Offset ain't everything.

[O2car]

Hey

Nice car(s), nice story, nice works, keep going,

Your wheels are fkn madness too

[Dr.AK]

Some inspiring stuff, Alex

Wheel designs look spot on, some exciting stuff there. If I ever get another cool car again, I might come knocking for a set

[h3llk1t3]

So. Long overdue update; where do I begin?

Let's split this in 3 chapters


Chapter 1:
R34 - Falling Out Of Love.

I don't mean with the R34 itself, but with the cross factory body kit. These are the last pictures I shot with the kit on:









While it looked ultra sexy I no longer felt it and left me with wanting to sell the kit.

Luckily I found a buyer that decided it was the kit for him and so I sold it which left me with a naked R34, once more.



The reason for all of this was simply me liking the Z-tune looks so much more when slammed on the ground that it was time to do the switch.

That meant I needed new front fenders, rear fenders, side skirts and extensions.
I got to work, genuine GTR skirts were a breeze to fit, Ztune front fenders were quite some work but expected to be and then came the rear overfenders which put me in a whole world of pain.













I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's ridiculous how much more it is required to make these shitty frp parts fit perfectly, I've yet to find good quality frp parts.

Either way, I painted the front fenders because they were done and before I could finish the rear fenders winter hit and I brought the car into storage. This is the state the r34 is in right now (in the background is my X5 with some 'new' 20 inch OEM shinies on)



I still gotta finish the rear fenders with a ton more custom work, the rear bumper extensions as well as the uras roof wing that recently arrived.



Oh, I also changed my rear sleeve bags to proper bellows. Sleeves are fkn horrible with a pressure based system.





I know, boring stuff. I fear that's it on the Skyline for now.


Chapter 2:

Wheels Wheels Wheels

The past couple of months no day has gone by without working our wheel endeavour. After people have seen mine in person and seen the few classic designs we've spun up with some modern execution as I like to call it, we've had quite some interest in our wheels. As such, we've decided to spend the money and work with an American company on a custom forging for our wheels - the same company that big brand wheel manufacturers use to source their forgings from.

Why an American company when we're based in Europe you might ask?

Simple, cost and flexibility.

We couldn't find a single German company, or from any other EU country for that matter, that could offer us the customization and pricing we could afford simply.
That means we'll be getting our first set of forgings before summer and should be able to finish the first sets before the season is over.

These are our current setups:

















I hope you like them.

Please understand the following: I'm not showing you this for advertising purposes. I've been updating you on the progress of making my own wheels throughout this thread. If you're not interested feel free to let me know.

We're just 2 dudes doing something we love; we do not just simply ask some Chinese company to make a 3 piece wheel for you to sell for horrendous amounts of cash - which appears to be a popular thing to do considering I could name several high profile brands doing exactly that. The research we had to do throughout the year to find suppliers has opened our eyes to many questionable business practices.

If you buy everything already finished in China, bolt it together in Germany - IT'S NOT MADE IN GERMANY.

False advertising 101.

This is happening.

That is not us.

We do shit ourselves.

On that note, before we decided to order a whole pallet of custom forgings from the US following happened: My man with the red R32 that had my BBS RS on for some time had a spot at the Essen Motor Show and he was very interested in one of my designs. Long story short we made it happen, built another prototype set and had a great time doing so. The combo looked glorious.

















The response to displaying our wheels on the EMS has been so overwhelmingly positive it basically fueled our decision to go ahead with the custom forgings.

Also I now sold my prototypes and am looking at building another set that will fit better with the new kit. We're also looking at going for a 2p version, where the lip and barrel is one piece like on BBS LMs so we can further reduce costs.


Chapter 3:

Winter depression.

I'm not depressed depressed, but fuck me I'm bored in winter. I picked up a gimbal and a prime lense, tried to grab a few clips and attempted to cut stuff together. I might try to do more of this youtube stuff in the future. Here's the first try:



Ah ye, sub me. Quick.

[SebastienPeek]

That is some serious lift!

Nice to see the whole process of converting coilovers to air suspension. Once again, awesome write up and damn this is cool.

[h3llk1t3]

Alright, proper update.

Let's talk suspension, again. Ages ago I mentioned I wanted to run an air suspension system in my R34 so I can basically drive to work with it, the Mount Everest speedbumps at the end of my road and the ramp goin into the work carpark do not allow me to drive anything else than offroad height.

So, Accuair was no longer offering TWR struts for the R34, but they suddenly came out with that wonderful Endo tank that would have a compressor built-in in order to save space and reduce noise levels. I just had to have it.

