The weather in Michigan was amazing this past week, with temps about 20° or more warmer than usual for this time of year. It’s always great to catch a break from winter around this time of year, even if it’s only temporary.

I was hoping that my outer tie rods would arrive this week, but it looks like they’ll be here early next week. As a result, I didn’t get a ton done on my hatch this week. At this point though I’m happy when I make any progress at all within a week’s time.

I did manage to source a pair of SR20 NISMO engine mounts to use on the hatch. After test fitting these with the CA18 mounts back to back, I can say the difference is definitely negligible. It does sound like the CA mounts sit about 5mm lower, but for such a small difference I chose to just use the SR mounts. Probably a strange choice to some, but I’m just weird like that.

SR mount on the left, CA Mount on the right. You can see the SR mount is just slightly taller. After getting the engine mounts situated, I replaced my NISMO transmission mount. It was still in excellent shape, but it was a good deal to buy a set of all three mounts so I figured I would replace it.

Next, I turned my attention to the coupe. I’ve been having an issue with the brakes where the pedal doesn’t come back up and the brakes don’t disengage when the pedal is released. I tried to replace just about everything when I put the car together, but there’s obviously something wrong. I did find that one of my remanufactured front calipers was seized, so I swapped that with a spare caliper I had. Sadly that did not solve the issue.

Frustrated, I finally but the bullet and removed the brake booster. I really dislike that task, but I got it done fairly quickly. My plan is to paint and install my spare booster, bench bleed the master cylinder again, and bleed the entire system one more time to see if I can get the brakes working properly.

I also managed to finally make it to the DMV to title the coupe earlier this week. I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep it or that I would even get it roadworthy for so long that I never took the time to get that sorted out. Then COVID came along and made going there a hassle, so I’ve been putting it off for a long time. It felt surreal to finally know that I officially own the car now.

Anyway, sorry about the quick post and wonky formatting this week! I’m actually writing this on my phone because I’m currently at the airport in Detroit waiting to board a flight to Houston to surprise Jimmy for his 30th birthday and to attend the Knuckle Up season opener. Jimmy’s wife reached out to me a few weeks back to ask if I would want to come down this weekend to surprise Jimmy. I decided it’s hopefully ok to travel and Alicia gave me her approval, so here we are! I’m grateful to both of them for making this happen.

I should have some cool stuff to share from the event next week. Thanks to everyone that takes time out of their day to read this- I sincerely appreciate it! Have a great weekend.

Damon