SR20VET build up...

[Jr_SS]

Last week I dusted my engine bay with black primer to use as my guide coat for sanding, I also seam sealed everything before final coat... Let me tell you right now that it was a pain in the ass. I used 400grit sand paper and sanded on it for 10-12hrs to smooth out the highs and give it that over all smooth look. It was definitely worth it after having paint laid on it this past weekend. There are a few spots that my painter missed which I'll be taking care of hopefully tomorrow, then I can proceed with bolting things back into the engine bay. Ruby pearl looks absolutely amazing in fresh style. I can't wait to have the rest of the car painted. Enough talk on to the pictures!

Here is a sample area just to give you an idea of what the "guide" coat does. You simply sand away the black specks until they are completely gone in that area. Once they are gone, quit sanding and move to another spot. I did large sections at a time to keep from getting "waves" in the primer.



Strut top completely sanded, towers still need sanding... I continued to sand from here removing as much "dusting" as possible. Around all the contours was extremely difficult and timing consuming to do...




Here is where I started seam sealing. Obviously, I taped off around the seams, leaving roughly an 1/8" on either side of the seam to give me a 1/4" bead. I used the 3M heavy bodied seam sealer, this stuff sets up ridiculously fast, I'd say once you mix and start to apply, you have roughly 10mins of working time. I removed the tape within 20mins of sealing the seams. Any longer and it would have been extremely difficult to remove the tape...






Once the tape was removed you can see how clean and organized the seams are...






I didn't get any pictures of it on the trailer, or ever at the painters... I forgot my camera, although I may have a picture of it on the trailer on my cell. Anyway, I was up until about midnight on Friday wiping down and seam sealing the car. I had to load it on the trailer and then haul it up to my work that evening so it was sitting in a shop throughout the night. I didn't want the night air to get at the few bare metal spots and/or dew settling on it. Besides I was going to work for a few hours in the morning after I dropped the car off at 7am. Once the car was in the booth, I turned it over to the guys at Venice autobody. Jerry is an extremely nice guy and his painter is an artist. The car was finished by noon, but I wanted it to sit for a bit longer in their booth, so I picked it up at 2pm. Once it was loaded up I brought it home and got it back into the garage... On to the pictures.






Two weeks ago I sent my manifold and exhaust housing out to ZFever, to have their coating guy coat my exhaust components. I wanted aluminum, and they only spray that particular color on Thrusdays. Well, it didn't make it on week one for whatever reason, but it was completed on week two and all I can say is WOW. It turned out amazing and honestly the pictures don't do it justice. Chris(Z350man) recommended these guys and kept me up to date with what was going on, thanks again Chris and ZFever! Once I got the manifold home this evening, I mocked up my wastegate and well, here it is...





As always, thanks for looking. Stay tuned, things will be coming together more rapidly now that the bay has been painted. Thanks!

[sean1]

looks awesome man, cant wait to see it all together, its gonna be super crispy. everything is like clean enough to eat off of lol

[BABILLARACING]

looking very good man

[quicsilvia]

Definitely an impressive project. I would love to have such a setup to bring out to Sebring, which you should consider doing your self at least once, it would be quite the monster out there. Again good meeting you yesterday, keep it up man.

[Jr_SS]

Thanks gentlemen... It's definitely turning into a larger project than anticipated. Hopefully, I can make some forward progress on it in the next few months. I'm excited to get the engine/trans back in that's for sure.

Nick, like wise... I'd like to get it out there. Hell I'd like to take the STI out there too. We'll see what happens, I'll let you know if and when I head out there. We'll make a day of it and invite anyone else that would like to join.

[Z28ricer]

Looks great.

[mewantkouki]

Impressive work. I wish I had the time to do stuff like this.

[Jr_SS]

Impressive work. I wish I had the time to do stuff like this.

Thanks man. To be honest, I never thought I would have the time/will power to do this. I always cringed at the thought of going as deep as I have...

I'm really dreading the exterior paint. Sure, less contours and such, but everything has to be spot on otherwise you'll see the waves, indents, etc. Although that's going to be down the road a bit... I want the car running before next year rolls around lol.

[Jr_SS]

I got a chance to work on the car the past few evenings... I took my time, used SS hardware everywhere I could. I really like the Hex head cap bolts, they add a nice touch. I cleaned everything with degreaser before installing it back in the car. For the semi dirty stuff I just used Simple Green degreaser and a tooth brush, which works extremely well. For the dirtier items I used actual engine degreaser and did a final touch up with the Simple Green. Anyways, I leave town tomorrow for two weeks. Hoping to have the engine sitting in it's final place sometime shortly after. As always thanks for looking!

Starting to look like an engine bay again...






I also took my crossmember in for bead blasting, then over to the powder coat guy this past week. Gloss black is looking minty fresh. I'll be sure to tape up around the motor mount slots so it doesn't get destroyed during the install...





This fitting is for my fuel return. I am going all AN lines for the fuel in the bay and this was an easy way to covert to AN from hardline...

[c89s13]

WOW.......engine bay is clean as fuhhhh. You never disappoint man.

[RhinoFLA]

sickkkkk, love that color, impressive work

[Jr_SS]

Well, I finally had some time to work on the car this past week/weekend. The motor is IN! Instead of the traditional install from the top, I opted to hoist the car up and roll the motor/tranny underneath and lower the body on to the crossmember. This helped for two reasons, I didn't need an extra hand and it kept me from scratching the paint. Everything went smoothly and it is coming along nicely. There is still a lot to get accomplished though. As always, thanks for looking. Pictures!!!







Here is the factory CAS plug that Mazworx supplies with their CAS kit. It's pretty straight forward. There is some information left out of the paper work that I had to call and ask about, but overall not bad. The hardest part was getting the OEM cam pin dowel out. I had to use a chisel and a hammer to remove it. Since my head is installed and I refuse to remove it, I have to order a special tool to mill an area on the head flat. This area is where I have to drill and tap for the new pickup. I'll be doing this on the next installment as I leave town again tomorrow.





And I'll leave you with this overall shot...

[BABILLARACING]

looking awsome man

[racers4life77]

Coming along great.

[Z350man]

very nice...