Tanuki's Race Car Build S14

[HPKMotorsports3]

love the paint... nice wall lol

[NismoTuner21]

Why not put the RE-30's on?

[Tanuki]

^I don't have 5 lug rotors (waiting for them from stoptech), so I can't do the 5 lug conversion till they come. I would adjust the current rotors, but it is a waste of time seeing as the new parts should be here next week and I don't want to do the brakes twice.

[Wabash9000]

you should have done the grill and a/c pillars in the british racing orange like that austin. other than that it's looking good

[Tanuki]

^I considered it, but I don't want the car to say "This is as close as I will ever get to a real Aston Martin." You know, like guys who have Fiat Countach kits?

I still need to work out a livery though and it will have some color.

[keeeban]

The paint before the clear looked pretty damn nice.

Great color, looks dope!

[Tanuki]

^Thanks. I ordered sway bars today. I went with the Whiteline 20mm' bar in back, and 27mm in front.

[tricky_ab]

Looking great so far...

[Tanuki]

^thanks!

All of this thinking about wheels and how bad mine are got me looking for a set to use for driving around town/ to and from the track (yeah I don't have a truck or garage at the track). So I picked up a set to run around on:

[Tanuki]

These should be on by the end of the week.

Here are some teasers:

[Coolwhip]

looking nice.

[Tanuki]

Today I started on the subframe, Hub conversion, and brakes.

I finished:

Front Brakes (still not bled)
Front 5 lug hub conversion
Rear subframe removal
1/2 the work is done on the rear subframe bushings.

I also measured my front wheels and it looks like both sets fit! The Rays Barely fit, and the Volks fit perfect.

[Laotian240]

Nice paint Job:O and love the big red brakes!

You got the car on my birthday. lol

[Skilz10179]

The paint looks great BUT why on earth would you do paint work first??? Paint should be the last step after everything else, its sure to get knicked up a few times during the build and chipped and cracked then you realize you need to pull the fenders to fit meaty race rubber.

"Its a race car, i don't care" But still...

[justinedible4]

Originally Posted by Skilz10179

The paint looks great BUT why on earth would you do paint work first??? Paint should be the last step after everything else, its sure to get knicked up a few times during the build and chipped and cracked then you realize you need to pull the fenders to fit meaty race rubber.

"Its a race car, i don't care" But still...

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Tanuki]

Originally Posted by justinedible4

Took the words right out of my mouth.

What would I scratch on it being under the car or in the engine bay? Paint was bad and car needed body work.

Honestly when you work on your cars do you bang up the body work?

[zooopreme]

Originally Posted by Tanuki

What would I scratch on it being under the car or in the engine bay? Paint was bad and car needed body work.

Honestly when you work on your cars do you bang up the body work?

I did disapprove your choice in color for paint before but I agree with you to an extent.

What they were trying to get you to see was that paint is USUALLY the last step in people's builds. It's usually because most people worry about the performance aspect of their cars before aesthetics, for the most part. But you're getting that done so I don't see much of a problem.

[Tanuki]

^yeah I guess where there were some rust spots and a bad bondo area, I wanted to get under all of that and make sure the Chassis was completely sound before putting countless hours and thousands of dollars into modifications. It would seem like a bad idea to me to have a car you know may have issues with structural integrity and not want to check that out. So I guess my thinking was to stop any rust and be sure the body was sound.

I can see what people are saying though. I could see how that would make sense.

[Tanuki]

bushings are in. Car should be back together tomorrow/ drive able by the weekend.

