ABS/Tagan Black Pearl - evolution of a water-cooled rig

[Chicken Patty]

I currently have new heads, cam, long tube headers and full magnaflow exhaust..... and when that not enough I just give a little shot of the 'ol laughing gas. Yes it is the 5.0L engine. With all the supporting mods its good for a low 12 sec quarter mile, the suspension is setup for street/road racing. Going fast in a straight line just isnt that exciting to me.

BTW.... I love fox notches, but yes they getting rare.

Ok, Shazza we are back to you now, I didnt mean to contaminate your worklog.

Thanks for the info Jonni, nice to see a spotless/clean stang still around. here in Miami all the refugees seem to consider it the Cuban Ferrari! All riced out with stickers and ricer accessories. It's just sad.

Ok, back on topic now

[shazza]

Back on topic with another update to rival .... well, not much to tell you the truth. Got the odds and sods primed today. No photography awards for these pics, but did want to share my


A) Coat Hanger Mod ...







and B) The Chop Stick Mod:






Going to wait 24 hours to paint the pieces. I could do it after an hour, but even though the little spray booth exhausts to the outside, I want to limit my exposure to nasty chemicals (and I wear a respirator).


OKay, who am I kidding? I'm just tuckered out, and don't have the patience to do all those little pieces carefully And yes, this is an exhaustingly long way to go about painting a case.

[WinstonSthlm]

Painting several small pieces can be a real pain, that hanger looks really sweet tho
You seem to have good weather over there, here in sweden it's like 5 degrees and rain and I can't paint outside. Starting to feel dizzy if I'm painting for a longer period since the ventilation isn't good at all :P

[shazza]

Thx, Winston. Wow - 5 degrees is definitely cold (even if that is centigrade)! It's still warm in Arizona - this is probably the best time of the year here:

[Lu(ky]

Thx, Winston. Wow - 5 degrees is definitely cold (even if that is centigrade)! It's still warm in Arizona - this is probably the best time of the year here:

When you spray paint what time of day do you do it? Morning time or late late evenings? Here is Long Beach, CA it seems the best time for me is in mornings, after that to hot and windy..

[aka_GK]

shazza, Lucky jealous of your weather it is only 4 degrees C in Moscow now and likely we will have snow at the streets soon

nice pics as usual

[shazza]

When you spray paint what time of day do you do it? Morning time or late late evenings? Here is Long Beach, CA it seems the best time for me is in mornings, after that to hot and windy..

I usually paint in the morning, cause I'm worn out in the afternoom (I'm rather old, you know). I tried painting outside in the summer - BAD idea here, got really bad orange peel from the paint drying before it hit the metal. Also, all the small stuff is being painted inside an air-conditioned garage.

shazza, Lucky jealous of your weather it is only 4 degrees C in Moscow now and likely we will have snow at the streets soon

nice pics as usual

Thanks, aka+GK. Wow, 4 degrees. I don't know how you guys do it. I know it doesn't help, but just getting ready to go in the pool for a swim (But remember, you CAN fry eggs on the pavement in the summer).



More baby steps ... finished painting the bits and pieces:







And now, a short romantic interlude ...

Yesterday, I was reading CptDreadFlint's wonderful Black Freighter Work Log. I said to Lou (aka "the husband") ...

me: "Hey, do we have any of these cute little drill thingamajiggies, I think they're called Chucks."

him: "Of course we have chucks, that's what holds the drill bit in - even you know that."

me: "Well look at this picture - do we have one of these? (showing him the photo of "Chuck" in CptDF's log)"

him: "Yes, I ( "I" being dramatically emphasized) have one of those - it's called a step-down drill or a unibit. But I don't use the larger sizes, mine's smaller - and I didn't give it a name (okay, I made that last part up )"

me: "Oh, OKay, maybe I'll get one of those some day."


Several hours pass ... Lou goes to run errands and to the hobby store to pick up his new locomotives.


He returns home (opening the garage door and ruining my radiator experiment )


Tosses a bag at me and says, "Here you go. Don't hurt yourself."







May I present my very own Unibits, Big Buck and Buck Jr., next to Baby Buck:






Brings a tear to my eye just thinkin' about it. Valentine's Day came early

[Laine]

Looks great Shazza, can't wait to see how this ends up!

Just out of curiosity, what happened with the blue torture rack you were planning to move in to a case?

[Hkxyz]

Nice Paint! Cant wait to see more

I skipped painting the sliding bracket but they came out really nice, i was kinda afraid that they would scratch when opened but maybe not.

How did those slot brackets hold up on the paint? They seem to have a cheap zinc coating on them and are also steel which i was bummed about.

[shazza]

Looks great Shazza, can't wait to see how this ends up!

Just out of curiosity, what happened with the blue torture rack you were planning to move in to a case?

The Blue Smurf build morphed into this:



The blue bits are waiting for me to prepare another project, but I must finish this one first!

Nice Paint! Cant wait to see more

I skipped painting the sliding bracket but they came out really nice, i was kinda afraid that they would scratch when opened but maybe not.

