wstar's Journal

wstar · 08-20-2013, 06:08 PM

Went by Lucas Racing today and talked a bit. I think I'm going to use them now, wasn't a bad deal at all money-wise (all things considered), and they'll be going the whole 9 yards with a 6 point cage with nice door bars and taking care of my harness mounts, etc. Saw some of their other cars in the shop as well, really nice work. They're a bit backlogged, so it'll be a few weeks before he can get to my car, but that just gives me time to keep messing with dash wiring stuff.

wstar · 08-29-2013, 11:13 AM

Still making small bits of progress on various things here and there, mostly waiting to get the cage done before I move on to other post-cage items. A friend and I spent several hours yesterday on this little project:

We took my 330mm Sparco wheel and installed a couple of buttons in it, to be wired for 7AT down/up-shift (red on left for down, green on right for up). It was a huge pain in the *** to figure out the first button (how to cut through the suede/plastic/foam neatly and then drill the switch barrel hole in the underlying metal and get everything mounted), but the second button only took like 30-45 minutes start to finish once we knew what we were doing. A drill press helps a lot. Buttons came from Mouser, it's the round ones from this datasheet: http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/204/Series_59-10372.pdf . They have a really nice feedback feel on push and seem pretty stout. Going to use the same ones (but in black+green) for my dash-panel-mounted uprev map switch buttons.

theDreamer · 08-29-2013, 11:15 AM

Why did you migrate to buttons versus using the paddle shifters or did the paddles come off when you tore out everything?

wstar · 08-29-2013, 11:20 AM

The paddle shifters are still on the car, they still work fine with virtually everything else gutted. I just think this will be even better than using them. When I first wire them up, I'm going to splice into the existing paddle wiring and leave both options functional. Then I can play with both at a track event and see if I really like the button setup better from a practical perspective. If I do, then I'll ditch the paddles at that point just to clean things up.

carlitos_370z · 08-29-2013, 12:13 PM

looks great my friend!!!

wstar · 11-08-2013, 11:38 AM

It's finally time for an update. The thread has been dormant, but the car work has been very active the past couple of months. The big news is I just got the car home from Lucas Racing and they did an awesome job building my cage and a few other related things. It's a full 6-point with door bars on both sides and the little footwell support add-ons that are allowed.

Also notable are the new fixed Sparco seats (Evo driver, Evo-II-US passenger) mounted on Sparco's mounts (but removed the slider system and drilled some new holes to make them fixed), and some nice 6-point Sparco belts. The cage builder did the welded-in mounts and eyebolts for the belt system as well, including eyebolt-style mounts for the shoulder harnesses as opposed to wrap-around mounting.

I highly recommend Lucas if you're in the Houston area or can drive here. They did top-notch work at a fair price and turned the car around and had it back to me in no time, and they really know what they're doing. I only did cage work there, but they're clearly skilled and equipped to handle any other kind of racecar work you can imagine.

I just got home, so there's still cage padding and misc parts laying around in the car, I haven't yet built my center-dash panel for the switches/gauges, and obviously haven't painted the cage yet, but I took pics anyways!

Rear View: - note direct horizontal bar between rear shocks

Driver Harness: - note the bar is bent outward slightly here to allow the seat to sit further back from the wheel

Passenger Harness: - this side is straight since the passenger has plenty of room to the front. Also note in this shot the geometry of the rear half of the cage in general, the triangles on the sides.

Roof:

Door bars!

More Door bars!

Passenger Footwell - it's hard to get a good angle for a pic of these, but they run to mounting plates in the corner of the firewall up there.

blak max · 06-30-2016, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

It's finally time for an update. The thread has been dormant, but the car work has been very active the past couple of months. The big news is I just got the car home from Lucas Racing and they did an awesome job building my cage and a few other related things. It's a full 6-point with door bars on both sides and the little footwell support add-ons that are allowed.

Also notable are the new fixed Sparco seats (Evo driver, Evo-II-US passenger) mounted on Sparco's mounts (but removed the slider system and drilled some new holes to make them fixed), and some nice 6-point Sparco belts. The cage builder did the welded-in mounts and eyebolts for the belt system as well, including eyebolt-style mounts for the shoulder harnesses as opposed to wrap-around mounting.

I highly recommend Lucas if you're in the Houston area or can drive here. They did top-notch work at a fair price and turned the car around and had it back to me in no time, and they really know what they're doing. I only did cage work there, but they're clearly skilled and equipped to handle any other kind of racecar work you can imagine.

I just got home, so there's still cage padding and misc parts laying around in the car, I haven't yet built my center-dash panel for the switches/gauges, and obviously haven't painted the cage yet, but I took pics anyways!

