Keeping my fingers crossed...

Today I finished my vertical welding test. It was a battle from start to finish. It wasn't the prettiest plate, but it shall do... I hope. This took me a total of 8 hours over 2 days. I'm glad it's over with, and hope I never see it a gain.

Today Corinne started (and nearly finished) out "save the date" magnets. We need a few more addresses but the bulk of them will be in the mail Monday. I'm not sure what my next role in this process will be. Maybe looking at tuxes? Joe and I discussed briefly about what to do for a bachelor party. Not sure what's going to happen with that...

I'd like to finish this post with a picture I took 5 years ago. This is Sean's (a co-worker at the time) dog. His name has drifted from my memory, but I like the picture. So here ya go.

Words cannot describe...

My apologies for another car post, but RB30DER.. Pretty much everything in this supercharged Godzilla-eater is one-off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjT7l76EHqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9BX6RhXeD8

In other news, I started another test today that I will finish tomorrow. I'll be glad when this one is over. *sigh*

Inspiration:

Inspiration to wrench on cars, get up early every morning to make that cheese, and get to some events to I can get my feet wet in this sport.

Success!

Well Jay and I finished my rear hub swap! It was a battle from start to finish. I'm liking the way to looks and the ride is a bit stiffer in the rear. The rim is 1" larger in diameter, and the offset it a bit more favorable than the stock steel wheel. Here are some pics!

Started with some parts.



Then stripped down everything, now ready for the new stuff!



Everything installed.



And finished product!

Made some progress yesterday...

...on someone else's car! It's all good though, I had a good time. I like wrenching on cars even if it's not on mine.

Anyone looking to see Pat's blog, click here!

Now Jay is headed over to help me tackle this rear hub swap!

No more teachers, no more books...

It's the weekend! I'm about to cook up some steak, and listening to Breaking Benjamin's new album. Doing some work on the car this weekend! Can't wait...

An acquired taste...

Yes, a bit too radical for my own car, but you get the idea!


Taken from the HellaFlush blog.

A fresh start...

As I've posted before, my PC shit the bed on me. My anti virus software expired and I didn't do a thing about it. Until it stopped turning on, then I couldn't do a thing about it. Well after a few weeks of no computer, I decided to learn some thing new; erase everything and start fresh. About a month prior to my computer dieing, I backed up all my music and photography to my external HD... good thing. Thanks to Kurt and Charlie for helping me get this done!

Now that my computer is up and running, I am trying my best to wrap my head around this tuning software (tuning in general really). With older Nissan ECU's (the computer that controls the car) you can edit and reprogram the files that control EVERYTHING. This is as good as it gets without spending 2 weeks pay to do it with a big name standalone ECU. A friend of mine actually has everything to do the job, and is pretty much going to do it all. I just want to understand everything that's going on so I can add some input and maybe do this on my own later.

New delivery!

Got my hubs in today. I am sooo excited! The brake lines are in the mail, too. I might just drill my rear rotors for 5-lug to save the $$$ from rotors and pads. I am bringing a caliper into work tomorrow, and the other on Friday, to get the pistons out of it. It's the easiest way I know of (if it works), then I can have them powder coated in Greenland next week. Hope everything goes as planned!

At work, a few things just clicked over the past few days. I've moved on to running vertical beads after submitting my horizontal test. It was like learning to weld all over again. After every practice plate it looks better and better. My instructor (Billy) came in yesterday and said "That looks great!" Well, that's not what I wanted to hear. I was getting loads of undercut and had no idea how to avoid it. So Billy said it's my speed, rod angle, and bead placement that are great. I got a few pointers and WOW, what a difference. No more undercut. Hoping to submit my vertical test early next week!

Parts on the way...

Last night I order 5-lug hubs for my car. Today I bought some stainless braided brake lines, too. I'm doing what I think is the largest mod I've done to the car; going from 4 to 5-lug. I am also upgrading the front brakes at this time. The stock front rotors are smaller than the rears.... that's just not right! With my future plans of finishing my motor rebuild and further down the road, turbo, I will need to be able to stop more efficiently. I am going with the front calipers/pads and rotors from the 1990-1996 Infinity Q45. They are a direct bolt on for the S-chassis, and are a substantial upgrade over the stock setup. I still need to repaint the calipers and rebuild them... hopefully later this week if the parts come in.

For the rear, I am using S14 5-lug rotors and new S13 pads. I will be running my stock 300ZX wheels also. I like the OEM look; clean, subtle, and it will look great! This will be a great improvement and I will be enjoying my car that much more!