Here comes trouble

Arizona or the Sahara Desert is a an ideal home for a Z... Saw an eBay bid go for over $500.00 for Z window seals. Must be a common problem. You can go 80 MPH in a Z with the windows down and not have to re-comb your hair after the ride but one afternoon rain can deposit an inch of water in the floor boards. The cars leak water and rust and age rapidly which is about the most accurate scientific explaination available.

Probably never get my projects done. Too much pleasure the oportunity gives me "while I am at it".. Always somehing new to learn and a great bunch of fellows to correspind with and website to follow....................I am shooting for this late fall but that is already shot down ! Made some progress this last year and learned more from you fellows that should be allowable Hope some one learned a little from me.....and I am home at last......http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/larryjohnson97438/album?.dir=8223&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

A thin door fiberglass skin at the minimum would be 1/8 inch thick. The gelcoat alone would be thicker than a metal door skin. Weld in sheet metal for a shaved look. As an alternative......... Sand blast the the door handles and paint them the same color as the car. ..........Now here is the weird part... A vehicle with shaved door handles does not seem to survive or last very long based on my experience.. Seems this modification puts a curse on the car's longevity and resale value. I considered shaving the door handles on my 250 Project but might as well kiss it good bye if I did. Some things just don't work that good for some unknown reasons...kind of like about half the marriages and honest congressman. I also have this covered bridge for sale................http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/larryjohnson97438/album?.dir=8223&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

Obvious solution.....build em both with a third as a novelty project with an American Motors vintage flat head 6 transplant

Mike...line em up... I will donate the ammo. I re-formatted my computer last week and spent the last few days adding lost programs. It got to the point my computer would not shut off without pulling the plug. I use Mozilla Firefox as a browser by the the way itis an improvement over Microshaft. I have not had popups since I cleanesed with Webroot Spy Sweeper (free trial) and reformatted. Zone Alarm apparently does not work with Firedox but it is a relief for awhile to not get pop ups for Viagra combined with speed and diet loss for summer fun and a way to gamble and invest money in a casino. I suspect that a lot of this crap came pre-packed in Microsoft programs with my outdated HP computer since a lot of this appears to be vintage pop ups for spyware programs pimped by Microsoft (or my paranoid imagination) just line em up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

George ... lay that head upside down and grab that square you inherited from grandpa and lay it's straight edge across any flat surface around the combustion chambers in any direction you can on that upside head. If you see any daylight..between the straight edge of the square and head surface..... the head needs a shave. You need to get down and eyeball that head surface while holding that straight edge square on the head surface with one hand.... while looking for any space (daylight) between the square edge and head surface.. You can lug the head into about any automotive machine shop for a second opinion for free. The alumuum head is subject to warpage from over heating but some times a fellow gets lucky and does not have to mill the head

Ernie......you are Hybrid's paint treasure........................................A good New Year for you.... Mark You have some of the best part selections made to finish that VR Happy New Year to all !!!!!! Mike... gather up all your Z wheels ... this is the year to assault the record for the most Z wheels accumulated by one person

AOL is a virus in itself...... get erd of it. Adware and Spybot is great but to get it all I use a 14 day free trial of Webroot "Spy Sweeper" that wipes out all the pop ups and dialet hijackers etc. here is the CNET down load site.http://www.webroot.com/land/freescan.php?rc=4259

George . sounds like the head gasket developed a larger hole..and now beyond a quick fix in a can or bottle..ie head gasket replacement and possible head shaving...... jack the rear end up with both wheels off the the ground in neutral gear and do some manual spinning and turning of tires,drive shafts etc to locate the clunk. Good luck! Looks like you are gonna get on a personal level with your Z in the next two weeks.

This is for Paul's Fab in Salem, Oregon. He may make 1/2 inch spacers and will have the longrt studs too. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33564&item=8019759138&sspagename=STORE%3APROMOBOX%3AENDSOON

If you have the old chain...slap it in there to check for slop as opposed to the after market chain.for comparison..I see nothing wrong with with the shaft of the tensioner showing a 1/4 inch..... in the #2 spot means a little slop at TDC... I used #3 spot at 150,000 on an L20 B with no problem for anorher 100,000 miles.OEM does not wear out that quick..... Like DAW sez if it don't feel right... go with the OEM. your time and your labor and your cost when something goes wrong

