Vintage-TechZ

Sounds good. Looking forward to update pix!

Remember to use the zones which will be trimmed out as sacrificial areas that you can relief cut as you place the CF cloth in its final resting place. It will tug less in regions that need it to avoid weave distortions. Some careful planning of PIECE installation and overlaps on radius' will yield a very nice console once you've made patterns and stick with it. Replication will unfold the best methods. Its looking good so far! Another thought for this , you could make a 1.75mm smaller MALE plug to use as a platen press or full Caul plate. Dry load the male mold (easier),then compress it into the female mold firmly and then carefully remove the male. Place in your consumables and bag up. To make an accurate 1.75mm male, you'll need to buy that specific thickness sheet wax as teh final part thickness. The wax sheet represents your CF final part thickness and you'll need to stick to your lay-up schedule each time when this is done.

Thats right Andy! Remember, the OEM parts were pre-form glass mat with long and short strand mat. Waaaaay easier to press into the mold as it being glass which was gel coated in mold. Try using some thick clear plastic sheeting and spray gluing it into your mold to decide where each cut would be appropriate and then exacto cut or scissor the final shape as your templates making sure to use a permanant silver marker to show the weave orientation for later install of cloth. It guides your eye so your ply orientation ends up most linear. Although....sometimes, opposing weave direction can be appealing too! Artsy at that point.

WHile this isn't considered a complex mold, it still can be challenging as a cosmetic part. If I might suggest....parts like these will benifit from making templates for pieces of cloth rather than one whole piece. Consider radius zones for where the cloth might marry well. The console will likely not show these blend points and if done with flair can actually make the final part look more technical.

The autoclave kills two birds with one stone,so to speak. With vacuum still under use while added PSI serves to further compact the laminate stack during the heat cure ramp-up cycle and ramp down cycle. Within Infusion, the post cure heat cycle is simply done after an overnight room temp pre-cure.Then its placed in the post cure oven for final molecular alignment/Bonding matrix. An 8 hour cure is common. So aside to the PSI addition, refridgerator utilities and cost uptick due to resin pre-prepped cloth, both systems are close to final per part costs. EXCEPT for the mold construction cost being more! They require specific tooling if made in composites to handle the loads and higher temps. OR....go with CNC billet tooling or tooling stock. By the way, it was mentioned that Pre-preg requires De-bulking steps. Bare in mind so does Infusion if done correctly. I debulk my CF BMW Z4 coupe roofs three times with an overnight vacuum test prior to introducing resin. It helps consolodate the fibers idealy and makes the parts have a 'ring tone' when you flick your finger on them. Not a dull thud from a resin rich part.

Looks great! How is your RB running?

I'm so glad you are on this forum to chime in on these finer points! Seriously. The car is really coming along David! I know you must be stoked to be there!

I haven't heard back from him yet. It sounds like he's very busy from the description on his website though. If he says yes, that would be great.

From what I've researched, its seems the bet for more affordable re-building comes with the Garrett -5's. The Tomei's are a re-packaged Garrett with spec mods but both perform nearly identical. Just a thought and an opinion. I've been looking at the same choices as you.

I'm south of Los Angeles by an hour and found a place in Westminster called JER performance. They have accomplished a handful of RB swaps and I talked to them about doing mine. Nice guys.

My, those are pricey! I messaged him with a query on whether or not he sells just the boards with a controller? I already have my Euro's pulled apart and polished ready to of back together for something like this. Did you know anything about that Joel?

Well done Joel ! I like the whole display change. Can you pm me what your exact version cost? I think I'll do this mod.

