House of the 450sx

Noaki Nakamura, Drift Muscle Suzuka Twin Summer '11

2011-12-20T22:48:00.000-08:00

Just plain awesome. That is all.

Pictures from FOTOmotive!

2011-12-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

I ended up winning a contest FOTOmotive was holding which resulted in me getting a free rig-shoot with these guys! They always always ALWAYS come out to our drift events and do work. I love these guys to death so naturally I'd like to help these guys out. They do some fantastic work, and there is plenty of it to go around. Want some pictures of you car or bike taken? Check them out! Top notch stuff and really great to work with. Here's some of the images they took of my car during the rig shoot. Really happy with how they all came out and will even be getting a nice poster-sized print out of at least one of them.

Show these guys some love at their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/FOTOmotive

They regularly post drifting photos throughout the summer there so if you see your car and want a print get ahold of them. I know they would be more than happy to do that for you, and for a reasonable price too! Professional print, frames, whatever you need.

I will leave you with some pictures.

vvv I think this one is my all-time favorites. vvv

Saw this and decided to reblog.. "Ripped off hard"

2011-12-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

Read the story, pretty crazy and i really feel for the guy.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2278180

Wish list?

2011-10-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

Is it too early to be starting a wish list for over the winter/tax returns??

I think not.

Number 1 on my list:

Ikeya Formula inner tie rods. I just bought new s14 replacement stuff last winter and they were first too long with stock control arms. Now they aren't long enough with my extended control arms and the inners don't have enough thread engagement to put my 7mm spacers on. Facepalm. Solution is below.

These would also be nice but not necessary:

Ikeya Formula tie rod ends.

Number 2 on the list: A BUCKET SEAT!!! FINALLY!!!! Now whether these will happen or not.... no idea.

Few pics of the car - Door Bar Update.

2011-10-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

Went out and took a few pictures of the car on the ground all "cleaned up"

I will also leave you with an in-car video of the last event and one i found of me getting the monster can!. Donate tires to me please? My fronts are bad and am out of rears pretty much!

Pics:

Video:

ALSO!

Also added some door bars to my Auto Power bolt in cage i acquired a while ago. I made the connections exactly as Auto Power appeared to make them, 1.5 x .125 DOM inside of 1.75 x .120 DOM with 4 inches of overlap and a Grade 8 fastener and self-locking nut. Base plates are made out of 1/4 inch plate (both sides). I wanted to keep it bolt-in so i can sell it later as a tandem legal bolt in cage. (Tandem legal depending on what events you go to.)

Got a steering wheel for a decent price a while ago as well. Momo Mod 08 with an NRG short hub. All i need is some seats!

Control Arms - Car on the ground

2011-10-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

So i did some work today and washed the car, cut the hood to clear the radiator as I re-secured it and the cap hit it again. Also stripped the entire car of every sticker except the team sticker (Opposite Grip) and my buddy's shop (www.Renown-Performance.com). I must say, the car looks much classier without all the gaudy stickers, even with destroyed fenders, hah.

But as you can see.. the front has about 7 degrees of camber at the moment. I had to raise the car three turns in order to stop rolling rubber off on the metal fenders in half-dollar sized balls (literally), although it still rubs because as it turns out lengthening your control arm also lowers you car. The moment arm is lengthened and therefore your spring is easier to compress due to the steeper angle between the top hat and lower balljoint. This thing was low as crap! I already pulled the fenders a LOT, and need to pull more or man up and actually buy something fiberglass other than sideskirts. Currently i am stuck at this much camber until i can make the fenders wider. I am aiming for about 5 degrees.

Looks like my wheel bearing shot itself huh. lol

Control Arms

2011-10-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

Hey look, I did something to my car.

Decided to get nasty in the camber area. Will post more pics of them on the car later and after i align the thing. I'm expecting to get approximately 5 degrees with these puppies and maybe a little better contact patch at full lock too. Also, might be awesometron knuckle time and maybe attempt at some ackerman adjustments at the same time..

Ended up putting some polyurethane bushings in these as well. I've had an energy suspension master kit lying around for years and I'm slowly upgrading haha.

Before

During

After

Drift Event Oct. 2nd - Thunderdome - Sturgis, SD

2011-09-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

I suck at updating this blog... ha. But guess what, last drift event of the SD-Drift season is next week (October 2nd) at the Thunderdome in Sturgis, SD; it's right across the street from the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis. Be there! It's an absolute blast to watch/participate in.

Driving starts at 9am and we go till 5pm.
Spectators - FREE
Drivers - $60 - cap of 25 drivers - Prepay is NOT mandatory this time. You can pay all the way up until October 2nd.

Need more info? Get at me!

Photo via FOTOmotive dudes.
http://www.facebook.com/FOTOmotive

Full set.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.244883882224653.57919.192098390836536&type=1

Oh yeah, this is cool too. Nice photo synopsis of the last event at the Thunderdome.

And i suppose here's another video of the first event at the Thunderdome while I'm at it.

SD Drift Event At Kick Start/Monkey Rock

2011-06-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

SO just this past Sunday we (SDDA) had our second event of the summer. It was at the Monkey Rock/Kick Start in Sturgis, SD. The location was AWESOME as we could get some serious long sliding/early entry going on. Here's one video I've uploaded of the 6 hour event. It was an absolute blast even though the weather (rain) was off and on all day. I'll update this here with more pictures and video as they come up!

Photo From:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuggetjr/

First Drift event in MN

2011-06-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

It's kind of strange that I finally got to drift with people on D-Town for the first time last weekend; the drift forum I've belonged to the longest, bought this car off of, started my first build on, and even went and hung out at some drift events YEARS ago. Needless to say it was a GREAT time for me, and about time too. It was my first time at a real track as all we have out in good ole SD is parking lot events. Don't get me wrong those are fun as well because you can switch up the track layout constantly.. but the event at Elko Speedway in Elko, MN last weekend was one of the most fun events I've done.

That 3rd gear bank had me nervous all day as I hadn't driven my car at an event in nearly 10 or 11 months... it took me a couple runs on the inner oval to get re-acquainted with my car. I spun out all over the place the first run and looked like a moron. Next couple runs were a lot better but I still think i could have done better. When I finally decided to take on the bank, it was on. That bank is so much fun, first time doing 3rd gear for me and man it was fun. I cannot wait to go back there again! On with the media.

Pics from Erik Lauritsen

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.511217232360.8060.294900394&closeTheater=1

From Jmuag.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54306394@N07/

http://jmuagproduction.blogspot.com/

From: Kaizo Photo

http://www.kaizophoto.com/

From: Khilgers

www.khilgers.com

From: Angled Lines

www.angledlines.com

VIDEO

Event video

Inner Bank, Second Run

Outer Bank 1st Run

1st attempt at 3rd gear ever. Was feeling out the bank for the first few corners until i got comfortable. Waaaaaay too much fun.

Outer Bank 1st Run GoPro

Drifting video from 2010

2011-05-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Drift event is coming up this weekend (Sunday to be exact), hopefully i can get someone to lend me their car so i can go drifting!

Video from last years events:

The wait is killing me!

2011-05-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

So... summer break officially began for me last Friday evening. I ended up having one of the best weekends ever with a ton of friends at graduation parties, going away parties, etc. Now all i can think about is getting out and driving. I cannot wait to get my car back! Ran across this little experimental video i made when i first got my GoPro. Kind of a cool sight to see i thought.

Heartbreaker for Japan, relief project

2011-04-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

I saw this on the jumbosandbox blog and really like what they are trying to do. They have set up a relief project for Japan, in addition to your donation they will send you a sticker. I will be sending my $5 off soon! You should do the same.

Here is the original post on their blog for convenience as it has all of the information.

