Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

gbrettin

Welding progress, by Dave at the shop, and a bit of sanding on the mold. Passenger side welds look beautiful on the exhaust and waste gate dumps.

The mold is being tricky again. The paint is hanging on for dear life so I had to contact the manufacture of the mold material to see if I could use acetone. Thank god they said yes... But I'd probably need to use it anyway!

gbrettin

Still waiting on wiring... So I've worked on my mold. I really want it done considering the wiring will be done some year.

Desperation has set in on getting the paint chips out so the mold enjoyed an acetone bath. That cleaned and softened the paint but it wasn't exactly the silver bullet I was looking for so sanding is back on the menu! I'm using 120grit to remove and smooth transitions of paint. The center face of the mold has lots of soft spots for some reason. I used my counter sink drill bit to hit the soft spots, fiber glass fill, and then orbital sand back flat. During that process I've had pin holes, additional soft spots, fixed slight low spots in the corners. To deal with the pin holes I've switched to a lighter bondo. That appears to fill pin holes very well. I'm just going to need to leave a very thin layer of the bondo so that pin holes don't come back. I really need the exposed portions to look flawless...we'll see if that happens.

You're going to notice a huge chunk cut from the back of the mold. That was completely necessary so that I could get in and hand sand. That also made life easier with the orbital sander. I think I'm going to cut the back side just the same. Laying in CF will be much easier this way too because I will be able to locate the edge of the face much easier. Lastly I was able to find mechanical lock areas and soften all of that up (by sanding)

To be perfectly honest, I'm nervous about the sanding. I can't go too hard because it will take the part out of spec.

Last thoughts... My wife is not a fan of me stinking up the garage. It's getting pretty damn cold out there too so I'm hoping I don't need to bondo work too much more.

gbrettin

The mold really turned a corner for me. The face is clearly visible in the mold. Most everything has been sanded down with 320 grit which seems to be the turning spot to find imperfections.

All the soft spots are gone and pin holes filled. I need to cut the great wall located on the back side of the mold, I'm glad it's snowing now because it needs to be cut outside. On the face there were some low spots on the corners but they have been raised up with a bit of bondo, it wasn't terrible but it stuck out when sanding to a higher grit.

My confidence level has gone up with this mold. I still have some left over trauma from attempting the hood mold. *shudders*

Black Friday specials hit for Motion Raceworks so I went ahead and ordered the Twin Turbo CO2 kit. This will allow me to put dome pressure on the waste gates to make more boost with out having to change the springs in my waste gates. I already had the MAC valves ready on the car for the purchase so installation should be pretty easy.

Shot out to Richard C for getting me a link to a mount that will work for mounting the CO2 (before I put a cage in my car)

https://r1industriesoffroad.com/prod...inguiser-mount

https://www.motionraceworks.com/prod...harged-c02-kit

gbrettin

I checked on my car's wiring progress yesterday and it was more of a regression than anything. I let the shop owner of Auto Dynamix use the components of my 370z to diagnose the white 370z at the shop, which had REALLY bad wiring issues. I'm looking at it as paying it forward to the shop for helping me out with shop space; but, It's coming to a head where I need my car buttoned up now. I talked to them, they are on the same page now. I hope.

Now for my mold... I found a tiny soft spot on the face so I went after potential soft spots drilling additional holes and the soft spot. There would have been a spec on the carbon fiber face that would have bothered me. There's no better time than now to get it right. I laid down a real sloppy layer of bondo, it didn't go great because I was pretty salty about having to do it in the first place.


Today at lunch... I went for redemption. The bottom side of the mold was also cut down to make life easier laying carbon fiber. knocked down the crap layer of bondo, air sanded the ends somewhat flat and laid another thing of bondo so I can sand some more after work. I am less salty today.

gbrettin

Wrapped the mold up last night. I sanded up to 2000 grit and I could probably have kept polishing. It's good enough to pop a part. The feet look a little rough but I honestly don't care that much about them.

I was going to jump straight to carbon fiber but I honestly don't think that's the move. I have a bunch of chop strand fiber glass left over from my hood that I am going to use to test the mold out. That will show me any problem areas on the mold PRIOR to doing a resin infusion carbon fiber part.

SO, here she is. Thoughts?

gbrettin

CO2 kit came in... so I did what any rational human would do, put a sticker on it and tossed it in the car. By "tossing it in the car" I mean exactly that. I set it in the trunk.

