Life and Times of Garagelu: S15 Build in the Dirty South

[va240dude]

Originally Posted by garagelu

I have been wondering what this sticker reads ever since I bought my car. Can someone translate?

Car looks amazing man! BTW this sticker is for keeping track of when the oil and filter was last changed...

[S14Serge]

Fuck this car is so dam sexy! Loving the parts your going with as well.

[sex14]

awesome car man btw how much did the wheel refinishing cost u?

[tricky_ab]

Originally Posted by garagelu

I got my new project in today. Many of you may have seen these calipers on the for sale forums recently. The seller wouldn't ship but luckily I had a friend that lives 15 minutes away from him. I was going back and forth debating on whether to buy these or not because the rotors were not included. I called a few project mu distributors and all of them quoted me over 2000 dollars just for two rotors. I was pretty discouraged at that point but after doing some research I found out that evo X rotors are almost identical in size. Considering you can get one piece evo X rotors for around 300-400 dollars and two piece rotors for around 700-800 dollars, I decided to pull the trigger.

I immediately called up my buddy that has a evo X and asked him if I could borrow his stock rotors since I know he upgraded to Girodisc two piece at one time. So here I am today, with project mu rotors, brackets that apparently were modified to fit Ken Gushi's RSR TC, and evo X rotors. Im pretty confident I can make this all work. I still remember grinding away at a block of aluminum to make brackets for my sti brembo back in the day when evo and sti brake swaps were uncommon.

This weekend I will see if I can make the bracket work. If not, I'll have my local machine shop make one for me.



When I received the calipers there were a lot of scratches in the clear. I took my buffer with some Menzerna polish and now they look super wet. I've always dreamed of owning a project mu or endless BBK so this is one project I am extremely excited about!!!

My God I need these in my life. If I ever come across another set I'm scooping them up and selling the Evo 9 BBK I've picked up.

Very nice pickup my man!

[ixfxi]

Originally Posted by garagelu

On Friday after work................

BOSS


this is why the z32 caliper thread can eat a dick, because no one has the common sense to use a tool like this.... whatever this super hifi digital torque analyzer is


what type of shop do you have access to? because i know most hobbyists like us wont have something so nifty laying around. looks like a machine/engine building shop.

[garagelu]

Originally Posted by ixfxi

BOSS


this is why the z32 caliper thread can eat a dick, because no one has the common sense to use a tool like this.... whatever this super hifi digital torque analyzer is


what type of shop do you have access to? because i know most hobbyists like us wont have something so nifty laying around. looks like a machine/engine building shop.

Lol, I love your bluntness.

My day job is deals with a lot of high end tooling for Caterpillar. I am the site manager for our group so I have no problem working on personal stuff every once in a while. Yes you're right about the average joe not having access to this kind of stuff. You are looking at a 8-9K dollar setup right there.

Originally Posted by sex14

awesome car man btw how much did the wheel refinishing cost u?

It cost me around 400 dollars. I didn't have the best luck with California Chrome. They have horrible customer service and I was not happy with the end result. I highly recommend Wheelflip though. I have heard a lot of good things about them and their prices are very reasonable. I actually got a quote from Wheelflip when I was deciding on who to send my faces to and they were only about 75 dollars more than California Chrome. At this point, I totally regret not sending them to Wheelflip.

Originally Posted by tricky_ab

My God I need these in my life. If I ever come across another set I'm scooping them up and selling the Evo 9 BBK I've picked up.

Very nice pickup my man!

For sure man. These things are so hard to find used. And I refuse to spend the 3700 dollar price tag if you buy them new. With buying the calipers, buying evo X rotors, and then machining new brackets, I should have about 1600-1700 dollars in everything. That's not bad because I know the resale value is there.

[ixfxi]

Originally Posted by garagelu

Lol, I love your bluntness.

My day job is deals with a lot of high end tooling for Caterpillar. I am the site manager for our group so I have no problem working on personal stuff every once in a while. Yes you're right about the average joe not having access to this kind of stuff. You are looking at a 8-9K dollar setup right there.

its only a matter of time till i get deleted off this forum.. its way past due


i love that torque analyzer... i can only imagine the amount of uses for it. ide love to have one in my shop, but i dont think its cost would justify the expense

i like this build. its not crazy, its simple. people need to do more stuff like that. nowadays, its all about swapping an LFA v10 if you want RESPECT.


fucking idiots

[97nismo]

^ this.......

