I Like Exclusive: V. 2.0 Fairlady Z content

[rsingh3g]

Can't wait to see the finished product. I am sure that the cage and interior will super clean like the rest of the car

[1badg35]

I welded up the last point on the cage this morning.


more to come

now for lots of plastic fitting before i bring her to the booth for some white pearl

[rsingh3g]

Nice. Can't wait to see more pics

[MrDanguy]

I want to be you.

[Justin821]

Cage is looking good man. I'm looking to leave the -7 camber club this winter as well haha.

[nismozxtt]

Joined simply for this thread, but am staying for the whole site. Been missing out apparently. Anyway, I looked in your previous threads and didn't see any mention about your center gauge cluster. NEED TO KNOW MOAR!! Also, I'm completely jealous of your car and skills. Just had to make that known...

[1badg35]

Cage is looking good man. I'm looking to leave the -7 camber club this winter as well haha.

yeah, im not sure what my course of action is as of yet, but im definitely aiming for -4 all around. apparently we both have the inevitable fender work of sorts

Joined simply for this thread, but am staying for the whole site. Been missing out apparently. Anyway, I looked in your previous threads and didn't see any mention about your center gauge cluster. NEED TO KNOW MOAR!! Also, I'm completely jealous of your car and skills. Just had to make that known...

I designed and fabricated the main dash 4-5 years ago. Built the molds, poured two pieces out of ABS plastic, and that was all. Took a few hundred hours in all as it was a huge undertaking. It is basically a one off, some company in england decided to make a shitty copy of my design, and I considered suing them, but mine will likely stay a one off as the time involved outweighs the cost that could be charged. This car is full of one offs which at some point may change, but likely will stay that way

[1badg35]

some of the plastics went in temporarily this weekend. Dont mind the test cuts on the two strut tower plastics. I have brand new ones sitting in boxes, and these were the test dummies to make the test fitting around the cage perfect before cutting into the new ones.. not exactly an easy task to find 23 year old plastics that are un used, so i needed to do some planning first

still have to decide whether to x brace the back of the cage or leave it as it stands. I like the look of the cage currently and it has made the car ridiculously rigid. 6 points tied directly to the body at crucial points. So the x brace isnt really necessary in my mind, but i need to make the decision before paint. the design i came up with allows for the strut tower connections to be open so that I can make all the adjustments to the rear coilovers.






oh and the "new and improved" spare. the bbk (380x35 stoptech) was still too big for the spare without a spacer, so I searched and found a super rare pair of RS faces that had a ridiculously high pad and were 5x114. had to have them in the collection.
the rest is history...





16x5, high pad 5x114 original face, pearlescent white powder, conical cap in matching powder, red/gold logo, 24k gold assembly bolts, titanium 12pt nuts, new 1.5" slant inner and 3" stepped outer. oh and the 125/90 tire

[orion84gsl]

I need one of those to match my wheels... Also because I changed bolt patterns so my 4x110 spare is useless.

[MaxBell]

I just read through all this and I got to page 17 where you were going to car shows. I started wondering where you could go from there.

Cage is SICK! Sub'd.

[anth]

I want to be you.

I know that feel

[1badg35]

so, the hurricane that swept through the area this week did a ton of damage (for most of the east coast), but luckily all of the projects are safe and tucked away in their garages, and no trees fell on any of my close friends houses. No power at all this week as trees are down everywhere and knocked out lines, but friends and family are all ok, only one car loss in the immediate family so far (that I am about to go pick it up this weekend and may start it as a new winter project.) All I can say so far is that it is a '90 and has well under 20k original miles. its been my uncles since new, but was under about 20" of water for about 8 hours in the garage in the hamptons... time to rip it apart
that will surface soon once I do an inspection and start working on it to see if all can still function.

Z motor is all back together with its new shiny bits and will be unveiled to start the coming show season..
Working on the interior this week in the dark, but making slow progress here and there with no power or light.. It at least gives me the chance to slowly work on all of the really detailed interior bits as i am otherwise bored out of my mind, and at least I am getting panels to wrap around the new cage as needed. So far, I finished all of the panel fittings around the passenger side of the cage, and it looks insane so far. The last part on the passenger side (hardest by far) needed to be completely reshaped to fit snugly around the cage, required fiberglassing, a little kevlar fabric that i had on hand, and some resin. Came out sick though, so as soon as i can do the finish sanding once we get electric, it will then get wrapped in leather, and the cage on that side will look as if it had always been there.
trunk plastics are all temporarily back in, the interior is going back together piece by piece, as i work on the parts that need fine tuning to clear the cage. Not much left to go before I can put the entire interior back in, clean it all up.... and then disassemble and prep for the cage paint. haha

So no one needs to ask why I am installing the entire interior prior to painting the cage.. its a simple one. So that I dont have to test fit panels and make lots of adjustments on fresh paint. chromoly doesnt scratch quite like freshly painted chromoly does

pics will be up in the coming week or so.. once power comes back on, and we can go back to normal life. Hopefully that is soon, as this is getting insane. Very lucky it wasnt worse though, as there were plenty of areas completely ravaged by the storm

[1badg35]

still no power, but the interior is all mocked up. wrapped the last of the parts in leather last night. should be able to clean out the entire interior once power comes back, and get the seats back in. I want to beat on the car a bit to check out how rigid she is (probably last drive for the year), and then the entire interior comes back apart, and i have to figure out how to prep it for some cage paint.

all i can say is it would have been much easier if there was a bolt in cage... but this was/is never about being easy, and this route came out perfect for what i needed it for. I like the fact that i was able to design, and fab up a custom cage for my car completely from scratch, and all done by me in the comfort of my garage. This was one of those things i wasnt completely sure if i could handle without an extensive set of shop tools, but all went better then expected.

pics hopefully as soon as i get some light back in the garage. the pics with a flashlight didnt exactly do too well. haha

[aLaFleur]

Your drive for perfection blows my mind. Killer work as always man. I can't wait to see it all back together .

[1badg35]

thank you

Now this next thing I am about to post up is cool!

About a year ago, I was put in touch with a designer named Sander who was possibly interested in doing an illustration of my car after seeing all of the response it has generated over the past few years. I was extremely impressed with his previous work, and definitely was honored to have a car that he chose to put the time and effort in to producing a professional rendering for.

I will post up soon, a few of the process pictures he sent me along the way, but here is a preview of the final product from this morning that shocked me. Definitely going to get a poster printed for the garage wall of this one. I love illustrations, and its an honor to have one to signify my build.

check out his webpages for more of the portfolio:


disander.ee

gtstudio.deviantart.com