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aaronlosey · 02-10-2013, 05:00 PM

2nd Entry, Dec 13 to Dec 20th.

This seven day or so stretch on the car has gone really well. My wife has been working nights at the hospital, and I find my schedule slipping farther and farther into the late hours of the night over at Autocomp. I am most productive with no one around, and any distractions and my productive level goes to about zero. So all in all I have been having really relaxing afternoons working on the car until around 2 am, then I stop by and see my wife for a short time, then order/research parts for an hour or so, then hit the sack. So lets get started here.

I might have mentioned earlier that I have been agonizing over parts selection with the car. I want the car to be a reflection of Tyler, and what he would want, but also a reflection of what I am willing to put in the car. For example I am not willing to purchase $4,000 brakes ( which is what Tyler would want ), but I am willing to do something crazy with them. This leads to tons of research, an obsession with wanting to do something unique and interesting but also awesome. That, weighted with the concern that when I turn the car over to his father that I am not leaving him with some odd ball car with super difficult to service obscure racing parts. And then there is the point of not spending a ton of money, although the budget is substantial, and keeping things within reason. I poured over off the shelf brake setups from tons of retailers, piecing together a completely new Z32 setup, 350Z Brembos, and even trying to track down some Project Mu setups. They don't seem to sell the brakes where in the states anymore, and are an example of how difficult it can be to try and maintain and use awesome niche JDM parts. There are tons of problems associated with each setup, and nothing I really wanted to settle on. Then Stew turned me onto something really neat. The newer 370 and Infiniti cars come with a setup from a manufacturer named Akebono, and they are a great mixture of OEM clean styler and function, GIANT 14 inch front rotors and 13.8 inch rear rotors for bling, and fairly simple and straightforward to get onto the car. I think they would make Tyler both happy for the ridiculous bling factor, as well as keep the car functional and useful so that his father can enjoy and maintain it. That is a huge load off my mind, and I am excited to get them in the mail in a few days.

Moving on to the physically laborious side of the project. As I browse through the pictures I am about to include in this I realize how productive the week has been! This is going to be good! As I am waiting for fittings and other parts to complete the steering system I moved onto other portions of the car. Tyler's dad is going to come take a look at it this weekend, so I really wanted to let him see the car start taking shape. Having a functioning steering system in a car that doesn't look anything like a car isn't very exciting, but having unfinished steering in something that is taking physical shape is something more visually appealing and I want him to feel the project is advancing. The car has been 3 years in the build at this point. So I grabbed the dash and starting soaping it up, scrubbing it as clean as I could. I then started to use tar and bug remover on the difficult parts, and spent a few hours bringing it up to the level of cleanliness that I am trying to keep the car at.

After getting it clean, I then needed to start chopping it up so it would fit in the car with the elaborate cage.

I very carefully fitted it to the car. Over and over I very carefully fitted it to the car! I kept having to make decisions which I didn't really want to make, such as how much material do I remove. Do I make it possible for someone to remove the dash once the car has the windshield in, or do I leave it stuck there forever? Do I potentially crack the dash getting it in because I cut the dash perfectly to fit the cage, and by doing so have to bend it terribly to install it? I ended up doing what I always do, which is use reason and logic to arrive at a fairly neutral middle ground to everything. I cut the dash enough to make it fairly easy to get in and out, but with close enough tolerances that you have to bend it substantially to get it in, but not TOO much. Of course I arrive at this AFTER trying to make it fit perfectly and being unable to install the darn thing. I was FORCED into the neutral decision : (

I have been going kind of crazy on the details in the project, and if you see the yellowish seam in the dash, which will be hidden by the windshield in most places anyways, I have been taking a magic marker to it. A huge magic marker. I looks really good from a reasonable distance of a couple feet. I have a lot more of it to do, but I was getting kind of high from the fumes so I procrastinated finishing the rest of it.

I cleaned up the steering column, getting rid of the rust and repainting it so it will be pretty…. even though you won't be able to see it when finished. I am using this logic for as many things as I can, just because you can't see it doesn't mean I am not spending a huge amount of time on it.

Pretty!