Thanks to Dave L. aka : V8-240 Z for sending me a OEM threaded adjustable push rod. Photo http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/larryjohnson97438/detail?.dir=/8223&.dnm=b5c1.jpg&.src=ph The L20 B (held together by baling wire and blind faith) in my 1978 620 pick-up fried a head gasket. A renter abandoned a 1980 510 station wagon with a Z20 and 5 speed on my property that I plan to replace the L20 B with. I will switch my weber carb to the Z20 and get it running in the 510 body to check out evertythong before the swap. Apparently the Z 20 is the L20 B block with a cross flow head. If the oil pans exchange.. I will be back datsun trucking and with an oem adustable clutch push rod without making one from scratch thanks to home boy dave in Portland... here is my "go to the dump" 620 pick-up http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/larryjohnson97438/detail?.dir=/392a&.dnm=3968.jpg&.src=ph

Tony ...repair what is needed and get it together and back in the car. If it ain't cracked or broke... I cannot tell what is worn ...That is done with a compression testor and vaccum gauge and then micrometers where I ask for a second opinion. The only thing I can accurately test for wear is the crank bearings with the string off a Plastic Guage. Back in the car that engine will tell you everything!!!!! About hot cars.. I have been to a few cruises and what is really funny are the street cars that can hardly be street driven from being overbuilt and trailered in.

Being a pack rat. I would take them, strip the cracked one for parts and find a match for the other for an economy engine rebuild where the heads might not require any work with the cracked one discarded. I like the size of the valves.........................................Did you say JB Weld ...........fixed a crack in a L2OB aluminum head which lasted about 3 years ....not a permanet fix though. That old pick-up had 250,000 miles on it with original clutch and engine never removed when I abandoned it in Kalamath Falls on some property I owned. Oil was 98% STP without any oil changes for 3 years after the major JB Weld Overhaul.. Abiut 5% of the exhaust was routed thru the radiator cap with a hole in it to compensate for another head gasket leak that developed after the major rebuild. Best 620 I ever owned

The Eastwood catalog I just recieved has a fender roller that attaches to your suspension to flare your fenders

Vinh is an artist and changed the way I look at a 280 ZX which I used to dislike

Early one Sunday morning in the 60's before church services ol' Pep and I with no particular place to go was walking down Sether Avenue. We did not see any pressing need to attend Church on a regular basis anyway. We obseved two children playing around an American Motors Rambler. Despite being rather unpopular with the American public, Rambler rolled on with television ads featuring the young happy economy minded couple cruising the American countryside and roadways in a vehicle that operated effieciently on one cent a mile and was equipped with standard fold down front seats so an entire family of four could comfortably bed-down at night in their gas mizer of a car. Our attention was suddenly drawn to the top of a female head rythemitically moving to the beat of a music that we could not hear. Fifty feet away,a woman's head and hair visably going up and down with careless abandon to delight our senses. I thought I heard ol Pep say something like, "oh boy, oh boy" or something similar in an excired utterance. Without words but much heavy breathing, we covered the last forty feet to the Rambler in about one heartbeat that took anywhere from 5 to 6 years in a teenagers realm of time and thinking. We were not watching a clock and were too busy for words with undivided attention on a very furiously active young woman in an unuasual position on top of something taking advantage of the highly advertised fold down seats in a penney a mile car perfoming an act not available at the local Glenda Theatre. An activity not even allowed in the back row seats of the theatre. Or something like that, which we did not take time to discuss on any philisophical level. We stood eventually at full attention without visible motion intently focused on a life drama usually practised at night behind closed doors for the sole purpose of pro-creation. The time was broad daylight early Sunday morning on Sether Avenue in Glendale Oregon in clear view of Justice of the Peace Al Mohr's residence who was most likely still comfortably sleeping in his own bed while such scadolous activity was being displayed before our young eyes on a Rambler fold down front seat. We had in doing our civic duty or performing a citizen's arrest in preventing this attravctive nuisance being acted out in our little comminity. You just do not think like an adult in that type of situation and we obviously saw no good sense on seeking out a responsible adult for guidance and/ or assurance. We were fortunately unsupervised on our own and to be honest more of excited than shocked at the fondling scene folding-out on those fold dewn Rambler seats on Sether Avenue on a Sunday morning . We never saw that in a Doris Day movie with Rock Hudson at the Glenda. After sime time,the young woman must have caught a glimpse of Pepi' and me. With some difficulty she managed to stop her movments while her partner was still desparetly trying to encorage continuance of the close encounter of another kind. Words were whisperd between the couple without consideration of our rights in the matter and no more activity was forth coming. Pepe' and I took one more oppotunity for a last long look at her while she smiled shyly at us. Both of us later determined that our first car would be a Rambler that got a penney a mile and all the cheap thrills and delights imaginable. All that American Motors advertisement began to make good sense. Pepe' never bought a Rambler but my first family car was a Rambler that came standard with front fold down seats.

