CamryOnBronze

My wife and I got an eight week old Siberian Husky on Tuesday night. Alicia has wanted a Husky all her life, so she is pretty stoked about it. I never had a dog growing up- just cats- so there has been a steep learning curve for me. I guess they don’t come potty trained like cats do, haha. We named him Tomei- I was just throwing out random words while playing some COD and Alicia liked it, as did I, so it stuck!

Thankfully he has been getting along with the cat so far. It’s pretty funny watching them chase each other around. I’ll keep adding pics every few weeks as he gets bigger and eventually passes the cat in size- shouldn’t take too long!

So, sadly, it is almost time for the car to roll into the garage until April. This season went way too fast. I guess getting the car completed and tuned in August will do that, haha. This year has been a huge success in my book, though- super happy with how everything has come together!

[Image Lost]

I’ve got some things on the list for this winter. I won’t be diving in nearly as much as I did last winter, but I am hoping to make some finishing touches to the car. I’m going to try to start updating this a lot more often through the winter, so stick around!

Oh, and be sure to pick up the January 2011 issue of Modified Magazine! My car will be featured as the cover story as a part of a dual feature on Toby Broadfield’s car and mine. The issue should be on newstands in early December, so keep an eye out for it! It should be pretty awesome!

🙂

Damon

I was bored last week and decided to use some of my leftover Bride fabric to wrap my glove box and arm rest. I am pretty happy with how it all came out!

I am pretty happy with the status of the interior- and the car in general- right now. I have been driving it to work every day that I can, enjoying it before the weather turns sour. I installed my Tomei TRAX two way over the weekend and I am really happy with that addition to the car. As for the interior, I am going to toss the Kouki 180SX cluster in as soon as my S14 temp sensor arrives from NissanParts.cc. This winter, I plan to replace the speakers and head unit, install a digital climate control, and a Cusco bolt in cage. Aside from those things and possibly switching the gauges up a bit, I am happy with the interior!

I’ll update this again soon- I’ve got some very exciting things coming in the next few weeks! 🙂 Thanks for reading.

Damon

Hey guys- I know I haven’t posted here much at all recently, but I actually managed to make the top 4 in the WS Photo Contest! My friend Grant took the picture last fall- trying to make it into the finals right now!

Here is a link if you feel inclined to vote for me:

[url=http://wiringspecialties.com/wshara.html]http://wiringspecialties.com/wshara.html[/url]

I’m Damon in the first bracket (of course)- here is the picture I submitted:

It’s very strange, but I can’t seem to get ahead no matter how many people I get to vote for me. Oh well… hoping I can stay alive! Here are a couple current shots of the car for the hell of it- Kyle should have some new ones soon as well that I think are going to be sweet!

Thanks in advance guys, I really appreciate the support!

Damon

Scored some front 180SX seats! Rocking the passenger side with the Zeta III L at the moment…

…for now that is, haha. The car has officially been on the road for about a week and a half now without any major hiccups. My only issues so far have been squealing belts as they broke in, a screw in one of my new tires, an oil leak, and an exhaust leak after the dyno session. Aside from that, the car has been driving really well and starting right up!

Alicia was out of town last weekend, so I got to hit up a few meets and hang out with some car friends in my spare time. It was great to actually go to a meet, let alone in my 240! It still doesn’t feel real when I walk out to the car after work and start it every day- it’s so great to have it back on the road! Here are a couple shots from the weekend:

So, I picked up some Kouki 180SX Type X front seats yesterday. They are coming from an importer in California and should be here Friday or Saturday via Greyhound. As a result, my Gray S14 front seats are up for sale! For now, I am only going to use the passenger seat and keep rocking the Bride Zeta III Type L for the driver’s side. I have considered selling it, though, and using the full 180SX seat setup. I really don’t need the Bride for a street setup, and it is inconvenient at times, but it is also really cool… so I might not be able to bring myself to sell it.

Other than that, I just have a lot of cruising to do. I bought a Tomei TRAX 2-way differential from a good friend, so I will toss that in and sell the VLSD as soon as I have it. I am planning to cruise down to Toby’s BBQ in Normal, Illinois in a couple weeks, so looking forward to meeting those guys in person and hanging out! If you’re planning to be there and are looking for S14 seats, hit me up!

Damon

So- I finally have a tuning appointment scheduled with Matt at Monkey Wrench Racing for this Tuesday. Getting everything ready before then, however, is proving to be a pain in the butt, haha.

I took my hot pipe to a shop to weld the flange for the HKS SSQV3, and they ended up breaking the BOV:

So yeah… HKS confirmed that it is genuine, but they cannot repair it or replace the unit due to install error. I am working with the shop and hope that I will be compensated, but I doubt it- I am pretty bummed. Thankfully, Ken and the crew at Enjuku Racing (Thanks a lot Ant!) stepped up and are getting me a GReddy Type RZ BOV, Hot pipe with flange welded on, and recirculation fitting to my door  by Friday. I was planning to have Shane and one of his friends out tonight to help get the idle right and do some base street tuning, but that will now be pushed off until the weekend when the BOV is installed.

