I was long overdue for one, but I finally pulled the trigger on it tonight! This should be plenty good for home projects 
I don’t know how people live without having a cheap mig laying around…do yourself a favor though and grab a small bottle of gas. i refill mine maybe once a year and it makes a huge difference in the quality of the weld. Plus stainless flux core is a fortune.
Agreed, I should have bought one of these when I started this project, I would’ve been ‘pretty good’ @ welding by now. Oh well, better late than never. I’m really looking forward to fabricating my own stuff. I will definitely pick up a bottle of gas like you suggested.
Super happy about this!
I also picked these up for the IC piping going to the IC. My other ones were just straights and didn’t flex at all:
Well, I dropped the transmission off yesterday @ A to Z Automotive. My friend who’s had good luck with them suggested to give them a try, so I did. In the meantime, I sand blasted the mounting bracket and exhaust hangar bracket that bolts up to it. I’m going to be powder coating these gloss black and will go back on with a Nismo transmission mount.
Since I will not be powder coating in my garage anymore (that shit goes everywhere!), I’ve decided to buy a small vinyl shed (4’x6’x6’) to do this outside. I might move the sand blasting cabinet into that as well. Either way, I’m just glad I’ll finally have a spot to spray the powder.
The welder will be here tomorrow! I can’t wait! I still need to pick up a bottle of gas…
If you cut the aluminum to the sizes/shapes you need and bring it over I will weld it. Do you have Aluminum already? Also what size?
That’s what Nick suggested as well. The piping should be here tomorrow but I have to mount the transmission (currently at the shop) up to bring the motor ‘up’ to it’s normal position. Once that’s in, we’ll cut/mock the piping up. I will let you know as soon as it’s ready to go. I appreciate your help with this bud, I really do.
EDIT: piping will be 2.5"/2mm
Ok. Let me know when you are ready and we can get it taken care of. I need more practice with aluminum anyhow.
Will do! :tup:
Small, trickling update:
Finally clocked the vacuum nipple on the FPR:
My failed attempt at trying to powder coat my original TB led me to pull another one off of my spare IM. It’s amazing what SimpleGreen and a little elbow grease will do with 214k miles worth of build up. I was going to drop it in a ultrasonic cleaner but I would’ve ruined the bearings inside:
Did a quick mock up of the charge piping. This is without the transmission so the motor angle is all wrong. I just wanted to see what it would look like. As you can see, the cold pipe will just need to be cut shorter and it should fit. The hot pipe will need slight modification to extend and change the angle a bit. I’m quite excited to see how well the throttle response will be with such short piping:
I also got that transmission x-member powder coated and re-assembled:
And I finally built my storage / PC shop. It even came with metal roof supports I can use to ground the parts I will be coating:
Oh, and Nick let me try out some welding with a MIG. He started on the right and stopped, I started back at the middle where I couldn’t really see. I corrected my position and laid the rest of the bead on the left. This was done on his machine. We’ll be trying my MIG out once the transmission is back in and we can start the downpipe. I picked up a mask, gloves and a bottle of gas
nice job! melting things is fun
Haha thanks dude. Not going to lie, I was intimidated by welding at 1st, but after getting a feel for it, it’s quite fun! I do get a little anxious in the middle of laying a bead down simply because I’m worried that I’ll fuck the weld up lol
I put some more work into this slow ass build yesterday. I sand blasted a few miscellaneous intake manifold brackets as well as the alternator and P/S brackets that I’ve spray painted a few years back and then powder coated it all with gloss back:
Next on the list is my P/S system. A few pages back (post #132 ), I made a list of all the stuff needed to convert the lines to -AN. I ended up ordered the wrong hose ends for the high pressure line (fixed now). Here are all the parts in one picture:
@cougarspeed, would you be interested in shortening this aluminum reservoir for me? It’s a bit too long:
I also ordered the last bits of the build - the exhaust piping.
A few more parts arrived this week:
New alternator.
'98 Maxima Coils
Distributor delete cover. Shots fired!
I also got the high pressure line done for the P/S. It looks so much cleaner than stock. I’m loving it!
Not much done today, but to me it’s progress Got the P/S cooler mounted up and ran the return from the rack to it.
Nothing like a clean engine bay to work in :tup:
Keep up the good work.
Hell yea. I hope it stays clean for a while!
Another update & more progress! Got the transmission back from the shop. I still have to replace the sensors on it which I already have, but other than that it’s ready to go. I have to borrow an engine hoist again from my friend, pull the motor, install the Nismo pilot bushing, mount the transmission up and drop it back in the chassis:
I met up with @cougarspeed this afternoon and got the P/S reservoir shortened and mounted to the stock P/S bracket! He did a really good job on it and I couldn’t be more happy with the results. Thanks again!!!
Got some more shit done today after I got home from work. The P/S system is nearly completed. The transmission has to be in the car so I can cut and assemble the last hose, which is the feed to the pump. Next up is the intake and exhaust piping.
I think I have a problem. However, not sure if I can classify this as a problem when it makes me happy? You only live once right? You might as well enjoy it! Welcome back to the fam 350!
this isn’t replacing the 240, is it? I like those 350s a lot.