Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 44 - Carbolicious²
week7 - 2011, part 1/2

disclaimer :
the following story depicts actions that occured between June 12 and 18 2011
information is recalled purely from memory, give me a chance

in the last weekly update, i finished most of the interior work i set out to do,
so i got back to installing some more exterior parts,

to go with the super sexy AB-Flug front diffuser, i also got this;



a Top Secret "replica" carbon fiber rear diffuser...........this is a budget build,
its looks amazing, comes with some brackets not all useful;



the first thing to do was to remove my Type-M mud guards i had installed the previous year;



these things had accumulated lots of debris over time;



the side pods that come with the diffuser fit pretty well, they actually better contour the body than the Type-M mudguards;



the front of it is simply help with a body screw, but the back isn't held by anything,
so at first i tried double sided tape, since thats how the Type-M were installed;



but because its carbon fiber and not polyurethane, its much stiffer and kept pelling the tape off;



another approach had to be taken,
after thinking hard about it, i drilled a hole through the CF into the bodywork to screw it on;



and at first i simply used a screw that i found, with a rubber washer (cut from a bigger one);



i painted the screw head black, but i didn't like it at all at first, and was regretting my doing;



later i found a set of hydraulic o-rings, and bought real body screws, countersunk and flat black, perfect;



the end result was much better, can't even see the screw if your not looking for it;



with the TS diffuser, its the side pods that partially hold the diffuser underneath the car,
but to screw it on i needed a bit of help, from my brand new tires;



in the kit, there was many several different brackets, that at first i had no clue where they'd go,
i identified this one to hold the diffuser right under the license plate;



i took the plate off, unscrewed the support and flipped it up (its on hinges) then bolted the bracket in that spot;



my first idea on how to screw it was hidious;



so i found a thin flat head screw and cut up a rubber washer, for a better look,
the rubber washer was later swapped for a real one of the right size for a seamless look;



the holes in the diffuser and the side pods aligned perfectly,
and through the next fews days i experimented with differents fastening options,
some looked like crap;



some much much better;



with the diffuser hanging pretty much in its final position, i had to trim a bit off the frontward rim,
i was scared it could touch the exhaust and cause problems,
p.s. don't breathe when sanding off carbon fiber, the resine particals smell like uther ****, but more importantly they are toxic;



the brand new high-gloss carbon fiber finish was super shiny;



since i didn't find the overall mounting of the diffuser solid enough and was scared that the bolt under the license plate would rip right through the CF,
i made extra brackets, from 3/4"x1/8" aluminium bars
the would be much stronger;



then i drilled through both the diffuser and the bumper to bolt it on;



and later i painted them with tough epoxy metal paint;



thats all about the diffuser for week7,
the installation was finished during week8


but i'm not done with week7, alot more was done !
keep reading -->

[frankiman]

Chapter 44 - Carbolicious²
week7 - 2011, part 2/2

disclaimer :
the following story depicts actions that occured between June 12 and 18 2011
information is recalled purely from memory, give me a chance

the weather outside was so beautiful i could work comfortably with the garage door open,
this meant that anyone walking in the street could see the car,
i heard a couple "oh **** man, look at that" from passing teenagers;



another carbon fiber part i had to install was, a genuine Attain carbon fiber bumper guard / exhaust shield,
it came with a roll of doulde sided tape, that i decided to try at first;



so i cleaned up the bumper the best i could so the tape would adhere properly;



but i didn't like the idea of something this valuable would only by held by tape, stting right above a hot hot exhaust,
hence why i drilled multiple holes in the CF guard and bumper to screw it,
the plan was to achieve that "riveted on" look that most R34 have with this shield, but less conspicuous;



so i used many flat black body screws, screwed directly into the plastic of the bumper;



in reality i probably only need 1 screw at each corner, but i wanted it to look tougher,
overall i think i used 11 screws;



the final look was immensly badass,
but now i really had to change that aging HKS exhaust...



