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:Now I must admit, my initial goal for this round of winter modifications was to solely to make my car handle better. Since I have owned the car, a big part of me has always wanted to take the Z out on the track, so I decided this year I was gonna do what little I could to make the car handle well and actually use it for what it should be used for (hopefully). But of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and began trying to make everything “look” nice and the list grew.…
:So I’ll start in the front and work our way back. Here are the things I did … and although this is mainly just to pic whore, hopefully there might actually be some useful information….
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:FRONT BUMPER/ENGINE BAY
:Here's what I did up front (with some pictures to go along):
:-removed front bumper
:-polished intercoolers (again) and clearcoated them
:-cleaned up oil cooler
:-cleaned up entire area behind bumper
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:Don’t mind how banged up the intercooler is, they were used and I got them cheap….
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:-Removal of AIV system
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:-Removal of PVRV system
:-Removal of Carbon Canister
:-Removal of Radiator Overflow tank and installation of replacement Moroso tank
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:And just to show how much misc crap gets removed with the Carbon canister, PVRV, and AIV system removal
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:-Installation of Master Cylinder Brace
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:-Relocation of Cruise Control
:-Fabrication of boost leak tester and leak testing
: Just a note, I had a boost leak in the passenger side turbo inlet, so I since I had to tighten it, why not reroute all the wires and tubes on the passenger side…looks a lot cleaner huh…
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:Just a word of advice though…protect your paint… I usually always always put towels over my bumper and fenders to protect it from scraches…but I simply forgot in this case since I wasn’t doing any major engine work (or so I thought)… here is the aftermath
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:Good news is they will probably buff out… but it’s still annoying…
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:FRONT SUSPENSION / STEERING
:Here's the suspension and misc. stuff I did up front....
:-Installation of Stainless Clutch line
:-Installation of Steering rack bushings
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:-Welded or “boxed-in” lower control arms
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:-Stainless Brake line install
:-Adjustable camber arms install
:-Stillen Sway bar install
:-recoating of all factory arms/linkages
:-respray of rubberized undercoating into wheelwell
:-cleaning of all components
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:REAR SUSPENSION / DIFFERENTIAL /SUBFRAME
:and here's the stuff I did out back....
:-Cleaning and repainting of rear subframe
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:-Cleaning and repainting of Rear Differential
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:-Installation of Differential Carrier bushing set
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:-Installation of Rear control arm bushing set and new rear outer hicas ball joints
:This picture shows the locations of the bushings in the ES kit. I’ll be honest, this will take a long time and a good amount of patience to get these done.
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:This picture shows a technique I used to press out the old bushings if a press can’t get to it
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:This picture show how we pressed in the new ball joints for the Hicas…pressing in was Easy, taking the
:old ones out was a royal PITA
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:-Welded or “boxed-in” traction rods (shown in one of the pictures above)
:-Installation of Stainless rear brake lines
:-Installation of Adjustable rear camber arms
:(This shows how I made sure the settings were the same for a baseline…then I went a couple turns more)
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:-Installation of Hicas eliminator assembly
:-Recoating of all suspension arms and exhaust tubing
:-Recoating of brake calipers
:-Respray of rubberized undercoating into wheelwell and undercarriage
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:Here’s the trade-off for being so low…damn exhaust scratches…
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:SO now I have moved on to the interior…. I got quite a few things planned here, so I will be back with another pic intensive post on what’s going on there…here is what it looks like right now
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:ENJOY!!!
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