Answering questions about my California Legal Skyline R32 GTR

hey everyone Mike here uh up here on the roof of the parking garage here at my apartment complex because filming in my actual garage for Mike Rogers a little tight fitting around their car work but I wanted today to go over this this is my r32 GTR from Japan's a 1989 model and this one is fully California legal camera here for it this is fully California legal I just recently got it license earlier this year and I always get a lot of questions about this vehicle people ask me when I take it out you know how does it like to drive or I handed vehicle or you know what did it take to get it legalized here in California so we can go through all that today this video is going to be talking about everything I had to do to get this car into the United States how I did that what we use to get it legalized in California and just showing off little bits and features here and there of the car as we go so let's check it out to start the first thing you have to consider when you want to get any right-hand drive car in the u.s. is you know where you gonna get it from there are importers all over the United States they can handle you know bring the vehicle in and there are ways you can just buy it yourself in Japan and bring it over I chose to go with an importer who helped source this vehicle it's company called right-hand drive specialties up out of Kent Washington I'll post their information down below could not suggest them more they are amazing I contacted a contacted them the owner Carlos got in contact with me he was living over in Japan at the time I don't know if he still lives there but he contacted me from Japan talked about what I was looking for then I'm trying to get this car California legal can't be heavily modified which we'll get through and he sourced this and this was the one he ended up giving me though it was not this color they were able to paint it for me as part of the importing process they painted it Bayside blue because I figured it was great for so picture up here of what it looked like before they before they painted it for me but they took care of that and then shipped it to me here in Los Angeles that part not very difficult all in about this few years back and all in I think I was about 2023 25,000 total to get the car purchased and sent over here and it was in pretty much the condition you see it in now aside from being you know originally great there was some work I had to do under the engine - or under the hood on the engine to get it to run a little stable and needed a wiring harness a new MAF sensor which I'll go over with the legalisation stuff but in the end that's what it took we had to get that over here so that's what you're looking at at least back in 2016 2017 so nowadays part and cost a little more depends on the condition as well if you get one that's heavily modified if you don't live in California so you don't care you spend a little more get a little more car however I wanted something fairly stock to begin with I like the idea of it being not fully stock because good luck finding that but as close to stock as possible so let's take a moment and go over what it takes to get one of these legalized so legalizing one of these in California little tricky this is where a majority of your headache is going to be you'll notice this is just the engine bay standard rb26dett motor it is running it's twin-turbo setup it does not have any sort of aftermarket turbo hookup however I did have to replace a lot of parts it'll vary little very heavily on the vehicle you bring over if you're trying to legalize in California this parts gonna be very specific to Californians but the more modify the car is the more work going out to do to D modify for example according to the state of California I had pot filters on here those had to go so I had to buy this replacement airbox from some people on Facebook groups which if you buy one of these cars you'll end up on a dozen Facebook groups just for owners and parts trading this is the map sensor I had to replace it was actually causing the vehicle to idle a little weird when it just sat and that'll fail what's called the carb certification here in California's carb is the California Air resource board they're the ones that make all the silly laws that you have to do to get stuff like this legalized I also had to get a new wiring harness for the that was required purely because it was getting a bad signal from the bad math it was all decrepit so we replaced that whole thing at one go wasn't cheap but has made the car run beautifully since then I had to replace the fuel regulator I had an adjustment regulator McGee ba ma you found her back I had a estable fuel regulator which I've still got but that is against the rule so I had to get a stock one of those to reinstall I also had to get a stock boost solenoid this is controlling the boost I had an HKS boost controller on here originally again I've still got it but it's not allowed by the state of California so I had to pull it off other things I had to do I did I don't know if I just said it but I had to remove this they consider that an aftermarket performance part it's kind of silly as you can see I've put it back on because really and then other things that did not related to carb certification but stuff that needed to be done over time was I had to get new battery because the battery ahead and it went dead and these are the Optima yellow tops these are the best batteries in general for GTRs any user group you talk to will tell you that that's how I found out and I had to replace all these coolant lines there is one you can't see there's one here here here you know all that back there I had to replace one that's behind the motor and that was that was not cheap because the motor had come part way apart and I don't have the means to do that right now in my apartment so I to pay a shop to do that so that was not not inexpensive is about the hoses the work and I had a bunch of the oil lines everything checked all ends about $1,000 for all the parts I've named here the math the cable the Box field regulator boost solenoid work to get it all installed just under the hood you're looking at a couple thousand dollars worth what I've done I didn't have to have a shop help there's a couple things because I as you see in this channel I'm learning a lot I don't have the tools or the knowledge for everything and some of the stuff I want to make sure it was done right so I getting the engine harness sri and redone I paid a shop to do that I don't want to risk that so that was necessary under hood stuff I still would