weld-in camber plates, custom strut braces, engine bay respray project

[zredbaron]

Essentially this is a 6+ month project primarily brought about by my engine having a coolant leak and needing to be pulled. The basic plan was this:

 

1) Remove engine

2) Rebuild engine

3) Weld-in camber plates (Techno Toy Tuning)

4) Have strut brace mounts and supports fabricated / incorporated into camber plate installation (based on pics from a similar implementation from JohnC)

5) Respray engine bay satin black

6) Install rebuilt engine

 

This project thread will be in parallel with the engine performance portion of this iteration of upgrades:

http://forums.hybrid...post__p__949205

 

The above link goes into detail regarding the NA engine upgrades and has a ton of pics of the new engine hardware, etc. In short, the engine is receiving full race headers, some valvetrain improvements and a high rpm cranskshaft balance. The engine rebuild will be updated in that thread, and the fabrication / chassis modification / respray will be in this thread. Some assembly and final pics in both.

Edited July 25, 2011 by zredbaron

[zredbaron]

Here are the "before" pictures:

The engine has been removed, but the electrical system still needs to be cleaned up, camber plates welded in and the engine bay is to be resprayed, too. Also note how nasty the back firewall is and also how not clean / distinct the radiator firewall is.

 

The brake lines area is just nasty.

 

My recent repaint in 2009 wasn't a frame off restoration, so underneath the cowl and fenders I found some metal that hasn't seen daylight for about 40 years, presumably.

 

What I hate most about this view is how small the tires look.

Edited July 25, 2011 by zredbaron

[zredbaron]

Here are my camber plates after they were welded in. I requested the shop to file down the welds and make it appear factory. They did a tremendous job, as you can see:

This has the flanges tacked in and a reinforcement plate welded onto the outside of the tower.

And you can see that this plate was also smoothed out, too.

 

Preview of the final design:

It's hard to tell, but reinforcement plates were welded to the firewall. They were then smoothed out like the shock towers were. The flanges, however, in all cases were never smoothed out. They are essentially showing off the quality of the welds, plus you can't really get in there to clean out the welds between the flanges. Looks good as is.

 

 

 

This is the rear. I told him not to worry about smoothing out the plates because I would cover it with the vinyl interior skin eventually.

 

We also miscommunicated about the rear. It was supposed to be an X with a horizontal top, but he made a triangular, bisected horizontal bar. Should have it done the way I asked eventually.

 

It should be noted that JohnC recommended a larger washers/bolt (3/4", vice 5/8" as shown in the pics). I let the fabricator talk me out of it saying it was overkill. I probably should have stood my ground and listened to John.

 

Overall, I'm quite proud of this shop's work!

Edited July 25, 2011 by zredbaron

[johnc]

5/8" rod ends are fine. Nice work.

[zredbaron]

Good to hear John, and thanks for your hand in this project.

 

The painter did a phenomenal job given the limitations I handed him. The corner with the brake booster and master cylinders wasn't accessible for him and the back firewall was like a thick layer of dirt and grease. It was disgusting to get it on your hands and stuck like gum.

 

This was painted by the same guy that did my exterior in 2009. He has a large bay and paints 18-wheelers on occasion. He had some cement truck paint in stock that he said will become tough as nails over time. I went for the satin black. He also used some of my leftover red paint to hit the cowl and front trim in the hood supports area.

 

 

 

I had him leave the crossmember alone. I'm going to remove it later and have it reinforced, the LCA pivot points relocated and then powdercoated a matching black.

 

 

It even looks nice from underneath. Fabulous work. Carlos Cardounel of AutoDynamix Racing Cages in Richmond, VA: carlosc@peanddesign.com or (804) 380-8947.

 

 

My local Z shop (Todd Wagner, Tidewater Z) redid my relay setup. I essentially had too many splices over the years and wanted it simplified. The non-oem wiring you see is to power the Electromotive ignition and also the fan relay system. To be cleaned up later.

 

 

The Techno Toy Tuning camber plates look really sharp contrasted with the black.I hoped to use my Ground Control guts since I had custom collars fabricated for hood clearance, but they were incompatible. I'm having difference clearances issues this time. First the nut didn't allow the bearing to articulate, but an acorn style lug nut seems to have corrected that. Now I'm concerned that there might be play caused from a different spherical bearing diameter (induced by my custom collar).

