The blackhole to my paychecks =p

[Max777]

Great tip, but...

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

...right?

[imstillonjava]

Originally Posted by Herblenny

I know... It is thread like this is how I ended up blowing money on my FD for the past 10+ years.

Carol, GR8 build!

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

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.

[MaczPayne]

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!

[imstillonjava]

Originally Posted by MaczPayne

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

[imstillonjava]

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!




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.


Safevue, South African glass.


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!

[prrex4ever]

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

[Herblenny]

Originally Posted by imstillonjava

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

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!

[chrisa]

Gorgeous carr!

[imstillonjava]

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.









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.



Can you tell which one's which from a pictures? Pretty tough. hahaha.






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

[imstillonjava]

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.



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.


I made a top and bottom, snipped off the excess with my do-everything-tin-shears...


Checked for some type of flushness between the halves..




Fiberglassed the two halves together, and then did a lazy man's job of sanding and painting them black.


It actually ended up slipping quite well over the lip of the FEED opening (GO ME!),


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!


Unnoticeable, right?




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!

[speedjunkie]

Nice! I love making my own stuff haha.

[imstillonjava]

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


I wish I had a lift to capture the routing better. OH well.

[MaczPayne]

Schwing! Coming along nicely!

[Herblenny]

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!

[imstillonjava]

Originally Posted by Herblenny

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.