Link: http://jumbosandbox.blogspot.com/2011/03/heartbreaker-for-japan-relief-project.html

MDU Round 1 pictures continued.

2011-04-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here are quite a few more pictures Mathew Zick took at Midwest Drift Union Round 1 at the Sportsdrome Speedway in Jeffersonville, IN. This guy has taken all of these from BEHIND A FENCE can you believe that?

Get this guy a media pass and i guarantee you will see awesome things in the future!

Even more can be found at his flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jst1cam/

On with the photos.

MDU Round 1

2011-04-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Found some sweet pics of fellow Opposite Grip member Jake Maturen!
Heard he got 9th! Congrats duuude.

Minnesota love.

2011-03-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Ended up making a stop back in Minnesota last week on my way back from a school competition. Got to go see my buddy Brandon at Renown Performance. I also got to drive my car, it's been so long and feels very different from the Chrysler Town & Country LXI i've been driving hahaha. It gave me drifting fever again and I'm getting anxious for the summer to come.

Here's a few video's I checked out lately. Definitely a cool series/documentary and makes me want in the action even more.

Nate Hamilton 144 Part One from Corey Denomy on Vimeo.

Nate Hamilton 144 part two from Corey Denomy on Vimeo.

Nate Hamilton 144 part three from Corey Denomy on Vimeo.

Counts Car Show - RC, SD

2011-02-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Went and spent a good amount of time at the Counts Car Show this past weekend to help my bud Kris out as he had to go out of town for a family emergency. My condolences go out to him and his family.

On a lighter note his car was looking real good and definitely drew some attention throughout the weekend. These aren't my pictures as i forgot to bring a camera, but here's some of my favorite cars of the show.

I hadn't ever been to this car show here in Rapid even though I've been going to school here for nearly 5 years now. I have to say i was really surprised to see as many custom cars as i did.

Some of the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39532593@N03/

Kris, looking real clean and lowww

Everyone was drooling over this SS including me.

Guy said he built this thing for under 2k... built the whole wood body out of a log he had lying around on his property and the engine is a v12 from a jaguar he happened to have lying around... so awesome.

Wagon love. Oh yeah, it had an LS in it as well.

Summer here yet?

2011-02-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

I cannot wait for summer, here's another picture of the car as I realize i haven't updated this thing in a long time. Sorry!

Also here is a picture taken at the Jmuag Production one year celebration i went to over winter break representing Renown-Performance. I had an absolute blast!

http://www.renown-performance.com/

http://jmuagproduction.blogspot.com/

Minnesota.......

2010-12-16T23:26:00.000-08:00

Here i come. Got it all loaded up today, will leave early in the morning! I'm anticipating this drive to most definitely suck, bad! I ended having to raise the car a LOT to get it on the trailer.

Off Season

2010-12-12T16:13:00.000-08:00

Ah, the boring off season. I've been itching to go out and mess around lately but haven't been able to. School work has literally consumed my life this past month or so. It's coming close to the end finally! This coming week is finals week so after that it's off to Minnesota for my break to hang out with the friends and family i love and hardly get to see.

Also check this, i remember when i used to go out and do this stuff. I miss it!!!

Fun in the Snow from Angled Lines on Vimeo.

MINNESOTA I MISS YOU

A REAL alignment?

2010-11-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Got hooked up with an alignment at Western Dakota Tech!

Nice brand new alignment machine.. and hey guess what, It works AWESOME! One that actually takes into account different offsets. Or maybe it's just the people using it know what they're doing haha. Was pretty sweet getting in and doing the alignment with them. It was especially nice being to see all the changes on a screen instead of doing it all by hand with strings, a vernier calipers, and a calculator!

Was suprised i actually got the on the machine. The exhaust was hitting the jacks in the center of the lift and to jack up the car with a tranny jack so we could move them. Now for pictures.

I think my phone's camera lens is messed up as all of these pictures look like garbage. v Especially this one...
These are the ramps we made to get the car up on the lift.

Event Media

2010-10-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Event was super fun. Started out being cold and wet as it was raining off and on throughout most of the day. Eventually towards the end it dried out quite nicely and thats when the REAL fun began. Here's some video's and pictures from the day.

Flyer pt. 3

2010-10-21T12:32:00.001-07:00

Limit on number of cars is 25 so be there first if you want to drive! Otherwise hang out and watch the fun for FREE!!

Flyer pt. 2

2010-10-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

I Forgot to add - more information about this WDT event on the local forum www.HotTubParty.net

Or even just check it out!

Flyer

2010-10-18T19:20:00.001-07:00

WDT 2

2010-10-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well it's about that time again! In less than a week there is another even tbeing held at Western Dakota Tech here in Rapid City, SD. I sure hope to see a larger turn out than last time! We've got prizes!

Anyways, here's some more pictures/footage of yours truly from last event.

WDT 1

2010-10-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! Has it really been a month since i've updated this thing???? School has REALLY been eating up all my time lately!

Here's a couple video's from an event we had sep. 19th to tide you over till i post a storm of photo's.

Stay tuned!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stupeyfied/5015571588/in/contacts/

And

Painted Parts

2010-09-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

So glad it's the weekend, school is absolutely killing me and i need a little break. Today i got the bumper, fender, sideskirts, and trunk lip on the car! I definitely need to paint the rest of the car.. The color isn't incredibly off that it's unbearable but it annoys me. I'm just going to rock it like this and we'll see how things go through the winter.

Paint does need a good wetsanding so once the paint hardens a bit i'll get that done. Other than that I'm just enjoying not having an insanely faded front bumper.

Paint Continued

2010-09-09T02:19:00.000-07:00

Got the rest of the panels painted today. The gun was acting up or something.. paint was not laying out nearly as nice as a few days ago. Seemed to be spraying out really thick and splattering on the panels.. tweaked some settings and it seemed to help. Paint ended up turning out alright in the end. Got a couple runs in the clear coat but i'll fix that with wet sanding. Here's pics from the day!

My buddy Clint ended up showing up for a bit to help prep (again) real quick. Thanks!

More sanding...

Eyyyyy

This is our addition to the makeshift paint booth. It got real foggy in there last time so we got some air filters from menards, duct taped them to a couple of box fans we had. Put one up on top the left to suck air out, and the one on bottom pushes air in. The bottom fan is on a higher speed than the one on top to push the plastic outwards so it would stay away from the panels. Worked AWESOME!! Thanks Trevor!

Look from the outside.... white balance must have been off a bit lol. Brady's car is looking a weird color.

Panels up in the booth! Trevor putting some finishing touches on it.

Adding more light.

BASE COAT

Trevor looking super cool

"He was in my face -- I'M IN YO FACE!"

Gettin ready to be done with this!

In yo FACE!

Brady and Trevor decided to spray some clear with flake on Trevors front bumper hah! It actually doesn't look half bad for doing zero prep whatsoever.

Done!

The Paint Begins.

2010-09-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to get a couple things painted. Only the necessities right now as i happen to have some paint lying around. I really wanted to paint my front bumper as it is super faded and i also decided to paint a less-dented fender, sideskirts, and trunk lip as well.

Long story short, i messed up on the fender and bumper and the trunk lip fell in the booth. So i get to re-do those either tomorrow or Wednesday..

Sideskirts came out pretty rad tho.

Loading all the stuff up to go paint it!

Primed it!

Setting all the stuff up in the booth we made after sanding all the primer.

No painting is complete without taking a drink beforehand.

