Thanks spiderwebfx, it was the measurements of the back of the Varrstoen wheels I was trying to get (with no luck). As for the picture of the wheel I think the picture is of the 15x9 et0 which will have 15mm more pad on the back than the et15 that I've ordered so it's gunna be close. The seller seems to use the same photo for a lot of their auctions regardless of offset so it's hard to tell for sure just going off the photo.
I looked at those Weds you have and considered getting some five stud hubs because I think the 16s are a good size wheel for the Gazelle & there's some good sized tyres available for them too but I don't think it could get them in the right offset for front & rear and also I'm going 9" wide in the hope that with all the 15x9" wheels now becoming available that there will be a 245/45R15 avaiable in a semi slick in the near future. I'll have to run a 225/50R15 for the time being.
I know you have a hilux diff but as for a 5 stud rear conversion for the H190 a mate & I took measurement of all the diffs under all of our nissans/datsuns a while ago & made a spreadsheet. The 6cyl cars like 240C 260C 280C etc have a 1460mm wide diff vs 1435mm for the gazelle (H190) so they would be a source for 5 stud axles. I'm not sure if 25mm is enough for them to touch each other or whether you could run them as is without shortening the axles. The 280C also gives you disk brakes as well. Might be of interest for anyone wanting to convert to five stud without a diff swap.
S12 Track Car Bendigo
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shamus11
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:30 pm
- Name: shane
- Car: s12 gazelle hatch
-
shamus11
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:30 pm
- Name: shane
- Car: s12 gazelle hatch
S12 Track Car Bendigo
Have got a little bit done in the last couple of weeks. Best part is my wheels turning up and even better, clearing the calipers without spacers.
I tested them on the car and the lip is basicaly flush with the outside edge of the flare under droop, hopefully they tuck in a little at ride height.
I'm currently looking for some used 225/50R15 tyres I can put on temporarily & will wait until the car is ready to run before I buy R-specs for it.
The wheels are Varrstoen V1 15x9 et15. R32 skyline 26mm alloy calipers, skyline discs are at the engineers getting redilled, so I'm using S13 disks in this photo.
You can see the spoke clears easily, you could run a 30mm z32 caliper easily I'd guess.
I also spent a couple of evenings thru the week making headlight support rods. I've only done the top ones so far but I'll make another on each side to hold the headlights in the lowered position.
This weekend we had a rare bit of sunshine & enough warmth for painting so I've taken the opportunity to pull the whole lot back down & start the repairs on the scuttle. I've been putting it off till I got to test fit my wheels before I pulled it all apart. Now I've started I don't think it will take me too long to get it done time permitting.
Apart from front panels & all the suspension I also had to remove the brake booster, clutch master, gearbox, wiring loom & brake lines. Clean down everything, wire wheel &/or rust treat any surface rust with a rust converter/primer then etch prime.
Also welded patches in the AC & heater hose holes in the firewall.
I've made new inner braces for the scuttle and welded them in. I'll probably finish welding the windscreen support then start making the covers. It's going to be hard to propperly clean and paint any welds inside once I start to cover it all up. I'm still trying to figure out how I'll do it but the plan is to run one wiper and no water vents in the top because I'll only ever be racing in very light rain, it it's too heavy I won't be driving it so water evacuation from the windscreen won't be as important as on a road car.
Also last week I snapped up another little white gazelle solid axle same as mine. Nearly no rust, as happens the parts car is better than my project car. Had a bit of a think but at this stage into it I'm going to continue with the first shell. The best bit is it's got a CA18DE conversion in it and only needs a couple of things to get it running so I plan to use it to set up and get my CA18DE +T engine running alongside the body work going on so hopefully by the time the body is finished the engine will also be running & can be transplanted into the race car shell.
It's prety straight except for a slight bump on the RH front but even those panels are still useable.
I tested them on the car and the lip is basicaly flush with the outside edge of the flare under droop, hopefully they tuck in a little at ride height.
I'm currently looking for some used 225/50R15 tyres I can put on temporarily & will wait until the car is ready to run before I buy R-specs for it.
- V1 with z32 caliper.JPG (124.52 KiB) Viewed 77 times
The wheels are Varrstoen V1 15x9 et15. R32 skyline 26mm alloy calipers, skyline discs are at the engineers getting redilled, so I'm using S13 disks in this photo.
