1/31/12 This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

There are typically two reasons why we can't have nice things. Either someone else ruins it or we ruin it ourselves. Yesterday I saw good examples of both. I saw a slightly beat up z32 300zx turbo parked near my apartment. Being a Z guy I noticed it immediately. Passing it this morning, I saw that someone had smashed it's back window. That sucks. Please excuse the awful picture.

This next one was a decent car ruined by its owner. Above is a Porsche 944. If you can't tell what's wrong with it, let me show you a photo with flash.

Yes, it seems that the owner has added a bunch of fluorescent yellow trim to the rear of this car. Maybe the front isn't as bad.

IT IS AS BAD! If you look closely, there are even different and clashing shades of fluorescent yellow stripe on the car. Let's take a closer look 

First of all, the state of the natural paint on the car is appalling. It's faded, the clearcoat is gone and its scratched everywhere. Just in case you didn't  know, it's a 944. It says so on the front...and back.... and on the hood.... and on the roof... Wait wait wait is that a prancing horse? I know there's a tiny horse in the Porsche logo, but the image is much more traditionally associated with Ferrari. For a car that proclaims it's identity on every panel, it really causes a bit of an identity crisis. 

Even more logo ridiculousness on the hood. This is the problem with affordable cars from exotic companies. Unlike their more expensive bigger brothers, they are used and abused as daily drivers, and fall into disrepair. Some, like this guy, use the prestigious badge to try, in vain, to distract from the fact that the car is old and in bad shape.

This is why we can't have nice things.

-W.W. SBSS

1/30/12 More Insulation

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but between selling (and dropping off) the 650 and some other things in life, I've only been able to spend one real day in the shop since my last post, but I made it count.

One of the reasons I haven't been in the shop more is that on Thursday I got pulled over in the city. I was riding through one of the central park transverses, and as I got to Central Park West, I fed forward to the front of the line of cars waiting for the light. This is a pretty safe practice that dramatically reduces the number of rear end accidents motorcyclists experience. That said, it's still illegal so the cop waiting at the corner pulled me over. I gave him my info, knowing full well that my VA motorcycle registration was very much expired, as I haven't lived there since...June 2010. He came back about 20 minutes later. Gave me the ticket for 'passing in the same lane' then asked me if this bike was registered. I told him it should be. He said it was coming back as unregistered, and the expired registration I gave him came up as a 'red suzuki'. "OH YEAH! Yes, officer, it used to be red, but now it's carbon fiber."

Two tickets and a little more than $300 later I was riding the remaining 5 blocks to my apartment. I can't really be upset, because I did sortof deserve both tickets, particularly the registration one. Feeding forward really should be legal though.

As a result, I spent much of Saturday getting my Jersey licence again and registering the bike in NJ. Now I'm all legal again.

In the shop yesterday I spent most of my time on the interior of the Z. First I finished installing the FAT MAT sound deadener. in the rear hatch area.

Installing this stuff isn't hard, but it takes a toll on your hands. the foil backing is pretty sharp, so I have a bunch of deep cuts on my fingers from pressing it down to the metal. Oh well.

I installed it on both the outer and inner door skin. It is truly amazing how much 'ring' it takes out of the door. Instead of the door sounding like I hit a steel drum when I close it, it sounds like hitting a mattress with a hammer. 'Clang' to 'Thunk' if you get what I mean. It's kinda hard to describe....

Even being pretty liberal with it, I still have quite a bit of the 100sqft I ordered left. This is good because the package weighed 40lbs, and I'm a bit more comfortable adding 25lbs to my car than I am adding 40. I really will make a huge difference in sound. 

I also started with the EZ Cool. I say started because I vastly underestimated how much I'd need and ran out. Taking some cues from the EZ Cool testimonials page, I started by wrapping the inside of the interior plastics with it. 

This stuff is VERY lightweight, but it isn't peel and stick like the FATMAT. I'm using some loctite spray adhesive that not super strong, but is more than strong enough for this purpose. I have no doubt that I could remove all of the EZ Cool easily (hehe).

With a few of the major interior panels done, I started to do the floors.