The exhaust needs O2 bungs, I guess the shop was waiting on me to put the exhaust on the car and mark where. Well, I found out yesterday so I put the exhaust on lol. It's not where the X is on the pipe... I marked it after the pictures were taken. It's more in the middle away from the turbo so wiring doesn't get burnt. I'm also sharing the pictures because I can't believe how awesome the exhaust came out!

look at it...

I SAID LOOK AT IT!

Last picture the pipe slid down a little... I didn't have the vband on tight. Also, there's a trim ring that will go around the exhaust.... So it doesn't look like I used a wild beaver to cut the hole.

Edit - There's also some weeping oil from the turbo. I'll probably send the turbos off to get looked at by Turbonetics and also put a new gasket on the Maven mount if it is weeping further. Not sure if there were oil remnants or there's some bullsh1t leaks. One thing is for sure... It's not the crimped lines and new oil extensions.

gbrettin

Auto Dynamix has been extraordinarily busy, so that's a great thing! Down side was that my car was getting put on the back burner. My buddy Dave was trying to keep cost down and working on wiring during slow times or after hours.

With that said, I couldn't keep my booger fingers off of my car. I've decided to push the wiring as far as I possible can go. If I hit a stopping point Dave/Nick (shop owners) said they would point me in the direction for completion. With that said, I jumped into the thick of it all. This weekend I located my wiper assembly... well... most of it ... and hooked it up. I had to do some hardware store runs for some bolts/nuts but that's nothing new.

Accusump has been wired up. Power had to go all the way back to the car and get tied into the Leash Relay. A ground was ran to a previous ground spot which I pulled off the BCM wiring ground and put that in a more manageable spot. I added air to the back of the Accusump but I noticed the pressure gauge went down after a while. I'm going to hope that the valve is in an open position and the air went to the crank case. I guess we shall see.

All the OE wiring has been taped off so it's manageable. Passenger headlight and side marker have been tucked. Loom will need to be put on down the road. I'm not happy where the brake lines are at right now so I'm going to need to break the lines to run them differently. To be clear, I didn't leave the lines up top. A younger mechanic in the shop bleed my brakes and let it sit up there. Not sure why. What ever. I'm not mad.

Mold update... I went hard on an poly resin that has some fiberglass in it. I need to inject some more resin into the feet of the mold and put a few more layers of fiberglass on the back. After that is done I will need to drill the back side of the mold and hit it with air to release. Not terrible excited about that but atleast there will be one part that comes out of the mold (not the last either).

New radio came in, but I need to have iDatalink so I can use the steering controls. The car will also have an anti theft device installed somewhere annoying... Not going to post where that install is going. lol

- EDIT I'm going to swap the back hauling water lines to nice aluminum tube down the road.

gbrettin

Very small update but I'm posting it because it bugged me to no end. I re-did the ring terminals last night on my Leash Relay Board. The ring terminals were really close to hitting the other terminals and from the looks of it, if they did not go on perfectly they would hit. 5 dollars per box of #10 yellow and #10 blue terminals and I was in business. I removed the plastic off the terminals prior to crimping and then heat shrank the terminals. I tugged on all the terminals to make sure they weren't loose (none were). You may be thinking "why didn't you use the correct ring terminals?" Well, I didn't do the original terminals (neither did the shop owners at Auto Dynamix who normally do everything). SO, I'll leave it at that.

Another point I want to make is that progress can come in different forms on your project. Some days you make huge strides... Other days, you change ring terminals. Point being is that there is something done and that sure beats nothing.

gbrettin

Well, I committed to getting the Winters Quick Change. It has been at the shop for a couple years and I really needed to put up or shut-up. I kept thinking about my diff being welded or changing to a quality OE diff. Neither of those were the right option for my build. Getting the Quick Change is a step in the right direction but I still need a new subframe and axels. I'm not changing anything until my car is up and running with some test miles. This just plots the course for the future when I turn up the power. The quick change has all sorts of upgrades considering it was going to get abused by a sand rail buggy (original intention for it). The ring gear is 10" and there's a list of other items that are shown in the picture of upgrades. The Quick Change doesn't seem to be heavier than the IE either. I guess I can weigh both of them later if anyone is interested.

