-san had not completely protected the bottom of the side sills - bespoke to the Skyline Nismo - and therefore left it super exposed to rock chips as I drove. 

Sloppy! That is a piece of dust between the black paint and the PP film

Here too!

So I went and got some PPF and did the install myself for the underside, but also took advantage of leftover material to remove the interior side sills and wrap the plastic with PPF as well (I had asked this to be done as well but the excuse was - it doesn't stick well).

Looks pretty good huh!

The trick is to heat up the film so it stretches, then wrap the edges around, using tape to keep it in place

And just put back in place.  Once in place, the fitment keeps the film in place.

Given the lack of precision, the attitude and failure to cover areas I had requested, I was beginning to have second thoughts about the quality.  Would I get super annoyed every time I got in the car, because my eye would catch some dust trapped in the film?  So, I found a local shop - BlackCats Detailing - and asked the owner there, Takahashi-san, for a second opinion. 

He confirmed that the work done by previously was amateurish, especially in those areas where the film was begining to lift.  This is indicative of a rushed job where a quality check was not done. He ALSO found some knife marks in the paint - luckily they could be removed by some artful polishing - that indicated that Watabe-san was cutting too deep into the plastic film, another indication of amateur level work.

You can see the scar left behind by the razor blade about halfway between the taped areas

This scar is more visible, right above my finger

Of course, I was furious - and more so because Watabe-san - who as you remember came to Nismo Omori to show me his handiwork - either knew what he had done, and not mentioned it (from a legal perspective, indiciating a wrongful act he did knowingly) OR, he was negligent in doing so, which indicates incompetence.  I could not believe that someone would be so careless (if negligent) with a brand new car, and furthermore, I could not believe that Nismo and Prince Fukushima had introduced not just me, but other owners of brand new cars (apparently an R35 GT-R Nismo as well!) to Watabe-san.

Now, working at Nissan corporate must have helped, and it also didn't hurt that I am a lawyer. Midorikawa-san was super apologetic, and in the end Prince Fukushima took care of what they could, but to be honest this should have never happened in the first place. In this case, the usual apologies did not suffice.  But of course since giving me an identical brand new, unblemished car was impossible, I asked for them to not just refund my money, but to pay for all of the fees I would have to pay BlackCats to fix the problems (like removing the old film, buffing out the scratches, and then do a proper paint protection film job on my car.

Flash foward and the end result is a spectacular result - check out: BlackCats IG page

Small shop, but super clean and well equipped.

Dark film over the taillights

Smoked film on the turn signals in the mirrors to match the front smoked turn signals

He even put PPF on the carbon rear spoiler!

Not one spec of dust!

 

This better photo courtesy of BlackCats

Did I mention that I took advantage of this opportunity to have the ENTIRE CAR wrapped? Yes, this is a level of protection that not even my R33 GT-R enjoys, but after all of the angst of dealing with the first PPF job, and being pleasantly surprised at how good Takahashi-san at BlackCats is at fixing problems but also doing so efficiently, I decided to go all out.  It helps that the PPF he uses is Xpel Ultimate, which is the more advanced version than that I had installed on the R33 many years ago. Note, the original film which caused the problems is a 3M product, not sure of the technical differences but I know that XPel keeps a database of the templates used to cut the film BEFORE it gets applied to the car body, thereby reducing any chance of razor blade damage.

So what is next for this car? Well now that I can finally drive it... need to enjoy breaking it in, and maybe some initial mods to bring out its full potential!

Ok the Skyline NISMO is REALLY Back!!! And Yes I Started Detailing It To a Proper Standard...

So in my last post, the car had finally been returned to me. BUT, truth be told, I was not happy with one thing.

Take a look at the car when I had it sent back to Omori Factory shortly thereafter.

Looks good you say? Well so Sawanobori-san, the guy Nismo Omori Factory entrusts to detail their show cars, was kind enough to find time to do my Skyine after he took care of the Nismo CRS cars that came back from the Nismo Festival. I was especially happy to learn that he also added some PGP windshield protection as well - this I suspect is some kind of ceramic coating so that works for me!

