Artomotive Adventures: Painting a Pao! / 'Vaporwave'

What do you do when a car comes your way that's not gonna make it? Well, you can paint on it!

I've painted a few 'things' - office walls, advertising hoardings, giant sunflowers, brick walls; I've customised speakers, radios, baseball caps, shoes - there are bound to be more I've forgotten - and bits of cars, but never a whole car.

The information superhighway is awash these days with cars clothed in glittering wraps, mad paint jobs and stickers, and over the years illustrators and graffiti artists have been called upon to apply their art to corporate advertising pieces in the form of a high-end vehicle parked up somewhere painfully cool and covered in someone's skilz.

Well; this wasn't that - this was a 'let's have a go' weekend adventure while we had the car at our disposal! Our other business is parts and accessories for the iconic and rare Nissan Pao (of which we have two) and buying and breaking ('parting-out') dead ones, so that others may ride again. Before this one met its organ-donor fate, it got fancy.

I knew I wanted it to be a vapourware/synthwave inspired thing, as I listen to a LOT of that stuff and, being an arty teenager in the 80s I lived through all of those sounds and looks For Real - and drew them, on my pencil cases, exercise books, tapes and homework. And it tied in with another project running parallel, so an easy choice.

And, against the backdrop of the noisy bilge pump of (ironically ⬆️) synthesised pictures made with AI, we’ve been feeling more desire than ever to make things that are physical and real, wonky and textured, even. 

And in rolls a canvas on wheels!

The car was sketched out on my iPad and painted with two boxes of Montana spray paint from GraffHQ, after a semi-thorough masking. I'm an amateur when it comes to spray paints, having only ever used them twice before (this mural at the National Centre for Children's Books, and this wall at Bring The Paint festival in Leicester) but chucked myself in after the obligatory nervous pacing and dithering. That first stroke of the nozzle, brush or nib is always the hardest.

We had the use of the paint oven at Uncle Keith's Paint Shop for just the weekend, so we couldn't go as detailed as we wanted to and ended up leaving the boot uncovered, but that didn't matter because we were about to paint it all out and start again anyway...

Watch the film here!

The World’s fastest and most powerful Nissan Pao….for now!

At 354bhp and 303 ft/lb of torque, the Pink Pao is easily the world’s fastest, most powerful Pao* - maybe even the most powerful K10 chassis’d Nissan/Pike Factory car.

Why are we writing about our car again, and not pens or ink or book covers? Well, you may remember, good readers, that when we imported our little pink car from Japan in 2017, we knew we'd adopted something a bit ornery and special which would require us to maintain a certain lifestyle for it. 

The blog that recorded the first few months of the car's life in the UK can be seen here, but this is the next chapter, detailing what we've done since with our Nissan Pao x Silvia SR20DET-engined machine. If you've read my blogs before, or follow me on any socials, you'll know that we keep a small fleet of 'interesting' Japanese vehicles, and if that's your thing too, you can follow us on Instagram at @inkymolesmotors.

Like any of our projects, this was something we put ourselves and our energy into. People LOVE this car and smile and laugh wherever we take it, laughing in disbelief as we tell them the current bhp, as the sun bouncing off the wheels blinds them and the little kids point at the pink and coo. Just like our gallery, our shows, records, our chocolate projects and our radio stations before it, and everything else that's to come, we know that our projects often give other people enjoyment; they’re neither designed to make money (though they sometimes do), nor to satisfy any brief but our own. And it's not like we started this project with a brief, I think with this one we're writing that as we go along!

Both a show car, a driving-wherever-you-want car and a potential track car, this beastie emerged from its time with Dynodaze a much-improved and upgraded version of itself; a makeover of the likes seen in car programmes on the telly: stronger, safer, faster, tidier, cleaner, more stylish, but still very much the one-of-a-kind car that first attracted us to an auction thousands of miles away.

So, for those who share a penchant for the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) car scene: here's what happened next.

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~ THE BIG STUFF ~

Engine

On track at Silverstone in the summer of 2018 we were into only our second lap when the engine thrust out one of those noises that you Do Not Want To Hear. Being of unknown age, around 30 years old and subjected to who knew what kind of life, the original SR20DET had finally given in.

