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I track my Ford powered 260Z. My personal experience is that transmission gearing is extremely important to getting the most fun on the track. In Florida, you will most likely be doing track days at Daytona and Sebring. Both tracks have very fast sections. Before doing track days, I autocrossed the car. In autocross, you only really need second gear if you have the right differential / tire height. I used Hoosier 275/35-15 tires and have a 3.36 rear end. With a 1.94 second gear in a T-5 and 6,500 rpm, 2nd gear was good for 73 mph. When I started doing track days, I needed all the gears. I had replaced the stock 1st through 4th with G-Force gears and shafts, but fifth gear was still stock. With that set-up, these were my gear ratios. 1st 2.95:1 2nd 1.94:1 3rd 1.33:1 4th 1:1 5th 0.59:1 Worked great until I needed 5th gear. that big a drop absolutely killed the fun (no acceleration in 5th). After my first time a Daytona, I changed 5th gear to 0.81:1. The .81 gear absolutely transformed the car. Now 5th gear is warp drive. The transmission that you show probably doesn't have a good selection of gear ratios, and probably won't hold much power. If it were me, I would get the new TKX with the close ratio rears. That transmission will handle the power and maximize you fun on track. If I didn't already have so much invested in my T5, I would get a TKX. This is the TKX I would get: https://www.speedwaymotors.com/TREMEC-TCET18084-TKX-Close-Ratio-5-Speed-Ford-Manual-Transmission,452007.html?srsltid=AfmBOoq-x1paVSDoNvgI38myLy79UBWXzZFW-QeQ4bK1_vWnSHM7bEEJ Gear Ratios 1st - 2.87, 2nd - 1.89, 3rd - 1.28, 4th - 1.00, 5th - 0.81

Let that ship sail! Find another decent body for a few grand and save yourself a ton of time and money. I've seen many "resto plans" dye on the vine after the joy has passed, months and years go by and the person doing it burns out. Just my ywo cents!! Good luck.

Looking again at the pics.....if you don't want to dip it, no sense in really even trying to restore it. It needs it so desperately, you should do it, or just find another Z car IMHO.

Work on this has continued: I went over the whole engine, looks great now: All metal work was finished Most bodywork was finished # Interior Painted Engine Bay Painted Underbody Painted Back on its wheels Full body will soon be in paint.

Ford 8.8 Super Duty 8.8 Differential Installation- First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to finish this posting. I had to paint my house and had some other people's projects to help them with. The first thing that I had to do was to find a method of jacking the front end of my 240z high enough to use high jack stands. Because of the low ground clearance of my Rocket Bunny Front Air Dam and Low Vehicle Height, even my 3 1/2" Low Clearance Floor Jack would not fit. I solve this problem by purchasing a pair of 3 1/2" Car Ramps. They cost about $36 on Amazon. raises vehicle by 3" These ramps were about 28" long and would work on low riding vehicles. Short steep ramps would not work. They are very light weight and can be sacked together (taking a small storage space). jacking cross member The Ramps worked perfectly as my floor jack fit under the Front Cross Member easily. With the Car raised on Four Jack Stands about 6" off the ground, disassembly of the rear suspension can now take place. I designed my exhaust system for easy accessiblty. It consists of Three Sections-One -Front Motor Exhaust Pipes, 2-Middle Section with "X" Pipe after the transmission and Third- Rear 90 degree Exhaust Pipes with Two Turbo Mufflers. The pipes were also, connected together with V Clamps for fast disassembly. Next, the Two Rear Control Arms must be removed from the Strut Spindles. First, the Threaded Cross Shaft must be removed. The Tapered Shaft retaining Pins must be removed. With the Locking Nut removed, the Pins are removed by tapping them cafefully upwards. now, the Threaded Cross Shafts must be taken out. Because of Corrosion and lack of Lubrication, these shafts usually are difficult to remove. You can not hammer them out as both ends has threaded ends and hammering will damage the threads. ZDEPOT sells the Removal Tool but I made mine own. The tool consists of an Internal Threaded Rod which screws to the Threaded End of the Cross Shaft. The Larger External Tube( 1"OD" acts like a spacer of the Threaded Rod. A Large Nut on the opposite side of end of the Threaded Rod operates like a Forcing Screw to pull the Cross Shaft outward. I welded a proper size Lug Nut to the other end of the Threaded Rod. See Posted Pics for Size and Dimensions of this tool. Metric Lug Nut welded to one end of the Threaded Rod 15/16" Nut( pulling nut) placed on the opposite end of the Threaded Rod Removal Tool installed on Cross Shaft Rear Suspension removed With the Rear Suspension and Differential Removed, install the Differential Support Bracket on the two Long 17mm Mounting Bolts for Trial Fit. This test fit checks if any Fuel and Brake Lies and Hand Brake Cable are in the way. In my case, the Fuel Lines had to be extended and Hand Brake Cable modified. Differential Mounting Bracket Trial Fit- Next-Trial Fitting Differential Cage and Mounts Next-Differential Installation

Then it was off to paint. The boys did an amazing job! Worthy of a $50 bottle of tequila and a celebration!

