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juliarosario

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Everything posted by juliarosario

  1. juliarosario
    Anyways, back to working on the rears! This is just about where we wanted them, so we riveted them in place and started to bond them to the car. I was SOOO happy with them at this point! However, my plans were to have them molded onto the car so I knew it wouldn't stay looking like this. I was a little scared of having them molded because lots of people expressed their doubts and warnings about having them molded! BUT, I have faith in my body guy!!
  2. juliarosario
    I wish I had a couple pictures to describe this next problem we ran into, but I don't! So I'll have to do my best to try and explain it. SO, yes we cut the original fenders back, NO you could not see them underneath the mafia flares anymore, HOWEVER, the flares were hollow! So the flares were only going to be bonded to the upper metal of the car, leaving the underneath completely uncovered and ugly looking! Thankfully, my body guy is quite a body guy and found a way to make the most beautiful custom under fenders! THEY CAME OUT SO WELL! I'll try and get you guys some pictures so you have a better idea what I'm talking about!
  3. juliarosario
    The fronts were a little more difficult to fit, especially matching the little piece that attaches the fenders to the air dam. You can kind of see how that little piece doesn't fit quite right. So I went back onto the Fiberglass Mafia instagram page to try and find some more information. I found out that they used the Type 1 Air dam to mold with this kit, and that's exactly what I had! I figured that if I bought a bumper we could see where the air dam wants to sit, and more easily fit the front together. But, you can see how awesome the front fenders line up!! We decided to start working on the backs while we ordered and waited for a new front bumper to ship.
  4. juliarosario
    Next, we fit the fenders on the car and riveted them in place. The backs went on pretty easy, mostly all the lines in the fenders went with the body lines of the car.
  5. juliarosario
    The first step once my car got to the body shop was to bring down and cut back my original fenders. You could see them underneath the Mafia flares, like a lot! I couldn't imagine not cutting the fenders back because as soon as you were to see the car from a low angle, there were the old fenders underneath! It was horrendous. Here is a picture of how high we had to cut the fronts back. I don't have a picture of the backs cut, but trust me, they're cut!!
  6. juliarosario
    Hi Guys! I am not super new to these forums but I also not a pro yet However, as far as I can see no one has posted any pictures or information about the Fiberglass Mafia Flare kit for the 240z, 260z, and 280z! I have been eyeing these fenders for as long as I've owned my Z and since I've had them for a while, it was finally time to send my car to my body work guy! When I first ordered the fenders I was a little wary of the fitment and quality because no one had really reviewed these fenders yet before. Well, here I am! After placing the order, I waited a couple months and then they finally arrived!! As far as I could tell they were pretty sturdy, pretty lightweight and looked like they would be amazing on my Z! Here is a picture of my baby with the fenders taped right on.
  7. juliarosario
    Oh there is still, SOOO much to tell you guys. But let's make this long story shorter and sum this up. Cooling system now working fantastic, car is running cool, fluid is flowing just as it should. We wired the ignition. No more alligator clips!! For the most part! Finally made a decision about what gauges to order, and they are beautiful! Got the tach and the boost gauge so far. Ordering little by little bc you know the whole broke college student thing. Took my car out in public for basically the first time. Got some gas and also many eyeballs looking at my baby! Still have yet to do my first burnout! Just started wiring the cooling fans, yes I know procrastination is a thing Found out why the clutch is so low, fixing that this weekend! Here are some nice pictures to fill you in!! IMG_9162.mov
  8. juliarosario
    It was getting late and I realized I wanted to flush out my system so I waited until the next day to push my car outside and stick a hose in it! I put the house in the top of the engine where the upper radiator hose connects to and let the water run through the engine for about 45 minutes. I then put the hose where the bottom radiator hose connects to on the engine, turned up the water, and let it run through backwards for a while! After lunch I pushed the car back inside and decided it was time to piece everything back together. I made a gasket out of gasket paper matching up to my housing, fit the thermostat to the inside of the engine and got to work. It was kind of a hassle to keep the thermostat and the housing in just the right spot and then to get the bolts in just enough, only because the bolts were in such a tricky spot to get to! FINALLY, I get the housing fit on real nice, I cranked that beech on right. I jack the car up, only in the front, fill the radiator, start filling the block and SHIT, I'm seeing a leak. I'm so confused, I'm like damn is the gasket wrong, is something hanging out, do I really have to unscrew everything all over again?! The answer is yes to some of those questions. Turns out that when you "crank that beech" and over torque your bolts, your aluminum housing might crack! I cracked the housing right at one of the ears, not completely off but a nice thicCCCk crack. Just enough to have to unbolt everything, spill all the nice new radiator fluid on the ground, have a one or two casual mental breakdowns, weld the housing back to a normal state, bring the housing enough to let the bolts sit flush again, go back to the car, cut open ur hand maneuvering to get to these three bolts, praying to all the gods that the thermostat will line up with the gasket just right, and BAM, we are bolted up. SO, AGAIN, I start filling up the block with radiator fluid. Im waiting and waiting, knowing some fluid is gonna leak out this housing one way or another and... to my delightful surprise and long awaiting relief, NOTHING COMES OUT. I put back on the upper radiator hose, fill that as well and well, that killed a couple hours! But I was soooooo so happy to know the job was done!