[garagelu]

I got some time this weekend to do some mockup with the new brake setup to make sure everything fits. I mainly wanted to see if the evo x rotor would work and I am very happy to report that it will work perfectly. The only issue is that the bracket originally was for a 350z which would have worked, but it was modified for another chassis. I sent all the information to the machine shop I go through for work and they quoted me a pretty reasonable price to machine two new brackets.

I'll be dropping off a complete s14 spindle and hub, evo x rotor, and calipers to the machine shop this weekend so he can machine the brackets and mock everything up.







I was digging in my center console this weekend and I saw the coolest thing ever. I have never noticed this before but S15 center consoles have a little slot for cards and stuff. I'm easily amused by this kind of stuff...lol.

[CamryOnBronze]

New brakes are looking awesome man... nice job getting them to work! I should have gone that route, lol.

[ixfxi]

Originally Posted by garagelu

I was digging in my center console this weekend and I saw the coolest thing ever. I have never noticed this before but S15 center consoles have a little slot for cards and stuff. I'm easily amused by this kind of stuff...lol.

you should leave your credit cards there

ATM cards, too.

[tricky_ab]

Originally Posted by CamryOnBronze

New brakes are looking awesome man... nice job getting them to work! I should have gone that route, lol.

Said the guy with Endless brakes...

[shark79]

awesome brakes

[garagelu]

Douglas Machine based out of Athens, GA emailed me some drawings of the bracket mount for the project mu setup. Everything is looking smooth and they are scheduled to have the brackets done in about a week.

Can't wait to get them back and bolt them on the car. There's only about a month till summer IA meet in Charlotte so it's going to be crunch time here pretty soon. I still have to get evo X rotors ordered. I will probably be going with Girodisc for those since my evo X buddies recommend them. I have everything for the rear except for 300zx rotors so hopefully I can knock all that out before IA.

[-ichi-go-]

That must be an s14 exhaust cause it hangs out miles out from the s15 rear bar - you might want to cut about 1" off it so it lines up perfect, jdm s15 has a diff cat length which does this

[garagelu]

Almost done!!! The machine shop messed up on one of the dimensions so they are having to remake them. They said they'd be ready this weekend.

[garagelu]

I got the word on Friday that my "garagelu special" adapter brackets were done so I made the trip today to go pick them up.



Here is a closer look at the mounted bracket.



Here you can see the caliper is centered perfectly on the rotors. The original bracket did not center the caliper on the rotor so the bracket thickness had to be changed.



Here is the front view.



Here is the comparison between the original bracket compared to the new one. The machine shop put the bracket through their vibration tumbler to get the metal nice and shiny. They used 6061 aluminum with helicoil in all threads. I am super impressed with the quality and professionalism. You guys have no idea how hard it is to find a shop that does quality work...whether it's machine, welding, repair work, etc.

Having the original 2 piece project mu rotors would have been nice with this purchase but I see this as a huge cost advantage. If anything ever happened to the project mu rotor, you are looking at 1000 for just one complete rotor. There are so many options for evo x rotors at very low cost.

[CamryOnBronze]

Looks like they did an awesome job Kev!

[tricky_ab]

^^ Agreed! That's some nice quality work....

...Now go and throw them on!

[Tle1993]

amazing build man!

[I<3-SR20DET]

This build RULES.
I really like the attention to detail and cool QUALITY parts... not another GIMME ISIS PARTS SO I CAN GO DRIFTING threads, kudos.

Keep it up!

[ixfxi]

thats beautiful.... but



why did you cheap out. I mean you should've just spent the big bucks on say.... megan or rotora BBK? i mean endless, thats kinda cheap... you know. nowadays, its all about getting sponsored.

i would've gone megan, because everyone knows megan makes the highest quality parts for our cars. they're so high quality, they wont even charge you for them.

SPONSORED, y0

[ManoNegra]

Originally Posted by garagelu

They used 6061 aluminum with helicoil in all threads.

