# The 32's back In business



## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

Finally after a long number of months i picked the car up from the GTR shop where it was being rebuilt 

Can't thank the Dave, Lee and the lads at the GTR shop & Paint Shack for the hard work they've put in to restore the car back to its former glory and then some! and of course for everyone who broke off from the GTR shop meet to get a low loader and come rescue the car from the side of the road. 

LOL Dave gave gets a special thanks for putting up with my constant phone calls with my "great idea of the day", suprised i've not been given a restraining order yet. :runaway:

some pics, just before i left the the GT-R shop (glorius sunshine!)



















......finally parked up back where it belongs  (complete with flies... and scottish weather, sigh)









just need the weather to clear now, so it can get a proper detail, and some real pics taken of the work done!


:thumbsup:


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## dave_gtr (Jun 21, 2009)

Saw this at the gtrshop on Saturday mate looks stunning. I'm talking my R33 there soon aswell for some body work


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## herman (Apr 1, 2007)

*gtr32*

wow that looks very shinny bud.liking the colour alot to.:thumbsup:


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## davew (Apr 28, 2003)

can wait to see it in its first layer of wax as this finish hasnt been waxed yet!!!!!!!!!!


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

It's going to look lovely once there's a decent layer of wax.
We gave it a wash, to get the flies (didn't want the bug juice to set in) and residual dust off, and a quick wax to keep it protected through the week till it gets a good thorough spa treatment this weekend.
Plan was to get it done Sunday, but that was a no go with the wind and rain :O



wishing i could get out of work, and go play cars right now!


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## scott240 (Jan 8, 2006)

That color is awesome, car looks great!


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## Kadir (Mar 23, 2008)

Beautiful colour..


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## nightcrawler (May 7, 2010)

nice one! more pixies pls :thumbsup:


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## cox (Jan 21, 2012)

specs?


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## cox (Jan 21, 2012)

more info please.....
P.s. Well done Dave!


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## ITSt (Apr 28, 2006)

Hi endo :wavey:

Great to see the car back in one piece again after the accident :clap:

..... and she does look very nice indeed :thumbsup:

Was it just a fix up, or is there some new "extras" under the bonnet ?


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## davew (Apr 28, 2003)

I have to say this really is a glorious gtr with some real nice choice parts fitted


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## David (Apr 25, 2003)

Is this the Gtr with "top secret" engine and r34 seats? Looks really nice you have done a great job with it


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## Stevie76 (Dec 17, 2009)

Lovely car mate....


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## 7evil (Feb 18, 2011)

Amazing!


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

Thanks guys, 
The guys have done a great job bringing the car back to life, i'm glad the car is finally back home, it was always a bit sad seeing my parking space empty.... or more annoyingly filled by one of the neighbours crap-mobiles





ITSt said:


> Hi endo :wavey:
> 
> Great to see the car back in one piece again after the accident :clap:
> 
> ...


Hi long time :wavey:
Should really have a meet, been so busy & scatter brained lately i've not even thought of organising one 

Started out as a fix up, the ended up being a restore job, since was never going to be happy with blended paint, so partially stripped and painted , new seals and a few genuine nismo aero parts chucked in. 

Saurus wing has been swapped back to stock (probably a good thing, visually its a bit marmite), part of me misses the d-speed indicators, but g/f is glad my gehy LCPD stickers (and fairly lights) are gone though :chuckle:










nothing exciting new under the bonnet, unless you count the massive and bling koyo rad that replaced the orignal one that got cracked.


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## jimmy1234 (Nov 16, 2011)

nice to see a fello TH1 owner


(well i will be soon)


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## cox (Jan 21, 2012)

do you have 17 rims on?


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

yup 17x9, though one day i shall have some 18" LM F1's


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## Arza (Jun 30, 2011)

nice! what dimension has your te37 and your tires? look perfect on your 32!!


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## ferruh4real (May 10, 2007)

never seen this colour on a 32..nice


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## Bellis_GTR (Nov 18, 2010)

love that color!


