My Little weekend project.....

[djtimo]

Finished work at 7am this morning and got up at 12:30 to see the sun so I thought I would crack on and finish my heat shields.

 

Carbon cut to shape and ready to be marked out and cut.

 

 

Masked up ready to line up on the car.

 

Just a quick pic to show you whats happing to the rear bumper! LOL

 

 

Left side fitted!

 

 

 

Both sides done.

 

After finishing I have quite a bit of carbon left and the side skirts are a mess from the tires throwing up little stones all the time! So I made a quick template and used some left over carbon sheet to dress up the skirts!

 

Stone chipped to death!

 

Template made.

 

Fitted on both sides.

 

 

Quite pleased with how these turned out!

[djtimo]

Just found this pic online!

[djtimo]

Ok guys after seeing Paul_s guide to removing boot plastics I got on with a job I've wanted to do for quite a while! Stripping the rear end of the car! LOL..

 

As the cars a total toy day to day noises reduction is not a problem so I've removed 80% of the rear plastic trim.

 

The starting point! Im sure we all know what the zed boot looks like! LOL..

 

 

Cargo net and floor mat removed. This is a little bit of dynamat I fitted when the car was driven daily. Dynamat Is really heavy! This little bit of matting weighs 3KG!!!

 

 

 

False floor and dynamat removed.

 

Dirty boot! LOL..

 

Foam that holds the tools in place and supports the false floor.

 

 

 

Strut bar plastics being removed.

 

Most of the plastics popped off quickly but any that put up a fight I used the green plastic tire leaver! LOL..

 

 

Some extra weight that was now not needed! Steel brackets supported the cargo net fixing points.

 

Part of the Bose audio system. Amp may be ? This might get relocated in the the corner of the boot on a new bracket I think.

 

Plastics, trim panels and fixings removed! Lots and lots! ha.

 

 

Sticky heavy rubber pads removed from the boot floor. Must be to stop any vibration from the spare wheel.

 

Rear suspension turett top is hiden under this part of the rear brace, Im looking to use a hole saw drill bit and remove about an inch wide section to allow access to the KW rebound adjuster! This makes setting the suspension settings a hell of a lot quicker as at the moment you need to drop the hole damper unit out to adjust it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the next step is to hole saw the turret tops and clean up the boot area, may be get some dry ICE and remove the sound deadening. Im thinking about DIY painting the rear boot inside as nissan cheaped out and its just in primer LOL...

 

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, the weight reduction from removing the rear plastics was about 11kg. This does NOT include the spare wheel and jack etc. Im guessing the jack and wheel would be around 20kg's?? So the lot removed saves around 30kgs. Not bad! :-)

 

Im yet to take the beast out for a spin and see what the in car nosie is like now! ha. Im guessing loud!

[djtimo]

Ok so today I thought I would take some time to relocate my boost controller and defi data logger. It has been just stuck under the dash for a year but during hot weather the sticky velcro pads come off and I find the units just hanging down all the time

 

So after getting back from the gym today I thought I would spend a little time moving them into the center cubby. I though an hour or so should cover this! HAHA.... How wrong was I!! LOL..

 

 

I took me about 4-5 hours and Its still only half done!!! And some how my defi gauge works but does not light up? It only lights up when the head lights are on! So thats more digging around endless wires for me to sort out LOL....

 

Word of advice on this, NEVER TAKE THE DASH TO BITS!!! I HATE WIRING SO MUCH!!! LOL....

 

Anyway a few pic's of my messing about.

 

How it should sit.

 

Units how I found them today.

 

Unplugged.

 

Gizzmo boost controller and defi V2.

 

Stripping the dash out.

 

 

Looks easy to get the wires and boost line to here but my cut hands will tell you its hard! LOL..

 

How it sits so far...

 

 

If you look close in the pic above I've made a carbon fibre trim that screws into the inside of the cubby that blanks off the wires etc coming into the back and tidies it up. This panel is not fitted yet as a ran out of time today.

 

 

So after my poor attempt at relocation I thought Id fit my new graphic's I picked up.

 

Cheeky little "made in japan" logo.

 

My race number for the santa pod street challenge.

 

 

 

 

Thats it for today then!

[djtimo]

Had a little package through the post today.