Sideskirts:

Brady/My Shoot

2010-08-31T22:49:00.000-07:00

A buddy of mine named Brady just got his car finished for the time being so he decided to go out and get a proper shoot. Just so happens i ended up showing up as well and got some photo's snapped.
The mans name is Jason of J.M. Photography. His Flickr is http://www.flickr.com/photos/stupeyfied/
Jason definitely impressed me with his work and i'll be looking forward to doing another shoot sometime in the future. Maybe get some action shots at an event? Nice work Jason!

Here's just a few of the shots taken. Hopefully more will be added!

I had called Brady to see what was going on that night, and he told me to go ahead and swing on over so we snapped a couple of my POS as well. My car looks crazy haggard compared to the fresh paint/kit/look of Brady's car.

Me doing something dumb. I'm not the photogenic type.

And the mandatory cliche stickers

That's all for now. Hopefully we'll get some action shots here in a few weeks as there is an event on Sunday, September 19th. I know i'm looking forward to it.

- Chase

Exhaust nastiness

2010-08-31T22:47:00.000-07:00

The car has been running real well lately, it's nice to actually enjoy something you put so much work into every now and then.

Back to fixing stuff on the car.. this time, i raised the engine in the front and so my exhaust was rotated downwards in the back... finally the exhaust hanger broke in the rear from the added force and i just got around to fixing it.

And so it begins..

Can't work without food and beer! (beer not shown)

Old rusted hanger that broke, I hate going under the rear of my car because i realize how rusty it actually is..

Cut some slits in the exhaust so i could bolt it back up to the headers, raise the exhaust in the rear, then tack it back on after it's positioned.

It's not pretty, but it works. Rest of the frame is rusted so i figured... ehhh whatever.

Smashed up from me dragging it back to the house after the rear hanger gave way

Exhaust is looking pretty beat after a few years..

looks like i should have plenty of room, even after the suspension is compressed

Hooray for ground clearance.

There is also our Team Blog i seem to be updating more than this one lately..

Check it out! www.OppositeGrip.com

- Chase

Errr...

2010-07-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

So after a long break of me doing absolutely zero updates.. here is one.

I have not replaced the rear main yet, i've kind of been just driving and enjoying the car as is. Something i didn't get to do at all last summer. In fact, this is the only summer in my entire ownership i've actually been able to enjoy the car for what it is.

Things to come are possibly more stickers and hopefully an event or so.. might be working on something as far as events go.

Also, a buddy of mine just opened up a new shop called "Renown Performance" in Coon Rapids, MN. They do work from honda engine swaps to custom tucked harnesses, even military spec harnesses. He's just starting out and i'll be sporting a nice new logo of his soon called the 'fiston'. No website as of yet but that is soon to come.

Chase

Rear Main..

2010-06-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

Going to have to pull the engine to replace this rear main seal, thing is leaking pretty bad and messing up all my nice de-greasing i did earlier. Will also get to check how my pilot bearing i made is holding up.

Will update once the process begins.

Photoshoot/WDT event

2010-05-27T01:44:00.000-07:00

Had a little photo shoot lined up with another guy and decided to take my car along as well. Some pictures are of what my room mate took and others are from myself. More might be posted later.. never know.
Also found out my rear main seal is leaking really bad...

Click each image for larger versions.

Oh yeah, here's some pics of a little auto-x i went to here in a parking lot. Ended up turning into a drift event pretty much.

View all of the images I took at the event here. (Thanks to the room mate for letting me borrow his camera)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8182214@N07/sets/72157623904591573/

And some of the fellas.

DIY Alignment

2010-05-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a little how-to i wrote for another forum on how to do a custom alignment yourself.

Steven, a buddy of mine, came over and walked me through this whole process one day. I had a pretty good idea how to do it, but he had done it many times before so the experience was nice.

Anyways, for those of you that have been wanting to do something like this here is how it's done.

DIY Alignment

So i took a couple hours today and did some mock-up stuff and did a quick write up on how to do this. I apologize for any confusion as this is really hard for me to explain without the person being here, any input is appreciated.

You might ask why would I want to go through this??
Answers:
- Because i keep changing my ride height and thus my alignment gets screwed up constantly (too poor to keep having a shop align it all the time)
- More importantly, some alignment machines don't take into account a staggered wheel setup when they align your car. It will say you have a massively screwed up alignment when in fact it might be spot on. Basically it will set your toe to "zero" when in fact you will have a toe-in in the front and a toe-out in the rear due to the staggered setup.

Anyways, lets get started.

Things Needed
• Sewing String
• 4 Jack Stands
• Two 8x12x8 boards (not necessary but makes centering easier)
• Something to hang a plumb bob from, I use an engine stand with the string tied to the jack handle
• Preferably a relatively accurate vernier calipers with a depth-gauge. Measurements will not be very accurate without one.
• Measuring tape
• At minimum - 10 feet of clear, flexible, plastic tubing.
• Scientific Calculator

Step 1 - The Setup

• Get car on a relatively flat surface, such as a garage floor.

• Next you need to make sure this flat piece of concrete/whatever is level. You might not think a half a degree is a big deal, but when you are taking into account your camber settings, a floor that is .5 degrees off level will yield a difference of 1 degree total from side to side. It’s a big deal. So take your clear tubing and fill both ends with water. Now you need to find a minion to help you with this one. Make sure you both plug both ends of the tubing with your thumb so water can’t escape. Then, each of you go to the other side of the car and hold the end of your tubing up to the lip of the rim as seen in the picture. Both let go and whoever’s side drops in water level, take the calipers and use the depth measurement to measure the depth it dropped. Picture of calipers with depth gauge is below.

My blue tube is just there to show you where to measure. Mock up! ;)

• Now take the tape measure and measure the approximate distance between the two points you measured as seen below (yellow measuring tape on bottom). A second person is recommended for this measurement as well. Now take those two measurements and get your handy calculator out and plug your numbers into this equation to find the floor angle.

This will give you the angle the floor is at. To help you figure out what side you need to subtract from, picture my car above. If the water dropped in the tube on the left side in the image, that means the garage is higher on the left than the right. So when you take camber measurements on the left, you need to subtract the floor angle from you camber angle obtained. On the right side you would need to add it to the camber angle.

One other method that might work better than subtracting the floor angle from the camber angle would be to drive the car up on plastic shims or something of the sort. Take your measurement, then drive the appropriate side up on shims and re-measure the angle the car is at. Keep doing this until the car is perfectly level.

More Setup Sample Pictures:

Step 2 - Camber

• First, measure the diameter of the rim to the surface you will be measuring to with the tape measure. On an 18 inch rim the distance is usually about 18.75 inches. For a 17 inch rim, it’s about 17.75 inches. The section I take my measurements from is shown in the picture below. This will also be the surface you will be measuring from with your vernier calipers, mine is shown below.

Next, bring the plumb bob up the the rim. Make sure the weight is below the lip of the rim and is not swinging excessively. Now, measure the distance from the string to the rim on both the top and bottom of the rim. Subtract the bottom distance from the bottom and input your measurements into the equation below.

Depending on the side of the car you are taking camber measurements from, you will need to add or subtract the floor angle recorded before. Make your camber adjustments, jostle car to settle the suspension, and repeat until desired camber is achieved.

More camber sample pictures:

Step 3 - Toe Adjustments

• This is a little trickier than setting the camber and requires another person at first. You need to make two parallel lines next to the car using the 4 jack stands and string I told you to get. Place the back two jack stands and front two jack stands on the two boards I had you get as well. Also, raise or lower the jack stands to get the string about as close to the center of the rim as possible. My car with some stands mocked up is shown below.

What we are doing here is centering the car in between those two lines. PUT THE JACK STANDS ON THE BOARDS! Then, the first step is to make the two strings are the same distances apart at the front and rear. So take your tape measure and minion/friend and make the front two jack stands and the rear two jack stands the same distance apart. Make sure you keep the strings relatively close to the lip of the rim as it makes it easier to take measurements later with the calipers. You also might have to go back and forth because they might change when you move the front or rear distances, double check!