talking about that exhaust, while i was sitting right in front of it for while,
i shined a light in the muffler, only to see an incredible amount of crap;



this muffler was tearing itself apart from the inside,
using very long pliers, i started ripping fibers out of it,
but after some time i realized that is was pointless, this muffler was doomed;






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

moving on to something else...

having used a 4 point harness the previous year and beeing a pretty large fellow,
i found it very uncomfortable, since everytime i tightened the should straps,
the buckle would go up to my belly button,

but since i had a Sabelt harness, only straps from the same manufacturer will fit in the cam lock,
i found an official North American dealer for Sabelt where i could easily get what i needed,
but there was another problem, the rear outer eye-bolt i had installed for the lower right strap couldn't be used anymore,
since i installed a cage, the feet of the cage covered the hole where the eye-bolt was bolted,
the solution was to swap one of the bolts from the cage to an eye-bolt,
but again another problem, those eye-bolts are very short,
before it was under the carpet, but now had to go through the added thickness of the cage's feet and the carpet,
happily, the same dealer also had an optionnal length eye-bolt with the same thread and grade,
and supprisingly, it was all pretty cheap considering the quality of Sabelt equipment,

so in the end, i ordered the optional 5th point strap, of the same color, and the optional eye-bolt,
i got it within 2 weeks for a total of about 60$ incl ship;



the standard 24mm eye-bolt vs the optional 32mm;



and this is where that longer eye-bolt was installed;



to install the 5th strap, i first had to find a spot for its eye-bolt,
problem is, that on skylines the frame rail is perfectly centered with the driving axis (axis of the steering column),
this means that there would be no way to have the strap centered with the seat,
it would have to be somewhat offset,

so i drilled my hole a bit crooked for minimum offset as close as possible to the frame rail,
but since i didn't want to remove the carpet, i would have to drill through it, which is borderline idiotic,
right in the middle of the carpet its pretty loose, meaning all the sound insulation underit will move about,
and it will catch on the drill bit jamming everything,
in retrospective, i should have pressed a socket in that spot in drilled through it, keeping the carpet firmly pressed down;




really as close to the frame rail as possible



again i made a 3x4 1/8" thick back plate, but it wouldn't fit,
so i bent it to match the frame rail;



then using a knife, i cut the carpet around the hole to make it just a bit bigger so i could insert the eye-bolt under it,
with the thickness of the carpet, the eyebolt is barely visible;



and finally, i had my 5 point harness ready !



a job well done




thats all for week7

thanks for reading
more soon!
stay tuned

[cschepp]

Any pics of the seats mounted with the seat belts in? Loving the belts

[leeaspin]

Diffuser looks good! Too many screws in the bumper shield imo..

[frankiman]

Any pics of the seats mounted with the seat belts in? Loving the belts

can't seem to find any,
as soon as the car is out i'll take one that shows the offset

Diffuser looks good! Too many screws in the bumper shield imo..

thanks, and nahh..

[cschepp]

Thank you. They look great. Just wondering how to mount mine

[frankiman]

Any pics of the seats mounted with the seat belts in? Loving the belts

lol found this one

[cschepp]

That gives me a better idea anyways. Thanks man. Super excited.

[Matty]

90 pages, unreal.
Frank, this is one of my favorite cars on GTRC. Keep up the good work.

[caribougtr]

What everyone else says! love the detailed photos. Helped me a few times to overcome problems. I have only had my GTR for 1 and a half years and learned sooooo much! Cheers man

[frankiman]

thanks guys, i really appreciate it!

[RABBIT]

nah this thread is over rated.
Need more quebecois boobs.

[S13Jordie]

Best Rear Seat Delete. Super Clean Install.

[92GTSTproject]

omg i just read the whole thing in 1 siting beautiful car .... ever think that if someone put hks up top whats down below?

[frankiman]

sir, you are a trooper

i'll only open up the block once i have another one, built, ready to take its place