  9. juliarosario
    So I scraped all that gross gunk off the engine and threw the old thermostat as far away from me as I could. I cleaned the housing itself and got it all ready to be bolted up again, when ready! Look how clean it I got it, pictured with the new thermostat!
  10. juliarosario
    Alright, so I was at the shop and I am itching to change the thermostat. I ended up buying a 300zx thermostat, reading on the forums that they were interchangeable for my RB. Let me start off by saying the bolts for the thermostat housing are in the MOST INCONVENIENT, ANNOYINGLY IRRITABLE SPOT. So. First, I got the car on the lift and drained the radiator fluid through the drain at the bottom. Let me just say that fluid was horrid. It smelled like nothing I have ever smelled before. It was this light brown liquid sparkled with flakes of rust and again, it smelled horrible. After it all had all drained out I put the bolt back in the radiator and lowered the car to the ground. Next, I disconnected the top radiator hose and the bottom hose. At one point some of the fluid left in the bottom hose leaked out onto my hand and I honest to god thought my skin might start crawling off. Anyways, with the hoses out of the way I only had to deal with the placement of the thermostat housing bolts. There were three of them. It took me about 20 minutes to get all three bolts off. There was a lot of swivel ratcheting going on, some difficult flashlight placement and so much excitement when the last bolt finally came off!! I nudged on the housing until it finally cracked off. More of that brown water leaked on my hand it was a nice time. Look at that!! So much rust and what a horrible rtb job. Kind of gross but also kind of cool to see that all this was in my engine and now has the opportunity to get cleaned out! And look at where the housing bolts up to, so gross right!?
  11. juliarosario
    After my inspiring drive, I actually didn't work on the car for about a week. First it was birthday celebration stuff, and then it was Christmas, then New Years, all very time consuming! But don't fret, Dirty D and I did meet up again yes. So, the task of the day was to figure out the cooling system. We jacked the front end of the car up. It was my understanding that we did that so that all the coolant could flow more easily into the back of the block? Still learning about all this stuff! Also the radiator sits higher then the engine so at one point we were pouring coolant into the engine directly. As we were pouring coolant into the engine we figured out which heater hose went where and so forth. We also realized that it was indeed air bound. After about twenty minutes we had the engine and radiator filled with coolant, and all of the heater hoses figured out. We started the engine and let it run for a bit to see if the coolant was circulating. It took a minute but we started to feel the top hose circulating, it was a little warmer. However, the bottom hose stayed ice cold. We had the OBD1 scanner hooked up so we were monitoring the temperature from there. We also had the spill free coolant funnel hooked up with some coolant in there. We watched the temperature raise, 170, 175, 180... 190, high 190's!! And the coolant in the funnel is not going down, the bottom hose is still ice cold. Suddenly we start to see some bubbles in the funnel and some of the coolant starts sucking down the funnel very slowly. The bottom hose got a little warmer, but not by much. Meanwhile we're noticing the coolant is filled with rust. After running the car again, we notice the same thing. The group consensus is that the thermostat is probably rusted tightly shut, or mostly shut. We also decide we should replace the thermostat and flush the system due to all the rust in the coolant.
