Today was a good day working on the Q45. So good I need to apologise for the lack of pictures. Lil Stampie and I started alone as everyone else was working. I was tired last night because the control arm nut that kicked my butt took us all of a couple of minutes to get done. We put everything else needed back on and dropped her down.
So y'all know I have a history of not hitting my target on suspension ride height right? I was expecting a 2-3 inch drop and planned on raising it back up. We got all of an half inch drop. Ok so my suspension Fung Shui is lacking. We dropped the strut out the top and now it's able to swing out for a quick change.
We removed the top spring perch estimating that'll gain us another 1/2 inch and sure enough it does. We could lower it more but that'll mean going back to the metal store and remaking our lower perch. We're good with 1 inch.
Now that we spent over 3 days modifying the driver's side it only took about 45 minutes to do the passenger side. I did cheat and cut the spring instead of using a spring compressor. My method was to cut 2/3s of the way through then use a jack to put extra pressure on the spring. Had to cut it twice but the pop as the spring broke was cool.
Once we had the passenger side apart we looked into some issues we'd had over there. Turns out the caliper is bad which is better than the wheel bearing as I feared. Being a cheap bastard we ordered a rebuild kit. That should be here Monday so we'll see how it goes.
One interesting thing was one of these in each wheel well.
My first thought was an airbag sensor. I asked Lil Stampie to see what it was attached to and he says it's not attached to anything. We put them and the little berks weigh 3 lbs each. I guess they're there for NHV. We're pro NHV so in the trash they go. We did a before and after components for the spring change and that netted 7lbs loss on each side. Total loss on the front end was 20lbs in suspension and NHV weights for a cost of ~$10.50.
Stampie said:
One interesting thing was one of these in each wheel well.
My first thought was an airbag sensor. I asked Lil Stampie to see what it was attached to and he says it's not attached to anything. We put them and the little berks weigh 3 lbs each. I guess they're there for NHV. We're pro NHV so in the trash they go. We did a before and after components for the spring change and that netted 7lbs loss on each side. Total loss on the front end was 20lbs in suspension and NHV weights for a cost of ~$10.50.
I'll agree on the NVH... there was a similar type devices on the trunk lid of my TL (I assume you've already gutted your lid?), and I think there's also one on the front subframe, while the auto TL's had some kind of weight behind the front bumper.
In reply to sleepyhead :
We're planning a through look over for more. I can't see them just putting in those two.
Not much going on this evening because of rain. After looking at the rears I had second thoughts about 315 drag slicks fitting. We picked up a couple of Jeep 15 inch wheels and have some drag tires coming to the Challenge. That'll also free up a lot of budget for a surprise I've been thinking about the last couple of days.
We quit for the evening and were discussing the brake caliper rebuild when we realized that we hadn't checked the pins. Sure enough the lower pin was rusted stuck. Took a few minutes and it moves freely now. We're constantly reminded that this is a northern car with stuff we just don't see down here.
No pictures cause we suck.
Onto the rear. Just one bolt and the factory spring and bump stop came out. The holder for the bump stop turns out to be almost perfect size to be our upper perch. Great excuse to use our 100 ton press that so far has only crushed a few cans and measured the spring rates.
Now we just need to make our lower perch and do the other side.
Almost forgot. We found this in the rear wheel wells. Another 2lbs for each side gone.
Today we learned that a Stampie needs to stick to the KISS principle. I had a KISS idea for the lower pockets yesterday. I ended up coming up with a cool idea that'd be lighter and more elegant. It involved using free trampoline legs that I found on the side of the road. I learned that I suck at welding rusty thin metal. Hopefully tomorrow we'll do the KISS idea.
Short night but we got a lot done in the time. Driver's lower spring perch mostly done. Passenger side about 50% done.
Here's Chris cutting our bedframe. This was actually being thrown away by the parking lot build last year. Ends up being the perfect size for us and free to boot.
Kinda torn on showing this one because I know I should wear better clothing but I love the background.
And here's why you shouldn't do drugs during your formative years.
Safety glasses...check
Welding helmet. ..check
Protective gloves...check
Short pants and sandals while welding/working on heavy, dangerous metal....CHECK
No pictures tonight because we were in a rush and the official picture taker wasn't there.
We got the driver's rear done. Putting it together involved two people, a jack stand, a floor jack, and a ratchet strap. But once together I'm happy with it. We got the passenger side welded up and Lil Stampie got to pull the trigger on his first tack. Unlike his Dad, he was wearing helmet, welding jacket, gloves, shoes, and long pants. Hope to get the passenger side actually installed tomorrow and then onto the next project.
Dude, i told you not to weld in flip flops
SVreX
MegaDork
10/6/17 7:33 p.m.
If ever there was a person with the potential to post pictures on the internet welding wearing nothing but a thong, Stampie is the guy. 
In reply to SVreX :
Don't tempt me, I might just wear a thong for the judges.
Tonight was kind of a take it easy night. We just organized things, collected our thoughts, and got things ready for tomorrow. The great debate right now is how we're going to run the exhaust. I of course wanna do the coolest thing ever that might take two weeks to run 4 feet of exhaust. Chris if course wants to hit the easy button and spend 15 minutes on it. We'll end up somewhere in-between.
In reply to Stampie :
Really go for it...wear a weasel
I will give you 20 bucks to do judging wearing only a thong and flip flops.
Dusterbd13 said:
I will give you 20 bucks to do judging wearing only a thong and flip flops.
Pretty sure he would be better off taking the 12 points to not be judged
In reply to SVreX :
Yup...you can't unsee certain things.
Dusterbd13 said:
I will give you 20 bucks to do judging wearing only a thong and flip flops.
Do you know how much thongs cost? This one ain't cheap.
It's apparently expensive to have no dignity. LOL
Ill PayPal you the money for it....
I'll bring the eye bleach
Hung like an elephant....?? way to one up being hung like a horse...
Today's plan was get the suspension and exhaust done. The plan went out the door as soon as I started this morning.
I spent most of the morning turning this:
Into this:
Once Carol came over after work she got it better with 220. Going to go to 320 hopefully.
Chris did a half day at work so after a BBQ lunch we started work on different projects. His was installing new LED lighting so that we could see in the evenings and mine was making a battery box as I leaned from Pat that J hooks don't pass tech. No pictures of the battery box but we actually dropped weight from the factory battery tray and the J hooks. We even gained about $2 back in budget because I bought the J hooks last year.
Chris got the LEDs done in between helping me. Here's a picture of the light we have now. The little light nearest is what we had before.
We also installed a cheaper serpentine belt saving $8 from last year and sold our leftover windshield material getting $60 in recovery.
Last job of the day we got the passenger rear suspension bolted together. We still need to do a couple of things but hope to have her on wheels tomorrow.
It started raining like a mofo about an hour before I got off work. That meant Chris and I got to roll around on wet concrete after we got the rear suspension done.
Here we're discussing something important like me saying let's just put a hole here and run the exhaust out the rocker and Chris saying no dummy that's the unibody structure where the rear subframe mounts.
Little selfie action. Top left is the 350z rear diff. That's where the magic happens.
And finally done and out from under the car. I don't want to know what Chris is looking at.