Rear View: - note direct horizontal bar between rear shocks

Driver Harness: - note the bar is bent outward slightly here to allow the seat to sit further back from the wheel

Passenger Harness: - this side is straight since the passenger has plenty of room to the front. Also note in this shot the geometry of the rear half of the cage in general, the triangles on the sides.

Roof:

Door bars!

More Door bars!

Passenger Footwell - it's hard to get a good angle for a pic of these, but they run to mounting plates in the corner of the firewall up there.

what is the fair price for this?

wstar · 11-08-2013, 11:41 AM

Starting today I've got 2 weeks to the next Driver's Edge event at TWS that I'm booked for. The job list between now and then:

1) Paint cage
2) I still have a very small coolant leak somewhere to track down and fix
3) Build some kind of dash switch/gauge panel
4) Install SPL FUCA
5) Put on new tires/wheels (18x10 square Forgestars + 275/35 RS-3's)
6) Play with alignment (I picked up one of those DIY home alignment kits from Quicktrick)
7) Swap all the fluids and do basic track prep

Rusty · 11-08-2013, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

Starting today I've got 2 weeks to the next Driver's Edge event at TWS that I'm booked for. The job list between now and then:

1) Paint cage
2) I still have a very small coolant leak somewhere to track down and fix
3) Build some kind of dash switch/gauge panel
4) Install SPL FUCA
5) Put on new tires/wheels (18x10 square Forgestars + 275/35 RS-3's)
6) Play with alignment (I picked up one of those DIY home alignment kits from Quicktrick)
7) Swap all the fluids and do basic track prep

Have fun.

Boost_lee · 11-09-2013, 01:50 PM

Wow, that cage looks great. Good luck with the paint

travisjb · 11-08-2013, 12:27 PM

looks great. need some paint on that cage!

think the oem cross-member is redundant now? made that assumption on my car...

wstar · 11-08-2013, 02:14 PM

Thanks all

I can't wait to see how different the car feels at TWS. I couldn't play around much in traffic on the way home. Maybe I'll take it out late tonight when the roads are clear just to get a feel for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by travisjb

looks great. need some paint on that cage!

I just picked up supplies at Lowe's, paint process is starting tomorrow morning! Rustoleum Pro spray enamel stuff, grey primer and semi-gloss black for the real paint. The real bitch is gonna be sanding/degreasing all of it for prep, and masking off the car with plastic/paper.

Quote:

think the oem cross-member is redundant now? made that assumption on my car...

Lucas' opinion was basically "It doesn't seem to weigh much, it's not in the way of anything, and it probably adds some body stiffness, may as well leave it there". Who knows, I might remove it later, when the backlog of other work clears up some

DR_ · 11-08-2013, 01:15 PM

Great cage! I can't wait to see it.

Apollo8642 · 11-08-2013, 01:19 PM

Nice job, can't wait to see it when it's all done.

Huck · 11-08-2013, 02:10 PM

Looks like its coming along nicely, moar pics when you can!

Zdayz 2014!!

08-20-2013, 06:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Went by Lucas Racing today and talked a bit. I think I'm going to use them now, wasn't a bad deal at all money-wise (all things considered), and they'll be going the whole 9 yards with a 6 point cage with nice door bars and taking care of my harness mounts, etc. Saw some of their other cars in the shop as well, really nice work. They're a bit backlogged, so it'll be a few weeks before he can get to my car, but that just gives me time to keep messing with dash wiring stuff. carlitos_370z likes this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-29-2013, 11:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Still making small bits of progress on various things here and there, mostly waiting to get the cage done before I move on to other post-cage items. A friend and I spent several hours yesterday on this little project: We took my 330mm Sparco wheel and installed a couple of buttons in it, to be wired for 7AT down/up-shift (red on left for down, green on right for up). It was a huge pain in the *** to figure out the first button (how to cut through the suede/plastic/foam neatly and then drill the switch barrel hole in the underlying metal and get everything mounted), but the second button only took like 30-45 minutes start to finish once we knew what we were doing. A drill press helps a lot. Buttons came from Mouser, it's the round ones from this datasheet: http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/204/Series_59-10372.pdf . They have a really nice feedback feel on push and seem pretty stout. Going to use the same ones (but in black+green) for my dash-panel-mounted uprev map switch buttons. synolimit and carlitos_370z like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-29-2013, 11:15 AM	#3 (permalink)
theDreamer A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 30,879 Drives: 370z Rep Power: 4211	Why did you migrate to buttons versus using the paddle shifters or did the paddles come off when you tore out everything? __________________ theDreamer's Z // Fast Intentions // Uprev // GTM // HKS // TEIN theDreamer's Silvia // URAS // GREDDY Houston Zs // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