During one of my super late night shopping sessions I made a poor choice. Someone who shall be nameless told me that knockoff 30 dollar steering wheel quick release hubs are actually really well made nowadays. I did something that ended up costing more money in the end because I had to do it twice. I ordered the crappy knockoff ebay part and then was so disappointed in it after installation that I had to order a higher quality part to replace it. When assembled in the car it give the feeling of too much slop in the steering, way too much. It is one of the few things in the car you have a tactile relationship with, and needs to feel high quality and trust worthy. The last thing I want is people thinking the car is terribly built because they simply feel the steering wheel and experience way to much slop in it, and write off everything else as poorly constructed. Plus this crappy part required hours of putting together. I had to chase out all the threads, assemble it multiple times to play with it and disassemble it, and figure out if I was doing something wrong or if it really was that sloppy. It was.

It looks cool assembled though.

Then as I was starting to mount the body panels I found a little present Tyler left me. He has been leaving me a lot in this car! I am sure he meant to fix it…. but then he painted over it…. Very Tyler. It is a broken bolt in one of the most important fender mounting holes.

This one little broken bolt took me about an hour of fussing with until it was completely drilled out and re-tapped carefully. Good as new now. That stitch weld next to the drill bit is mocking me. I know Tyler would have just not used the bolt hole and mounted the fender with just 2 bolts.

Tyler was rough on everything. Even the key to the car was mangled. Luckily a locksmith made a new one! Took a couple tries though. This is the key after it had already been mostly "unbent".

Everyday has been Christmas lately for this car. About 3-7 packages a day show up for this thing. They range from a simple can of spray paint all the way up to the seats. I am patiently awaiting that box with the brakes though!

ASD sent out a sweet handbrake for the car!!!!

And finally, we are getting to the fun ricey stuff. Mounting the fiberglass on a car is always fun. It changes the car so quickly into a finished looking car, and gives it volume and style it didn't have without the few pounds of FG hanging off of it.

Plus, you get to drill into a perfectly good car! That is always fun.

Don't mind the rear wheel fitment here!!! I tried to use the dog to cover it up, but you can still see it. : ( The front isn't too bad though, although I still have the width of a very large brake rotor this is about to be added. I even took the time to fit the gas tank cover, even though it has a fuel cell. Those cool little hell raiser things sticking out of the back fenders are called Clecos. They are like temporary rivets and are really neat, look them up.

And finally, today's work. I spent an entire day fitting the head lights. Considering the car doesn't really have a core support, this went pretty well. The mounts off the tube frame structure are pretty good, and only need about 1/2 an inch of adjustment at the middle part of the car, and maybe a bit more than that towards the corner lights. The intercooler had to be relocated about another half an inch, and the headlights had to be cut about another half an inch. Then the fenders needed to be cut in various places to fit around the tubes, and I think the hood is going to need to be clearanced a bit more. All this meant I had to assemble and disassemble, modify things, then repeat dozens of times. Each time I had to lift the hood off and set it aside, take the fenders off, remove the head lights, corner lights, and make my adjustments. But it is definitely coming together. I love the style of the car, and I love working on it. I can't wait to fabricated a bunch of little items for the car such as a catch tank, brackets, mount the seats, etc. I am going to go spend some time practicing my TIG skills, and get to it. I hadn't really paid attention to the welding on the car much, but everything so far was done with a MIG at the previous shop, so it will be fun to add some delicate TIG work.

If you made it this far thanks for reading! I hope you didn't mind the fact that I have been documenting a lot of the build with my iPhone shooting with Instagram. I have a fancy DSLR camera but it is so much faster and more fun to shoot with my phone. I can just pull it out of my pocket and fire away and keep working without fiddling with my settings and changing lenses. Also, I get some fun dramatic shots with drills and stuff, shooting with one hand and drilling with the other! I would like to throw some quick shout outs to Autocomp Racecars for letting me take up space and use their tools to work on this sweet chariot. I would like to thank Amazon and Ebay for insanely easy shopping LOL, I buy most parts and consumables while I am working. I have only made ONE parts run during this entire build, and that was only to see what kind of bolts Autozone carries out of curiosity. Everything is ordered online from zip ties to spray paint. I simply move on to something else and budget my time accordingly. I have more than enough work to do this, and it hasn't been a problem yet. Just like cell phones, email, computers, and everything else have changed how we do everything, this is really the first time I have really taken advantage of ordering everything from my phone as I work and not stopping. It has saved me probably 20+ hours of parts runs, not kidding.