Next, take a measurement from the same point on each side of the front and the rear of the vehicle to the string. On the front I usually measure from the spindle or the center of the rim where it bolts to the hub as these will be spaced about the same distances on either side. The rear I measure from the center of the rim. If measuring from the rim, measure just above the center hole. If you measure to the left or right of this center hole they might not be the same if your toe setting is off. (NOTE: the front and rear distances from the string may be different if you have a staggered wheel setup as I do. Do not worry; just make sure the distances side to side are the same and the vehicle will be centered.) I had you put those jack stands on the board for a reason! Instead of moving each jack stand individually and then checking their distances as well, you can move the board side to side to center the car and their distances will stay the same! Makes this go WAY smoother.

Once you get the car perfectly centered in between the two parallel lines you can start taking your toe measurements! Measure the distance between the string and the rim at the front and rear of the rim. Subtract the smaller distance from the larger distance and use the equation below to find out your toe angle. My string in the picture below is red so it would show up in the picture better. It is also does not represent my current alignment, I just strung it up to shoot the picture!

Use this equation to set the Toe. If the two sides of the rim are the same distance apart you have zero toe, this is what I have.

Here's a template you can use for taking down the measurements as you go. These are actually my latest alignment measurements.
_________________________________________________________
Floor difference

Floor angle = .25 (passenger side is higher than driver side)
_________________________________________________________

Centering

Set strings to 73 inches apart, with one side set at the 2 inch mark.
REAR -> Set inner-most part of the rim to 4.747 inches from string
FRONT -> Set front SPINDLE end to 4.9265 inches (drivers)
_________________________________________________________

Camber

Driver Camber Front
Measured Camber = 1.23316
Actual Camber = 1.23316 + .25 = 1.48316 degrees

Driver Camber Rear
Measured Camber = 2.75737
Actual Camber = 2.75737 + .25 = 3.00737 degrees

Passenger Camber Front
Measured Camber = 1.740122
Actual Camber = 1.740122 - .25 = 1.490122 degrees

Passenger Camber Rear
Measured Camber = 3.305125
Actual Camber = 3.305125 - .25 = 3.055125 degrees

Please note that the + and - of the .25 is my floor angle. You may have to add or subtract your own angles differently (i.e. subtract from drivers side instead of add like i have done)
_________________________________________________________
Toe

Passenger Rear Toe = zero
Passenger Front Toe = zero

Drivers Rear Toe = zero
Drivers Front Toe = zero
_________________________________________________________

Hood

2010-04-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

Finally got the hood all cut up and on there. It still hits in one spot right by the TB but i think i might be able to get away with leaving it like this. Actually come to think of it, it hits that upper radiator support i made and doesnt close entirely. We'll see if i need to do more cutting or if i can smash the under side of the hood in .... or something haha.

I found an actual decent use for that stupid door/fender accent you see all the time in chrome on cars.... you know..

Anyways, I found some in black! Doesn't look half bad i think and cleans up the cuts pretty well.

- Chase

Dent Removal

2010-04-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Figured out a way to get rid of that dent. Took all of 10 minutes to do and cost just under 30 bucks.

Passenger Before:

Passenger After:

Drivers Before:

Drivers After:

Wheels pt. 3

2010-04-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

After a 3-day event of trying to mount some tires on those rpf1's we finally figured out the correct method.
I ended up buying a couple 245/40's as the two shops i was working with couldn't seat the 235's. Just my luck, they couldn't mount those either...... so i took matters into my own hands. Tried MULTIPLE starting fluid fire blast explosion attempts. To my disappointment it didn't work, but it was fun.

Procedure:

Play with fire+ether starting fluid.
^Heats up the tire and makes it more malleable
Then use bike tire and keep it in there while you air up tire.
Then once it seats take it out.
Presto.

Here's some pics.

The Boys and I

Alignment/wheels

2010-04-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Today is the day! Kind-of.. Get the tires mounted to see that sweet sweet stretch. 235/40 on a 10.5 will look pretty sweet. Anyways, i've got a buddy coming over thats going to help me align my car real quick before we actually pull the fenders tomorrow. Would be nice to know how much we actually have to pull them right?

Anyways, BBQ tomorrow!

And since i'm in a picture mood here's another one. Put a piece of wood underneath the rim and let the car down on it to see what i'm dealing with. Happy Friday!

More pictures/Car is running

2010-04-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

I thought i would indulge everyone with some more pictures. My memory card's been acting up and some pictures i took didn't show up in windows explorer at first. The next time i checked they were there... These were two of them.

WHEELS pt. 2

2010-04-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

So just got these in the mail today!

18x10.5 +15 for the rear. Finally, RPF1's all around.
And these big guys only weigh 19 pounds - awesome.

I'm a little worried if i'm going to be able to pull the fenders enough though... I think i can squeeze a bit more camber out of the ruca's, but still. It's going to be close. I've seen someone do the same size/offset on a stock bodied fastback before so i'm hoping it'll be fine.

Another thing is that i have the GR+Pro's so there's the helper spring in the rear which makes the coilover droop alot more when jacked up. I didnt have time to put some wood under it and let it down to see how close it'd be, had other stuff to get done.

Disregard the stupid ziptie..

Fuel Lines Part 2

2010-04-10T02:17:00.000-07:00

So got some 5/16 hard line after class and bent up some new lines. This is the result. Instead of going directly over the header, it goesup along the trans tunnel (sort of). Basically the only other way i could route them. I'm satisfied as they are MUCH farther from the header than before. They were quite literally less than a centimeter away in some spots..

Fuel Lines

2010-04-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

For some reason i knew i was not through with problems.... Come home and find the garage reeking of fuel. Look under the car and one of my fuel hard lines is leaking. God this is annoying. Guess i'll have to replace either all of it or a portion of it. Think i'm going to replace a large section of it and re-route it anyways since my exhaust is really close to it. We'll see what i end up doing.

First fill up!

2010-04-07T20:08:00.001-07:00

Wooo! First fill-up. Was scraping the entire way there. It's dumb, I can't go anywhere because the exhaust hangs too low (quite literally .5 to 1 inch off the ground..), and not only that it took me at least 10 minutes to get out of the driveway using two 2x8x8's... Going to have to raise it.

Also, wheels ship out tomorrow i hear... so i can chuck these nasty 4lug stockers i'm using for the time being. They will also hopefully raise the rear a bit so i can still tuck some tire.

pic.

Video!

2010-04-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

Description:

First start after pulling the engine and replacing the transmission. Also did a wire tuck and painted the bay along with some other goodies. There is some abnormal valve noise at first but i think it was a partially stuck lifter as the engine had been sitting a while. Once it warmed up a bit the noise went away so i think it'll be alright. Also using a 10w-30 instead of 5w-30 so that might have some effect on it.

ALIVE

2010-04-04T16:16:00.001-07:00

SNAP! It's ALIIIIIVE!!

It started right up. Had the fuel lines hooked up backwards last night. Fixed that today and BAM.

Idle's like a champ at 650 rpm. awesomesauce.

Video will be up soooon

Easter

2010-04-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have a FEAST.

The car is completely back together now. Tried to start it last night and figured out i had re-wired the fuel pump incorrectly as the pump was not turning on. I fixed that and it still wouldn't fire. Figured out i had zero fuel pressure. Genius of myself hooked up the fuel lines backwards...... soooo i decided to call it quits there as it was 2am. So hopefully today i can swap those fuel lines around, get some pressure and hopefully it starts up! Would be quite interesting to have the cars "second-first" start on Easter!

