Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

gbrettin

That it is good sir! The engine and transmission rebuild was quite expensive so it put a lot of things on hold. Well, that and I bought all the cool sh1t I wanted to put into the v2 build.

gbrettin

Sunday was a marathon getting the k-member back to the car. All the small hardware bits needed to go back on the knuckle and the brake lines had to be oriented correctly. I have Alldata now for the technical specification, because I've been using it for torque specs, so that was really helpful. That being said, I had to put the shock and FUCA on in a specific order because of interference issues. Pictures make it look like it took 5min, not 6-7hrs I was messing with everything.

That being said, it's looks and feels like I'm assembling a new car (because it is). I didn't have that same feeling last time I was going through everything. The SPL end link bolts were bent pretty bad, and I'm pretty happy about that (seriously). Energy was transferred from the driver's side 2 piece rotor getting sheered off into the hub to end link, and then sway bar. All those items were replaced. I had some light damage on the brake cooler due to the wheel hub or 2 piece rotor. A hammer and vice grips were to get that right.

Ghostvette suggested that I chase some of the threads so I sprang for a Chinese thread chase kit. Normally when I decide that I want to chase a thread, I'm missing the kit. It's nice having that option now because I used it a whole bunch already!.

The real MVP of this weekend was my lift cart. I first had to remove the 4L80e that was sitting on it myself, SUPER heavy. Then I wheeled right over to the subframe to lift it off to the car. SO EASY.

Ya know... maybe I should load the engine, transmission, and k-member outside of the car... That might just happen vs using a picker. Good thing about having the k-member on currently is that I can get the front wheels on. After the rear subframe gets loaded, I can move the car into the garage. I really hate that the car is in my driveway covered. The neighborhood likely hates it worse.

End result of all this work is looking REALLY good in person. Not sure if the pictures are doing the justice here. I think that the "gray" (looks titanium) looks really rad on the steering knuckles. I wasn't completely sold when spraying that part.

Next up: Bend new hardlines for front and rear brake lines. Rear subframe removal/install. Then we can see what the drag wheels actually look like on.

Edit - I push mowed the grass after 6-7hrs of doing the subframe... Slightly sore today. lol








I think I took the brake lines off and adjusted them after this picture.

gbrettin

Small update

Removed the back bumper to get dirt, formerly swamp/mud, out of the rear bumper. I think this is the last known spot for debris on the exterior. The Last spot to look will be inside the doors and I think that will be 99% of the car cleaned.

I took a moment to inspect the rear because the car went into the swamp rear first. It looks perfect! But, I wasn't really going crazy fast so I didn't expect there to be a smashed rear end. BUT... Nothing really shocks me with this car any more. I'm not use to opening up something and not being a can of worms. Well... I have to repair the trunk latch and trunk lid springs; however, that's fairly common issue.

I FINALLY put the rear wheels on the car to see what it looks like. It really feels like my vision is starting to take shape. Removing the rear spacer has always been part of the plan so that's going to bring the wheel in 25mm.

The rear was dropped out from under the car. Guess what I found... more swamp. lol. It wasn't bad compared to the other stuff.

I need to start getting the arms off and pressing SPL bushings. I think I'm going to put the Sikky Subframe in the car despite not having it fully loaded. Garage space is premium. Having the whole unit loaded up gets pretty darn heavy for driveway work too.

ZontheRocks

Looking sick!

__________________
'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

Rjk370z

Dang! That's some meaty tires!

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gbrettin

Saturday I was going to bolt the Winters Quick Change, quickly, so I could get some more room in my garage. Wrong. Nothing quick about getting that diff in. The rear mount for the subframe bracing had to be removed because the back of the unit interfered, same for the top of the trunk. I want to say that I slid the diff in and out of the rear no less than 6-7 times. That was A LOT of work rolling under the car holding awkward positions cutting. I have to say that because the pictures show a straight line progression, and that wasn't the case. It was an all day grind that spilled into the next day.

On Sunday I put the skid plate on the car which was much easier... but I was sore from the previous day. Also, I didn't hook up the steering column to the rack so a few back steps were needed. Doing the task alone, I accidently didn't have the center lined up correctly so I had to drop the front k-member twice. The brake booster was going to be installed Sunday but I noticed brake fluid lifted the paint in a few areas. I had some gray Steel-it hanging in my crash cart so I decided to paint the booster gray (looks titanium). A new order was put in for both gray and black steel-it so I can spray it black if it looks like garbage.

I'm happy with the progress this weekend... Lot of work... but happy in the end.

gbrettin

Ok guys! I had a cool side quest I wanted to share. Someone contacted me on IG and wanted a carbon fiber emblem for their car. I felt like this was the perfect next step working with carbon fiber specifically for doing vacuum bagging techniques. The molding process was pretty smooth because I had already ran through that for my cubby mount. Less was more for the mold and I made the molds pretty small to make the bagging process better. The mold its self came out really great! I can f' up the carbon process and start over as many times as I want. Of which, I totally messed up my first bagging.

