spotfitz

ok, I'm now alittle confused. I know that Autopower makes several different roll bars for our Z cars( http://www.autopowerindustries.com/Roll_Bars.htm ). Some being generic for '70-'83. The pic in this post looks kinda like what I have, but mine looks more like Phantoms. I've personally seen Phantoms and the only difference between his and mine is I have the harness bar going from one side of the main hoop to the diagonal (like the second one on the link above): http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=5326&cat=500&page=1 Looking at Mikelly's pic, it appears that he had the same one as me, but modified it to have door bars: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dat74z/detail?.dir=3b79&.dnm=eec3.JPG&.src=ph Looking at all the pics I know the Autopower drawings are generic. The footings don't appear to be correct for our application in the drawings and the proportion of the main hoop footings to the rear footings make them all look like the main hoop goes to the floor. I know I've seen one that went to the floor before. It looked just like the second one on Autopowers website(Bolt-in removable diagonal and/or horizontal brace). I was told it was an Autopower. Was I told wrong? On a side note: Mikelly's pic is very similiar to what I plan to do with mine, which is why mine is bolted in right now without looking "pretty". I will be putting bars from the inner edge of the main hoop radius, running back to the strut towers. I'll then tie those two bars together with a "strut tower brace".

I've owned my '74 for about eight years now and didn't start really working on it until about 2 1/2 to 3 years ago. It started simple enough. Redo the suspension. Complete coil overs, bushings and R200 upgrade. Took about 3 months. No big deal. Then I got to enjoy it for acouple months. Doing body work when I could here and there. Took it to a track in the area with the local club and had fun with it. Then I decided to let someone else paint it. That was the moment the snow ball hit the edge of the hill. After completely stripping the car and droping it off at the body shop, I was relieved it was getting done right. 11 months later I get it back from paint jail and started putting it back together. That was back in July, hell maybe July of last year. I don't remember, it's been that long! I'm still putting the interior in and buying bits and pieces when I can, but it will be a 30+ year old brand new car when I'm done. Then I'll be back in the staged project mode. I'll get it running with the SU's first, running them on the turbo motor and start saving for the new turbo parts to finally, one day, get it where I want it. So, in closing. I guess I went both routes. I started with little things. Then jumped in head first. And then I'll be working on the little things again. The only thing keeping me sane is my daily driver, Trusty Rusty that I bought for $200 1 1/2 years ago and been driving daily since. It's an early '77 280Z that will probably get stripped and body junked when I get done with the '74.

I just put one of these in my early '74 last week using '94 Eclipse seats, which are huge in comparison to the original Z seats. Judging by your pics, your seats are smaller then mine. I'm only 5'10", but I drive far back, because of my longer then usual inseam. I usually have to put the seat further back when I drive a buddies Z and he's 6'. My seat is all the way back in it's usual position and it sits right up to the seat belt cross brace. I can take high res. pics this evening at any angle. PM me and I'll send you what ever pics you want. EDIT: After a quick PM from the thread poster, I realized that this is not the bar I installed in my '74 this past week. Sorry for any problems this may have caused.

I noticed you are in the Richardson area and thought I would throw you a bone. This isn't close to you, but it would be worth the time. If you need help getting it there, let me know. Jerry, the owner of All Z's also has a body shop in Mansfield that has a frame machine. David is the guy that runs it. Very knowledgable when it comes to frame straightening. I've seen him do some amazing things with some otherwise trashed cars before. This is including a very good friends car. Give Jerry a call and see what he can do for you. I'm going off of memory for the number because I don't have a card handy 817-483-0383, if thats not correct pm/email me. Tell him I(Johnathan) sent you and maybe he'll raise the price on you. LOL

Yes

OK Dan, I think you have us hanging enough. My bride to be was wondering what ever happened to the rest of the story. I had to do a search to bring it back up. NOW. Please finish the story. Pretty please.

Early 260Z have the front turn signals below the bumper, mounted to the valance. Later 260Z have them mounted above the bumper in the grill area. Check the pics in my sig for early style. Even though I have a front air dam, they are mounted in the same area.

