Yea I'll txt you some pics, it's not much trimming. Though that largely depends on exactly where the front base boxes are put so if they're a couple iches different from where mine are you may end up trimming too much or too little. I'd wait til you have the cage done before trimming. It shouldn't hurt the flocking to trim it later.


Where the wheel mounts to the hub is not coated. Any decent powder shop should know that should be masked off.

I've been powdercoating for about 3 years now, I opted to have a shop do my wheels because the spokes are so numerous and messing up would mean a lot of time stripping and reprepping the wheel which I didn't want to deal with. I've seen so much garbage come out of shops in the past years that as a rule of thumb I avoid bottom dollar shops. There are TONS of shops that charge $50 a wheel and more often than not they come out looking subpar or the powder cracks within a couple months, or they're retarded and don't mask off important surfaces. I paid for my wheels about double what bottom dollar shops charge and the quality speaks for itself, not to mention lifetime warranty with quick turnaround.

Speaking of powdercoating I powdercoated my intake manifold earlier this week. Decided to go with a simple color called BMW Silver w/a clear coat over it. The manifold isn't going to be seen much so I just decided to use a quick and easy color. I'm actually a big fan of it though as it's pretty subtle and the clear really helps bring out the slight metallic in the silver (see last pic for what I mean).

 

got it. so what is it otherwise, just a machined surface?

 

Essentially, yes. The greater the variation in that surface, the more runout the wheel will have. And no it's not going to be anything huge from powder but if you say that about all aspects of the wheel, the hub, the rotor, any dirt or corrosion between stuff, you might end up with more runout than you'd think.

 

I finally finished my super obnoxious valve cover today. Couldn't pick a color so I chose all of them.






Hoping to get some other small stuff done as well this week. Namely getting most of the looming done on the engine harness, start looming the inside of the car and get some more small pieces cut out on the mill.

Dallas also cut out these offset LCA bushings I drew up and they turned out awesome! Can't wait to throw them in with the Hardrace sphericals!

 

That valve cover though

 

Lol I'm a ricer in denial

 

Looks like a bass boat. Fish ON! Seriously though, the car is coming together nicely.

 

Not only did you choose all the colors, it looks like you used ALL the metal flakes...lol Looks pretty cool actually.

 

Thanks guys. It feels good to finally start wrapping certain tasks up. I felt like I've done nothing in the past 3 weeks.

One of the things I like about this color is that none of the color flake is really visible without direct light so without light it just looks like a gloss black with a little bit of speckle in it.

 

Cut out this little piece to fill the hole in my steering wheel since I don't have a horn. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's the first time I've made something with a curved profile so I'm happy it worked well. Think I might go back and polish it a bit, I still need to work on my surface finishes with the mill.

 

Got the new splitter almost all designed. I just need to confirm some dimensions and make some small tweaks. Decided to make this one a project for school since we've got a cnc router that can cut 4x8' sheets so I'll be making it out of a 4x8' sheet of hdpe. The aluminum air dam is just a sheet that can be bought from McMaster (actually everything in the model except the hdpe can be bought on McMaster) and it's riveted to L brackets that are riveted to the splitter. The vertical elements on the end are bent sheetmetal and are bolted to the splitter with nutserts on the bottom so there's no nuts to fall off. After I get it made I'm probably going to line the air dam with some rubber trimming so there's no sharp edges. I'm pretty excited to get this made as my current splitter is pretty trashed.

 

bad ***. would love to see this car in person - do you have an eta when the car will be ready & what ur schedule is?

 

Thanks! Right now I'm planning to go to Gingerman 4/14, BHF 4/18, Gingerman 5/14, BHF 5/21, Gridlife midwest if I can find someone selling an HPDE pass. I might substitute one of those days for a day at Waterford Hills but we'll see. I haven't really planned beyond GL yet as I'm not sure what my budget will be for the rest of the season until it gets closer to that time. I don't think I'll make it down to autobahn until later in the season so if you're going to any track days let me know.

I'm shooting to have the car mostly done in about 4-5 weeks. I'm putting it in a show in the beginning of March since no tracks are open yet and I figured it'd be cool if the car got some attention, so it's got to be drivable by then. Between March and April is when I'm planning to get the oil pan finished and get my speed density tune done along with other small loose ends.

 

Got my Hardrace spherical LCA bushings in the mail today. Quality seems pretty good considering how cheap they are compared to the rest of the spherical options. The stiction on them seems decentish, they definitely required a bit of persuasion to move the first time but after that they freed up a bit and move fairly easily now. I plan to pack in some CV grease on the bearings when I put the control arms back in the car to hopefully keep dirt away from the bearing and extend the life of them a bit.

 

New Teflon lined bearings are always pretty much impossible to move with putting a bolt through them for leverage.


I would not grease them, it only attracts dirt.