Leaderboard

I got a headliner from the Z store.com and you're right it was quite thick. Had to trim about an inch on the sides and the back because it was a little oversized. Also I thought I could be safe with the spray-on adhesive and not get it everywhere so I didn't tape off the upper vinyls and yes I ended up getting glue everywhere haha. But I used a clean cloth and that stuff called Goo Gone and it came right off no problem... I did however cover my up my seats with a old bed sheet. I used SEM gloss black vinyl paint on the new headliner and it look'

Got the VTC cams back from Schneider so I was able to mess around a bit wit the upper chain. Machining the center out of a stock Honda exhaust gear. Holy bajezas was that thing hard. I had to anneal the center to make any headway through it. Came out great though. Action shot. Looks promising but there is a lot left to do. Best part is my stuff is always S/N001

She came home last week. The shop wants me to bring the car back as soon as possible, once I clean and sort it out, for a photoshoot. Super Street is the rumor. I don't care either way I just want someone to shoot the car. Needs a paint correction baaaad. But she wouldn't boost at all, it was running very lean. Idled fine..After a little investigation I discovered the source of the problem. The trailer ride back over stirred up some **** in the gas tank which proceeded to severely clog one of my fuel filters. I also developed a couple leaks due to things heating up and cooling back down a few times. Like the rear diff cover needed another go around to stop some seepage, and the turbo oil feed gasket failed, so I made a replacement for that. The fuel filter fixed the lean condition, obviously, and the car boosts beautifully. It's a hoot at only 5-6psi out of the tiny t3. A wonderful starting platform. It really feels like what you'd expect a racecar to feel like on the road. It feels LIGHT. It takes no effort to move itself, and it feels very stiff. I have not come close to losing grip. The car is very planted and balanced. Makes sense....it was corner balanced. The carbon interior, not being fully installed, doesn't even rattle. I expected it to rattle like a snake, but nope.....a couple loose screws on some plastics in the rear, but the dash is Gerbraltskis. Rock solid. The new 5 speed n/a zx transmission is wonderful. The rear end does transfer a bit of noise into the cockpit, some of which I will attempt to quell, but otherwise it isn't overly concerning for me. I LOVE every second of it. It is serious sensory overload. The sound, the look, the feel of being surrounded by carbon....the response....it's the whole package. I am very happy. Now I am putting the car back in the air to confirm all the bolts under the car are still tight. I'm looking at you diff bolts.....axle bolts....lug nuts. It looks like shit now...I can't wait to clean it up a bit. It's a car again! Now it's time to make it a better one. 125 miles in. She hits.

Update: I finally have the brakes assembled on the car. It's been IN-OP for too long. I had a laundry list of things that I wanted to get done along with the brakes before Zdayz this year. These included: 1) Finishing up the brake upgrade 2) Cleaning/ installing new fuel tank 3) Re-installing the surge tank that I made a few years back 4) Re-vamping the engine bay/ adding thermal wraps and protection to a few things 5) Getting the car to run cooler with A/C on. So far, I've completed the first 3 items on my list. I installed the new to me fuel tank and surge tank this passed weekend. I ran into some issues with the surge tank that ended with a ton of spilled gas. I had originally sealed the hole that the wires for the pump inside the surge tank with JB weld. Apparently JB weld degrades with time and exposure to gasoline, I didn't find this out until the surge tank was filled by the lift pump and the fuel poured out of the top of it. I dropped the surge tank and pulled one hose off to drain a portion of the fuel out before using gas tank repair epoxy on the wire opening. I wasn't able to get to it that evening (due to a dinner date with the wife) so for an extra precaution, I placed vice grips on the tank supply line to keep the fuel from siphoning out of the tank and into the surge tank. Apparently I didn't clamp it tight enough, I returned from dinner to find a river of 93 octane gas running out of the car port and into the drive way. DOH. I re positioned the vice grips and it quit leaking, thankfully. I put some epoxy on the wire opening the next morning and all was well again. I got the chance to take the car down the road briefly and found out that I need to clearance the front calipers a bit.They were making a terrible racket rubbing against the front wheels. I need to fab up ebrake brackets for the rear calipers to completely finish the conversion. I also need to re-bleed the brakes the peddle is very mushy. The rear brake disks are actually larger than the original front rotors... One of the biggest reasons that I've been forced to re-vamp the engine bay is due to rats. The car has been parked in my enclosed car port for a good while now and I live next to a cow field. Apparently the field rats decided that the engine bay of my car would serve as a suitable hangout. Fortunately, they had mostly just hung out on top of the intake and valve cover and hadn't built a nest. They at some point during their hangout session decided to chew through one of the injector wires and the wires to my boost control solenoid. The war to kill/keep them at bay has been trying to say the least. I can't catch the little buggers in traps and they apparently wont die of poisoning (They have eaten almost 3 lbs of poison). I'm trying a bunch of repellents and such now with pretty good results thus far I am now looking into putting a garage door up to permanently solve the problem, but I freaking hate these suckers. I've started on number 4 on the list as well. I've added some of the DEI gold heat reflective wrapping to the cold intercooler piping to try and reduce the amount of heat soak, as well as coating the heat shield for the brake master. I've already got a new turbo blanket and some DEI Titanium exhaust wrap to re-wrap the exhaust manifold and down pipe with. I'm also planning on using a reflective heat barrier on the heat shield that goes under the intake manifold as well. I'm tired of having heat issues in the humid 100+F southern summers.