REsuper7のブログ一覧

Happy 4th of July and 7's Day! Considering today is 7/7, and also the fact that this past weekend was July 4th so i had some time off from work to work on the car, i thought today would be a good time to post an update on my progress.

Although i can't say i've got the engine back in the car, i did make a lot of progress towards that goal. I was basically working towards getting all the auxiliary pieces that i only removed to paint the bay back into the car before i put the engine back in. Last thing i want to do is make things more difficult for myself because once the engine is back in, space is very limited.

Before i moved on to working on the car, i had to finish resealing the oil pan. I ordered some new polyurethane motor mounts from Banzai Racing that were of really high quality. I finally got to use the spare steel mount that i bought two years ago but never got around to using. Here are the new mounts ready to be installed:



Here's a shot of the underside of the engine with the oil pan studs installed. I had to share this pic because of all the work i put into cleaning the engine for resealing the pan.



And here's the oil pan with the engine mounts finally installed back onto the engine. Now i just need to get the turbo/manifold mounted along with the A/C and Power Steering pump installed and it'll be ready to be put back into the car.



Since the oil pan sealant needed some time to cure, i turned my attention towards prepping the engine bay and interior to accept the engine. I started first by fixing my power steering rack. One of the tie rods was beat up pretty badly so i took one of the tie rods from the donor car and installed it. At the same time i ordered new tie rod ends and boots to freshen it up and make sure everything was in proper working order.



Next up was installing the front subframe back onto the car. It was nice to finally have something in the engine bay to look at especially after staring at an empty bay for the past couple of months:



I jumped back and forth between working on the engine bay and working on the interior because the main ring harness that goes around the bay also ties into the interior dash harness as well, so i had to do both at the same time. Since the donor car was an Automatic, i had to swap the dash harness from my MT car and removing the AT interior dash harness. While i was at it, i also removed the airbag harness and rewired the horn. It felt good to get rid of all that extra wiring that wasn't being used anyway.



It didn't hit me until i started to install the dash harness that i was actually beginning to put the car back together. I had been so used to tearing down the car that installing things back in to the car felt like such a foreign concept...but once i came to this realization, i started getting more excited because i was getting closer and closer to actually being able to drive my car again!

Next up, i installed my clutch and brake pedals as well as their corresponding Master Cylinders in the engine bay. I also installed the steering shaft because i wanted to make sure the power steering rack was aligned properly to accept the shaft before i bolted it to the subframe.



Here you can see the engine side with the steering shaft, main ring harness, brake booster and clutch M/C installed.



To finish off the interior, i wanted to get the dash back into the car and make sure all the harness plugs were connected and accounted for. And here is the dash finally installed back into the car again. It's finally starting to look like a car again...and the scary part is it's starting to feel exactly like my old car again.



While i was putting my interior back together, i decided to try out this new interior refinisher called Mother's Back-to-Black which essentially make your plastic interior pieces look black again. Since the donor car had been sitting in the sun for years a lot of the interior plastics were faded badly so i was eager to see if it worked.

Before


After


It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but it actually came out really nice. It really did restore the finish on the plastic. I'm looking forward to trying it out on the rest of the interior pieces once i get everything back into the car.

By the time my vacation was over, this is where i left off:



I got all the ABS brake lines back into the bay, and all that was really left was a couple of coolant lines i needed to clean up and reinstall before i can drop the engine in. Although once the engine goes back in, i still need to swap the diff and clean up the rear before i can actually fire up the car. So although i made some good progress, i still have a ways to go.

The vacation wasn't all working on cars though. We did take a short trip to our local Mitsuwa for some good food:



And we also saw this beautiful Z06 at Harbor Freight:



Hopefully in my next post i'll be ready to fire up the engine!

Although i haven't touched the car since i finished painting the engine bay, i did get started on a few small things that needed to be done like reseal the oil pan and also mount my tires on the two TE37 RT wheels. The last remaining wheel that i ordered off YAJ finally came after 2 months of waiting, so without any hesitation, i decided to install my tires on the same day they arrived.



I normally go to my friend's shop to get the tires installed, but i didn't feel like driving all the way there just to mount two tires on bare wheels, so i figured i would try using my NoMar Tire changer that i hadn't used since i stopped going to the track on my bike. I had previously attempted to install a tire on my TE37 RTs the first time i got them, but i was stumped by trying to install the valve stem. Having learned my lesson from the last time, i had purchased a valve stem tool, so with my trusty new tool in hand, i dove right in.

Car tires are only slightly more difficult than bike tires to install. Normal passenger tires are probably just as easy if not easier, but in this case, i was installing a 265/35 tire on a 18x10.5 inch wheel. The main thing to remember to do is to lube the tire properly so it slips on to the wheel as you use the mount bar. Unfortunately i don't have any videos of how it works, but if anyone is interested, they can checkout NoMar's website.