One thing I'd like to mention. Some consideration to air movement between the radiator and larger intercoolers is a must if you'd like the benefits to an efficient max lower temp system. Leaving large open areas to the left,right,top and bottom of the units without the installation of close-off ducting is not making best use of the system. The coolest temps come from making sure as much free flowing air coming through the front of the car are being well ducted THROUGH the intercooler fins and then THROUGH the radiator fins as well. If there is no pressure forcing that air THROUGH these components, its just wasted around them and missing their targets or even creating buffeted air that hardly passes through at all! I used the rolls of aluminum flashing from hardware stores. It comes in rolls varying in widths to suit most projects and can be easily hand formed on a bench and either riveted,epoxied or tack welded to hold strong. I shared this with a friend who had overheating issues with his turbo LS1 240-sx and it dropped his issue altogether and his intake temps along with it by a very large factor. We did it by blocking off ANY voids in the front area where the radiator and IC where mounted firstly, then made walls completely around them so as to make one tube for the air to flow. With the aid of twin fans mounted in the space between the radiator and IC to quiet things some as well as look cleaner......its been working awesome for 10 years going now. Half inch foam strips were fashioned to seal off voids as needed. The self stick kind. Cardboard templates are your friend to start off tight fitment.

I know a lot of you guys are going single turbo.......but I was wanting to stay with duals. This manifold is really nice work. Any plans for a dual in the future or is that most likely never to happen?

Holy dissapontment Batman!! SO sorry to hear this occurred !

Sure,>> http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/117368-s30-gauge-sets-what-brand-did-you-go-with/

After searching for awhile, I noticed there wasn't a concise thread covering choices on gauge sets. (*Mods, Delete this if its redundant please.) This thread is to share links or pictures of your installed gauges and to note what it required to dial them all in. Please note any changes you would have made if you where to do it all over again. I was personally looking for a smoked or blacked out type when ignition is off and then they light up when activated. Sort of like the Subaru units or the Dakota brand does. Any thoughts?

Looking great! Beast coming out...........

Its always amazing how long these builds can take when life gets tossed into the mix. Its looking super once David! Keep up the good work. I'm doing a multi-piece G-nose as well s the OPTIONS work wide body kit to my green 73'. I brought my 98'BCNR R33 RB26dett and awd drivetrain out here when I moved. Time will tell if I get it all dialed in and driving again. Are you going to Branson Z-fest this year?

Thanks for your interest but I just sold those on ebay recently, sorry.

I concur. If Shokai's molds were taken while his original set were still mounted to an un-repaired S30 body like I did.....the fitment is spot on. Molds made from loose parts in this category will be troublesome for all. NOTE: I am not soliciting production from my molds at this time. It was an investment for the future. Cheers, Vinny

As with anything worth tackling, these things take time. Stepping off from time to time to study all angles can yield a 'Best' outcome. The Full Race team had a nice budget and end game in play that worked well for them...but you and I seem to both want something milder than a track only car out of this. I love their Manifold/turbo kits, very nice components along wight eh newer EFR Borg Warner turbos. 1)-BW-EFR turbos 2)-FR Twin manifold in stainless 3)-FR merge pipes Adds up to about $6k pretty quick even BEFORE a AWD controller or AEM stand alone. ~ Do you have any pix of your new pan configuration? ~ Are you utilizing the R32 front and rear subframe assemblies?

For anyone getting new bumpers or want to keep theirs from degrading further.......when I had my factory chrome bumpers chemically stripped and re-polished and re-chromed, I took the time to Scothcbrite clean the backs and edges with the aid of Acetone and then heated them up in the hot sun and sprayed them with high quality undercoat a few light times. If you mask nicely they look awesome and take very little clean up. Mine look new after 10 years! I also used 'Sharkhide Metal Protectant' to protect the chrome from surface attacks like brake dust and bolt corrosion.

Right. Another few points would be > Basic cut-off date was mid year such as 4-5/74'. 1)-deeper console tray. 2)-Extra styling line running across the dash. 3)-Bumber brackets are beefier than 240 and bumper-ettes are fatter and all rubber outside. But retains earlier 240 simpler skinnier metal bumper. 4)-I believe the doors remained as 240 up until the actual 280 introduction which relocated the lock rod pulls and panel hole for it. Perhaps others can confirm who possess them?