I have really top notch vacuum supplies and a 1,200 vacuum pump... but, I wanted to take a chance doing a cheaper method using a Food Saver. It looked like the vacuum process initially worked well because I had packed in chop strand carbon into the tight areas to prevent bridging. I attempted to do a wet layup combo with vacuum but it failed. The bag lost vacuum twice on the A side of the emblem which I think really did me in.

That all being said, I am NOT mad one bit. As stated, the mold is beautiful and I can make more attempts. The weave laid down all whack due to the wet layup. I'll specifically need to do a vacuum infusion on this. Additionally I am going to use PVA (liquid plastic) inside the mold so that it releases a bit easier.

FYI, I was working on a lot of this concurrent with other parts of my car. There's a lot of stop and go with-in this process.

ZontheRocks

Very cool

__________________
'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

gbrettin

Z update... kind of. I've been working on home stuff and the carbon stuff.

Breaking down the OE rear subframe so I can get SPL bushings in. I had the rear rotors turned because they were practically new previously. Much cheaper than buying new. I repainted the brake booster black because it looked like garbage gray.

I bought a spray gun specifically for PVA (spray on plastic). A compression mold was completed with decent results. I didn't tamp down the material well enough and there was an air pocket in a bad spot, lame.

I attempted a vacuum layup and it didn't go well. There's a couple spots that I needed to be done different:
1.) I laid the carbon in dry. I did that so the weave didn't move everywhere. However, the carbon didn't look completely wet.
2.) I was missing the release film.
3.) They had a great technique for laying sticky tape. Ill try that.

gbrettin

This past week or so I cleaned up, scuffed, painted, removed old bushings, pressed new bushings, repainted the rear upper control arms and knuckles. Can't say the bushings were my favorite job. Getting the bushings out was REALLY tough until Rusty gave me a tip. Rusty suggested that I hole saw the bushings and slit the sleeve to get them out. After doing that they came out much easier.

Pressing the bushings didn't go great with my goliath clamp but made it work using the Goliath clamp for the upper control arms. I didn't even want to try doing that for the knuckles because that was dinging up the upper control arms. After a quick visit to Amazon, a puller kit was purchased to assist with the knuckles. That made life a lot easier.

After all that work... I'm really happy with the results. Worth it.

Over the weekend I put the brake booster back in and made a bracket for the line lock. Previously I had the line lock laying around in the car. I made use of the old mounting bracket position for the line lock which was originally for the clear view filter. I even used the access hole to install the bolts in the bottom side for the bracket.

Last thought... I really hate rolling around under the dash putting in the brake booster. It was much easier with out the driver's seat.

It's finally looking like a car again!

Next up: Bend brake lines.

gbrettin

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.

gbrettin

Decided to knock out my brake lines yesterday. I was going to bend hard line but it to be a head ache to adapt from Japanese to Domestic thread pitches. The lay out I had previously was on the right track, everything was -3an line and I already had all the -3 conversions done. SO, I ran with it.

It doesn't look like much but I'm REALLY happy with the lines because packaging can get unruly. Rare earth magnets were used to keep the lines from flopping around. The -3an lines were changed to black rubber coated braided line so that they don't chew through the paint (like last time).

Measuring out the lines was pretty straight forward. Sting was used and then measured so that I would have accurate length. Then after each run and measurement, I looked up to see if Lane Automotive (it's like Summit or Jegs) had the desired length in their pre-made section on their website.... then I made a few trips out to Lane Automotive... because it's plumbing and one trip is never enough.

gbrettin

Cut out a few Nissan emblems with a bandsaw and then used a belt sander to remove excess material. One emblem was scuffed up and it's looking pretty dang good. I need to test the emblem on my old bumper to see if it fits good. I may have to 3d scan the bumper later so I can have a small spot to test instead of having a bumper floating around my garage.

An excerpt from IG@gbrettin:
Got one DSS axel in, not for a lack of effort. The supplied m10 x 1.5 bolts were too large. So, I grabbed the old axel and brought it to the hardware store to get the correct m10 x 1.25 bolts, they only had 3. Drove to the other hardware store on the other side of town to get the rest.

After that, an attempt to thread the new bolts in was made... and they don't fit. Previously I purchased O'Reilly's stub axels that went into the new differential. I found out that the thread pitch was in freedom units instead of metric...

Went back to the hardware store near me to get new 3/8-26 bolts and they only had 8, I needed 12. Nope, not running to the other side of town again �� that's a different day problem to get more bolts.
----

After the bolts were situated for the axel, I was able to get the IDS shock assembled and into the rear of the car. The alignment shop is likely going to hate me because I know the alignment is going to be whack. Upside... the bolts should be easy to work with because they're new.

To sum it all up for the rear (another clip from IG):
IDS drag shock installed that is 1000whp valved with all SPL spherical bushings and suspension components. 1400whp DSS axels paired with a Winters Quick Change that can handle 1500whp+. All the components have been paired to handle high whp in the name of safety. The cherry on top, it looks really bad ***.

gbrettin

Got the rear end together. It certainly needs a really good adjustment now. Happy to close this chapter. Calipers are coming back from powder coat tomorrow so I can immediately start re-building the calipers. After that I should be able to mount the rear wheels and get the car in the garage off jack stands!

ZontheRocks

More progress!

__________________
'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