Thanks. Certainly light at the end of the tunnel now. Its been a long road. Will be 2000 hours labour in this restoration by the time its done. Will be in paint by the end of this month, then 5 days colour sanding and polishing, a few days putting the panels back on and windows in. After that its putting all the parts back in and making a new chassis harness to fit a PDM15 and get rid of the old glass fuses along with a tucked front chassis harness. Hopefully will have some life in it again before the end of the summer. But I can't see it being on the road until next year due to costs.

The right side door had rust along the bottom edge seam, indicating that the door skin had probably been replaced and the seam was rotting out. So we folded the seam open and removed both door skins and the 11 lb. door beams. Blasted away the rust, fast-etched and painted the inside with rust encapsulator paint and sealed the seams with epoxy and folded them back.

Thanks for being the guinea pig for this. I was hoping for better results.

Go to ZTherapy and buy this video: “JUST SU’S” British HS6 and Hitachi “SU” https://ztherapy.com/just-sus/ Watch the video until you name every part and understand how the SU works. You are experiencing a lean condition. Note that the throttle shaft on the SU tends to wear out allowing air to leak into the carb causing a lean condition. This air leak makes proper mixture adjustment impossible. Contact Ztherapy for the fix.

Z Trix bodywork was a custom fit all the way. We trimmed the rear fenders along the top shoulder, then scarfed the back side along the edges to get it to blend into the existing panel. Applied a seal coat, then bonded them on. The front fenders required quite a bit of work to get the hood gaps right. Lots of small problems to solve, but it came out well. I'll let the photos tell the rest.

@calZ@manimal@jhm @Sam Henao So I finally got around to testing it this weekend and it's bad news. The numbers I'm getting in both thrust align and body align mode are not consistent at all, sometimes being over 2 degrees off measuring back to back with the same method. I tried probably about 5 times with no real consistency in the results. I don't think I messed up the method as I followed the instructional videos on the website exactly. Unfortunately, I'll have to take my car to an alignment shop and let them give it a proper alignment.

Buy this book first There are a lot of details about the 240Z V8 auto to manual conversion you need to know before you start the project. Purchase and read the JTR V8 conversion manual. You can buy it here: https://jagsthatrun.com/collections/jtr-v8-conversion-manuals/products/copy-of-v-8-conversion-manual-for-volvo-200-series

1989 Camaro T5 mated to SBC 350 Basics 1. T5 transmission: The 1989 WC T5 transmission is tilted 15 degrees towards the driver. The 15 deg tilt is absolutely no problem, I have done two just cut away the trans tunnel as in the picture below. The tilt is not noticeable once center console is installed. Unless you want to make a special transmission mount, you will need an 89 Camaro T5 bell housing, driveshaft, flywheel, clutch pressure plate/disk, throw out arm, throw out bearing, clutch slave and a 7/8" clutch MC. Note that there is a V8 and a V6 version of the T5 transmission. They have different spline counts. You will need the V8 version. 2. Bell Housing: 1989 -90 bell housing for V8. Verify that the pivot ball is in place as that part is NLA. 3. Flywheel: 158 tooth flywheel: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/zzz-50-6516 4. Clutch Kit: Zoom High Performance Clutch Kits HP1675-1A https://www.summitracing.com/parts/zzz-hp1675-1a/applications/ 5. Clutch Hydraulic Components: Camaro Clutch Slave: Napa sells the Camaro clutch slave. https://www.napaonline.com/p/NCF73110 Clutch Master Cylinder: Both Tilton and Wilwood make 7/8in. clutch master cylinders. The Wilwood unit is more compact allowing use of a larger brake booster. Tilton 74-875U: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/til-74-875u Wilwood 260-10374: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/wil-260-10374 6. Clutch Hose and Fittings: Hose: -3 A/N SS hose. Length TBD Roll pin to A/N SS line adaptor Russell 640281 (connects -3 A/N SS line to the Camaro slave): https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rus-640281 MC A/N SS -3 A/N line to 1/8in NPT adaptor Earls 961603ERL (connects -3 line to the MC): https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-961603erl 6. Starter: Hitachi gear reduction starter or similar unit. 7. Complete 240z brake and clutch peddle assembly swap. 8 MSA/JTR transmission mount See my post of 12 June 18 second post down lots of pictures

Clogged exhaust system comes to mind also. Especially if it has a catalytic converter.

Outstanding job of documenting your work with numerous photos and written descriptions! I wish I had taken a lot more photos of my ZX project. John

Its just some steel tubing/piping. if your needing to replace one. measure the whole and add a few thousandths and find a pipe the right size to shove it in there. A metal lathe would help to get a perfect size but you can do sufficient job with a flat file.

And there we have it! A full quarter century old! Old enough, to run for the US House of Representatives!

Some pictures from earlier this year

It takes some time..... - but will be good in the end:)