- v1 caliper clearance finger.JPG (95.71 KiB) Viewed 77 times
You can see the spoke clears easily, you could run a 30mm z32 caliper easily I'd guess.
I also spent a couple of evenings thru the week making headlight support rods. I've only done the top ones so far but I'll make another on each side to hold the headlights in the lowered position.
- headlight support rod.JPG (115.68 KiB) Viewed 77 times
This weekend we had a rare bit of sunshine & enough warmth for painting so I've taken the opportunity to pull the whole lot back down & start the repairs on the scuttle. I've been putting it off till I got to test fit my wheels before I pulled it all apart. Now I've started I don't think it will take me too long to get it done time permitting.
Apart from front panels & all the suspension I also had to remove the brake booster, clutch master, gearbox, wiring loom & brake lines. Clean down everything, wire wheel &/or rust treat any surface rust with a rust converter/primer then etch prime.
- engine bay sunday.JPG (141.29 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Also welded patches in the AC & heater hose holes in the firewall.
- scuttle sunday.JPG (143.16 KiB) Viewed 77 times
I've made new inner braces for the scuttle and welded them in. I'll probably finish welding the windscreen support then start making the covers. It's going to be hard to propperly clean and paint any welds inside once I start to cover it all up. I'm still trying to figure out how I'll do it but the plan is to run one wiper and no water vents in the top because I'll only ever be racing in very light rain, it it's too heavy I won't be driving it so water evacuation from the windscreen won't be as important as on a road car.
Also last week I snapped up another little white gazelle solid axle same as mine. Nearly no rust, as happens the parts car is better than my project car. Had a bit of a think but at this stage into it I'm going to continue with the first shell. The best bit is it's got a CA18DE conversion in it and only needs a couple of things to get it running so I plan to use it to set up and get my CA18DE +T engine running alongside the body work going on so hopefully by the time the body is finished the engine will also be running & can be transplanted into the race car shell.
- 2nd gazelle.JPG (133.61 KiB) Viewed 77 times
It's prety straight except for a slight bump on the RH front but even those panels are still useable.
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van_denton
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 9:42 pm
- Location: London/Northampton
- Name: Paul
- Car: s12
S12 Track Car Bendigo
Nice one on the wheels! Great they fitted and that s12 looks so nice, i love em with the chrome trim!
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shamus11
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:30 pm
- Name: shane
- Car: s12 gazelle hatch
S12 Track Car Bendigo
Thanks, yes very good news, those wheels also come in an et25 & et0 so they would suit a wide range of applications.van_denton wrote:
Nice one on the wheels! Great they fitted and that s12 looks so nice, i love em with the chrome trim!
I went to buy race pads for the calipers yesterday & I appear to have made a big mistake when buying rotors. I didn't measure the 4 pot calipers & I misread some information online and thought the calipers suited 26mm thick rotors but they suit 30mm thick rotors. I thought the 30mm ones were the GTR ones but they are 32mm. The 26mm rotor is for the single piston R32 skyline caliper.
Anyway, that means I've sent some 26mm rotors off to be redrilled which I can't use so I'll have to buy some 30mm rotors and take them in to get done. I've been deliberately not buying too many parts until I need to fit them to reduce the chance of buying something and then not using it but I've still managed to do it.
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van_denton
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 9:42 pm
- Location: London/Northampton
- Name: Paul
- Car: s12
S12 Track Car Bendigo
I had great trouble finding a 26mm disc! I have Z32 calipers that when you measure the disc groove in the caliper it its 30mm - which take the 26mm disc. These are from the NA 1990 z32. Tis disc was hard to get as I think it was like a 1 year only thing than they swapped to 30mm discs, which use the 30mm calipers which measure 36mm across the disc groove. This is my understanding. Im waiting for the discs to be delivered so I hope im right!!