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## WillRobDon (Jul 29, 2006)

Well done all. I remember seeing the pics of this in a hedge! Great work getting it back to this glory. 17's look brilliant, wouldn't change a thing!


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## .::TopSky::. (Nov 4, 2010)

So clean! Nice to see fresh old R32s!


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## DazGTR (Dec 5, 2007)

Love the colour is it the 32 blue pearl or the 33 deep marine blue


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## IMS (Sep 18, 2002)

Hey Mike, great to see the car fixed...was getting fed up of seeing it at dave's every time I called in:chuckle::chuckle::chuckle:


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## dave_gtr (Jun 21, 2009)

Does look awsome. We should have a meet at the gtrshop and all see it in the flesh


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## mambastu (Feb 13, 2002)

DazGTR said:


> Love the colour is it the 32 blue pearl or the 33 deep marine blue


It's TH1 the R32 colour. Looking good Endo 

Starting to become quite a popular colour over here now. Treating my old shi$$er to a bare metal restoration this year so hopefully it should look as nice as yours. 

Cheers

Stu


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## qad (Jul 21, 2011)

Looks awesome


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

Thanks guys, It's really nice having the car back, 
....though i didn't miss looking out the window every 5mins to watch the lack of parking skills or inability to not bounce their doors off other cars that my neighbours have.

Finally had enough of a good weekend for to give the car a decent spa treatment, so out for a wee run then... wash, stripped the temp wax off and gave the car a good wax, and polish, and started the never ending task of getting everything cleaned up the way it was.. still along way to go to get the engine bay back to an acceptible level of "shiny shiny", so much dust managed to get itself into all the nooks and crannies :O.
i don't know if i was being too anal, taking off door cards and the dash to get right in for a good clean!



willrobdon said:


> Well done all. I remember seeing the pics of this in a hedge! Great work getting it back to this glory. 17's look brilliant, wouldn't change a thing!


lol, yeah it was a bit painful seeing it pieces, but while i curse the front end being aluminium and picking up dents left right and center, the one saving grace is that it peeled off like a banana skin and absobred most of the damage 




IMS said:


> Hey Mike, great to see the car fixed...was getting fed up of seeing it at dave's every time I called in:chuckle::chuckle::chuckle:


lol, well it'll be back there in a couple of weeks to sort out a couple of niggles  so you've not seen the last of it.



mambastu said:


> It's TH1 the R32 colour. Looking good Endo
> 
> Starting to become quite a popular colour over here now. Treating my old shi$$er to a bare metal restoration this year so hopefully it should look as nice as yours.
> 
> ...


Cheers mate, does seem to be a fair few popping up lately. Though i doubt there's more than 10-15 in the UK still. Other than a GTS-t i've not seen another TH1 32 in the wild (this isn't counting the one in the borders that is now pearl white)

Definately worth the effort getting it restored, you car'll be looking lovely once it's all freshly done.


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## Natbrat300 (Mar 6, 2012)

Looking good!


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## davew (Apr 28, 2003)

endo said:


> Thanks guys, It's really nice having the car back,
> ....though i didn't miss looking out the window every 5mins to watch the lack of parking skills or inability to not bounce their doors off other cars that my neighbours have.
> 
> Finally had enough of a good weekend for to give the car a decent spa treatment, so out for a wee run then... wash, stripped the temp wax off and gave the car a good wax, and polish, and started the never ending task of getting everything cleaned up the way it was.. still along way to go to get the engine bay back to an acceptible level of "shiny shiny", so much dust managed to get itself into all the nooks and crannies :O.
> ...


We've just bought a TH1 R32GTR in Japan!!


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## jimmy1234 (Nov 16, 2011)

any pics of the damage??

before and after pics would certainly give credit to the guys that fixed it 
hopefully my new th1 vspec arrived end of last week, wont be long until i plaster the boards with a th1 gtr! :smokin:


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## Natbrat300 (Mar 6, 2012)

What the difference between a th1 and a normal R32?