08-29-2013, 11:20 AM	#4 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	The paddle shifters are still on the car, they still work fine with virtually everything else gutted. I just think this will be even better than using them. When I first wire them up, I'm going to splice into the existing paddle wiring and leave both options functional. Then I can play with both at a track event and see if I really like the button setup better from a practical perspective. If I do, then I'll ditch the paddles at that point just to clean things up. carlitos_370z likes this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

11-08-2013, 11:38 AM	#6 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	It's finally time for an update. The thread has been dormant, but the car work has been very active the past couple of months. The big news is I just got the car home from Lucas Racing and they did an awesome job building my cage and a few other related things. It's a full 6-point with door bars on both sides and the little footwell support add-ons that are allowed. Also notable are the new fixed Sparco seats (Evo driver, Evo-II-US passenger) mounted on Sparco's mounts (but removed the slider system and drilled some new holes to make them fixed), and some nice 6-point Sparco belts. The cage builder did the welded-in mounts and eyebolts for the belt system as well, including eyebolt-style mounts for the shoulder harnesses as opposed to wrap-around mounting. I highly recommend Lucas if you're in the Houston area or can drive here. They did top-notch work at a fair price and turned the car around and had it back to me in no time, and they really know what they're doing. I only did cage work there, but they're clearly skilled and equipped to handle any other kind of racecar work you can imagine. I just got home, so there's still cage padding and misc parts laying around in the car, I haven't yet built my center-dash panel for the switches/gauges, and obviously haven't painted the cage yet, but I took pics anyways! Rear View: - note direct horizontal bar between rear shocks Driver Harness: - note the bar is bent outward slightly here to allow the seat to sit further back from the wheel Passenger Harness: - this side is straight since the passenger has plenty of room to the front. Also note in this shot the geometry of the rear half of the cage in general, the triangles on the sides. Roof: Door bars! More Door bars! Passenger Footwell - it's hard to get a good angle for a pic of these, but they run to mounting plates in the corner of the firewall up there. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-29-2013, 12:13 PM	#5 (permalink)
carlitos_370z A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Puerto Rico Posts: 7,157 Drives: 13 Nissan 370Z SP M6 Rep Power: 7586	looks great my friend!!!

11-08-2013, 11:41 AM	#8 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Starting today I've got 2 weeks to the next Driver's Edge event at TWS that I'm booked for. The job list between now and then: 1) Paint cage 2) I still have a very small coolant leak somewhere to track down and fix 3) Build some kind of dash switch/gauge panel 4) Install SPL FUCA 5) Put on new tires/wheels (18x10 square Forgestars + 275/35 RS-3's) 6) Play with alignment (I picked up one of those DIY home alignment kits from Quicktrick) 7) Swap all the fluids and do basic track prep __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

11-09-2013, 01:50 PM	#10 (permalink)
Boost_lee A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: SATX Posts: 2,813 Drives: 09 370Z TT 6MT Rep Power: 30	Wow, that cage looks great. Good luck with the paint __________________ My TT Z

11-08-2013, 12:27 PM	#11 (permalink)
travisjb A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: GSO Posts: 2,803 Drives: VIR Rep Power: 189	looks great. need some paint on that cage! think the oem cross-member is redundant now? made that assumption on my car... __________________ 2009 370Z #104 For Sale

11-08-2013, 01:15 PM	#13 (permalink)
DR_ Track Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Dallas Posts: 981 Drives: Touring/Sport M6 PG Rep Power: 17	Great cage! I can't wait to see it.

11-08-2013, 01:19 PM	#14 (permalink)
Apollo8642 Base Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Oregon Posts: 187 Drives: 09 370Z Nismo #280 Rep Power: 14	Nice job, can't wait to see it when it's all done.

11-08-2013, 02:10 PM	#15 (permalink)
Huck A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Cocoa, Florida Age: 42 Posts: 5,075 Drives: Pantydropper machine Rep Power: 34	Looks like its coming along nicely, moar pics when you can! Zdayz 2014!! __________________ VLEDS \| Evo-R \| Moddiction \| CF Hood Struts \| F.I. CF CBE & LTH \| Stillen CAI \| NST Pulleys \| UpRev \| Z1 \| M7 \| Status \| Forgestar \| PSS \| Whiteline \| SPL \| SPC \| Kenwood \| Zenclosure \| Kicker \| Alpine Type R

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