RPMS

The paint was unaffected when I used it, but obviously since you didn't apply the paint yourself, you can't be absolutely certain that it will also be immune to the solvents in the decal remover. I'd suggest trying it on a small spot somewhere inconspicuous (like the engine bay behind the battery, or something) before spraying it on the entire car. WD-40, however, has never affected any painted surface I've ever sprayed it on and I trust it completely. You might want to try that, first. Good luck, and let us know how it goes. Removing old decals is a severe pain in the behind!

4 suggestions: 1) As previously mentioned, hit it with a heat gun (or a hair dryer at close range). On old stripes, you have to get it up to a temperature where it begins to soften, and that's uncomfortable to hold onto so use a pair of hemostats or precision tweezers to slowly pull up the stripe as you go. After you get it started and you start to feel good about your progress, it will break and you'll have to start all over again. Be patient and drink lots of beer during this tiresome procedure, and you'll be fine. 2) Go to your local auto paint store and they'll supply you with a rubber wheel that goes on the end of your drill. This is really meant for pinstripe removal, but it might also work for your purposes. 3) Get a box of single edge razor blades and a can of WD-40. After soaking the stripes in WD-40 for a few hours, you'll be able to pick away at the stripe with the razor blades. Work at a VERY shallow angle, and you might end up not gouging your paint. This is NOT for the faint of heart. 4) (THE PREFERRED METHOD)Again at the auto paint store, obtain some 3M brand decal remover in a spray can. This stuff will dissolve the adhesive in short order. It will also dissolve your brain, so work in a well ventilated area. This is the fastest way to remove the stickers, and is probably the least damaging to your paint. Good luck!

It sounds like the stripper is working better for you than it did for me! It was probably just my bad technique that made it not work. If by "Brillo pad", you mean steel wool and not the brass stuff, I'll share a bit of advice someone gave me years ago. They told me that tiny bits of the steel wool can get stuck in the softer aluminum and will cause an electrochemical reaction over time, degrading your finish. I don't know if it's true or not, but it kinda makes sense. Sorry, but I sold that car 10 years ago, and I never got any pictures of the wheels. When clean, they were very light in color, almost white. I really liked the finish, especially against the black 240 they were mounted on. If you need any help on your car, just give a holler. I'd like to get to know all the Z'ers in the area.

I think you're safe, Bang. That might have been true years ago, but even back then I think it was BS to keep folks scared into paying $6.00 a quart for Mobil 1. I've done extensive research into oils for automotive and motorcycle use, and what I've found suggests that as long as you change them at 3,000 mile intervals there's really very little advantage to using synthetic oils in a street driven engine. Just be sure to use a name brand oil with the SAE stamp, and you should never have a problem.

Whaddya trying to do here, Pete, start another "turbo vs. V8" war? I'm just getting the fire retardent washed out of my hair from the last one! (but I gotta admit, I'm curious too)

Aircraft stripper didn't work well for me, when I tried to strip a set of iron cross wheels from a 280. I don't know why, but it left small patches of paint on the wheels that refused to come off, even after 4 thick applications. Perhaps you will have better luck than I did. I ended up sandblasting the last of the paint off the wheels and was quite pleased with how they looked, so I left them in the raw finish. I just used aluminum wheel cleaner (sometimes as referred to as an acidizing cleaner) on them four or five times a year to maintain the finish. The only negative thing about blasting the wheels was the incredible mess that it caused! Sure wish I had a sandblasting cabinet for that one...

I'm not entirely certain that there was such a thing as factory louvers. As far as I know, they were all aftermarket pieces. Can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Sure, you can autocross a ZX. But I've heard it compared to dancing with a fat lady. Nothing prohibits it and it can be done quite well, but it takes more skill and effort to get the job done. But then, I could be wrong.

Yeah, Spot - what are you up to?? Come on, spill the beans. We won't tell, promise!

Yeah, Mike, I like the MSD distributor, too. Problem is, I'm halfway through gathering the parts for my swap, and I had to take a BIG pay cut at work. I've got a functional HEI distributor sitting in my garage, but it's so darned BIG! With the smaller MSD distributor, do you still have hood latch clearance issues?

Well, yes, but it's not polite to say so. Let's be gentlemen. Unless, that is, he 'bump's his topic to the top of the forum again. Then you can feel free to flame him to a smoking cinder. Who started the vile practice of 'bump'ing threads on this board, anyway? Someone is desperately in need of a beating.

Cool! With all this information, we'll be giving Grumpy a run for his money!

First off, review all the past posts in the pertinent forums on this site. Next, go to the Jags That Run website and buy the manual for the Chevy/Z-car swap. Read it three times. Then buy a Chevrolet that has an engine of the appropriate size and a clapped out body. Rape it for parts and part out the rest of the car on Ebay to recoup your investment. There ya go!

Free love, dude! Although your wording might be curious, I think you've got the right idea. Some folks are looking for the first convenient excuse as to why their lives suck. If they're poor, ethnic, stupid, whatever, they look around for someone else to blame their life on. Blacks blame whites, whites blame Jews, Jews blame Arabs, Arabs blame..... Only when everyone in the world grows up and takes responsibility for their own actions will this kind of pointless bickering cease. And Satan will be shopping for mittens before that occurs.

Hey, I recognize that! Put a 2" long aluminum tube on it and slap it on a stand, and you've got an Edemco brand dog hair dryer! What some people won't buy...

Buy it. Actually, have an independent Vette shop look over it, THEN buy it. You ain't gonna lose money over the long run on a car like that. Just like the 454cid Vettes of yesteryear are commanding premium prices, the ZR-1's are going to be bringing top dollar in a few years. Just keep the miles down, and keep it all original. They're also the best looking of the C4 Corvettes, IMHO. The extra width to the rear ends was just enough to bring the entire car into balance, visually. You see one on the highway, and you don't know exactly why it looks so good, you just know it's better looking than your average Corvette. Then you see the ZR-1 badge, and you realize what it is you're looking at. Cool car. Buy it.

