Great tip, but...

If you're baller like that, you probably have a pressure bleeder system, like professional shops.

...right? :D

Funny you say that, when yours is one of the build threads that got me going!

I am bench bleeding the mc, but I'm doing that installed in the car, so that I can use the pedal effort instead of manually pushing at the cylinder. The nice thing about buying the mc, was that it came with the plastic adapter and tubes to do the bench bleed.

I don't have a power brake flush unit...but a friend does, and I'm planning to borrow it next weekend :D

I'm waiting for my Super Blue ATE fluid to come in on Wednesday :)

Thanks everyone for your comments. Certainly helps keep me going on updating the build thread.

You might have to disconnect the brake pedal from the rod so that you can push the rod in further. You'll need the full stroke to get the stubborn air bubbles in the end of the cylinder

Love ATE's fluid :) If you haven't gotten speed bleeders yet, get em! Don't know what I'd do without em!

Thanks for the tip. I ended up having to remove the master cylinder anyway, because I noticed the o-ring for the remastered cylinder was much looser and out of "spec" than an oem piece, and I ended up mangling it during re-install. I remeasured both and realized the oem was a metric ID of 37.5mm O-ring, but the reman was a standard fit ID of 1.5" with a 1/8" thickness.

....if anyone needs new mc o-rings, I have 49 spares now that I don't know what to do with. Mcmaster-carr only sold it in packs of 50, and nobody local stocked a single one for me to purchase.

I did notice that getting all those air bubbles out took a good while, and I'm glad I did this with the mc off the car now :)

After over 200,000 miles on the same windshield from factory, my visibility (especially when the sun hit), was pathetic. I worried about finding a good piece of replacement glass without trading in my kidney for a mazda oem piece (if they could even source it!). So many glass companies, even PPG, who were sold and became PGW...now manufacture their glass in china. Not that I have anything against the chinese, but a majority of the glass that comes out of there has an overtly strong blue or purple tint at the top, that just doesn't look very factory. Word has it, that a lot of the glass from China ends up pitting easier as well.

But hey, no visibility problems here, with the windshield removed!
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...B/dsc_0666.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...B/dsc_0667.jpg

My stock glass had a very small, lightly blue tint at the top, but all said and done, I decided to opt for a grey/grey tinted glass instead - the last available anywhere near around me.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...B/dsc_0669.jpg

Safevue, South African glass.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...B/dsc_0675.jpg

Funny, I called around to several stores...and everyone, including Safelite were telling me the difficulties of getting anything besides the chinese glass, and tried charging me up the wahzoo for the Safevue...telling me it was the last piece of glass available. But my dad found a local wholesaler, who snatched up that last piece of glass and sold + installed it for me for half the price of the rest. I love living near an industrial area, with some searching...great deals can sometimes be found :)

I purchased the oem window seal from Ray @ Malloy, and as you can see - perfectly fine replacement, no flaws in the reflection, and only a $140 dent in my pocket for the mobile service to come here and take care of the windshield!
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...B/dsc_0676.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...B/dsc_0679.jpg

The finishing touch, new windshield looks great. Really sets off the rest of the car with the new paint and all.

I guess we all push each other to do things to our cars :)

Carol, You are now inspiring me to get my front windshield replaced!! I been meaning to replaced the seal but now looking at your pics, I'm going to replace the glass too. THANKS!!! LOL!

Gorgeous carr!

I haven't had much time to work on the car....but before the afternoon that I left for vacation, I had stopped by Sevenstock and visited the ATS/Carbonetics booth.

Got a kickass deal on a 1.5 way carbon LSD for the rx-7, and a hypersingle carbon blade clutch for the 350z. I'm about 500miles into the break-in period on the 350z clutch, and its awesome. Flywheel's half the weight of the stock, so it revs up faster than a stock s2000 now - particularly noticeable when I start the car up. Clutch bites quick, pedal feel is crisp.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0240.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0246.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0261.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0277.jpg

Along with the LSD, I thought it'd be a good time to change out the final drive as well. But...to go from the 4.10 to a 4.30 or a 4.44? I couldn't decide, so I bought one of each.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0236.jpg

Can you tell which one's which from a pictures? Pretty tough. hahaha.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0239.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...duct/4.3_2.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...duct/4.3_1.jpg

So I decided to go with the 4.44, the 4.3 is up for sale!

Another thing I wanted to try to do, was duct my N-tech brake backing plates. The FEED bumper has such small openings to duct from...they're great for the IC/radiator/oil coolers...but such a small inlet is left available for the brakes.

