Leaderboard

05-09-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: I finished installing the Apex Engineered rear strut bar and then went about cutting the floor pieces from my skilard floor and got it to fit all back together. Then I installed my rear license plate light and got everything all wired in at the rear of the car, and finished running the fuel cell breather hose down and cleaned the whole area up. Then I started on the venter of the console. I used some thin gauge aluminum plate....making templates out of cereal box cardboard and then cutting the aluminum to fit. Then I drilled holes and mounted the 2 pieces for today, masked it off and painted it in matching Rustoleum glossy black hammertone....matching the dashboard. I took some cardboard I had left over and made 2 templates of the rear cover plate, and then cut the center out of the first one, so I can begin the process of taping in pieces to get the hole cut out just right, then I can cover the aluminum skillard cover with blue tape and draw out the pattern and cut it out. I am also going to be installing the Snow Performance Stage 1 braided water ethanol 3 quart tank back there, but I haven't decided on the spot I want yet. All teh wiring is now ran up and down to the floor behind the passenger seat. PICS:

engine looks great. Really loosing confidence in APEX parts.

Apex said that batch with the new vendor had the groove to short, they are sending some new ones. Glad it wasn’t me, was racking my brain trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Go the rockers and intake on today, engine is getting close to done.

I’m currently also waiting on some replacement Apex frame rails as the passenger side one had a production fault (was bent the wrong way!). They were also a week late with shipping the new once and even more annoying they are now held up by customs as they are unhappy with the paperwork and declared value of the package. All in all my car has been sitting idle on a lift at the body shop for two weeks now, I hope they won’t charge me too much in storage fees. 😢 I also have the Apex rear control arms and almost there entire front Retro suspension kit lying on the shelve waiting for my car to come back. I really hope I don’t have your issue with the rear control arms being to short. Would you be able to measure both the stock and Apex arms for me? That way I can check mine while I’m still waiting on my car.

Hi everybody, long time for updates. Been quite busy with kids and a very nasty divorce going on. The good news is my garage and cars are still intact and I am still making progress, although very slowly. Car is very close to track testing. I decided to have a new pair of steering arms machined to match the front geometry. I will post more when they are finished. In the interim, I took the time to catch up on some side projects I wanted to do. With the advancement of AI, some of the projects I considered impossible a couple years ago have turned out to be quite easy now and very inexpensive. Based on Arduino technology, I have integrated a motion sensor into my data acquisition system. I use a Race Technology DL1 Club box which is limited to 8 analog sensor inputs, but can decode an almost unlimited amount of CAN signals. So I built a circuit that decodes the motion sensor and outputs a CAN signal. I now have 3-axis roll, pitch, and yaw angles along with speeds and acceleration live data. It will all be packaged in a small box that mounts in the car. Next is a infrared tire temperature monitor. A 16x4 temperature array sensor once again combined with Arduino and CAN output board. I am trying to package this as small as possible so it can be mounted on brackets roughly 4" above the tire. Again real time data of inner, middle, and outer tire temps while driving. Hopefully saves a lot of time when dialing in the camber and pressures. More to come...........

Most of the Apex kit has been good, a few minor fitment issues on some parts and that front bracket to attach the subframe with the hidden carriage bolts was a PIA to get in. Getting these axles has been a mess. I ordered the rear kit 8 months ago and still waiting on parts. Luckily I’ve got lots of other things in my build to work on, but if I didn’t I’d be really upset.