Here was the thing - I do not want height sensors, I wanted a pressure based system. I want a static spring rate when I adjust the pressure and don't want it to jump all over the place while driving a certain way. As most of you may know, Accuair does not offer anything pressure based.

So I went looking at Airlift, they have been having pressure based systems for a long time and their newest is the 3P system. Unfortunately Airlift was also not offering any struts for the R34.

At this point I was a bit disheartened, but I've gone back and done some more research and came up with the ultimate plan.

I went on and purchased the Endo CT from Accuair which is the tank with the compressor inside, and I opted to pair it with Airlift's 3P management system. I really wanted to best of both worlds.

You may wonder now what about the struts though?

I simply decided to convert my Blitz coilovers.

Turns out that there really is not much more to it than simply changing the regular spring on the coilover for an air spring.
Generally, any modern air strut is nothing else than a regular coilover strut with an air spring on it.

I proceeded searching for manufacturers of these air springs and I ended up with finding suppliers for companies like OCD, Airtekk, but also the big ones like Airlift afaik.

I went on and ordered a double bellow for the fronts and a sleeve type for the rears.

All there is to do, you have to measure the diameter of the top of your shaft, of your coilover that is; as well as the thread on the housing of the strut.
When you got those measurements you can basically convert your struts for less than 1/5 of the cost of buying new struts with air springs preinstalled.

Lemme show you how that went for me, let's start with the fronts.

This is one of the front bags, next to my Blitz coilover.





As you can see on top there is a small hole that is exactly the size of the top of the shaft.



On the bottom you can see the thread that has to be the same as the one on the housing of your strut. You can also see 2 o-rings built in that will press against the housing and form an air tight seal.



After disassembly it's all just a matter of lubing shit up, especially the o-rings and put it back together minus the original spring, the bump stops and those foreskin thingies that go over the bump stops.







Also, you cannot forget the oring on top. That one aint built in but the bag has a recess on the inside for it to also make it air tight.







Just pop it back in and voila, air strut done; good tip is also to not make it too low right away.





That's the front, let's have a look at the rears that are literally the same process only with a bag that is formed slightly different.

















At that point it was just really down to installing the rest of the system. Luckily a good mate of mine installs these systems for a living and popped over for the weekend and we gone at it. I don't have many pics of the install, only a shot of the Endo in the boot which has not been reassembled yet, but instead I'm gonna show you my buddy's car which is bagged as well and you might recognize the wheels!



OK fine here's the Endo and the 3P for proof purposes.





So there you go, Airlift 3P management with an Accuair Endo CT on Blitz air struts. World first?

Here, have some shitty mobile shots with IG filters until I'm getting proper pics done.





Oh and I also got a short vid to show how fucking high that thing goes now. Disregard the dust.

[h3llk1t3]

They did well to stretch those on there. I have the same tyres in 20" barely stretched at all (295/30 on an 11" and 265/30 on a 10") and it still looked like a tight/tough fit.

Not driven on mine yet, you like the tyres?

Wasn't too tough I reckon, my shop has done it with ease. And yes, the PS4s are hands down best in class and feel great.

Nontheless, let's have a tiny update; I'll work on another one later today.

Last time I forgot to mention that after all the shit I've gone through with fitting the JDL bonnet, I decided to do what every sensible person would do - ditching it. Bought a new one that is fitting perfectly instead from a dude in germany that is building this kinda stuff for time attack cars all over the world apparently.

The new one fit so well I really had very little work to do.

I only added all around the edged some polyester in order to make everything line up perfectly.











And I also noticed my bonnet latch catch was chipping the glassfiber, again what would any sensible people do? Cut up a beer can and stick it to the fkn bonnet.













Fixated it and made it all flush with more polyester; spectacular, I know.

Either way, a lick of paint later I was a happy man. Luckily this bonnet can also be used in the rain because unlike the other one it has a water drainage built in.

More later.

[Jrs85]

Wheels look too small.

[Hayce]

They did well to stretch those on there. I have the same tyres in 20" barely stretched at all (295/30 on an 11" and 265/30 on a 10") and it still looked like a tight/tough fit.

Not driven on mine yet, you like the tyres?

[whiteghost]

Sick build, but I prefer meattier tyres. Don't know, it just fits style of the car better.

[TCFilms]

That looks absolutely amazing!

[Miroteknik]

did your own bodywork and literally made your own wheels?

this thing looks incredible.

[hinrichs]

Just looks so good

[h3llk1t3]

Picture update.

Finally taken out my camera again, gotten a few good shots out of it.





















This is how it currently looks, next set of changes are around the corner and will be coming to you with a tad more technical update!

[slamitall]

oof mami! those look killer

[Bert75]

Damn....