[onehundredoctane]

Just curious but why did you go with StopTech brakes? 300zx or Q45 get the job done, esp considering the fact that your car is gutted of interior. Just as a baseline I think the stock 60-0 braking distance on the S14's was 140ish ft, with Z or Q brakes you can easily knock that stopping distance down below 120 ft easily. (and even lower with better rubber)

[ixfxi]

Originally Posted by Om1kron

LOL facepalmed through every picture of it being painted with the lights covered.

hey, removing lights means that you will probably remove other parts of the car. which leads to removing the bumpers, which leads to removing the doors.. which leads to removing everything and saying fuckit, painting the whole fucking shell and parts individually.

which leads to ditching the bullshit sherman-williams paint and going with something more fancy.

while i personally dont like his choice, i understand it.. and it does the job which is what he intended to do: paint the car. and like he said, its a race-car.. so fuckit, good enough.

from the looks, i am assuming its a 500-1000 paint job. and we all know that costs can quadruple if he did things differently.

Originally Posted by Tanuki

i was under the impression that these older calipers were discontinued and replaced with the newer version that has the machined stoptech logo?

Originally Posted by Skilz10179

The paint looks great BUT why on earth would you do paint work first??? Paint should be the last step after everything else, its sure to get knicked up a few times during the build and chipped and cracked then you realize you need to pull the fenders to fit meaty race rubber.

Originally Posted by zooopreme

What they were trying to get you to see was that paint is USUALLY the last step in people's builds. It's usually because most people worry about the performance aspect of their cars before aesthetics, for the most part. But you're getting that done so I don't see much of a problem.

why should paint be the last step? i painted my car as a shell, i re-worked the entire bottom of the chassis after it was painted. i am putting the motor and bits back on, very carefully i might add, but all this is done AFTER the chassis was painted.

Originally Posted by onehundredoctane

Just curious but why did you go with StopTech brakes? 300zx or Q45 get the job done, esp considering the fact that your car is gutted of interior. Just as a baseline I think the stock 60-0 braking distance on the S14's was 140ish ft, with Z or Q brakes you can easily knock that stopping distance down below 120 ft easily. (and even lower with better rubber)

because 300zx and Q45 brakes are not stoptech brakes, they're not even in the same ball-park. overkill? maybe.

[Tanuki]

^Ha thanks for all the follow up.

The car will need the stoptechs by the time I am done with it. I am building on a budget (that doesn't mean start with X amount of dollars, But get what you can with the dollars you have and wait until funds pile up to get more).

Put it all back together, and washed it!


Here are a couple of quick shots I took this evening.

[Tanuki]

Last weekend I had a race. I am in the local time attack series called "Lap Battle." This is an ongoing series at Miller Motorsports park in Utah. On the 4.5 mile road course, I ran a 3:40.111 with a stock KA24 engine. I could have done better but I kept being stuck behind this guy all day who was only able to run a 3:53:XXX



Well i have decided to do a cage.

Because of the cage, I have ordered some other goodies:

Sparco Pro ADV Seat (I am willing to admit I wont fit Bride seats )

Takata Harness w/ Crotch Strap

Still need to figure out a steering wheel/ quick release hub combo. Any suggestions?

I thought I would post some info on the guy doing the cage.

He went to some F1 tech program they do at infineon raceway. Then worked for a vintage F1 fabrication shop. Worked for some hot rod places, and now he is building bikes. I am confident he will do a good job on my cage, but I am a bit nervous paying him the same amount a good NASA cage place would charge. Oh well I think he will be outstanding.

Here is some of the stuff he has made:

[tricky_ab]

Nice to see that you're out enjoying your car.

Now that you're doing a cage, are you going to spray the interior?

[Tanuki]

^yeah I had to schedule the cage for next month (he is really that booked), and in the mean time I will finish cutting everything out, gutting the doors, cleaning and spraying etc.

[Tanuki]

couple more shots from this weekend:

[Paint209]

thats a clean kouki bro!. wish i had funds and time to dedicate my time on my car. keep it up!

[tricky_ab]

Originally Posted by Tanuki

^yeah I had to schedule the cage for next month (he is really that booked), and in the mean time I will finish cutting everything out, gutting the doors, cleaning and spraying etc.

Nice, same colour as the exterior?

[Tanuki]

Probably just all black.

[qwerth]

i like where this thread is headed keep it up!