Im not totally sure if this will be of any interest to you guys! But I thought what the hell I may as well put it up up, if it isnt I'm sure you can ignore it or look at a project that is! Lol I have cut and pasted this direct from my own personal website www.nickbradydrift.com (please feel free to check it out!)Therefore, some of the text may seem a little patronising but please dont take it that way I am trying to cater for all people that may visit the site including those that are not as into drifting as us lot on here! This is just a cosmetic project really, I wont be making any engine mods, as there is nothing wrong with it as it stands, and, more to the point I am not rich!!!! lol This is just to get the car up to regs and make it look a little better.....hopefully! Anyway I hope you enjoy, thanks for looking So while I was waiting on the cage there are some other bits that need doing. At the last shakedown to test the new steering modifications the front wheel ate through the loom. Because the wheel track has been widened and the car now has more lock, it is rubbing on things it wasn't before. As you can see the yellow tape is the make shift repair that was done track side and lasted all of 10 minutes before retiring for the day! So the loom had to be re-routed to keep it out of harms way. Rather than being under the arch it now goes over the top and under the wing. Next was to fit the rear GTR over fenders. First thing on the agenda is to cut the outer skin of the rear arches. Notice the primer patches?! An argument with a set of tyres at Lydden Hill that ended with the tyres winning! A great reason to get the GTR over fenders! Once the outer skin has been cut away, the inner needs to be slotted so it can be bent up to meet the outer skin again. This will provide wheel clearance when the stance of the car is widened. Once the inner skin has been flared to meet the outer arch it all needs welding in place. Now its ready for some seam sealant. Once that has been applied the over fenders can be put in place. Here is a shot of the extra clearance that little operation now gives. This now means we can run wider wheels on the rears without any rubbing The cage should be ready to be shipped at the end of this week with delivery hopefully early next. So I thought I should start stripping the inside out ready for when it arrives. First off get the seats out, then pop the steering wheel off and the dash can come out. The door cards are going to be modified to give room for the cage and to save a little weight. So they need to come off too! So below is how the car sits at the moment. This is pretty much all I can do until the cage arrives. There are some wiring bits that need to be done which is pretty boring stuff! I will do another update when the cage starts to go in, hopefully it wont be that long fingers crossed. The cage arrived earlier this week first things first we had to unpack everything to make sure it was all present and accounted for. Now that everything was out and we had all we needed it was time to start putting it in. Before anything could start the screens needed to come out. A quick call to a mate and it was arranged for 7 a.m the following morning!
With the screens out it was time to get underway. We started at the back and worked forward to the main hoop. That way the cage will be square and everything will fit where its supposed to. The next thing was to tack the rear cross in. Once it was tacked in place and aligned correctly it was welded together. Now that the main structure is in place the cage needs to be dropped through the floor so that it can be welded the whole way around. As always these builds are a team effort and everyone mucks in with what they can. Stiggy usually provides the humour and wherever he is Ruby isn't usually far behind! With the main hoop and 'A' pillar bars welded up, the rear cross needed welding in place. A couple of shots of the main hoop fitment and an insight into what a brilliant cage Custom Cages have provided. Tacking the door bars and the lower rear bars was next on the agenda. Stiggy was in love with the cage and couldn't contain himself, much to meat heads disgust! Pretty much everything was in place and just needed welding up at this point. Here's a shot of the harness bar and door bars fully fitted. [IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/3f3d6df60c72d889737c7f85e15d28e1_ytfn.png[/IMG][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/8df485d2f81f74ea87ce7a610d91c420_83mg_agb0.png[/IMG] [FONT=Arial][FONT=arial]Finally the tunnel brace goes in and the cage is all but complete [/FONT][/FONT] [COLOR=#ffffff][FONT=arial][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/c55abe44be19010c68e181389d1f6313_9ool_pzg5.png[/IMG] Shortly after this we ran out if gas! The new bottle should be here any day now so when it arrives we will finish off the last three bits of welding and the cage will be well and truly in I must say a huge thank you to my team mate 'Meat Head' Tom for doing all the welding, I owe you a night out for sure To Stiggy for all his assistance, words of wisdom and general amusement. And finally to Custom Cages for a great fitting roll cage and a great service. I'll leave you with an image of what a great fitting cage this really is [/FONT][/COLOR][FONT=arial][CENTER][COLOR=#ffffff] [IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/586770f057014b020c7d331fbf891ec3_oyb7_rdrn.png[/IMG] [/COLOR][/CENTER] [/FONT][COLOR=#ffffff][FONT=arial] [/FONT][/COLOR]
A little update, while waiting for the gas I thought I would make a start on re fitting the dash. I decided it would be easier to give plenty of room on the sides to put it back in and make the end of the dash out of some sheet metal that can be blended and flocked later. That way if the dash need ever come out, the end plates can be removed and it just makes life a whole lot easier The gas arrived finally and the cage is now finished After that was done, I decided it was time for a little clean inside to get rid of the last of the sound deadening glue. Once cleaned I wanted to tidy up the rear bulk head. If I do go down the route of putting a fuel cell in the boot which I plan to some day this will have to be done anyways. There are a lot of existing holes which all need to be covered so rather than do them individually I figured I may as well make a cover for the lot! [FONT=Arial][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/ab6576d70344c3380ecb70ef5b09efdc_o73e.png[/IMG][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/8ada576c0c23377219ebd351f6a81ce3_2z1v.png[/IMG][/FONT] [COLOR=#ffffff]Next on the list was the door cards. Obviously with the door bars now in, the OEM door cards wont allow the door to close plus they are heavy! So I made some out of some 1mm sheet ali. [/COLOR][CENTER][COLOR=#ffffff][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/8a407d09572622d95c21f54de9ad740a_kda0.png[/IMG][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/c24af9542382858b0a4b137516e879de_bc9a.png[/IMG] [/COLOR][LEFT][COLOR=#ffffff]I gave them a test fit to make sure the doors closed etc and then wrapped them in carbon fiber [/COLOR][CENTER][COLOR=#ffffff][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/640034dcbd0fdcdecee561a6c88abde9_x45e.png[/IMG][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/8f70a69da42eafaa89f81c5c40f1b16e_68m3.png[/IMG][/COLOR][/CENTER] [COLOR=#ffffff] Then these arrived........ 10 Rota Grids [/COLOR][CENTER][COLOR=#ffffff][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/16972427de491043ba20e2e14dadd6e1_55gg.png[/IMG][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/32e03d04fb979a3275250abe17dbf2c3_bpa7.png[/IMG][/COLOR][/CENTER] [/LEFT] [/CENTER] Time to start putting the new body kit on. I started at the back as I'm still waiting for my wings to arrive! First I got the bumper off and removed the crash bar as part of the new diet! [IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/b851e9a8c8a72be95cd9165c5176ddca_349k.png[/IMG][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/6782651c4f2106e56d38e4f0ce3f5141_20tc.png[/IMG][IMG]http://www.nickbradydrift.com/images/052de087b948d0cd5adef34fc28b647d_0l17.png[/IMG] Then I under sealed the rear arches and fitted the over fenders. They have had some pretty extensive repair work and have lots of exposed metal so the under seal should help prevent any rusting now the over fenders are on. With the over fenders now fitted, I just had to put the spats on. I had to make a little bracket to keep it level with the bumper on the drivers side. This was because the bottom of the rear panel is still pushed quite far over from that meeting with the tyres last season!! More updates soon.....
