Bluebirds are GO!

Well, not quite. As much as I'd love to inform you that the engine is back in and all it needs now is a tune and a good run in... I can't. But I have driven it, about 50 metres back and forward...which is at least a start. You may think I am kinda jumping the gun here, and that I've missed some bits of the story but I'm not. See the thing is, I went to work one weekend with the engine out of the car and when I came home again *TA-DA* it was in.


I'm by no means complaining, it just means that there was no eventful stories or anacdotes to blog about. So I skipped it! All I really had to do with getting the engine in was to make sure everything was in the right place, reconnect some earths and turn the key. We did have some dramas at first when it finally came to starting the engine. See it would kick over but not start. So we did the usual fault finding things (yay, fault finding....), check for spark, check for fuel, and there was our problem. No fuel. Turns out we pulled the fuse for the fuel pump when we first started so it wouldn't spray fuel every where when we turned the car on. With the fuse back in place we tried again. No luck! The battery we were using had carked it, so we put the jump starter on charge and messaged Red to see if he could help. An hour later Red came over with his battery, connected it up and it had life. Idled like shit, but alive nonetheless.

So everything (apart from the idle) seemed good. Once it warmed up it idled well, Glenn brought his 400 year old timing light over and fixed the timing, and all seemed to be going well...until we looked under the car. There was a massive leak. Possibly rear main seal. Too big to let go.

So now the engine has to come out again. *Sigh* But in saying that with the engine out the clutch engagement point (the floor) can be changed to a more reasonable spot and also clean out/replace the IAC valve (which should help the cold idle...hopefully), which is in a bitch of a spot to get to. There was two IACV's that we could choose from, one from the original engine and one from the one I bought, no idea which one we used and not 100% sure if changing it will help, but there is only one way to find out.

So, long story short, its back to where we were 6 months or so ago.....shit balls! At least I dont have to do anymore sanding, eh, painful!

Putting the pieces of the puzzle back together!

The next few days/weeks consisted of the putting the final touches on the body work. After what I originally thought was the final coat of paint...we started sanding again. I was a bit sceptical, not really understanding the concept of scratching the car more to make it look better. I didn't think it could get much better....but boy was I wrong. The finest sand paper and a good cutting compound were used to bring out the final gloss look. It now looks amazing. The little subtle touches were also touched up to be made to look a thousand times better - door handles, mirrors, wipers and just other little bits.

It's hard to tell but the car is actually really shiny!

So with the body work all done (minus putting the front bumper and head lights on), it was time to move on to the next part - reassembling the engine. With the bits and pieces I had lying around this was going to be interesting.

So we worked out what was needed and I set about trying to find parts. Mostly I didn't need to much, and the parts I needed weren't too hard to find (thankfully). So on one of my days off myself and Gren set out to pick up gaskets, oil seals for my distributor and a clutch. Autobarn was the first stop, then Nissan spare parts at Petrie (which didn't have my parts yet) then to Albion. At the recommendation of Glenn and Red I got my clutch from Direct Clutch Services (and after the help and assistance I got from Jerry, I would suggest them to anyone!). So after the 20 min wait for the clutch and the journey to the atm that only had $20 notes ($600 in 20's is extremely awkward!) we headed home.

The clutch plate, pressure plate and freshly machined flywheel!

The following days were then followed by piecing the engine back together...well not the engine, but the bits connected i.e. the inlet manifold brackets etc. Which didn't take quite as long as originally thought, so it was onto the gearbox side. Time to fix the original problem, the throw out bearing! With new bearing on and (hopefully) working smoothly, we re-assembled the flywheel and clutch assembly and then wriggled the gear box and transfer case onto the engine....makes it sound so easy.

The engine with all its bits!

So hopefully in the next couple of weeks the engine will be back in the car. I'm sure that that is going to have its fair share of dramas. I can't wait!!

Painting - The Home Stretch!

With the first bits of blue on the car, it was time to knuckle down and get it done! So the it took a while, getting everything up to the same stage. All the panels smoothed out and making sure we didn't miss anything. Then came the masking, short of one minor hissy fit, it was all very easy. But eventually the time came. Blue all over! God it made a mess. There was blue dust everywhere! It was worth it tho, the engine bay was first (I think?)...

Looks a lot better. If you can recall back to what it originally looked like...

Then came the panels...

Front and rear bumper's turned out brilliantly!

Then came the body...

The pictures look really dull, but I think that's just the iPhone's awesome camera.

This is the closet we came to assembling it. The final clear coats make the blue really shine! Looks pretty good...if I do say so myself.



The only thing left to do now is assemble it...hope we don't scratch anything! (Oh and another sanding. I hate sanding).