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## markM3 (Jan 7, 2008)

th1 is the colour code


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## davew (Apr 28, 2003)

jimmy1234 said:


> any pics of the damage??
> 
> before and after pics would certainly give credit to the guys that fixed it
> hopefully my new th1 vspec arrived end of last week, wont be long until i plaster the boards with a th1 gtr! :smokin:



Mike has more than us but here's a little idea.




















full frontal failure!!! nothing survived from the struts forward. The wheel is sitting 6" back


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

Here's the car turning up at shop/meet on the back of a low-loader.






















prior to all this.. the car looked like..
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/150335-wish-you-were-here.html
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/152082-studio-shoot-sunday.html




probably an inevitible outcome given i like to play in the snow.... :O













davew said:


> We've just bought a TH1 R32GTR in Japan!!


explains why you had my car so long, it was too nice to give up lol!


does it have a N1 ******* you want to swap me 
found my old carbon one, it's definately borked


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## jimmy1234 (Nov 16, 2011)

:bawling:
wow, looked a state! 
panels off doesnt look too bad tho but i bet there were a fair few things bent out of view, what happened?

glad you decide to fix it back good as new, insurance payout or had to cough up yourself? bet it wasnt cheap! jeeezzz.


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

just bad luck really, and a malfuction with the fleshy thing behind the wheel. 
i had a bad feeling in the morning, and was going to sack it in and head back up twice, especially after passing several crashes on the A1 in the snow, but the lure of daves KGC10 was too much.
lucky part/joke of it was, its was about half a mile from the GT-R shop too :O (given i'd driven for 3hrs to get down there) so forunately the lads were able to come out and recover the car while i got carted to the hospital.

errr, yeah i paid for it all. 
didn't really want the hassle of insurance and if it is/is not a write off even if it was perfectly repairable car, then waiting for money or having the work done by the lowest bidder. Plus i wasnt keen on the unknown of i the car could be bought back if written off so i could strip for all the bits i want.

It was a blessing in disguise, i was planning to get the car stripped and repainted at the end of the year once we're less busy at work, so it provided the perfect opportunity to do so, and add a few bits of N1/nismo tinsel at the same time.


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## mambastu (Feb 13, 2002)

endo said:


> Cheers mate, does seem to be a fair few popping up lately. Though i doubt there's more than 10-15 in the UK still. Other than a GTS-t i've not seen another TH1 32 in the wild (this isn't counting the one in the borders that is now pearl white)
> 
> Definately worth the effort getting it restored, you car'll be looking lovely once it's all freshly done.


I hope so Mike ! I'm looking forward to seeing what the colour looks like when its nice new paint as mine hasn't been well looked after over the years. The lacquer is pretty milky and scratched so it doesn't glow in the sun like yours does. The only other car I've seen in the colour was a 1989 Nissan 200SX RS13 and that wasn't in the best of condition either but you could at least see the pearl effect in the sun. 

It would be nice to know UK numbers if the colour is as rare as the 280ish cars out of the 44,000 odd quoted sometimes. 
Since I started that poll a whileago http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/109127-r32-gtr-colours-present-past-uk.html Newera have imported another 2, The GTR Shop another one soon by the sounds of it and there was a freshly imported car on Ebay recently too. So a minimum of 9 not including any non-board members.
I've got an old road test from about 1989 of a Janspeed imported car (G reg) which was also TH1 so that may still be lurking somewhere out there too.

Cheers 

Stu


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

Hey mate 
There's two colors for TH1 though which makes it slightly confusing especially when i was having bits painted up in the past, one is the original darker color, then it got brought back in '00 i think for a slightly light dark blue. I know a guy who has/had a Z in TH1, but it was a bit lighter and more purply looking (but that might be the paint fading more thany anything)

I remember that thread  i've been wondering how many were actually produced too since the 280 figure gets thrown around alot, making it almost as rare as getting a N1 or Nismo car. (granted BL0 is alot rarer).
A while back i found a site where one of the Z guys had managed to get data from Nissan FAST to get the production numbers for each color/trim of the Z's. At the time it got me thinking if that could be done for the 32. Not sure how he extracted the data though.. i'd hate to go through FAST manually and get the options for 44,000 cars.