02-10-2013, 05:00 PM	#4
aaronlosey Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: texas Posts: 321 Trader Rating: (2)	2nd Entry, Dec 13 to Dec 20th. This seven day or so stretch on the car has gone really well. My wife has been working nights at the hospital, and I find my schedule slipping farther and farther into the late hours of the night over at Autocomp. I am most productive with no one around, and any distractions and my productive level goes to about zero. So all in all I have been having really relaxing afternoons working on the car until around 2 am, then I stop by and see my wife for a short time, then order/research parts for an hour or so, then hit the sack. So lets get started here. I might have mentioned earlier that I have been agonizing over parts selection with the car. I want the car to be a reflection of Tyler, and what he would want, but also a reflection of what I am willing to put in the car. For example I am not willing to purchase $4,000 brakes ( which is what Tyler would want ), but I am willing to do something crazy with them. This leads to tons of research, an obsession with wanting to do something unique and interesting but also awesome. That, weighted with the concern that when I turn the car over to his father that I am not leaving him with some odd ball car with super difficult to service obscure racing parts. And then there is the point of not spending a ton of money, although the budget is substantial, and keeping things within reason. I poured over off the shelf brake setups from tons of retailers, piecing together a completely new Z32 setup, 350Z Brembos, and even trying to track down some Project Mu setups. They don't seem to sell the brakes where in the states anymore, and are an example of how difficult it can be to try and maintain and use awesome niche JDM parts. There are tons of problems associated with each setup, and nothing I really wanted to settle on. Then Stew turned me onto something really neat. The newer 370 and Infiniti cars come with a setup from a manufacturer named Akebono, and they are a great mixture of OEM clean styler and function, GIANT 14 inch front rotors and 13.8 inch rear rotors for bling, and fairly simple and straightforward to get onto the car. I think they would make Tyler both happy for the ridiculous bling factor, as well as keep the car functional and useful so that his father can enjoy and maintain it. That is a huge load off my mind, and I am excited to get them in the mail in a few days. Moving on to the physically laborious side of the project. As I browse through the pictures I am about to include in this I realize how productive the week has been! This is going to be good! As I am waiting for fittings and other parts to complete the steering system I moved onto other portions of the car. Tyler's dad is going to come take a look at it this weekend, so I really wanted to let him see the car start taking shape. Having a functioning steering system in a car that doesn't look anything like a car isn't very exciting, but having unfinished steering in something that is taking physical shape is something more visually appealing and I want him to feel the project is advancing. The car has been 3 years in the build at this point. So I grabbed the dash and starting soaping it up, scrubbing it as clean as I could. I then started to use tar and bug remover on the difficult parts, and spent a few hours bringing it up to the level of cleanliness that I am trying to keep the car at. After getting it clean, I then needed to start chopping it up so it would fit in the car with the elaborate cage. I very carefully fitted it to the car. Over and over I very carefully fitted it to the car! I kept having to make decisions which I didn't really want to make, such as how much material do I remove. Do I make it possible for someone to remove the dash once the car has the windshield in, or do I leave it stuck there forever? Do I potentially crack the dash getting it in because I cut the dash perfectly to fit the cage, and by doing so have to bend it terribly to install it? I ended up doing what I always do, which is use reason and logic to arrive at a fairly neutral middle ground to everything. I cut the dash enough to make it fairly easy to get in and out, but with close enough tolerances that you have to bend it substantially to get it in, but not TOO much. Of course I arrive at this AFTER trying to make it fit perfectly and being unable to install the darn thing. I was FORCED into the neutral decision : ( I have been going kind of crazy on the details in the project, and if you see the yellowish seam in the dash, which will be hidden by the windshield in most places anyways, I have been taking a magic marker to it. A huge magic marker. I looks really good from a reasonable distance of a couple feet. I have a lot more of it to do, but I was getting kind of high from the fumes so I procrastinated finishing the rest of it. I cleaned up the steering column, getting rid of the rust and repainting it so it will be pretty…. even though you won't be able to see it when finished. I am using this logic for as many things as I can, just because you can't see it doesn't mean I am not spending a huge amount of time on it. Pretty! During one of my super late night shopping sessions I made a poor choice. Someone who shall be nameless told me that knockoff 30 dollar steering wheel quick release hubs are actually really