boodlefoof

Sounds like a pretty good deal.

Ditto Corky Bell's book. It is excellent.

Ditto sacrificial anode.

fastest or quickest? I don't know if I'd want to take a convertible up over 200mph.

I have the MM 175 and love it. I just bought it at the beginning of last summer. I "test drove" a lot of welders before deciding on one. At first I was planning on a 120v welder. I tried several of these. Once I used a 230v welder though, I decided that it was money well spent... Particularly since I planned on doing some heavier work. Oh yes... and I just went to the local welding supply store and asked them to match the Ebay prices... and they did. Came back two days later and they had the welder there for me.

Lookin' good!

I think this is a different welder than the 175+. The 175+ has infinite voltage control. I don't think the Pro MIG does. When I chose a welder recently, I went with the MillerMatic 175. Beautiful machine, and the customer service is supposedly excellent... although I haven't had to use it yet.

I agree you got a pretty good deal on that one judging from the pics!

Wow, that's a pretty nifty job. I like it. I'd be a little worried not having any firewall between me and the engine though... and with the engine only a few inches behind me.

Sorry, nothing useful to add, just a rant... The stories I've heard about this program almost make me cry... people sending classic cars to the crusher for a quick buck. I think it was Hot Rod magazine that ran a story years ago about when the program first started... they went to the drop-off place for the "gross polluters" with wads of cash and tried to buy classics off of the people who were junking them. They reported that there were long lines of now valuable antiques. Many a car met an untimely demise.

Welcome to the site! Lots of good info here. Lason is right though, try using the "search" function first and see what you can find. As for which model to hybrid, I would say the main consideration is just emissions compliance in your state. Some Zs might have different emissions requirements based on production year. Again welcome! Enjoy!

C3 = 1968 - 1982. The '68-'72 have the front chrome bumpers instead of the plastic nose piece. They are in pretty high demand. The later C3s can be found for relatively low prices. C4 = 1984 - 1996. 1983 was somewhat of an aberration. There were production problems so none were ever sold to the public.

Vacuum can be used as a relative measure on how much load is put on the engine - how hard you're asking the engine to work (or how much throttle you're giving it). As you put more load on the engine, vacuum drops. When you're coasting in neutral, there is no load on the engine (other than internal friction and weight) and so vacuum is at its highest point. When you're at WOT, you're putting a big load on the engine and vacuum will drop to zero. So, you'll consume less gasoline driving at 4k rpm with 14'' vacuum than you would be at 2k rpm with a 0'' vacuum reading. Think about the gas pedal position in both situations... in the first, you're just using enough gas to keep the car cruising at 4k. In the second, you're accellerating from a low rpm and your foot is down.

I looked into this a number of years ago when doing some modifications on my '68 Camaro. If you get antique plates, you don't even need the annual safety inspection anymore. But you're not allowed to drive further than a 500 mile radius from your home (I think it was 500 miles...). If I remember right, even without the emissions inspection though, if your car came with catalytic converters, you can't eliminate them.

Sure do look like Cougar tail lights.

I don't have any experience using titanium, but looked into it briefly a few months ago while planning my spaceframe. I ultimately decided that it was too cost prohibitive to justify building a frame out of it... but here are a few things I learned. These are from memory, so may not be exactly accurate... they are also generalizations not dealing with any specific alloy in particular. Titanium conducts heat very poorly compared with other metals. It also doesn't expand and contract with heat as much as other metals. Titanium is also very corrosion resistant. The melting point for Ti is roughly 2x hotter than steel. Overall Ti is over 50% lighter than steel and is still stronger than steel. You can also MIG weld Ti.

I've got an MM175 too. I think it is a wonderful machine. I "test drove" quite a few welders before ponying up the cash to buy one. Of all of them, I liked the Miller the best... and the higher voltage welders really do make a nicer weld from my (limited) experience.

Check these turbo exhaust manifolds out. They might be what you need. Don't know if Banks sells them apart from the kit or not... http://www.bankspower.com/twin-turbo-system.cfm

Those GS400 cars (and GS455 cars) are starting to pick up in collector value... prices are going up. Depending on the condition of the car now, they could probably sell it, but something else and have a few bucks left over to hot rod with.

Congrats on your purchase. Let's see some pics!

When I went to college it was me moving away from my friends. We all sort of scattered though... some went military, and most of the rest were kind of in and out of different colleges. None of them went to the same college I went to. Really, it wasn't too bad. I made lots of new friends and kept in touch with the old ones by email/snail mail/phone. Me and my old friends would get together every year or two...

I love it! Looks great. Man, it really makes me itch to get back to work on mine!

I didn't read all of the posts in this thread, so someone else might have recommended this already... Rather than louvres, which would look kind of ugly in my opinion, why not just keep air from getting caught back there in the first place? Just use some sheetmetal to close off that section so the air doesn't get trapped. Nobody will see it, and it should get you the same effect.

If you need shop help, Tidewater Z is right up the road from you. Guys over there know their stuff, and the shop is run by the head of the Tidewater Z Car Club and the Z Car Association of Richmond.

Looks hot!