GO EAT SOME FOOD! Or find some Easter eggs if that's what you do.

OH MAN OH MAN

2010-04-03T02:14:00.001-07:00

DASH IS BACK IN.

Wiring is DONE. I'm on the home stretch. Can't wait.

Stuff left to do:

Finish putting the interior back together
Install shifter
Install wideband (ok, so a small amount of wiring)
Install Exhaust
Oil/oil filter
Coolant
Thermostat
Siphon the 1yr old gas out
Bolt up Clutch slave cylinder
Bolt up Driveshaft
Find Coolant reservoir/make one

Optional stuff:

Subframe spacers
Install z32 e-brake cables
Fenders
Hood
Bumper

I'm sure i'm forgetting something.

Other than that stuff, hopefully i can start it on Sunday

YESSSS

will have pics later, too tired

Watering the lawn

2010-03-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Right, so apparently the water line that goes to our house broke. We have this small hill in front of our house and i guess my room mate noticed water coming out of the hill and running down it a month ago? There's a nice long patch of grass that is WAY green compared to the other grass on the hill. Anyways, he called it in and the water got shut off because of the broken pipe.... awesome. But i guess this would explain our really low water pressure lately. Suck! No water means no showers, laundry, ramen noodles. How is a guy supposed to live?

Oh wait, there's water in beer right?? Perfect.

Too low?

2010-03-27T02:32:00.000-07:00

Pulled the engine TWICE today.. thing made me super frustrated, nothing would line up. Also, now that i've raised the engine an inch the drivers header literally is 1mm from the steering column... pretty sure it's going to make some noise. Anyways i think the engine is in there for good now. (Thank God) headers are on and wrapped the passenger side header to protect the fuel lines from the heat.

Header wrapped, white was dumb as it looks awesome but gets so dirty! Oh well, i wanted to see what it'd be like so no big deal to me.

Also got the powersteering lines hooked up along with relocating the PS reservoir out of the way. I think i might paint this white eventually. But for now i don't care. I just want to drive it.

Also, pretty sure this flange is going to get ground down more.... not exactly sure why i welded this one like this. The other one is angled for most clearance... I wonder how long i'll be able to get away with being this loww. Dangit

3/8" drive

Sandblasting and Painting

2010-03-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

Got the exhaust sandblasted today! After typing this i realized i forgot to weld another o2 bung on the exhaust for my wideband before painting it. Dangit! Anyways, so Joe's Sandblasting and Powder Coating cleaned up my exhaust. Results were great! But it makes me realize just how much my exhaust rusted over just ONE winter...... pitting = yuck. Also decided to take the tension rod brackets off and have them blasted as well.

Then painted stuff. I love painting, but i'm so impatient!

Here's right as i got back to the house from the blaster. Forgot to take a pic before i took the other header out..

Here's before the paint for one of the headers. Too bad i wasn't "baller" enough to do stainless huh.

Didn't paint the center section because that happens to be stainless.

Headers are painted white this time. I like it.

One more.

Tension rods are silver, i guess light colors are the theme.

Also managed to mount my circuit breaker FINALLY. I kept breaking the tab off the circuit breaker when i tightened it down so i riveted a piece of 1/4" aluminum to the side to hold it. No more irregular surface. Disregard the messy trunk.

Wiring pt. 5 (fuse panel) and wheels

2010-03-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

Alright, so i lied about the plethora of images. I didn't think i'd get a chance to work on the car till the weekend but it was so nice out i decided i had to take a couple hours and dink around.

I ended up almost putting the intake manifold on until i realized i don't have the headers on yet. DOH! You must be wondering why does it matter if the intake manifold is on or not. Well the fact is - i need to lift the engine and half way pull it out to get them suckers on.... its really dumb. So i ended up calling a couple places to see about getting them blasted. Joe's Sandblasting & Painting is where i'm going to be taking the headers and rest of the exhaust tomorrow around 10. Then i will paint them real quick with some high temp paint. Colors? Black? Silver? Any suggestions?? I'm thinking silver headers with the rest black.

So after i realized i couldn't do that it was back to that pesky wiring.... this stuff is getting super old. Ended up making a Fuse/Relay box panel so i can see how the glove box is going to fit over it. It's not going to cooperate very well so i'm going to have to make some modifications to the metal shroud and then it should be gravy.

Pictures.

I remember i promised some better pictures than the horrible cell phone pic's i put up last time so here are their replacements. Enjoy my un-edited photos. I'm lazy lol.

Front end.

Better picture of the nice fender damage I've got going on on my passenger side. The big thank you goes out to the idiot that backed into it in my schools parking lot last year.

And here's another one just for fun.

Wiring pt. 4

2010-03-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

So i made a new bracket to mount the fuse boxes under the dash in the glove box. I figured thats a better place than right in front of the passengers feet that are bound to kick a hole in them....

Also did a little spring cleaning today. No pictures this time. I've gotten a little lazy at taking pictures.... sorry!

I almost forgot, i picked up 4 tires for the rear this past weekend. Sizes are 235/40/18 in anticipation of my rims being shipped out the first week of april. And today the UPS man delivered some Falken Azenis in 235/40/17 trim. These things look sweet i must say. I'm super excited to see how they feel.

I promise next time to have a plethora of images.

Chase

Wheels

2010-03-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

I did a few hours worth of wiring work yesterday and started making a mounting for the fuse boxes to go behind the glove box. Just have to figure out where i want the bolting points to be. Had to stop prematurely to go to work for a few hours.

Threw these on the car monday to see what i'm dealing with. Here's some sneak crap pictures.

If you look closely you car see my nasty battleship sunk rear wheels while i wait for the rears to become available for purchase..

5 lug it up pt. 2

2010-03-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Just got back from being on Spring Break, went to Minneapolis to have some good times with the girlfriend and friends/family! Picked up a few things while i was in town as well.

Grabbed these rpf1's for a decent price. Sizes are 17x10 with i believe a +22 offset? They are going to be fronts. I'm looking for some 18x10.5 +15's for the rear in silver preferrably. Know anyone??

These were also waiting for me when i got back into Rapid. J30 front 5lug hubs with s13 bearings pressed in, a new snap ring groove has been machined to make these hubs work with the s13 bearings. Plug and play! Also in that box are some z32 cables so i can finally have an ebrake with my q45 brakes. Box on the right is z32 n/a rear hubs. 5 lug will be complete with a set of rear wheels and tires!

5 lug it up

2010-03-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

Haven't done much work on the car in a while.. but i thought i'd throw an update up on whats going on.

This coming week is my spring break so I decided to go home and see the girlfriend and try and relax a little. I could get a bunch done on the car but i think this is more important atm.

Anyways, going to be going 5 lug here pretty soon as i found out how much i'm going to be getting from my tax return (yes!). So depending on when i get it I hope to have a new stance. Also going to try and finish up some more of the wiring when i get back.

Wiring pt. 3

2010-02-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Today i only worked on the wiring for about 3.5 to 4 hours. I just can't fall asleep until 2 am at least anymore haha.

Still, i finished the drivers side part of the under dash harness! I've moved the Wiper Amp inside to under the dash so there is minimal stuff in the bay. Also incorporated the BMC wiring and shock tower ground into the same harness. I didn't sleeve anything because, well, the lengths were so short it didn't seem worth it to me. Plus it's going to be under the dash. All of this is labeled in the picture below.

This next pictures show kind of how the wiring is routed. I just realized how nasty my brake booster looks in this bay from the next two pictures haha. Going to have to take that out and paint it... white or black? white??

And below is what i have left to do..... YUCK!!!

Wiring pt. 2

2010-02-14T20:29:00.000-08:00

Got a bit more done today on the harness thats going behind the dash.