I decided to try my hand at fiberglassing. I remember the guys making the carbon seat for Formula SAE maybe 4 yrs back in school. How hard could it be? I tried to find the cheapest DYI writeup on it, to tried my hand at budget duct making.

Fabricated myself a "mold" with my $2 glue gun, leftover corrugated board, solo cups, and a coke can....plus generous amounts of duct tape. "Ghetto" much? hahaha.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0153.jpg

I read somewhere that duct tape was a good enough surface to free the fiberglass from, so...resin, hardener, and sheets of leftover fiberglass from an old project were put to the task.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0177.jpg

I made a top and bottom, snipped off the excess with my do-everything-tin-shears...
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0168.jpg

Checked for some type of flushness between the halves..
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0174.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0175.jpg

Fiberglassed the two halves together, and then did a lazy man's job of sanding and painting them black.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0222.jpg

It actually ended up slipping quite well over the lip of the FEED opening (GO ME!),
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0228.jpg

And it looks like it has relatively good ground clearance. I'd prefer if the duct ended up being more flexible instead of rigid, I decided to soft mount the duct with zipties so that it has some give if I do end up scraping it somehow....we'll see how long it works out for!
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0229.jpg

Unnoticeable, right?
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0231.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0234.jpg

I'm currently testfitting the hose to get the right length down and figure out a good place to secure it without interferring with the wheel at full lock. But I'm a slow worker since I've been distracted with going out, studying, gym, and Black Ops :X Hopefully that gets done this week, and I'll have more updates!

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0251.jpg

Nice! I love making my own stuff haha.

I almost would rather play with fiberglass again than route the duct piping. But its done! Tested the wheel lock to lock, looks like it has plenty of room to spare. And I think it won't interfer with the VMIC thats yet to be installed (or the Sakebomb oil coolers)!

WE have LIFT OFF! haha
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0290.jpg

I wish I had a lift to capture the routing better. OH well.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0307.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0302.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...t/dsc_0300.jpg

Schwing! Coming along nicely!

Nice job on the brake duct!! I was trying to figure something out like that on my car but seeing yours gave me an idea! Thanks!

Whatever you've got tossing and turning in that brain of yours is probably going to be something amazing :) Can't wait to see what you've got up your sleeve.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...r/dsc_0264.jpg
(at the heart of it all, it still looks so stock! for now, at least)

With a big 5 day rainstorm that dropped 15ft of snow in Mammoth, and a record breaking 7 inches of rain in LA...it was way too chilly and wet to do much with the car. But the sun finally popped out for the long weekend and I was able to accomplish several things:

- apply my long delayed registration sticker
- install my new hood cowl, wiper arms, and wiper blades that Paul bought me for Xmas '09
- set the car down and test drive the brakes, make sure the new fan and rewire worked, try out the new tires, check for rubbing issues with the brake ducting
- wash my car (extra dusty from the sawdust that my dad was causing with his cabinet building)
- get started on buffing the paint to follow up on spots that were missed when it left the paintshop

It took a few times around the block to reaquaint myself with the Mazdaspeed twin disc clutch, but the good news is - my brakes work! Major pat on my back for that since I'd never worked on that before 0_o That was super important since my house and neighborhood is made of all steep and long stretches of downhills and uphills! The clutch also works...which means I didn't screw up bleeding that either :) I'm still pleasantly surprised from the excellent feedback the Atomic Rex rack provides - but with my muscles and joints falling apart as early as they are - I figured it'd be nice to purchase the Electronic Assist (EPAS) option for the rack to help make parking more of a breeze (this'll be for my birthday next month ^^;; ) There is some rubbing coming from the driverside wheelwell on right turns (admittedly, I've not tried hard lefts yet to see if its the same on the passenger side) - but I'll have to check that out soon.

Not much I can do with the car until after the new year though - first thing on the agenda is to get the car properly aligned, and then to get my Feed hood and have it paint matched. Besides that...I'll be having the differential worked on with the Greddy diff cover that I treated myself to for Xmas '10, to be installed with the Carbonetics 1.5 way carbon LSD and 4.44 rx8 ring and pinion.

Once all of this is completed, and I find time to install the VMIC and the Atomic Rex EPAS, I'd imagine there's nothing else I can do to put off dropping a single turbo in 0_o.

By the way, did I forget to mention I bought titanium shims for all 4 braking corners? Because I did! :D

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...r/dsc_0224.jpg

Also - for good measure, a couple more interior pictures...because they were requested :)

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...r/dsc_0270.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...r/dsc_0279.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...r/dsc_0285.jpg


I know...the steering wheel's yellow threading doesn't match. But steering wheels are like shoes for girls right? You can never have too many? I'll get around to buying another one sometime I'm sure.

