bewbews.com

I finally had time to do this mod - as it turns out, it’s VERY simple. Looks tons better than the plug in single led bulbs, and also costs significantly less than the “custom made-to-fit” led boards, which seem to be only available for higher end cars anyway.

To get started, I purchased an led interior dome light panel (3×6 leds - 18 total) off eBay. My particular light came from bliss-star for just under $13 shipped to my door. On to the write up w/ pics!

Note: I also test-fitted this same led panel into the 240sx convertible trunk light - fits perfectly w/ no modding at all!

Tools:
- Philips and flat blade to pry off the dome light and remove it.
- Dremel w/ sanding disc or equivalent tool to cut the plastic in the dome light
- 18 LED Dome Light w/ 194 bulb adapter (the one I bought comes w/ several adapters), or whatever size you like

Total Project Time:
I believe it took me about 15-20 minutes, most of the time moving from my car to the house, setting up the tools, and going back to the car.

Step 1:
Remove your old dome light
- Use a flat blade to pry the plastic panel off, be careful as the cover is probably pretty old & brittle
- Use a philips screwdriver to remove the dome light; unplug the connector & remove the 194 bulb at this time.

Step 2:
Trim the plastic panel so that the led light can fit comfortably with the plastic cover on. I had to trim off about 5-7mm either side of the housing for the light to be able to recess far enough into the housing so the plastic cover cover slip over. YMMV. (more…)

Orange Car!!!

That is all…

Mother’s Day… spend time w/ mom or go race @ Willow Springs International Raceway? How about both!?!

So, my stupid self decided “hey, I should fit my brand new painted body kit the day before I do Horse Thief.” Got everything on pretty decent. Slept @ about 1:30-2am. Woke up @ 4:30am, got to track @ 7am, prepped, bla bla.

This is my 2nd time going (first time was with SRT Motorsports guys). This time around, there wasn’t as much lap time because the 626 drift crew were holding a grip competition. In between the sessions, the drift boys would run.

Anyway, we started off with an hour of practice runs. Mostly 240’s, s2ks, one Neon SRT4, and a Civic (EK I think?). There were few enough of us that it was mostly empty for me during the practice. I think I was the only one who stayed on track for the majority of the session - everyone else either got tired, wanted to adjust some settings, etc. I stopped once for tire pressure & stiffening of the suspension. My driver side tire was rubbing the fender REALLY bad @ the high speed sweeper/kink where the chicane is located.

After stiffening her up, it was pretty solid.

The car felt really nice in 2nd with the Power FC (on stock n/a KA, mind you). However, I felt like I had absolutely no 3rd gear. I was going @ the straight about 65-70mph full throttle. The first time I went, I was able to easily hit 75mph or so on the straight. In 3rd gear, when full throttling, it felt like something was off. I most likely need to get it tuned since the map is for a turbo s14. In any case, I started shifting back down to 2nd gear during the straights, which helped, but I could smell my tranny again.

My stock bumper got warped from the combination of hot weather + running rich @ El Toro. This time around, I decided to try some aluminum heat barrier material used to wrap things in the engine bay to protect from header/turbo heat. The exhaust blew the heat barrier clean off my bumper sometime during the practice, along with a good chunk of paint. To top things off, further up the bumper, the paint bubbled from all the heat :(. I tried making a crazier heat shield, which faced the same fate during the way home.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly… or so I thought. Too bad I only recorded the practice runs and not my timed lap.

After the drift session, we all lined up for the qualifying runs: 1 warm up lap, 2 timed laps. I decided that it might be more beneficial if I just forget about 3rd gear & stay in 2nd the whole time - the taller gearing of the J30 vlsd should keep my transmission oookkk. I started building up speed pretty quick, wasn’t concentrating like I was suppose to, missed the apex, and understeered right off the sweeper/kink area - the whole time thinking “fuck, I hope my body kit is okay… and not flipping over would be nice.” I tried to take it easy and slow down gradually, but then the car slid across the track and onto the other side of the dirt/dips - BUMP BUMP BUMP! FUCKKKKKKKK!