This stuff is very easy (hehe) to work with, and putting your hand against it you can really tell how much heat it actually reflects. The only problem is that one roll got me a floor and a half plus a couple of panels. I need at least one more roll, probably two if I want to do the hatch. 

I also made a Home Depot run with JB and picked up some carpet padding. I still have to figure out what carpet I'm gonna use. 

Slowly but surely.

-W.W. SBSS

1/23/12 In with the New

There has been some shuffling of the bikes in the shop recently. For one, there is now a cute little Peugeot 103 moped in the shop. I am fixing some small issues (and possibly modifying it to hit 50mph from it's current top speed of 20 or so) for a friend.

Yesterday a guy came by to look at the CB650 and put down a deposit. I'll be delivering the bike to him tomorrow. It's a bit sad to see it and the 700 go, but it makes room for a new project to be named shortly...

On Saturday it snowed for the first real time this season. This made the city very pretty, even the subway was improved by the flurry.

This also gave me an opportunity to behave like a child in the snow on the moped. All in the name of 'testing'.

I also installed sound deadening in the floor of the Z. I still have to do the cargo area and possibly the doors. and rear fenders. I also have to install my heat insulation on top of it. The interior is coming together though.

-W.W. SBSS

1/11/12 Toyobaru to the rescue! The FR-S/BRZ/GT-86

I don't often write about current cars, mainly because they don't interest me very much. For the past 40 years or so, every new car has been bigger and heavier than the one before it. A few of the reasons for this are understandable (crash safety, emissions equipment, etc), but most of the weight gain has been because of our demand for excessive luxury features and space we seldom use.

Sure, our cars have tons of power now to compensate for the weight along with advanced engine technology to allow them to get passable fuel economy despite this weight and power. But for all the engineering work we've put into our cars, they are getting fatter every year.

There, however, a few examples of manufacturers bucking the trend and building truly light cars with modern technology. The first and most exciting example is the upcoming Toyota/Subaru here on collaboration car.

This car, branded as the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ here in the US and the Toyota GT-86 elsewhere, shares the same basic layout as my G35, the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, and BMW 1 Series. It is a small, front engine, rear wheel drive, 2+2 sporty car. The difference is that because the Toyobaru will weigh under 2700lbs, it only needs 200 hp, and will be cheap to buy and cheap to run. Below is a rundown on the Toyobaru and it's competitors

	Toyobaru	G37	Genesis 2.0t	Mustang V6	Camaro V6	1 Series	Miata
Price	24,000	37,600	23,125	24,000	23,280	31,200	23,110
Power	200	330	210	305	323	230	167
Weight	2500	3633	3294	3464	3750	3208	2410
Power/weight	0.080	0.091	0.064	0.088	0.086	0.072	0.069
0-60	5.9	5.7	6.8	5.9	5.8	6.1	6.5
MPG	?	19/27	21/30	19/29	18/29	18/28	22/28

So basically it performs as well or better than much bigger cars, with less power and, I'm assuming here, substantially better mileage due to it's light weight and small engine. And before you say that the rear seats suffer from the size, I don't think any adult would want to spend a significant amount of time in the rear seats of any of these cars.

What this doesn't take into account is handling. This car is extremely light and, unlike the mustang, on a very nice independent suspension system. Because the engine is a boxer-4 mounted very low in the car, the center of gravity is lower than on a Ferrari 458. This reduces body roll and improves the transitory handling without require a ride-killing stiff suspension. By all accounts, this is one of the best handling cheap cars available.

This is what the 240z did for sports cars in the 70's. Light weight + reasonable power + good handling + affordable price = Success.

Interestingly enough, Mercedes is also trying their hand at the lightweight game too. They have recently confirmed that by 2015 they will be producing the E-class Superlight. This midsize sedan is targeted to weigh 2860lbs, or 770lbs less than the current car. This will make a HUGE difference in all aspects of performance. The car will be quicker, handle better, and be more efficient because of it. Cheers to MB for working towards this.

-W.W. SBSS

1/10/12 Back in the Saddle

The bike is back together. I rode a good few miles this weekend, and it was great to have the wind in my helmet again. I still have some little odds and ends to take care of, though. I ordered some new bar end mirrors. I also ordered some Delrin stock to make a new frame slider for the right side. I still need to extend the speedo pickup and trim the rear fender, but the bike is alive and well.