Sizzlin'

Finally stopped getting lazy and made my appointment for corner balancing and alignment next Saturday the 19th. Figured I find out my max "streetable" height I can work with on the car, with my quadruple compound angled driveway haha..and I'll have the guys dial it in for that.

Its pretty darn conservative to avoid massive scrap-age, and I wish it could be lower but...c'est la vie. Can't have everything =/

I also started measuring out for my order on a Spearco IC. Scrapped the Knightsports VMIC idea, and am going with a custom setup to my dimensions. That'll be a fun summer project ^_^

Tape & rough measurements
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/01.jpg

What can I squeeze in between the HKS intakes and the PC680 battery? Plenty, with lots of room for ducting!
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/02.jpg

Finally remembered to snap a "Better" picture of my new windshield cowl and wiper arms.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/03.jpg

So after adjust the front corners....
I backed it out at an angle for the rear clearance test. I removed the CF diffuser for the time being.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/04.jpg

Ehh...if the side canards hang that low, how low will the rest of the diffuser be? Think I can make it? :X Or think I should switch to the street diffuser?
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/05.jpg

....was going to hold up the diffuser next to the car, but I was starting to die from the exhaust fumes. Anywho..without the diffuser at least, I've got plenty of space to work with.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/06.jpg

How about the front?
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/07.jpg

I can't install the under panel back yet. Still trying to find out when it rubs against the brake ducting on the driverside, but can't quite tell exactly where still.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/08.jpg

Wheels clear fender!
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/09.jpg

Bumper clears!
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/nada/10.jpg
Just kidding, it wasn't quite over the worse part yet in that picture, so there was slight scraping :(

Side shot - it sits a little lower now after the corner balance, but its my most recent sun picture.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...sA/abbabab.jpg

Went and got the car's alignment and corner balance a little earlier to beat the rainstorm coming down this weekend.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch22a/casd/align2.jpg

God bless those Evasive guys for spending so much time dialing the car in. I had changed out so many parts on the car in one shot, that the machine was erroring out trying to read how misaligned it was :D They had to fiddle with the suspension settings to get it to even read. And what a big effing difference it was on the road. Made driving with the Atomic Rex rack wayyyy easier with all the wheels pointing in an agreeable direction :)

I'm actually quite pleased with the weight of the car, I thought it'd be heavier with all the parts I've been slapping on it.

Unfortunately, since the car's been tinkered with so many times, I'm not sure what I did to make it lose boost pressure - I discovered that issue driving back from the shop, since the car was now in better shape for some actual acceleration (and then I found I didn't have any hahah). So that's next on my list, as well as rigging up a new resistor for the airbag light, since the one that came with the Works Bell hub blew. The Works Bell hub only used a 0.15ohm, 1/8 W resistor (it was a tiny tiny little thing to read...that made me feel like I was going color blind trying to see the color bands). I'll test it out with a 1ohm next, since those are easy to find at a Radio Shack.

Rainy day projects for the weekend (unless the garage is too cold).

Your build is really awesome, the attention to detail is #1.

very nice !

Very Nice build. Yep these cars can just drain the cash, but the results can be ....well...off the wall!

No real update yet, but took home the Flir thermo camera from work to learn how to use it, and got some shots of the car. Realized I should have set the temp scale higher, it maxed out at 302F because I forgot to change the range. Very expensive camera...and I realized there's a lot of adjustments to make for each image in order to pull temperatures correctly. You have to correct for ambient T first, and then adjust for the correct emissivity of each surface...still, had some fun, and got some interesting shots!

Unaltered:
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...rrected/02.jpg

Thermo image:
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...rrected/03.jpg

HKS downpipe with the swaintech white lightning ceramic coat
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...rrected/04.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...rrected/07.jpg

Another engine bay shot
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...rrected/05.jpg

Oil cooler
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...rrected/06.jpg

Exhaust - pretty sure the temp was wrong here, reflective surfaces are terrible at registering temp correctly
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...rrected/08.jpg


Teaser_ real updates coming soon, hint:
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch22a/FlirFun/09.jpg

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/jrsch...n/dsc_0214.jpg

great looking build.

I have messed with some thermo-guns at work. Yes anything shiny is impossible to get a good heat reading on. Pretty much need thermocouples for an accurate reading, but that doesn't look as cool :D

Simply awesome build thread :icon_tup: Love the attention to detail... Any more updates?