That was the end of our track day, but it was the beginning of a new engine era: a trip to JDM Garage allowed us to review the four rebuilt engines on offer there, glinting in the window. The chosen engine went in with a GT28 turbo, a new flywheel, stage 3 clutch and a winged sump.

While the engine was being swapped, the gearbox was subjected to an overhaul as well as the diff; new brake discs and pads, and we changed out the alternator. 

Do we buy this one? Or this one?

THIS one.

Roll Cage

We knew that we'd need a roll cage fitted as the car got faster and more powerful, so we asked HDF Motorsport to build one for us. One of the most awkward installs of his life, the tight spaces of the Pao required yoga-like welding moves for 6' 2" owner Billy.

Wafting about the HDF premises like it works there.

'A Comfortable Working Environment'

Cage in progress.

Wheels

The car made its way from Japan on red and silver 1980s Star Sharks, and although we were fond of these and the fact they were a recognisable link with 'the car that Nomuken drove on TV', they were tired and had suffered in their very long lives. We took them to Isaac Brain at Rimscarnated who treated them to a full restoration, widening the back rims by half an inch and blasting off the old red paint. The rims were polished to a ludicrous high-maintenance gleam (we use Peek cream to keep them shiny) while the red paint was replaced by one of over 100 silver paint options - the choosing alone took over two hours, comparing swatches and shades.

And the finishing touch was a single pink stud, hand-painted with enamel by Mole (took me HOURS) and fresh centre caps.

Here are some gratuitous shots:

Progress shot by Rimscarnated

Centre caps by Barrel Bros.

This original pink was close, but not close enough, so was swapped for a near-perfect matched 'Pink 200' by Humbrol Enamel, hand-painted on.

Photograph by Rimscarnated

Photograph by Rimscarnated

(We made him some stickers to say thanks.)

Headlamps

In a bid for better night vision and 'to help people see' the hard-to-spot noisy pink thing hooning down the road, we swapped the factory headlamps for LED versions, more commonly seen on a Jeep. They're an almost perfect fit, and give flexibility with their very human-like ring option or full loving gaze:

Wheel arches 

Since it had always bugged us that the wheel arches made the car look like it was floating way above its wheels when viewed from a distance, we got them painted in matching Hellrosa (an 80s Mercedes colour) by Keith Ellis at Uncle Keith's Paintshop.

They'd needed a bit of a wriggle to get them to fit, and they're still not a super-slick match to the car, but it looks so much more 'together' now - especially from across the track.

Suspension!

The car's also been fitted with a Tein EDFC coilover suspension system which totally revolutionised the handling. Our first words on returning from a post-fit test drive were "it drives like a normal car!"

More stable, level, comfy and highly adaptable due to its myriad setting options, the car did indeed go from feeling like a lairy unpredictable bounce-fest to a comfy ride you'd be happy to give Great-Grandma a lift to the track in.

And of course, the tiny control box LEDs have been set to pink.

Door cards

We'd bought a tired donor Pao a couple of years ago and kept the door cards, which we hacked hard to modify into a fit for Pink Pao (which had had its battered cards removed early on to allow for roll cage fitting and other work). Serious chopping and slicing was needed to fit them around relocated handles, but once painted Hellrosa-pink and put in place, they brought the car another step closer to 'comfy'.

Digital Dash

We added a Sinco digital dashboard for easier, more immediate sight of the vitals while driving.

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~ THE SMALLER STUFF ~

Gear knob

We re-painted the faded gear knob it came with - a MAC screwdriver handle - in Hellrosa and picked out the lettering in permanent black. Much better!

Steering wheel

Rather than replace the wheel it came with, which is a bit tired but wearing its Japanese drift history with stoicism, we gave the empty horn push centre an identity of its own.

We ordered a stock horn push, took out the badly-printed 'Nissan' logo and replaced it with our own. Since the car is a half-S13 half Pao Francarnstein, we designed a 'Paovia' logo in the style of the Silvia marque and printed it on a brushed aluminium stock.

Tiny Pao

The teeny pull-back-and-go toy Pao we bought from Japan, which arrived in fugly yuckpink, was repainted to match its real-life counterpart!

Tiny Pao now lives on the dashboard.

Original body shell

Proper pinked (Elgrands and Carry van parked behind it in the desktop car park).

RIP BACK AND GO

~ THE NUMBERS ~

354bhp / 303 ft/lb. Here's the most recent dyno print out.

