Now offering S13 Drift Knuckles! Two options for Ackerman available. Contact sales@seriousfab.com for more info.
Successful Weekend
•August 12, 2012 • Leave a CommentI got a lot done at the shop this weekend. Went down Friday night because I knew it would be a busy weekend. It was Odi’s birthday party at Adams Motorsports Park and Andrew really wanted to shake down his LS1 swapped FD3S RX7. Last weekend I cut and welded his knuckles for him since stock FD angle is terrible! He also had a busted diff from a video shoot at the shop so he picked up another stock torsion and had it apart for me when I showed up so I could weld it up proper. After he got the diff back in and the car on the ground I did a full initial chassis setup and alignment. The car has never been properly setup before and it really needed it! The rear was crab walking to one side the car wasn’t square and the steering rack wasn’t centered. After I got everything square and even we busted out the alignment and it was ready to roll. Car ran great! It always amazes me how good a properly setup FD drifts. So much forward grip the car is a rocket ship! I can’t wait to get it out on a real track where it can actually stretch it’s legs.
After the FD was squared away and ready to go to the track I busted out as much as possible on my car. Stripped it down and finally got a couple of coats of high fill primer on the car. Now I can wet sand the car and get it ready for final paint prep. Two window guys flaked so I didn’t get a chance to get the windows popped this weekend but I’ll have someone cruise by this weekend and do it for me.
Also some pics from Thursday night drag races at Irwindale with a co-workers turbo VW bug.
FD3S Knuckle Update
•August 7, 2012 • 1 CommentI wanted to write a quick update to the FD3S knuckles I just did because I get a lot of kids asking me to cut their knuckles and I try to explain to them that knuckles are great but they are not the end all be all to getting more angle you need supporting mods and a little extra work to take advantage of the angle. Initial install on the FD had decent angle. But after a bit of clearancing it at max angle you can get without spacing the caliper and doing a custom lower control arm.
FD3S Drift Knuckles
•August 4, 2012 • 1 CommentAnother knuckle mod available from SB Fabrication. Did these FD3S knuckles for Andrew Molina today. If you would like to get your RX7 knuckles modified for more steering angle please contact us at sales@seriousfab.com.
More Sanding
•July 30, 2012 • 1 CommentOn Saturday I spent most of the day sanding away on the S13 I hate when people rattle can cars it just makes so much more work when you want to actually paint it. I also did a little of the body work that needed to be done and final fitment on the rear fenders. Everything is welded up and the fenders are staying on the car! Still have a little bit of cleanup and a couple small dings I need to fill and then I can hit the car with a coat of high fill primer and then even more sanding after that! But it’s getting there hopefully it will be painted soon. Also cleaned up the engine bay and took a couple of pictures since I haven’t had it clean since it was finished.
Busy weekend
•July 23, 2012 • 1 CommentThis weekend was crazy! Went down to the shop Friday night and we had a small kick back to celebrate Ryan’s birthday and then woke up early Saturday morning to get some car work done before the BBQ birthday bash. Started with welding up the stock rear fenders on the S13 because I only had time to cut them before so they have just been open. They are cut and a patch put in and then seam sealed
so they are clean and don’t look like a hack job. The 510 radiator had been completely trashed for about a year and leaking from the top so I finally measured it and ordered an appropriate sized Griffin radiator for the car. I got the radiator changed out and the system bled then started on prepping and sanding the fenders on the S13 for primer. It was already pretty late by the time they were prepped and the BBQ started so the rest had to wait for Sunday. Sunday I primed the fenders made radiator brackets for the 510 and cleaned up all the rusty water residue that was everywhere in the engine bay. Car runs cold now it’s at thermostat temp pretty much all the time.
Bookface spark
•July 17, 2012 • Leave a CommentChris Martin posted on his facebook wall about freedom which led to an offhand remark from me about the song “me and bobby mcgee”. Knowing full well that the quote would be lost on most people it led me to find a good version on youtube to post as a comment on his post about freedom. That in turn led me to think about the times when I have been backed into a corner so to speak and I realized that those were the only times that I truly fought for my freedom and since I am in a good mood lately and a lot of good things have happened in my life recently I just wanted to remind everyone that you should do what makes you happy you shouldn’t have to get to the point where you have nothing left to lose to make you fight for what makes you happy.
P.S. In my mind Bobby will always be a woman and all of the female covers of this song even though I love the artists dont do it justice. Kris Kristofferson is one of the best versions by far.
Getting Organized
•July 13, 2012 • 4 CommentsI’ve been working very hard to get the new shop organized before the end of this weekend. Unpacking from moving and buying some tool staples that I need to get work done has been a long road this week but I finally have everything off the floor a spot setup for the welding table just need to draw up some plans and order material and then Ryan will get some fab practice building it for me while I hopefully finally get to start doing some work on the S13. Some random pictures from the week.
NB Miata Drift Knuckles
•July 11, 2012 • Leave a CommentHad a customer come by and drop off his NB Miata knuckles to get modified today. The car has a Ford 302 swap and is pretty nuts! He needs the extra angle so he can actually use that V8 power. They are my FD spec knuckles meaning they are modified to fit within the constraints of the Formula Drift Rulebook. If you need your knuckles cut and welded hit us up at sales@seriousfab.com we can do anything!
Adams Motorsports Park Drift Competition
•July 8, 2012 • 3 CommentsYesterday Ryan Litteral competed in a drift comp at AMP and took home 1st place and a $1,000 check! The day started out with problems the corolla really hasn’t had any maintenance done to it for a long time the battery was trash and it was causing problems at high rpm. Andrew Molina and I ran out to autozone and grabbed a new battery, terminals and plugs. Then we went straight into qualifying Ryan put down a 97 on his first qualifying run do that took the pressure off for our next 2 qualifying runs which is good because the corolla started throwing a code and went into limp mode for the 2nd qualifying run. We check the codes and it was throwing a knock sensor code so we unplugged it hoping to limp through the next run. After that we ran to autozone and picked a knock sensor from a mk. 4 supra luckily they had one in stock. Got the sensor changed out and the sounded great better then it has in a while. Ryan looked great in top 16 practice with the car finally working right. Then in a follow run in practice a tire got kicked up and smashed the oil cooler into the radiator damaging one of the rows. Back to autozone for some JB quick weld and cleaned it all up good as new! After top 16 we noticed another coolant leak coming from the water neck where the stock temp sensor goes it just had a bolt jb welded into it originally. With no other option we just added more JB weld. Around the same time we noticed that the left rear wheel had sheared a lug stud and the bolts were super loose. With no replacement shanked lug nuts for the mags we had to borrow lugs from Ryan’s dads Tacoma pickup. Everything sorted and our fingers crossed Ryan breezed through the rest of the comp with some exciting runs but no one could match his speed when he was leading pulling a 2-3 car gap by the last turn during most of the battles.
With the win under our belts and the car loaded it it decided to start leaking again! Luckily it made it through the comp in one piece. We had planned to have a little BBQ at the shop but with the win it turned into a huge BBQ with most of the drivers from Adams and a lot of our friends coming by to check out the new place. It ended up being a great day and Ryan drove great despite all of the car problems. It really goes to show you what a good team of guys can do.
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