Razi has got boost!

[Razi]

Looks killer Razi!

Thanks man!

Oh yeaaa man Nice. I wanted to change my lights to white LED last year but never did. Did you get the 5LED wide angle ones? My dome light wiring is fail I think that'll be my thanksgiving or xmas break work... But I never do it lol.

Nope, I got the single 120 degree LED ones, turned out pretty good.
5 LED would be some serious brightness.

Good thinking on the footlight/keyswitch light wiring.

Yeah, makes for easy wiring.

The problem with these though, is that the plastic piece that goes over the light isn't a good fit with the rest of the plastic column, so my dad cut the stock one to fit over the key light.
Problem is, it had a very tiny gap between the plastic pieces and light shined through.


You can't see it from any other angle, other than looking straight at it, but it still bothered me.
So I took off the plastic trim, then I cut a bit of electrical tape to cover a bit of the key light.


Then I put the plastic trim back on, and had no more light shining through the tiny gap!

Tomorrow, front suspension!

[Razi]

Front suspension work done!
For now..

So the problem with overlowering a car is that the roll center gets messed up, among other things.
I wanted to get rid of some body roll so I decided to work on that.




The lower control arm is a Godspeed arm, lots of guys over in the NissanRoadRacing forum did this mod and had no problems, but the bearings are absolutely horrible on the Godspeeds, so I replaced them with quality QA1 rod ends.
The outer bearing is still Godspeed though, and it's pretty stiff, hopefully it'll work itself smooth as I drive it.

Also, despite telling Godspeed, they told me the arms are definetely universal for S13 or S14, I (among other NRR members) told Godspeed that the taper inside the S14 and S13 knuckles are different and that they won't be universal.
Proof:

Godspeed's "S13/S14" rod with my S14 knuckle.
That's almost a centimeter of the rod sticking out of my knuckle.
Ken from Godspeed, if you're listening, please make cleaner welds and make FLCA sets that have properly tapered rods for the S14!
Thanks!
My dad had to grind the heck out of the rod to give it the proper taper so it fits inside the S14 knuckle.
Like so:


Now, the stock Godspeed lower control arm won't properly adjust your roll center, to do this you need to space the arm down lower.
This is what we're trying to achieve:

Spacing the arm down with some washers so our arm sits parallel to the ground.

We had to cut the lower nut down so it lines up properly with the cotter pin hole after it gets spaced down with the washer.


After a bit of struggling, we installed the arms!


Another shot of the arms:


Final product:

It's not as parallel to the ground as I'd like.
I would've liked to put in 1 more washer to space it down a tiny bit more, but I can't cut the bottom nut any more.
Later I'll do what Def's write-up says and use a bolt instead of that tapered Godspeed bolt.
Def's write-up:
http://www.nissanroadracing.com/showthread.php?t=1407
AceInHole's write-up that inspired me to cut the nut instead of using a bolt:
http://www.nissanroadracing.com/showthread.php?t=1990

My car has less body roll now, I'm pretty happy I did this.
I'm gonna get an alignment tomorrow!

[mrgreeneyes]

Isn't this a catch 22? By correcting roll center, you are further offsetting the tierods into an upward position, increasing bumpsteer... right?

Or am i missing something?

[Razi]

It probably could.
But I have angle spacers.
I'll always have bumpsteer as long as I got those things.
One day, I'll cough up some dough for some SPL tierods.

I don't have an annoying amount of bump steer though, I guess the bumps here aren't harsh enough for me to feel it daily.

[mrgreeneyes]

word.

im currently sifting through the legit builds on here to get inspiration for my coupe-to-be... and you do logical, stupid-clean mods.

i like where your car is going, but please ditch those terrible 7 spokers for some track edition 5 spokes... that is my ONLY criticism of your car, good sir. otherwise, carry on!

[Razi]

Thanks greeneyes!
I'm flattered!

I'd like some new wheels, but no monies!
And I've grown a bit attached to them. :P
They'll stay for now.

Can't wait to see your awesome new coupe.

[S13AL]

I like the wheels too.
Whenever I see your sig i have to stop to admire the cleanness
I have to agree a silvia front would just make your car perfect.

[kornmanz]

I'm so glad I got a good deal on these arms.
And the swaybar feels great!

Hey razi how much of a difference did the sway bar make in handling? I am thinking of buying one as well. The stock one just seems so thin and dinky.

[Chris28]

Hey Raz, what is the part number for the QA1 rod end? I'm thinking of doing this sooner or later, I'm in the process of bookmarking everything that I'll need haha.

[Didderson]

Hey Raz, what is the part number for the QA1 rod end? I'm thinking of doing this sooner or later, I'm in the process of bookmarking everything that I'll need haha.

Dittoooooooooo
Damn Razi I'm so jealous of yer new roll center !
Vereh nice write up, I have been thinking about how to fix some of this geometry in my own ride, didn't even search the net but looks like it's not too hard to modify some ebay stuff lol.

I wish I could drive yours then drive mine... Ya know, the old test drive sheit! I'd let you drive my car too :P. Not many people get to...

Edit; Oh i see, it won't really correct roll center just buy purchasing the lca's. Will you be buying a longer bolt to space it out more? I would only buy these lca's if i could get more spacing... MOARRR CORRECTIONNNNNN

[Razi]

I like the wheels too.
Whenever I see your sig i have to stop to admire the cleanness
I have to agree a silvia front would just make your car perfect.

