Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Thanks! It's been fun and a great learning process. Getting better and better at all the fab skills on the way.

Thanks, I'm admiring your GTR! ::D
I'll be building it in Jan, A little garage party! I'll send out an invite to check it out!

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Quick update: I have a couple of items going on, the goal over this winter is to remove some more weight and build the new short block. I looked over the car for opportunities and I'm going to fab up a tubular K-member and lower control arms. Basically a copy of what is on DSM tuners.

I purchased a bead roller and sheet metal box brake and was looking for a project to use them. I looked in the rear of the car and thought I could save a good amount of weight.

Well it turned out to be a touch over 45 lbs when it was all weighed out.

Starting:

I attached a cross bar between my strut towers, you can see where the old down bars interfaced the floor previously.

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...118_170713.jpg

All the material removed:

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...120_162550.jpg


64lbs of stuff removed:

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...118_181030.jpg

And the finished structure:

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...124_165528.jpg

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...122_093939.jpg


http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...125_193809.jpg

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

I'm.going to shower now.

Amazing work.

I'm down for that garage party. Just not.the weekend.of.the 10the, I have national guard

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Wow, that floorboard looks great! Nice work!

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

So legit. another 45 pounds off this hog are you serious? That is unreal.

So this replaces the rear part of the rear diff mount and supports the fuel cell & chute, does it also replace any of the lower suspension mounting points?

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

The rear diff is supported in front of where I cut, so no support changes. That was intentional! No replacement of other points either. It's legit!

The front k member and lca's should save another 40lbs. So 85 total for the winter is nuts. It will be breaking into the 2,2xx lb range. Excited to see if it all pays off, it was a high labor low cost mod.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Wow...that work is beautiful. Nice job!

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Nice work with the bead roller, holy smokes !

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

I completed my MBA last week so now I have more time on my hands. The program was super awesome and is already paying off. Back to messing with cars and rebuilding my social life!

I just turned up some ball joint receivers to make the factory ball joints work with tubular lower control arms that I'm going to fab up. I did my research and determined that 1018 would be the best material for weld-ability and structural strength. It didn't cut the easiest on my lathe, but they still turned out nice.

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...221_162842.jpg

I also had some issues with injector insulators blowing out on my evo and race car, so I made these aluminum spacers to make up the gap between the injector and the insulator. I tossed them in my wife's jewelry tumbler, they turned out nice and shiny! I also needed to make new fuel rail standoffs to preload the insulator better, the original standoffs put way too much load on the insulator.

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...219_153525.jpg

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...219_153537.jpg

I ordered the custom 9.75:1 HD2 Wiseco pistons last week too. So my engine build will be done in time for next year. I'm excited to get going on this thing.

Off topic to this thread, I just rebuilt my Exeddy HD twin and installed new syncro's in the transmission in my daily driver. It's back to awesome, like I drove it off the show room floor! I think I'm going to give road racing a shot next year. I'm going to start slow and follow what Scheides did on his entry into turn style racing with the IX.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Yee haw! All those custom parts look awesome! I dinked around with getting perfect fitment on the X with my 1680's but man it pays off once its perfect!

Safety gear, good brakes, good tires, and turn the boost down when you start, that's about my only advice. Go faaaaast! :D

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

I love it, not only are you doing completely custom one-off work, but you're making it look good in the process. Hopefully I get to see this car sometime.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Speechless.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Are the control arms a lot stronger with the ball joint receivers over just using the threaded ball joints.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

The short answer is YES. I cannot tell you by how much, but I would not be comfortable using what you have in those pictures, at all.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Non-adjustable tie rod ends used as ball joints, plus no triangulation point at the joint itself. No thanks.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Those welded things look like they'd snap after one bad pothole.

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Those aren't mine. That's what someone is building and selling along with a k-member, but it didn't seem like any of it was very strong

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

I took the cheaper route on the injector oring blowing out and used silicone hose, very nice aluminum pieces Mark.

I second the fabricated lower control arms look a little sketchy at best.

~John

Re: Mark's 1G Winter Projects
 

Good there not yours! I will post up pics of mine once fabricated, it will take about a month. You will see a big difference.

I didn't even think of using hose, that would have worked fine! Thanks for the compliment too.

Word