Bikedads Constant Rebuild

[bikedad]

Today's rainy day (skipped autoX) update: The KYB's are back in the car in the rear for now. The rear sway bar is now out of the car. Was not a fan of the rear axle on turn in. Felt like the back of the car was trying to lead the front. I have always preferred my miatas without the rear sway bar and thus far I like the way the FC feels sans rear sway as well.

This feels like a more cohesive, predictable set up. I will likely run a rear sway once the car is on wider wheels and tires, but for now I'm pleased.

We also made a major upgrade to the brakes: I had a 929 master cylinder sitting ready to go for my old V8 FC, so we swapped that in along with Hawk HP+ pads all around. The car now stops like its hitting a concrete wall. So much so that I'll need a proportioning valve once we get wheels and tires swapped. Bedding these in was...interesting. Tires are now the limiting factor getting the car hauled down from speed. Really loving the pedal feel as well. Still has some of the FC dead spot at the top of its travel, but the pedal is much more progressive than before.

I'll have to get better about actually taking pictures in the future. Then again...most of you know what FC guts look like.

One thing I was going to try was a new brake booster check valve or even booster itself.
With that Extreme Energy cam it loses a lot of vacuum when you haul it down coming into a tight curve. (Unless you're good at heel-toe braking) I had a couple of "Oh shit!" moments at the last track day.
The car is fine by itself but when you're chasing a Z06 through the twisties it can get sketchy. 

[N0$0up4u]

Don I actually noticed that characteristic tonight. A sudden drop of pedal pressure coming down off compression under braking. Was a bit scary. I may want to think of swapping to a boosterless set up at some point. Or find a way to supplement vacuum to the existing booster.

[ebdyguy]

I might not be understanding the issue correctly, but don't you mean that you experience a sudden increase in pedal pressure to brake the car?  If the engine is not producing enough vacuum it effectively takes the booster assist away.

[N0$0up4u]

Yes I mixed myself up it would seem. Pedal suddenly goes much firmer but requires much more travel to get the same amount of brake force.

[gadzooks]

Good to see Roxy progressing even more
Side note: I have Roxy's original driver's seat bracket in my car(along with the Pro5-0 shifter from she had a T5), and I used her passenger seat for a Forza gaming rig.

[N0$0up4u]

This weekend's update: Removing the sunroof is a PITA. So..here are the fruits of the labor. Carbon fiber piece is installed in the car. Gutted the whole stock assembly and cut quite a bit of metal out of the frame itself. total savings comes to about 22lb. If i remove whats left of the frame and mount using L brackets I'll drop another 8 or so pounds.

It took a while and some finagling to get the mounts on the carbon panel to play nice with the sunroof frame itself....I decided to do this outside. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining! Then i ran out of light. And became dinner for every mosquito within a 5 mile radius. 16 bites later and the new panel was in! It wasn't all tears and pain...I managed to track down a certain member on here in the wild...the girls got together for a while and had coffee while we watched. [attachimg=1][attachimg=2][attachimg=3]

[AKINA FC]

Looks great! 

[N0$0up4u]

I'll probably end up doing L brackets soon enough, but what spurred me to get on this so quickly was the fact that I gave Roxy a good wash and detail last weekend. I came back two days later and realized i did not open the sunroof after washing her to check for water in the rails. Sure enough I noticed what looked like bubbling in the surface of the outer sunroof panel around the front and rear edges. Very hard to see, but it was definitely there. Opened the sunroof and found water in the drip tray beneath. Older factory seal was letting some water through.

If there is one thing I have absolutely 0 patience or tolerance for it is corrosion / rust 

So I made the decision right then and there that the panel would have to come off the car immediately. Upon removal I found the beginnings of the classic FC sunroof panel rust. Really a shame, because a good buddy of mine wanted this panel under the assumption it was clean as could be. He owns my old LS swapped FC and the sunroof on that car was toast. On the plus side I'll probably use the old panel to do a lay up for a carbon sunroof plug.

[N0$0up4u]

Finally got the clamps we ripped off the exhaust while loading the car onto the trailer back on so the car sounds a little more civil now. A little. Not much of a difference, but this exhaust just needs to serve until we can get a lightweight single exit fabbed up. I love the way it sounds, but just looking at this exhaust you can tell its pretty heavy. Also want to build some extensions for the collectors to see if we see any difference in mid range torque.

Test fit the widebody wheels for the first time last night.
[attachimg=1]

These are Cosmis XT206R's wrapped in Toyo R888's. Not my favorite tire in the whole world, but they came on the wheels and had all of 5 miles on them. These will be replaced by 315 width hoosiers all around once the car is rolling on them. Current width is 305. Surprisingly the rears fit with about 5mm clearance to the trailing arm.
[attachimg=2]

 I'll end up running a 5mm spacer to play it safe with tire flex. Fronts pictured below were put on with a 20mm adapter (5x114 to 5x114) and it was way overkill. With the coilovers in the car, more camber and a 5mm spacer I'll have plenty of clearance under the widebody.
[attachimg=3]

Dat. Fitment.