 

I haven't had time to investigate, I've more or less been in a rush to "slap it in the trailer and go." I'm in the middle of a move and by the time I got my car in this condition, I was already mostly packed up and out of my house in Norfolk, VA. (I just got out of the Navy and I'm not sure where I'll end up just yet.)

Edited July 25, 2011 by zredbaron

[zredbaron]

This pic was taken right before the car came back with the fresh paint. Here is my garage staged with parts and even a rebuilt motor under the cherry picker...

Lots of goodies await! The boxes on the left contain new HyperCo springs, a new muffler + tip, Stahl headers, adjustable sway bars (w/ heim joints), etc. My fenders are wrapped up in the blankets under the cowling.

 

The b!tch supervised. Zeppelin's her name. (Evidently when using that word properly, it still gets censored... sigh.)

 

I wanted to seal up the motor as best I could prior to travelling across country.

[JMortensen]

Looks really nice Mark! Unless you're planning on packing the rear of your car full of stuff, I'd suggest when you redo the rear brace you have the clevises cut off and weld the brace in. I had a straight bar with rod ends and I didn't weld in a bar because I thought I would want to remove it at some point. Turns out I never removed the bar, even when I drove to the track with 3 tires in the hatch along with my tool box, helmet, and jack. 4th tire rode shotgun if you were wondering.

 

Besides if you welded it in then you could use those rod ends for some new LCAs.

[zredbaron]

Thanks Jon! New LCAs are definitely on the list. As are CV joints one day... uh oh, what's this I see in your signature about them?

 

This is everything unloaded once I reached my Dad's ranch in Arkansas. He has a large metal building that's fairly new (5-10 yrs?) and therefore is a wonderful place to work on a car. Too bad it was so damn hot! I literally had to work at night. Even then I sweat my ass off. Humidity is the devil.

 

 

 

When the head shop repainted my block, they neglected to paint the thin transmission cover plate, so I started with some sanding, priming, and painting:

 

Which I of course had to apply to the other side. Overall, I was fairly pleased that I didn't screw it up.

 

I also did the same to the brake master cylinders:

Edited July 27, 2011 by zredbaron

[zredbaron]

Next up, the pulley system, etc:

I also had the water pulley powdercoated. Part of my Kameari order included this adjustable alternator bracket. Wasn't that expensive, so I included it with my order for the motor mounts. Also new in this pic is the 280Z alternator with internal voltage regulator + diode conversion from MSA. Much better than my crappy setup before, which included a broken wire that prevented charge reaching my battery. Essentially I raced last year off of the battery as an expendable electrical tank. Oops, no wonder I had to charge it all the time.

 

Getting ready for the headers. I verified my spark plug wires were still consistent after 600 miles, they were. In the 2008 rebuild I went into the weeds with them. I called Electromotive and they evidently use this specific EMI suppressed wire that's 800 ohms/ft or whatever it was. They told me they send the most spark energy to the CC with about 1250 ohms of resistance. So I cut all my wires the same length to match that resistance. I checked them all this go around and all were in the 1250-1275 ohm range, so I'm good still.

 

No amount of cursing will convey how long it took me to get the Stahl headers installed. The frustration was further compounded by my attempt to keep the ceramic texture as clean as possible (dirt magnets!).

 

I first assembled the headers into their final 6-2-1 design, and bolted them together and fastened the spring retainers. After wrestling the headers and the manifold bolts for about 30 mins, I finally gave up and decided I couldn't get the flange to clear the bolts unless the header was disassembled. So I took it all apart.

 

Even then, it was a ton of wrestling just getting them on.

 

Then came our favorite game of getting the thick washers that retain the bottom of the intake manifold onto the bolts. The thick primaries interfered in a laughable fashion. I spent a lot of time on a bench grinder shaping one of my custom spacers. The spacers were essentially thick washers with two tiers of thicknesses. The Stahl flanges were much thinner than my Canon intake manifold, so I needed a step washer to properly fasten both sides.

