Yea - I've been watching the CK vids for sure - he puts out good stuff!

I have plenty of dry erase markers but what do you use them for?

I was also thinking (and tell me if I'm f'd up? ) to start at the back deck (near the OEM spoiler) and work each side, then down to the back (of the hatch / rear of the car) and then up, moving forward (towards the front of the car) up towards the roof and then in towards the center (towards the wiper sprayer). I was thinking that if I have to slice the top center section (near the wiper sprayer) it'd be ok because that would be covered by tinted lexan. And/or if I have 'slope' to hide it under the top portion as it will be covered by lexan and no one would see it.



Thanks brother! One step at a time...

 

Ya that sounds like a good plan. The best is to work from the centerline of the car and work your way out. You can pull excess material off the edges vs having it bunch in the middle. So kind of "hinge" the rear hatch down the middle. The dry erase allows you to draw on the vinyl the edges of say the glass so you can know what area is safe to cut away. Text me if you need anything!

 

About 85% complete with wrapping the hatch...Finished the top surface and will need to do corners and edges tomorrow. Took about 3 hours to do the top surface from start to finish. Was actually enjoyable - it's challenging but satisfying none-the-less. Overall happy with how it came out, not perfect / has imperfections but I think it will look fine from 5ft away. A good learning experience and will definitely do it again! Happy to be able to put the hatch on the car full time.

A few lessons learned

A YT video suggested practicing with the film before getting started - so I cut triangles out (where the tail lights would be) and practiced placing, purposely putting folds in and taking them out, and practice heat the film ... sorta was a calibration of sorts. If/when I wrap again I will but an extra few sq. feet to do this again.

I draped the wrap over the car earlier in the week (outside) and this probably wasnt smart bc a bunch of dirt/grass/debris got on both sides of the wrap and subsequently got on the hatch. I used compressed air to clean off and I re-cleaned the hatch but I think there was going to be a little left on the wrap & hatch no matter what.

I did this inside my living room bc the garage was cold (we just got hit with a mild snowstorm). And of course dog hair is just about everywhere (no matter how much you clean) and I think a few hairs got under the film...it is what it is. But it would have been easier if the hatch was installed on the car.

the squeegee was necessary but using a finger was almost better and was easier to feel when the film was binding-up.

They say a heat gun is better than a hair dryer but it may be better to have both especially if the film is very heat sensitive.

One YT video said in some cases putting stripes or stickers can pay-off so I burried a seibon sticker on the drivers side towards the roof.

some pics:

 

looking good, are you going to do a poly rear window?

 

yeah - just ordered a 1/8" tinted sheet.

 

It's coming along! Are you gonna go naked or add the hamburger?

 

Thanks! For sure! one step at a time. Probably gonna go naked ... I dont necessarily want anything back there (I dont currently have the logo/model) and I like how clean it looks.

I found a buyer for my white hatch and I'm torn between selling it or keeping it...Leaning towards selling it...probably not gonna sell the car any time soon and it's not a summer time / winter time swap-out ... so??

to piggyback onto this, a guy on a local facebook group just went carbon fiber hood ... so I messaged him and it sounds like he will sell me his OEM hood. The downside, he is 1.5hrs away and it's silver ... Sell the hatch, buy the hood ... the kicker is they are both about 20minutes from each other. So a little road-trip tomorrow morning!

What do I do about the hood?? paint? wrap? wrap the hood and fenders (possibly the snow-storm large camo)??

any ideas / thoughts are welcome ...

 

Since you are wanting the camo bad, may as well do the wrap and start working toward wrapping the whole or part of the car. OEM hood imo the best way to keep your weight down and still have strength.

 

It sounds like a really good idea ... I dont know that I have the cash to do anything but the front fenders and hood. We'll see how things shake out over the next few months. My next big thing will be the tune.

