Stampie wrote: I've been searching for several months for some cheap 10 inch wide wheels for the drags. At lunch today I see a set of wheels within our range. Not the prettiest ones but Team Stampie is all about proving you don't have to be pretty to be fast.
I just wanted to put the combination of pictures on the same page.
Very Nice! Very Wide!
JohnRW1621 wrote:Stampie wrote: I've been searching for several months for some cheap 10 inch wide wheels for the drags. At lunch today I see a set of wheels within our range. Not the prettiest ones but Team Stampie is all about proving you don't have to be pretty to be fast.
They had a wicked Black Friday sale, $109 each...
In reply to JohnRW1621:
Thank you sir. I'm thinking the 315s will solve our traction issues in the drags. We got our wheels used with less than 1000 miles on them for $50 each.
In reply to Stampie:
What kind of tire is that?
That's a Hoosier drag radial 315/30/18. Got the pair on local Craigslist $150.
Will I be judged if I admitted I like those wheels... I mean if I did like those wheels... would I?
In reply to NordicSaab:
Naw your Miata seat work saves you. Btw wanna buy two of them?
So yesterday I go into the local Ace figuring they might be willing to do some custom color mixes. The manager says they don't do anything but latex now but points to a gallon of Ace oil enamel that have on sell at $9.99 just to get rid of. I try to get it cheaper but he won't budge. 
So today I walk in with Carol ,point to him and say "that's the man you need to flirt with." He immediately drops the price to $5. It's good to have teammates with all different kind of skills. 
Good job on the price drop.
In fine Q45 fashion...
In the Team Stampie spirit of collecting parts, today we picked up a glass rear window. Plan was to get front and rear but the front cracked in removal. We paid $37.50 for the rear. Not a bad price but the reason for the deal was we have to remove it from the frame. That'll be fun. Any ideas? My first plan was a DIY hot wire but as we were unloading it I thought maybe a mild acid bath to eat the urethane glue. 
The seller was a pretty cool guy. We talked awhile about the finer points of swapping a rear differential in these.
just some piano wire and two wooden handles will do the job. Just take your time.
In reply to Stampie:
I'd consider actually hiring a glass guy for he rear window
In reply to simon_C:
Yea I could but it's not as fun as DIY hot wire or acid.
In reply to Andy Neuman:
Naw that's the easy way out. I'd rather break it than do that.
Watching paint peel is way more fun than watching it dry.
So as you might have guess from the tease above we started striping the bed liner off the Q45. Today was mainly a see what works day. We started on the trunk since it's aluminum so the bare metal wouldn't rust. When mentioning it a few months back Carol volunteered to do the striping. Chris and I quickly agreed to this. Here's Carol putting on the aircraft striper and of course Chris standing by watching. 
After I saw the bed liner melting away I couldn't stand by anymore so I started scraping it away. 
We ended up doing three coats but we think if we would have left a thick coat on longer we could have gotten away with one. Still needs some work but not bad for a first attempt. 
Stampie wrote: ...Carol volunteered to do the striping. Chris and I quickly agreed to this.
I had hoped for some different pictures.
In reply to JohnRW1621:
Yea we did also.
So today's plan was to strip the hood and bumpers. Last night right before going to bed I saw a free oven on Craigslist. We need some sheet metal for the Infiniti and I want the elements for a home made oven project. So 10 am we roll out after contacting the lady. She stops responding before giving the address so we stop at Tractor Supply Co. cause who doesn't love them. Lady gets back to us but the address she gives is in a different direction from the ad. No big deal so we drive 30 minutes there. She's not home but husband let's us load it up. She shows up and says that it's not free. The free one is like another 30 minutes back the way we came. E36 M3 happens but she's an shiny happy person about the whole thing. So we drop the oven on the street and drive off. I mean really tell me that you have two ovens or E36 M3 act decent and I'll berkeleying take the oven all the way back to your garage cause E36 M3 happens. Actually I feel bad for her husband cause he seemed like a cool guy. So anyway I got this at TSC so the trip was worth it.
Today we hit the junkyard. For the Q45 we pulled the adjustable brake proportioning valve from my old 60 Cadillac. This should hopefully allow us to get rid of the ABS module. I can't remember how much I paid for it 12 years ago but the junkyard sold it to me for $9.99. It was nice to see my old car again. I can tell that someone has been stripping parts off her so at least she's helping other cars live on. Plus now I have a little part of her in the Q45. 
We also hit another C class Mercedes for it's battery cable. This time Chris did the pulling with helpful hints from Carol and I. He did discover that if you disconnect at the firewall you can pull from behind the driver's seat and not have to worry about unbolting it. This time it went a lot faster with us now knowing the routing. This only set us back $5.99 and we made another custom cable out of it using a LS block mounted battery terminal that'll end up being used in the K30. 
After that we visited a local distillery so well yea that kinda ended the day.
Woohoo free washing machine. Chris moved so he's blurry. 
One of the issues we had last year was the seat was way high. Even with the electric seat adjusters all the way down Chris at the shortest felt slightly high. I was way high but when John aka Q45 Godfather did a drag run in her he couldn't fit a helmet. It also made it a PITA to get in and out. That isn't good since the goal is to have a street driven race Q45. Today the first order was fixing this problem. We pulled the seat and after looking at it figured we could gain over 2 inches by removing the height adjustment mechanism which wasn't doing us any good anyway. Here's Chris pulling the two motors that aren't needed any longer. 
Modified seat bracket back in the car. 
And finally the seat mounted back up. 
End result is a much better driving position with both of us comfortable. Not only that but we removed this stuff saving weight and a little budget from the angle iron. 
The little piece below the angle iron was a pull handle to close the trunk. Right before we were judged on Concours last year I noticed it and it bugged me as a sign that we didn't do as much as we could have to lighten her last year. It's gone now so that's a step in the right direction.
Wow! You're getting an early start, Stampie. Since you are my arch nemesis we need to come up with some kind of side bet! 
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem:
Winner overall between us signs the others hood. Unless you're so desperate that you remove your hood. Then I get to sign wherever I want. Let me know what color your car will be so that I can bring a contrasting Sharpe.
You'll need to log in to post.