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shamus11
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:30 pm
- Name: shane
- Car: s12 gazelle hatch
S12 Track Car Bendigo
I hope you're right too, I didn't fit my rotors up to test when I bought them because the stud patern was wrong, I still should have slid the calipers over the rotor though. I thought 30mm rotors on a stripped out gazelle was going to be unecessary weight so I was happy with 26mm rotors.van_denton wrote:
I had great trouble finding a 26mm disc! I have Z32 calipers that when you measure the disc groove in the caliper it its 30mm - which take the 26mm disc. These are from the NA 1990 z32. Tis disc was hard to get as I think it was like a 1 year only thing than they swapped to 30mm discs, which use the 30mm calipers which measure 36mm across the disc groove. This is my understanding. Im waiting for the discs to be delivered so I hope im right!!
Here's the measurement of my caliper. Hopefully yours is less than this.
- IMG_0026.jpg (85.19 KiB) Viewed 77 times
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van_denton
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 9:42 pm
- Location: London/Northampton
- Name: Paul
- Car: s12
S12 Track Car Bendigo
Yeam mine measure 30mm. And sorry 34mm for 30mm disc, sorry the old meat helmet cant remember much these days it seems!
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shamus11
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:30 pm
- Name: shane
- Car: s12 gazelle hatch
S12 Track Car Bendigo
After all that worrying about buying the wrong thickness rotors I went round to the engineer's and found that I have bought the correct 30mm rotors but I don't know why I've written 26mm in previous posts. Oh well, at least that means I have the right ones.
I spent the weekend working on the scuttle repairs. Firstly welding right along the top edge of the lower windscreen face (about 1.4 metres of weld), cleaned that up and primed/seam sealed it.
My original plan to run one wiper arm from the wiper motor across to the drivers side wiper turned out to be no good. I couldn't get it to do a full rotation without fouling on either the top or the bottom of the scuttle. So had to come up with a plan B. I've gone for some stealth wiper action!!! Mounting the motor inside under the dash using nutserts & welding in a short piece of tube & seam sealing around them to hopefully stop any water leaking past.
Here it has plenty of room to rotate 360deg. I wish I'd realised this before I welded in the new wiper mount panel in the original position in the scuttle, now I'll have another hole to plug.
Here is the motor under the dash. I'm not running a heater or fan so hopefully it doesn't foul on anything important. If it does whatever it is is getting the chop because I'm not remounting this motor again. I'm well and truly over it. Has turned out to be way too much work just to keep my wiper.
The wiper base mount. Was able to measure my new gazelle to make sure it went back in the exact right position. The angle of the face has to match the angle of the face the windscreen sits on, so it will be sunken into the top of the scuttle cover.
Cut & shutting 2 wiper arms to get the correct length and angle required to dodge the brace inside the scuttle. I used a piece of bent steel rod that slid inside the original arms nicely to join them.
Before tacking on the top panel I had to seam seal all inside the scuttle, reprime over the seam seal and then top coat in acrylic black paint. Hopefully this will be enough to hold off any rust returning for years to come. Once it's all back together and completely painted I'll probably fish oil inside there to finish it off.
The wiper mount will now be accessed by a big hole in the front of the scuttle. I made it the correct size for a big rubber bung I had sitting around. I figure a hole in the side is less likely to let water in than one in the top.
With the wiper setup pretty much finished the rest should only take a good day to weld up and get painted. My nephew Jonas came around and helped me test fit the windscreen before we went any further with welding and it lines up nicely along the bottom where I've put in new steel so today feels like I've broken the back of this job that I've been dreading for months. I'll probably put just enough white topcoat down around the windscreen edges that I can fit the windscreen and then it will begin to feel like a car again.
I spent the weekend working on the scuttle repairs. Firstly welding right along the top edge of the lower windscreen face (about 1.4 metres of weld), cleaned that up and primed/seam sealed it.
My original plan to run one wiper arm from the wiper motor across to the drivers side wiper turned out to be no good. I couldn't get it to do a full rotation without fouling on either the top or the bottom of the scuttle. So had to come up with a plan B. I've gone for some stealth wiper action!!! Mounting the motor inside under the dash using nutserts & welding in a short piece of tube & seam sealing around them to hopefully stop any water leaking past.
- wiper motor mounted1.JPG (141.89 KiB) Viewed 78 times
Here it has plenty of room to rotate 360deg. I wish I'd realised this before I welded in the new wiper mount panel in the original position in the scuttle, now I'll have another hole to plug.