Assuming that goes at least somewhat well, I will still make the tuning appointment on Tuesday. Cross your fingers for me, I hope everything between now and then goes at least somewhat as planned! I’ll keep you guys posted. 🙂

Damon

After over 9 months passing since I last drove the car, I took it out again for the first time yesterday. It actually started up on Wednesday, July 14th- it took a few tries to get everything primed, but the car fired right up! It seemed to have lifter tick and some leaks at first, but the lifter noise has gone away. I started by running it for about two minutes the first night with no leaks. The next time I started it, I had a couple of leaking fuel lines, so I got those sorted out. On the next startup, I let it run for about ten minutes and realized there was a coolant leak on the line running from the turbo to the head- the one that sucks to get to.

Luckily, my friend Mike came out and gave me a hand, so we got that leak all closed up and also solved a pretty big vacuum leak. We messed with timing adjustment, but I don’t have it set perfectly to 15 degrees yet. The closer we get to the correct timing, the lower the idle gets. We messed with the IACV a bit. but I am still working the kinks out.

Despite those issues and some other things that need to be buttoned up, I did manage to do 4 laps around the neighborhood last night. It stalled a couple of times due to the low idle, but once it is rolling it drives really well! I can’t believe how stiff the Cusco engine mounts are- it is a lot different now, haha. But anyway, I also washed it for the first time in nearly a year last night- here are some pics of the (mostly) finished project!

My brother just got a 2005 Mini Cooper S JCW Edition this week- I really like it!

So yeah, that’s how it sits! Here is what’s left before I can daily it:

• Tuning at Monkey Wrench
• Have BOV flange welded/install BOV
• Adjust front ride height (remove 1 collar)
• Add screws to front lip
• Adjust/fab rear exhaust mounts
• Adjust idle to idle consistently
• Adjust camber/get an alignment

Once these things are taken care of, it should be in really good shape! Hoping to have it tuned within two weeks at the latest. I’ll keep you guys posted! Thanks again to my friends and family for all of their help through this and for putting up with me! 🙂

Damon

I’ve got some work to do tonight before we try starting the car tomorrow. Last night I wired up my position lights and sidemarkers, so all of the lights on the car work- it was cool to see them all lit up. 🙂 I also got my BOV flange welded last night and put my new Braille battery that showed up in, so that’s ready to go too- tonight I am going to install all of the intercooler piping with my new t-bolt clamps and get that squared away, as well as fill all of the fluids and run the last remaining coolant and vacuum lines. It should be pretty much set to start tomorrow night! We’ll see what happens… stay tuned.

Damon

Alright, so here I am neglecting the blog AGAIN. Sorry about that, if anyone is out there, haha.

I feel a lot more accomplished when I update my blog, as opposed to my build threads on the forums that get updates every day or two. It feels like I am never getting anywhere with this project, but when I update the blog and see how much has gotten done in the last couple of weeks- despite working full time, working on the house, and having plans away from home almost every weekend- I feel good about where things are at.

So, here is how it sits now:

The entire wiring harness is completely installed. I am really happy with how the “mild tuck” came out. It looks pretty clean, but wasn’t a ton of work to make it look like that. I made brackets for the fuse boxes and tucked them under their original locations. The lower harness is down near the frame rail and is tucked away pretty nicely in the black bay- I just have to tie some of the wires together to keep everything organized. I also installed a steel one piece driveshaft from The Driveshaft Shop:

My battery is just too old and tired, so I ordered a Braille 17 lbs battery from The Tire Rack this morning to replace it. Last night, I hooked the car up to my daily via jumper cables to check that everything had power and see if it would blow up or start smoking or something. Thankfully, the door chime came on, the lights lit up, the fuel pump primed, and the Power FC came on! I am SO excited… it’s so great to see the car with some life again:

So, the interior is 100% back together. I need to wire my illuminated key ring and install my 180sx cluster when it is modified, but for now it is all set and ready to go. As for starting it up, I am basically waiting on the following things:

• Install battery (Arrives Monday)
• Install t-bolt clamps (Arrives Tuesday)
• Install hot pipe and HKS SSQV3 BOV (Hoping to have the flange welded on by Wednesday)
• Set TPS
• Fill fluids- coolant, oil, power steering, transmission, bleed clutch, etc.
• Enter base map into Power FC (Got a base map from Steve Shadows)
• Install GReddy Intake
• Install boost controller
• Install misc. coolant and vacuum hoses (almost done with this)

At this point, I think it will fire up on Wednesday night, assuming all goes well! I know there are usually snags, though, so we’ll see what happens. Very excited to see it on the road!

One other thing- about two weeks ago I lowered the car some more up front and sat it on the ground. The front end was all mocked up with zip ties at this point. I think it will come down just a little bit more, but I don’t want to go insane with it. Suspension will be adjusted before it sees the ground again.

So that’s about it for now. Hopefully, the next update will include a startup video and some pics of the car out in the sunlight! 🙂 It’s finally getting good…

Damon