All the wires to connect to the engine room harness are sectioned off.

And here's what my garage looked like after i finished today. Mmm food.

Wiring up Front

2010-02-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

Got some work done today. I basically finished the wiring harness i made to replace EVERYTHING up front. This harness is for the lights/motors/blinkers/side markers. I will never do this again in my life (maybe). And i advise anyone else to PAY someone to do this for them as this is a giant pain.

A huge reason why it took so long is because i used OEM nissan connectors that i pulled off the q45 harness i have. So basically de-pined everything, including connectors up front, so i could get the sleeving over it. Lots and lots of labeling. And the soldering/extending/finding correct pins for the end that is going to connect to the chassis harness.

This is how it's run up along the frame rail. I might add heat wrap around it later, not sure yet.

Here's the front end how it splits to the other side.

Flywheel Spacer/Clutch on Engine

2010-02-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

Here's better pics of the flywheel spacer. If you look at the previous picture of it you can see the bushing is now recessed 11mm in the spacer.

Here's just a random picture i took after we bolted the new clutch and lightweight flyhwheel to the engine. Notice the sign in the background lol. I just noticed it got into the pic.

- Chase

Engine in Bay!

2010-02-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

So i FINALLY got the engine in late last night. Was so close just decided to put it in there.

New Flywheels Spacer Machining

2010-02-05T11:01:00.000-08:00

So we re-machined the flywheel spacer today. Got everything all nice and fixed up.

Here's how the bushing was situated in it before the surgery.

And after.. (crappy pic, will get a better one later...)

Shifter Fabrication

2010-01-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

Well we had everything bolted up yesterday, spacer, clutch, flywheel.. go to put the trans on and SAME issue as 2 to 3 years ago.. trans wouldn't go on. Figured out that the guy either messed up when making the flywheel spacer or it's not supposed to use a pilot bearing (which i doubt). There's 10mm of interference between the bushing and the input shaft.. Back to the machinist to fix the issue..

Other things i DID get done yesterday are make the modified shifter mount. For those of you that don't know the linkage on a z32 has a solid bar inbetween these mountings thats about 2-3 inches long or so. Cut that out and modified the stock mount. Before this i had it bolted to the car instead of to the trans. I think this is a much better design than before.

Metal In Bottom of Pan

2010-01-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

So here's a picture from yesterday to get an idea of how much metal there is on the bottom of this pan..

Trying to get this all cleaned out is going to be pretty tough! It's like sludge on the bottom.

closer!

2010-01-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

Word, actually just did some work on it today. Gonna say screw it with the oil pan idea for now. I will still work on it on the mock-up engines but i need to get an engine back in so i can finish the wiring.

So we took the oil pan off the one of the engines with a spun bearing and mother of god, it looked like silver pearl in oil. Metal shavings EVERYWHERE. Nothing like i have ever seen.

Spun bearings = BAD

So i'm going to take the pan to a shop and have them put it in the cleaner/boiler, whatever. (unless someone's got a better idea)

Hopefully have the engine back in the car by tomorrow. Wiring is all thats left to get it running then.

Over and OUT

2010-01-23T23:52:00.000-08:00

So a bit off topic... but i'm pretty psyched about this.

Just competed in a climbing competition and got 2nd place!
I'm pretty psyched since i haven't really climbed for practically 1.5 years.

Jig to make pickup tube

2010-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Made a jig yesterday to make the new pickup tube. Cut the top and bottom of the stock pickup tube off, tacked the bottom to the baffling in the oil pan and bolted the top half to the engine. Then just cut some random tubing to size and tacked that together so i could make a jig out of it as to make a proper new pickup tube. Here is the results.

Example of how much i need to modify a stock one. Jigs are awesome.

2010-01-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

Well... i had a whole long weekend to get LOTS done to the car and didn't get anything done...

Just not motivated i guess? Everyone goes through these phases I'm sure. This is not the first time I've had this issue.

2010-01-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

Slowly but surely things are coming together. This wiring stuff is taking a LONG time, although it might be attributed to the fact that i'm kind of anal. Anyways, pretty much got the whole headlight/turn signal/ marker light harness figured out. Laid it out onto the car and got all of the wires extended to where i want them. I'm going to put a connector on it so i don't have to take the whole entire harness out if i need to change something. Luckily i've got an entire harness out of a q45 i've been pulling matching wire from and i'll be able to use a connector from there as well.

1st Fuse Box Mount

2010-01-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

So made a sort of a mount today for the fuse box's. Looks pretty rought right now but it'll take shape. Also got the battery mounted in the trunk and some of the automatic useless wiring cut out of the harness..... This is going to take FOREVER.

Tension Rod Bracket

2010-01-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

Finished boxing in the tension rod.

Mazworx is funny.. this is the piece they supplied to box in my tension rod (on the left). made for an s14 but says will work with an s13. YAH.
The one i made is on the right..

Finished.

All thats left on my list is..

Finish the wiring, oil pan, and fix my exhaust. Also some other misc. stuff.

Upper Rad Support/Finger Board

2010-01-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

Alright, back at it again. Got back in from having an awesome time in Minneapolis with the girlfriend and a bunch of people yesterday.

Started tackling the rock. Its gray and hasn't moved much..

Anyways, made this rad. support today after running out of gas in my pickup... and spending 5-6 hours doing other stuff. I wanted to re-do my old crappy one anyways. This one allows me to move the top of the radiator forward a good few inches. I needed this bad as my crank pulley would sometimes rub on the fan motor...

Ignore the bugs in the radiator. I-90 owned this thing.

Then after dinner me and my room mate put this up.... FINALLY.

2009-12-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
To anyone thats reading this. hah

2009-12-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

So probably wont be working on this thing for at least two weeks.... school.. finals. Busier than ever. But i did get another engine stand so i dont have any just resting on the ground. Just mild good news.

2009-12-02T13:33:00.001-08:00

BIRTHDAY, TODAY! 22.... starting to feel old haha..

Free Engines

2009-11-30T15:14:00.000-08:00

So i picked up those engines and finally got em back to SD. Was a nice long 8 hour drive.... i'll bet the pickup is now happy to have all that extra weight out of the back haha.

One's got around 75k on it and the other has around 90k... both spun bearings.

Forgot to take pics of both of them but one of the "new" engines is the one with yellow valve covers.
Sorry for garbage pictures... cell phone pics.

I've got too much stuff... the first engine i got is lying on a board on the ground without an oilpan... think i'll use this crank to get the flywheel balanced. Disassemble pics in the future!

Transmissions lying everywhere...

NEED more room, the left half is crammed full of stuff! Come buy some parts!

2009-11-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

So i picked up a couple engines today for free. They both have spun bearing sbut they are low mileage engines otherwise. Spare VH parts are ALWAYS a good thing as they are hard to find!

Will post some pics eventually.

Degreased Engine/Painted Bay

2009-11-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

Degreased the engine so it doesnt look quite as nasty in the bright white bay..

Another pic of the bay with everything untaped, a brake/clutch line tuck would do wonders in here..

Toe Rod Clearance

2009-11-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

Here's how much clearance the PBM toe rods offer... The rear is half an inch away from being slammed on Stance GR+ Pro coilovers and there is tons of clearance betwee the rod and subframe. Pretty sweet.

Beginning of Wiring, Suspension Parts, Battery Box

2009-11-21T12:36:00.001-08:00

Alright, were up to present. Thank god.

Yeah... soo... I just keep tearing more and more of this car apart. I havent had the dash out in a LONG time. Still only took me like 20 min. to do it though haha.

Anyways working on tucking the harness since I've got a nice pretty bay now. I needed to re-work the conversion harness i made a while ago so i figured i might as well go all out.

