Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 41 - Caged in
week4 - 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :
the following story depicts actions that occured between May 22 and 26 2011
information is recalled purely from memory, endure with me

if you've read the last chapter, you have probably been wondering what the last picture was about?

well during the winter, i worked my arse off to find something i needed rather than wanted,
so i got this;




long story short, i couldn't find an affordable cage in Quebec, and didn't want to have it shipped since it would cost so much,
the reason i needed it was simple, to be allowed to use a racing harness during a time attack event, a roll bar was needed,
but the only things i saw for sale were full cages when i only wanted the rear half, and no one wanted to sell half of theirs,
so i got in contact with a shaddy caracter here in Quebec, who said he'd sell me his full cage cheap,
but then he tells me he sold it to someone else.. crap,
luckily that someone else knew what i was looking for and contacted me and offered to sell me only the rear portion of the cage he had just bought since he needed just the front bits,
and that person was GTRC's SKYGTR,
he even agreed to drive halfway (between Montreal and Quebec City) to meet, super cool guy,

what i got was 3 pieces of the rear section of a genuine Cusco roll cage, it was all wrapped with a protective foam,
i took it all off, and threw it in the garbage (i think)

so since at the time of the install, i was working full time at an internship, and i wanted so modding done to the cage, my dad jumped in again to help,
he brought the cage to a welding shop, literally around the corner from my house,
since i wanted to fit an harness bar to the cage itself, i had brackets welded to the cage at particular spot that i had measured;




i also had a simple L bar made to fit with the brackets



then, since i had previously removed everything from inside the car, i test fitted the cage's hoop,
and since i was keeping the carpet, the cage was a bit tight and i needed to wack it into place with a rubber hammer;



then put the L bar in its place to see if my approximate dimensions for the brackets was working out;



i even bolted the driver seat in and saw that the brackets didn't go far back enought,
the seat would hit the bar when slid all the way back, how i drive;



but before any of this was done, i had gone to another welding shop next to where i worked to get a cross brace made,
since i didn't have the Cusco original
the dimensions i gave the fabricator were based on measurements i took of a friend's Cusco cage during a meet earlier in the season;



and this is what i got,
not too bad considering it cost me 30$ in all;



but the day i was supposed to pick it up, he still hadn't made it,
he told me to go get something to eat (i was after closing time and he was alone in the shop),
and it would be done when i came back, but i was pissed because he asked me again the length of the bar,
in a hurry i think i told him the wrong length,
anyway, when i came back a full hour later it still wasn't done because other people had came by,
when i pressed him to finish he was drilling the holes, and i told him i'd take care of it,
but they were mostly done, at the dimension i told him;



if finished them with my trusty press drill;



using a pneumatic sander, i smoothed it all to death;




took off about 1/2 a pound of metal in total (with the holes)



while the main hoop was in, i placed the other 2 pieces of the cage pretty much where they would go,
and attempted to fit the cross brace;



but obviously i didn't, since the length i told the fabricator in a hurry was 42" not 43....


the next day my dad offered to bring it to the shop next to our house to get it fixed and also have the brackets modified on the cage
i had longer brackets welded more towards the back, and also added one on the passenger side...



to go with this,
a full width harness bar that would be much stronger;



the cross brace only had a bit added onto it to make it 43" long



i firmly attached the cage upright to be able to work on it without it falling on the car;



i drilled some holes in the brackets (not fun drilling something that isn't rigidly fixed onto something, it vibrates..)





then i placed the bar where it would go, marked some spots with a sharpie and drilled them on the press drill



more about the cage in the week5 update....


but its not over for week4, keep reading -->

[Woodly]

That diffuser is awesome looking, and love the clearance hah

[frankiman]

peak boost was 17,5psi, peak power was @ 15,5psi

where did you find this?

oh.. my teasers..
i should take em' down

[Redone]

05/09/2011

What boost level?

[Xeno-Vibe]

I loved reading your last 39 chapters but I read them all at once and have since forgot what happened. xD

[motoking332]

awesome thread, keep up the great work

[scottygtr]

Heey! nice diffuser, exactly what im after to, where did you get it? cheers. Nice thread btw!

I agree, I always look forward to Frankiman's updates!

[frankiman]

i got it from Generis Labolatory, C-Unit on this board

[Samwest]

Heey! nice diffuser, exactly what im after to, where did you get it? cheers. Nice thread btw!

[Rush_in]

this thread is like a damn drug! i just cant get enough!

[ColinR33]

Great update, looking forward to more!

[frankiman]

Chapter 40 - Carbolicious
week3 - 2011, part 2/2

disclaimer :
the following story depicts actions that occured between May 11 and 20 2011
information is recalled purely from memory, endure with me

-----------------------------------------------

a couple days later i tackled something much much cooler



indeed, a Carbon Fiber AB Flug front diffuser/splitter

to be honest, i must have spent a good 10 minutes just looking at it
just so pretty
and of course this is a replica, since this IS a budget build
(btw, i would never buy mechanical replica parts, thats just silly)



first thing to do was to get it approximately in place to se how it would fit and where it was going to need to be attached,
JDM-twin-jack-late-braking-double-clutching-takumi-gutter-technique;



after seeing that there was only 6 mounting points, all around the edge, onto the lip,
i decided to add 3 more mounts to make it more sturdy, and put less stress on the lip,
the blue circle are the existing holes, the red ones are the ones i added;



then i bought a bunch of rubber washers, to make sure the vibrations of the car wouldn't chew through the carbon fiber



i made simple aluminium brackets to hold the back of the diffuser, bolted directly on unused holes in the front subframe,
these brackets were eventually redone with threaded holes, to avoid the use of nuts;




