Snailed

Nice deal on that car! A 16lb 14" wheel with $75 M+S rated tires is your idea of good performance? You honestly think bigger wheels came about (a while ago)to appeal to a market that has no money and not to fit large brakes that suit sticky summer/R tires? This is fascinating to me.

Yup...there always is.

A little progress working out the rear tube structure so that it will be light and rigid. The front end of the round tube that comes from the rear subframe mounts, will be connecting to the end of the subframe connectors I haven't made yet. I'm trying to make sure as few tubes as possible are going to see bending loads. I'm trying to use each critical connection area as a node...It's tempting to totally get rid of all the unibody stuff and tube the whole thing but I don't think th ere is any advantage for what I'm trying to achieve

indeed.

More parts companies should be that accommodating. I have a growing list of places I don't plan on using again because the customer service and/or tech support is so bad.

HAHA! Amazing

Why are some of the most complicated car engines statistically the most reliable then? Maybe the number of parts isn't as relevant as the design and materials. What are the VE numbers for the best corvette engines?

That's interesting. The tube in the rockers seems to be overkill to me since the original rocker is pretty stout. I'm in the process of doing something like that but with more, lighter weight tubing. I would really like to figure out a way to measure the torsional rigidity of a chassis. I have seen some measurements of spaceframes expressed in lbs/degree. I suppose if the car were heavy enough you might get a part of a degree of twist before it lifted the wheels off the ground. I might experiment with this when my Z is rolling again. Here are some other ideas. Miata test Apparently they test this in Australia as part of certifying some cars(?) 4000nm/degree is the standard.

Well, I just finished reading it. I have read a bit about threaded fasteners for automotive use before so a lot of that was redundant (some contradictory to what I had previously read) for me. I found the rivet section very interesting and comprehensive and I enjoyed some of the small bits of historical info he adds in throughout the book. Thanks for the recommendations.

Yup, people don't like the idea of it but so many factory RWD cars are narrower in the rear. My understanding is that it forces the front to handle more of the job of controlling body roll, freeing up the rears to get traction to accelerate out of the corner.

double post

Here are the rear bits hung in place so I can plan out how I'm going to build the replacement structure. Some design details I'm considering; -subframe position to extend wheelbase and allow for a low ride height -battery built into the floor behind R seat and as far back as possible. Easy to access. on/off switch location? Jump posts? -fuel tank should be as far forward and low as possible. 16-20 gallon. About 12" front to back? -roll bar pickups tied into rear support structure -shock tower bracing into roll bar rear tubes -incorporating factory storage box(es) -retaining factory inner wheel tubs?

Nice work man! I say LS2 with the 6 speed...400hp would be perfect Watch that POR15 on untreated surfaces. It will peel right off smooth metal. It's really best on clean rust or sandblasted areas from what I have seen.

Yup, I already have the floor cutout from the taillights to the seats and have started building a structure to support the subframe and strengthen the car a little. I'll get pictures up next week if I have time to work on it. I would be really surprised if you could get one under it without cutting and have a ride height you would like. I really have no urge to treat this car as an investment. They are pretty much worthless compared to other classics. Which means more fun modifying them! more subframe stuff. Added braces and removed the harmonic weights at all 4 corners. -8 lbs maybe... Don't worry those bushings come out when I weld. I machined some 3/16" steel discs instead of using the stock bushing setup. Much lighter and simpler at the expense of a little more vibration. The diff is rubber mounted (like s14/skyline) as are the control arms, so I don't think it will be too harsh. Sandblasted and primed the whole deal so I can move back to the body.

Thanks. I'm not being very fussy but I hope it's a fun car to drive when I'm done. Now that the car has some rockers that are not oxide of anything, It's time to figure out the rear suspension and what I need to make that happen. First some measuring; 240Z rear fender to fender outside measurment 63.125" Q45 rear hub to hub 64.625"(!) I decided I would remove 7" of the Q45 subframe. This should get me the width I want with some 10" 0ET wheels later. I'm using +12ET for now, probably with spacers. Total width will be ~68.625". That's 5.5" wider (2.75" each) than the stock fenders. Did I mention I'm making steel flares? I want to leave the lovely center pinion in the center so that's 3.5" taken out of each side. Taking it all apart. I'm really surprised how light these aluminum hubs are. Curious what the unsprung weight might be compared to a stock Z. I turned some pins that fit the stock bushings and fabricated a jig that will hold the parts in alignment. Tacked together. Pinion mount is raised 6mm in case I need to adjust pinion angle to match the drive train that I don't have yet in a currently unknown position. It's good to have adjustment, I figure.

Sarcasm? You have a ratrod project in your signature, you must understand the style. No?

Jeez, you couldn't get it any lower? How high is the bottom of the rocker off the ground?

Patches. I might name this car Patches. New outer rocker panels are on. 19G w/ Dupont etch primer for now. The top edge was butt welded and the bottom is plugwelded every ~1.5" edit- rocker picture

line lock solenoid valve? Anywhere between the front outlet on the master and where the line splits to go to the individual calipers.

What would you say the force is on that rod under hard braking? Say the strut sees 600lbs of compression, what would you estimate the TC rod sees at the same instant? 300lbs?

Wondering if anyone has read this. We all use bolts & nuts...might be useful.

Here are two patches, one at the front of the drivers door sill and one at the rear. The passenger side got patches in almost the same spots and another one where the a pillar meets the door post. Then I cut the inner and outer rockers off and replaced the inner with a strip of 19G with holes for rosette welds to attach a 1"x3"x0.083" tube. The tube was treated with dupont etch primer in and outside then some black emamel paint to help protect it once it's on the road. Once the car is painted I will spray the cavities with some oil to prevent rust from forming. This was done to both sides and then I made outer rockers on both sides. The bottom of the rocker is 3/8" lower than stock to help the car look low. The front of the tube will be tied into new 2.5 x 2.5" rails and the back will be tied into the front subframe mounts and a bulkhead that runs across the car to tie in the tunnel, like the triangle section built by the factory. I might try to reuse the tool boxes too because I really think they are neat. We'll see how much room there is though...

Maybe you could soak the lock with some kind of solvent, dry it out, then some graphite lube?

This car has a bunch of rust that was hidden under filler and fiberglass. The floors look like someone just taped the holes shut and flooded it with polyester resin. Next step is tackle the rockers and patch some smaller holes in the door jambs and A pillars.