- wiper motor mounted2.JPG (125.35 KiB) Viewed 78 times
Here is the motor under the dash. I'm not running a heater or fan so hopefully it doesn't foul on anything important. If it does whatever it is is getting the chop because I'm not remounting this motor again. I'm well and truly over it. Has turned out to be way too much work just to keep my wiper.
- wiper motor mount3.JPG (117.79 KiB) Viewed 78 times
The wiper base mount. Was able to measure my new gazelle to make sure it went back in the exact right position. The angle of the face has to match the angle of the face the windscreen sits on, so it will be sunken into the top of the scuttle cover.
- wiper motor mount4.JPG (155.8 KiB) Viewed 78 times
Cut & shutting 2 wiper arms to get the correct length and angle required to dodge the brace inside the scuttle. I used a piece of bent steel rod that slid inside the original arms nicely to join them.
- scuttle tacked2.JPG (137.04 KiB) Viewed 78 times
Before tacking on the top panel I had to seam seal all inside the scuttle, reprime over the seam seal and then top coat in acrylic black paint. Hopefully this will be enough to hold off any rust returning for years to come. Once it's all back together and completely painted I'll probably fish oil inside there to finish it off.
- scuttle top tacked.JPG (130.42 KiB) Viewed 78 times
The wiper mount will now be accessed by a big hole in the front of the scuttle. I made it the correct size for a big rubber bung I had sitting around. I figure a hole in the side is less likely to let water in than one in the top.
With the wiper setup pretty much finished the rest should only take a good day to weld up and get painted. My nephew Jonas came around and helped me test fit the windscreen before we went any further with welding and it lines up nicely along the bottom where I've put in new steel so today feels like I've broken the back of this job that I've been dreading for months. I'll probably put just enough white topcoat down around the windscreen edges that I can fit the windscreen and then it will begin to feel like a car again.
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shamus11
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:30 pm
- Name: shane
- Car: s12 gazelle hatch
S12 Track Car Bendigo
Have been pushing on with the engine bay & scuttle the last couple of days. Glad to say all the metalwork is done & primed. It's not perfect but it will be good enough for me.
I wasn't going to put any body filler in it but decided I needed to fill over my welds to stop crap getting into them even though I ground them back they weren't completely smooth.
So I mixed up some filler from an old tin I already had and put a small amount of hardener in it and laid it down making sure to push it down into all of my welds and any other small gaps. I always have it going off before I finish applying it so I didn't put enough hardener in it & it still hadn't gone hard by the following morning so I had to scrape it back out of all my welds, clean up and start again with a fresh tin of filler.
I pretty much wasted a whole day just stuffing around with it by the time I sanded it back to a reasonable level. I'm not a fan of sanding bog at the best of times.
Between coats of primer & body filler I have been flat rubbing the rest of the engine bay and getting it primed as well.
Finally I got the scuttle primed & now the whole engine bay is the same color.
It's amazing how dark the engine bay now looks with the grey primer. I'll be glad when I get to give it the white top coat. Not sure if I should do that soon or wait till I've finished sorting the engine and exhaust & intercooler pipework.
Also my brake rotors have been drilled for 4x114.3 so I went and picked them up. Sadly all of my suspension is out of the car so I haven't fitted them up.
The aim for this weekend is to get the windscreen surrounding metal painted so I can fit the windscreen back in and probably spray the inner firewall white before I fit the wndscreen. Then have a massive cleanup inside the car!!!!
I wasn't going to put any body filler in it but decided I needed to fill over my welds to stop crap getting into them even though I ground them back they weren't completely smooth.
So I mixed up some filler from an old tin I already had and put a small amount of hardener in it and laid it down making sure to push it down into all of my welds and any other small gaps. I always have it going off before I finish applying it so I didn't put enough hardener in it & it still hadn't gone hard by the following morning so I had to scrape it back out of all my welds, clean up and start again with a fresh tin of filler.
I pretty much wasted a whole day just stuffing around with it by the time I sanded it back to a reasonable level. I'm not a fan of sanding bog at the best of times.
- scuttle metal finished.JPG (132.41 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Between coats of primer & body filler I have been flat rubbing the rest of the engine bay and getting it primed as well.
- LH engine bay primed.JPG (140.08 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Finally I got the scuttle primed & now the whole engine bay is the same color.