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## jimmy1234 (Nov 16, 2011)

be interested to know how many th1 vspec's there were then, could be 1 of very few!! if what you guys are saying is correct and there was only 280 th1 gtrs coloured this way.

normally low colour counts are due to new buyers not liking and picking the colour, lol.


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

probably not many, since the V-spec's I&II were sold late in the R32 production when TH1 was changed to a special order.

There's a TH1 V-Spec in the "I love R32 Skyline GT-R" book, immaculate and stock too.

Utlimately it's all pretty trivial lol since like you said it probably wasnt the most popular color for new 32 owners at the time, hence why it got dropped from the later color options. 
Still i think its a pretty nice color on those few days we get enough sun to see it


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

finally some semblance of normality has resumed, though my metnal job sheet of what needs to be cleaned/replaced/relocated or redone is still massive lol.

but after a good few afternoons/days worth of polish cleaning and taking stuff apart, its almost like the car never left 
honestly... dust and overspray gets f'ing everwhere, lol cleaning the bonnet liner released a dust cloud of epic proptions and i'm still finding bits down in hard to reach places 

some surgical removal of the bonnet badge to locate it absolutely central to the bonnet, wing badges fitted.. and just waiting on a replacement for the slightly tatty boot from Nissan. Then just silly stuff like removing the wing to get the n/side indicator fitting perfectly, and other random odd jobs. 
Should really get one of those titanium bolt kits while i'm at it 

Thanks to Andy H, i've got the silly R33 charcol canister replaced for the correct one, and correct bracket  (granted i dont _really_ need it... but you know)

OH had to laugh at me polishing the fan.... but now that the stock radiator & shroud is gone you can see it!

anyways, pics of the cleanup so far.































.


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## Arza (Jun 30, 2011)

oh man thats bad, but essential you to be well!


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## scott240 (Jan 8, 2006)

Oh no! I hope your car makes a speedy recovery!

Looks very clean otherwise


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## kevr32 (Sep 24, 2009)

stunning


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## peter33gtr (Oct 9, 2007)

*32 gtr back !*

:bowdown1: to dave for a brilliant job getting her back on the road bet your pleased as it seems like ages ago when you had your accident all good now tho looking good again


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## chas (Sep 19, 2003)

The car's looking good Mike, you must be chuffed to get out in it again. We'll need to catch up when I get mine back. 

Charlie. 

P.S...... looks better with stickers off the wings :smokin:


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## blitzer_bhoy (May 26, 2007)

Unbelievable R32 GTR....


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## Dean_Lee (May 17, 2010)

looking fantastic! wow!


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

Was out at East Fortune last friday, any excuse to take the car for a run  so i grabbed a couple of pics before i shot off back to work.












peter33gtr said:


> :bowdown1: to dave for a brilliant job getting her back on the road bet your pleased as it seems like ages ago when you had your accident all good now tho looking good again


Cheers man, yep Dave and the boys have worked their magic, definately happy to have the car back it was a painful 5 months of waiting to see the finished result. Well worth the wait though 




chas said:


> The car's looking good Mike, you must be chuffed to get out in it again. We'll need to catch up when I get mine back.
> 
> Charlie.
> 
> P.S...... looks better with stickers off the wings :smokin:


Definately mate, gimme a text once its back from the shop 

lol.. yeah, a few people have said that although i've got spares  probably best leaving the stickers off though.


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

*Not having much luck with the Skyline this year....*

 Not really having a good year it seems, driven the car a grand total of 4 times this year and it back to the bodyshop.

