Nice write up.
Glad you enjoyed yourself, that's what its all about.

Hey Thanks WStar for swapping heater switches with me, saved my *** when I traded in the Neezmo. Let me know if you need anything, owe you one :)

How'd the grill work go?

I didn't end up doing the grill work that day. I was mostly waiting for the paint on the mesh to dry that day, and then I didn't have enough time to make sure I finished the whole job before I needed to drive the car around for various xmas family trips Fri/Sat/Sun. I'll probably start the real work on the car tonight or tomorrow :)

Oh, how's the new Porsche so far Equinox?

Pretty surprising how different two sports cars can be, because while I drove the 911 home from Houston, I just couldn't get over how smooth/fast/tight/solid of a car it was compared to the 370z. Night and day, crazy enough.

Bad thing is, it's an older car (2006), so I need to do minor maintenance mods on it. Fixed a loose door handle, ordered a replacement cup holder, replaced the radio with Nav/DVD Touchscreen, and now this weekend I just have to replace the accesory belt and I should be good. :)

I (finally) got around to doing the grill work Friday and Saturday. This is basically a copy of Spohn's awesome idea for a grill setup, check out the pics and explanation he had over here: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...ml#post1453481.

The basic idea is: Cut out the factory's plastic horizontal grill fins completely for a nice wide open front, spray the whole center area (other than the side inner edges) with Plasti-dip, and attach a wire mesh behind the grill opening.

I used some expanded mesh from Lowe's that was probably for stucco, similar to his mesh, but I don't think they're quite identical. I sprayed the mesh w/ flat black high temp spray paint several days before on both sides in several coats. A key difference from Spohn's install is that, since I've replaced my front-under airfoil thingy once (w/ a unit from Z1), the factory rivets for it have been replaced with nuts and bolts, so I was able to attach the bottom of the mesh to these bolts instead of trying to squeeze it into the clips for the front edge of the undertray. I also plasti-dipped my towhook in red, and I haven't gotten around to cutting a hole for it in my mesh yet.

In the overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I suspect the Plasti-Dip isn't as tough as I'd like. It will probably chip and peel and I'll spot-re-spray it over time and it will look a little ugly up close, and I don't care :). I think the show-car types would want to use some sort of flexible, durable, actual car paint instead or something. Various pics of the process:

Most of the cut-out work done:
http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...ostly-done.jpg

Masking and spraying plasti-dip:
http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...plasti-dip.jpg

Plasti-dipped the tow-hook receiver as well to avoid a big silver shiny thing behind the mesh:
http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...eiver-well.jpg

The mesh install process:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...lting-down.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...d-bit-more.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...-area-side.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...ies-up-top.jpg

Results:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...e43123-car.jpg

Nice work with the mesh. :tup:

Fixed the image a bit so it's easier to see:

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1325526589

Yeah it looks sunny out today, I'll get a better pic in good lighting later and post it up :)

Got a better pic at lunch. Ignore how highway-dirty the car is in general :)

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...e43123-car.jpg

As Lightning McQueen would say, "Ka-Chow!"

I like it, somewhat gives the car a fat lipped Koi fish look too, since humans are always looking for patterns to look like faces, lol.

In my experience with the galvanized wire mesh from Lowe's and other stores is that it will chip with rock damage, but so does the car. I used Rustoleom originally on my Mazda Protege5 when I did something similar. You'll be fine. :)

Yeah I used Rustoleum on the mesh too, it was a flat black can of high-temp Rustoleum that's meant for painting BBQ pits :). Gonna leave the mesh and the plasti-dipped section of the bumper alone for a few months and see what happens, then decide what to do based on how well it holds up. The mesh I can just touch up (or replace if it gets banged up, it's cheap and easy now that I have the process down). If the plasti-dip ends up being way too fragile, I may strip it all off and re-paint with something else down the line.

if something else, you can buy automotive rock chip paint used for rocker panels, or have it painted in truck bed liner, like I love to do.

So wstar, get this. I gave my wife a GT Motoring hook to ship out to a guy in Canada on this board. He bought it for 90$, she comes back and says, "Shipping to Canada cost $98 at FED EX, UPS would have been the same." .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .........................funnier/scary part is, she's a nurse.

Minor updates:

HPDE at MSR Houston again coming up this weekend, with the same group as before (The Driver's Edge). Just finished up all my last-minute maintenance: fresh oil change, fresh diff fluid, swapped pads back to CT XP-8, double-checked lots of other miscellaneous bits. I'm excited. We'll be going CCW this time, which is new for me (but we did do some CCW parade-lap stuff last time, so I have some idea). It'll be good to try a whole different configuration and get back out of my growing comfort zone, but it's also kind of a downer that I won't be able to directly compare my times from the last trip.

I've switched my oil from 5W30 to 5W40 on a whim (still Motul 300V). It doesn't really get very cold here, I always warm up, and I think as the mileage percentage increasingly shifts in the track direction, thicker is probably better. Ordered a 12-pack case of 300V cans from Amazon in bulk $$$.

Very cool!

Thicker oil isn't necessarily better, it depends on the tolerances and the ideal viscosity to suit those tolerances. The benefit of course is going to be closer to stock viscosity at elevated oil temperatures.

What have you been seeing for oil temps so far depending on weather conditions?