Wiring progress update: I took a few steps back on the passenger side and re-did some of the work. Electrical tape was wrapped around the wiring for the headlight and turn signal wiring. The electrical lead for the Accusump was routed through a frame hole and that had me freaked out about fire potential so that was wrapped in electrical tape and then put in loom, along with the headlight leads. The ground and power were twisted together which required me to re-do the ends (no biggie).

Passenger side was already taped off last time I worked on the car so that only needed to be tucked. The brake lines will need to be cracked open and re routed. During the re-route operation I will tape off the metal portion of the line because that stuff is like a chain saw on the paint. There's a pile of wiring going over the brake booster so I'll try getting that under the booster when the brakes are opened up.

I'm going to try getting the O2 wiring pulled tonight. Trying to keep these tasks simple so things actually get done.
The last picture here... I really like because I can actually see the engine bay getting cleaner!

gbrettin

Small updates. Ordered some IDS drag coils that have been valved for 1000+ hp. Should be here in a few months. No rush on those.

Originally I had thought there were wiring issues inside the fuel assembly because the primary pump didn't turn on. I took the fuel hat off and only saw that there were wire detached for the level assembly. Fixed that but it wasn't the main issue... but an issue none the less.

Upon further inspection, Someone didn't use a proper crimp tool so Dave fixed what he could and then we couldn't get the last one fixed. Ordered another CJ Motorsports plug because some of the pins were jacked up. Using nice new pins and proper crimps are key for those. Someone folded over the tabs previously, of which I will not call out at the Auto Dynamix shop. It was caught and fixed. This is just inside stuff that can happen anywhere. I'm just showing all the catches where most people/shops don't. Also, take a moment to appreciate how damn big the power and ground wires are for the fuel pumps!

With that said, Dave and I back tracked all the wiring that has been done. It all looks good. Although... I have to take the plug apart again because I didn't add in the level sensor signal wires to the clip going into the top hat. oops. Easy fix that doesn't require the fuel hat to come out.

Z1 SS brake lines came in. Not sure if I said this or not... but the old brake lines supported the k-member... and engine... This was because the hydraulics on both the forklift and transmission cradle slowly leaked while I was fixing the oil pan. There are visible signs where the line was getting stressed. I don't mess around with brakes, they need to be right. I need to change all the routing on the brake lines anyway. This is a good chance for me to drain the brake fluid and make all the adjustments.

Last night I needed to mark where the O2 bungs were going. With the exhaust going back on the car, I took the opportunity to put my trim rings on the car. They look damn good! Very happy with the result.

Final thought here.... I figured out a way to clean up the engine bay a bit, but I will do the work down the road, but I want to share because I've been saying I want to clean up the water lines. The front swirl pot will be removed. That space will convert to an expansion tank for the swirl on the cooling system. In the trunk I will add a few gallon water tank placed at a higher level than the pump and radiator (to get air out of the system). There will be a bulk head passthrough so I can detach lines easily. Ideally it will fit in the spare tire well. Then I can hard line the back hauling lines to the front with aluminum tube. That's the idea for the future anyway... later.

No more changes are allowed at this time though. serious. I'm not going to put on the drag coils until the car works. With that said, the car is REALLY close to hitting the dyno... for real. Nick and Dave are working on getting their race car done for Sick Week 2023 and are working every night so I'm thinking that the actual dyno runs will happen late to end of February when they get back. That's totally fine too. It's Winter in Michigan so it's not like the car can go on cold salty roads.

gbrettin

As mentioned before, I needed to get the O2 bungs marked off. That was done and I drilled out the pipe with a hole saw. I cleaned up the bungs and the pipe really well and then Dave tacked both of the bungs but also proceeded to finish welding the driver's side pipe. The finish weld was completed because because he had already welded the exhaust up.

Dave mentioned that he hates the prep work so I leveled out all the MIG tacks, wire brushed all the welding joints, and then degreased the whole pipe. I can see why he was holding off on doing the prep work because I think there was 2hrs in that alone. He mentioned that it would be less than an hour worth of welding now that all that has been done. I suspect he will weld it sometime this week because he has been welding a cage for his "Street Car". Check the cage work out.... They are working on sub 7sec.

Also had a custom brake button sent to me by Redondoavab. I love easter eggs on my car like the "SMLH". It's a reference to this build on this site but it's also a hilarious story where it originates from.

I think this is MIGHT be the last post or one of the few prior to a dyno run.