to hold the middle of the diffuser, i had to think outsite the box, since there would be no way to reach whatever it was attached to while the diffuser was on,
so looking around the underside of the car, i saw that my huge Greddy/Trust intercooler had a ''pointless'' bracket welded to it under it, right in the middle of the car, exactly were i needed a mounting point,
so using an areospace grade measuring tape, i calculated how long a bracket would need to be to reach the exact height of the bottom of the diffuser,
i made a simple L shape bracket again, bolted to the intercooler which looked like this;



this is height i needed, about 1'' lower than the lip;



its then i had the idea fir the first time to thread the bracket and avoid the use of nuts, which means i don't have to reach the back of it at anytime
and found a good long bolt that had a cylindrical bit at the tip which makes it much more easier to center into a hole;




this is what my work place was looking like;



sooo sexy;



this is how the back of the diffuser looked after beeing mounted;



and how my center bracket idea worked;



Carbolicious;



only 3,5'' off the ground,
who needs ground clearance, heh fellas?





------

later i had to drag the car outsite since my father and my uncle needed the garage,
so i used that time outside to take the whole inside apart for what was coming........



/week3

more soon !!

[frankiman]

Chapter 40 - Carbolicious
week3 - 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :
the following story depicts actions that occured between May 11 and 20 2011
information is recalled purely from memory, endure with me

you may have read in the last chapter that my steering rack had been leaking for quite a while,
so i took it off and sent it off to get rebuilt

i took it to ''Monsieur Cremaillère'' which translates as ''Mr. Rack&Pinion'' pretty straight forward name,
thats all that shop does, they must have thousands of tie rods and rod ends in storage, its crazy
the shop i situated on the south shore of MTL
first i ask if only the input shaft seal could be replaced and was told that the head of the rack&pinion needed to be taken completely apart and polished and put back together with new seals in order to make as good as new,
but he also said the my rack would probly need a complete rebuilt, with the rack seals as well, and that he couldn't garantee the job if he only did half of it,
since i didn't want this overhaul to cost me an arm, i was reluctant to get to whole package done
so the boss took the steering rack off the counter and asked me to follow him inside the shop,
he put it in a vice on a test bench, took both rubber boots off the tie rods and it was evident there was p/s fluid mixed into the grease,
so i agreed for a full overhaul, but in the end i got a great deal because my dad has a compagny and sometimes has stuff done on his trucks by that shop, lets just say i got a 25% discount (pm for price)

2 days later i got it back and it looked like this;



i put a spare rack (from my old GTR) next to it for comparison
he told me that the tie rods didn't need replacing yet, but since they were just a bit used, he punched the inner portion of it to make it more fit,
you can see here that the tie rod stays up because its so tight;



instead of using an OEM dust cover, which would have taken 5 weeks to get from Nissan Japan, a generic Toyota rubber cover was used instead,
here is the comparison, the broken OEM and the new Toyota;



when the rack was taken off the week prior, this was the gaping hole left behind;



this connector proved to be a real PITA during the removal of the rack, since i worked alone, with the car not-so-high-off-the-ground, it proved very difficult to reach, disconnect, and unclip from the bracket all at the same time this little connector;



after a good 2 hour struggle, it was back in place, all connected, looking all pretty and new;



i snapped a picture of some tire-rubbing action on the front swaybar;




after that hard work, i opted for something a little lighter, fixing my lip
last year, to fit my tow hook, i grinded away part of an opening in the lip, leaving an ugly rough paintless surface



luckily i've had a bottle of touch-up paint around for years



so after cleaning up the surface with fine sand paper, i painted it, for a ''better'' look



i did the same with of my engine bay piping, which had cheap powder coating that chipped in some places,
i sprayed a pool of paint on a piece of cartboard and used a fine brush to touch-up areas in need, about 20 of them



before



after









-----------------------------------------

Project : ''Le'' cup holder

as we all know, nissan didn't make a built-in cup-holder on R32 skylines,
which sometimes can be agrevating, because you can only drink bottled drinks,
i'm my case, i'm a big amateur of Timmies Iced Cap, which is a big no-no without a cup holder (unless your a ninja)

so i while back, i found a tutorial on GTRC about installing such a device behing the skyline's armrest
therefore i bought the exact same unit that was used in the tut, a fischer cup holder

http://www.ultimatecupholders.com/fischercupholder.html

i found a roll of perforated galvanized steel in the garage, which would be perfect;



first thing to do is to drill 4 holes in the back of the cup holder, making sure not to damage the mechanism;



then cut 2 strips of steel, and loosely screw them at the back;
(i don't actually have a picture of that, which was my 2nd try, since the first time i only cut 4 small pieces but i really wasn't working right, so i figured 2 strips would be much better and it was, so in the picture bellow, the strips are drawn onto the picture)



then you remove the ashtray, enlarge the hole a bit,
and attach the cup holder from inside with the strips;

results;



[9 months later - i still think this is one of the best mod i've done on the car, streetability-wise]




----------------------------


another thing i wanted to fix, was Rays Duralumin nuts,
the anodizing on them sucks, this is my 2nd set and it just seems to wear off within weeks, maybe du to high brake temps on the track;


the white lettering is just a test on the old tires, i used an industrial all-purpose ink marker, but the results were crap


thus i buffed the remaining anodizing off a couple nuts using my bench buffer;



i sprayed them with Dupli-Color Metalcast anodizing effect paint,
and must say i like the color even more;



so i spent about 30 minutes that day buffing the remaining nuts, not a fun job;



i even did the same with the valve stem caps to make it match;




and also added this in the garage, cheesy but effective;



continued in part deux

[frankiman]

^^ its coming..

tires this year will be the same as 2011

[JGoncalves]

i need your DIY of mounting your diffusers please....