I love the OEM hood ... even a dry carbon is 15lbs or so? and you can get the OEM hood down to 20lbs ... so a 5lbs savings for $2500? nahhhh...nissan got it right from the factory!

to muddy the waters a little more - there is a guy down in colorado springs that is selling a set of seibon cf doors ... he wants wayyyyy too much money and is awfully proud of them so maybe they wont sell and I can take a stab at them.

Other news ... got a new windshield coming on Monday...I didnt realize windshields got so expensive ... got a few quotes of $225, $265, and $300!! Last time I put a windshield in the car is was like $180!

Also sold a side skirt off the parts car and I think I have a fender off the parts car sold too!

hatch is wrapped up (lol, npi) got the edges done and they look half decent ... not great but I dont really car - no one is going to see them! the corners at the taillights were difficult and the arches over the side windows were hard to heat/stretch the vinyl - luckily nothing tore!

 

Is that windshield price installed or just the glass?

 

all in ... I told the guy $240 as I'm sorta out in the sticks ... I messaged him today and he is good to go for tomorrow.

Waiting on lexan (should be here next thursday) and I'll get the hatch completely done and installed on the car - excited for it!

Drove about an hour & a half and sold the white hatch and bought a silver/grey hood ... over the next week or so I'm gonna cut the vents out, re-mount the hood-pin locks, and cut the hood-exits out.

I had a little bit of time on my front splitter ... I installed mounts for the front heim-joints and connection points on the car (same aluminum that hands the IC) and trimmed the arcs on the sides.




I attempted the calibration of the knock control system on the Link but I didnt get the results I anticipated. Essentially, put the rear wheels in the air and run the car at 2k rpms and advance timing until you hear knock. Calibrate the knock settings that when it reach that particular point to initiate knock control (ie retard timing). I couldnt get the engine to knock but on a single cylinder and even at that it wasnt consistent!

Part of my problem may have been I didnt have enough load on the engine. The HPA tutorial / webinar did this at 2k rpm and 0kpa / 0psi (on a naturally aspirated engine) and I cannot mimmic loading the engine like a dyno does...I may try to left-foot-braking. Some silver-lining - I ran the car at 2k rpms for a good 10-15minutes straight and the engine sounded good (checked header runner temps and they were pretty consistent) and temps stayed between 190 and 200 degrees.

 

shameless picture of the car all naked-like and a new windshield...








also ... saved the old windshield A. to get a weight (around 29lbs) and to (maybe??) clone with lexan ... with see if it materials but if I can find a way to clone the side windows and windshield that could be a healthy 40 to 50lbs savings - no promises, just say'n...




I know it sounds crazy and it is, and I'm batshoot ... but I'm gonna start a box of 'small' stuff that I can take off the car ... just bracket that arent used, misc bolts, unnecessary trim pieces, anything I can reduce off the car ... keep trimming anything unnecessary that was previously overlooked. It's gonna be many things that weigh ounces ... but I'm gonna try to trim 30lbs off the car when it's all said and done ... I'll reiterate that I'm nuts...

 

Lots of progress today and lots of good stuff ...
the sheet of lexan came in and I wasnt sure if 1/8" was gonna be right - part of me said go ***** to the wall and get 1/16" but 1/8" was the right decision - not too thick and it came in around 6.5lbs. I got it cut, trimmed down to dropped in. Needed about 3 itirations of trimming it down but happy with the result. I am going to rivet it in place with 1/8" rivets and marked the perimeter and it worked out well at 3.5" spacing - which was sorta dumb-luck. Marked and drilled holes and set the lexan in and spent 5minutes comparing gaps left to right and sank the bottom center rivet to start and re-checked gaps. Nervous as hell to drill through the cf... everything turned out fine except I ran out of rivets.

On a side note - I'm happy with the color match of the wrap - not perfect but pretty good and I'm excited to see how it looks in day light. I think it looks better in person than in pictures.

got a picture of the seibon easter egg and you can really tell the damage to the roof where the white hood flipped up and pushed it in...