 

A cheeky little HKS oil filter ready for my next oil change. Great quality and should filter better and have less pressure drop than the OEM filter.

 

 

 

Also spent an hour or two prepping the boot area for painting.

 

Boot area just stripped.

 

Horrible tar based sound deadening material.

 

 

 

 

Fully removed the bottom section but KNOW WHERE NEAR CLEANED UP!!!

 

 

Half a shopping bag full from just the boot floor. Weight is around 3KG.

 

I have looked at may different way to remove tar sound deadening, Heat gun, air chisel, and the best method using dry ICE. I looked into where to get some dry ICE from but the cheapest I could find worked out at near £50 for 10kg posted to me. This is the best method but far to expensive for what little deadening I needed to remove. So I went with the hand chisel option! LOL...When people say its hard work I now understand! LOL..To do a whole car like this would take you the rest of you life! ha....

 

Im going to soak the rest of the tar in GUNK tar remover and clean up as best I can before priming and painting body colour.

 

That should be a fun job!

 

Thats it for today guys!

[djtimo]

Another back breaker of a job done! LOL...Im such a sucker for punishment!

 

I continued with the job of removing the deadening today.

 

This shows the best I could get it with a chisel....Not very clean! LOL..

 

GUNK degreaser didn't touch this stuff so I just used that for cleaning up. This is the megs high strength tar remover soaking.

 

After cleaning up the tar remover and scrubbing like hell with a tooth brush this is how it looked!

 

More tar remover soaking! I think i did this step about 4-5 times!!

 

Nearly there!

 

Boot floor done!

 

 

 

Was a hard job just because its a pain in the a** to bend over and work in the boot for so long! I would say its taken me a good 4 hours to do this!!

 

Next job is the inner wheel arches!!!! LOL...

[djtimo]

Finally the end to the epic tar removal job! LOL..

 

pax side wheel arch.

 

Bose amp moved to allow more room.

 

Driver side fully cleaned up! I rubber t that hard, Ive rubbed through the paint in some spot!

 

Pax side arch done! This was the hardest part just because of the more complex shape and bad access.

 

FULLY DONE!!!!

 

 

Next job is paint!! woohoo...

 

 

Oh and a bonus pic of a burger I had for dinner! hahaha... Was a good burger! LOL..

[Stutopia]

You've been busy, the tar removal looks like the world's worst job, extreme commitment.

 

I really like the great use of the left over carbon to hide those stone chips, great thinking.

[djtimo]

LOL, yeah Dan I have my eyes set on a nice seat of leather and alcantara recaro pole position ABE's. There not that light for a fixed back bucket seat but fit me really well and look ace! There only 7KG each so the stock seat I have heard it weighs about 20KG so there should be a good saving there when they get swapped out!!

 

Just a little up date, I really want to up grade my wheel studs to some extra long ARP ones for extra satefy, so I picked up a set of steel open ended spline drive wheel nuts that allow the extra long studs to poke out the end. Im just not that happy running alu/light wieght nuts as I have my doubts on there strength (MSA blue book for compertion cars will only allow steel wheel nuts so thats gives you an idea on saftey).

 

Picked these up from RareRims, Only cheep but strong and open ended (the black will go with my wheels too )

 

[djtimo]

Been mad busy today but managed to get time to set the rear end up a little better for dragging (I hope! LOL)...

 

Good old english weather (PISSING DOWN) but oh well!

 

Whipped the car up on the Diff jacking point and pulled both rear wheels off. This is what my KW's looked like! Nice and dirty....

 

On the jack.

 

 

Dirty shocks.

 

Even though I was very tight for time I could not stop myself from spraying a little GUNK cleaner on them and gave them a quick wipe! ha.

 

This is how you set the low speed compression on the KW V3's. There were set 2 1/4 turns from full hard, I have now set these at 6 1/4 turns from full hard (about 50%).

 

Swapped out the old steel wheel nuts to my new open ended spline drives too! Forgot to get a pic of the new nuts fitted though

 

 

 

Right guys have to pack my overnight bag for tomorrow! See you guys soon!! (or tonight Paul/Rich)!

[djtimo]

The suspension tweaking worked! LOL...

 

Beat my previous 1/4 mile record today! Best run was 12.63 @ 119.60mph! Made up...