*Ours is certainly only one of two rear-wheel drive Paos in the world, the other is currently being finished in the US by the brave (and now probably empty-pocketed) Roman Vasquez. 

Roman went for 13B rotary power and is currently naturally aspirated, but we know that a satisfyingly big turbo is on the horizon next year!

Showtime!

2020 wasn't the most fruitful year for car shows, but we really didn't do too badly considering. As well as some Exclusive JDM events and a couple of pre-covid track sessions, Pink Pao's last public outing of the year was at a double Exclusive JDM / Go Japan! weekend in September 2020.

With its new bits all in place, Connor at Exclusive JDM kindly invited us and Pink Pao (along with Blue Pao) back for a third time in a year, somehow managing to pull off well-organised and welcoming events in a very difficult pandemic landscape. New to the car show world, Connor's events have a 'less is more' approach with a hand-picked roster of cars representing the full spectrum of JDM machines. This particular weekend he had a post-rainstorm slot at Yakushi! which saw both Paos side by side on an only mildly treacherous grassy slope, the sun beaming down for 8 hours.

Pinkymole was invited to be part of the 'JDM Legends' stand at Go Japan! where we got to take part in the parade: a selection of infamous drift, rare/tuned and show cars taking to the iconic British track accompanied by a lively commentary detailing the specification and history of each one.

Streamed live on the day, Leigh drove the first parade and Sarah the second, alongside the Ayrton Senna NSX, the HKS Hiper Genki S15 and Blitz Nissan Skyline R34 drift car (owned by Garage-D), a rare Subaru SVX,  the V8-powered Fujin Nissan GT-R, the Winfield R32 Skyline replica and a beast of a Porsche 911, with enthusiastic commentary by a narrator who was clearly a fan of the car. Sun-drenched visitors were treated to a mini-drift display while given plenty of time to enjoy the cars cruising past.

Scroll down to watch!

Next

At the time of writing, like all loving built-not-bought car owners, we've got a pile of plans as long as your lockdown to-do list, and we hope to be through most of them by the mid-to-late summer when the car shows reopen for business - and at that point we'll probably be ready to write Pink Pao Blog Part III! 

From where we sit right now on a rainy dull February day that all feels like a long way off, but we hope you enjoyed this run-down, and we're really looking forward to meeting people again in the outdoors with an overpriced coffee; fumbling with sunglasses with one hand and a dyno print-out in the other.

Thanks again to everyone mentioned in this blog who's helped us get the car where we want it to be -sorry about the cuts/burns/strains/scraped knuckles - and everyone we might have unintentionally omitted.

P'inkymole. It's pink, over-powered, spits flames and is ours!

This is how massive new chapters in your life can start...without you ever intending them to!

In May 2017, while looking for car parts on Yahoo Auctions Japan, we stumbled across a very specific pink Nissan Pao - for sale from the video above.

It's a typically bonkers car on a typically bonkers TV program, made more bonkers by a man who decided to make a "pretty drift car" crossing a low-powered, front wheel drive Nissan Pao with a (relatively) high-powered, rear wheel drive Nissan Silvia S13.


HMM. Well. We couldn't really afford it and certainly didn't need it, but y'know, it's a nice looking car, 'interesting' and it'd match our blue one. So we decided to 'just see how much it would cost' by asking JDM Auction Watch that 'if' they could bid on this random find on our behalf, transport it to a port and ship it to us on the other side of the world...would that be affordable? It seems that it was. Patrick at JDM broke it all down for us, each stage and the cost depending on how much we'd like to bid on it, so we put a reasonable low bid in, expecting to be outbid.

And we won.

Not sure at first whether we'd brought a curse or a blessing on ourselves, thus began months of anticipation, anxiety and investment. It's been a massively fun ride - literally and figuratively - starting in an internet auction window and ending most recently bezzing around the track at Silverstone.

So having bought a car from Japan without ever seeing it in the flesh/metal, we were prepare for both the worst and the most pleasant surprise. We got a bit of both! Below is a broad overview of the what we found when Rich at Dynodaze Customworx's took on this mammoth, 7-month job (in a small space, alongside other multiple projects). Delve in. If the minutiae of restoration and modification aren't your thing, you can just skip to @inkymolesmotors on Instagram where we'll be posting the updates and adventures of the car.

World - we present 'P'inkymole'!