Sunny day, so i thought i'd take the car out, having just coming off the A1, i'm slowing down for a junction near the centre of town... massive bang, Anj informs me we've had a blow out (im in that second thinking, no shit sherlock... oh and that's another wheel rim borked).

get out, and i'm rocking more low than the dub guys, with about 45 degrees of camber since all 5 bolts had worked themselves loose!
granted i've now been told by everyone i know, didnt i notice anything prior to it happening, but skating over some of the cobbles and moon surfaces called road here roads, i'm used to feeling like the car is about to fall apart.

Thankfully a dog unit that was on patrol came by about 3mins later to give me cover, and a helping hand so i could jack the car up, bolt it back on, and get it to a side street for recovery.

thankfully it didnt happen at 70, since we stopped quick enough the wheel stuck in place so i didnt ground the car, and royally f-up the underside, and on the upside it still goes straight and stops.

Wallet is going to feel a lot lighter now...


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## glensR33 (Apr 7, 2008)

ouch, did the blow out catch the arch?


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## R4VENS (Jan 1, 2009)

wow that could ended much worse!

So the bolts from the wheels got loose? How the @#$% did that happen?


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## majestic (May 3, 2010)

they were not tightened .


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

They were tightend and torqued properly.

But the wheels had been refurbed and repainted, and after further investigation it turns out there was a build up of paint in the lug holes that formed a "soft washer" of paint, so the nuts were torqued up properly but we're free to come loose because of the flex in the paint layer.

This morning I went out to check the car over properly, last weekend I had gone out with the torque wrench and torqued up all 4 wheels, so when I was checking the rear nearside wheel that had had the one nut loose, I found two of the nuts came loose with barely any pressure on the breaker bar, whereas 3 where rock solid. (car hasn't moved for a week, and I do know how to use a torque wrench)

When I looked at the actual area where the base of the nuts are seated, the 3 hard to undo nuts had little paint, or no paint here, The two which came loose however had a build up of paint where it had clearly built up as it cracked and scrapped up to form a layer between the nut and rim.
Result is you could torque the nuts up to spec, but undoing them required no effort at all

Explains how all 5 nuts could loosen so easily, and at the exact same time particularly over a crappy surface.
And busts the conspiracy theory that someone was trying to kill me


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## glensR33 (Apr 7, 2008)

lucky man endo, but what happened the arch?


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## JTJUDGE (Nov 21, 2011)

I was worried about this happening after having my wheels powder coated so I checked them every time I drove the car. If it hadn't been for the powder coater telling me to do this I'd never off thought to do it.

Loving the White writing on the wheels


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## CSB (Nov 15, 2007)

I'm always abit ocd when it comes to tightening wheels and such, especially since before I had to drill the stud out because they became seized and rounded. But this happening is one of my worst nightmares. Always think wtf, have I tightened them enough when I'm driving. Of course too late by then.

Like the other poster said, it could've been much worse.


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## angie4m (Apr 26, 2012)

glensR33 said:


> lucky man endo, but what happened the arch?


Well I said I think you've had a blow out and Endo was trying to move the car to the side of the road as we were in the outside lane but when I got out I had to point out that the wheel was off the car!

Luckily the R34 Brakes saved the wheel from coming right off and when Endo tried to move the wheel it caught the arch creasing it 

The other lucky part was that as Endo stood at the side of the road in shock, trying to call someone etc (which I had already done in the form of 999 and my Parents) I was walking back up this main road into Edinburgh collecting all the bolts that came off the wheel. Luckily the light from another passing car helped me find the last one which was in some hole in the road.

I did mute something about actually being someone from Shallow Hal and maybe i'm a lot bigger than the 63kg the scales tell me! That or he's trying to kill me cause its always the passenger side! :chairshot


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## endo (Jul 11, 2007)

angie4m said:


> r he's trying to kill me cause its always the passenger side! :chairshot


The way i'm eating up Nissan's stock of wings i dont think your life insurance will cover repair costs


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