 

 

 

Few pic's of the "falcon" on the strip! LOL..

 

 

And my time slips from today....

 

 

 

 

[djtimo]

Hi Paul, yeah the house is doing fine! Just doing the basic stuff at the moment. Need time to think about what were gonna do with the rest of the place!!

 

Well I got round to a job I have been wanting to do for a while now, The zed's engine bay is very tight for space and anything metal gets very badly heat soaked when you not moving (or moving slowly).

 

I have been following a thread on the US forums about how when the car is heat soaked the ECU thinks the charge air temp has risen alot and changes the fuelling, timing etc.. This is ok but the air going into the engine can be a lot colder than what the ECU thinks and can cause funny AFR's ect.

 

 

Sooooo..... I heat wrapped my last K&N cold air intake so I have gone and done it too my intake on my APS kit! But with the better gold heat film.

 

Anyway on to the dirty bits! LOL...

 

Removed the strut brace and intake pipe.

 

 

Set it down on the towel and soaked it with GUNK degreaser for a little bit.

 

 

Once it was clean and dry I moved into the house for the tricky parts!

 

Did the top bend in a wrap style but made a template from wall paper for the straight sections so It fit well around the BOV and supports on the intake pipe.

 

 

 

 

Does not look hard but its sticky as hell the backing glue and took hours messing about with the template to get it to fit correctly! LOL.

 

 

Oh and got my little hose joiner through from ebay!

 

This little brass badboy is to replace the little poo plastic one that snapped!

 

 

 

Thats is again for today people!

[djtimo]

Just doing a little bit of maths while bored in work! LOL....Ive been using my data from the 1/4 trying to plot a graph to extrapolate it to give me a goal time for a 0-150mph run for TOTB on saturday! I know thats very geeky but when you got 12 hours at night you do some silly things! ha..

 

Just some ruff figures from my times, under 100 mph the car looks to gain approx 10.88mph per second average 0-100. Above 100mph it slows to around 7.54mph per second. messing about with my graph paper I was suprised at how little the acceleration tails off, I think I have some false data for the 0-60 area due to wheel spin etc.

 

Im thinking the car will do 0-150mph in the 23-24sec range? Ive tried finding figures online and the only thing of note was a stock HR motor 350z timed by road and track in the US did 0-150mph in 53.?? seconds. This makes my projected time seem a little unrealistic but oh well! Im sure were gonna find out this weekend!

 

Now back to my graph paper!

 

EDIT: Video's a few posts down show a 20sec run 0-150mph! Made up!

[djtimo]

Took the plunge and made a start on the areocatches today.

 

Started by covering the engine bay as carbon dust will go every where! LOL..

 

Masked off where the catch was to be fitted.

 

Place the bonnet catch on and added some butter to the top and closed the bonnet to see where it touched! ha.

 

Marked it and rilled a 8mm hole from under the bonnet though to the top skin.

 

 

Fitted the aerocatch template.

 

Made my first cuts with the dremel! Took a lot of balls to cut into my CF bonnet! LOL..

 

Cut out.

 

 

Test fitted the catch and it touched the under skin so that needed to be removed.

 

Chain drilled the under skin, and refitted.

 

 

Point where I have drilled the slam panel for the catch clip to sit.

 

Clip fitted.

 

 

I've got a small problem that the pin that the top clip locks onto does not fit well at all. Im looking to make a new custom clip from 2mm stainless steel plate tomorrow. If I dont get the 2nd catch fitted ill end up finding some way to wire the bonnet shut for TOTB and sort it out after?

 

Anyway thats it for today! LOL..

[djtimo]

Finished the 2nd catch today, A little harder to fit than the fist as this one had to be measure many times to ensure it was at the same angles as the other side! I dont want one being wonky! LOL..

 

 

 

No fitted pic's yet as its started raining! ha..

[djtimo]

Pre-TOTB wash this afternoon along with an oil and filter change!

 

 

And a few art shots while doing the oil change! ha...

 

 

[djtimo]

Alittle more prep work done today!

 

Got to use my new vaccum brake bleeder, this thing is awesome value and made the job of bleeding the brake system really easy!

 

 

Getting set up to do the brakes.

 

Vaccum bleeder hooked up.

