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Paneled paint jobs that give inspiration:

03-13-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. A week or two ago, I got with Joshua who runs JP fiber shop and advertises on most of the Z car pages a lot. He is located in the Dominican Republic and makes fiberglass and carbon fiber parts. He made my fiberglass smooth cowl piece. He began a project for me. To make a roof, partial quarters, doors and partial front fenders out of carbon fiber, but just a thin sin.....one that could be trimmed and bonded over existing steel. The idea I have is to make it look like a "Paneled" paint job. Since my 260Z is part american hot rod, part street rod, part sports car, and part Japanese classic, I have used ideas from each genre in this build. To achieve the paneled look, I have had John cut-in, 1 inch around the border of each panel, to include the front fender to door gap areas, and these outlines will be in the factory Nissan #305 light metallic blue, as the cut outs for the door handles and locks, parking lights on the front and rear corners, etc will also show the color "underneath". The body line is the cut off point for the side pieces. The front fenders will remain blue on the tops, with a black windshield frame and top, but a fiber panel is also going on the top. The job is almost completed and then he will mail it to me. I will bond it with the SEM 50 second panel bond epoxy. It is a love it or hate it deal. I fully expect most will hate it/think it looks stupid.....so there's no need to tell me, but I know you will. It is unique....the car becomes "art". here are some pics of the process of making hte panels and a few pics of random cars to show the paneled paint jobs that inspired this. I will be adding my gloss black flares OVER the carbon panels and a black roundel on each door with the number 7 cut out. Click below for video: Main Video 1.mp4

Looking for info on a lt4 swap. Any info or pics, builds etc. I'm running apex touring suspension front and back. Will the dry sump oil pan clear etc? What kind of fab work to mount it etc. I've Google my heart out and can't find nothing other than a couple pics of the top view of the ones I've seen

Check this out for chassis stiffening ideas. You're already ahead of the game, going with a full cage. https://imgur.com/a/chassis-stiffening-inspiration-R27sh

Thanks for the reply! Occasional tracking at best, mostly weekend street use, hence saving money with the pro torturing suspension. Roll cage already installed, figured may as well benefit from the stability and a little more weight. Chassis reinforcement is one of my main concerns. Think I need to do a lot more. I’ll def check out VA Engineering, thanks!

What will be the main purpose of the car for you? What do you want the car to be? Seeing as you will be installing a roll gage, iMSA widebody kit and an LS big block for I suspect power and torque, you will mainly track the car and won’t be driving on the road. I like your choice of Apex over T3 but that’s my personal preference. But why the Pro Touring and not the Track Attack kit? Also don’t forget the basics of the build like chassis reinforcement, safety features and fuel delivery. These chassis are over 50 years old so if you plan to track and abuse them make sure the basics are good, rust free and reinforced. A good roll cage will do a lot together with the frame sleeves and some bolt on parts but things like seem welding the chassis will also help a lot. VA Engineering over here in the Netherlands has some great pictures on their Instagram of their cages and seem welds. The transform the S30 Z’s into period correct rally cars and yes they do get used like a rally car should.

THANK YOU Sir. I am really enjoying this car.

Hi all! New to the forum. Early stages of my first Z build, hoping to get some feedback before my mistakes get too out of control 🤣. ‘73 240z powder coated chassis with roll cage. Has the frame rail sleeves. Will be doing more reinforcing. L76 6.0. Planning on replacing most everything but the crank. TR6060 and Ford 8.8. Full Apex Touring Pro front and rear. Apex steering rack and axles. Akebono brakes. BRP front sump oil pan. Leaning toward iMSA widebody kit. Corvette accessory setup, vintage A/C and electric steering assist. Want to be open to procharger in the future. Any advice on what I should be looking out for, or changes? Open to anything! Thanks in advance!

Jumping in here, I am also currently swapping my L28 to front sump and had a few questions. What oil pan are you using? I found a maxima diesel front sump pan. For drilling the dip stick tube, did you go through the oil passage the rear oil pickup uses? I extended the oil pickup tube rather than drilling the front one out, and I'm concerned the dip stick with interfere with the oil flow. Thanks!

