Weigh the whole package (rim/tire) and tell us what you find.

My phone dials with 195/60/14 tires weighed in at 31.7# and my new rota's with 225/50/16's weighed 34.9# (not too shabby for 2" OD and 1.5" increase in width on the rims and an inch more rubber on the ground)

 

Rotas, Koseis and old school Enkei mesh seem to be the lightest 15x7s I have seen, all roughly 12lbs. I have been eyeing all those, as well as the Miata BBS 14's (though the bolt pattern is not 4.5). There are some 14" versions of the 'vert 5-lug wheels floating around with other car manufacturers' emblems on the center cap and I am hoping to find something in 4x4.5 but who knows? I am a poor college student.

I will probably use the Gsl-Ses for autox only. They weigh roughly the same (a tad more probably) than the phone dials w/185 radials and have 7.25" contact patch, but I don't have a scale on me so I don't know the exact total weight.

 

That's comming along good, I really think once you get it painted. It will look awsome!

 

Thanks, everyone for all the compliments and questions. It has kept me motivated and on my toes through this project. I should have it painted in a month. I will keep updating and will definately show the cold air box and ram tube that connects it to the bumper intake.

I will need to cut some metal to make the tube fit, but it won't be the radiator support. More like the engine bay "floor" right in the front corner by the passenger side tire well. I figure a 6" circle won't hurt anything structural, and if it does I will just put in a tri-strut brace.

 

OK guys, more shots of my bumper project:




I spent this week reinforcing the back of the ducts with some more fiberglass, bonding it to the plastic bumper cover from behind. Now I am doing the final shaping and filling.

This project is pissing me off because I want my car back on the road. All I have to do is paint the car, port and reassemble my engine and then reinstall it. Doing good bodywork takes forever!

 

Hey man, you're an inspiration! Don't give up. Lots of us waiting impatiently to see this done! Looking good!

 

These pics turned out better than the last because the sun was down and lighting was more even.

Someone earlier in the thread said that the bumper looks "second gen DSMish" and I agree.

 

Yeah dude, that really does look good. Really well thought out and well planned idea.

Once it's done it should look real well. You laid a good base for the beginning of the project. And if done right (IE: smoothed out... buffed... smoothed out again.. Sanded Ect... than painted it should look real well. Hell, if it's really nice i'd suggest sending the idea into a body kit company ... Lets us know how it goes.

 

I really like it and would like to see what it looks like once its done. Great job!

 

what cocr is it going to be??? are you going to paint the yrim the same color as the car??

 

is it just me, or does the right side duct look much smaller than the left? from the picture point of view...

 

Left duct is smaller... The opening is not as wide at the top as the right one.

 

it looks to me like a darker color on the inside of the duct is distorting how it appears in the photo

 

thats what i JUST said...

 

"from the picture point of view..."

Didn't read that half the screen, but who the **** would address an issue with a car from the picture perspective rather than the universally accepted car perspective?

However, I did mention that the reasoning behind the appearance of being smaller was due to the non-symetrical upper egde of the duct. So regardless of whether I restated your opinion, I still added a useful observation to the post. So j/k

 

Thats looking pretty damned good. Make sure to keep this updated
-Jayson

 

The car will be competition yellow and the rims will stay like they are. The passenger side duct has a 6" diameter tube coming off it and the drivers side has a 5" tube. I don't know how I got them different sizes in the form making process but decided to leave them alone. One side has more bondo in it right now, making its inside ramp show up while the other one looks dark and bigger. It is still nowhere near as symmetrical as I am going to make it.

 

Thought I would bring this thread back from the dead to show my latest progress. Not much happening on the bumper other than mounting it to see if the shape changed (and it did a little) before planing and filing it down to be more symmetrical. Most engine bay and exterior paint is now removed. Aircraft remover is awesome stuff!





I have decided to use the Gsl-Se wheels for my street wheels with 215/60 tires. I found some old, light mesh porsche wheels on Ebay for my auto-x set. No centerlines for this car.

 

Hey Bud, it's me again. I am still anxiously waiting to see how you are going to route the air up into your airbox to take advantage of true ram air. I will not be modifying my fascia, but I am carving foam for a true ram-air setup that is fed through the "grille" opening. Once I have something worth taking a picture of, I will post it. Kudos to you for your efforts, and please hurry up, I need to steal some of your ideas!!!!

 

Looks great so far- nice and aggressive. Yellow, though?
I am partial to black- but yellow would work. I guess it is the new red.

 

Lol, I think the same thought every damn time my RX-7 comes to mind. I am guessing a couple weeks to a month for the air box and duct. It is very simple but I will have to cut a 6" dia. hole in the engine bay in front of the passenger side wheel well.

As far as yellow, most shades you see are nasty. I can'te believe that no one got the right shade on all these yellow cars hitting the streets these days. I am dumping the competition yellow idea for my own shade that I will have computer matched. If I end up dumping yellow completely, I will do metallic charcoal (almost black but a little gray).


surrounding myself with positive energy so I will go out to the shop and file my latest bondo

 

The shade of yellow that I might use looks like on this car but brighter and not as green:




This is my home made shade of yellow that I am considering:

 

what kind of body kit is that thats pretty clean

 

I don't know what it is but someone posted it when I started a thread asking for pics of yellow FCs.

Here is my progress report for this last week. I have been working on fixing the lack of symmetry to the bumper and here is the result:



The light / dark effect of the bondo and fiberglass obscures the shape a bit but it is pretty close to symmetrical, other than the left duct being bigger inside.

 

It looks like the Border front end.