I also found out from the company I ordered my struts from that they will  be delayed an additional week or so, which is frustrating. I ordered from them because they were 25 bucks cheaper than everyone else. I guess I learned my lesson...

In order to keep working, I went on a bit of a shopping spree! Luckily, I am ordering only from my paypal account, which is funded by the sale of old parts, so I don't have to feel bad about it!

I want to get the interior put together while I wait. Now that the frame rails are welded and the floors are painted, I can move forward with this. There are two things I want to reduce in my car, road noise and heat. I don't mind having a loud car, but exhaust noise is very different than the drone of road noise. To kill the noise, you, unfortunately, need to add weight. This weight keeps the sheetmetal from vibrating and transmitting the noise into the cabin.

To kill heat from the engine, you need an insulating material between you and the heat source. Often these two tasks are combined into one product, which either doesn't deaden noise well, or adds excessive weight. I will be using two products together to get the desired effect without adding too much weight.

For noise, I chose to go with Fatmat, mainly because the price was right, and because it was an automotive-oriented product, it shouldn't give off the smell that some of the other budget solutions do.

For heat, I went with EZ Cool because it is quite cheap, VERY light and has proven results as a heat barrier. 

At 2lbs a roll I don't have to feel bad about putting this everywhere, and because it has some sound deadening properties, I can go lighter on the Fatmat in areas that are of somewhat less importance, saving weight. Both of these products are intended for automotive use and will not retain water, though  the POR-15 should protect me from that anyway.

On top of that I'll lay some standard Home depot carpet padding and carpet. This should provide me with a low cost, reasonably low weight solution for the NVH in my car. 

-W.W. SBSS

1/5/12 Culling the Herd

In order to focus my attention a bit, I've sold the CB700sc. I had the bike listed for a few weeks, and finally someone followed through and actually saw the bike. We haggled a bit, a deposit was put down and the new owner will be picking it up some time next week. It'll be nice to have it gone, honestly. I was starting to feel bad about ignoring it in the corner of the shop, and it's always nice to have a little cash to throw at the Z. 

I also had the CB650 listed, but I've recently decided to keep it. A.D., much to the chagrin of her mother, has decided to get her motorcycle licence. As a result, we may be building the 650 up for her. This gives me a much needed excuse to keep it. 

I'm still buttoning up odds and ends on the SV, as well as waiting on my new front fender. I spent fair amount of time trying to tuck the bulk of wiring that used to be in the fairing into the frame. I finally got it set so that it isn't a huge pain to get the airbox to seat properly. It looks like I'm gonna have to run the speedometer pickup to the rear wheel, as there is no way to make it look good on the front. This means extending the wires and making a mount for the pickup. I'll try to take care of that this weekend. The front end is looking good though.

I also painted my front crossmember with POR-15 finally. I love this stuff. It looks good and is incredibly tough. If there were a need to have this car sandblasted I would do the whole chassis with it. 

-W.W. SBSS

1/2/12 A New Year

Happy New Year!

To celebrate, I made some serious progress on the bike today. One of the things holding me back was the fact that I didn't have the tool to properly torque the stem nut. The reason I didn't have it is that Suzuki, for some reason unknown to me, charges $170 for the tool, which looks like this.

Normally I'd just take a brass drift and tighten it with a hammer but because this is part of the steering and having proper torque could be important, I decided to do it the right way. To this end, I decided to make my own steering stem socket.

First I bought a 32mm deep socket and wrapped it in tape.

Then I marked where I needed to remove material.

Then I turned it in a lathe to remove excess material from the inside.

Then I took a dremel to it to cut out the notches.

And then cleaned up the edges with a grinding wheel.

And I was good to go!



Next in my day of fabrication, I needed to make a brake caliper spacer, as my forks were missing one when they arrived. Searching fo some scrap aluminum, I cut off the end of my old bent clipon.

And this was the end result, accurate to 5 thousandths of an inch. The one I made is on the left, with the original on the right.

This allowed me to start buttoning up the front end. This is gonna look pretty good!

-W.W. SBSS