The issue are these Nismo LMGT4s.  You see, these are lighter (and rumor has it, less rigid) than the stock Enkeis, which might be good in terms of losing unsprung weight. HOWEVER, this car has the Digital Adaptive Steering (steer by wire system) which is set up using all of the OEM parameters - car weight, wheel and tire weight, tire grip, suspension, etc. - and so when I swapped out the Enkeis for the LMGT4s, it felt really artificial, even in Sports+ mode where feedback is heaviest and most accurate.  So, I quickly decided I wanted to put the Enkeis back on.

Except the guys at Nismo did not want me swapping the tires back again - something about how the bead gets weakened and so I was happy to have the car live at Omori Factory while they also ordered new OEM tires.

Was nice to be the ONLY customer! He he he...

HAD to add this photo....

So when I went to pick up the car, I saw this:

My LMGT4s, ready to be hauled home.

Pretty interesting - apparently new tires have a slick protectant coating and Omori Factory has these tire wraps in order to prevent the floor from getting slicked up.

From the side, just because I could. I started wondering if I could do this at home too...

Photo courtesy of Miyata-san, Chairman of the Z31 Club

Once I got the car home, I did a full inspection of the detail.  It was pretty good, but Samanobori-san, like most Japanese detailers, uses Echelon, which I found to be hydrophilic, not hydrophobic.  The theory here is that instead having water bead up, instead water forms into big puddles that then slide off the car, leaving the paint dry. 

Normally, this would probably not be a problem for most people. But I am not most people. First, my cars do not see much rain, especially the GT-R and now this car. Second, I do believe Japan is several years behind when it comes to car detailing products. Hence while waiitng delivery of this car I had done some research in my spare time, and ordered the Advanced Graphene kit from Adam's (and now I hear that there are now even better products on the market... oh well...)

Kit contains surface prep (far left) to remove oils and other contaminants before application of the graphene ceramic coating liquid.

So yes, I know that before applying a ceramic coating, you are supposed to remove the existing protectant/sealant.  However, I did not do so this time for the following reasons.

1. I'm lazy; or maybe just getting older and less energy, etc.  Oh and it's cold out now.

2. I heard that layering ceramic on top of ceramic can sometimes work

3. Given the hydrophilic quality of the Echelon coating, and my experience with the Elgrand where the guts of a dead bug were seemingly absorbed by the hydrophilic Echelon coating, whereas I had to resort to a chemical buffing to remove, I was hopeful that similarly, the underlying Echelon would soak up the Adams coating. And if Adams is hydrophobic, then prevent water based dirt from being absorbed into the paint.

4.  Life is an experiment. If this extra bit helps to protect the car and the paintwork becomes slick (the Echelon does not feel slick, it is more like a clean plate fresh from the dishwasher) -  I like slick paintwork!

5. Presumably the paint has been corrected of all blemishes, but if I mechanically remove the Echelon, there is a risk that I would end up leaving scratches. 

Obviously you can't tell, but even immediately after application the paint felt slicker

The Adams kit also contains this UV light - the graphene compound has elements in it that glow so you can tell where you did NOT wipe off completely!

I also had this sticker Dino had given me, I was trying to figure out if it made sense to apply to my car somewhere.  In the past, I was lucky enough to get a Speedhunters sticker which I applied to the GT-R (and it's still there!).

Not sure if this is legal, but I wonder if I could run around like this? LOL.

Anyway, I am taking things very slow with the application of the graphene ceramic coating. Will update here when done, with my impressions! And yes, when the car was temporarily back, I also applied several products to the interior to provide protection to the leather and Alcantara. I will update fully on that once I finish the rest of the car! Here's to a wonderful 2025, 2024 was just too crazy!

The Skyline NISMO is BACK! (with PPF and some Nissan dealer options!)

It fits PERFECTLY under the Bendpak lift (at the tray position set to the same level as when the GT-R is parked up there)

The wait is over! The Skyline is back (or rather, I finally got to drive it home!) and tucked safely away in my garage at home.

I can finally start drriving this car and breaking it in! Midorikawa-san from Nissan Prince Fukushima was kind enough to come down with it on his car loader, in exchange I handed off my GT-R for him to take care of now - the biannual shaken is due, and yeah why not make a few changes while he is at it?

