With all the positive feedback from this C33 I thought I’d start getting some images up of this one at the first Meihan day we attended. This pink machine was sitting on a big set of 15″ SSR Mesh, the offset unknown but looked seriously tough hanging under the bolt on overfenders. The car had also had an engine transplant from an RB to a SR which totally blew me away when I saw it hit the track. I will try and get some video footage up.
A few days ago I posted a photo of this C33 Laurel sitting in the pits at Meihan and received a good amount of feedback. Personally, I love this type of style – older chassis which retain their factory body lowered on smaller wheels such as these deep 15″ Longchamp XR4s. Oh, and how could I forget the green tint? That finishes this car off perfectly. Have a killer weekend everyone. Casey x
The wheels might’n fit the car perfectly but needless to say I was stoked when this C33 rolled in on 15″ Longchamp XR4’s up front and SSR Mesh on the rear. One thing I miss about the older days is the amount of cars that used to run 14/15 and 16’s, whereas today it’s mostly 17/18’s. I will definitely be posting more of this 4 door very soon.
Flocking on textile: origin, evolution, innovation
June 7th, 2011
Origins of flocking can be traced back to a very remote past. Some sources are speaking about
first applications in China 1000 BC. In more recent time flock curtains dated 1750 are conserved
at Victoria & Albert museum in London.
First industrial use of textile flocking can be found in the USA around 1910. Electrostatic flocking
machines are already described in a USA patent dated 1933. In the patent description we can
find some ideas, which anticipated some of the concepts that, nowadays, are considered very
important in roll to roll flocking lines like the air conditioning system for keeping constant humidity
and temperature.
“The conductivity, at least the surface conductivity, of the fibers is increased by the
sorbed moisture and this alters the rate of distribution of the charges upon the fibers and
the manner in which they are moved and oriented in the electric field. It has been found
that when the relative humidity of the air carrying the fibers is below 40 percent, the fibers
are noticeably slower in depositing and forming a pile. A relative humidty above 45%
percent, on the other hand, tends to cause rapid deposition, but not .in an orderly
manner; treeing and undesirable massing of the fibers result.”
After this, many patents followed on the story of flocking equipment some of them with real
innovations that entered into the technical standards of flocking machines manufacturers.
In America flock started to be more and more used on several sectors, finally in Europe flock
started to be a textile finishing system in the 50’s.
Aigle started producing flocking machines initially only via mechanical flock sieving systems;
through R&D investments, the company was able to develop and produce an electrostatic
generator that allowed AIGLE to achieve reliability and high performance, all in a relative low
weight machine. This happened in the mid of the 60’. Main applications were decorations for
curtains and women polyamide stockings. In these and following years machinery market
demand was really high: customer were paying additional money for each week the
manufacturer, Aigle in our case, managed to anticipate the delivery of the machine
(unfortunately these time are really passed). Get the best deals from this professional Spectro flock manufacturer.
Evolution of flock, adhesive and flocking process technology allowed the use of flock on textile
not only for decoration but also for functional use like crushed velvet for garments, sofa covering
and car sits covering. Then the higher precision cut of the tow in the flock manufacturing process
was allowing better results in terms of quality of the flock pile. On the other side adhesive
originally were not breathable as a conventional fabric is. Upholstery cushions could not easily
release air and stayed puffed up like a balloon. Reformulating flock adhesives, by air injection
just before application, allowed for breathability. Formulators created ways to maintain physical
properties, while allowing air to pass through the flocked fabric. In this way it was achieved
another great improvement: to maintain the flock fabric washability as far as resistance to
washing chemicals.
These important improvements combined with better machine’s quality brought a higher speed
and a better quality production. Also diversified finishing technology of the flocked fabric highly
improved the possible use of flocked fabric especially in garments
One of the more famous and popular finishing systems were the so called “Pig”: a viscose flock
fabric passed through a special foulard and an open tumbler that became very popular for
garments and interlining fabric; on another hand, finishing of nylon flocked fabrics was mainly
obtained by air embossing and by traditional printing system, giving a large variety of designs
and special effects, particularly appreciated for upholstery application.
At the end of the ’90, flock manufacturers started to offer on the market more sophisticated fibres
so-called microfibres that were capable to give to the finished textile a better hand in terms of
softness touch.
Speed of flocking textile process in Europe was reaching around 15 mt/m’, in the US up to
double; the reason of the speed gap stays in the technology: D.C. electrostatic system used in
Europe is much safer and is giving a more vertical results on the dipping of the millions of fibres
on the adhesive but above a certain speed defects are very evident: in this way the velvet effect
was higher with softer touch. On the other hand, USA A.C. electrostatic system is more
dangerous due to higher power necessary, but is allowing higher speed due to the extremely low
defect problem in presence of higher pile. Softening of the fabric is obtained by special finishing
treatment of the flocked fabric. Other important sector of textile flocking is design flocking: in this
case adhesive is coated by rotary screen, and the flocking machine is be fixed on the printing
machine structure.
Flocking machine is equipped with a very efficient suction system, in order to keep clean the
environment.
Heading to Japan with 20-25 people on 1 tour and having 8 or so drift cars we prepared for a logistical nightmare. Getting lost on tollways and in the cities wasn’t as bad as what we thought it would be. Shane simply mentioned if you get lost or need to stop anywhere you need to simply to one thing, switch on your hazards and people will make there way around you regardless of where you’re parked. The amount of times we had to do this was un countable but it worked in the end.
Heading back to Shinsaibashi, Osaka from Suzuka we ended up beating the other half of the group back to the city. As I rolled with the drift cars back it was a perfect opportunity to capture all of the beaters parked in one of the busiest roads in Shinsaibashi. Even though the light was still green I managed to run into the centre of the road for a few seconds to get this photo before I got ran over by any cars. How I love Japan.
Crossing paths with the ever so famous Wonder was completely unexpected. Our last day in Shinjuku motivated us even more to explore around the city area before we headed to Daikoku PA later that evening.
The previous night, well I should say morning was a late one. After Daikoku PA we managed to get invited to a drifting meet at the docks of Yokohama Bay. As a result of this we were back in Shinjuku asleep at about 4:00AM. We had all agreed to get some rest that morning as it was our last day in Tokyo before beginning the journey up north to Tsukuba and Nihonmatsu for the D1-SL series and Matsuri. Waking up just after lunch time we lazed around the hotel for a couple of hours gathering our belongings and packing the tiny hire-cars to the absolute brim, by this time our stomachs were calling!
Driving straight into the city on the search for a noodle bar Nigel managed to spot Manabu Mitsumori-sans JXZ100 parked out the front of Wonder. At the time Nigel mumbled a few words unbelievably fast and twitched… Somehow I understood what came out of his mouth so I immediately went crazy in the back seat and we pulled into the next street.
Jumping out of the car, grabbing my camera I sprinted a couple of hundred metres back up the main road and saw this… A kouki S14 slammed on Origin DNA-02 wheels and a pair of R33 GT-R’s on the rear. The parks out the front of the workshop were filled with customers cars…
…Another customers car being this white C33 Nissan Laurel. In all honesty I can’t explain how much I fell in love with this car in person, this styling just screams out 80’s/90’s, I’ve always LOVED 15’s on larger cars. The C33 is powered by a RB25DE which is described as a Kaido Racer by Manabu-san.
I love it how the rear of the bonnet has been raised. Check out the 15″ SSR mesh.
I didn’t manage to get a photo of the back of the Laurel, but I noticed I had a video of the car and grabbed this screen shot. Take note of the exhaust. I wish I got to hear this thing.
