TwinTurbo.NET: Nissan 300ZX forum - My "Little" Z Project....
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Subject My "Little" Z Project....
     
Posted by Ash's Z on July 14, 2012 at 5:37 PM
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Message Been working on this over the past few months when I have some "me" time. :) Purchased one of these body kits (car not included):


And then proceeded to make a fiberglass plug from it. The plug was handed over to my fiberglass shop where they made a 1-piece mold and then produced the final part from using black gelcoat and 3oz fiberglass.
The body was then trimmed for the wheel wells, bottom body line, sanded, primed. I removed the body lines for the t-tops given my personal Z is a slicktop. :) The body was masked so I could put down black over the windows, then the windows were masked to shooth the body. I used some of the remaining CRP basecoat I had left over from when I painted the car a year and a half ago. Then the mask was removed and the complete shell was sprayed with 3 coats of Maxtrix urethane clear.
The polycarbonate body kit I originally purchased came with a very elaborate sticker sheet that has so many of the body attributes - even things down to the antenna port, wipers, fuel door, window trim, etc.. So I proceeded to cut each one of them out and apply them to the body. In addition, I picked up a roll of pin striping, which was cut down into ~0.030" thick strips and then applied them to most of the other seam lines on the body. For the fascia, I took a picture of the front of my car, scaled it down in photoshop, printed it out on sticky paper, cut out the main opening and intercooler openings, and applied it to the body as a mask - black paint was applied. Once all the decals were in place, the body was then shot with 8 coats of clear and allowed to dry.
I had previously purchased a set of 1/10 scale CNC machined aluminum wheels that look very similar to the Blitz03's I have on my Z, as well as a set of shoes for them.

So, to make the wheels match what is on the car, I TIG welded additional material to two of the wheels to increase the length of the lip and increase the diameter by 1/10". My personal Z has 17" wheels in the front and 18" wheels in the back - easy to scale everything. :) Then the wheels were machined in the lathe, the center spokes were bead-blasted to get a silver appearance, and the lips were polished.





Once the body and wheels were done, a chassis needed to be made. 1/8" aluminum sheet and a few pieces of scrap aluminum were used to form the wheel holders. 12mm head Z32 bolts were used to mount the wheels: bolts were lathe mounted, center drilled, and tapped for an m5x.8mm thread. The wheel holders were also drilled and tapped with an m8X1.25mm thread for the mounting bolts to screw into. 12mm jam nuts were used to retain the wheel holders.




Now on to the internals. :)
ASUS AT5IONT-I Mini-ITX motherboard, Dual Core Intel Atom5 Processor, 6.75"X6.75"
4GB DDR3 Memory
OCZ Vertex Solid-State hard drive 64GB (for OS and programs)
DC-DC 120W Power Supply (12V input!)
Sound Blaster X-Fi 5.1 Surround Pro USB
USB to Dual RS232 Serial Adapter (for ZEM and Conzult)
Touchpad mouse
Baseplate had hard drive mounting plate added, a hinge in the rear for the body, and a pedestal to hold the nose of the body in plate - then the chassis was powdercoated flat black.

All of the pieces assembled:


And then installed into the car along with a new briefcase tray:


The system also has a USB wifi adapter which is mounted down into into the headlamp aiming tool location. A wireless mini keyboard is also attached, and two external USB connectors are run into the center console box for connectivity with cell phone, external thumbdrive, anything USB.
My personal cellular phone has a wifi hotspot which allows connectivity to the internet for Pandora, web browsing, etc. I also have a terabyte usb drive which contains several tens of thousands of MP3's movies, etc etc which is located beneath the passenger seat.
The audio system is composed of a US Amps 4-channel, 600W amp for the front and rear mids/highs and a JL Audio 600W amplifier driving a dual coil 2-ohm 12" Kicker CV-R sub, mounted into a custom enclosure built into the spare tire well.
The capabilities of the Sound Blaster X-Fi system is quite impressive - incredibly clear sound reproduction which you can turn much higher than is comfortable and still have no perceptable distortion.
This computer is driving a dual-display within the dashboard and gauge cluster. A 10.4" TFT (800X600) in a center console I constructed from wood, epoxy, bondo, paint, and the hood uses an old gauge cluster hood vinyl sheet to match the OEM interior. The 7.4" widescreen TFT in the gauge cluster (800X600) is used to display conzult data primarily and the cener console display is used for media/entertainment.

Couple of other pics:

=) Have a great weekend!

Enthusiasts soon understand each other. --W. Irving.
Are you an enthusiast?

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the
tailor.
Albert Einstein

     
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