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Also working on getting the radiator extractor wrapped up. This part has been a LONG time coming, and after a lot of pausing since I wanted to do it with carbon fiber, I've cheaped out and will just make it out of fiberglass and waft black paint towards it. This was a pretty fun thing to build, and figure I can get y'all up to speed! First tho, everybody in the way-back machine to March 2024. First thing to do was figure out how to make the shape. I started by cutting two huge holes in the hood, and start taping cardboard and paper to connect the three shapes. The challenge with this method is that I've firmly attached the hood to the car with tape, and because the shape is mostly paper, there was no good way to remove it to do anything with it! I decided here that expanding foam was going to be necessary to keep the shape and give me something to work with. I managed to squeeze a trash bag around the radiator, and bought some 2 part expanding foam from Amazon and started pouring. This process took SOOO MUCH FOAM! So much foam. I had to re-order 3 times to fill the shape out. Two things to note for folks thinking about doing this: This foam expands quite a bit requiring a pretty rigid form, and it gets HOT. The foam expands as part of an exothermic reaction, and will get up to about 180*. This gets worse if you pour a lot of foam on top of other foam, so you really want to let it cure and do it's thing before you layer it up. Once the thing was full, I trimmed the outlet and then took the hood off and realized the Big Chungus (tm) that I had created. Realized here that I forgot we need to make space for the air filter. Also, realizing that all the cardboard and other crap I used to make the shape is now glued forever to the foam. The drivers side channel is also quite a bit bigger than the passenger side, as the passenger side dodges a number of cooling tubes. Some shaping is clearly needed. Luckily because this is 2 part foam (never NEVER use Great Stuff foam for this), it was easily shaped with saws, grinders and other tools, was sandable and fillable with bondo. Ended up with a good shape! Last thing to do was fill in the area where the radiator sat so the fiberglass has a mounting flange. I then wrapped the whole thing in metal tape to promote reasonable release and it promptly sat in the shop for a year. I started fiberglassing it up this week, and have the bottom of the shape glassed in. My plan is to use plastic and more metal tape to create this piece in 2 parts, rather than trying to break, dissolve and generally remove the foam by disastrous methods. It's looking pretty alright, hoping to get the rest of it glassed up today!

Got into the fiberglass over the weekend to start popping out the last few parts I need to get this thing "finished". First up is the 3d printed splitter transition piece. I think in a modern car this would be a lip, or airdam, but we all know the area it's filling! I knew I didn't want to encapsulate the PLA core, since this is just a wind diverter, so I taped down a bunch of plastic sign board to the bench, and then used hot-glue and foil tape to attach the piece to the boards. Polyester resin doesn't like to attach to foil tape, or corrugated plastic sign board, so I was pretty sure I could pop this piece off when I was done. A little bit of fiberglassing later, and we had the piece ready to go! Side note; People who are able to take in progress photos of fiberglassing are wild, and have a huge budget for gloves. Once the glass cured (which took a long time, I'm using a resin that i'm not super used to, under catalyzed to extend the working time), I was able to mark my trim lines, and then pop the part off! Super satisfying de-molding the part like that. For a Positive to Positive process, I couldn't be happier. I do think I'd like to try printing a mold, rather than a buck like this, it might make the finishing process just a little nicer. Needs to be sanded, some filling bondo applied and then primer and paint. This piece will then get a little rubber lip along the top, and likely be "speed taped" to the splitter. The front of the car is already low, if this were attached forever, I'd be in trouble!

My inability to get involved with FB groups has lead me to instagram for a long time, but I think I'm heading back here for a bit. Generally better discourse and certainly better information. In line with the thread, I really wish I was #23! When I blew up my Rebello back in 2022 and made the call to go LS, a small part of my brain wishes I had done more math to see what the LS would actually cost to swap in, vs Dereks head. I think it would have been pretty close at the end of the day, and a whole heap of fun. Thanks for doing what you did, do, and continue to do @Derek!!

I refuse to join FB groups for that exact reason. If you really want to learn, do some research, enroll in a community college course, apply yourself. Instead it seems a large majority are expecting everything to be handed to them and then arguing about the information/experience shared.

I feel like Megasquirt and ITBs on my car is like a game of whack a mole. Getting it to work under hard pulls isn't an issue but getting it to be tame in normal driving scenarios can be daunting.