 

Bled all the brakes and gave the callipers a little clean up.

 

Next job was to sort out the temporary fixings fir the bonnet. Ive not had time to make the custom clips yet so I've gone for a wire set up just for safety for tomorrow.

 

The wire goes through the engine bay and is bolted to the steel under tray, the wires rated to 155kg so the bonnet would brake before these gave out! LOL.

 

 

 

I've also developed an oil leak which I have tracked down to my ftont timing cover!

 

 

 

The pics above show the leak, I know its hard to see! LOL. Ive tightened the cover bolts bacj up as 4 had worked lose! Fingers crossed thsts it for that leak....

 

 

Any way thats it, I'm ready for tomorrow! :-)

[djtimo]

Spotted a few pic's of the car that the SXOC boys took!

 

 

[djtimo]

I have also been doing a little more work on stripping the rear end out in pre for a rear half cage. Im just looking where the main hoop will sit at the moment.

 

 

More bloody tar sound deadening for me to remove! LOL..

 

 

 

 

 

Sound deadening over the fuel tank area and pump access window.

 

 

The rear end as it stands for now!

 

Thats it for today!

[djtimo]

Got a little treat for the zed through the post today!

 

Its a TRS MSA approved 5000KG soft towing strap. Im looking to cut the front bumper and bolt this to the cross member at the front. This can be left in all the time then and I dont have to worry about getting stopped by the police for having the OEM fixed tow hook in place! LOL..Oh and its lighter too! Every little bit helps!

 

 

 

[djtimo]

After the roof "fitting" I though I needed a little mechanical therapy to calm me down.

 

Did a little more stripping out on the rear end. I think the little bit of trim and glove box + sound matting I have removed must be about 5KG's or so which I was quite amazed as the glove box was bolted in with 14 10mm bolts! I think a little over the top for a plastic glove box! ha..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Need another geo set up soon so I was thinking another drop on the coilovers would be nice, Just 10mm lower would have been good but.....

 

 

 

Im a little close to the floor while getting on and off the drive as it is! haha... I think ill have to get the kerb dropped more so I can go lower! LOL...

[djtimo]

Had a more productive day than yesterday roof "fitting" joke! LOL...

 

I went down to layton fasteners a local fixing supplier and picked up a few M12 high strength bolts and nyloc nuts and washers to match.

 

I set about removing the bumper to fit my TRS racing tow strap. I've seen a few cars with soft tow strap fitted but most seem to just fix them to what ever is close to the spot they want so if they ever needed to be used they would just pull off in two seconds! LOL...

 

Started off by jacking the car up.

 

On the jack stands.

 

Had to removed the power steering fluid cooler to make sure it did not get damaged while drilling.

 

 

Next job was to drill though the crash brace, I've gone for a spot that is right at the end of the chassis leg so should be one of the strongest place to fasten to. I hope!

 

Fitted two washers to make sure the strap does not get damaged while being fastened down.

 

Bolt stacked out with some washers and the nyloc nut.

 

Strap fitted.

 

Next job was to line up and cut the bumper where the strap needed to come through it.... I measured the mounting point and then marked it out onto the front of the bumper.

 

Cut the bumper with a stanley knife.

 

And the bumper back on.. Don't mind the car its just hanging about trying to look hard holding his axe! haha....

 

Job done!

 

Until next time!

[djtimo]

Little more work today! Got round to removing some more trim and parts of the bose system.

 

Stuff that came out the boot area.

 

Parts removed from inside the car.

 

Bose sub and speakers removed + lots of bolts and metal plates etc.

 

 

 

 

Boot area with extra trim removed.

 

Stiffening plate that will be removed after the cage goes in.

 

Any one know what this sensor is? May be an air bag sensor for rear end crash?

 

Seat belt system that will be removed after the cage goes in as Ill be fitting 4/5 point harnesses. This thing has some good weight in it (few Kg's so good weight saving here)

 

I would say another circa 5KG's removed today, the bose sub and rear speaker will more than likely be going back in after the cage is fitted. The speakers will need some little custom mounts/boxes and the sub might fit under the driver seat to be hidden.

 

Untill next time!

[BulletMagnet]

Roll cage post should be soon

[Grundy]

Wow this thread! One hell of a car bud, loving it!!!