The last piece of my exterior came in, Weber Sport front clip with carbon splitter. The front is REALLY open and aggressive. This will be perfectly fine because I plan on using all the bumper venting. The carbon work that you have been seeing me do is all leading towards an idea that has been rolling around in my head. I honestly don't care much about the Nissan emblem or carbon skinned inserts for cars; but, I wanted to work with carbon hands on so that I can create an airbox to the radiator and then vent out the center section of my Varis hood. This will vastly improve cooling and create downforce on the car... so I hope. The turbos will live in the left and right opened that will have a funnel directly to the turbos which will force the air into the turbos creating efficiency. Lastly, the side areas will have my exhaust firing out them. I'm thinking that I'll need to mock up some sort of triangle exhaust tip that will follow the similar lines as the bumper.
I decided to ditch the crash bar I made in favor of a Z1 crash bar that has a tow hook option. The 6 bolts/nuts that you see on the crash bar was 10 dollars. Apparently stainless steel hardware has gone up in price. not a lot to say about the crash bar other than it looks nice.
Luckily, a buddy come over and give some perspective while I was going through a few problem areas. Previously I thought I had stripped one bolt out on the subframe bushings. He was able to pry down on the subframe while I zipped the driver's side front subframe nut out. From the SPL directions, I couldn't find Sikky subframe directions, stated that the metal plates are specifically used for spacers. Also, if you're deciding between Sikky and SPL... get SPL. Sikky has an area recessed which is what caused the nut to bottom. Tractor Supply Company has really great pricing for grade 8 hardware so I picked up a few washers to space out the nuts to prevent them bottoming out again.
After the subframe was sorted, the knuckle and suspension components were roughed out. They're not completely on but it's certainly close to being fully attached so I can have a roller. The rear was supposed to be completely done this weekend, but it was damn hot out and work was extremely slow.
Today I had to swing up to Auto Dynamix to get an understanding on how to assemble my IDS shocks. Someone had mentioned that a spring compressor was needed. Not the case. Dave (Auto Dynamix shop owner) assembled one shock in about 2min and then sent me on my way. Now that I have the shocks and suspension laid out (with hardware which required trips to the store), I'll put the axels in.
This build actually feels like it's on the way back to being road worthy. I'm not really disassembling swamp riddled parts anymore. There's a few interior components that needs to be addressed... but not much. Perhaps the car will roll into the garage this weekend. I know my neighborhood will enjoy that.
