Zilvia.net Forums | Nissan 240SX (Silvia) and Z (Fairlady) Car Forum - View Single Post - Blue Bayou S13 - VQ30DE Endurance Build (Tons of pics and video!)

knate · 12-20-2020, 12:50 AM

Building Blue Bayou:

We had a few issues with our first hastily-built car we wanted to address:

-Roll cage had X-bars in the doors, difficult to climb in/out
-Roll cage was too close to my head. We tried cutting the floor out and lowering the seat, but it was not enough.
-Lots of weight left on the table. With ChumpCar rules we could cut/weld just about anything, but adding horsepower was not in the cards.

With these items and a smashed chassis, we decided to look to the spare 240SX coupe chassis for my drift car. This already had a roll cage in it, but the design was not great. It also had the rear fenders cut out for massive tires, but we would be running factory tires. We rolled the drift chassis into the shop and got to work. We had never built a roll cage before, but had done enough reading to be confident if we took our time we could make something safe we would be happy with.

We bought a tubing bender and a pile of tubing. We also bought a plasma cutter, which I cannot recommend highly enough! It seems a lot of people think plasma cutters are only for bigger shops, but I think this tool should be right in line behind a welder. Every single time I use this thing I am so happy that we bought it. It is SOOO fast, easy to use, and compact. It also does not leave a sharp edge, which makes it perfect for chopping out sheet metal in a race car.

TECH TIP #5: Buy a plasma cutter, you will thank me! They aren't that expensive any more, and save so much time!

In a dual-purpose move, we chopped out the A-pillar and ran the roll cage up in this area. This drops weight from the factory structure up top as well as getting the roll cage further from my head. With the old car, I was constantly bumping the cage, with the new one I have plenty of room. Here you can see how the A-pillar bar was ran.

Since our strut tower moved so far when we got hit.. we also wanted to help support the strut towers, so we ran the cage up to them as well.

We made use of the old roll cage pad to make a little bit of footwell anti-intrusion, and moved to more of a Nascar-style door bars tied into the sill.

Here you can see we put the bars as far out as possible (touching the door skin) in order to make the car easier to get in and out of. We also tried to tie the cage as much as possible into the sheetmetal to stiffen the chassis.

Roll cage finished and painted:

We got some quarterpanels from the local junkyard and welded those in.

I never liked how unfinished our car looked with no dash, so I put a modified factory dash in.

I also redid the entire wiring harness, simplifying and shortening the factory harness down. This was so much more work than I had expected. Hours with the factory manual, removing circuits one at a time, then consolidating relays, shortening wires, re-purposing fuses, consolidating fuse boxes.. over 40 hours just in wiring. While I did save weight and money, it just wasn't worth it.

TECH TIP #6: Either do basic simplification of factory wiring, or rewire from scratch. Completely re-engineering the factory harness is not worth the time!

To help with our cooling situation, I made a vent in the factory hood.

We set up a makeshift paint booth, and I tried spraying a car for the first time ever. With a race car, less pressure if I screw it up.

While it's far from perfect, I was pretty happy with how it came out. The biggest issue was I put three coats of paint on the rear quarterpanels and only two on the rest of the car and it was super obvious next to the door.

I cut the lexan rear window with a skill saw, masked the back side, and spray painted the edge with black to give a little more factory look.

I was super happy with how they came out!

I borrowed our new team name based on the Mitsubishi paint named "Blue Bayou", this was my original sketch of the logo:

We are not from the South, and I know nothing about any real bayous, it's just a play on "Blew by you". I thought this was obvious enough, but I've had a variety of people come up to us saying that they hadn't realized this for a long time. There was even a Reddit thread about it that blew up:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/c...y_put/er672bn/

Here she is all done up and pretty!

This is a time lapse video I put together of this build:

12-20-2020, 12:50 AM	#3
knate Leaky Injector Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Washington Posts: 138 Trader Rating: (0)	Building Blue Bayou: We had a few issues with our first hastily-built car we wanted to address: -Roll cage had X-bars in the doors, difficult to climb in/out -Roll cage was too close to my head. We tried cutting the floor out and lowering the seat, but it was not enough. -Lots of weight left on the table. With ChumpCar rules we could cut/weld just about anything, but adding horsepower was not in the cards. With these items and a smashed chassis, we decided to look to the spare 240SX coupe chassis for my drift car. This already had a roll cage in it, but the design was not great. It also had the rear fenders cut out for massive tires, but we would be running factory tires. We rolled the drift chassis into the shop and got to work. We had never built a roll cage before, but had done enough reading to be confident if we took our time we could make something safe we would be happy with. We bought a tubing bender and a pile of tubing. We also bought a plasma cutter, which I cannot recommend highly enough! It seems a lot of people think plasma cutters are only for bigger shops, but I think this tool should be right in line behind a welder. Every single time I use this thing I am so happy that we bought it. It is SOOO fast, easy to use, and compact. It also does not leave a sharp edge, which makes it perfect for chopping out sheet metal in a race car. TECH TIP #5: Buy a plasma cutter, you will thank me! They aren't that expensive any more, and save so much time! In a dual-purpose move, we chopped out the A-pillar and ran the roll cage up in this area. This drops weight from the factory structure up top as well as getting the roll cage further from my head. With the old car, I was constantly bumping the cage, with the new one I have plenty of room. Here you can see how the A-pillar bar was ran. Since our strut tower moved so far when we got hit.. we also wanted to help support the strut towers, so we ran the cage up to them as well. We made use of the old roll cage pad to make a little bit of footwell anti-intrusion, and moved to more of a Nascar-style door bars tied into the sill. Here you can see we put the bars as far out as possible (touching the door skin) in order to make the car easier to get in and out of. We also tried to tie the cage as much as possible into the sheetmetal to stiffen the chassis. Roll cage finished and painted: We got some quarterpanels from the local junkyard and welded those in. I never liked how unfinished our car looked with no dash, so I put a modified factory dash in. I also redid the entire wiring harness, simplifying and shortening the factory harness down. This was so much more work than I had expected. Hours with the factory manual, removing circuits one at a time, then consolidating relays, shortening wires, re-purposing fuses, consolidating fuse boxes.. over 40 hours just in wiring. While I did save weight and money, it just wasn't worth it. TECH TIP #6: Either do basic simplification of factory wiring, or rewire from scratch. Completely re-engineering the factory harness is not worth the time! To help with our cooling situation, I made a vent in the factory hood. We set up a makeshift paint booth, and I tried spraying a car for the first time ever. With a race car, less pressure if I screw it up. While it's far from perfect, I was pretty happy with how it came out. The biggest issue was I put three coats of paint on the rear quarterpanels and only two on the rest of the car and it was super obvious next to the door. I cut the lexan rear window with a skill saw, masked the back side, and spray painted the edge with black to give a little more factory look. I was super happy with how they came out! I borrowed our new team name based on the Mitsubishi paint named "Blue Bayou", this was my original sketch of the logo: We are not from the South, and I know nothing about any real bayous, it's just a play on "Blew by you". I thought this was obvious enough, but I've had a variety of people come up to us saying that they hadn't realized this for a long time. There was even a Reddit thread about it that blew up: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/c...y_put/er672bn/ Here she is all done up and pretty! This is a time lapse video I put together of this build: __________________ Blue Bayou Youtube Channel Facebook Last edited by knate; 04-18-2021 at 01:32 AM..