The blackhole to my paychecks =p

[imstillonjava]

I usually try to restrain myself on spending a bit in December because of all the Christmas presents that I have to buy....but January is a whole 'nother animal. January is my birthday month. And I like to celebrate the whole month through! :X That means lots of stuff for me, and lots of stuff for my car.

I already had a pulley kit and eliminated the air pump on the car, but I wanted to upgrade to the Super Now titanium finish kit because...well, geez, really just for superficial reasons of it looking really awesome. It makes a difference to me!


A four-figured splurge I spent on myself in December for my Christmas/birthday present to myself, was I sent my GZ manifold, a polished UIM, and a polished throttle body out to get ceramic coated a nice, lowkey titanium finish, and then had the throttle body bored out at RC Engineering, and the UIM and LIM extrude honed. It finally arrived back from all the work two days ago.

Unfortunately, the coating on the UIM suffered at the hands of the Extrude Honing guys, and they scratched up the UIM massively. (thanks a lot!). I knew it was a risk getting it coated first, but the poor thing looked downright mistreated hahahah. Yesterday, I spent another $130 to pack it and send it back to the coater for a fresh new ceramic coat layer. Surprisingly, it fit perfect in the same box the Jordan 12s came in (one of the things that I bought for the boyfriend for Christmas). I made sure to peel off the Jordan sticker before sending it out, less some sneakerhead steals my expensive manifold!


But otherwise, everything else came back looking amazing.

Throttle body:

[imstillonjava]

UIM:







GZ LIM:






Some flow #s showing the CFM gains on a like GZ LIM that was done by the same guys:


And...the latest that's come in, is a new power harness for $450 from Malloy Mazda (this'll go great with the new emissions harness I have packed away as well), and a new rear view mirror base that I'll need to use when I replace my front windshield in the very near future. I am in such awe of how brilliantly red the power terminal cover is. hahahah.

[imstillonjava]

update...:An ugly engine bay post, plus remnants of my birthday blow out on the car

So it occurred to me I never uploaded pictures of the engine bay....partly because it's an ugly sight to behold. It's immensely dirty from the sanding at the painter's, spilled oil from fluid changes, a leakly p/s pump AND rack...and just from years of dirt accumulating.

When I started installing the rack and taking everything apart....despite knowing that a lot of things would be pulled and replaced in the next year or so, I decided to start cleaning things so it'd feel a little better and conjure less hesitancy to touch the car without a pair of nitrile gloves on.

I'm wondering if now would be a good time to have the engine bay painted when I take it back for the Feed hood, and the idea would be to just strip the car down as much as I can short of pulling the engine, and have him paint around that - or if I should wait until the motor is pulled (but it'd make for a b*tch of a time towing the car from one place to another). Then I can have my new windshield, molding, and plastic dash drain replaced in one go as well.







And then...there's my mismatched intake filters ahaha! They were both purple before, but I found the lower filter to have collected so much dust and dirt (another reason I was inspired to clean up the engine bay), that the car was choking itself up in its filth in the span of 1,000 miles. Alas, I had one spare lone orange filter left that I did not sell...and I figured it will have to do until the single turbo goes on!

[imstillonjava]

Now, last of my suspension braces. Nothing should be left in the suspension to do after this (for awhile). I picked up a pair of used JUN a-arm reinforcement braces off yahoo.auctions.jp. But the seller didn't disclose the massive amount of surface rust that got throughand under the paint!

Jacked this picture courtesy of whoever. Thanks so much.

So when I got them I started sanding away and chipping at all the crud that built up.


And then I primered and painted it a nice new gloss black.




Now once I get back home after the weekend ill work to get that installed, and hopefully off I finally go to align and corner balance.

More and more weight to add to the car :groan: This will be the fattest 'race' car yet....what with all the metal I've added.

And a few more odds and ends:

A new map sensor bracket for the gm 3 bar map sensor that ill eventually put to use.


Some nagisa auto fender braces for my birthday that will soon go on once I pull the fenders to have some scuffs repaired


Picked borrowed, courtesy of whoever...much thanks

A new revo-tune piece


And a new recaro seat back. But stupid me only picked one up so ill have to order its twin soon

[islander]

Wow, i just read this entire thread... WTF.. this is nice.. I know ive spent a ton of money on my car and i'm no where near the level of this.. Keep up the good work.

[islander]

Where can i purchase that "Makers7 tranny brace"?

[imstillonjava]

The last time a friend of mine went back to Japan and visited them, he picked it up for me. Although I'm sure someone online should be able to middleman it back to you if you can't order direct from them...

[93rx7r1]

Your car is AMAZING!! You also have a great title for your build thread!

[Teenwolf1393]

what exactly do the fender braces do??

[imstillonjava]

Originally Posted by Teenwolf1393

what exactly do the fender braces do??

This fender brace increases chassis rigidity by improving the connection between the wheel wells and the area directly forward of the front doors. By improving stiffness in this region of the chassis, there is better stability under hard braking and better steering response at high speeds.

I was doubtful about the effectiveness of these, but a handful of people who have installed these have felt a noticeable improvement in handling upon turn in.

My chassis has a million miles on it, so anywhere I can reinforce and add rigidity to it - I'm gungho about.

[MaczPayne]

Can't wait to see this baby out on the track!!!

[prrex4ever]

Totally awesome built, good luck on the track with her.

[imstillonjava]

Final touches before dropping the car back down, I took the the black painted JUN a-arm braces and installed them. Nice and simple bolt in affair. Just had to back out the bolts and replace, nothing needed to be disassembled (for which I was grateful).





Somebody on the forum hit me up for the old Nitto NT01s that were on the car- 245s and 275s (since I had the new Hankook Ventus just sitting around). so I pulled off the Nittos and sold them to him and mounted on the fatty 265/315s. They look great! And they also currently do not fit the car with the car's alignment completely out of wack from the delrin bushing install, new rack, and tie rods. I think, even with the alignment, it will either barely clear....or barely not. Alignment & corner balance @ Evasivemotorsports is scheduled for the first Sat of April, so ::fingers crossed::. Otherwise, off these tires go, and on something new goes. I definitely felt like I had a little more space to play with when I had the 245s/275s....we'll find out exactly how much space that should be in a few more weeks.




After all this, I was on my way to putting the car back together. Bumper back on, headlights back on, car back on the ground.
....and then I realized I forgot to put on my Nagisa fender braces.
Sure, I'll eventually have one reason or another to take the car back apart, and then I can throw the braces on then. But I have more than enough parts stockpiled and waiting for a good time to be installed. I figured I might as well create the moment for the fender brace install since the car is garaged until it's alignment appointment.
So earlier this week, back up on the jacks it went...off the headlights, bumper, and fenders it went.

I thought it'd be a good time to show some awesome attention to detail SevenApple (Makito) did on the front fenders, as far as reinforcing the edges for structurally rigidity.



I also cleaned off about 14 years of dirt and dust that had been gathering in that space between the body and the fender of the car. Funny how I keep finding new spots filled with crud on this car :/



Anyway, onward to my Nagisa fender brace install pictures. It was a really straightforward install, with great fitment. Very very close clearance to the body, but in the end - no issues with contact.
















Next update in a few weeks:
- I got my repaired UIM back with a few additional improvements to it (more pics!)
- Alignment & corner balance results

[FC3S Murray]

Great job man! I just saw a posting on Speedhunters in regards to evasive motorsports. Looks like they have came a long way.

[WE3RX7]

Love those braces... I want some