Kira See's the Sun for the First Time this Year

Finally completed lowering Kira and managed to get her started and out for a quick pic. The KYB shocks feel great! However after tons of work the front isn't as low as I liked. Sadly there isn't anything more I can do that I know of so I'm going to see if I can think of something crazy that may work. 1/2" all around more is all I want :( hopefully after some driving it settles some more.

All Black

Just another pic of the converted all black interior in kira.

Kira = Lowering Sucks

During winter I lowered the rear of Kira about 2 inches which is the point of almost tucking tire. By typical corvette standards this drop is BIG.
Lowering the rear requires longer bolts which were special order from Fastenal. The bolts were actually metric and were slightly thinner, still fit damn near perfect and were somewhere between 12 to 13 inches in length from what I recall. All I know is that the length was definitely on the extreme end from what people normally purchase. I then purchased nylock nuts and installed them virtually on the end of the bolt. I'll post pics later on.
I'm not sure if this will be low enough but I have to drive the car around for the suspension to settle before I can decide.

I find that the majority of vette owners are timid and lack the creativity required to successfully modify these cars, especially considering most of them have much larger financial capabilities. I've already discovered a much easier solution to lowering the rear more if need be and requires nothing!

In the center spring channel the spring is secured with spacers on either side allowing the spring to be clamped in place. By simply dropping the spring in the rear which is a million times easier then the front and switching the majority of spacers from the top to the bottom will effectively lower the car.

Currently I'm working on the front which has been a nightmare! I'm almost done just waiting on a new ball joint for the drivers side then everything gets buttoned-up.

Pic of the passenger side that I tided-up. Oh and new shocks to replace the crappy Monroe's on all four corners. Yes, they are KYB's and I'm aware they aren't that great but considering all four cost the equivalent of one koni shock I'm willing to accept the reliability risks. Performance wise I expect them to be day and night over the worn out Monroe's.

Silvia Interior

Reupholstered the driver side door. Looks better but was not fun so I may do something simpler for the pass side

Corvette Interior

Figured I should post a pic of the finished interior on Kira
Mods completed:
-new headliner
-new shift boot
-blue LED map lights
-all dash bulbs converted to LED
-courtesy bulbs converted to LED
-gear bulb converted to blue LED
-carpet died black
-gray doors and armrest vinyl painted black
-seats died black
-dash trim painted satin black
-all new fasteners
-push button start
-relocated alarm antenna
-painted speaker covers black
 

Silvia Improvements Underway

So I decided to begin my winter work on Megan with something simple. I removed the aero mirrors and painted them a gloss black which is an improvement over the flat black primer.

Before Pic!

Before picture for the records

Current Fav. Drift Vid

Love the music, love the cars, awesome footage!



A Good Day from max fouhy on Vimeo.

Corvette Big Brake

Installed the C5 (13") front brake upgrade on Kira and oh-boy is it an improvement!
To give you an idea of how big of an improvement is simple. I was running ZR1 wheels with 285 kuhmo excsta's, (no clue how to spell it) treadwear is 180 so basically a sticky tire. With this wheel setup the stock brakes couldn't lock up the fronts at all. Now with about 60% peddle effort they lock up.

Now if your saying wow 60% peddle effort to-lock is bad, then Congratulations your not an idiot! I knew it wasn't good but I figured like an F1 pro I'll manage it fine. Sooooooo, three weeks later I flat spotted the fack* out of them in one quick stop on the highway. Blah blah blah this post is to long so the rest in bullets
-put rear tires on the front. 295's
-did a burnout with the fronts on the back. improved the condition of the tires a bit
-bought a new brake bias spring that applies more pressure to the rear
-will install over winter and report
-vette is put away for winter. = Winter projects begin and cooler updates

Winter Time!

Well I parked Megan (silvia) in its corner for the winter yesterday and today it officially snowed! 

---Winter is Here!

I'm super excited for winter because some of you may know I'm a nerd at heart and I take great joy in designing and building then I do after the fact.

The plan for gangsta wheels is still a go. Figure the sizes I'm going for are 18x10 fronts and 18x12 rears. Not sure on the offset but "low." So over the winter fender flares need to be mounted. I've been getting quotes and they have been pretty ridiculous so I'll do it myself. As of now the search is on for silvia fenders to use as a mock and hon my skills.

Similar look below but with gnarly wheels and more low. I'm going for a more gangster look as Kira (corvette) has taken over as the functional performance vehicle. 

I'll save the Kira build for another post and an update is due as well

Greddy Turbo Timer

Picked up a Greddy turbo timer from Mark who's truly generous and probably one of the coolest dudes on earth. 
I was super excited to get home once it was in my possession. First thing I wanted to do was take it apart because the one I'm building is very simple and I wanted to compare.

Well I was impressed to an extent. Quality of work was put into making the board very compact with SMT components and a multilayer board. 

Definitely would be considered a quality product and a testament to Greddys claim to true products made with R&D if it wasn't for the one fet showing signs of significant overheating. On the ribbon cable you can see some browning and the plastic casing on the inside shows signs of slight melting (not shown in picture). I'll make some sort fix and update. So beware if your buying one with significant past use.

Corvette Updates

Vette has an exhaust system now and so its officially on the road. Installed ZR1 wheels on all 4 corners with 285 in the front and 295 in the rear. When these tires are finished I'm probably going to run 295's in the front because they should fit based on how well the 285's fit and then source some 11inch rear ZR1 wheels to put 315's in the back.

With the bigger wheels and tires the braking system feels under-rated and so time to go BIG!.... well bigger

-Z06 front calipers
-Hawk HP+ pads
-13" Stop Tech slotted rotors

Still haven't lowered the vette as its a timely procedure and need to get the Silvia up and running before I do.

Larger wheels fill up the gap well

For some reason the Silvia isn't starting. It cranked over, sounded like it fired once and now just cranks.
I'm glad something is finding some good out of this.

Awesome BMW video... Must watch!!!

Oh and updates on everything soon

Scraped my first 240, Cal's Bmw, Silvia Chilling

Well I am officially down to owning 3 cars as I have just scraped my very first 240 :(

I still love how it looked lowered, pignose front bumper and black rocker guard, it could have been bad ass with some wheels and more low.

The day i got it home

Cal's BMW is coming along, going to help him today finish the brakes and hopefully exhaust

Silvia still being DD

Winter Plans Already?!

I always plan my projects well in advance and right now I can't wait to get started on this one.

I’m happy with how the Silvia looks presently but I feel it’s far short of my dream. So planned for winter is fender flares (not over fenders) which I have kicking around already that will be painted black to go with the cars theme. To fill the fenders I’m thinking something such as Work VS-KF’s in burning black, hopefully financed by a massive parts sale that I plan on doing in the coming weeks. Besides wheels and body work I only expect to be purchasing 5lug hubs, and rear Z32 brakes.

<3 Wheels