Tight, things always taken longer than projected and being injured has limited the amount of stuff I can get done. I want everything (engine/driveline/suspension) but the new safety stuff done (cage, fire suppression, battery cutoff) by April 22nd if possible.
sounds great! when is the 1st event?
You should see if sir newman would make you a emblem for the front…
Looks good. How easy does the front bumper cover come off? I assume you wont be running it when you’re going sideways. (although I have assumed here)
Dan
Why? I’ve got a factory Nissan one… I’m not one for custom badging, hell it still has 350z badges on it lol. First event is April 10th (won’t be going). First competition weekend is May 29th-31 in Montreal.
It comes off pretty easy, 4 clips, 6 bolts, and yeah I’ll be running it when drifting. That was part of the reason I HUNTED for a polyurethane bumper I liked.
Paint!
The bumper is held in by these pain in the ass plastic clips on the fenders and HEADLIGHTS, yes I fully expect to break these multiple times this year. So annoying.
To fit the side skirts I had to remove two mounting points and flatten out one of the seams. The skirts still have two more mount points below that, the one on the end of the skirt, and a million pop rivets so I’m not concerned losing the two points.
Body is starting to take shape. Need to finish some points for the undertray to keep the bumper up in position (which is why there are a few blocks of wood sitting under it).
Looking good Mike, looks like everything lines up pretty well too :tup:
Just awesome. Cannot wait for this thing to be finished.
it looks so much wider from the front with this bumper and headlights… love it.
Thanks guys 
It IS that much wider. I can easily put 295’s on all 4 corners. I’ve got 285 Dunlop scrubbed slicks from Robertson Racing (ALMS Ford GT) for all four corners for the regular track day stuff. The width will also help me from when last year I was destroying tires and fenders when running spacers on the front to help balance out the understeer at drift days. So this:
Followed by fenders BOWING out doesn’t happen anymore. I’m really happy with how the car is turning out.
Yeah man that looks great :tup:
370z’s are starting to grow on me.
Alrighty, started out by stripping out more plastics I don’t need, as well as some broken parts I had left in the hatch. Also pulled out all the shit from the battery relocation to the rear. I never cared for the setup and it was a pain in my ass. Not to mention to make it competition legal I was going to have to completely redo it. So instead I’m relocating back to stock position in the engine bay, with a tie down, and a small battery from Innovative Tuning.
Last year when I finally started getting decent smoke towards the end of the season the cabin was filling up pretty badly towards the end of runs. Part of this was due to two open air vents in the hatch that leaked smoke into the cabin. So I removed the two vents and made plates to cover the holes. (forgot a photo of them covered).
Made a new plate and located my CNC hydraulic hand brake lever between the dash/steering wheel/shifter. The placement is perfect, my elbow is just slightly bent when reaching for it and it doesn’t interfere with the shifter or steering or wiper stalk, and my leg doesn’t get near it when on throttle. I also cut up the old ebrake bracket so I could keep the plastic bit that goes through the trans tunnel (where the cables used to be). I’m going to run my new brake line through that for the second set of rear calipers. I did the first mockup in some 22 gauge scrap I had laying around, and then made the final one out of 14 gauge plate. It’s pretty sturdy.
Also spent time rerunning the engine room harness, hooking grounds back up, cleaning up some random wiring that I did in a rush before an event last summer. Combined the 350z subharness with the 370z headlights. (this is with turn signals, parking, and low beams on). I still need to wire up the trigger for the high beam hinge inside the hid projector.
More to come 
good amount of work for a sunday afternoon 
very nice, shes looking better now that the front bumper is painted
Absolutely amazed how far it’s come so far this spring Mike!
and what tire are those?
They are no longer manufactured or sold (Wanli S1088’s) from what I understand, they got sued by Yokohama. I’m going to try Federal’s next. I’d love to run Maxxis MAZ1 Drift, but they cost too much cash!
I’ve run 20 or so different tires trying to find something I liked. The wanli’s were good for a life/cost/grip standpoint. But that’s because I don’t believe tires for drifting should be absurdly expensive as I’m obviously a repeat customer.
Basically, like everyone who drifts, I want a tire sponsor, hahaha.
Tore down the ebrake assembly, removed the cable, the wheel bearing/hub assembly today on the driver’s side. Redid my original mock-up for the second caliper for the dedicated ebrake setup. I cracked a socket which led to stripping one of the bolts that holds the bearing assembly in. That was a BLAST to drill out :rolleyes: I need to digitize the mock-up I did out of flat stock and have a few cut, thankfully it’s universal and will work for either side. Weather looks like it should be nice tomorrow as well so I’m gonna try and get the passenger’s axle removed, that ebrake assembly torn down, and prepped for the new brackets. Hoping to get them cut this week. I was testing fitment with Mike @ Innovative Tuning’s STI rear brembos (thanks again!) but they are slightly different so I need to pick up another set of 350z ones to make things fit correctly.
Nice work. You’ve pretty much fixed all the reasons I wouldn’t want a 350Z. In for shotgun sometime.
i liked the 951 build thread better… make this one more awesome with shiner things immediately please