If it's original, there maybe some value in parts alone. Check it out on eBay on Tigers for sale. Just like Mustangs and Cobras there are a lot of Shelby clones Should be a registery and club websites. The Cobras amounted to a little over a 1000 in production and I imagine the Tiger's had a larger production rate. About every Tiger I ever saw was black or datk blue and had trouble staying on the road. The muscle cars of that period had better performance and most times better handling if equipped with a front and rear sway bar. The Sunbeam Alpine was a very popular import at the time for women. Shelby was hustling every one to support the transplant of any type of v-8 conversion in a European vehicle along with his chili seasoning that sold in paper bags at grocery stores. There was a website that probably accurately portrayed this "automotive legend" as he was and still is. Ford at the time tried to buy Ferrari in a bid to sell more cars and was turned down. As a personal grudge and humilited, Ford set out to beat Ferrari at racing which eventually resulted in a 1-2-3 win at LeMans in Ford GT 40s. With that win Ford dumped the race program along with Shelby and went back to selling Fords on Monday.

That could be the 12 year old son in the driver's seat. Another frustrated homeless single mom on the streets

Here are the coilover sleeves and nuts by A1 Racing http://www.a1racing.com/index.asp?PageAction=ADVSEARCH&Page=1&txtSearchAllWords=&txtSearchExactPhrase=coil+over+sleeve&txtSearchWithOneOfTheWords=&txtSearchWithoutTheWords=&lngLookinCategoryID=0&txtSortOrder=1&intResults=50&btnSearch=Search&AdvSearchAction=GOFETCH with all the 2.170 sleeves now in the possession of Lee Heldmiller.. The sleeves are 5 inch length not the 6.5", I have been reporting. (I have number dyslexia). The hose space buffer is a good idea by JohnC. There is a a smaller inside diameter 2.100" sleeve available from A! Racing but this still requires boring out to accomdate the 280 strut tube. You could possibly hone it out with a cylinder hone and a 2 inch drum sander but you can buy the right size from Heldmiller for less.

I am pretty good at my own peels but I maybe interested because I never can get the sides to match perfectly.... I have cross lace Dayton wires for my 250 GTO project in 15X8. Apparently 215's or better will work with an 8 inch wheel. I have 10X15 Halibrand replicas (Tomahawk/Cobra) on the rear and finding a fat tire for a 10 inch wheel will not be easy.........http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/larryjohnson97438/album?.dir=8223&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

Agree with Mike.......... MY Crapsman has a high and low heat range No dial. I know of no small wire size avaiable that will weld on the low setting because the smallest wire will only weld on the the high heat setting. To lower the heat setting, I ues a 50 foot extension cord between the electrical outlet and the "Crapsman". Everytime I weld , I am still learning to adapt to this welder's limitation of an absent heat range dial. My liitle Lincoln that was stolen had the heat dial and when it souded like bacon frying....I was welding. I learned real quik to set those dials

my money is on 7 inch...since an 8 inch with the apparent offset displayed on your front wheel is inside the fender lip. Tire/wheel/fender is fairly well matched in apppearance spacing..Gee you did not have to go to all that trouble in peeling back that fender to show the tread width. Was the fende "peel" back professionally done or did you do it yourself ?

Jo.....that is just for the sleeve that FITS the 280 strut tube Lee Heldmiller is actually selling the sleeves for less than the list price at where he bought the entire stock.He may be able to put tigether a Z coilover kit from his inventory. I have been sourcing the proper size sleeves like a blood hound for this last year. Adjusting nuts nuts are easily found and available with set screws.Modern Motorsports has the best angled set screw that will not mar the sleeve threads Besides about 3 vendors known to Hybrid Z members. I cannot find any others for this sleeve.... and for some reason my e-mail inquiries about selling individual coilover parts to me...just never got answered or returnned. These sleeves are 5 inches long.....Now pay attention. You relocate the new spring perch below the OEM bottom spring perch with the strut cartridge and gland nut locked in and weld the new spring perch where it takes advantage of the gland nut tightened fully which also snugs the sleeve .. and if that is not enuff silicone will secure the sleeve in place. with 6.5 inches of sleeve you have enough adjustment to interchange different length coilovers (10 -12 inch) From the Z vendor ..you get a 3 inch sleeve ..unless u pay more. my little undersized private has more length than that 3 inch pee wee.

Now just suppose, where you all gonna get one of those big wide obselete 15 inch tars. They are just about plentiful new as 8 track tapes and hen's teeth and a kind woman. I am stuck with some 15 inch wheels (Dayton cross lace wires and halibrand replicas) that are about impossible to obtain the 50 series 15 inch wide tires. Somehow I woke up in the 21st century where wheel diameter like a stagecoaches are in vouge