Recent Posts

Carbon Fiber Wrapping the Infiniti G35 Coupe

In an earlier post we plastidipped the front grille and emblem on the Infiniti G35 coupe. But the G35 was seeing further paint wear issues as seen in Figure 1 and 2. The roof was looking pretty bad and starting to rust.

So I took a couple of quotes off Facebook Marketplace and Instagram for local installers who would install a carbon fiber wrap on the hood, roof and trunk. In the end I went with A. B. Wraphouse who did a fantastic job. He is just a young guy doing this from his home garage and is just into doing car cosmetic changes.

SFI Padding and Vinyl Cover for Blackbird Fabworx Rollbar in Miata

In the previous post I wrote about getting the Blackbird Fabworx rollbar professionally installed on the 1999 Mazda Miata. But if you want to drive the car on the street, you also need SFI padding on the rollbar to reduce the chances of the driver getting a concussion or worse in the event of an accident.

Bethania Garage, that sells the competitor HardDog rollbar, also sells SFI padding and custom stitches a cover for the Blackbird Fabworx rollbar. However, they do not advertise that on their site. You have to email them.

Blackbird Fabworx Rollbar in Miata

In September of 2019, with great fanfare and urgency, I purchased the Blackbird Fabworx rollbar for my NB Miata MX-5.

Now, after more than 3 years of the rollbar sitting around in my garage, I finally gave up on installing it and went to T&Z Auto Service in South River, NJ run by Mr. David Deerson and paid him to install it professionally.

His pricing was acceptable and now I finally have a beautiful rollbar in the car and am ready to go to the track for an HPDE event. Below are some pictures.

A 2-ton Shop Crane for $160

It is winter here, and while getting bored I was looking for shop cranes, engine hoists or cherry pickers for my garage to purchase just in case I may need it in the future. Someone 15 miles away was selling one for $160 with light surface rust. So I went to check it out.

…and I purchased it.

Drive Belts & Pulleys Replacement on the Infiniti G35 Coupe

Since the day I purchased the Infiniti G35 Coupe, there was a belt squeal on cold starts that would go away after a minute of the engine getting warm and would not appear until the next cold start. After some research, I found that it was due to the main drive belt not being tight enough.

The previous owner had replaced the alternator before my purchase, but had used his uncalibrated thumb to test for the belt tension. I wanted to make sure that the belts were new and proactively decided to replace the idler pulleys as well. This post talks about how to do that. If you just want to check and adjust the belt tension, you can skip to the last section.

This job is actually relatively easy, and can be done within an hour or two if you have the parts available. However, my car has some rust and the adjustment bolts needed replacement, which delayed the process for me.