  12. juliarosario
    SO, now the main issues at hand, morally stopping me from driving, were: THE DAMN COOLING SYSTEM figuring out why my block is getting hot, my radiator ice cold, maybe air bound?? figuring out where and how to route the heater hoses, could not for the life of me find a diagram online wiring the cooling fans wiring the ignition (still using about seven thousand alligator clips) maybe adding in like gauges, seatbelts, dash, turn signals and lights back in?? However, My birthday comes, I'm twenty one now.. I'm at the shop. It's approximately daytime, sunny, not too cold. Dirty D is giving me the look, you know. I'm thinking, I can justify this as a birthday present to myself, if I maybe just take my car out for a short ride in the next parking lot over. Okay, I'm in. It was so surreal. Eight months of hard work and I'm sitting in the driver's seat, finally filled with the intention of actually driving my car. SO, I crank it. It turns over immediately. I'm nervous and I'm thinking deep down shit what if I drive this car and I hate it. So, I pop it into reverse and start lifting my foot off the clutch and the car dies. DIES. So i'm like okay. Let's try again. Same thing happens. And I'm like, my foot is two centimeters off the clutch how is this thing stalling?? I finally get it right. I learned pretty quickly that my clutch is SUPER low. I'm talking like I tickle my foot up an inch and the clutch is already let out. Whatever. Does not stop me, I'll get used to it for the next five minutes. I turn the car around and I'm waiting to pull out of my parking lot, right into the next. My heart is beating so fast, thank god the steering wheel is suede because you know my hands were getting all sweaty. TMI, okay okay. SO.. I pull into the next parking lot, and this parking lot is massive. Long straight aways, wide corners, probably for all the big rigs coming in and out for the industrial businesses. I took the first two laps around the lot pretty maturely. I knew the cooling system wasn't really set up in my car so I didn't want to push it. But on that third lap, I laid into that car. I took advantage of every amateur straight away, every turn. Then I delicately placed Dirty D back into the garage. I noticed That car is amazing, the most fun car I have ever driven I love it The clutch is very low, needs to be bled or adjusted? The tires were spinning in second gear? Maybe bc they're from 2005? maybe some dry rot okay they need replacing yes. The brakes could use some work The car did not break up at all, it drove like a dream (yes I have dreamt about it before) I loved it The cooling system definitely needed to be figured out. The radiator ice cold, block hot. I loved it
  13. juliarosario
    HI guys! We have not talked in a long time, it has been a very busy, yet relaxing, winter vacation! Where to begin... So if I recall correctly, we left off with Dirty D having some alternator issues, and some issues staying running. Believe it or not, both of those were easy fixes that seemed to be fixed in a relatively short amount of time! We decided to first deal with the idling issue. If you all remember, the car was idling beautifully while the temporary gas tank was hooked up in the front of the car, but as soon as we reconnected the tank and the lines, NOT IDLING AT ALL. Hmm, turns out that just by adjusting the screw on the AAC, our idling issue was fixed! It was amazing, in a matter of minutes my baby was back and breathing well again. However, I am running without an IAC and was fighting myself for the longest time, debating whether that was my problem or not. I almost dug through my parts bucket to put it back on, but now with the idle running great, I didn't dare to touch anything. Side Note: If anyone is also running without their IAC or has any advice whether to keep it on or not, please share! I would love some opinions, and I love learning so shoot! ANYways, so yes. Car is running great, now we're like shit we only have to figure out what's wrong with the alternator now. We're like, what could be wrong?? Is it in the ECU? Is this a bad alternator, no its brand new it's gotta work! Then, we maybe discovered.... and I don't want to admit this. I mean, really, you guys should just skip over these next few sentences to spare me the embarrassment. The alternator was not charging because I didn't screw the wires down all the way. OKAY OKAY, I said it. Easy fix, like I said! Still learning here okay So now, I'm feeling awesome, I'm smiling like stupid smiling. I'm so happy that now I have a working alternator, my idle is good, my engine is running good. It's almost time to rip it.
  14. juliarosario
    Thank you! I definitely appreciate your interest, I love knowing people are reading
  15. juliarosario
    Hey all! It has been a busy week and weekend, I didn't have any time at all to work on the Datsun. First, my daily had some issues. Check engine light came on, misfiring and then found oil on all of the spark plugs! So not a great day. No worries though, the problem is now in the works of being fixed. You guys should know by now I love adding pictures and let's face it, it looks so damn good even on our flatbed. Then a very, very, very clean 2.5RS came up on craigslist and we could not stay away. SO, let's welcome the newest addition to our car collection. I'm thinking there is some very cool things to be done to this car in the near future. There it is next to my babe and also next to the z28. THEN, we had to hustle our way down to Florida in time for a drag racing weekend and NOW it is just about finals week! So bare with me, hopefully a ton of progress will come this winter break seeing as though I'll have a whole month off! Threw in another picture of the datsun with that kit on it! I really like it! I think once the fit and finish is done, bodywork, and a new paint job, it won't look half bad!!