A battery tender has been until the last bit of wiring is delt with. Inside wiring needs attention from Dave. There are a few grounds and exposed trigger wires that he has set off to the side. I'm not sure what he is doing with those so I have to let them be. Now here's the rub on all this. The "Street Car" is going to Sick Week in Florida in two weeks. They are busting their chops to get that done during the two weeks. The Diehl Brothers (Racing) has completed that promod cage in 3 weeks after hours, certified, built the rear end, mounting tabs, panels and are building three engines. My car is taking a back seat until they wrap up with that event. Sick Week is a drag and drive event. The whole event will be broadcasted live. This is the "Blue Turd" from last year, which is a stock 5.3 LC9 block (CAM and gapped rings). (my engine is WAYYYYYY more built) :





Please take a moment to appreciate how difficult it is to make the pipes dance around like this. I'm very proud of this accomplishment.

gbrettin

Main take away... We're almost done. What a wild ride guys! Long a$$ time coming and I appreciate all the input over the years. I went from not knowing sh1t to barely knowing sh1t.

gbrettin

I have a plan to pop the mold now. I'll need to make a metal jig and weld in large bolts on the back side of the jig that will allow bolts to enter the back side of the mold. The mold will need to be drilled at the same location of the bolt holes. Then I can use bolts to apply even pressure around the face to release the part. Scott/Madwi gave me this idea in a similar application.

Moving forward in the interim I purchased a cubby from a totaled car. Both bottom legs broke off at some point, one by me and the other in shipping. One leg was epoxied on.... I may have threw the other leg that broke off. ANYWAY, the mount was really easy. I used some scrap carbon fiber at the shop that was cut to the size of the cubby. I used another piece of CF for strength after I cut the holes wrong. The back side of the CF was scuffed and epoxied to the cubby while the front side was silicone sealed. The back side of the cubby was cut open to allow for cabling.

If someone wanted a cheap and easy cubby mount, that is the way to go. I have about 3 days into it but most all of that time is waiting for epoxy and sealant to dry. If someone wants a crazy expensive cubby mount in the future... HMU. Patrick/Redondovab is first in line though. Also, I don't really work on timelines so well... wait times may vary. Just look at the history of my build for that confirmation.

gbrettin

Ok, small updates are better than nothing IMO. The radio, Tinker Electronics and dash (mostly) are back in. The temporary dash looks much better than anticipated. I'm happy with the looks... Now I need to look into reconditioning my dash with some Sonax... She's looking a bit chalky.

gbrettin

Michigan had some unseasonable warm weather for a few days, so I took advantage. I did a few more layups on the cubby mold. After a complete cure cycle it was time to release the mold. Removal was accomplished by drilling holes into the back of the mold and then hitting 2" bolts with a BFH. To my delight the cubby was released! Upon inspection I noticed that the legs needed some work and a few air pockets needed to be addressed. Marglass was used in the pockets and then sanded. After that, I followed on with light weight Bondo to smooth out the surface.

I recently ordered a center cubby console off of ebay so that I can test the accuracy of the mold. TBH, I think it's dead on but I will give it a test as soon as it comes in this week. Once the weather gets a little warmer I can start in on the B side of the mold. That shouldn't be anything like the first part of the molding process. I already have the mold and all I need to do is get the face and mount points for my Tinker Electronics display. Working a bit more with fiberglass has helped me understand how to lay it and the the timing of the resin. You might be thinking I went hard on the resin for the A side... well, that was intentional. I needed to make sure that the face had an accurate representation and I wasn't comfortable at laying in the fiberglass. A forum member asked for cubby mount for a Motorvate digital display so I think he will get an even better cubby mount than what I have. Next cubby will have less resin and OEM looking feet (I hope). And let's be honest... The feet came out pretty decent on the first one here. I'm just looking for perfection I guess. Perhaps I will do vacuum bagging on the next one? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

In other news. Sick week wrapped up and the Diehl Brothers landed top 10 in their class (I think 8th). Check out the video of their last run. During the week they were out my Nismo RS Juke was totaled. A kid pulled out in front of me in a full sized Tacoma. No injuries were reported but I'm sure that kids Dad was mad as hell. Now I'm on the hunt for a nice daily. You ight be curious as to why I'm posting that bit of information... Well... I now have Nismo RS Juke seats for my Z. I'm actually on the fence about putting them in. They look amazing but they are heavy due to air bags. I know this is going to be a shocker, but my Z will not have airbags. Hey, I guess I have options.