The Bride seat rails are here for the passenger side so now I just need to order another seat.

 

I installed a new resistor with more wattage hoping that it will last longer and not throw the airbag light. Jsolo is also helping me a lot on another thread to try to find a way to measure the resistance without the risk of popping the airbag in the factory seat.

 

You need something like this: https://www.agiltd.co.uk/instruments...er-safety-ohm/

If you live near an air force base that has jets that have flares, make friends with a maintenance guy and you might get to use one for free.

edited to add: most pick-n-pull yards do not sell airbags anymore because of liability. Therefore you can pop one in a vehicle just fine - take airbag out of dash, hook jumper wires to it, put back in dash, stand a distance away (n case it goes poof) and use an ohmmeter. The squibs for all airbags should be about the same. Pretensioners will be a little different because the explosive is the direct charge instead of an activator like in an airbag.

 

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/cgi/vie...masters_theses

might be worth a read.

 

rotarymike, I like your idea, but I am nowhere near an air force base. Interesting read of the electrical engineering master's thesis from the late 60's.

 

I didn't have time to deep dive into it, but it looked as though you could build your own tester from that paper.

So back to plan A - find airbags in junkyard and test with ohmmeter from a distance. LOL

I'd imagine that any 'meter that used AAs instead of 9v or CR123s would use little enough juice to not set the squib off. Static electricity isn't enough to set them off - need some actual current to create the heat in the nichrome wire.

If ignition pulse is 1 amp, as I've read in a few places, that is 12 watts of power to be dissipated - but only on deployment. 50 milliamps for the test pulse should be .6 watts. So a 1 Watt resistor should work fine. The 2.2ohm seems to be the consensus for the actual resistance.

Shame there's no way to test a squib wire without the attached explosive charge. If you were closer, I'd give you my RX8 airbag to experiment with.

 

I think we may have found a more simple solution. I am going to try Jsolo's idea the next time I get a chance:

"You know the value of the resistor (X ohms). Using a dmm, take a voltage reading across the resistor leads with the circuit energized.

Compute for I (current) = V/R. Now you can figure out what power rating you need, P=(I^2)R, or just I*V. Use a resistor at least 2-3x for safety margin.

As an example, lets assume 12V and 2Ω, so that's 6A and 72 watts. Highly doubt there's a 12V across the resistor as you'd be frying them let and right."

 

https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/MC33797.pdf
https://www.denso-ten.com/business/t...l/pdf/7-2E.pdf
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/reference-manual/ARDRM.pdf

little light reading might help

 

I just ordered some white Akebono stickers for my brake calipers. I think I will try the G2 brake caliper paint kit that they offer at Tire Rack too. It sounds like this should work well with a brush so I don't have to tape anything off and it is a high gloss paint so it should look nice. Good to high temps too so hopefully it holds up at track days.

I am torn between painting the calipers black which will match the car perfectly with the white akebono stickers and probably handle the heat of track days better, but may blend in a little too well. My other thought is the blue which I think would look pretty cool and pop out pretty well. There are 10 other colors as well, but I think I am leaning toward blue or maybe black. Thoughts?

I am probably also going to repaint the centers of my rotors black with high temp paint tomorrow if I get time.

 

I'm not feeling like there's any way this could turn out good, but wish you luck and recommend blue.

 

I was already planning on having them professionally done so if they don't turn out I still have that option. I am sure they will not be perfect show car quality up close, but I have a hunch they will look just fine standing next to them. Time will tell. But 1st- time to repaint the centers of my rotors black tomorrow if I have time. That will definitely be an improvement.

 

I was going to recommend spray, I used VHT gold flake on my last setups and they've held wonderfully. I do know how they would react to a full track day.

 

Use spray im telling you you wont regret it. This is the VHT i was telling you about, this is acrylic based.
I recommend you use Rustoleum Gloss enamel, dust some coats then do a final wet one. I've sprayed all of my engines with it and they hold quite well.
Because is oil based it will require no less than 24 hrs to cure and you'll be set.


I found out that a plastic bag fits perfectly and covers the entire shield, cover the rest of the suspension.
To minimize the overspray you could cover the entire car or do like I did and cover parts of the front end then use a vacuum cleaner to vacuum any excessive particles in the air.
I've brushed painted before and it turned out like crap so I stuck to spray and haven't turned back. Cover your face or you'll have colored boogers

 

I'll be sure to cover my face. Thanks for the painting tips. I will be sure to use some of those when I try to do my rotors tomorrow. I agree on the spray- I would much rather have that option. The problem for me is that regular paint melts off when the brakes get hot. I am skeptical about how the paint will look with a brush, but I remember back to the days when I was a kid painting model cars with a brush and they usually turned out nice if the paint was good quality. If not, I have some high temp paint that I can spray over them. If nothing else, the high temp brush paint will be an inexpensive experiment.

 

The G2 stuff is supposed to be self-leveling so

You could always get a cheap HVLP gun or spray container: https://www.harborfreight.com/painti...gun-62300.html or https://www.homedepot.com/p/Preval-S...E&gclsrc=aw.ds