So its been a while since my last update. It's like pulling teeth to get me to update this thing but honestly not a whole lot has really been happening with the project.

On to the updates:

The car now has coilovers from Ground Control Suspension Systems. I was surprised to find out you can basically input what modification you are doing on your 510 suspension wise (using stock struts or 280ZX, and if you are welding a perch or not) and they will send you exactly what you need for your application. Had the extra cash and got that set up. I did this because I wasn't told to upgrade my front springs. So I decided if I was going to do it, I'd do it right! There are pictures of the coil over set up in the Project Pictures section.

While I was doing these upgrades I also finally upgraded my low beams to H4 bulbs. I used some very nice PIAA bulbs and a set of HELLA housings. I went with HELLA instead of Cibie because the Cibies have gone up in price and you can get a pretty good deal on the HELLAs but they might be on special order.. so be prepared to wait..

At the same time my steering wheel was starting to give me trouble to I picked up a new one that looks great and just happen to be on sale at the time I ordered it. Unfortunately I have no pictures at the moment but it is the Grant GT Gt Rally Black Hand Grip if you wanted to look it up. A great looking wheel and I love that 4 spoke design!

The last piece of news is that for the third year in a row my car has made it in to the dimequarterly calendar.

Click the image above to check out the pages or place an order for your own. It's got a lot of great shots.

So the car is pretty much complete for now. Finally got everything lined up. Brakes are working good everything seems to be working good. Found some new wheels that fit the car very nicely. I've just been cleaning it up and getting ready for the shows and trips this summer. I have a few shows I might be going to. It seems that will be going to canby this weekend and possibly the medford cruise next weekend.

Even though my car is done for now I have already planned out a few more minor upgrades:

• 1st gen RX7 Radiator (supposedly fits with out much work..)
• Window Tint
• New Exhaust
• Upgrade Low beams to H4's

I don't think any of this stuff will get done till after summer time since I won't be working and won't have any extra cash to spare till I get a real full time job. Can't believe I'm about to be out getting a real job. Graduating soon and going out on my own. Just hope I don't end up on hard times and have to sell the car. If I do hopefully one of you reading this recognizes it and realizes what a great deal you'd be getting!

Anyways, That's all for now. Check out the Project Pictures section for some new pictures from my suspension upgrade.

I really need to set up a thanks page one of these days, for now this will do:

Thanks to Peak Performance for all their help with my projects. Jerry and Walt's Alignment shop, a great shop with a friendly staff who are willing to go the extra mile so that you leave satisfied. A big thanks to Eugene Muffler, he does great work and charges very reasonable prices, plus he's willing to weld up all the mistakes I make!

If you are in the Eugene, Oregon area and would like more info on these shops email me on the contact page. If you have any questions or comments regarding the project click the contact link, fill out the form and it will send me the message as an email!

Alright, I'm back again with some more news and information. My current project is near completion. I only have a little bit left before it is done and back on the road. I got everything assembled and put on the car. Everything seemed to fit ok. I had a small issue with the brake caliper clearance. So to get the brakes all put together and new brake lines built I had the car towed to Peak Performance.

They did some amazing work creating my brake lines. They looked very nice. They also pointed out one of many problems.

1. My wheels are too small to clear my new big brakes. I didn't think it was going to be a huge issue but once everything was assembled it wasn't going to work. So now I need to get some different wheels.

2. I didn't know I needed to upgrade my Master Cylinder to a 280Z or 280ZX one. For some reason I totally over looked this. I have since solved the problem but now I just need to get the new master cyl installed.

Other than that it went quite well. Here is a list of the pieces I installed during this suspension upgrade:

Most of the work that was done was mostly cleaning things. Getting everything you can't see looking nice, just incase you look! When I can get my act together I will post some pictures from the part of the project.

Hopefully once I can sort out my wheel issue I can get back on the road.

Well, I've been putting off updating for a long time. I've mostly been busy. I should have all the picture links fixed. The server the pictures were hosted on got updated and with that update it changed all the link names.

Not much was happening in the way of the car. I got that transmission in and enjoyed a bit of driving only to take it down again and redo the suspension. I currently have it sitting on four jack stands. I am replacing a lot of stuff and cleaning up many different parts. I am currently upgrading to four wheel disc brakes. I'm using 280ZX struts up front and Maxima calipers in the rear. I will likely have a small photo guide on Maxima caliper install since there seems to be nothing online that tells you how this is supposed to be done.

So far I am close to getting the car back together. Most of the parts I need have showed up and many items are close to being finished and put back together. I have a solid two weeks with only work going on, so most everything should get done.

I hope to have some pictures up soon. I've been kind of slacking on taking pictures too. So they might not be as detailed as the previous photos.

On a side note a picture of my car has been chosen for the cover of the 2007 Dime Quarterly Calendar!