In the above picture you can see the wheel locked into place on the tire changer. The first step is to manually push the bottom edge of the tire over the face of the wheel. It takes a little bit of effort to push it down by hand, but with a little lube on the edge of the tire, it slips right on. Then you put the long mounting bar in place and push half of the top edge of the tire over the face of the wheel. To prevent it from slipping off as i use the mounting bar to mount the remaining edge of the tire, i use that little yellow hand thing to lock it in place. Once that's done, you use the mount bar and walk around the wheel with it to push the edge of the tire down. In the end, mounting the tire was a little bit easier than i thought once i realized i had to remove the yellow hand thing for mounting the last 10% of the tire.



Here it is, tire mounted successfully! The next part, which can also be a PITA sometimes is seating the bead. The tire specifically mentions that you should not exceed 40psi when seating the bead, so i had to fill it with air, then let some back out and fill it again until i got the bead seated. I also found out that if you lube the top edge of the tire, it makes seating the bead much easier.



All done! The two red wheels that i mounted next to the two black wheels that my friend mounted for me a few months back at their shop on the machine. I still need to get the two red wheels balanced, but since i won't be driving the car for a while, that can wait. I think for now, i will run the two black wheels on the driver's side and the two red wheels on the passenger side, then i can have two different looks depending on which side you're looking at the car. I think ultimately i will get the wheels painted the same color.

Besides mounting the tires, i also got started on resealing the oil pan. I noticed the oil pan had been leaking on my old engine for a while now, so doing this rebuild is a blessing in disguise in this regard because i don't think i would've gotten around to resealing the oil pan because of all the work involved in pulling the engine. But since i had everything out, it was a good time to get it done. After inspecting the oil pan i had and the one on the engine i pulled out of the donor car, i decided to take the pan from the donor car since it was in better condition. I removed both pans from the engines and sanded the good one down for some fresh paint.



I also painted the oil pan brace and some mounts off of the power steering rack while i was at it. Once the paint dries, i can get started on installing it back on to the engine. Then from there i should be almost ready to put it back into the car. But i still need to swap out the diff before i can get the car running again. Still a ways to go, but at least i'm making some progress.

I can't believe it's been two months since i last made a post. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that progress on the car slowed down significantly. Before i was working on the car regularly during the week after i got home from work, but now i only work on the car on weekends for an hour or two. With that said, i did make some progress so i thought now would be an appropriate time to start a new post.

When i last left off, i was in the process of pulling the engine, and after wrestling with it for a while, i finally managed to pull the engine out.



The main reason i was having so much trouble with it was because the engine mounts kept getting stuck on the subframe. I couldn't believe how big the automatic transmission was compared to the manual one. I was scared my engine hoist couldn't handle it. Once i got it out, i dropped it on a dolly and rolled it aside. The plan is take off the auto tranny and save the engine as a back up engine in case mine ever blows. After pulling the engine, i started stripping off everything and anything in the bay so that i could clean it and start prepping for paint. Instead of taking apart the suspension piece by piece, i decided to just drop the whole subframe together with the suspension onto a dolly so i could take it outside and power wash.



After stripping all the parts out of the bay, this is what i was left with:



Filthy doesn't even begin to describe it. To speed up the cleaning process, i put the rear wheels back on the car and dropped the front frame onto a dolly so i could roll it out of the garage and power wash the engine bay. This is how i managed to get the car out of the garage without any front suspension:



Even with the power washer, i still had to spend a lot of time scrubbing and sanding to get the engine bay in a condition where i could actually paint over it. I also used a lot of compressed air to remove water and dust trapped in small areas. Eventually i got the bay ready for paint:



I know some people like to strip the paint completely before applying new paint, but i didn't have the patience to do it and i know the majority of the bay can't be seen anyway once the engine is back in. I just wanted to have everything in one uniform color again. The one last thing i had to do before painting was cut out the part of the headlight frame for the RE雨宮 sleek lights, so i wouldn't have to repaint the cut areas later on.



Since my RE雨宮 order from Japan hadn't arrived yet, I had to salvage the headlight bracket from my previously destroyed kit in order to measure and outline the area to be cut.

Instead of covering up everything in the garage with a tarp, i decided to set up a mini paint booth outside on my driveway. This is what i ended up with:



Luckily it wasn't a windy day so i didn't have too much trouble with dust. It ended up taking me a whole day to get the engine bay painted. I had a couple of issues with paint guns that i had, luckily i recently ordered a new one because both of my old paint guns weren't working. But in the end i'm glad i got the new gun, it works amazingly well and i think my paint job came out fairly decent.



And here it is, finally all done. I used a two stage paint so i had to clear my basecoat. Compared to last year when i was painting my body kit, the clear coat came out so much smoother this time. There's definitely a lot of flaws in the paint, but for an engine bay, i couldn't be any happier with my results.



Getting the engine bay done was a huge step forward in my build. Although there's still a lot of work up ahead, including A LOT more paint, i can now move on to getting the engine back in the car and getting the car running again. Once i get the car running, then i can move on to installing the body kit. I was just updated this past week by Bulletproof that my kit just left Japan, so i should be receiving it in another 5-6 weeks. I just hope my car will be running by then!