Hey, guys. Did GM ever make a electronically triggered (no points) vacuum advance distributor that wasn't HEI that will fit a 350? I want something simpler and smaller than the HEI setups to run with my current MSD box, something I can pull out of a junked car and swap out for cheap. Thanks,

Hey, Kevin! I'll say nothing but good things about the MSD-6A box I'm running. In conjunction with an MSD coil, it puts out one hell of a fierce spark! I've managed to zap myself a couple of times, and I can assure you that it's a much hotter and longer duration spark than stock. Leaving it connected to power with the engine not running doesn't seem to hurt mine any. I wouldn't worry about it too much. One thing to be careful of though, is to make sure that your ignition box gets a good, solid ground. My car started kicking and bucking, then quit entirely on me a couple of times before I realized that I didn't have it grounded well enough. These boxes probably pull better than 10 amps when they're running, so the better power they can get, the happier they are. One other thing: If it were me (and it's not) I'd be tempted to get a good used electronic distributor out of a later L6 engine, and spend a little of the money I saved upgrading to the 6AL ignition box (includes the rev limiter). Not that I visit redline very often, but it would be nice to have, just in case. Have fun!

Yeah, it's flared. I think it's a SubtleZ flare kit. Look here for more pictures and more information from the makers of the kit.

Is there any reason you can't just go with a custom House of Kolor paint? They should be able to match it close enough that nobody would know the difference. Color shifting paint is pretty common these days. As a side note, last time I was in English Color Supply, I saw a gentleman buying some purple/green color shift paint for his 1976 Corvette. I thought it was an...interesting choice with which to paint the model of Corvette occasionally referred to as "the flying dildo". Too much is never enough, I guess.

Okay, nobody's bitten yet, so I'll give it a whack. Pull the spark plugs, and pour an ounce of Marvel Mystery Oil into each spark plug hole. Let it sit overnight. While you're waiting, you can check vital fluids you may have forgotten about, drain the gas tank, replace the fuel filters (this WILL need to be done. After 5 years you will not have gasoline in the tank, you'll have varnish. If you run the car with bad gas in the tank, you'll probably end up hating yourself for it after the crap clogs all your filters and fuel passages, and putting in a few gallons of high octane gasoline on top of a few gallons of bad gas won't necessarily make things better in there.) If the tank was drained before storage, then by all means skip this step. Clean the windshield, drink beer, etc. etc. etc. The next morning, turn the engine by hand a few times with a big wrench to make sure things are all moving smoothly. If it all turns freely, *I* would suggest taking off any accessory drive belts to the A/C compressor or smog pump. That way you can more easily locate odd noises. Then crank the engine without the spark plugs in place for a dozen revolutions. Put a towel over the engine to catch the MM oil that might come spewing out of the plug holes, by the way. If everything still sounds good, it turns freely and you seem to have oil pressure, put the plugs in and try to crank it up. Yeah, it'll smoke like a freight train for a few minutes while it burns off the MM oil, but after that you should be okay. Then have your friend drive slowly around while you look at the car from all angles and make sure everything's still where it belongs. 5 years is a lot to ask from brake caliper seals, etc. If you rush things, you can severely reduce the expected lifespan of an otherwise good engine, or ruin it completely. Take it slow. Motors, like people, don't react well to being awaken suddenly. Good luck!

go to Pete's page, and download his Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You plug in the resistance of your sender at full and empty, and the resistance that the gauge expects to see, and it spits out the resistor values needed to calibrate your gauge. If you don't have Excel, e-mail me the ohm value of the sender at full and empty, and I'll run it through the computer for you.

Tom's right - they're scarcer than hen's teeth. I had set of Enkei's with my last 280 that were wide enough that the tires rubbed the springs at full compression, and they were 7's. Without flares, you probably wouldn't need anything wider than that. I looked around for years to find another set after I sold that car, and the closest I found were by a company called Prime. They were closing theirs out, and only had 16 x 7" wheels in white. They have probably sold out by now, but they were the only ones that looked remotely close. Check your local Discount Tire and see if they might be able to find some gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere. Good luck!

Howdy, 71L28Z (dang, that's tough to type. What's your name?) Honestly, there's about a million opinions on wheel/tire combinations, which is the best to run, and what will fit. Generally, here's what I've gleaned from the list in a nutshell: In a PROPERLY backspaced rim, a 215 width tire is about the biggest tire that will fit just about everyone's totally stock car without any rubbing. If you fit a coilover conversion kit, you can fit a wider tire. A 17 inch wheel can look trendy on these cars, but can also look quite good depending on the style. What I seem to be hearing from lots of members is that 17 inchers are too large, and make the ride too harsh for daily use. Those with iron butts will disagree. There aren't many aftermarket wheels out there (at least, that arern't custom) that will fit a classic Z anymore. Getting a set of offset adapters from Ross Corrigan (also on this list - Look around for a while and you'll find him) will allow you to run Honda wheels. That's about it. Stay with good, sticky rubber, and your Z will reward you with many miles of happy driving. Oh, and 95 percent of any questions you may have in the future have already been answered. Use the "Search" function at the top of the page to look up specific material. You can have fun digging around there for hours, and come up with answers to questions you haven't asked yet!

Hey, Lone! Take the sender out and grind a new indexing mark in the side of it 180 degrees from the original one. Now it fits in the tank upside down, and your gauge should read normally. Well, actually if it's like mine it'll go up to 1/2 tank when full, but empty is still empty. I've got to load up Pete's Excel file to get the right resistors onboard to fix that little quirk.