  16. juliarosario
    Their instagram link is right here. The company is called fiberglass mafia. https://www.instagram.com/fiberglassmafia/?hl=en
  17. juliarosario
    Hi Guys! Back with a little update: MY FENDERS CAME IN! There was a point where I definitely thought they were slowly becoming a figment of my imagination, because they were not showing up! I think I ordered them October 1st, so they should've been there by the end of October, but I guess the company was having some mishaps and said they had to end up remaking one. However there was a point where the fenders went on sale and mine still had not shipped, so at that point I was like UGH, this sucks, do I cancel and reorder? I didn't. Then I didn't get tracking information until like November 15th but USPS didn't get the actual package until the 22nd I think. And since then I have been anxiously awaiting the USPS man, jumping to get the door at the shop every time it opened. Alas, it has been a long wait but MY FENDERS CAME IN. I like them! They are very light weight and thin. I think that'll make blending them into the body a lot easier. The fitment is very nice as well, the backs fit perfectly. I have to take the fender turn signal off in the front fender, to see how well they go there but they look spot on! I included some pictures so you guys can check it out as well. Last time I talked to guy who will be doing the body work on these fenders, he said that we were probably gonna have to take the fenders to bare metal and adhere them that way, or buy a set of fiberglass fenders to work off of, saving these. I'll be sure to get a plan with him soon because I think lots of paint stripping is in the future anyways. Blue is not my final color choice.
  18. juliarosario
    I will definitely keep you posted! As well, I am looking forward to see how it turns out!
  19. juliarosario
    Oh and I forgot to mention I ordered a wide body kit for Dirty D. I had been eyeing this kit for a long time and finally I decided to pull the trigger! They will actually be in tomorrow, says USPS, and I can't wait to see them in person! I would love to know what you guys think of them! They won't be on the car for a pretty long while, we are not nearly close to that stage but damn just having them to look at will be amazing!! Note: Obviously not my Z in the picture, this is just straight from the website. I'll update you guys tomorrow when I see mine in person!
  20. juliarosario
    Meanwhile, besides the slight Z progress, the shop has been fairly busy! Ever since the dyno has been in we have been crazy busy! I included some videos of some of my favorite cars we've had on our dyno! Other than that we have also become registered VP dealers so now our shop always has the coolest race fuels in stock and readily available. If anyone ever needs anything specific, don't be scared to shoot me a message! Also the transmission broke on our Factory Five 818c so that's gonna be a project just to get that transmission out to replace it. I mean, we have to take EVERYTHING out to get to it. So right now its sitting happily broken in the garage. We also are feeling the spirit of Christmas down at East Side, so we decided to make our own Christmas TREE. FIRST CLIP where my Datsun and I made it on youtube IMG_8146.mov The coolest 240sx to come on the dyno so far! IMG_8281.mov Black GTR gif IMG_8496.mov Red GTR, the full pull, this thing was insane! IMG_8511.mov First VP shipment gif IMG_8470.mov Really sick Civic that came in! IMG_8230.mov
  21. juliarosario
    Hey guys! Had a little more progress going this weekend and last. I've been dedicating all my weekend time to my babe, since school and work on the weekdays leave me with little or no time to spend with Dirty D. Anyways! So last weekend we put the new alternator on and it looks amazing! First we had to remove the pulley off the rb alternator and put it on the quest alternator. Next we had to drill some bigger holes in the quest alternator and also put a space in between the bottom bracket to get it to line up perfectly right. We test fit the belt and it went on just right. Then we grinded down the upper bracket and made the holes just a little bigger and that was it! A couple hours of work and it was snug and fit perfectly! Only problem we have now is that the alternator is not getting any power. We reran the power and ground wires and checked them twice, but still only getting 12.5 volts at the battery, and nothing with the alternator. I read on some forums that the car has to be up to at least 2700 RPMs for the alternator to charge but I don't buy that. SO pls hold for further investigation! Also should be noted that we are still running the car off of a gallon gas tank! And as much as I liked the sleek mobility of my little red gas can, I felt the need to put my old (BUT VERY CLEANED UP ONE) back in . So, we rewired our fuel pump back to the back of the car, connected the send and return lines and strapped that tank back in. It should be noted that during this process it was a communal shop decision (still very unsure the technical reasons as to why we did, but we did) to remove the vapor canister from my car. So, we did it!! We also capped the hole on the gas tank where the ventilation line was running to and also capped the ventilation line on the filler neck. THINKING BACK. THAT SOUNDS LIKE A BAD IDEA. WHY DID WE CAP OFF THE LINE ON THE VENTILATION NECK. I think it was a very late night decision that I am dying to go change. Pls hold and you will find out exactly why! Anyways. okay back to where we were. We put the gas tank back in ran the lines in the back or the car. Lowered the car back down and added a new fuel filter and connected those lines as well. By that time we were getting our dyno customers in so we had to cut the Datsun work short. I included some picture for you guys to look at! One just my little inside setup, that I am very much dying to sit in (WHILE THE CAR IS MOVING, don't worry, I sit in it plenty while the car is stationary!!). Next is the old alternator I took off. And then it compared to its much superior (but also not working right now) quest daddy alternator. And finally just my babe on the lift taking a little break from the world.
