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Just bought some Porsche/Audi/VW 18z 6 Piston Brembos. With a 370Z front rotor is surprisingly matches up nearly perfectly. Just a small tweak to it and it takes little to nothing to bolt on.
Originally I was going to collab with my bud Jonah Santiago (base6mt) to make a bracket. He got the calipers first and realized it making a bracket was going to be difficult but realized it just needed a new bolt hole. He is now going to be creating templates for people to use so they can know where to drill.
I'll personally be welding the bolt hole and drilling the new location.
Continuing a mod from last year to prep my car for repairs.
Bringing out my inner 90s ricer.
Double checking fitment.
Cleco's.
Riveted. Double checking for gaps.
Fully riveted and siliconed ("industrial" grade). Might've over done it a tad.
Bondo-glass'd.
Will convert my 12.6" rear Brembo BBKs to a 13.8" rear Akebono BBK using my brackets. Same kit fits 2 different types of brakes for both 2G and 3G TL.
Shaved the hump for a flatter surface. Will powdercoat and toss on my origami unicorn logo.
----
Off for the weekend. Continuing the work on Monday and Tuesday. Car will go into repair for body work on Wednesday.
Can't wait. My TL has been a piece of garbo for so long. Excited to see the triaxial weave pop through the vents. Will redo my EndlessRPM duckbill trunk in the same fabric. My roof needs to be welded at the seems so I might skin my roof in the same fabric as well.
looking forward to seeing everything come together
btw your pics are sized for ants
Originally Posted by rockstar143
this is a cool ass mod...love that you're keeping it alive!.
Thanks guys! It's being repainted soon. So many times I wanted to just give up on it... But it's allowed me to revitalize my passion into modifying vehicles and engineering/macguyvering things.
And lol @ pics. I realized that after reading both of your comments and checked. You have to click and load image in a new tab to see it in full size.
More updates tomorrow as I continue to work on the hood
Was also asked to potentially commission a vented hood for a customer (pending the final update on my hood) and another for me to create it in full carbon.
I do have a second vent coming in from Latvia that I will be modifying. It would be perfect for people with Andy's Rotrex kit... you guys will see why when it arrives.
Not sure if I posted these before... but this is how my TL has been sitting for the last 2 years.
4 hit and runs. 3 since COVID started. 1 just before COVID. When I'd get ready to fix it... another hit and run would come along... and the next... then I left it at my shop. Then a customer had the audacity to smash into her. I wrote up a bill for the customer but partner didn't want to charge them until the car was repaired. Well... partner ended up losing that customer's number and I sold the shop. Out of pocket for $1000 in damages that I could've had. Caught one other hit and run (they bent the hood and broken other things with the bumper) and got $950 out of them. The driver door and mirror was a city truck but city never ended up paying. Other was a ding on the passenger door.
This is how my car was sitting just last month. I left it with a body shop. They gave me a deadline to prep the car for them... but then they took a month to begin working on it.
Here's updated pics as of Monday or so.
They ended up recommending and doing other work I didn't approve of... but nonetheless the car is finally being restored.
They mentioned they could fix the rust on my roof. I was going to have another shop weld it but they said they could do it. I didn't want filler. Also some asshole broke my windshield while my car sat in their lot... so they had to replace my window.
They also refinished the passenger light. Didn't ask for it and didn't need to since I have so many replacement lights. (In fact those were replacement lights from another garage when I got TBoned several years ago).
Front A-Spec lip center portion is being painted flat black. Bumper and A-Spec is also being plastic-welded since it was cracked in so many places from said hit-and-runs. They offered to look over my custom hood to make sure it came out perfect. They mentioned I did a "better than average job" and that I missed some high spots. They fixed that for me.
The car is going to be assembled on Monday. If I have time I'll be picking it up on Monday then sending her off to another garage to swap brake master cylinder, brake booster and swap the BMC lines to ABS module. After that it's being sent off to another shop to weld 3 holes in my floor board. Then after that it's being sent to a friend to 3D scan the car so we can start designing wide body CF fenders. All this work and I won't be able to enjoy it for a while.
In the mean time, since I don't have my own powdercoating shop anymore, paying anything over $100 to get my work done feels expensive lol.
So I'll be painting my 18Z Brembos and 370Z rear Akebonos. Thinking purple with gold lettering. Was originally going to do gold with black lettering.
Let's see... what else was sitting on the shelf.
Oh right, my side mirrors! I told the shop to leave it alone 'cause they're a lost cause. I'm going to be CF wrapping and modifying my 07 side mirrors. Reworking the turn signal (personally don't like how big it is).
I also have CDM tail lights on hold... going to bring one of my custom designs to fruition. But now it'll look like audi-copies since they coincidentally came out with similar designs ever since I first drew mine up.
As a matter of fact I have way too many mods sitting around.
LOL, I read the whole post and can't tell if you're excited or totally over it
lol super excited---but i have more repairs to go through which makes me not-excited.
4 grand in body repairs, then off to figure out the brake booster/master cylinder situation, then another shop right after that to weld floor boards.
Then off to my fabricator for an unspecified period of time to start designing fenders. I won't be able to actually drive and enjoy the restored TL for a while.