like to do I want to get a replacement for this to match up here and then had this whole thing painted to match the body get this blue paint job done I also need to replace my fan shroud and has been is like this when I got it from Japan and it runs fine it doesn't hit but obviously I would prefer prefer it being correct so that is what it takes under the hood to get this all taken care of it does get you this sticker which is one of the stickers of the state of California will install I'll show you the other one in a future part of the video but aside from under the hood let's get this hood put down here aside from under the hood we also had to do a little work on the interior top in real quick I can't really show much of what it was but we can get what we can here so there's a bit of a marking here laughs you thought I run away there's a bit of a mark here that is where my turbo timer was that I pulled off because again California I had boots controller mounted under here and that's where the controls for it was that came out and then down there in that piece of trim that's where the ECU is this car came from Japan with a minds tuned ECU which everybody knows our BIOS these cars in those mines not just these cars but it's pretty popular with the GTR community at least and California won't let you have an aftermarket ECU to get carb certified so I had to get a stock ECU that was another hundred or so dollars all in the work I've done on this car before I sent to California sort of odd I looked at around three or four thousand dollars so if you get one of these from Japan and you need roughly the same kind of work I've just described in California that's where you're starting at before you even send the car off that's what you're gonna need to do get all of it returned to a stock as possible the next thing and the part you always hear about you'll hear about oh isn't it like ten grand to get these cars illegal or some crazy value like that well the truth of the matter is that $10,000 price you constantly were here online is hundred percent accurate the car needs to go to a company I used the only company that's really in the state able to handle this called G&K automotive they are automotive convergence W they're called they are very nice people helped give me everything taken care of they took very little time to get my car handled though I have heard stories that have taken a lot longer some people have taken several months I don't one guys they took like a year to his car handled it took him about three months to get mine handled that does cost $10,000 they take the exhaust systems clarks from the bottle baby from the engine all the way back and recut it put in a couple of catalytic converters from I think the 2015 and up Camaros put those in there they check over the system on the engine check your emissions and then they schedule with California Air resource board to come out and do the testing and if they come out and test it and they sign off on it you get a sticker on the door panel and you get the sticker under the hood and he gets paperwork let's take it to the DMV and get your license plate now the reasons people go with people like G&K and not do it themselves is one finding what the state of California looking for is a pain in the ass I hate how much California hides this information though I'm sure if I looked harder I might be able to find it so if you can get that information to do the test and do it yourself then yeah by all means you could handle it I don't know anyone who's ever done that but it could be done if you figure out how to do it you probably make money in California doing it for people you guys start competition with gene K that being said the one thing you get by sending it to gene K with the $10,000 fee is the state of California charges fifteen hundred dollars to do the inspection so when they come out to go we're going to look at this car we're gonna see if it's legal if they open that hood and see just one wire that they disagree with or one I don't know one modification they think shouldn't be there then they will you instantly they'll walk away then won't do continue the search ago that's invalid this fails the inspection thank you for your $1500 you fixed that one little thing it's another $1500 show them to come out look that $1500 is pass and fail you don't get any chances to redeem it nothing it's your 1500 bucks and if it fails it fails so when you go with a company like G & K what you're getting is a guaranteed they'll get that done so for this car I paid them the 10 grand there's actually nine thousand nine hundred eighty five or something like that effectively ten thousand dollars and they gave me all the paperwork if it took them four tries with the state that would have cost them six thousand dollars so they know what to do they know how to make it work right and when calls haven't done you will have a car that is legal and they will have their money so is it worth ten thousand dollars depending how much you want one of these cars that's what I tell people every time they ask is it worth the money how much do you want a GTR if you don't want in our 32 GTR or you're not gonna be in California for very long then don't do it if you just want to Skyline get a GTS T however you pay about ten grand for that as well in California so another question I get asked often is why not register it in Montana why not redshirt in Vegas air in Nevada or in Oregon and you can do that the California Highway Patrol or big about them they watch for those things if they see a car they think the illegally registered they'll pull you over for and I don't wanna have to deal with that frankly I have had good luck with my life I've you know got a good career I'm doing this stuff for fun I could afford it it was not an easy afford really would prefer not paying the ten grand but the fact that I can hop in this car right now drive up to the store and do whatever and don't have to worry about oh if the cop pulls me over and he runs my tag if they think I'm a illegal they may impound the vehicle or no I have a valid tag and they okay cool and the Highway Patrol LAPD that should been pretty cool about it they've come up and looked at the car before while I was parked at gas stations and we're excited to see it I was at a car show recently the in fact yes she's right here the the elite tuner gearhead Society event here in LA a couple weeks ago and that was at the police academy and they came out and looked at the car and they really thought it was cool so the police here really solid if you aren't trying to with the rules mess with the rules they will have issues