Check out my rear!

Finally got back into the workshop yesterday and got the rear end together after receiving the Kazama parts back a couple of weeks ago. Also made the aim of the day to get the electroplating kit together. Unfortunately the results weren't quite as expected (ie. not quite shiny enough), but the next batch I'll polish before doing the plating process. So first up I had to remove the old bushes from the rear lower control arms, so out came the oxy torch and with a bit of help from Shibb we had the old stuff out (very smoky). Now some of you may have noticed I got a set of the red Nolathane bushes a few weeks ago - after doing a quick test fit these didn't fit (will be writing an email to them about it), so luckily we had some others in the store to use. Oh, and I had to sand and repaint the rear LCA's in the process.

Once the nuts and bolts were plated, we moved onto the assembly of the rear subframe with the new Kazama bits, and with assistance from Roy and Jimmah, we had it back together in about 40 minutes.

- Just waking up
- Caswell Plating Kit
- Disassembled Rear Subframe
- Rear Lower Control Arm Painted (Top)
- Rear Lower Control Arm Painted (Bottom)
- Roy and Jimmah lending a hand
- Jimmah on the final run
- DONE! Well almost...

So the rear end was wheeled under the car as we ran out of time thus the crap picture, but all that's required now is the tightening of all the parts then we'll raise it up and go the front.



Also ordered through a GReddy Catch Can with 15mm connections (the squarish one) last week from a member on NissanSilvia.com (see next post for pics) and a new 3" MetalCat Catalytic Converter from shy180 (JustSR). Flanges need to be welded up, but we'll wait until the exhaust is up and attached before we do that to make sure we get the exhaust as high as possible.

- Box
- Logo
- Stange Numbers that mean something 1
- Stange Numbers that mean something 2

Hoping to get into the workshop mid week and complete the fitting up of the rear end and possibly move onto the front which I now have all the parts for woohoo! Time to hit the accelerator on the project methinks.

Cheers
Brendan

Kazama suspension arms arrive!

Make sure you read the box!!

So after some delays due to out of stock parts that needed to be manufactured, the full set of Kazama suspension arms (except front tension rod brace) arrived with many thanks to C-Red. The intention of the car is to set it up for grip work on either motorkhana, track or possibly hill climb, and with the adjustability of the suspension setup, I hope to find a great handling car. So here we go:

Front
- Kazama Pillow Ball Tension Rod (Castor Rod)
- Kazama Super Strength Tie Rod
- Kazama Super Tie Rod End (TRE)

Rear
- Kazama Adjustable Rear Upper Arm
- Kazama Adjustable Rear Toe Arm (Tension Rod)
- Kazama Traction Rod

All these parts are top quality and mostly adjustable with ball joint connections (as opposed to rubber bushes). As a plus, they're also red to match with the rest of the car :)

Also sometime ago I ordered in a set of flanges for the GReddy/Trust Type-R Blow-off Valve. Basically a flange to weld onto the intercooler piping, and an adapter that screws into the outlet:

- GReddy Type-R BOV Mounting Flange
- GReddy Type-R BOV Outlet Adapter

I'm still trying to get my plating kit up and running, but I have all the electrical bits all soldered up, the solutions are made up from the concentrates, I've gone out and bought this lovely plastic kitchen apron to protect the jewels from chemical splashes and I have the gloves and goggles to protect the other bits. All thats left now is to get an aquarium air pump to keep the water agitated so bubbles don't settle on the parts being plated. Hopefully I get one of those before I go in on Saturday and I'll do my first run of bolts that will allow me to bolt up all the suspension nice and tight and get the car rolling again.

Cheers and thanks for listening.
Brendan

Another wheel offset test

Many apologies for the delay in action over the last couple of weeks, I needed a break and sometime with the kids.

Anyway, a couple of weeks back I was prepping some stuff around the new plating kit I'm working on (to make old bolts and brackets shiny and new again), and Trent from TKO Tinting rocks up at C-Red for some cooler pipe clamps. After a bit of ooohing and aaahing at his nice red R32 he's been building he offers me the chance to trial fit his new shiny rims. They're a newish model from Racing Hart called the CP-S10 and from memory they're 18x10+19's which are fairly close to what I'm after. Now you can see from the pics here that even with these specs, they're well within the 50mm wide M-Sports guards. The wheels I have on order at the moment are the Wedsport TC-105N's with rear specs of 18x10.5+12 (see previous blog post for decent pictures), so looking at these in front of me we're thinking a 20mm spacer could be required to fill the guards nicely.

- Side on View of CP-S10 fitted
- Rear View of CP-S10 fitted
- Front on View of CP-S10 fitted
- Coilover clearance 1
- Coilover clearance 2

From those angles you also get a really good feel for how wide it is too. Mmmmm, yummy. Hope I can fit it into the carport at home.



While I had the brake rotor and coilover fitted, I thought I'd just trial fit one of the rear Brembo calipers I'd re-finished. Doesn't it looks tops! There were no pads in these and I had a hard time finding the original bolts as they use a much more coarse thread than standard Nissan bolts. I think I have lost the fronts :( While I was there I took a shot of the 5-stud hubs I'd cracked open too.

- Nice shot of the rear caliper fitted up
- Close up of caliper and rotor
- With an R34 GT-R 18" wheel fitted
- Front aftermarket S13 5-stud hub

Cheers
Brendan