- scuttle final primed.JPG (144.03 KiB) Viewed 77 times
It's amazing how dark the engine bay now looks with the grey primer. I'll be glad when I get to give it the white top coat. Not sure if I should do that soon or wait till I've finished sorting the engine and exhaust & intercooler pipework.
Also my brake rotors have been drilled for 4x114.3 so I went and picked them up. Sadly all of my suspension is out of the car so I haven't fitted them up.
- rotors drilled.JPG (137.28 KiB) Viewed 77 times
The aim for this weekend is to get the windscreen surrounding metal painted so I can fit the windscreen back in and probably spray the inner firewall white before I fit the wndscreen. Then have a massive cleanup inside the car!!!!
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shamus11
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:30 pm
- Name: shane
- Car: s12 gazelle hatch
S12 Track Car Bendigo
Well the weekend is over and I didn't get my screen in. Was all going well then Sat afternoon I tipped my acrylic thinners into my acrylic white paint and the two would not mix, like oil and water. Not sure if I have put something else in the thinners tin & forgotten or if it's just got the wrong stuff in it. So I didn't get the white on till Sunday by the time I got some more thinners. Knowing I wouldn't get the screen in the same day I decided to put a bit of spray putty on the roof & paint the whole roof which has been in grey primer since I welded up the aerial hole.
Did a couple coats of white, went on really orange peely, think it was a bit cold but it's good enough to fit the screen. Later when I paint the engine bay I'll flat rub it and do another coat or two to get it shiny.
Spent some time between coats & other jobs cleaning the floor inside and painting. Got the front left done, only front right left to go.
Painted the scuttle black.
Only need to sort out my battery location & my air filter setup & I can paint the engine bay. The battery I bought just doesn't fit nice in the normal spot so I'm looking for other locations for it. Don't really want it in the passenger footwell and am thinking about having as much wiring hidden behind the dash/glove box. Thought about putting it here with the plastic horizontal piece cut out so it can be removed easily thru the front.
Haven't decided for sure but want to work it out so I can paint the engine bay & then xmember, suspension & engine can go back in.
Also need to work out a neat air filter setup. I was thinking about using a R31 skyline air box because I think it suits the era of the gazelle & the outlet points straight towards a low mount turbo inlet but there's no real place to have a cold air duct to it with the radiator up so high. It's pretty tight with the cooler pipework too. I don't like to look of the late model nissan air boxes, they tend to be odd shapes with not as much emphasis on aesthetics. Other option is a boxed pod filter but with the cooler pipe where it is making one that looks neat would also be tricky.
- roof primer rubbed.JPG (136.08 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Did a couple coats of white, went on really orange peely, think it was a bit cold but it's good enough to fit the screen. Later when I paint the engine bay I'll flat rub it and do another coat or two to get it shiny.
- roof painted 1.JPG (138 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Spent some time between coats & other jobs cleaning the floor inside and painting. Got the front left done, only front right left to go.
- LH floor painted.JPG (125.03 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Painted the scuttle black.
- scuttle black.JPG (134.04 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Only need to sort out my battery location & my air filter setup & I can paint the engine bay. The battery I bought just doesn't fit nice in the normal spot so I'm looking for other locations for it. Don't really want it in the passenger footwell and am thinking about having as much wiring hidden behind the dash/glove box. Thought about putting it here with the plastic horizontal piece cut out so it can be removed easily thru the front.
Haven't decided for sure but want to work it out so I can paint the engine bay & then xmember, suspension & engine can go back in.
- battery location.JPG (168.38 KiB) Viewed 77 times
Also need to work out a neat air filter setup. I was thinking about using a R31 skyline air box because I think it suits the era of the gazelle & the outlet points straight towards a low mount turbo inlet but there's no real place to have a cold air duct to it with the radiator up so high. It's pretty tight with the cooler pipework too. I don't like to look of the late model nissan air boxes, they tend to be odd shapes with not as much emphasis on aesthetics. Other option is a boxed pod filter but with the cooler pipe where it is making one that looks neat would also be tricky.
- r31 air box 2.JPG (114.19 KiB) Viewed 77 times
- R31 air box 1.JPG (109.35 KiB) Viewed 77 times