Last weekend was a testament to this when ACT so graciously hosted the 2011 Drifting Pretty Field Trip.  The founder & President Dirk Starkensen, along with Daniel Starkensen & Chris Martin, opened up ACT’s doors on a Saturday afternoon and hosted a private clutch workshop & factory tour for Drifting Pretty.  They don’t get a magazine article or tv feature out of this, they did it simply because they believe in our purpose.  Now tell me if that isn’t authentic!?

We were honored to have this opportunity to come and learn at ACT.  We marketed this field trip to our students as a once-in-a-life time opportunity.  It was.  You can’t get this education from your traditional school.  From the bottom of my heart, again, thank you Dirk, Daniel and Chris.  Your support speaks volumes.

Here are some photos from the exciting field trip:

Each of my students showed up right on time and ready to work.  With the increasing popularity of our twitter account, I tweeted the play-by-play of our tech day.  For you, here are the play-by-plays (taken with my iPhone):

10AM: we take an inventory of the Stop Tech big brake kit we’ll be installing, elect project managers and go over functions of each part

Linda starts off the install by taking off the old brake setup (Z32 [Nissan 300ZX]) calipers/rotors

We split up into 2 groups and start project #2: re-coloring the face of my new AME wheels.  With fine grit sandpaper, we start scuffing up the surface of the wheel face

12:30PM rolls around and we break for lunch (in the ac cooled house)…followed by scoops of ice cream.  This is our most clicked on photo out of all the photos we tweeted!!!  Why??

We get back to work and the passenger side is finally finished.

Rena heads up the other team and finishes masking the wheels.  The painting starts.  Yes, we’re using spray paint.  High temp engine paint to be exact.  We spray a semi-gloss…which comes out as a nice satin finish (which is exactly what I was hoping for!!).  See the detail pics towards the end of the post!

We let the wheels dry and the gals are let loose to go at the other side with no instruction.  They do a fantastic job working as a team.  Chanting out names of tools that they need and the “righty tidy, lefty loosey” quote.  I could barely get in to undo a bolt…they were so fast to change it all out themselves!

with a short time in the sun, the wheels dry enough to be slipped on to the car.  Here is the finished product

Success!  (Linda had to leave before we could snap this photo)  after 8 hours of work/laughing/eating and lots of learning. my car was done and hooked up, courtesy of Julie, Samantha, Linda, Rena and Sarah.  I can’t thank you enough for hooking my car up ladies!  Big thank you goes out to Marc, Benson & Steve for leading the morning training session!!!

Photog
Out of all the photos I take, I’ve taken ZERO of my race car.  After we ended I pulled the DSLR out and started taking well-deserved photos of my race car.

Close-up of the finished wheel faces

The ol’ gal tucked neatly back into the garage

My ricey tailights.  They’re genuine from Japan with LED filaments.  No china stuff here.

For now that’s all the photos.  I think I’ll take the rest of the photos when she’s at the track later this month!!!  Back to work I go.  Still have to buy a battery, install the new rear brake system and get new intercooler piping.  That’s all.  HA!