Last week was Isaac's first spring break as a kindergartner so i took a couple of days off work to spend with the kids. We decided to take the kids out to a local farm called Space Farm, Zoo & Museum, but before we got there, we stopped by one of my favorite restaurants called Chatterbox Diner. About a year ago, during our spring drive, we had stopped by the restaurant, but unfortunately, that day it was closed. This diner is well known among car/bike enthusiasts which is why even on a random weekday, 木曜日 to be exact, there were some cool classic cars/rods just sitting out in the parking lot. Having been reading a lot about street rods on Speedhunters lately, seeing the cars intrigued me so i took a closer look and snapped some pics while i was at it.





After we got into the restaurant, there was even a giant military truck sitting right in the middle of the main dining room:



The food is typical American diner food like hamburgers and hot dogs, etc. But the one dish that i just can't pass up every time i come is the lobster roll. Not only is it tasty, but it's cheap too! For 1 lobster roll it's about $10 (or 1190円) but if you want two, it's only $15 (1785円)! That's cheap, especially if you compare it to a lobster roll in NYC which costs $25 (2975円) for one!



After lunch we headed over to Space Farm. Since it was 木曜日, it wasn't crowded at all and we got the whole place to ourselves pretty much. The downside of that was that there's supposedly a lot more things to do on the weekends, but since it was our first time there, we were pretty entertained with what they had. Here are some of the pictures we took at the farm:



Here are two baby foxes


Recently Isaac has been really intrigued by snakes so he was pretty excited when we find this giant boa constrictor sitting in the lobby


They also had a nice collection of stuffed animals (not the toys)


After we got into the farm, we were surprised to find they had a pretty big collection of vintage cars...although not in showroom condition, but more for historic record keeping-type condition.


Here's a really interesting one probably used for the snowy season




They even had a collection of classic motorcycles as well


After we got through the museum section, we got to the animals. They actually had a pretty large selection of animals that i wasn't expecting such as leopards, lions, tigers, and even hyenas which i had never see before in a zoo. Unfortunately i was too lazy to take any pictures so i don't have anything to show for it. I did happen to catch these two dirty raccoon getting it on in their den...although i think they probably would've appreciated some privacy.



And lastly here's a picture of a random ram that i kind of grew attached to because of feeding them dried corn pellets.


In the end we had fun, probably because we didn't expect much and also because they had so much random stuff there. Anyway, that's enough of the non-car related posts...time to get back to the car as i need to finish pulling my motor and cleaning the engine bay so i can get it painted!

Although i'm technically not building a wing from scratch, i am sort of making my own custom wing by taking parts from both the RE雨宮 GT2 and GT3 wings and creating the GT2.5 wing. Basically i want the look of the GT2 wing with the GT3 stands and mounts. To do this, i had to solve two problems, 1. Create a mounting plate on the wing to allow me to attach it to the GT3 stands while allowing me to adjust the angle. 2. Find a way to mount the GT3 wing stands to the car since the bottom is not threaded like the GT2 stands.

I started by using a piece of cardboard to shape the mounting plate for the wing.



This allowed me to visualize roughly how tall i can make the wing over the standard mounts that came with the GT2 wing. In order to mount the plates to the wing, i had to cut off most of the existing mounts so i had more space to work with in terms of drilling mounting holes for various angles.



Once that was done, i was able to make a few different mounting plates to test different sizes and angles so i could get the widest range of angles without compromising the look of the wing. To do this, i used 1/4 inch wood boards from Home Depot. I wanted to make sure i had a production ready sample before i started cutting up my carbon fiber 1/4 inch plate which i was saving for the final design.



After finalizing the mounting plate design with the wood samples, i cut two plates out of the carbon fiber plate. I didn't realize how much more work it would be to make the carbon plates than it was for the wood plates. Despite being only a 1/4 inch thick, the carbon plate is actually really sturdy, but i guess that's what makes it suitable for this purpose.

Here's a close up of the final carbon plate mounted to the wing and stand:



And here's what it looks like from a little further away:





The second piece of the puzzle is mounting plate for the trunk. This time i used a 1x1 inch aluminum L-shaped bracket to cut some different plates to test.



Here's a shot of the wing with the Prototype 2 mounting plate:



I'm not 100% satisfied with the design yet, so i'll most likely make a third prototype before i finalize it, but i think i'm close. The main reason i'm looking to go for a custom bracket as opposed to the L-shaped plates i was using before was because the GT3 stand has an extra hole in the rear that allows you to raise the wing higher from the back, and i wanted to retain that feature without a space showing through the bottom of the stand after raising the rear. This picture illustrates what i'm referring to:



Although i'm not quite done yet, i'm pretty happy with the way it's turned out so far. It beats paying $700 to buy the GT2 wing stands which is what i was quoted by RE雨宮. And actually, the GT3 wing stands look a little sharper than the GT2 stands, which are more boxy.