**Note: I'm now up to date with my blog, obviously I haven't done all of this work in a few weeks. Its taken months, but there was no point only telling half the story. So this is where I currently am in the project. Any updates from now will be on an as-they-happen basis!! I can't wait!

Painting - Colour Change!

So, originally the plan was to do a quick.....well not really quick, but basically a same colour respray. So all the preparation was done with same colour respray in mind. Deep down I didn't really like the original colour tho, I wanted it to be different. Something that stood out a little, but not so much as to lose the sleeper appeal. So I choose WRX blue - The most subtle colour ever...right? It was a semi difficult decision to change colour, as i thought the effort required to do this kind of colour change would be monstrous. But after a little chat with Brian, and a slight arm twist from Jen, we were on our way! The engine bay bits came out, everything pretty much came off the car. Turns out tho it wasn't as complicated as I'd originally thought. Thank God!

Eventually the car got to the point we could add some colour. Although at first grey wasn't an extremely exciting colour, it was colour none the less. This excitement doubled the first time I got to see the blue on the car! Granted it was only the inside of one of the doors, but it was amazing the difference it made compared to the original colour.

So here is the first ever bluebird blue bits! It was exactly how I thought it would look!

Painting - Preperation!

So, with the engine being newly aquired, and me being broke we deiceded that now would be a good time to give the car a respray. Not too much to write about with this step. A lot of sanding and removing panels so we could work on them, bogging up dinged bits and......more sanding :( It took a good few months of working on it on my days off and getting it all ready. It seems liked ages and it seemed like nothing was happening. But I kept at it, kept reassuring myself that "yes, this is really what I want to be doing" and kept hoping that it would all be worth it......

One of the most serious bits in need of repair. Not that mine and Red's "fix it with a rubber mallet job" wasn't any good.... or so we thought at the time.

Bluebird stripped! Of panels and doors ...

The Engine

Here is a list of the parts in the new engine.

• HKS cams


• HKS solid valve springs


• Port and polished head


• Full rebuild including forged pistons and rods


• Cometic head gasket


• ARP head studs


• Rocker kit

...That's all I can remember at the moment, unfortunetly we didn't save the eBay listing which gave the specifics.

The guy said it should be good for 300+ hp.

We ripped the rocker cover off to make sure that I got what I paid for... and although we can't be sure about everything - this was definetly a good start!

The Other Option

So originally the plan was to pull apart and rebuild my old engine....kinda like the 6 billion dollar man...only it's an engine. Anyway, that was the plan to start with. Then one day, while cruisin' on eBay I came across an engine. An SR20 engine. A worked SR20 engine. A worked FWD SR20 engine (out of a U13 as it turns out). Everything about this engine was what I wanted. Possibly even a bit more. Only problem was, it was a little out of my price range, and a hell of a long way away. But I watched it anyway. And it ended.....no bids. About a week later, cruisin' eBay again, there it is again, the same engine, only this time cheaper AND in my price range (still a long way away thoough!)... So began the most anxious 7 days of the project lol.

Day 7 came and the engine was mine. Only problem then was that the engine was located in Springwood NSW, and I reside in Brisbane. At this point in time though we (we being Brian, Jen and I) had already decided what to do with this hurdle. ROAD TRIP! After contacting the seller and Ok-ing the Saturday pick up, we decided to hit the road.

So, Saturday morning. 4:45 am. Everyone piles into the GTS, trailer connected and we head off to Springwood (Western Sydney).

Homeward-bound: one of our last coffee/dinner stops before home. We were somewhere outside Newscastle.

Everything went realatively well, except for the fact that we didn't exactly know where we were going. (As many of you may know, E-Bay gives a suburb, but not an address when you look at an item). Good thing I had an iPhone (with the ebay app! lol) As the engine ended late Friday night and we left early Saturday the seller didn't have a chance to contact us, so we were technically driving blind. Long story short, got in contact with the seller, got to his workshop, picked up the engine, came home. 5:15am Sunday morning. Over 24 hours of straight driving....good thing we took a large car. But the effort was worth it.

SR20, in its new home. The barn floor...

Edit (Jen): For me it was an agonizing journey filled with "Brendan! Are you awake! Hello? What's your favourite... colour? food?' Trying to keep our drivers awake and away from kangaroos. It was scary at times, such as the drive into Ballina when Brian was driving and I was chatting to him from the back seat, while Brendan slept in the front. We'd come accross some dense fog and the only indication of what was ahead were the tail lights of the trucks in front of us, it was safest to stay behind them because we couldn't see a thing on our own. This was around 12:30am, when tiredness was also becoming a critical factor.

Looking back, it was a pretty big gamble - trying to achieve 2000km in 24 hours, 2 drivers and only food stops. But we got there, and we got home... and then we slept for quite awhile!

PROPS TO JEN FOR NOT SLEEPING AT ALL THE ENTIRE TRIP!