Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[DJ]

always cockblocking my thread ...

[frankiman]

always cockblocking my thread ...

sig'ed :P

and sorry

[archaeic_bloke]

nice pics man, epic! did u put ur car in storage yet?

[frankiman]

nice pics man, epic! did u put ur car in storage yet?

sadly... since last sunday

[DJ]

you don't leave it on jackstands?Not worried about flat spots on the tires?

[frankiman]

tires are TOTALLY dead anyways, i'll be ordering 275/40/r17 Kuhmo Escta XS this winter, but your RSZ-Rs are still pretty tempting..



might be caused by a little AWD burnout action for a "secret" UR shoot

[nelsonmxmarc]

Free slicks!

[amnash]

what caused the sparks?

[nelsonmxmarc]

what caused the sparks?

I was gonna ask but then i was like, that cant be sparks?! I'm glad you spoke up haha

[archaeic_bloke]

+1 on spark cause man... burnouts on nails for UR shoot? lol

[frankiman]

that wast my left front tire, during the track day, messed it up pretty bad for other reasons,
so i put it on the right side wheel, so the camber wear would be on the outside and i guess there might have been some mesh sticking out during the burnout, which just proves the AWD was working :P

[frankiman]

Chapter 32 - The Mad Dash

(the work described in this chapter was done in september 2010)

In the last chapter, i got the car back from Autoworx, 2 days before the UltraRide 10', the event i absolutely had to take part in, or the build whould have been pointless

so on the day before, Saturday, there was alot of stuff to do to make the car presentable for the UR
so the mad dash began

---------------------------------------
oil filter plate

so the first thing on the list was to fab a small bracket to hold the oil filter relocator plate in a way it wouldn't it the hood

a while ago i realized that if i straight up bolted the plate to the OEM boost selenoid bracket (how i meant to have it), well the hood didn't close at all
so i drove with the plate loose and fearing the oil lines would get damage from all the movement i had to fab a bracket that would hold the plate is place and not let the oil filter come into contact with the hood

so of course i used a strip of galvanized steel, bent and drilled it accordingly
its not the prettiest thing in the world, but it works



i'll probly make another on next year thats bent the opposite way so it doesn't look as awkward

---------------------------------------
boost controller selenoid relocation

then i wanted to relocate the EVC's selenoid, which was under the air intakes, which i found to be an awkward place in the event troubleshooting is needed
so i took the intake pods off, disconnected the EVC's harness and vaccum hoses



then proceeded to shorten the hoses, which was another improvement, since the shorter the vaccum hoses leading from and off the selenoid are, the quicker the EVC responds to boost variations

trying to get the vaccum hoses around all the intake piping to connect them from the opposite side was a pain, took me a while and cost me some skin off my hands

i ended up bolting the selenoid behind the strut bar, right beside the ABS module




doing this allowed me to cut a total of 4 feet of hose



-------------------------------------
Custom tow hook

later, i had to put my custom tow hook on
before sending the bumper and lip to paint, i had buffed one of the lip's holes larger, to make the tow hook fit, but since at that time both the bumper and lip weren't properly fitted, the modification i had done to the lip weren't perfectly accurate

so...
i had to buff the freshly painted lip to accomodate for the tow hook
again, the hook itself was a custom design of mine, originally mocked up out of cartboard without having the lip for reference

i ended up enlarging the holes in the lip about a full inch more in width and ¼" on the lower part



or course, i've covered the tow hook fabrication in an earlier chapter,
its bolted solidly to the OEM tow hook underneath the car, using a 10mm bolt and nylon locknut and pieces of rubber to make it snug on the OEM hook
so the hook doesn't wobble around at all, doesn't make any vibration noises
and to avoid breaking the lip, even if you put alot of weight on the tip of the hook it will only move down ½"


---------------------------------------------
interior / cluster modifications

after that, i took the whole driver side interior apart



amazing what can be done in 15 minutes with a flat head, philips and allen screw driver

i first put the AEM UEGO A/FR gauge in the driver side vent, where my old boost gauge was, fitting all the wiring and made it fit perfectly



its pretty clean under the dash, with all the control modules and wiring for the AFR gauge, boost controller and turbo timer hidden behind the plastic panel



the second thing to do was to take the cluster apart



then i tried some ebay rings, which looked cool,
i originally wanted to paint them black, but found out i couldn't change/paint the bezel on my boost gauge which was also silver, so it matched

the two bigger rings weren't super easy to install because of their size, using a pencil to bend the back of the ring to make it snug

but the smaller rings were just too loose, so i ended up not putting them in



i planned to cover the whole cluster fascia with carbon fiber vinyl, but i was too short on time,
the added thickness of the vynil will eventually make all the rings fit better



--------------------------
LED coversion

then i changed all the light bulbs for LED variants

5x T10 and 2x T5


then loosely plugged the cluster in to verify all the lights were inserted the right way and worked well

awesome!!


i also swapped my OEM triple gauge unit for a Nismo one i got a while back, also changed its bulbs for LEDs (3x T5)



-----------------------------------
Boost gauge and gauge cup

next on the list was to install both my Autometer Carbon fiber boost gauge and gauge cup




started by screwing the bracket for the cup onto the top section of the steering column cover
i drilled small holes in the cover beforehand to avoid the plastic cracking



then i put the Autometer blue LED in the gauge instead of the regular incendescant bulb

i had to do the wiring myself (i suck at it), soldering and shiit,



then put the gauge in the cup and fitted the cup onto the bracket, with all the right angles

then had 2 hoses coming off the back of the cup, one for the boost/vaccum signal and the other with the wires going through it so i would look "better"
i think i'll redo it eventually
i got the 12V power for the gauge light off some random wires under the dash, indicated to me by Almasi


then put everything back together with the carbon wrapped pieces Marc (Nelsonxmarc) made me




and admired a job well done




--> the mad dash




-------------------------------------
epic sexy steering wheel

i finished the evening by bolting on my uber sexy epic rare suede special edition OMP Corsica steering wheel
this is probly the only one in quebec, maybe in canada



it does actually make panties drop.


(yeah thats my old MOMO horn button in there, because the OMP one didn't fit because of the Sparco spacer, so instead of not having a horn at all i decided to put the MOMO one and look (less?) awkward)



i was ready for the UltraRide 10' !!!

[Snake556]

New background on my compy :P

[frankiman]

New background on my compy :P

gimme your e-mail, i'll send you the hi-res

[bellis_GTR]

That chrome ring around the cluster really makes it look modern. Ill have to get this for mine