I commented on a post about scammer groups and said that if we were still on forums there would be better control of this. Since there are 9 bazillion S30 groups it hardly got seen and the one comment was "forums are too cumbersome" I go there because that's where the customers are but I'll be dammed if I'm going to answer stuff that I know for a fact has been documented in detail on one of the three forums. The answer to every question I see should be "google it"

It’s been a while since I’ve read on this thread. I wish I was # 23 ! Wish the thread did see more action as well as the site . I’m so tired of the FB shit

Pac_Man hasn't been online in 8 years

Hi there, I am running the Holly Retrobrights on my 1978 280z. Currently I have lowbeams and high beams at the same time, but if I switch to just low beams, I have nothing. I also do not have running lights at the headlights, just high beam. So here I am trying to construct your creation! I am running into a few issues. The Red 12v wire from the top switch seems to be 10 gauge wire with matching 10 gauge bullet connectors. How did you get these two to connect with the connectors for the 14 gauge wire connectors?

I for one appreciate what Derek has accomplished, and if I had the bucks would buy it, but I really can't see it ever becoming a commodity at commodity pricing. But then, I have an automatic that doesn't like high rpm and am limited by that to 4-500 HP with a turbo - and my stock head works for that.

No idea on the owner but wow! I would have grabbed that hatch for the history in it alone. Rare to see these in a junkyard these days as well, very cool.

That worked...the images posted that time no problem.

How did the project end up turning out? I’ve got an 86 that I’d like to do this with… just a dream at the moment.

Do you plan to do any chassis reinforcement? Cage?

i edited the original post because i forgot there was s30 specific forum but i guess its fine here. I figured someone knows the previous owner here

@Mr.Roboto, FYI -- tried several times, and am unable to open the image(s); and it doesn't seem to be a working link either. If others are having the same issue, you'll probably need to reload. If you want to message me the image(s), I can try loading from my end. Your call...

05-10-2025. I did a lot of odds and ends today.....little things put off.....I just went around and fixed as I saw them. I used the clear PPF film over the carbon fiber on the inner fender as it was getting real ratty looking on the edges. I also cut some pieces, and put it on the 2 spots the seats are showing wear from being a big guy getting in and out of the car. Will they work on Vinyl? Not sure, but I need something there. Seams showing some cracks due to my poor bodywork skills, this seals them so I can just forget about it and enjoy the car.t Tuch up painting all over the place, then vacuuming....I guess you could call it spring cleaning. I went back to a novel way of richening up the carb a little....washers under the choke know to add fuel everywhere and buy add a washer at a time I have been able to make a lot of progress on getting it right. The other way would be to buy a richer needle, but this is easy, cheap, I already have the parts, and it works. In short it was just a nice sunny day and I got stuff done. I did take A LOT of pics, so the pics I will put on here.....it's pics heavy. so you are forewarned. Cheers and God bless.~Joe

Got the front suspension and sway bar off today. Fought me a little bit, but impact helped a lot and had to take a sawzall to the toe arms, but it’s all out.

I’m hoping to get some work done on the car this weekend. So close to being done with tearing stuff down and ready to add stuff. Just got this dual master cylinder kit that I hope I can make work. It’ll let me adjust front/rear brake bias in the car.

Hi. Did it end up working?

Ordered some cheaply sponge filters while I wait for my CAI box to get finished . Made a smaller vacuum log -3/4” PVC pipe . Despite having one of my widebands flaking on me I was able to drive around well enough that I wasn’t scared of dying on the road anywhere . Not much help out there for guys running MS and ITBS. Seems most Haltech or others . I’ve also got different perspectives on how to load certain tables . I have Yanni saying that all the tables can be run off of TPS and Richard that says running timing off of MAP is best . Presently I am going to try and run it all TPS . I can only hope the FAJS version of a TPS is accurate and reliable . I might eventually go with a contactless style from EFI hardware . For now I haven’t gotten past 38% TPS on my tuning so I’m not stressing my TPS to hard that’s for sure . Honestly - I didn’t think it would run even this good this early in the tune . I am trying to be patient with throttle input since I do hit big lean spots . I am also learning how to use Megalog Viewer at the same time that has a VE analyzer which is pretty damn cool .

As an FYI....it is my understanding that we would not be able to keep HybridZ up & running without those paying advertisers. The donations taken in every year only cover a small portion of the annual operating costs.