See you in a month or so! 

So what work did I have Midorikawa-san at Prince Fukushima arrange for me?

First, I had pre-ordered the vehicle-specific NISMO LMGT4 wheels in gloss black, so even though I really like the OEM wheels, I went ahead and swapped wheels, using the same tires.  Note, it's important to keep using these tires as they were developed by Sumitomo tire (i.e. Dunlop) especially for this car, based on the compound they developed for the NISMO R35 GT-R.

Before:

Note silver colored lug nuts

After

And with Nismo racing lug nuts! To be honest, having my doubts about this look...

Second, as you know I tend to be a bit OCD when it comes to protecting and caring for my cars. So naturally, right after I ordered the car I started researching paint protection film shops here in Japan.  Yes, for the GT-R I had found a local place that does this for Porsches, but the guys at Nismo have very high standards and recommended I talk to Midorikawa-san.  He recommended a local guy in Fukushima who he swore did better work than most of the shops in Tokyo and Yokohama, having done a comparison (and who applied PPF to Midorikawa-san's own R34 GT-R!). 

So while the Skyline was at Watabe-san's shop, Midorikawa-san kept me entertained by sending me these progress photos:

Yep, had the entire hood/bonnet wrapped...

And the entire front bumper too of course. 

Oh, also got smoked (to the maximum degree allowed under Japanese law) film applied to the headlights, fog and DRL!

And, they were not wrong about Watabe-san.  The attention to detail is good, and for a unique car like this we aren't talking pre-cut patterns but bespoke film cutting.  When the car came back to Nismo, we inspected his work just to be sure.

Check out how awesome that smoked film looks!

I tihnk you can see how white the lenses look here, before film was applied.

You can see here that in addition to the hood/bonnet and side fenders, he did a good job on the front bumper - cutting around the Nismo logo.  

Can't tell now... time will tell if dirt and bugs cause build-up and the film to start being noticeable

In addition, I had him wrap the Skyline Nismo specific side skirts, and to make sure that all body pieces like the front and rear bumpers had protection extending all the way underneath the vehicle, to the further extent possible. 

Watabe-san himself showing me how far the film extends underneath

There was also some film applied to the interior, in high wear/risk areas.

You can make out the line where the film ends

Finally,  he found some smoke film that matches the dark chrome on the windows, which he applied over the standard chrome inserts on the door handles.  He also found film that could be applied over the Nissan logo on the front grill (some sensors are behind that apparently).

Ok then so what work did Prince Fukushima do?

First, they installed this Alpine digital rear mirror with built in dashcam (model number DVR-DM1000B-IC). Or rather, it is a dashcam (with front and rear cameras) that is mirror shaped as it uses rubber bands to loop onto the OEM mirror.  I am going to tinker with this as I think there could be room for improvement, but for now this works great. Alpine does provide proper windshield mounts for popular vehicles, but apparently the Nissan Skyline is not one of them.

Second, some cosmetic stuff.  First the fake carbon Nismo door inner protectors on the insides of the doors (so if you have a habit of using your foot to kick the door open... it protects the inside of the doors from scratches).  Then, one Nissan dealer option - the auto fold mirrors. For some reason, the feature of having the door mirrors fold automatically when you lock the car, is not an option avaialble from the factory. Weird.

Apparently a real pain to install.

More cosmetic stuff - note that the external door mirrors on the Skyline Nismo are just painted black with a red sticker. Anything gloss black risks getting scratched and showing such scratches, so naturally I had them install the OEM dealer option real carbon fiber mirror covers. Putting those red stickers on to make it look like how it was before, but just in carbon, was a nice touch.  Same with the trunk spoiler, I changed that out from standard black painted plastic one to the dealer option carbon fiber spoiler that is available on lesser Skylines.

Finally, turns out that Nissan dealers can apply an anti-chip clear undercoat, so I asked for that too!

So what's next? In addition to breaking in the engine, I am leaning towards getting a professional detailer to apply a ceramic coat. I myself will take care of some details for the interior, as you will see in some upcoming posts!