Over the weekend I was finally able to move the Bluebird into its new home. I guess that means that the project has officially begun.

Yesterday the high-pressure washer came out and blasted 5+ years of paddock crap off the car. I know it isn’t exactly presentable, but it is better than it was. Side note from the above pic – it was taken after a few minutes of maniacal bashing of the bumper to get it back on. You see, it was run into with a ride-on mower and is now busted. Anyway, about half a second after the photo was taken, in a show of impeccable comic timing, the bumper fell off. You can’t teach slapstick instinct like that. It is official – the car is hilarious.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with flags and Nissans. This sticker was, at the time, pretty much my favourite thing in the world and I desperately wanted a Series 3 TRX because of it. Unfortunately it has to go when the car gets painted, but one way or another I’ll make up another one for it.

The wheels that are currently on the car are “Hasemi Sport S5s”. I don’t know much about them – they actually came with my Silvia. I do know they’re made by SSR, are pretty light, and are fairly bad sizes (something like 15×6 +20ish). I’m going to paint the centres red and put slicks on them for some reason. If I had centrecaps I’d probably get new barrels made and make them crazy wide, but as it is they look pretty ugly so there’s no point.

As a refresher, these are what are going on the car. 15×8 +/- 0 XXR 513s. I picked up some 195/50s for them cheap (the tyres on the Laser in the background)  so hopefully I can get them fitted up soon.

So to the plans… The car will race in standard class, so the CA20 will remain more or less untouched. It will cop extractors and a 2 inch exhaust though. I’ll make some kind of silly tip for it too, to annoy the car club geeks.

Visually it’s getting painted gloss white, and the ugly plastic side stripes will be removed. I’m excited about that – I love white cars and I think the red wheels will look great against stark white. It’ll have the TRX front and rear spoilers re-fitted, probably with an extended lower lip. There will be a few stickers and stuff on it too. Stewart from 3P Auto is going to do all the bodywork for me, and I can’t thank him enough for all his help.

The interior is actually pretty mint all things considered, so all that will be done is a wood Nardi wheel and a crazy shifter. Down the track I may get an old school blue Bride seat for it.

Suspension wise, it obviously has to go a heck of a lot lower. That’ll be done initially by chopping the springs, although S13 coilovers will go in as soon as I find suitable ones. Handling is important for this car, as it is actually going to get used. The springs are probably the next thing on the list.

Stay tuned! I think this’ll be fun.