 

Surprisingly enough, I don't have a picture of the stepped washers anywhere. You can see them installed, so I'll try and show that later when I'm with the car again.

 

After messing with the bench grinder and the step washers for at least an hour, I finally got the headers bolted up. I get under the car and start assembling the primary collectors and merge collector. Fail. The merge collector wasn't even close to having the real estate to slide over the exposed pipe.

 

Back to the drawing board. I loosened the headers, removed them, and assembled the primary collectors without the merge collector. I put this assembly back on the head and loosened the nuts as far as I could. This play allowed me to tilt the bottom of the headers just enough to get the merge collector over the exposed pipe. Whew! Took me another 30 mins to get it all the way on. Then I went back and tightened the header on and checked for clearance. Sure enough, the merge collector is pinned against the firewall's corner. Sigh.

 

But wait, I forgot about the stepped washers! FML, now I have to loosen everything again, and wrestle the intake manifold to get the damn washers onto the bolts. Probably another hour later, I *finally* had the headers bolted up. Took me at least another 15 mins to get the retaining springs on. For one of them I simply could not get my hand to it:

 

The obstructed portion of the merge collector is exactly where the pipe is touching the firewall's turn. It's not barely touching, it's solidly flush. I don't know what that means for the pipe or the car, but I'm not removing those headers. Someone please break it down for me? I'm thinking I'll use a turnbuckle if I have to cinch it away from the firewall. I could do it with the headers hot so they are slightly more malleable and may cool into a new position slightly. Anyone see any red flags?

 

I did eventually get the carbs installed. God, I hate our manifolds.

[zredbaron]

And final assembly drew near. I literally started at 9pm that night, and in these pics it was about 9am the next morning. I was leaving for the airport at 11am and had to wrap this up, get it running and slap the car in the trailer for the next 4-6 weeks. There weren't the bodies to push it up the trailer ramp, and no one wanted my car left out in the commonly opened building. Ready, go!

Getting close. I don't think I had drained the old fuel yet.

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is right around final assembly. Minus the valve cover breather hose.

 

 

This was definitely complete because I can see coolant on the ground. Evidently I only finger-tightened one of the thermocouple housings. Oops.

 

And finally, a short video with audio...

 

 

And yes, that's as far as I've gotten. I won't be back in Arkansas for at least another month.

Edited July 25, 2011 by zredbaron

[zman21]

zredbaron, awesome looking work on the z. When you do something , you do it right. Great job.

[jhm]

Looks (and sounds) fabulous, Mark...great work! Looking forward to seeing it in person -- will you be back in VB anytime soon? Shoot me a PM or e-mail next time you're in town, and congrats on getting the ZREDBARON running again!

r/John

[zredbaron]

Thanks guys! I have to admit how glad I am that I hauled the car around to half a dozen fabricators... I really scored big finding Carlos. He did some truly fine work, the kind you just don't normally see that often. The other shops concerned me that they would cut corners and not deliver what I was asking to pay for. It was an incredible amount of additional labor, but he was genuinely excited about the project and it shows!

 

No plans on returning to VA in the foreseeable future, John. I'll miss the car clubs, but well, that's about it. Goodbye, Navy!

[1miata]

Looks awesome z red baron well let the flaming begin, lol. This is literally my 1st post on hybridz so be gentle. I love the diy strut tower brace,I have a grainger minutes from my home and just wondering exactly what materials will I need to purchase to emulate your front triangulated strur tower brace.for ex. Male Spherical rod size,thread size, tubing diameter,and lastly is it just a nut welded on each end of tubing which allows the spherical rod ends to thread into. And johnc, your a legend please chime in.

[m1ghtymaxXx]

Looks good, what are the camber plates you had in the first post, and why the switch to weld-in? 

[zredbaron]

1miata, I purchased them from JohnC while Beat Motorsports was still up. I don't know the details, sorry.

 

m1ghtymaxXx, the camber plates in the first post were Ground Control. Two reasons for the switch: 1) stronger and more range of camber adjustment and 2) the spherical bearing doesn't bear the weight in the Techno Toy Tuning's version. Maybe GC has evolved, this was years ago, but at the time they were different designs.