Rainy Day Work

Yes as the title implies it's raining yet again and me with no Z to go have fun with. Oh well it's worth it. Matt installed all of the Techno Toys suspension goodies on his Z  (control arms, tension rods, and trailing arms) so all the polyurethane bushings he got are all pointless which is a plus for me. So I got the rears from him thinking that the fronts were gone (they had been pulled over a week ago), but it turns out that they were just hiding..hmmm(Quang hid them). I was just going to clean up and install his control arms since the front bushings were already in but upon seeing the condition of mine which were much better I decided to use mine and get the bushing out of his. Less than five minutes later the bushings were out and Matt's old arms were in the trash. Moving on to my Z, I made quick work of pulling the suspension apart and prepping it for the new bushing and a much needed paint job here it is, I will re-install it tomorrow after I purchase new hardware since the old stuff is about due to be replaced.

 



The front end pulled apart with a good look at the brake upgrade



Control arm MIA





Surveying the damage





The "stock" bushing...yep that's gotta go!



Burn Baby Burn!

Leftovers anyone?

The inner sleave remove

The final result painted and new poly bushing installed

 

Putting the Z into perspective

Ah it's one of those slow Saturdays with absolutely nothing happening but it gave me time to sort through all the Z pictures, build threads, and parts dealers to let me know that I still have to do some serious work on mine. I've had Nona for over a year now and she's come a long way and it isn't over yet but I need to pick a point and stick to it so here are the things that need to be done ASAP. A few months ago I installed a R200 and got rid of my old R180 with the idea of putting a LSD in and with upgraded diff changing the ratio for better acceleration. Problem: The R200 is not symmetrical so it has a tendency to bind on the driverside and cause other issues, which it has (two of the front crossmember bolts which fit before no longer fit) and the car pulls to the left on hard accel. So it's back to the R180 which I no longer have! So I need to find and buy a replacement for now before I do Nona anymore harm than good.

Lining up the R200 for the install

The old R180

 Second I need a suspension in the worst way. I can feel the blown and none blown struts as I drive at freeway speeds and on accel, so this needs to be addressed as well. I've been putting it off because of funds and bills but I need to sit down and hit up Chuck at Apexi. He and I have agreed to put together a "experimental" coilover set for the Z (more so my Z). The theory is that this will open up the market for the Z for Chuck and the development of more products for classic imports and will solve many of mine...I hope. After these I would really like to get the brakes and some ducting/aero in the works. And since the booster upgrade the brake are good for now. Louie at RRR Motorsports also hooked it up with a oil catch can (thanks again) and that needs to go in and since it won't cost much to install I want to fit that in quickly and get it out of the way.

Greddy Oil Catch Can

Checking out JER

So the weekend of Nismolism I meet Linh and he runs JER in Westminster, CA. Great because it's just down the street from my place, so I told him I would drop by and check it out. Man is his shop cool and he has some great projects and the tools to tweek the Z. His Z is beautiful by the way and rocking a RB26DETT (sadly it wasn't running due to some electrical gremlins). But on a positive note he can make me the brackets I need to mount my Z32 calipers which beats ordering them straight from Japan.

A nice Ducati out front..

RB30

Oh, quite the selection of cars

A Mini Pickup and Linh's s30

Hellaboobs!

I thought I saw the hellaboobs girl at a Hellaflush show in Venice, Ca....but I was wrong I show her here at the Nismolism 2011 and here she is.

The toothpick on the left

Nismolism 2011

Ah yes, I haven't been to a real car show in a while and haven't seen the Gouki crew in about the same amount of time. But got an invite on facebook for Nismolism which is/was a Nissan only car show mostly S-chassis cars but a few others as well. Got the invite from John to show up and I even helped manage the event (direct traffic and help judge cars). John also got the go ahead from Guinness Book of World Records to do a count of the largest Nissan Meet. I don't know the results but 260+ cars showed which is a really good number. After the show us Gouki guys/girls went to The Hat just like the last show we went too, sooo good.

A real JDM Silvia

Hellaflush!

Nissan Pulsar GTi-R

Battle Damaged



The Hat-Pastrami Chili Cheese Fries!



Hangover Run 2011

Hangover: Unpleasant physical effects following the heavy use of alcohol.

 

Hangover Run: Where large amounts of car enthusiast and Mazda owners get together and drive for no apparent reason.

 

Ah yes the annual Hangover Run. Where tired and possibly still drunk car enthusiast get together for a morning drive. Originally the run started in San Juan Capistrano at the start of the Ortega Highway (74). But it has clearly differed since then. This time it started at the Outlet Mall in Lake Elsinore, CA. I had sent up a meeting spot with a few friends in preparation to drive there but on my way to meet up I got a text informing me that he was too tired and wouldn't make it. Me being me decided since I was already on my way that I would continue on and get to the mall and wait until the run started. It was a nice drive there no traffic and the Z ran well, letting me stay at a steady 80 to 85 mph. The meeting time was 9:00 am and with my plans thrown out of wack I arrived at 7:20 am ( lucky me I got to stand around for a few hours).  Lucky enough time past relatively quick and people started to show. With everyone finally showing up we got underway heading down the 15 freeway to the second half of the Hwy 74 into Perris, CA. Once we hit the end of Perris and were entering the 215 freeway entrance it happen. Everyone took off as they hit the freeway myself included throwing the car high into the revs. Half way down I noticed everyone catching up except one car (my friend Rafe) it ran across my mind that something maybe wrong but I checked my phone and didn't see any calls so I continued.  As we approached the exit one of the other cars quickly caught up to me and informed me that my friend had pulled over after getting onto the freeway.

 

For once I'm calling AAA and it's not for my car!

I got a free breakfast out of the deal.