The Stagea

Got a car that isn't a Lude? There's no condemnation here. Tell us about it!
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Duo
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Re: The Stagea

Post by Duo » Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:48 pm

The yellow one is Masa R34 front end kitted, my white one had a Dolphin kit on it, would love to buy another for the silver one but current ex rate makes it £714 just to buy the front bumper, then shipping from japan and import tax etc etc, too many ££££££s

Working long days still, mostly due to my 90 mile commute each way but can't start early so not getting much time for anything, will try to get pics up by the weekend at the latest.

They are awesome cars and I've shamelesly stolen the acronym BUS from a Stagea club member, Big Undercover Skyline :D Having the RS Four S is a rare thing so gets a good bit of attention, the only more desirable Stagea than mine is the Autech RS260. Autech are a Japan only based Nissan tuner, bit like a partner company in a way, the Autech Stagea comes with an RB26DETT pre tuned to 400bhp so goes like stink but they are like hens teeth and carry a hefty premium for such power.

Given that a lot of tuners like the free flowing and clever RB25 Neo head I was thinking about mating it to a Nismo N1 block if I can ever afford it, bigger injectors and fuel pumps, mappable ecu, new turbo and some forged pistons should see a reliable 600bhp. Interestingly the Neo engine has the RB26 forged con rods already so bottom end should be pretty good to go, also have oil jets to keep pistons cool just like the H22. The thing that gets me most is whever had my car in Japan set it up for broken suspension look so handling is a bit sketchy due to inner idges of the tyres being the main/only contact point. The white one was set up to cruise the Wangan at high speed all night and it felt like my 'lude at high speed, planted and never move, still miss that car, very very rare options like double sunroof and leather seats.

On that note, if you can repair a car, never ever let the insurance bods take it, if the police want it towed out of the way pay the money to have it taken to your home. The recovery guy was being pissy so let them take the car and let the insurance look at it, bent a front chassis rail so they cat B'd it and I couldn't recover it, if I had it, it'd have been straightened on a jig and back on the road and tbh I could have skinned the "engineer" alive for being so dumb about the car and could have shot the underwriters for pissing about and way under valuing the car. Hard learned lesson but thats how it goes sometimes, got enough money in the end but being a cat B write off I couldn't even buy back the car bcause I'm "not qualified" to dismantle it. Utter fuckers! No longer underwritten by them though hehe.

Back to work for now, will update later/weekend ;)

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Duo
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Re: The Stagea

Post by Duo » Thu Mar 08, 2012 4:07 pm

So now I'm watching some HKS and Greddy boost controllers going cheap on ebay, think the stock turbo will reliably produce 10psi but 12psi or more and they tend to eat themselves. Got a couple of options but may not get one yet, they're all under the £30 mark including postage but it's always the last day they shoot up so not holding my breath. Should really spend the money on new tyres as mine are getting very very low, we'll see how it goes, some people owe me money so could be good to go :twisted:

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Duo
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Re: The Stagea

Post by Duo » Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:17 am

I'll try to get my ass in gear and update this and my Prelude threads at the end of the month, got a week off so may have some time to get a few things done. Will be off to my folks too so might get a few bits sorted and inspected on the lude, fingers crossed, and I might even do a little video of start up and rev once warm if I remember 8-)

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h10ndr
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Post by h10ndr » Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:29 am

Awesome cars.... was well impressed with your old white one...Looking forward to seeing the new one....

Not long now... JAE
Tim
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SOLD 1992 JDM-BB1UKSPEC-B545P-H22A7-U2Q7-P72 NEPTUNE RTP
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Duo
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Re: The Stagea

Post by Duo » Thu Aug 09, 2012 11:20 am

Yeah not too long for JAE, sadly I doubt the Stagea will be mapped this year because I'm skint frequently :lol: and the Prelude needs a lot of work done as all the rubber under the car is shot from being stood a long time, not much rust but cv boots, exhaust hangers and most importantly the bushes are all a lot worse for wear as the rubber has crumbled ot cracked/split. The new Stagea isn't a patch on the white one in all honesty but thems the breaks, just means more to do on the bodywork side but does lend itself to something a bit custom and one off along with a respray sometime. The Dolphin kit the white one had is INSANE expensive just to buy let alone ship and pay import tax on, sexy kit though!

I may even get a few Stagea update bits done tonight ready to post or even posted, need to get her on the rollers really but might be done before and after when she's mapped. If only I could guess those 6 bloody numbers on a Friday :lol:

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Post by wurlycorner » Sat Aug 11, 2012 5:52 pm

I do love Stagea's...
Definitely a car on my shopping list (not that I don't have more than enough cars already!)

stal1878
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Post by stal1878 » Sat Aug 11, 2012 7:32 pm

I see one of these semi-regular in Bridgwater, I always liked them, but never knew what they were!

We need more pictures! :D

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Duo
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Re: The Stagea

Post by Duo » Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:05 pm

Ok time for some pics because I'm not being lazy right at this moment, I swear Japanese beer works like Monster on me :lol:

My first Stagea, the white one RIP :cry:
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My current Stag
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Duo
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Re: The Stagea

Post by Duo » Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:32 pm

I've done more work myself to the silver Stagea but it's going to need a LOT more done to be on par with the white one bodywork/bodykit wise. Engine wise the silver one is faster now and I do like having a SARD sports cat and Kakimoto N1 catback combined with the HKS induction kit.

I've been busy here and there so here are a few more pics.

NGR Type-S dump valve, bargain.
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Brake Stabilizer, these really do work but over tighten and I've heard you can crack the master cylinder :?
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New 200mm HKS 3 layer dry filter.
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My climate control panel had lost all light so some 12v LED's and creative mounting later a solution was born
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Lit up at night, looks a little dim but I think thats more the camera adjusting to the slightly brighter stock lights than them actually being particularly dim.
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My idle screw was ballsed so after fighting to remove it I had to either buy a new one or work up a solution, can you guess which one I did? :lol:
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So after cutting off the threaded part of the idle adjust screw I found a hollow bolt from a 'lude gearbox with the right thread size and pitch and proceeded with the serious glue (serious glue is for winners!!!!)
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This weekend I finally got round to removing some clouding/hazing of my front lights.
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After:
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Duo
Posts: 476
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:23 pm
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Location: Wisbech

Re: The Stagea

Post by Duo » Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:43 pm

To clear the cloudy lights I used a total of 4 products, I wanted to test them out and tbh I am actually quite surprised, the most abrasive and fastest working was the Turtle Wax Clear Vue cutting glass polish. I'm actually quite impressed with it, after that I went on to Farecla G3 and finally Megs Scratch-X before AG Vinyl and Rubber Care. As I wanted the gloss I sprayed on the AG and left it to dry a bit before polishing up, also as a little tip I was doing this in the sun and if the polish dries out too much it can be hard to buff off so I got a cheap (£1 Wilkinsons) spray bottle and filled it with ordinary carbon filtered water (Brita filter if you want a brand name to know what carbon filters are :) ) you can use this to spritz the lenses and take off and polish that has dried out a little too much for normal buffing.

The technique I used was straight lines, side to side and up and down, simple really and a little counter intuitive but it honestly works better than circular motions when doing it by hand. Certainly looks the part, however, this is no guarantee that these products will be fine on your plastic lights, there is a good chance they will be fine but always test a little corner first and if there is trouble then spray with water and remove asap, light damage can always be polished out. If you slap it on and there is a problem then by the time it's all off you may have made a lot of work for yourself so be warned :ugeek:

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