I took the entire engine room harness (as the FSM calls it) and de-loomed it getting ready to get rid of all this auto crap since it wasn't a 5spd to begin with. I'll be re-sleeving the harness with stuff from wirecare.com.

So this is where i'm thinking about putting the fuse boxes. Is this normally where people relocate them to? I dont really like the idea of extending crap tons of wires to relocate them to the trunk. Although my battery will soon be in the trunk..

You basically run the harness right along with the dash harness and it will still bolt right back up to the SMJ. The wires are practically perfect length for the relay box to be located on the passenger side like in the first pic.
And here's the rest of the wiring i somehow have to cram in there... I'm thinking i'm going to need to shorten all of the wires that lead from the relay box to the fuse box so i dont have a cluster of wires under the dash.
Also got some stuff in the mail recently.

Some Yamato Garage RUCA's. I'm not so sure about these.. they were a decent deal but we'll see how they work. Wasn't super psyched as one of them didnt want to go on. Had to basically pound it on with a hammer and you can see the flange's bending in the second pic.... not sure what to think.

Oil Pan Fab Work

2009-11-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

Did some fab work on the oil pan today. Started mocking up the extensions. Made some measurements and i think i'll have around 30 more cubic inches of space in there. (very roughly).

Anyways here's what i've got so far..

November 15, 2009 Painted Bay!!!

2009-11-21T12:27:00.003-08:00

Pictars

November 14, 2009 update

2009-11-21T12:27:00.001-08:00

SO just about finished with paint. Got one more coat of clear to throw on there.

All together not too bad for doing it all on my own for the first time in a garage haha. There was one area where i either didn't de-grease well enough or it just got too thick in the temp i'm working in. (40 degrees.. :/).

I'll probably end up taping that area off and sand it down, and re-spray. Then wetsand the paint lines down or something. Any ideas?

Otherwise not bad. Will post pics about 20 min after the next coat. SO like 40 min to an hour. Whenever i get a chance.

You can already see the gold pearl in the garage with just a flourescent light. Can't wait to see what it looks like in the sun!

Bay is Primed

2009-11-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

Primed the bay today. Gonna sand the primer with 400 and spray base coat and clear on Friday. Yes!

Also got the bay all stitch welded up.

November 4, 2009 Clearing Bay, paint prep!

2009-11-21T12:23:00.001-08:00

So progress has been very slow. VERY slow.

Got the bay all cleaned out today though. Degreased it and hit some areas with lacquer thinner. Gonna be cleaning it up and getting rid of all the rust. Hopefully can paint it this weekend.

Thinkin about relocating that huge battery.. If i do this do i need to put a shut off switch on the rear of the car?

October 16, 2009 Modify Tension rod bracket

2009-11-21T12:18:00.001-08:00

This is how bad i want PS. Only way to do it.. unless you use smaller pulley with different internals. This is what you have to do on the Mazworx kit also except not cut as much out... My engine is lower therefore i cut more. Scott did you have to cut this much out?

Anyways I'll will be boxing it back in with quarter inch plate because i cut so much. (overkill?) Same stuff my mounts were made out of.

OCtober 14, 2009 Pilot Bearing

2009-11-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

Small update before i go to bed.. Just got done making this thing with Gunar.

OEM bushing on left.. Custom bushing on right. Notice how much larger it is... yeah, that flywheel spacer was MESSED up.
In action..

Also... just received clutch kit in the mail today so HOPEFULLY i can get this thing rolling soon. Dont think i'll be able to work on it for at least a week though.. school is KILLING me right now.

October 7, 2009 New trans! Innovate, PS kit

2009-11-21T12:14:00.001-08:00

Got some more stuff.. all thats holding me up now is the clutch kit and the MASS amounts of school work...

Some PS stuff from mazworx. (smiley face unintentional)
Started putting it on the car yesterday. Had to notch my tension rod bracket, but i'll box that in later.
Trans!
A little dirty but nothing a pressure washer cant fix.
The awesome shipping company broke the reverse and neutral switches on it, but it came with a new starter and supposedly has under 40k on the trans.

October 5, 2009 Moving, New parts, Oil pan fab, Machining

2009-11-21T11:59:00.000-08:00

Alright, MASS UPDATE.

So this summer i didn't get squat done as i was working like crazy djing and working on the base out here along with having fun with the girlfriend.

Anyways i also moved just recently so here's a few pictures.

Here it is in it's new home, much bigger garage.

One thing i did before i made the move was to fix one of my frame rails...rust.
Made this snazzy little sleeve.

SO. recently i just purchased a ton of parts to get this thing moving again.

Pics of said parts.

Ended up going with a lightweight flywheel from XTD. (12.5 lbs vs. i think double that stock = WEEEEEE)
And why not throw a couple TMF shirts in there for the mix (Thanks Scott!)

Also got myself a new toy. Helped me out with re-boring my flywheel spacer also. More on that later.

There are a lot more parts in the mail that i havent received quite yet.

Mazworx power steering line conversion (yay for PS!)
ACT 6 puck unprung clutch kit
Megan Racing Tension rods
Innovative LC-1 with XD-16 gauge
and most importantly a z32 Turbo trans with less than 40k miles on it.
ECU tuned by a guy i've been talking with for a while about VH's

So this flywheel spacer thing. You've seen pictures of it all mangled and . I was talking to my boss out on base and he hooked me up proper with a buddy of his thats got a little shop of his own.

Making sure it's on the lathe nice and true.

Ready for destruction. Homie Darren in the background.

The result. If you're wondering what that step is in there it's so the bushing doesn't fall through to the other side.

Here it is sitting on the back of that flywheel i just got. Had to make sure it fits in it haha.

Now that we bored it out it is much larger than the bore to accept the OEM pilot bearing. What to do?

MAKE ONE

Went to the machine shop here in Rapid and bought some bearing bronze. 9 something a pound. Bought plenty in case we mess up.
Outside diameter will be around 23. something mm (cant remember) But inside diameter will be bored to the OEM pilot bearing specs. Which is around .626" or .629" which is just under 16mm.

Plan on getting that done sometime this weekend hopefully.

Oil Pan

I'm sick and tired of bashing my oilpan on stuff around town. I've done it twice in less than a year...

Here's a pic of what i'm working with.

My plan?

Shorten it and add extensions off the side with baffles/trap doors. If you guys have ANY input here at all please let me know as i have never done this but i've ot a rough idea on what to do...

First cut

Final cuts

As you can see this thing came stock with a windage tray already in the pan. Along with another one bolted to the underside of the block. (cool)

I'm going to try and keep that there while raising the bottom of the pan. But as you can see in the next picture i've also got to cut and re-weld the pickup tube in a higher location. I'm thinking about 10-15mm of clearance between the pan will be about right. (Any input here??)

You can also see where i plan to ad dthe extensions off the side..

So i bolted the cut up pan to the engine to see how everything sat...

This last picture is of it with the engine sitting in the bay so i can see how low it's still hanging below the cross member. To me it looks to be about flush with it or it just slightly hangs below the cross member.

I'm thinking about putting some spacers in my engine mounts to raise the engine up a little bit as it will help with clearance of the pan, exhaust, and PS pump. Only issue is that its going to hit the hood more......

SO there you have it. I will probably be posting quite a bit more pictures as stuff gets done and parts come in as i REALLY want to get this thing running soon. Want to tear up the street one more time before winter fully hits! (Even though it just snowed today lol) But i'm banking on one more dry week haha.

2009-11-19T14:17:00.001-08:00

Alright! Getting pretty close to being updated to the present. Just so you all know my car still isn't running from this last incident BUT i've got all the parts to fix it. I don't even want to think about all the money I've spent recently.... Anyways, get ready for a crap ton of pictures soon as I've done quite a bit in the past few months.

