rustyschopshop

Glad to see this bad boy is starting to come together. Can't wait to see it "finished" yet again

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

I know its taken a long time.. to be fair, most people who find themselves a better paying job usually ditch this car/platform and move up and move away from the old car this has become.

I stuck with my old guy.

Also, when that income dries up, most people quit and sell things off..... I lost 40k a year in income in the blink of an eye.. and still carried on.

Im sure its somewhat tiring to watch the "updates" trickle in, and trust me, the pain is nearly ALL MINE lol.. but Im still trucking along.
Most give up long before this... I'm pretty proud that I'm completely insane and stuck with this.
I see the trends come and go, and then I see the things I've been working on and shooting for ( for years prior) all becoming the newest current craze.
Supercars with factory GT3 spec'd race body kits ...TJ Hunts Ferrari 458, my buddy Niko sourced Johns ( Pterodactyltactics) Super Trofeo body for his Huracan, etc etc..
And following behind like the tortoise and the hare is me, greying by the day with my fully streetable IMSA style z33 from 15 ago lol.

All good tho, to me, its a toil that's been worthwhile, especially now that I've learned SO MUCH about the car by having my hand up every one of this cars' @ssholes at this point lol.




The good news is that Ive been able to fund the cars slow forward direction by the Z community itself. The ONLY money spend on this car comes from body kit sales, and the NSM kit has been a god send for myself as well for my customers.

Ill be designing private label kits sometime this year as well, something that will allow me to CREATE and DESIGN... without having to demolish my own sandcastle each time.

TL;DR: When Brian just pays professionals to do his body work finally, things tend to move fast and get done, and that's what I did this time.

We should be back from body work in January.

e30cabrio

iTrader: (30)

I don't think you are crazy Brian & good for you sticking with it! Can't wait to see the "finished" product!

MicVelo

I give you a hard time every time I see one of your posts (here and over on FB), Brian, but the reality of it is that I applaud what you have done and are still continuing to refine. I like the thorough, "it-aint-right-so-I'm-doing-it-over" build ethic. Too many cars out there are built with the can't-wait-to-show-it-off mentality and they come out looking like swiss cheese with mold growing on them. Keep it up and even when you say its "finished", I'm not worried, you'll find something else to do to raise the bar even more.

Enjoy the ride.

rustyschopshop

Keep your chin up brian and forge on
Definitely sucks when you have no income. Glad you found a source to fund yours. Sometime this spring gonna start looking for a source for my z as well just not sure what yet.

DarkZ03

iTrader: (11)

Hey as long as you still love the car that's all that matters. Mine is my child and we ain't parting ways, I could buy something better but that's not fun IMO. Too much investment to just quit overnight for me, I can only imagine what it's like for you. Can't wait to see the finished product!

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

for sure, wasn't feeling picked on by any means, I'm about 6 years past that level in life lol..
Just more of an explanation as to why this mess has occurred I suppose lol.

Checked out the body progress yesterday... it is going to be absolutely stellar. There will be some who wont like it, that's just the way things go, but for those ( mostly u forum guys) who are aware of this car; what has ever been available, what has ever been built, aero history, jgtc race cars etc.. this will be the "flare kit (lol)" that everyone will wish was available in the first place.
We are downsizing the rear bumper cap shapes slightly, basically cutting an inch or so off the outside dimension lines, and bringing the fender curve down into the flare cap bumper shape.
It looked great in person as it stood, but those shapes stick out so far off the car that rear 3/4 views make it seem like its way out there off on its own.. so to trick the eye a bit more, were keeping the dimensions a bit more closed in, and shaped to the bumper.


I'm going to have the same guy install the Hamann diffuser wing and also just make up the rear tire squirt bottom panels that mount to the bottom of the rear bumper sides.. and extend out to match the lines of the bumper cap fender shapes directly above them.. this will save on the diy time for me, and ill just make the ducting/blades for that space between the bumper cap shapes and the lower planes myself out of black aluminum sheet for now.
I imagine they will get beat to death by rocks as it stands, no need for fancy carbon.

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

oh and in other news, the NSM kit I've been selling is doing PHENOMENALLY well.. my partnership w VIS wil expand this year and Ill be redesigning the original Stardast kit.
Since they disappeared and left me high and dry and several thousand dollars lighter in the pocketbook ( ).. I have 0.0% qualms about doing so.
VIS has always had a replica of my kit, and due to our tight comradery, Fred never resealed it for sale.. SO.. I will design the rear flares to sit a bit wider, a bit less bubbly, and the rear triangle vent shape will be flattened out to a more low profile, rectangular duct/vent shape at the rear.