Car stops. Only one car at a time during timed runs, so no big deal. I regain composure and continue on my way. Everything seemed fine once again until I went one round around HTM & “Hey, that’s my rear bumper @ the hair pin!” I ignored it for one lap since it slid out of the way of the driving line. On my final lap, I decided to stop @ the bumper & pick it up. Stopped the car, then realized, “Crap, if the Willow Springs safety ppl might be mad that a driver left his car in the middle of the track.” So I proceeded to the timing guy as my lap finished and told them “My bumper is in the middle of the track!” Got it afterward.

The masking tape did very little… well, basically nothing. I believe my first lap time was 1 minute and 11 seconds and average of something higher since I stopped the 2nd timed lap, which put me dead last. The other guys in the group were running between 1 minute and 5 seconds to 1 minute and 9 seconds or so. Top contenders at that time was an S14, a few S2000’s, and the EK Civic - man, that guy was fast (sure he had r-compounds, but he was outpowered by EVERYONE). Cars already fucked, let’s take a rest, then proceed to next elimination round (only 10-12 ppl, so everyone qualified, haha).

Elimination round I ran 1 minute and 13 seconds rear-bumperless, which was 1 second too slow to advance. Now that I got eliminated, I had time to put Candy (my 240sx convertible for those who don’t know) back together. Left @ 2:20pm, got some hybrid lilies for mom, & arrived home around 5:00pm, just in time to give mom her Mother’s Day flowers & partial rent for the month.

No one even questioned why I was gone @ 5am, SCORE!

Complete album can be seen by clicking on one of the images above.

Also, got a video of the “Flaming S13 Driftos!”:

More pictures, info, videos available on Zilvia.net: http://www.zilvia.net/f//showthread.php?t=181124&page=39

Also found a decent map of the track: Map of Horsethief Mile @ Willow Springs

I know, it’s fairly simple, but I figured I’d do a “write-up” anyway. We just finished installing Chris’ exhaust on his 350z, he loves it! His personal review is basically @ idle, it is much quieter, but once you get on the throttle, there is a much more deep and “racey” sound to it.

Total Install Time: 2.5 hours (being very relaxed & taking our sweet ass time). This install should be doable in 30 minutes - 1 hour for those who are motivated.

QV: “Hey Chris, I think I can fit your muffler on my 240.”

Equipment Required/Recommended:
- Nismo (or whatever you bought) exhaust
- Replacement exhaust gaskets (2 for cat, 1 for mid-pipe, and 1 ring gasket for mid-pipe to muffler) & bolts or a Nismo exhaust gasket kit
- Jack
- Jack Stands
- PB Blaster (especially handy for the exhaust hanger bushings
- Metric socket & wrench assortment (mostly 10, 12, & 14mm)
- Long screwdriver or something to help pry the hanger bushings
- Breaker bar to make removing old nuts easier
- Possibly a Ford Wrench… just in case something gets stuck
- Metal/Aluminum polish if you wish to make things shiny
- Pimp Khakis & a Dress shirt because 350z guys work on their cars in style (optional)

Step 1 - Prep
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I attended an autox practice at El Toro on April 27, 2008. This event was for people who worked the Motorsport Z Driving School on April 26. Lots of us showed up - Ankur, Gar, Jimmy, Lily, etc.

Very fun day overall, & I finally got to drive my 240sx convertible at an autocross again after a couple months of waiting. This was also the first event I’ve done with Candy with a “tuned” Power FC. Felt much faster than before even though the tune was for a turbo car thanks to Lien from FRSport.

In any case, I remembered to take a couple quick shots - this was in the afternoon, so a lot of the cars have already left - only about 30-40 people to begin with.

I also had a chance to record in-car runs in Jimmy’s & Lily’s cars. Here’s the one from Jimmy’s Car (you can view the others by clicking the image above):

This reminds me, I need to get my car ready for the next event!

Ankur loves to make me digg his articles. Sometimes they are lame, sometimes they are cool. I only dig cool ones, or ones that are odd, or ones that have orange cars, haha. Each time he wants me to, he messages me on gmail/gchat & asks, or rather just yells, “dig me sir!”.

