Ordered the whole thing from Rock Auto all less than 100 bucks to the door. The gaskets appear to be all there. I haven't cracked open the package, but it all looks good so far.

I'll have a parachute on my car later... After all, I built these brakes. :roflpuke2:

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Thanks bud!

IG@gbrettin

Starter needed to be clocked out away from the block because it was hitting. Noticed the crank sensor was missing... So... I put one in since the starter was out. Custom pan already paid off because I was able to get to the starter bolt! The fancy starter is available at @motionraceworks if anyone needs one. #motionraceworks

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Aside from clocking the starter... I took the 2 piece rotor hats into the powder coater to have them slicked up. The price breakdown came out to be the exact same as purchasing high temp paint.

So about that crank sensor... I went to the store and picked it up new, no big deal. Then I got to thinking... EVERY sensor has been new on this.:icon14: basically... there would be no difference if I purchased a bare block. :rolleyes:

Dartblock would have been bad ***!

oh well. It's all a slippery slope. I'm GREAT at finding rabbit holes and swan diving head first into them.

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So I purchased used shocks from FB last week with 25k. My old shocks have 97k on them so I figured.... "while I'm in here..."

The install was probably one of the easier things I've done on the car in a while. I even took the time to clean up the SPL end links.

You might be wondering why I'm putting OE shocks on. It's pretty simple. OE shocks are REALLY good for the price point (120 dollars for all 4 corners) and don't think you will see massive gains until you spend a minimum of 1K per corner. I've got different 1k items to worry about before I go down that path. Also, I have some plans for the rear suspension going to a cantilever being built into the cage. That way I can lay some MASSIVE shocks into the trunk of the car. Oddly enough, there has been one 350z that already did something similar to what I was thinking:
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Anyway... more pictures. less exciting stuff; however, it's still part of the process.

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Im not sure if they are buried under the snow or not but I have my oem laying around with 20k miles on em. Yours free if I can find them under pine needles and ice...

Too late now. :bowrofl:

Can always have a backup set!

These are only in for a year.... Hopefully....

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

As many times as it appears you’ve taken apart & put back together...could probably do it blindfolded :iagree:

IG@gbrettin:

SPL lower/upper spherical bushings will need to wait until next year. Time for the K member to return home.

K member on with fresh shocks, scuffed clean(ish), and fresh powder coated components. @tlrcoatings did an amazing job. Important to me, they taped off the @mavenperformance mounts which kept a specific look I wanted (which also look amazing

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I finally made a reasonable decision of NOT buying additional parts. SPL components are a no-go for now. I'll get them next winter and likely do that all at the same time I install the Winters Quick Change. I suspect I'll jump in another rabbit hole of wanting to powder coat everything when I do that.

Out side of that... I am EXTREEMLY happy I did the wheel bearings, shocks, cleaned up the kmember, cleaned bolts, rebuilding the calipers and have had parts powder coated.

The kmember brace had trace amounts of rust. They came back from the powder coater beautiful with out rust. ALSO, when I took the kmember brace off I found a small amount of surface rust that I would never know about. That was all cleaned up when I painted the engine bay.

Now that the k-member is back in... I took a look and had to remind myself that the engine bay is stitch welded! All this PITA work is finally starting to come together! I've got to admit... there's a lot of times when it feels like there's absolutely no end to this build. Not any more.

I'll just go ahead and say it. I'm really hoping to have the car to Zdayz this year. This time, I feel like it stands a chance of actually making it. Don't expect the car to be turned up to full steam until late summer. I just want to have functional miles on it at first. If it makes 450hp with 1lbs of boost. I don't care. It will be running and driving.

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Light at the end of the tunnel. :tup:

Getting closer to GO TIME!!!

Last couple days were a struggle. Let me explain why. There's two things that were eating at me. 1. Trying to figure out direction for my suspension components and 2. not knowing enough about suspension components. Clearly one impacts the other.

I'll lead off with this. Originally I had thought that Front Upper Control arms had controlled all camber settings. WRONG. That one thing along was having a great impact on direction for my future not purchased wheels.

The ideal wheel for my Z would be this: 18" (cheaper rubber and a tad lighter), little meat on the side wall, some wheel lip and a large front wheel contact patch for handling. Not a deal breaker of the car is staggered or square. I only expect to get one Michigan season, late spring - early fall, out of a set of rubber before a new set is put on.

The yearly rubber thing is a reason why 18's were a bit more appealing. Ok, so that is figured out.

Then I have been eyeballing NISMO Rays Club Sports. I've seen them in person and they are the wheel for me. Ok, so now I know what wheel I like... how to make that work with an aggressive wheel. I have the adjustability (remember, I thought I only needed Front Upper Control Arms)... I know I want something wide... Why not 18" 10.5 +22. In my head, I've seen people run 20mm spacers with OE wheels and since that offset pushes the wheel out I could run the wider wheel. Win win right? Apparently not. I'll need some sort of adjustment to camber (provided by a shock change).

To top all that off, I'm internally struggling using the AMS Front Upper Control Arm because... well... it's not SPL and I don't like not using top tier parts. This week I've been tossing around ideas on how to get my K-member bushings changed, Upper control arms and lower control arms completed with SPL. Additionally I've been considering Voodoo steering knuckle whole package which would go against needing some of the SPL parts.

Want to know where I landed as of last night?

I drew a line in the sand. Enough is enough and that is a crazy rabbit hole to fall in. Leave the AMS Upper control arm. Run the stock wheels, shock (just put those in anyway) and don't change the whole thing out to SPL. Most importantly... Make the parts bin run!

Now why would I post all this? It's important to know what kind of holes you can fall into during a build. Some are acceptable: cheap shock change , wheel bearings and brakes (safety item shouldn't be glossed over). Some are not acceptable: SPL everything before it runs. Although, I will say the later is very very appealing... some of us really do have some sort of budget constraints (albeit flexible).

Was it worth the read for you? I hope so. That's just a small window into my world. Worrying about details I don't need to.

EDIT --

A bit of backstory about the AMS parts. A Great Lakes Z Member won the parts back in 2013 at a Zdayz raffle. I bought them for like 100 bucks or so because he has a z33. He made some money and I had some suspension components that I may or may not use. They have been in my basement since 2014, when I bought them from him. With that said, I didn't go out and splurge on AMS for my Z. This is just something I'm getting out of the house and I'm hoping that the newer urethane bushings will be a net benefit over the next year of driving.

The AMS upper control arm is heavier than OE... I really don't like that. So... that's a con.

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I have enjoyed every bit of your journey as some of us know all to well what you are experiencing. I started my build just wanting to get a few things done besides my motor. Hell and first I was just going to reuse my same turbos and stuff well that got out of hand because of wait time and some expendable money tree funds so why not go all in with upgrades while I wait. I also figured I would get a few things done for areo, suspension and safety. Nothing that would set me back more than 5 or 6k. Well, after all the waiting my non-motor build kept growing, growing and growing. At last count I am pretty sure I am close to 30k for a roller. I about puked when I made the mistake of adding up all my cost for that part of my build and the crazy thing is I can't stop thinking about what else I need to get the most out of what I have. It is a damn addiction plain and simple. I...we need help and God love our wives!!!!

From rabbit hole to black hole.