with you so that's why I chose to do it that's what I tell people when they do that so all in all in for this car like I said I'm about 20 something thousand 2325 5000 on the import and probably another fourteen thousand on work so that's what you're looking at if you were to try to import a GTR into California a lot of people on will tell you if you want to import a skyline have enough money to buy two when I first heard that I thought that's ridiculous no no one no one should do that and the more I've had at the moment you know it's not a bad idea if you can afford it if you can afford a skyline grab it if you got the passion for it but if you could afford to you're better off because you will probably spend at least half of what you spend on the car fixing it or getting it where you want it because there's still stuff I want to do a good example if I go over here to this wheel you can see this will me bring my thing these wheels got a lot of curb rash from the owner in Japan carbonate so I want to fix that in all four wheels least the two on this side tell me I've got aren't as bad kind of in the same shape really shoot up so I want to replace these wheels now I can either get these resurfaced yeah repolish resurfaced I don't think that they're beyond repair but I would like to get a white set of work Meister it's a s s once my stressful one three pieces I don't put that on there cuz I've seen a car with a similar look white rims on there before with this color and I thought it looked amazing so that's my goal with that I want to replace the turbos because this does have the ceramic turbos from 1989 those are potentially bad for going out you overheat them you put too much pressure on them they shatter they go into the engine I don't want deal with that and I want reduce suspensions a little rough it's a 30 year old suspension could use a bit of a love but that is what it takes for getting one of these legalized now the other question always get what's it like to drive so here we are we are in the seat time to copter off after somebody we are in the seat of Moscow I'm sitting up here on the parking in the parking lot we are not gonna take it for a drive today because I forgot to get my mount for the GoPro so that I could drive it and you can see what it's like bus I figure out the good way to mount the camera so that it looks like you're on this side of the car that way you get a good feeling of what it's like but I can still show you some of the stuff just by moving the camera so here we are you're driving down the road a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot the cops truck somebody the the big thing you'll find is it's actually really simple you have your shifting here now if I'm shifting that's first so a weighing up is first just like it would be in an American car so first second third fourth fifth and then well down is reverse yeah there we go reverse so that just the same as it is in an American car the only difference is first is a weighing up instead of towards enough it's the same position on the tree some people think it's backwards to be fair I wasn't sure when I first got the car I had to ask some people find out exactly how it works it's the same thing with pedal situation look down there so you come on so you have your uh accelerator you brake and clutch just like a US car they're not in reverse order people honestly ask me if that's the case so these are the same as they are in you know whatever car you have in the US so driving it Assad from shifting with your left hand and shifting kind of backwards from what you're used to that parts no big deal steering obviously works the same where you do start to get some interesting differences is for the blinker is on this side that's your blinker that is opposite of American cars where they're on this side and it's also interesting because it's the same concept up to turn in this case turn left down to turn right this the way the wheel turns but it is opposite of how it is over here because then it would be up to turn right down to turn left so yeah I left in right back so if that's wrong expect an edit of the video that gives you an idea for how that work and surprisingly I have no trouble with this car there's me bring it up so you have your blinker army right there's nothing on this side because your headlights are actually up here those are Watchers headlights and stuff over here so you don't have a stock over here my my US car my Lancer we just parked right over there that car has a stock on both sides so I'm glad about driving this card with no problem getting in my USDM Lancer and turning the winter whoppers on when I want to turn so I got a lot that's something on me that's just something you got to learn to deal with another thing to consider at least on this car so this is purely on Scotland I don't know other makes if they'll be any different but they will be different on some level but because this will only ever meant to be sold in the United States the speedometer is only in kilometers the only being in kilometers means you gotta learn real quick how to convert two miles per hour 100 miles per hour 100 kilometers per hour 60 miles an hour that's kind of what I go although and then it's la there's just a lot of traffic so I just keep up with traffic had any trouble the other gauges are standard gauges you'd see this gauge up here this gauge right here is your torque split so this shows you how the attesa systems working does this fuel which I need and this car goes to any shitload of fuel now over here you got your pressure pressure and engine temperature and their course the tachometer so there you now you know how the layout of the dashboard is really beyond that there's not a whole lot that's different about driving driving right hand wrong there is the aspect of again if you're driving from here you want to look behind you you look this way oh no the mirror is up here this time so I do got a cut law where I'll look out there instead of looking up there for the rearview know the view mirrors don't seem to bother me I always seem to look directly at them I don't know why the rear mirror has a problem for me but the side mirror doesn't that's a weird thing de some of you guys may have no trouble with it for me I'll trip up on that a lot the final problem was driving right hand Robin this is the biggest I'm gonna say issue but it's not only an issue it's just some you have to learn to deal with it something that UPS drivers have dealt with since the beginning of ups that is if you're making say we are in a median and we're turning left and there's a car in front of us also turning