  22. juliarosario
    hahaha yes! Trust me it was so worth it!!
  23. juliarosario
    Okay! So I put all the injectors back on for good, got the fuel rail bolted down, everything is back to normal! At this point the car is running awesome! It sounds great when we're revving it, we adjusted the idle just right. Then we realize that our alternator is bad! So, the alternator has come off and we ordered a nissan quest alternator to replace it. I've read on some forums that they're plug and play, and just some minor modification to the bracket has to be done. After that, we just have to get all of our wiring sorted out, to the ignition, fans hooked up, fuel pump and tank back in. After that, we will be ALL READY TO RIP IT. I am so excited for my first drive with Dirty D, and the rb!! I included a little video of it up and running. I didn't really get on it that much, next time I'll be sure to rev it like a maniac!! IMG_8361.mov
  24. juliarosario
    So, we did a noid lite test and indeed found one bad injector exactly on the cylinder that was misfiring. I unbolted the fuel rail and took the bad injector off. So my problem here was that I couldn't find replacement stock 270cc injectors anywhere! Only aftermarket ones, which was fine if I was upgrading, but I'm not ready for that yet! I figured if I upgraded injectors I would need to tune the ecu so it would know about more fuel coming in, and without a nistune, I don't know if I could easily do that. Alas, thinking of the cost of a set of new injectors and a nistune didn't seem that interesting to me, considering I was planning to upgrade to the Infinity box in the summer anyways! SO, we decided we were gonna send that injector out to get cleaned and tested, maybe it was just clogged? But if we were gonna do that, okay okay fine, I will send them all out to be cleaned. I knew a place that would do the injectors cleaning and testing for dirt cheap!! Sooooo, I took all of the injectors off and put them in a bag ready to be shipped off. But then, for some reason, someone at my shop was like hold on, before you send those injectors out just test them one more time. So, okay we lithium grease them and just hold them them right on the fuel rail, with our hands, yes ready to spew fuel over the entire shop? Yes. And just like we suspected, one injector did not spray fuel. Also, side note, one hand did not hold an injector down all the way and it came off the fuel rail and angrily sprayed all over my eyeballs. Yup! Lesson learned from that one!! ANyways, while I'm off rinsing my eyeballs out, they're still over by my car playing with the injectors and suddenly, SO SUDDENLY, all the injectors are shooting fuel. ALL OF THEM. Even the one we thought was bad or clogged, suddenly got unclogged!!! What a beautiful sight (although at the moment I couldn't see it happen??).. So yes, the sacrifice was worth it. I had two painfully red eyeballs but also six working injectors soooo seems like a pretty good day to me.
  25. juliarosario
    While the tank was drying, we took some time to troubleshoot the engine and see if we had any other issues stopping the car from starting. We took a little red gas container, filled it up with some gas, shoved the send and return lines in there, yes with a fuel filter too, we are not savages, and had a temporary gas tank to work from. We adjusted the fuel pressure, sealed up a TON of vacuum leaks and found an old fashioned OBD1 scanner that actually helped us start this engine way better than anything we had tried before. We had it running in a matter of minutes. The scanner was a big help, telling us lots of things we were not aware of before! Alas, the clouds come raining in again and we find cylinder 3 misfiring. But damn, that engine running on 5 cylinders sounded amazing. We were getting spark at the cylinder and when we removed the spark plug we found some oily junk on it. The exact moment I thought, wow if this engine has a blown ring seal I will kms. We removed the coils, spark plugs and compression tested each cylinder, just to be safe. Two of the cylinders came back at 165, three at 155, and one at 145. Good enough, for now. Next we checked the injectors. brb.
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