How did those slot brackets hold up on the paint? They seem to have a cheap zinc coating on them and are also steel which i was bummed about.

I almost didn't paint the brackets or some of the tiny pieces -- They are pretty rough, but I sanded a bit and used the self-etching primer. Tried to just apply light paint spray, so hopefully I won't have any issues fitting it all back together. I'll be letting the engine enamel-painted pieces sit for at least two weeks, so fingers crossed ...

Of course, I realized the bars/slots on the side panels are not painted, but they will just need to stay that way for now.

[skinnee]

...
Brings a tear to my eye just thinkin' about it. Valentine's Day came early

[Chicken Patty]

I get back in town and Shazza has hit us with a nice update. Loving the hanger and the chop stick mod.

[shazza]

Thx, skinnee and CP. Feeling a bit punky today, so not a lot done. No good stories, unless you count flooding the laundry room while rinsing the new radiator, but that's pretty typical around here.

Changed out the MCR 320 on the Torture Rack for the MCR 420 so I can check temps. Planning to test Push/Pull as well, but will have to anchor the rack down so it doesn't go flying around the room:








Also worked a bit on my radiator and PSU placement. Unscrewed the PSU plate on the back, turned it upside down, and flipped it over. Should work fine (I assume there's no issue running this PSU upside down?):






And ... checked on potential layouts for the radiator ... figuring shrouds or no shrouds? One radiator or Two? Still thinkin'...





Apologies for the lack of excitement here, but guess it's pretty typical in this stage of a project. Itching to start sleeving (never thought I'd say that!). Thanks for looking.

[Xion X2]

Great job on the paint, shazza. Nice worklog you have going here.

The unibits were a great gift. I'll be picking some of those up very soon.

[aka_GK]

antec signature psu is very good one, I am happy with mine

[charles_h]

Thoroughly enjoying the updates Sharon - the painting looks great.

Glad to see you got a couple unibits - they're very useful.

There's probably no proper way to say this so I'm just gonna say it...

be sure to use lube and lots of it! I've found that cream is less messy than the liquid but they both make a mess. Using lube is a PITA to clean up after as all the bits get stuck to... Ok, that's as far as I'm going - I think you get the idea.

I'm sure Cam will be along soon to take this down a level.

Anyway, here's what I use...

http://www.rainbowtech.net/catalog.php?pid=2089

for cutting...

[Equinediver]

be sure to use lube and lots of it!

Won't say any more or I might get into trouble........

Loving this build, I am a fan of shrouds but they can be a PITA is space is tight.

[Chicken Patty]

speaking of the MCR 420 on the rack, does the rack feel strong enough to support that rad without issues over time? I wanted to get a torture rack to use my GTX480 on it but was scared that the rad was too heavy.

[NaeKuh]

speaking of the MCR 420 on the rack, does the rack feel strong enough to support that rad without issues over time? I wanted to get a torture rack to use my GTX480 on it but was scared that the rad was too heavy.

very easily...

u got pm.

[Chicken Patty]

very easily...

u got pm.

Thank you.

[kgtiger]

Nice paint work there shazza.

[Jamesrt2004]

shazza what psu is that, i need to buy a new one so i can WC my tagan =(!!! i have the 620hx atm so though't id upgrade anyways

[Ketzer7]

Is that a TC rad wrapped in foam, shazza?

[shazza]

Great job on the paint, shazza. Nice worklog you have going here.

Thank you Xion - I'd show you my renders, but ... (sure do wish I could do even simple sketchups; your renders are beautiful).

antec signature psu is very good one, I am happy with mine

Yep, I think it should work fine for this build - gotta check it though, because it decided to go skydiving off the table yesterday

Thoroughly enjoying the updates Sharon - the painting looks great.

Ummn, thanks, Charles. I was just a tad afraid to open the link Don't worry, I promise to practice safe drilling.

Loving this build, I am a fan of shrouds but they can be a PITA is space is tight.

Thanks for the comments - I am going to try to use shrouds, still working on space issues.

speaking of the MCR 420 on the rack, does the rack feel strong enough to support that rad without issues over time? I wanted to get a torture rack to use my GTX480 on it but was scared that the rad was too heavy.

Yep - as NaeKuh said, it will be fine.

Nice paint work there shazza.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, kgtiger.

shazza what psu is that, i need to buy a new one so i can WC my tagan =(!!! i have the 620hx atm so though't id upgrade anyways

That's the Antec Signature 850W PSU.

Is that a TC rad wrapped in foam, shazza?

Thanks all for looking and for the comments. Slow going now, although I did have time for some shopping yesterday - may have an update in the next couple of days.

[WinstonSthlm]

Bad ass radiator looking sweet and see you got some Gentle Typhoons, nice

I'm also dividing if I should use a shroud. It will be really tight between fans and MB if I use a shroud tho.

Think a shroud do more difference if you run the fans in slow mode, I read that in a test somewhere