Was supposed to pick it up on Monday but the steering rack on my Subaru Outback randomly gave out. Think it got jealous 'cause there was no sign of it going bad. Just casually following a lady-driven Eleanor Mustang for 15 minutes, record a video, stop at a red light 2 blocks later and when I wanted to move the steering was gone.
Subaru is off at a garage for repairs. What sucks is that it's not even mine---was borrowing it for a few months since my Volvo had caught fire. Made a purchase on a BMW E61 535i and picking that up on Friday----will also go get my TL on Friday and drop it off to the next garage for them to do the brakes.
Originally Posted by BreezyTL
Sounds like you will have a nice car once it is all buttoned up. Can't wait to see pics!
Originally Posted by rockstar143
how dare you assume how his car is gonna turn out.
not in this day and age!
lol---and with my shitty luck with the TL (and cars in general)
Forgot to upload photos. I'm both happy and not happy with the job. Told the painter what the base color was but that the mix was custom. So he'd have to match it by eye---he assured me he could. Well, as you can see, he never bothered (the darker panels is the OEM Jaguar color. My car had a bit more silver mix in it which made the overall paint lighter and gave it a natural hint of purple).
Also he didn't put the roof molding back on properly. The work itself is fantastic though. Just the details he totally missed. I'm not super bothered by it though since I plan to repaint the entire car to my dream color anyway.
I also bought a new daily back in September. Had major bad luck with it near the end of October though.
Tire blew on the highway. Had it towed to a hotel where I stayed overnight. Waited for a friend who lived 2 hours away to come let me borrow his winter wheels. Lifted the car using the OEM jack. The jack twisted and the car collapsed. Piece of shit OEM jack. Literally the first time I had a car fall on me ever. Wait for his friend who lives in that city to be free to come with a low pro jack. Get the temporary wheels on. Noticed the height sensor is now fucked. Car seems to be okay otherwise. Few days later the car seems to be having issues with it's ride height (it has stock air suspension in the rear). So sometimes it would be low and sometimes it would be high. Scan it and fix what I could on software side. Seemed okay as the height was finally staying the same. Drive home a day later and the air strut completely blows. Tire catches the blown bag and shreds everything related to it. Drive 15 minutes away to a local BMW shop. Left it for them to take care of. Fly home. Was then told 1 piece was on backorder from Germany and required a 10-13 business day wait. That singular part only costed $20. Told them to just repair some leaks that I'm aware of during the wait. That was almost three weeks ago and it's finally ready for pickup.
Debating between keeping it, trying to return it to the dealer and getting a refund or selling it.
Anyway here's my new car to add to the list of bad luck cars.
It's an E61 535xi. Twin turbo (N54) inline 6. Sadly it's an auto.
Carried the roof basket over from the Volvo (did I mention it caught on fire in this thread? If not---well it caught partly on fire which is why it was finally replaced).
Also it's not an OEM front windshield but... hhhnnnnggggggg completely scratch free. I immediately applied Aquapel to it when I got it home. I don't ever want to use the wipers in case it leaves microscratches.
Also the shop that helped do my brake booster and MC upgrade either didn't adjust the push rod properly or the mod wasn't what I had hoped for. The pedal stops after like 2" of travel. It stops amazing... but I'm like 90% sure the pushrod is under load. 'Cause when I let off acceleration and go into neutral the car stops IMMEDIATELY. The car also doesn't roll on a hill in neutral. They said my one of my brakes are seized but I'm more than sure it's the brake booster pushrod being improperly cut and adjusted. Unfortunately the car has been sitting there for 2+ months now and I haven't had time to tinker with it. Snow is coming soon but all my tools are in my BMW which I need to pick up in another province/state.
dark plum calipers with midnight blue flake in the top coat. Shimmers in nice lighting. Gold metallic decals.
18Z 6 piston 14" front bbk
Akebono 2 piston 13.8" rear bbk
Tested with an upgraded brake master cylinder and upgraded brake booster. The brake pedal is now very responsible and immediate. Very firm.
Next is a complete front suspension overhaul. Have slight play in my FR hub, FR upper BJ, FL outter tie rod, FR compliance bushing worn. Major rust going throughout the car.
After the suspension overhaul sending it to the shop to replace my 2 power steering rack return lines. Need to drop the subframe a tad and get into it----but everything in my car is so rusted I don't want to deal with the headache. The line at the power steering gear was also seized and I had to cut the line and use a socket to remove instead of a flare wrench. MOST of the oil you see on my driveway was from 2 leaks from the power steering rack (1 return line from the gear and 1 on the rack itself). Both leaked throughout winter and when I started her up again back in May. Oil. Every. Where.
Danny!
I hate those wheels!
Glad to see you back at it!
I love my Enkeis---just not the condition they ended up in. Winter driving took a huge toll on them (hidden potholes and hidden curbs). The stockies were from a parts car which are gonna be cleaned up slightly and sold since they no longer fit my car.
I did order new wheels. Advan TC-4. And I still have my old set of Enkei RS05-RR that I purchased nearly 10 years ago but never installed.
And thanks! Quit work for a bit so now I actually have time to do my own things for a while. Gonna make sure the TL is road worthy for long distance driving. Patching the holes in the floor (and trying to remove whatever rust brackets in the engine bay) then trying to get the car back to 1 color again.
06-20-2022, 06:24 PM
