Scaxx

^ Looks about right, been crazy weather lately

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Better floating bridge (wait for it)

Scaxx

Holy ****, glad I don't live there.

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

But thats russia. The one I posted is where Scaxx actually is (or in the area)

Scaxx

Got a new regulator for purging stainless in the mail today. I also decided to start the process of pulling out any wiring that will be staying in the car. A lot of the time spent today was pulling out all the airbag wiring and slowly cutting open the whole harness. Watched both the kill bill's while I did them. I'm thinking of just keeping the theme of Tarantino while I continue pulling out wires. As I get further in I'll detail how I plan on setting up switches and what they got to. Also keeping track of everything that I take out (including tape) and then I'll weigh it at the end. After the wiring is done on Audrey I'll weigh that harness and see just how much weight I was able to get rid of!




The excess weight:

Scaxx

Well I got what I think to be everything out of the harness that I need. I think I'll probably end up cutting out more after a little while but I'd rather cut more later than cut too much now. I left lights for the dash, tail lights, brake lights, blinkers and a couple other wires for the gauges. I'll be cutting out all the dash stuff once I get the holley display down the road but it's not in the budget yet. I haven't weighed what I cut vs the holley harness yet since that weight minus the weight of the holley harness will be the true weight that I cut out. I pretty positive I will come out with a decent weight loss.


Everything I took out:

I'm hoping to get the dash back in soon and start working on that, I was gonna try to make my own dash but I'll see how much weight I can take out of the stock one and go from there. I'm a big fan of factory looking things but if it's too much weight then it'll just have to go.

Getting more business from people for welding, making a little money on the side. I don't charge a whole lot since they're my buddies but just enough to pay for my time and supplies.

Scaxx

Picked up a 10ft stick of 3" stainless for $100 today. Good quality stuff from the looks of it. So hopefully I can start looking at the first half of my exhaust soon. Going go karting tomorrow with some people from the ME and EE programs, should be pretty fun.

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

3" 304 from Columbia mandrel bends is about $10 a foot. $100 for 10ft sounds about right.

Scaxx

Never heard of colombia mandrel bends before, their prices are good and the shipping isn't bad at all! Usually I just pick stuff up from onlinemetals since they're real close by but I may have to order stuff from them in the future, at least for exhaust.

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

I use them because they are a half hour away so I can skip shipping.

Scaxx

Went go karting tonight, drove until I got blisters on my hands and then kept going. But hey, gotta take advantage of free racing! I invited one of my good buddies and by the end we were within a few thousands of a second of each other. Had a ton of fun, hoping to get to the an autox with brad soon. Both the oregon rally group and bscc have a really bad habit of scheduling races the day before a midterm or final. In fact, in the past 6 months there's only been one race between the two that hasn't been the day before a large exam. And 3 days before that rally brad's rear main decided it was tired of holding oil.

Mobius

iTrader: (2)

So, three days before the event, Brad's rear was leaking fluid.

Classic mt.net right there

Scaxx

Got a decent bit of work done today, even got some yardwork done which was nice. Decided to work on the dash for a little bit and try to cut some weight out of it. First I decided to try out the carbon piece that my girlfriend had gotten me a while back, fits really well which is nice.

Then I cut the dash at the line to cut all the lower crap off and reduce some weight , pretty happy with how it turned out, looks pretty decent and there was definitely a difference in the weight. I started cutting it with the dremel at first but I actually found the grinder to work quite well and still be very controllable, I was worried about using it at first since I didn't want it to take a gash out of the dash that I was keeping but it worked better than expected.

After that I took the bar and cut off anything that wasn't needed as well as ground down the welds on it. Also sidenote, holy **** I hope mazda's welds have improved over the years, a couple of the welds didn't even have penetration and popped off when I hit them with the grinder. Yikes! There's still two more brackets that can be cut since I thought I needed them but I actually don't, but other than paint the bar is done. I was originally planning on making a dash for the car but I figure that can wait until I have a cage. For now I've taken a decent chunk of weight out and I'm pretty happy with that.


At the end of the night I started making the trans mount. I drilled two holes for the mount on one side the the rectangular tube and then took a hole saw to the other side so that I can get a socket in there. Came out looking pretty good. I had the jack under the trans to get it parallel with the diff but for storing it I shoved this piece of wood under it, it's actually within half of a degree like this but I'll make sure it's perfect when I get ready to weld stuff.


Oh and here's my dad's beer sculpture that I'm welding

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

Looks good. In my head I want to do a half dash so bad, but I don't think I can pull it off.

OGRacing

iTrader: (1)

that's not bad, i wouldn't mid a stand up desk that looks like that. is that 1.5 square tube?

Scaxx

Yep, he got a bunch of it for free when one of the beef jerky plants that he works with shut down. The thing is a real bitch to move around since it's .125 wall and real heavy, but it makes it real nice to weld at least.

Scaxx

Just bought the rest of my suspension pieces, bought some extended balljoints, r-package tie rods, alignment bolts, and arp studs for the front. I believe that finishes off the all the pieces for suspension and makes everything in it new.

Currently looking at the second half of the exhaust. Gonna try to exit it out the quarter panel, the only problem with that is it only allows for a very short muffler. I measured about 12" of space if I do the y pipe going to the drivers side and then a small radius 90* (Yay pie cuts). That's give or take maybe an inch or two. Burns makes a 12" long muffler with a 4" inlet/outlet so that can work, might be kinda loud though which I'm somewhat worried about. Might give it a shot and if it's too loud then add a resonator to each side before the y pipe. Should be a pretty light exhaust set up, a little expensive, but that's alright, more weight out of the car is the goal.

Scaxx

Did a little bit of work today after school, got the frame rail reinforcements off and welded the tabs on for trans mount. Just one other set of welds and the transmission should be fully mounted in the car, also I decided to do what you did Johnny and just throw some washers in to space the mount. That way if something does go wrong I have some wiggle room to go up and down. Even though I checked the angle like 5 times.



Oh also my driveshaft won't go on because of the little shaft that comes off the flange on the diff. Basically I'd have to install the entire drivetrain as one piece. Anyone have any objections to me taking a cut off wheel to about an inch of it?

OGRacing

iTrader: (1)

your on your own there. i got a 8.8

NBoost

Looks like it could serve as a locating pin to make sure that flange and the driveshaft are/remain concentric? Are the 3 driveshaft bolts locating?