Was on a roll and had the energy to push forward with the hood. Drilled out the vents and started cutting out the frame-structure of the new (gray) hood. Cutting out the frame went surprisingly fast so I essentially did it all tonight ... I could flapper-disk some edges to soften them up if I want.

OEM hood came in around 23.5lbs and chopped it's 13.8. Vents are another 3.8bs range - so I'll be around 17.5lbs.

 

Shame you're not more dedicated Nice dog, too!

 

lol! I try to be! this time last year was pretty stressful - I was behind on both the turbo / header build and the re-install. Further the custom wire harness flopped. I was going through pictures of the 2019 PPASA and it was fun & all but sucked bc I wasnt driving ... so I'm doing my best to get as much done as I can as quick as possible...

Heres the 5ft, 10ft, 20ft, 40ft, and 100ft shots of the color match of the hatch-wrap...

5ft



10ft



20ft



40ft


100ft


Had a few productive days on the car - got the hood wrapped up - cut the two vents out, the two waste gate dumps, and the hood exit exhaust...if it matter, the cut-outs are about 1lb and to be fair to my crazyness - so call the hood 13lbs...

I essentially gently placed my old hood over the new hood and traced the WG & exhaust cut-outs and they lined up pretty good. I tried to pay more attention to the exhaust cut out and make it cleaner than the previous attempt. I still need to enlarge it a little bit but its fine for now.

Hood vents are being cleaned up and I am considering painting them silver or grey rather than the 'rust' color they've become. I am using the same hood pin posts until I get another set of pins in and they'll be essentially mounted in the same spot.









also bought more rivets and put all the rivets in the lexan ... in hind-sight, I didnt peel the plastic wrap off before I locked it down ... I didnt thick much of it bc I'd just peel it after I was done ... the outside is fine and a tiny bit of plastic got stuck in the rivets but the inside-side is horrible ... So I think I'm gonna redo it.


Had a great Saturday morning - got the car out with the gf and it ran pretty good - made a few weird exhaust studdering notes when the car was cold / colder but ran well.

I put 15-20miles of varying throttle and boost levels did a bunch of ~5psi pulls, a few 10psi pulls and got up to around 15psi on accident - I didnt get off the gas quick enough and the boost comes on very fast after 10psi - it was freaky in a good way. It's confidence building that I can run the car this hard and everything is going good.

kicked the gf out to roll some video - nothing too crazy I tried to stay under 5k rpm and under 5psi of boost but here's some eye / ear candy ...

 

I love it still maintains that VQ sound with 3' of exhaust!

 

its not but 18” to 24” at most! What I really love about it (compared to a long lost 90lb Stillen test pipes/true dual/dual mufflers) is 85lbs of weight savings.

and call it 30lbs savings versus my aluminum single!!

 

I do love the exhaust pipes sticking out of the hood lol

 

Oh man, look at all them weight savings!

I don't remember you aluminum was 100% custom test pipe back right?

 

I was against a hood exit and then I forgot to button my hood down and funkered it all-out ... and the hood exit actually makes a ton of sense. In hindsight it was the right move.

I'm happy you're taking on a front mount setup ... not very many people go this route.


I need to go get weighed...especially with the CF hatch...still trying to get these CF doors from this dude down in colo springs.
It was the stillen test pipes (then my custom 3" downpipes) to a 2.5" > 3" unbranded Y-pipe (then replaced with my 3" >4" Y-pipe) then the aluminum exhaust.

this guy:





gonna try go get the splitter bolted on today...

fast-forward a few hours...








Fast forward a few more hours and I've determined how to get my car under 1500 lbs ... I'll just do this... a guy needed the passenger side rear quarter and I told to just take the back half of the car. Really cool dude and it took him all of 20minute to have the car in half. Took more time to remove the subframe and gas tank.

Happy it's working out for the buyer!