Yes, the best of wishes to all. Hope everyone stays safe and has a happy holiday time. As for driving a Z while the white stuff is on the ground. Thats why I bought a $200 beater to use for daily driving all year! lol I for one, only wanted acouple things this last year. No specific order intended, to protect the innocent: loving girlfriend(been engaged months now), everyone in the family to be healthy and happy(second check mark) and an engine hoist for Christmas to put the Z's motor back in, in the next couple months. Well, I missed the sale on it so I got something alittle different. car skates/tire dollies. What ever you want to call them. This isn't exactly a good thing because I wanted them to have for pushing the Z out of the way to get back the room I need in the garage for the dart board, but it beats pushing it out in the cold and having to push it back in later. I still don't have the motor ready yet so I have some time.

I guess it's just the angle of the pic but it looks like there are no intake ports. As if they were welded up. I started having visions of cross flow heads.

I love that idea Vinny. Thanks for showing us this. This could also be incorporated into adapting other size bolt pattern turbos up aswell. Funny how no one asked questions about the head you are using in that picture, or did I miss something in a different post/thread?

Sure wish she had her convertible top down.

As for removing the doors. I found the easiest way for me was to throw a cushion of some sort on a floor jack and jack it up to the middle of the door while it's partially or completely open. Take all but one bolt out of each hinge from the inside of the car or from the hinge to the door(later being alittle hard because of wrench virsus ratchet, unless you have a racthet wrench, and while taking the last bottom bolt out start making sure the door won't tip to one side. As your taking the last bolt out keep a better hold of the door. It makes it alittle easier with a friend holding the door and especially so with the door stripped when by yourself. Once all is unbolted, just pull the door away from the car using the jack to roll the bottom while you hold the top. If using the bolts going into the door, you can do all this without the jack(leaving the one top bolt for last), but you need to use your knee to keep the door from moving. Hope this helps.

I bought my '74 about 8 years ago and didn't do much of anything to it for the first 4 years. That was until I bought a house to have a garage to work in. I then rebuilt the whole suspension. It took about 4 months. I got it all back together and then started the body work. After half the body work was done and 5 months had went by, I thought I would never finish it so I talked to a shop to finish the body work and paint. I then proceeded to go all out and strip the car to just a rolling shell for the body shop to have an easier time and to get a better overall job. The only thing left in the interior was the steering wheel and e-brake handle. The exterior was totally stripped of anything not body work related and the engine bay had nothing but the fuel/brake lines pulled away. After 11 months at the body shop I got it back and proceeded to redo the interior. I have the back interior pretty much done(sound deadening) excluding some plastic paneling and waiting for the c.f. tail light panel. Now I'm finding rust in the floor boards from it sitting out side with no windows at the body shop, after they painted the interior. I'm now spending all my time stripping all the paint off the floor boards to treat the rust and replace rust with metal. Needless to say, if you can't do things in the proper order and under the right circumstances, either it will screw you later or you'll be redoing alot of stuff and wasting even more time. Don't know if this is exactly what you wanted to hear as for motivation, but I hope it atleast helps make a decision upon your next steps.

Now that is a love for Z cars. Lots of hard work to bring one back that most people would just discard. Excellent work in all aspects!

Stay tuned for the next episode of Pimp My Ride!

Back in high school I had a friend that took his wind shield washer nozzles and turned them around to face forward. He would swing to the left of the lane as he was coming up behind someone at a stop sign and spray their mirror with washer fluid. It was all fun and games until he shot a biker in the back at a light one day and the biker came back to his truck and put a big dent in the hood.

You can upload them to this site. http://album.hybridz.org/index.php

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TWIN-TURBO-CHEVY-BIG-BLOCK-NISSAN-280-Z_W0QQitemZ4588221930QQcategoryZ98062QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Well, it almost fits. lol Sorry, couldn't resist. Looks like a fun ride, to say the least.

I would love to know when the next time he is going to run that '71 at Kennedale. See if you can get him to bring it to one of the next Z club meets.

early '77 Daily driver --> trusty rusty, for obvious reasons early '74 Garage queen--> princess '81 2+2 parts car --> piece of ^%$* that needs to go away I now have an '83 2+2 --> house guest, because it's not staying for long '79 in my driveway --> house guest that never leaves and always makes a mess If you don't bleed on them every once in awhile they don't want to run right or not at all.

Would it be better if we called it a mouse instead? lol

Very interesting topic indeed. Do we get first dibs on the new product line?

Phantom, I may be willing to help off set the cost of the new rear strut tower brace.

I guess a trip to Jerrys' will be in order, for another strut hat. Can you still grab the stud or will you need to cut the nut off?

I'm trying to figure out which Transformer he was trying to replicate.