His latest one is kind of neat - mostly because I saw a similar smart car (this most likely wasn’t the China copy cat in the article) in Irvine during lunch:

Seeing Double: China’s Automotive Copycats

As some of you may know, I’ve been waiting approximately 4 weeks for Candy, my Nissan 240sx Convertible, to come back from Rite Way Auto Paint and Body in Fountain Valley so that I can track her & drive her around town again (it’s CONVERTIBLE WEATHER!).

My friend Donny @ FRSport recommended me to this body shop since he had his sileighty done here, as well as the rest of his family’s cars. They did an excellent job on Donny’s car, so I knew they’d take good care of me as well.

Original estimate was 1.5-2 weeks. Of course, from the get go, I knew there would be no way they could get my car & all the special requests I had done in that amount of time (lots of special requests - the entire car was basically being restored, body wise). Max & Jesse over at Rite Way body shop took care of me during this time. They were extremely patient and helpful. They even picked out a really nice orange for me - I had given them a picture of the approximate orange I wanted, and they got really close.

I felt bad for dropping in and “checking up” on the car every few days. I felt almost like I was harassing them (I really just wanted to snap progress pictures for my blog & review), but both Jesse & Max were nice and understanding. I even interrupted them during a lunch period one time, since that was the only time I was available that week to check on the S13. Jesse took time off his lunch to walk me through what they’ve done with the car so far and where everything was currently standing.

There were a couple small bumps along the way, as I posted earlier, due to some miscommunication on my part and not clarifying more - i.e. hood was painted black & stock bumpers were not fully prepped. However, a quick 5 minute conversation, and we were back on track.

I came in today to check on her progress; the 1 month wait was TOTALLY worth it. My baby is looking GORGEOUSSSSSS.

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In an effort to get Ankur’s name associated with random things we talk about, someone on the solo2.com message board posted this video.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Really genius stuff, hahaha. “Look man, I just don’t hold to this chicks who say a guy’s wheels are an extension of his penis.” hahaha - mostly safe for work, hahaha.

Video can be found @ Funieststuff.net

I dropped by Riteway in Fountain Valley, CA to talk with Jesse about the 240sx convertible today during my lunch period. She’s got primered & basically just waiting on the super special secret paint to come in (new ‘08 color) to be mixed & sprayed.

Good thing I rolled by because there was a bit of miscommunication between us when I was going over the parts I want painted. I had given Jesse a sheet with a picture of a 240sx hatchback, which was orange w/ a black hood. They had thought I wanted my hood black, so painted it that color. OH NOES!

Also, they didn’t prep the bumpers as much since they figured I was going to use the aftermarket body kit I brought in for paint as well. I had to explain that I was going to be using both (stock bumpers being backups or vice versa).

However, Jesse & Max were both extremely understanding and patient; they will be making sure the hood gets redone & the bumpers reprepped. I feel kind of bad since they did a really nice job on the hood - looks very smooth and nicely done.
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Day 1: WHAT A DOOSIE!!!

- Took care of tech, registration, pratice starts, and tires on Friday. I ended up just replacing the 2 front tires - 205/55R15 Federal SS535. The right rear is Dunlop ‘Super Sport’ All-Season, and the left rear is Bridgestone RE-170 All-Season. Yup… gonna get pwn’d!

- Saw the other Sentra entry there - Dennis - Red SpecV SE-R w/ Kumho V710’s… and he was one of the slow G-Stock cars, good lord. Later, in impound, he and another guy noted that I probably belong in H-Stock (slightly better - i.e. I won’t be 2nd to last, but maybe 3rd to last, haha). Turns out, yup, I’m in H Stock, o well.

- From what I remember, the Mini’s were leading the pack w/ 47’s -> 48’s. Dennis got into the 48 range by our 2nd set of runs for the day. I got into the high 54/low 55 range. There was an Acura RSX earlier in the day running a 65 (yay, I beat someone in my class), but he left early. One of the course workers noted the smell of a clutch going out as the RSX passed by on course. My reaction times were not great, but not bad, and at the very least pretty consistent. I was able to keep it at high .6xx -> low .7xx. It seems H-Stock guys were running in the 47-52 range… not much of a difference, haha. Preliminary results here for those who are interested: http://www.scca.com/documents/resultfiles/12314_Preliminary%20Sat-%20ResPr.pdf

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