2/21/12
Blacked out my fangs with plasti dip and installed the Evo-R 3 piece front lip. Had the sides color matched platinum graphite and left the middle part black.
3/3/12
Installed the CNT Racing HFCs today. Big thanks to Rob (MightyBobo) aka the DemonBoltmeister for spending all day with me installing these. Surprisingly, the demon bolt was the easiest part of the whole process
Here's the only pic I have from the install, courtesy of Rob
Don't have any videos yet, will try to make one when we get some nice weather on the weekends.
3/19/12
Plasti dipped my wheels and went with a gunmetal color. Started off with 4-5 coats of black plasti dip and then used 3 coats of the silver plasti dip metalizer. Also did my emblems and badges with the plasti dip I had left over after doing the wheels. Kind of rushed through these a bit, but they look ok.
You can't really see the metallic effect in the pics, but you can in person.
6/3/2012
Installed Carbotech XP8 brake pads and Motul RBF600 Brake fluid. Since I had to take my calipers off to do these, I decided I should paint them red. I used VHT Caliper paint which should withstand temperatures up to 900 degrees. I'll have to see how this paint holds up when I go on my hyperdrive at Summit Point Raceway in 2 weeks. I ended up using 2 cans of paint for the calipers and brackets with 2 light coats and one heavy coat of paint applied to each part. The total cost for all the painting stuff was like $30-40. It's a cost effective mod that looks great, but be prepared to spend all day working on it. Here's a before pic some after pics:
6/16/12
Had my first track experience today at Summit Point Raceway for Hyperfest. Here's the video of my session. More details of my experience in the thread below:
My First Track Experience
6/19/12
Installed a Z1 34 row oil cooler kit on my Z today with a lot of help from Rob. The oil cooler works really well, my temps stayed steady at 170 on my 20 min drive home. Definitely need to add a blocking plate soon so I can get my oil up to optimal operating temperatures.
9/15/12
After taking the plasti dip off my wheels (which was ruined after I had my tires changed) I decided to paint them myself in a similar color. Couldn't get that exact same shade of gray as the plasti dip, but it still looks good. I started by taking the wheels off, cleaning, and then sanding them. Then hit it with 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint, and 3 coats of clear. I used VHT Wheel Paint in Graphite color along with VHT Wheel Clear. The first day I did this, it was really hot and humid outside so the paint didn't go on smoothly. Had a lot of orange peel and bubbling in the paint as well as a very rough finish. I had to refinish them by wetsanding and adding 2 more coats of clear. This smoothed the paint out and gave it a nice wet gloss finish, which is what I always wanted with my wheels.
9/22/12
Decided to paint my headlights. Did the housing in black and the shrouds in a light gun metal. The color of the shrouds ended up lighter than the car's color (I wanted it to be darker), but it still looks good. Had an incident with one of the lights where the lens was melted in the oven. At this point I'm just gonna leave it as is, but I might buy a used headlight later down the road to swap out the lens.
12/6/12
I got Eibach front and rear sway bars installed today. Sorry no pics, was in a bit of a hurry. I'll try to get some next time I'm under my car. Set it to the soft setting in the front and middle setting in the rear. Steering feels a lot tighter and sharper, but I won't really get the full effect of the sway bars until it gets warmer and I get summer tires back on the Z. It was still a pretty noticeable difference in the handling/steering. At least as much of an effect as installing the swifts were, if not more. Highly recommend them