Collecting the new toy from Southampton port:

Amongst the millions of pounds worth of cars being shipped in and out of the port is our new little oddball car, genuinely being 'one of a kind' next to so many mass-manufactured cars all around it.

Rich meeting the Pao for the first time and holding down his excitement or trepidation of what lay ahead!

The Pao was misfiring badly when we collected it from the port, Rich being Rich found out why in about 2 minutes, luckily there were some spare sparks in the glove box.

What Rich found once the Pao was on the ramps:

Interior (what there was of it) stripped out to see what's what.

 Under the sealant and waxoyl equivalent we found a patch work of metal bits from around a Japanese workshop holding the car together, this is the point we knew we were going to go over budget.

Rust holes. Never good to find on your new project.

A good representation of a lot of the welding/patchwork around the car.

The inner arches were found to be not safely welded to the rear panels...

Oh. The first injury of many to come... sorry Rich.

The metalwork commences:

Rich getting stuck straight in.

 

 Seam welded and safer.

The floor was so bad that most of it ended up being removed.

Cleaned up!

 Repairing.

Replacing.

All shiny and new where necessary.

All new steel underneath, built to last.

A worrying amount of steel removed!

Out with the old! 

 In with the new. Shiny new floors from underneath.

Chassis rails and reinforcement welded in!

 Cleaned up and repaired inner sills.

 Both floors done.

Seat positions fixed as well as doubling up as strengthening.

Adapted seat rails.

Onto the engine bay and inner arches:

Cleaned, reinforced/strengthened and very, very shiny chassis arms/inner arches.

Offering up new things!

All the old cut away metal...

Exhaust parts ready to be made (w)hole. 

Exhaust mock-up.

The exhaust coming together.

Weld porn.

Mocking up the extended screamer pipe!

Starting to seal, undercoat and Shutz the bare metal areas:

Sills Shutz'ed and fresh!

A test pot of pink for touch-ups, touching up the pink..

Getting the Paower back in the car:  

Steve of SRL, greasing the wheels of progress since 1989!

Welded up screamer pipe, ready to do its job.

Getting ready to offer up a test-fit of the engine etc to the car.
 

Just do these bolts up...

Back in!

Starting fresh new pipework, one of Rich's favourite jobs!

Then, engine back out an time for paint:

Uncle Keith gets right in close for the detail.

Looking nice and shiny!

Inside the car is all done.

Quality work Uncle Keith.

So shiny!

Engine bay finished, painted by 'Uncle Keith', put back together by Rich and Steve.

Can't find coolant pipe that fits that particular space, Rich will make one.

Painted by Uncle Keith with Fuel tank and battery fitted centrally.

The noisy fuel pump bastard!

Finished exhaust!

A shiny clean diff back in to get that Paower down!

The tentative first 'steps' off the ramp:

Onto the dyno to check the Paower for the first time!

It's first power run on the dyno and it spits flames!!

 Not bad for a 750-800 KG car!

Stable mates with a Supra turbo conversion also done at Dynodaze Customworx.

P'inkymole's first outing at JapFest, Silverstone:

 Then, straight onto the track at Silverstone with the Dynodaze Customworx 400+ bhp Civic!

It's worth noting that there is absolutely no way we could have even considered buying this car if we hadn't known Rich at Dynodaze Customworx; it was always going to be a tough job to make road-worthy (tougher than any of us thought) and there's no way an average mechanic (and very importantly, a welder!) could have overcome the issues and problems we encountered. Rich eats for breakfast problems that stop other people in their tracks, and anytime anything didn't quite fit or needed a bespoke part for this very bespoke car, he'd get his thinking cap, tools out and just get on with the job, all the time making creative suggestions to help make the car look the best it can within budget and be as safe as possible...while all the time being patient with our whimsical, sometimes impractical ideas and working out a payment system that worked with us, while keeping the project moving, which was our number one priority.

If you want to follow P'inkymole's adventures, follow us on @inkymolesmotors

Special thanks to everyone who helped, contributed, supported, cajouled and just passed the tea: Steve @SRL, Rob and Andy @ Art Fabs, Keith @ Uncle Keith's Paint Shop, Patrick @ JDM Auction Watch, Ashley @ Mira, Casey @ Fyve, Steve @ Gartree Press, Jay @ Jay's Detailing and anyone else who's had to put up with us.