well made nowadays. I did something that ended up costing more money in the end because I had to do it twice. I ordered the crappy knockoff ebay part and then was so disappointed in it after installation that I had to order a higher quality part to replace it. When assembled in the car it give the feeling of too much slop in the steering, way too much. It is one of the few things in the car you have a tactile relationship with, and needs to feel high quality and trust worthy. The last thing I want is people thinking the car is terribly built because they simply feel the steering wheel and experience way to much slop in it, and write off everything else as poorly constructed. Plus this crappy part required hours of putting together. I had to chase out all the threads, assemble it multiple times to play with it and disassemble it, and figure out if I was doing something wrong or if it really was that sloppy. It was. It looks cool assembled though. Then as I was starting to mount the body panels I found a little present Tyler left me. He has been leaving me a lot in this car! I am sure he meant to fix it…. but then he painted over it…. Very Tyler. It is a broken bolt in one of the most important fender mounting holes. This one little broken bolt took me about an hour of fussing with until it was completely drilled out and re-tapped carefully. Good as new now. That stitch weld next to the drill bit is mocking me. I know Tyler would have just not used the bolt hole and mounted the fender with just 2 bolts. Tyler was rough on everything. Even the key to the car was mangled. Luckily a locksmith made a new one! Took a couple tries though. This is the key after it had already been mostly "unbent". Everyday has been Christmas lately for this car. About 3-7 packages a day show up for this thing. They range from a simple can of spray paint all the way up to the seats. I am patiently awaiting that box with the brakes though! ASD sent out a sweet handbrake for the car!!!! And finally, we are getting to the fun ricey stuff. Mounting the fiberglass on a car is always fun. It changes the car so quickly into a finished looking car, and gives it volume and style it didn't have without the few pounds of FG hanging off of it. Plus, you get to drill into a perfectly good car! That is always fun. Don't mind the rear wheel fitment here!!! I tried to use the dog to cover it up, but you can still see it. : ( The front isn't too bad though, although I still have the width of a very large brake rotor this is about to be added. I even took the time to fit the gas tank cover, even though it has a fuel cell. Those cool little hell raiser things sticking out of the back fenders are called Clecos. They are like temporary rivets and are really neat, look them up. And finally, today's work. I spent an entire day fitting the head lights. Considering the car doesn't really have a core support, this went pretty well. The mounts off the tube frame structure are pretty good, and only need about 1/2 an inch of adjustment at the middle part of the car, and maybe a bit more than that towards the corner lights. The intercooler had to be relocated about another half an inch, and the headlights had to be cut about another half an inch. Then the fenders needed to be cut in various places to fit around the tubes, and I think the hood is going to need to be clearanced a bit more. All this meant I had to assemble and disassemble, modify things, then repeat dozens of times. Each time I had to lift the hood off and set it aside, take the fenders off, remove the head lights, corner lights, and make my adjustments. But it is definitely coming together. I love the style of the car, and I love working on it. I can't wait to fabricated a bunch of little items for the car such as a catch tank, brackets, mount the seats, etc. I am going to go spend some time practicing my TIG skills, and get to it. I hadn't really paid attention to the welding on the car much, but everything so far was done with a MIG at the previous shop, so it will be fun to add some delicate TIG work. If you made it this far thanks for reading! I hope you didn't mind the fact that I have been documenting a lot of the build with my iPhone shooting with Instagram. I have a fancy DSLR camera but it is so much faster and more fun to shoot with my phone. I can just pull it out of my pocket and fire away and keep working without fiddling with my settings and changing lenses. Also, I get some fun dramatic shots with drills and stuff, shooting with one hand and drilling with the other! I would like to throw some quick shout outs to Autocomp Racecars for letting me take up space and use their tools to work on this sweet chariot. I would like to thank Amazon and Ebay for insanely easy shopping LOL, I buy most parts and consumables while I am working. I have only made ONE parts run during this entire build, and that was only to see what kind of bolts Autozone carries out of curiosity. Everything is ordered online from zip ties to spray paint. I simply move on to something else and budget my time accordingly. I have more than enough work to do this, and it hasn't been a problem yet. Just like cell phones, email, computers, and everything else have changed how we do everything, this is really the first time I have really taken advantage of ordering everything from my phone as I work and not stopping. It has saved me probably 20+ hours of parts runs, not kidding.