Thanks.

I'm so glad I got a good deal on these arms.
And the swaybar feels great!

Hey razi how much of a difference did the sway bar make in handling? I am thinking of buying one as well. The stock one just seems so thin and dinky.

Less swaying in the rear, definetely.
I might sell it, but I love it at the same time.
The outside wheel lifts up when I'm going up a steep driveway, happens quite often, nothing major but just a slight annoyance.
It definitely makes the rear more tail happy, good for drift setups, not that great for grip setups though.

Hey Raz, what is the part number for the QA1 rod end? I'm thinking of doing this sooner or later, I'm in the process of bookmarking everything that I'll need haha.

Here you go.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HAL-MHMR16T/
A bit pricey, but it's Teflon lined and everything, and is much smoother than the ones my Godspeed arms came with.

By the way, when you're doing this, and if you have a press, press the outer bearings out of the cups and take a wirewheel to the cup so the bearing fits smoother into it.
The fit really really tight inside there and I suspect the cup is pretty much squishing the bearings, causing it to be stiff. So creating a bit of clearance might allow you to use the stock Godspeed outer bearings.

Dittoooooooooo
Damn Razi I'm so jealous of yer new roll center !
Vereh nice write up, I have been thinking about how to fix some of this geometry in my own ride, didn't even search the net but looks like it's not too hard to modify some ebay stuff lol.

I wish I could drive yours then drive mine... Ya know, the old test drive sheit! I'd let you drive my car too :P. Not many people get to...

Haha, I'd love to drive your car.
My 240 is the only one I've ever driven, I have nothing to compare it to!

Edit; Oh i see, it won't really correct roll center just buy purchasing the lca's. Will you be buying a longer bolt to space it out more? I would only buy these lca's if i could get more spacing... MOARRR CORRECTIONNNNNN

Yeah you can get crazy with the correction.
Some people buy a long bolt, drill out the knuckle to accept the bolt, then space it down like crazy.
I think 2 inches is max, then the arms start touching the rotor, but you can grind the arm down a tiny bit to give yourself more clearance.

Careful though, or you might give yourself some JDM tyte vented rotors on accident.


Right now I took off my cooling panel and stripped it of the old yucky paint and am painting it gloss black, but I guess I didn't clean off the paint stripper off the panels as well as I thought I did.
When I got back from school the paint had lifted off the panel and wrinkled.
This time I washed it well with some soap and water, hopefully it stays on this time.

[kornmanz]

If you decide to sell it send me a PM or email.

[Razi]

Haha, my cooling panel?
I'll probably keep it, it's just the painting that I hate.

[kornmanz]

no your sway bar

[Razi]

Fo sho!

[Razi]

Finally installed my new speakers!
I bought some adapter plates off of eBay since they were pretty cheap and looked pretty quality.

The problem was that the plates were flat and the door has a bit of a curve to it, so my dad found some packaging foam laying around and cut out a 'gasket' thingy.

We left the middle circle partially cut so, hopefully, it keeps some water off of the speaker if it ever comes down there.

For some of us with the "Active Speaker" package, we have amps for all 4 of our speakers, and inside there is a little harness, so I decided to take that out and splice my speaker harness into it.
Here's what the back of our front speaker panel looks like.


Took off the screws and saw this inside:


Then I cut the wires that were going into the amp.
The only wires you'll need on the harness are the Red and Brown wires, Red is the positive wire, and Brown is the negative wire.
Wire that up accordingly to your speakers (The large tab is the positive wire, and smaller tab on the speaker is for the negative.)

Plop in your speaker and viola!

[S13AL]

Nice, I bypassed my amps too and the difference is crazy.

[Razi]

Yep, I love it now.

[Razi]

Teaser.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

I spy Z33 seats! Nice!

And how have you gone all this time with those oem garbage speakers? They're TERRIBLE. Get a sub in that bish!

[Razi]

The previous owner replaced the OEM speakers with some ghetto ones.
Sounded terrible.

Dunno about a sub though, don't really need it haha.

And yes! Z33 seats!
I'll have to modify the mounting points, but that shouldn't be too hard.

Once I get these mounted I'll be selling my current seats with rails and leather curtain that cover up the rails.

[krimsonviper]

Quit adding all this ugly to your vehicle, or I will lock this thread.

[Razi]

Whatever KV!
You drive a car that's high all the time!

[krimsonviper]

You can't tell in this pic:


But the 3 is not amused.

[Razi]

[krimsonviper]

LOL! How did I know what was going to show up?

[Razi]

It matches so perfectly.

Are you doing anything to your 3?
Or are you saving your moniez for an MS3?

[krimsonviper]

No, I've pretty much sunk the pocket change I have every now and again in cardboard crack.

I do really want to invest in some HIDs though. I've noticed that it's a bit of a pain to drive the back roads at night. Boy do I love those back roads! I don't like the hidden animals though. No bueno.

[Razi]

My headlights kinda suck too.
I want to get the Hella H4 pop-up headlights that FRsport sells, but it's not that big of a deal, most of the roads I drive are well lit anyways.

[krimsonviper]

That's cause you stole all the homes of the coons!


"We don't appreciate that homey."