That bracket looks like a well made piece.
I would have had it made out of 2024 aluminum instead however.
It's a much stronger Al alloy and just as light and easy to machine.

[garagelu]

Originally Posted by ManoNegra

That bracket looks like a well made piece.
I would have had it made out of 2024 aluminum instead however.
It's a much stronger Al alloy and just as light and easy to machine.

They gave me the option between 6061 and 7075. 7075 is a little more expensive but close to the strength of steel. I felt like 7075 was a little overkill and the machine shop agreed. He didn't say anything about 2024 though. What's the cost comparison between 2024 and 6061?

[Mrpopo]

Love your car man! Didn't you sell me a set of s14 ses a couple years ago? I think that was you in your gold s14. You brought them to my jail.

[ManoNegra]

Originally Posted by garagelu

They gave me the option between 6061 and 7075. 7075 is a little more expensive but close to the strength of steel. I felt like 7075 was a little overkill and the machine shop agreed. He didn't say anything about 2024 though. What's the cost comparison between 2024 and 6061?

It depends on availability in the size and quantity you want
last we bought some it was about three times the cost of 6061 iirc.

[1gr8bar10der]

Any updates? I really the simple yet practical build.

[garagelu]

So its that time of the year again...crunch time before the big day. Import alliance summer meet is just a few days away and still quite a few things to do. On Saturday I started installing the project mu brakes after receiving the girodisc slotted rotors on Friday.





After bolting up the caliper and installed the brake line, I immediately noticed a pretty big problem. THERE WAS NO FLARE INSIDE THE CALIPER WHERE THE BRAKE LINE GOES!!! So if you install the brake line, it will leak because there is no way to seal without the flare. So I figured maybe I can find a NPT to female flare fitting.

You guys have no idea how lucky I am and how convenient to have a summit racing store nearby. The summit racing store is actually only 20 minutes from where I work but I was about 1.5 hrs north of the store. I went ahead and drove down there to see if they had the fitting...no luck. I was getting extremely nervous until they suggested an idea. There was a NPT to AN fitting that came installed on the caliper which was a NPT to AN. So use the NPT to AN fitting that I had already to a AN -4 brake line to a AN to female flare. I probably lost you guys by now. I was happy to buy all this since the new lines are about 2 inches longer than stock which gave me the extra length I needed since the calipers are clocked further down from stock location.

Here is a picture of what I picked up from Summit including the fitting I already had. The new fitting that goes on the fender well even had a slot to hold the stock clip.




Here is a shot of the brake line all installed. What I found kind of funny was that label on the brake line reads "For off-road use only. Do not use on public highways or roads." I know it's for liability reasons but still...come on!


The pads that came with the calipers were almost new but they were in pretty rough shape so I took a piece of 120 grit sandpaper to smooth them out.


Here are the pads all installed. After this I installed the brake clips and pins and then bled the system. I went ahead and invested in a motive self brake bleeder that I bought from summit racing as well. I usually have a friend help me but I hate bothering them. The motive brake bleeder is a lot quicker anyways and the fact that you can do it yourself is a huge plus for me. It took me a sec to figure it all out but worked pretty well in the end. I think there is still some air in the system so I am going to redo it one more time.


SO FOR THE FINALE. A week ago I was sitting at Hudson Grille eating a post basketball meal with my homies when I received a very exciting message from a good friend of mine (Treefish here on Zilvia) saying that he is selling his Advan model 5. Ever since he got these wheels I tell him every time I see him to sell me his wheels. Well it was my lucky day and I was ecstatic when I saw his message.

Even though they do need to be refinished, I could not pass this deal up. Do you guys realize how hard it is to find model 5's? Especially in this offet...18x9 +20 and 18x10 +18. Well, I definitely have experienced the difficulty because I have been looking for a set for a long time.





In this picture you can see the rear is cambered in too much. That is due to my volks being +13 in the rear compared to +18 on there. I need to pull the camber out this week.

[Om1kron]

that's cool while a burn at the same time. just got the other wheels refinished and then find another set of dream wheels to jump on. Congrats on the find!

[1gr8bar10der]

Congrats to the Advan's. Extremely jealous! The only thing, exterior wise, it needs is the OEM Spec-R aero bumper!