So not only will I have that kit to sell again, it will be improved by a large margin for what I think will honestly look and sell much better.

Being the fact that it will be manufactured (for me exclusively) by VIS, I can imagine our total retail on the kit will be less than Stardast was also.

Hope to get it going by summertime hopefully.


Oh, and I am also talking to them about making 06+ REPLACEMENT upper door panel halves in carbon fiber .. since the 06+ door panels unscrew and split into pieces, I'm hoping anyone who wants to retain the nicer door panel and oem fitment will jump on these. The only tricky part is going to be the molding of the inside panel pieces, the window track channel along the top, the handle and vent mounts etc.

rustyschopshop

Dang brian you have a lot going on, glad to hear everything is going much better now.

DarkZ03

iTrader: (11)

If offered in MATTE finish I might be interested in those. MOST don't have the dedication you do so an actual widebody flare kit will almost never be done lol, everyone likes RB too much. I love the car but I still prefer the DoLuck? bumper more, but I will wait for the finished product. Any chance of getting a CF duckbill spoiler made?

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

Updated pictures...









The rear needs to have some rounding done, body lines added etc but were getting there.

Looks like Voodoo13 will be custom machining me a set of longer upper arms I stead of just threading out the heims on the original ones..
Regular sized /existing arms:


New cad design. Quite a bit longer.



A few pics w my buddy's rig, out at Desert Meihan 3 a few weeks ago.. What an amazing event, my best pals run this event (Track Society)

DarkZ03

iTrader: (11)

You still doing the gill like vents on top of the front fenders?

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

Nah, not until I have time to build something very smoothed out and properly shaped. The universal style don't flow very well.

Updated the top view render to show the splitter shapes
Kind of a rough fender shape, but overall the silhouette is good.


She's getting there... Very big girl... And I'm happy that the suspension mods will make this width an actual improvement in vehicle handling neutrality , and not just a widebody cartoon joke like some other cars are.

DarkZ03

iTrader: (11)

A wing on the side splitters that mimics your front fender would be sick!

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

probably looking at mid March for a pick up date on this project. The front is done, back end still needs some finish work.. and I decided Im not doing ANY DIY bodywork anymore.
I had ot pack my whole place up and move out for a month in order to do a full remodel, and ill be d#mned if I come back just to get that garage filthy and dusty again. lol.
So the good news is that my pace for DIY is usually measured in years anyways, and by just paying my dude to finish up the holes, mesh, mounting the diffuser wing element, odds n ends etc.. it will actually be ready to paint and wrap when I pick it up

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

Welp, 7 years later and this is still on going 🤣
Unreal.
Today I bought some Crown Carbon Crafting carbon doors for the Z.
Harvey is a friend, so I lucked out and was able to have them made fully in carbon, will be nice to see in the door jamp when they are open.. As they will get wrapped over and not left exposed like most do.

I've been hammering the body guy to finish up... But obviously the Covid pandemic has made things difficult for everyone in one way or the other..

I'm very fortunate to have kept solid employment..

So the show goes on.

My work is actually going to have us log out and stay off the LAN to conserve bandwidth for a few weeks.. So this will allow me to finish up the car when it makes it back to the garage with full days of garage diy work possible.

Again, very fortunate. I will count my blessings and try not to complain about the time this process has taken.

Really, when it's back, I will just need to disassemble the body, have it painted and then it will be ready for the wrap and stripes I've had waiting here for almost 2 years now... I do indeed live a crazy life.

Having Voodoo13 make my custom upper arm actually be fairly quick (and local).. And ill be waiting awhile before adding more work w the carbon door install.

I'll need a dyno day scheduled to reconfigure the new boost controller. And I'll need that same shop to finish the tip fabrication on the exhaust. But after that, she's back on ths streets, period..

There will be no rebuilds.. Sorry folks.

Too much time has passed, and it's all about taking my time to enjoy the car for myself and put some miles on..
If a pandemic quarantine has taugh me anything.. It's what I took for granted and miss.... And has also taugh me what I used to truly waste my time and effort on... Things that just don't matter anymore.
🙏🤘

rustyschopshop

God bless you brian and glad you are making great progress. Finding balance in life while having a love for building cars is truely hard. Glad you have found the light.

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

Crazy. The car is done and I am picking it up in just a few days. That's all I can update for now.. The parts need single stage satin black paint, then a wrap, and I'll be nearly done.

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

Here's a picture of the near final work.
Once the exhaust is done (black, dual carbon tips) will be far less highlighted

bmccann101

iTrader: (16)

Good lord this front end turned out
Absolutely amazing