# Rolling shell or full car for restoration?



## scenic_gtr (May 20, 2012)

Hi everyone,
been a long time reader of this forum and this is finally my first post.

I have a bit of a dilemma and would like to get some advice or recommendations from some of the members on this board. It goes like this:

At the moment I am a university student here in the UK, with a side job to get that extra bit of income. I have been a Skyline fan for a very long time and have always aspired to own one. Please don't dismiss me as just some kid who wants a 'JDM skyline nur LM 400r spec R34' because the it has 10 turbos and neons or something like that. I actually know my stuff and for the last few years that I had my drivers license I did not buy my first car because I was saving up to buy a Skyline (I have driven though so not a a complete write off behind the wheel).

Now here's the problem.

I am after a R33 GTR and after those last few years of saving up I believe I finally have the cash to buy and support a basic R33. Looking to spend around 7k max currently. My plans with the car would be to restore it to like new condition and if situation allows, proceed with some light mods afterwards. This would be over time of course and not immediately so funding for that is no rush. Restoring the car would naturally involve getting rid of some of the old interior and exterior panels as well as engine parts on it so quite a bit of the car would be changed over. During this time, the car would be used as a daily driver. Not that I commute that much, but it just would have to be functional whenever needed plus I would like to enjoy an occasional drive.

What got me thinking though is if I know I am going to change most of the car out, then why buy a full car when I can just buy a rolling shell for cheaper and build on that? For what I have seen, these go for less than 2k in decent condition. I would have to buy a crappy runabout as well though and what good is a Skyline to me if it is garaged up and all I have is a Corsa or something? 

If I am going to change out the worn bits of the car to essentially make it 'showroom fresh', basically only the shell has to be top condition as far as I'm concerned. Please don't recommend to buy a different car and such, I am set on this model and I know what my driving skills are capable of.

So, questions...

- Should I buy the rolling shell and build it up or buy a full car and restore it with new parts?
- Reallistically, how much cost can I recoup by selling of various bits of the full car such as the interior, etc. 
- What condition can I expect from an R33 GTR in the price range I am looking at (7k) ?
- Anything else I should know about?

Thanks for bothering to read all that, any advice I can get would be much help...


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## matt j (Oct 19, 2001)

There's a lot of tired cars out there in your price range but you might be able to find a good one.
If you have the time and skills, I'd buy a shell and restore from the ground up.


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## neilo (Nov 17, 2004)

If you want to make a car showroom condition then i think it would be very hard trying to use it as a daily driver as eventually it would be imposible to drive it when fixing alot of the restoration parts so i also think finding a good rolling shell so you can sort that side of it out then look out for someone breaking a car with a complete engine etc, etc with all the mods you would want already done.

I suppose it all depends how much money you can spend on it each year as many people on here including myself have taken and are still taking years to build their dream skyline.

Cheers
Neil


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## scenic_gtr (May 20, 2012)

neilo said:


> I suppose it all depends how much money you can spend on it each year as many people on here including myself have taken and are still taking years to build their dream skyline.
> 
> Cheers
> Neil


That is the problem Neil. If I were to buy the rolling shell, getting the car finished and running will be a long process and could take years. I don't want to buy parts and later on decide that I want something else putting it together right the first time would be my main aim of this. But until it is finished, I will be Skyline-less. The full car would still probably we somewhat usable during the build but in the rolling shell it either is done or not.

On the plus side, the rolling shell would let me do it right from the start and I would not have to go through the pain of selling off the individual parts that I take off. Also, I am pretty sure the rolling shells I can find are in a better condition than the full GTR's have in my price range. Considering this is the only part of the car that can't be replaced, I want to make sure that the chassis is top condition. 

Apart from no rust and preferably no damage to the jacking points, what should I look for if I want a near-new chassis? 

Thanks for your help so far guys!


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## David (Apr 25, 2003)

Unfortunately skylines suffer with a tax that is seemingly avoided by lesser nissans.

I too have considered building a car up from a shell but I think it is actually more cost effective to buy a fully working one for 7k, nice cars do exist but you have to be quick as many of the skyline traders want them to add 2-3k to and sell on. I found mine on autotrader.


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## SklyaFett (Oct 18, 2005)

I'm doing a fill resto at the moment. It's best to get as much of the car as possable to start off with. And you on about swapping all these bits out, what are you thinking of changing. Front wings for example can be £100 plus each. You need to have a plan on what you want to do. What are you plans?


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## davew (Apr 28, 2003)

we have a rolling shell in stock


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## drewzer (Jun 22, 2009)

Having built cars and motorbikes i would say it is always best to start with a runner and as complete as possible. And if you do break down for a resto make sure you take allot of pictures during the progress, you will be surprised how much you have forgotten when it comes to putting it all back together again!


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## geoffree (May 16, 2010)

Of course. 
If you're serious about a resto you're going to need all those thousands of little brackets, clips etc that are binned when stripping a car back to a rolling shell.


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## GTR Cook (Apr 22, 2008)

Best starting with a running car in the best condition for your price range. You can take parts off for replacement and you won't have to buy everything from scratch. 

Or how about buying a solid shell and a ropey looking mechanically sound car and transferring the good parts into the new shell.


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## Miguel - Newera (Sep 18, 2003)

Don't buy a shell. It'll cost you much more in the long term. 
Take a look at this car.... It might serve you well. Probably won't be on the market long at this price though... 
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/164274-r32-gtr-gunmetal-7750-a-2.html#post1629751


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## scenic_gtr (May 20, 2012)

Thanks for the input so far everyone.

It looks like I might decide for the rolling shell as the R33's in my price range seem somewhat used. Quite a few are rusty or damaged so I would want to avoid that.

