Not quite sure how to start here, I suck at writing stuff.

Basically I pulled the skyline out of storage and went to florida. Here's the longer version:

BACKSTORY - Feel free to skip this part

Tuesday last week a set of used turbos gets shipped to me.
Wednesday they arrive- one has horrible shaft play and is pretty much junk, but the other one is OK.

Thursday afternoon - I start ripping the GTR apart. My friend Bob comes over to help around 5PM and my other friend Zach joins us around 9 or 10.

By midnight we have the car disassembled and it's clear that the front turbo is fine but the rear is total trash - the turbine wheel is missing, the housing has some pieces of the wheel embedded in it but I can't find any of the rest of it. Clearly this is where all the smoke was coming from.

Anyways we decide to just go all out and put the car back together, I wanted to procrastinate but Zach really wanted to finish it because I told him he could drive the car if we got it done, so we stayed at it.
Took till about 5AM just to get the rear turbo on because it was a giant pain in the ass. Also, I had to swap turbine housings since my old turbo had a ported WG and this one didn't. But the front turbo cooperated right away and by 8AM the car was running!

Spent friday sleeping.

Saturday got up and changed the oil and battery, since my little tiny OEM battery had had enough, it was dieing when I bought the car and spending 2 winters sitting it was basically done.

Went over to CompuBob's place saturday afternoon and turned on the Colbert Report. He was talking to some NASA guy about the space shuttle launch. I thought the launch had happened last week but they said it was going to happen on sunday night at 7:43.

Hopped on the internet to confirm, and sure enough it was.
I have /ALWAYS/ wanted to watch a shuttle launch, like since I was born, if I only had a day to live that's what I'd go do. Anways mulled it over for a bit and then decided to go.

What better way to test your car (and your mechanic skillz) then to go on a 4000+KM roadtrip after you just put it together the day before? I can't think of one.


Pics and story of the actual trip:

We took I-75 down and I-95/I-77 Back up. I'd reccommend I-77 as a MUCH nicer drive and about 10,000% less boring.
The car did OK on fuel - Averaged about 25MPG. Most of the driving was between 75 and 85MPH - except for around 90-95 in florida and lots of 100+ on I80/90 between cleveland and toledo.
Used about 2L of washer fluid and not a single drop of oil.

The shuttle launch itself was viewable for about 3 minutes total. All that driving for only 3 minutes of space shuttle = TOTALLY worth it. We didn't even get there in time to buy tickets so we ended up watching it from titusville, about 7 miles from the actual launch site. We had a good view but I wish we could have gotten closer.

Went to Daytona beach afterwards and brought home some white sand as a souvineir. Didn't go swimming but did go for a walk in the water. I love the ocean, first time I'd ever really seen it since I was a little kid. I want to go back and spend more time there next time.



Note that my camera SUCKS at night - 363 pictures were taken total and only about 60 turned out well. Here's some of those:

I'd post them all (or at least the best 20 or 30) but I guess there's only 10 allowed per post, fail.



Buying fuel in Detroit, MI at Valero, right across from the infamous Murray's:
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/GettingGas-DetroitMI.jpg


Skyline Chili:
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/SkylineChili.jpg


Fuel for people:
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/Fuel.jpg

Somewhere in TN or SC: (lots and lots of fireworks)
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/fireworksbetter.jpg


WOOT MADE IT TO FLORIDA!
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/Florida.jpg


Ron Jon Surf Shop
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/RonJonSurfshop.jpg


ZOMG BLASTOFF!!!!
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/launch.jpg

Daytona International Speedway
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/daytona.jpg

How to cook a burrito with your skyline (it was delicious):
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/burrito.jpg


Stopped here to stretch (and drift the local roads, which kicked ass)
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/stream.jpg (I think this is north carolina but it might be south carolina)


Camera died at this point. I still have some videos to upload. And some pics off my cellphone. You can see the whole album here:
http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u267/islandfd3s/Florida%202k9/


random video shot somewhere in NC of the kick ass roads there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBR16fWbtwA

Random road trips are always fun man... I energy-drink it up too...

You came pretty close to me on I77 through VA... you saw the most backwoods, redneck part of VA though. I went to daytona summer before last for a week, got alcohol poisoning, had to be rescued from the water, etc etc, created a trip to tell the grandkids about one day if I make it... but anyway, during high-tide the damn beach disappears down there now. The local said the beach used to be twice as wide as it is now until some hurricane messed it up... I thought that was pretty odd.

What kinda power is the skyline making?

That bottom picture and the video are both taken right near the state line in Rocky Gap, VA

The skyline is making around 450whp right now. I have to upgrade the transmission before I go any further power wise.

it hasn't been on a dyno and that's just a guesstimate based on the weight and 1/4 mile time/mph's it ran last year.

Oh shit, I saw the space shuttle launch from Tampa... I was driving with my friend and saw what I thought was a vapor trail of a plane at first
but then i was like...nooo... that's smoke..from.. ROCKETS! I saw just as the solid rocket boosters broke off from the main tank. That was real neat.

I'm right off rt 95. Drop by next time you're in the area for some foods :)

Yeah I was surprised by how much I liked Florida actaully. It was different than what I expected. Not much of a possibility of living there though. not much in terms of mining.

You could mine for old people.

My brother went to Panama City Beach for spring break (real original, right?) and said that he saw dozens (that's "tens plus 2" in metric) of cars from Ontario. I couldn't imagine that drive!

I drove from N. FL to Minnesota once, sucked ass. Went as far north as Fargo/Moorhead.
edit: now that I look at it, it looks like Windsor to Canaveral might actually be shorter, haha.

We just drove from WI to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach AL. 1253 miles door to door just under 17 hours straight through....The way back I made it a little over 1100 before I had to turn the wheel over to the wife.

Southern TN / Northern AL is quite redneck too!!

You could mine for old people.

Heh, you may as well shoot fish in a barrel :blah:

Terrh, thanks for the story. I am jealous as you have fulfilled a childhood dream of mine as well :bowdown:

Man what I would give to be able to just pack up and take a random road trip to florida, bet that was KICK ASS!!!

BTW, thats a BAD car!

Yeah, that was a pretty awesome post. You were all up in my stompin grounds. That's where we all kayak.