Click the calendar to order and to see images of each month. A lot of great photographs

Hah, a bit of a delay in posting the "ending" to this story.

In the end everything went in to the car ok, and I got a great deal from Dustin at Peak Performance here in eugene, oregon. You can find info to contact them at the bottom of this post.

So the trans mission was working good and it was nice to have the car back on the road. I could finally shift in to second gear with out hearing a loud *CRUNCH*! I did have to get used to the sound of the three stooges when I moved in to a lower gear, yeah... odd. Well, only a few days in to driving the car a new noise appears! This new sound wasn't a good thing. After a diagnosis from a few people, it was final. My throw out bearing was going bad. When I showed the guys a peak performance they said they had checked it but I guess the new transmission had put a different wear pattern on it or something.

So, my only option was to endure the noise or take out the transmission and replace it. Well... me being a super paranoid person, car falling on me...etc.., I tried to see what it'd cost for some one to do it for me... well, $250-350. I decided to attempt something I've never done before... Remove a transmission.

Well a few weeks after I had the transmission swap done on my car, I found out about a 2dr sitting in some one's back yard. I picked this car up for free and decided to strip it down to get some practice in removing things. One of which was a transmission. I found removing this transmission very easy but there was no tranny fluid in it, no exhaust, and no engine attached to it.

Over all when I started pulling the transmission out of my VERY LOW silver car... it proved to be much more of a task than I expected. Due to some odd issues it took me a good number of afternoons to get it out. Well today I finally got it out!

We will see how well it goes back in. I hope it will go easier than it was to come out.

New pictures of this small project added to the project picture section.

So, what am I going to be doing in the future?

I have planned to:

• Upgrade front struts to 280ZX and add 280ZX rear disc brakes with new slotted rotors, calipers, and shocks!
• Install a cleaned up slotted cross member

Peak Performance - Did my transmission swap
Eugene, OR  -541-688-9210

Experimental Engineering Parts - Sold me a custom tranny cross member
Lynnwood, WA   -  CarterB@Electroimpact.com

Been a long time since I’ve updated but here’s a huge one!

Alright, so I decided that now was the time to do a new 5speed swap on the 510. Now I thought I had all this planned out and it’d take a few hours. Well, no. It has up till this point taken almost 2 weeks and isn’t done yet. Now this isn’t the fault of the shop. No, it is mostly my fault but a lot of misinformation.

So I had the transmission checked out before I took it to the shop to have the swap done to make sure the tranny was good to go. It came back totally clean but before it was put back together I needed to compare the bellhousing to make sure it was the correct one to bolt up to the car. I matched up the one I was sold against the one on the tranny and it matched up. It was identical. At this point I was happy because this was one less thing that needed to be done and I thought it was all ready to go!

So I take everything to the shop so they could get it done on Friday and have it ready for a cruise on Saturday. Well no luck there… the guy working on the car that day was sick as a dog and couldn’t get anything done… bummer. So I waited till Monday and got a call. “The transmission won’t go in. It has the wrong bellhousing”. Well I was surprised at this point because it was what it was supposed to be…. Well it turned that BOTH were wrong! I was sold the wrong bellhousing and the person who sold me it couldn’t figure out he even managed to come in to position of that bell housing. Anyways, he gave me a stock 510 transmission with the correct bell housing and dropped it back off at Transmission Solutions (AWSOME transmission shop!) where they cut me a deal and swapped the bell housings for ¼ of what I thought it’d cost me.

So, at this point I was finally ready to have this done. It was nearing the end of week one and everything was in place. The guy’s sent out to have the drive line shortened and got it back that day but I got a call from them on Friday… “The transmission cross member you had in the car is way too modified to fit the current transmission. You need to bring us one”. So I dig though my parts and find a transmission cross member. I take it to them on Monday (beginning of week two if you got lost…) drop it off with a dust plate and hope that this is it. Well I get a call mid way though Monday. “That cross member you dropped off isn’t going to work. It not even for a 510”. Well shoot, he mentions getting a stock 510 cross member. So I give a call to a friend to see if he has any. Well he drops a bomb shell. “You need to buy a special one from Experimental Engineering Parts in Washington”. Wow, so at this point I have ordered the part but it’s going to cost me $75. Hopefully that will be worth it to have many problems solved!  So at the moment the project is about $100 over budget but still flying in way under many quoted prices.

Right now I’m so glad the shop I’m at is extremely patient with me (considering they have to push the car IN and OUT every day). I think they might start charging me rent..

Well that’s it for now. Hopefully this will resolve soon and I can go back to enjoying the ride!

More to come!

Companies used so far in this leg of the project:

Transmission Solutions
Eugene, OR  -541-484-9980

Peak Performance
Eugene, OR  -541-688-9210

Experimental Engineering Parts
Lynnwood, WA   -  CarterB@Electroimpact.com