SklyaFett, that is great, do you have a build on here or some pictures you could share with us to give me an idea of what it involves? My plans? I was thinking of stripping the interior, cleaning it up and replacing any interior panels that are worn or appear used to basically make the interior seem new as it came out of the factory. No aftermarket crap, although I would consider adding a few Nismo bits if finances allow. Considering this is where the driver spends most of their time, it seems little emphasis is often put on fixing it up. Exterior wise, I would just like to keep it stock so no need for changing anything apart from panels that might have caught the rust bug over the years (which might be the wings as you point out)... I will probably be doing some mods to the engine and suspension further down the line anyways so I probably wouldn't bother replacing it with new parts, just making sure that it runs and drives smooth at that point.

Thanks Miguel, but I think I would prefer an R33, although that is a lot of car for that price!

DaveW, can you please PM me some details or a link to the shell you are offering?


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## scenic_gtr (May 20, 2012)

GTR Cook said:


> Best starting with a running car in the best condition for your price range. You can take parts off for replacement and you won't have to buy everything from scratch.
> 
> Or how about buying a solid shell and a ropey looking mechanically sound car and transferring the good parts into the new shell.


That would be a very good idea but I am afraid my finances would not suffice the purchase of both because even the cheapest R33's I've seen are around 6k and tbh, their mechanical parts don't seem to in the best condition either.


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## akasakaR33 (Oct 10, 2005)

Allow me to add my two cents:

Take this all with a grain of salt, I've never even been to the UK so I have no idea what the used car market is like there (especially Skylines).

I think at your budget - you will have to decide whether you want a car in good shape panel-wise, or good shape engine-wise. From what I've seen here in Japan, for example, lots of cars look older and more banged up than they really are because the paint appears to be in bad shape.

BUT - if you have some detailing skills, you can quickly bring an old and tired LOOKING car back to life, and in fact often better than new. (Miguel is witness to how I, in a day, brought back his friend's NEVER waxed, 17 year old station wagon back to showroom condition...)

So I guess what I am saying is, even if the exterior looks a bit dinged up, if the engine and transmission are in good shape, that could would be least expensive over the long haul.

Obviously, cars in the UK have their own bodywork problems - such as rust - which I would stay away from - but for example paint that looks dulled, or if there are fine spiderwebbing, plastics that have greyed, etc. are all ok as this is fixable with some elbow grease.

As for mechanical issues - perhaps others can give input too - but research what are common problems, and what is expensive to fix. On the R33s, earlier ones are known to have 3rd gear gearbox issues - so make sure the gearbox is in good shape, otherwise budget for a gearbox repair or replacement. The RB26DETT is pretty strong, but there are lots of shady tuners, so make sure the engine is running smoothly and doesn't make funny sounds. Cars that have excessive power - well, then there can be excessive strain on the engine if upgrade mods aren't done as well. IF you find a tuned car, make sure that engine upgrades were done properly - for example that they didn't just stick on a huge turbo but went to the trouble to balance the pistons, polish the intake runners, replace the gaskets, etc. 

In fact, if you can I would go check out a GT-R that is known to be in good shape - perhaps some of the gents on this board can help. That should serve as a benchmark, maybe. 

Finally, don't rush. There are always people on this forum, for example, who have to part with perfectly good GT-Rs due to some life issues, etc. And in some cases, for a very good price, so those are the ones you should try to get. If you see something out in town that seems too good to be true, ask on this board if people know about it - often they do.

Good luck!

Aki




scenic_gtr said:


> Thanks for the input so far everyone.
> 
> It looks like I might decide for the rolling shell as the R33's in my price range seem somewhat used. Quite a few are rusty or damaged so I would want to avoid that.
> 
> ...


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## Miguel - Newera (Sep 18, 2003)

akasakaR33 said:


> Allow me to add my two cents:
> 
> BUT - if you have some detailing skills, you can quickly bring an old and tired LOOKING car back to life, and in fact often better than new. (Miguel is witness to how I, in a day, brought back his friend's NEVER waxed, 17 year old station wagon back to showroom condition...)
> 
> ...


Some good advice there Aki, but Obata San's car was unique. Although he'd never washed of waxed it, it had *always* been garaged since new, albeit it shared living space with his active labrador who loved to put claws on the bodywork. One of the most rewarding days spent detailing a car (Obata still talks about what you did when I see him , that was - but chances of finding a GT-R like that are loooow!!!

Many of the Skyline GT-R's that have had considerably long lives in UK are rusted, usually from inside out. So double skinned suspension turrets, boot floor, sills, rear arches, front panel, etc. are often quite badly corroded on older examples there. Underseal hides it, but doesn't make it go away. Take a look at Tonigmr2's project to get some idea... and that's an R34 GT-R!

A long time ago my dad used to run a classic car restoration business, restoring Ferrari's and other exotica so as a teenager I begun learning about what it was to properly restore cars (by that I mean cutting out bad metal, shaping it perfectly and welding before grinding away welds to leave panels looking completely original & now rust free - this included shaping new panels from sheet metal. I WISH I'd learnt those skills from panel beaters when I had the chance, lol but I was more interested in tinkering with mechanical things!)

I can tell you, building a car from a shell's a very expensive and time consuming process, which may prove to become an abandoned project as the challenges of finding all the small pieces and where they go all become too much...Assuming you do things honestly & properly. 

Your best bet is to find a good car and improve it from there. Even that won't be cheap to do well & very time consuming if you're a perfectionist. As for R33's opposed to R32's, that's an entirely different conversation altogether. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. :thumbsup:


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