Dropped the rear subframe braces off at the powder coater this week. I’ve done enough business with these guys that I told them coating wasn’t really necessary, but I asked for a quote just to humor myself. Turns out they’ve got a new media blaster and wanted to test it on my parts—so the price came back stupid low. Hard to mess this one up, so they’re going for it.
Underneath the car, I cleaned up the water lines and re-mounted everything using the original mounting points. A few zip ties later and they’re solid.
The remains of the old duckbill wing are gone. I used adhesive remover to clean up the area. Burned a couple spots in the paint, but I’m not sweating it—the car’s getting a wrap or respray eventually.
Swapped out the oil feed lines for black-coated lines. The braided line was a hazard waiting to happen—could’ve eaten through paint or anything it rubbed against. New lines are correct lengths and routed cleanly. While I was in there, I tackled the rat’s nest of wiring in the battery area. Cleaned it up, and that freed up space for the remote power steering reservoir.
Made some updates to the wiring too. Rerouted the 1/0 gauge from the starter to the alternator so it can safely carry 200–400 amps. Added a short 1/0 ground to the cylinder head. Yeah, it’s all mundane wiring stuff, but done wrong, this is the kind of thing that makes a car go up in flames. I’ll add plastic covers later to protect from abrasion once everything’s tested and running.
Tried to mount the Seibon carbon fenders… they fit like garbage. Not thrilled. I really want Varis fenders, but they’re spendy and I already have these. I’m working with my body guy to make these fit—even if we have to fab our own mounting tabs. He’ll be mounting all the body panels at once, so yeah… I’ll be that guy driving around with multicolored panels for a few months. Could be the whole year. Whatever. Progress.
Wrapped things up with a brake bleed using AK370z’s method from the forum. Then dropped the car down to the ground to check the new rear suspension height.
DIY: How to Bleed Your Brake Fluid Using Motive Power Bleeder 0117 (AK370Z)
There’s way less tape on the windshield now. Still waiting on crimp fittings to finish up the coolant, fuel, and power steering lines. Once those are in, I can tear off a few more pieces of tape and keep moving forward.
Next up: Repair hot side and fab cold side.
A good crimp with out the sheathing... I had to re-do the end.
