Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

ZontheRocks

Looking good!

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

Mr&Mrs

Varis is soooooooo good

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Project Z <--Click - Check out the link too many mods to list!

gbrettin

I figure if the car is going to have the power, it better look the part too.

filip00

Those are nice parts! Looking forward to seeing it completed!

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ride epic drive epic

jester370

love this build. Did you ever get the custom cubby holder scanned for printing? I have a 8in touch screen connected to a Pi but struggling to get it looking neat and tidy

gbrettin

Sorry for the slow reply. Nope, didn't get my 3d scanner or printer yet. My restoration of my Z and College has taken a large chunk of my time and money. I can work something out with you if you want a clean option. HMU on FB (Gregory Brettin). We'll figure something out.

On a different note. Many updates are coming soon. Short block, transmission, ECU, and TCM have all been fully serviced. Wrapping up a final exam on 3/11 and then I'll make a few more posts.

gbrettin

I'm always up for a good side adventure. Raymond Barr made a request on FB asking if anyone could skin some v2 inserts. Well, I have a few rolls of carbon and some epoxy so I gave it a shot. End results turned out pretty great. I'm going to make a couple sets and sell them, not many. I did the skinning as a mental break from studying for my previous class.

As mentioned before, I have my engine, transmission, subframe, electronics, injectors, and a pile of parts in my basement. I'm getting rolling with my steering rack. since the engine is out. While I was working on the steering rack I noticed that my engine bay had lots of paint chipped and missing. Probably going to need a re-spray. I'm just going to hit it with steel-it since that stuff is so durable.

Taking out the steering rack showed me that there was swamp left. Which is wild... I spent a day power washing the car.

NorthStyle

Awesome job, they came out great

Rjk370z

Cool video too. Looks good!

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gbrettin

Howdy all. Weather is starting to break way to fair weather in MI so I can actually work on the car. I honestly don't have it in me to work on the car if it is not nice out. Well... it had to be nice for my last task.

I dropped the kmember so that I could scuff and repaint the entire engine bay with steel-it. There were a lot of scuffs that went into the metal of the car from all the work on the car previously, the paint I used last time was too soft. The engine bay was scuffed and wiped down with acetone. It takes 4-6 cans depending on how many coats you want to do on your car. I'm doing 6 because I have a few areas I want to go back over. It's really nice to have a pristine engine bay again. All the swamp bits were cleaned and blown out. It really put some wind back in my sails.

While the kmember is out I'm going to put in the steering rack and SPL tie rod ends. If anyone has pointers for the SPL outer tie rods, I'm all ears.

I've decided to change my accessory drive to a single mid mount alt and remove my power steering pump out of the equation and switch to an MA motor sports packaged electric pump. I'm not sure where I'm mounting that just yet, but the engine is out and I know where everything fit previously so I'm sure the mounting task will be much easier. A decision was also made to run electric AC at some point.

Everything is running off the electrical system so I had to find a billy bad azz alt, which I did. The previous alternator location locked me into a small frame alt which could only produce 150amps. Part of the decision to change the location of the alt was so I could in fact run a large alt. I decided to go with a 400amp Mechman. This should take care of all the demand. A consideration was taken into account for high rpm of the engine so the diameter of the alt wheel was increased to pair with my -10% underdrive balancer. That's a big deal, because I can't have the alt burn out from over spinning. Last reason I wanted the alt moved was to get it away from the turbo up pipes. That's a pretty simple reason. Heat kills everything.

Other misc parts news.... hmmm.... I ordered a new W brace from GK Tech because my OE was bent from trying to grind a curb like a skate board. My transmission has been fully serviced and is ready for action.

In true F-Up fashion, I attempted to drill the plenum holes on my machined heads from M6 to M8. It went like sh!t. The machined heads were swapped with a non machined set of 243 heads (same casting) and are off to get machined again. You might ask, why didn't you have the machine shop tap for M8? well, I tried but they were drilled previously and didn't want to attempt the correction. They had already started on my heads so I was committed to that job.

That being said, I am getting a new set machined, transferred spring components, valves. BUT... BTR is coming out with a thick deck big block like heads (valves canted to a different degree) that are meant for boost and flows a lot. I'm on the call back list when they come out in 4th quarter 2024 or maybe even early 2025.

In-between all that, I've still been making a few carbon inserts for the Nismo v2 Front Fascia. I'm about done with the small run. I feel confident in telling you that the inserts were just carbon fiber practice and I am going to make a front end air box for my car and then duct the air out through the center of the Varis Kamikaze.... which means I am going to cut a 3,500 hood. I'll be sure to get that on video. lol

Links to all the things I mentioned that I purchased:
https://ma-motorsports.com/products/...ering-pump-kit
https://us.gktech.com/products/z34x-wbrc-placeholder
https://www.mechman.com/alternators/...4-18-gm-truck/
https://mkcustomz.com/ols/products/l...lancer-spacing

gbrettin

I ended up breaking down the k-member completely and painting it with Steel-it. I was at a cross roads whether or not to install SPL lower control arm bushings so I put a general post out to FB in a few groups. BTW Tuning reached out to me and had new loaded lower control arms with SPL bushings that he wanted to offload. SO... I took him up on that offer. I've got to say, that I didn't want to paint the subframe but it looks damn good now. I painted the pieces that connect the steering rack "gray" but it looks titanium.

During the break down of the subframe I noticed that the Whiteline swaybar was bent on then end. The SPL endlink bolt that I took out of the sway bar also had significant damage, which I had already ordered new Z1 endlinks. SO.... I went ahead and ordered a new Hotchkis sway. Everything else is new... why not.

I broke down the calipers so that the rear get completed and that the fronts get re-done. From there, I knocked out all the studs on the wheel hubs and put in ARP extended studs because the OE length didn't have enough thread engagement on the open ended Nismo lugs. I was in the painting mood so I added a dusting on the ends of the ARP to remove the gold color.

Powder coater dude said that the calipers would be done next month. That's fine. I can still put the front wheels on with out having calipers to roll the car if needed. I also ordered brake rebuild kits from Rock Auto.

It FINALLY feels like things are moving in the right direction. I've been waking up early in the morning before work trying to put in some car work. Both Sat and Sun were dedicated to breaking everything down and painted. Lot's of movement in a few days.

That steering rack should make it back in this coming weekend.

Mr&Mrs

All the pics on IG of the coated metals is making me want to rip apart the entire underside of the car. The surface rust on alot of the areas has already been bugging the heck out of me.

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Project Z <--Click - Check out the link too many mods to list!

gbrettin

Honestly, It would be worth it to get in front of it before the surface rust turns into something deeper. It's not hard to get after it early.

I have some pictures to post of the subframe going back together. It REALLY looks great. The best part about it, if you scratch it and it happens to come off... just give it a quick spray.

gbrettin

I was on the fence about doing the extra work painting the subframe with steel-it. Not any more. It was worth it IMO. I like details in a build. Pictures will be self explanatory based on some of the other stuff I wrote. Some notable items are the new braided brake lines and factory lines. They've seen some abuse so they are getting replaced.

-Edit: I marked the bolt heads to know specifically if the bolts have been tightened to spec. It also lets me know if anything backs out over time. The first point is most important, because it's easy to miss things while thinking about a whole bunch of next steps.

ZontheRocks

Thread is alive! Glad to see you have things going in the right direction. We all look forward to seeing this thing looking good and ripping tread.

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