left we can't see what's coming at this point I wish I cropped I pull up one of those guys and use them as a blocker but like if there's a car in front of me I can't just look out the side and see what's coming so if you're turning left at a blind intersection you are kind of screwed you just have to wait because you pull out you can get hit and dealing one of these things you don't want to have insurance on these things which I'll go over in a second so that's the the caveats of driving right hand drop there's really not a lot to it I mean you use driving just like you would a normal car you keep yourself on the other side of the lane that's one thing to remember because you're no longer on that side of the car you are on this side of the car so you wanna tell this side of the lane not that side of the line otherwise you'll be on the meat or on the lane in oncoming traffic that's bad yeah other that's all pretty simple the final thing I'm gonna go over in this video and this is something I don't sit here and go over cuz I'm have any paperwork with me is insurance people ask me a lot of times ask on different videos or different owners of these cars how do you insure an imported gray market Skyline GTR tricky question I use State Farm Insurance I've had State Farm since I was fifteen years old with my first car and they've done well bomb me ever since I worked in the insurance industry briefly I've got something on my camera liens strike okay I worked in the insurance industry briefly as a claims processor and I worked with State Farm all stay armours bureau about 30 different insurance companies through the place I was at and the best one I felt was stay farm I had the most work with them I did a lot of stuff with them so I was just more comfortable with them as well so it very well could just be that but at the end of the day I've been with them since I was 15 I'm 35 something over 20 years I have had several cars through I think I owned like to have all my 10 cars and I bought them all insured through their ville answer that I have has been in an accident I got rear-ended knit and they helped me get that taken care of with absolutely no problem saw went into them I was like hey I want him I want to import a skyline I need to know how the insurance is on it and the way it works on this is I declare the value I tell them this car was worth X amount of money and anytime I do work to it to raise its value I report that tomb and it raises the value of the car it also raises my premium if the cars in a wreck they will look at what it costs to repair which will pretty much be outrageous because of to import everything and then they'll pay out based on the cost now other companies will do it differently some companies will just ensure it as a car or whatever and then they look at the market value at the time of an accident so check around it really comes down to your driving experience and your connection some insurance companies will only take you if you have people already there in your family Haggerty is another company I've heard it's really good to work with because they understand these cars I understand collectors market I haven't worked with them ever but I have looked into them before and I hope maybe I'll change over to them at some point but state farms always been really good to me so until I have a reason not to and price taking with them plus I have my renter's and my other car through them and if I pick up a third car it'll go through them you just get one more discounts so that's how I do it but the insurance is the thing to consider it is not necessarily going to be cheap I'm not gonna go through what my insurance is mine's not bad but that comes from 20 years of discounts and multi cars and getting things set up correctly if you've had accidents in the past if you could tickets in the past if you've had if you have a car that's just a little more interesting maybe in our 33 with some weird edge case to it who knows what your rates will be you would have to really just talk to your agent but I endure State Farm I then they don't pay me I just think they're really good no one pays me it's a YouTube channel with no followers right now this is probably one of the first real videos even going up on the channel so they're an amazing company I like working with them I've had no problem so that's why I go with so yeah that is a long video explaining everything I feel is important to consider when buying an r32 skyline what to worry about when you're driving it how to insure it and more importantly what's it going to cost and what do you need to expect as a driving vehicle a little extras in there for having a California legal the only other thing I'd say is if you're in floor or if you're in Hawaii sorry very illegal there no matter what at least unless they change the law they don't allow you to import there at all because they have such a small space and if you see a car with a floor to plate do your research make sure it was legally imported Florida's big about illegal imports that's why I suggest if you're going through a vendor know who they are there's top-rank here in LA there's RHD in Washington there's a few other ones on the East Coast that are really good ask around go into forums and they will be more not there or reach out to me on here and I'm always more than willing to answer questions where I can the community for these cars is really tighten it and they will always be more rolling up yeah so I hope you've enjoyed the walk-around of my skyline I hope you've enjoyed the video be sure to post your comments down below if you have any questions if you own a skyline you think I'm wrong on something by all means share I've always willing to learn and gain new information if you've got questions that I didn't answer feel free if there's something you want to see more of with this car I will be taking to take it to car shows all the time start recording those shows some videos will start coming up for as regularly as I can get to of car shows and you'll see my car in the background or photographed in there also my Instagram is down below and I post lots of pictures of my car as long as as well as video games stuff there and I have my gaming channel down below or play video games so be sure to check all that out and yeah until next time stay awesome take care

Channel: Mike's Garage

Views: 6,126

Rating: 4.9656653 out of 5

Keywords: Nissan, Skyline, R32, GTR, GT-R, Skyline GTR, Japan, Japanese, Classic, Import, JDM, RHD, California, Legal, CARB, CHP, GT_RMY

Id: BAIf3h3EPqk

Length: 26min 26sec (1586 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 07 2019