My toy house 71 240, 83 280ZX turbo and my built 78 El CaminoSS.

Yes, the front strut tower reinforcement is connected thru the firewall. Attached is a photo that kinda shows it off, these are slightly old pictures taken by the welder prior to taking delivery. Cage has since been finished and had gussets added to the A-pillars. The fender braces from Apex are located inside the front fender outside of the driver cabin. I also have them, not sure if I'll end up using them, cage installer wasn't convinced they really do much other than maybe preventing the front wheels from coming into the cabin during a head-on collision. Plinth location is the deciding factor in how your door bars and subsequent firewall > strut tower bars will/won't interfere with your pedal box. My door bars are pushing right to the outer edge of footwell and angle up from the bottom of the A pillar bar to fit my left if needed. Not sure what pedals you're using but I have a Tilton triple master setup that's going in so the world is my oyster so to speak in terms of pedal placement. This dude's pedal setup looks super neato and I would like to replicate the adjustment mechanism.

Hey Dave, did you have any luck getting a driveshaft done? I had to have a custom one done here in Dallas. I’ll get you the name of the place if you still need it.

do you have a photo of how the front strut tower bar goes thru the driver side firewall? I'm in the process of finishing up my cage and was considering running a few bars thru the firewall like yours but the driver side has more stuff (clutch master/pedal) in the way for a straight shot. I don't know how tall you are but i stayed just in front of the wheel well for the main hoop and its definitely a bit tight for seat position so up on the rear tube will be helpful for that.

You are flying true this! Love to see your progress!

I find the front strut brace very interesting, is it connected to the cage thru the firewall? I suspect this will mainly reinforce the strut tower from moving front to back. Will you also be adding a front strut brace for side to side reinforcement? I will be sending my 280z off soon for replacement 3mm (instead of 1,5mm) frame rails from Apex together with there front fender braces as they where not that expensive and my body shop won’t charge me extra for welding them. I wonder how different the fender braces will be in comparison.

Good to have you back! Do you have some pictures of the cars and what’s been done to them?

Unrelated update but reasons as to why there's been a lack of updates to this thread: Got a new job that demands a lot more of my time so unfortunately less time to optimize the SLA conversion. Upside however is that I'm learning NX which seems to be some next level software. I think this design is going to take one more fundamental change to really get the dynamic geometries perfect but the work I have so far has been a pretty excellent starting point. The car is also back from the rust repair shop and the cage shop, needless to say my wallet is in a lot of pain at the moment (especially with the S54 being built) but we do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard and we hate money. Anyway, enjoy some photos of the cage in the meantime.

03-08-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: I got the rollbar in, a little interior painting around those areas, and then I cut the thick steel plates for my "cross bar" section going on the floor from the door jamb right in front of the seats, over the tunnel down the other side and to the other door jamb. Ready for the welder! I also did a little bit of interior parts painting, but the floor plates took quite a awhile. PICS:

Got the new camshaft installed today.

Yeah, good point. It's a new feature we're trying out. We're still working out the kinks; so I apologize in advance if you're receiving duplicate notifications. Thanks for the feedback!

That would be a good choice if you can't go center inlet/outlet. Displacement doesn't translate to sharper pulses like compression does...

Low-ish compression, but very high displacement in my case. Current 461 cubic inches. Might eventually get one of those 598" short blocks and move my existing parts over. Would you recommend something like this: https://www.dynomax.com/mufflers/super-turbo-mufflers/super-turbo-offset-centered.html ? Maybe the 17769 model (3" in/out, largest in that series... I'd use two, of course).

I liked the email reminder! I think annually would be sufficient.

03-07-2026. ATLAS Z UPDATE: I started with the intercooler piping on the turbo side, and have it ready for welding, sanding and polishing. I got started on the intake side, but ran out of parts. Since I had to pull the intake, I enjoyed the easy access to that side of the engine, and installed my new AC Delco starter, and wired the solenoid and main batt power on it. I also was able to plug in the harness points on that side of the engine, install the crank position sensor and both knock sensors, all new GM stuff. Started on the alternator bracket modifying, much more on that to do. Feel got cold, called it a day. PICS

Welcome back. Let’s see some pics.