- Chase

July 4, 2009 Stripped Transmission splines CARNAGE

2009-11-19T14:12:00.001-08:00

Carnage again!

The latest catastrophe?

Broken transmission and clutch. AND flywheel spacer.

SO i was merging slowly onto the interstate in 5th gear and all of a sudden it sound like my transmission popped out of gear and made the most horrid grinding noise in the world. Long story short i towed it back to my house with my house with my room mates truck. I finally got around to tearing it apart to find out what happened.

Here are carnage pictures. (Sorry for them all being crapy cell phone pics, couldn't find my better camera)

Engine pulled.

Clutch disc's teeth on my ACT 6 puck unsprung completely stripped off...

This is what it SHOULD look like. (minus the busted out spring up top, was from my first RPS clutch that blew up on me)

Hard to see but transmission splines are messed too. Some actually look to be BENT

And my hacked up flywheel spacer.

The story with the spacer is that i didnt have a pilot bearing in. Basically it was something i did two summers ago. When i was putting this thing together with the original RPS clutch i had, i tried bolting the transmission up and it wouldn't go on using the pilot bearing supplied by RPS. It wouldn't go on all the way. Took it back apart and found the pilot bearing was hitting part of the transmission input shaft where the spline starts after the tip for the pilot bearing. So i think what happened was i took out the pilot bearing and never used it. I remember a friend telling me he never had one in his car either and it was fine. So i wasn't TOO worried about it at the time. I think i figured the difference was that i was using an N/A z32 transmission instead of the turbo one which is what the adaptor plate setup was designed for. (i remember reading the were identical besides their clutches) Anyways thinking back on it now i was really dumb about that and in too much of a hurry and paying for it in the end. As you can see the inside of the spacer is completely hacked... and i'm not sure but no pilot bearing might have been a part of it.

Also, i check online. The part number of my ACT disc is 6240006. Which is the correct part number for my application. 90-96 300zx Non-Turbo. It also happens to be by coincidence the same part number for the 79-83 Turbo 300xz. But thats just a clarification that i wasnt using an incorrect disc..

And now i dont know about you guys but i've NEVER seen anything like this happening. Even daily driving it i've seen the metal twist apart on the clutch disc from using an unsprung but never the splines...

Pretty sure a combination of a welded diff, 1-piece driveshaft, unsprung clutch, and nearly solid engine mounts combined with it being daily driven had a part in this...

December 2, 2008 Broken Tension rod, smashed oil pan

2009-11-19T14:08:00.001-08:00

Carnage!

Was driving last friday night and was about to get on an on-ramp. Road wasnt lit well at all and was going too fast (which was like 20-30 mph, it was a 90degree turn so yeah, dont need to be going that fast to be going tooo fast). The corner i had never taken was way sharper than i thought it was and got the car a lil sideways and ended up being to fast and slammed right into an island i didnt really see. Something stupid that could have been avoided if i stuck to the rule - stay at teh track. Whatever everyone has their moment. So here are some carnage pictures.

bent

broken

torn and bent

Here is the 'new' oil pan. Its the one that originally came with the engine but the genius's at the junk yard blew a hole in it with their torch when they cut the lower transmission brace. Anyways, i had to put a big metal band-aid over the hole.

I somehow managed to change the oil pan with the engine still in the car. We raised the engine up a little bit so i could drop the pan an inch or so, just barely enough to where i was able to squeeze my fingers in there and unbolt the bolts holding the pickup tube on. Thank god they were situated where i could get at them easily.

Also, if you look at the last pic closely you can see how mangled my headers are from the contact with the curb. Tubing is designed to hold exhaust gases and direct them, not stop a curb. So what does it do? deform like crazy.

Today is my birthday btw for anyone who cares. 21!

November 25, 2008 New injectors

2009-11-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

So last friday i got my injectors.

Took the old crappy ones out that i thought were fubar.

Here is a comparison between the #4 cyl. injector and the Deatschwerks Injector...

I think what happened is that the pintle cap cracked or something, causing the fuel to not be vaporized or whatever in the air properly... maybe getting on the pintle cap and burning? Causing it to melt like this? Idk, it's weird.

vv Here's a picture vv

But anyways. I put the two new injectors in along with new plugs on those cylinders and what do ya know, it fixes ALL of my problems. It sounds WAY different now and actually pulls like it should, It's a beast! The smell of burning rubber is the greatest smell ever. Especially when it comes with the sound this engine makes.

I can't wait for the summer drift events to start, once school is out for the summer, and i can finally get on the track as a driver.... its gonna be way fun.

I'll try and get up a sound clip or something like a dumb ricer flyby or whatever.

Psyched i am.. for sure.

November 13, 2008 Compression test

2009-11-19T14:04:00.001-08:00

So after all of this nonsense i realized my car was running like crap. At first i thought it was bad compression which freaked me out but turns out it wasn't here's my update from back then.

So today i got to borrow a compression tester..

Compression is supposed to be 185psi. 142psi minimum.

So i tested the two cylinders i thought were effed up. (#2 and #4)

#2 tested out at 183psi!

#4 tested out at 180psi!

I am STOKED. During the #2 cylinder it started raining. SO i had to finish real quick and slap it all back together. I'll check the other cylinders this weekend. But i'm psyched it's not anything serious on those cylinders. So i'm now suspecting injectors. Will hopefully get those done this weekend. BALLER

October 22, 2008 Track day, Photoshoot, small VIDEO

2009-11-19T13:42:00.001-08:00

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing.

So what I’ve been up to?

Finally timed the car.
Replaced a bunch of hoses that were cracking.
Replaced the clutch slave cylinder AGAIN as it was leaking from the piston (bought a while ago and it only lasted like a month..

vv Installed one of these so I can tell when to shift.

Bought a ton of tires and went to an event on stock blown suspension.. I sucked.

[img]http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/7016/img3208edit700x466editne2.jpg[/img]

Small tight auto-x courses >> no powersteering.

Then I got some of these.

And borrowed some wheels from a buddy while his car is outta commission. And did some more…

Then we took some pictures!

And a video of the sound this thing makes.

My+Noisy+Car+(450sx)

September 2, 2008 Alternator goes out

2009-11-19T13:41:00.001-08:00

So yeah, my alternator went out on my way to school. So 300 miles from my destination i was running on battery alone.... Had to keep switching batteries between our van and my car to try and make it. Well one of the batteries took a crap on us so i had to leave it at some random restaurant haha. Bought a new battery the next day and barely made it to my house in rapid city. So i ordered a new alternator and it wont be here till wed..

Suck!

August 15, 2008 injectors/troubleshooting

2009-11-19T13:40:00.000-08:00

ok. so I have solved all running problems.

I found two bad injectors. Number one and number two cylinders. I happened to have two brand new injectors from the other engine i got out of the q45 i bought. replaced them and decided to set the cas back to the center since that is where is is supposed to be.

This thing SCREAMS. Took it through the lowry tunnel with Carl. Holy shit balls you guys. This thing has its own sound. Nothing sounds like it.

It LOVES to be sideways. A flick of the throttle is all that is needed. TONS of torque. But holy shit is it hard to steer with no power steering. I need a remote mounted electric unit asap.. like one from the gen 2 mr2's.

Anyways. I'll video a highway run or a sound clip or something. It sounds WAY better than the first video i gave you guys. The exhaust does wonders.

I'm so god damn happy. Drove it 90 miles today and no overheating problems.

August 8, 2008 - exhaust

2009-11-19T13:38:00.001-08:00

Everything all tacked up ready to be welded.

August 8, 2008 - exhaust

2009-11-19T13:36:00.000-08:00

Here's some side shots of the clearance..