Boy from Oz

http://www.shannons.com.au/auctions/current/ Yep, around $29,500US, and it's RHD as well. The auctioneers are not kidding when they say 2000 people were there for only 66 lots - it was incredible. Mostly baby boomers looking to buy cars of their youth and many were merely looking at the GTHO; 'looking' being the operative word. 70s muscle cars were popular but the MGs, Alfas and Mercs drew very little interest. Loved the old helmet, but $900...wow! There were at least six different bidders for the GTO and I was impressed that it reached the same as the Cobra. It may have been cheap by English standards but that was a top price down here. I didn't really give the Cobra much of a look but it seemed okay to me. I think the real interest in the GTO came from it being a V8. It had a few interesting features including (apparently) reusing the bonnet (hood) bracing structure from the 240Z, glued to the fibreglass GTO bonnet. That way the builder was able to retain the bonnet locking mechanism and opening support rod.

It is difficult these days to obtain 'baggy' tyres, i.e. those with a high aspect ratio. The modern trend for safety and performance is to fit wider, large diameter wheels with low profiles, or low aspect ratio, to achieve the same rolling diameter. The introduction of multi-seat passenger vans has however provided some 15" options but you need to check the speed rating as well. The original GTO tyres were Dunlop L700 ® and L600 (f) which are unsuitable for road use and I read where the road going GTOs were using tyres fitted to Rolls Royce cars in the 70s & 80s. The L700 had a 29" outer diameter but I'm not sure of the front - 26", I think. See the R6 & R7 tyres here. http://www.stuckey.com.au/tyres.aspx?BN1=Dunlop%20Motorsport&BN2=Dunlop&Category=Racing A modern day 265-75-15 gives the 29" dia and 225-75-15 would look pretty close for the front. The 75 aspect ratio being the key issue but you may have to settle for 70. Here is a great overall reference site for tyre info. http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html

'chelle' - thanks for the info on the inner guards. I'm in Melbourne for a couple of weeks and noticed this GTO replica coming up for auction in a few days. I might just drop in to see what interest there is from bidders. A standard 6 cyl one sold last year for $32,000AUS - that's about $26-27,000US http://www.shannons.com.au/pages/auctions/lot.jsp?id=O391PAR7BLNB0R80#

The body-fitting manual I have for the coupe includes a photo of the valance being trimmed. The manual is of unknow origin but the persons captured in the photos has liking for flared pants, paisley shirts and facial hair - you can guess the age of the document. I noticed in chelle's last offering to us mere mortals that her car did not show the inner fibreglass guards at the front. I have been wondering if the guards should be fixed to the car or to the fidreglass front clip. Mine seems not to fit either perfertly. Any comments would be appreciated.

I can't find any informaton on the net and the seller doesn't seem to know. Could anybody suggest whether this is an r200 or an r230? Any info on the ratio would be helpful also. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300114443561&sspagename=ADME:B:AAQ:AU:1 Thanks.

Is this of any help?

'chelle': I'm interested in your RHD dash. Is that a modified Simpson dash and instrument panel or something you had specially made? While on the Simpson dash; does anyone know if the Simpson dash can be made up to RHD or is it a fixed one-piece LHD? 'espeery': I've sent you a private message - see top right corner where you log in.

I heading the same path (rear filler and dual exhaust) and I've got some reasonable quotes to have one fabricated to my own specifications, including the straight fit of an LS1 pump. Check with some racing workshops you might fine they are competitive with the price of an off-the-shelf cell.

Stagger Lee - Just make sure you are not confusing the Coupe and the Spyder bodies. Some components are specific to each body type. You may be across this so I just offer it as a suggestion. In my enthusiasm for this project I am finding it difficult to put an old head on my old shoulders. I have grabbed several 'bargins' only to later reflect on my purchase and pay out a second time for the quality item.

Stagger_Lee - See post #32 on this thread for possible suppliers. For $2000 I think a Scorpion rear is well worth it - it will be worth $4000 of satisfaction when it is all finished. Complaining about the cost of imported items will bring a wry smile to the faces of all us outside America! After all the research (thanks Hybrid Z contributers) I'm now starting to walk the walk. Note;that's not rust on the inner guard, just the red dirt we have down here.

The roadway out over the coast is a fairly new construction about 50 klms south of Sydney. The old road was nice and twisty but too many cars were being hit by loose boulders. Just thought I would mention it so you can impress your friends with your knowledge of geography. The commercial is due for released (September I think) to celebrate 60 years of Ferrari cars.

The ISO standards may not assist as the same dia thread will have different pitches, often depending on shear strength of the material it is threading. Yeh, me too, but my wife can't understand how I do that with my car parts then leave my clothes lying around the bedroom floor. Women ... they just don't get it!

I purchased my Zed as a rolling chassis. It appears that it has been disassembled for years. I'm just trying to buy bolts, etc, to fit the various mountings (roll-bars, etc). Bolts are proving a bit difficult to fit with some possible rust build up or possible earlier mistreatment. I want to run a tap through first but just want to make sure of the pitch. Fairly confident that most are 1.25. Can anyone confirm this? Don't you just hate guys who throw all the nuts & bolts into one container and then to make matter worse, lose the container.

I am speechless, I am without speech. Please tell me the engine complements the bodywork. Is there a web site where I can find out more details, particularly the rear setup? Oh bugger ... my saliva just dribbled onto the keyboard!

Here is a little exercise that I found worthwhile. The three-quarter rear image above reminded me of the similar position photo of Speedracer's fantastic replica on car domain. I decided to open a second explorer and from his site overlay that image on the one above. In particular I was interested in the rear wheel comparison. The real car sits much lower than Speed's because, as I understand it, the standard 240Z fuel tank, combined with the exhaust, limit the amount you can lower the car and still drive it around the streets. I have also wanted to keep the original rear rim width of 6 1/2" or 7 1/2" but that seems to look inadequate on the replica. What this is leading to is this. Both Zerrari and I are using tanks that allow full-length duel exhaust pipes to be tucked up beside the fuel tank. That should enable us to have a much lower riding car and narrow rim wheels that tuck under the rear arches and therefore better replicate the original GTOs in ride height. Any thoughts.

Check here, I think it has what you want. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=118395

Thanks. Any information on whether the Q45/r230 and 300ZXtt/r230 diff covers are interchangable, i.e. making the 300ZXtt diff suitable for use with the aluminium MB?

I want to fit an r230 from an 300ZXtt to 240Z. I really like the aluminium moustache bar but is appears that they only fit the Q45 diffs (the bolt spacing is 140mm - 5 1/2" on the 300ZX tt diff). Are the diff covers interchangable and/or could I use one of these on e-Bay? Except for a few in 1989-90, we don't have the Infinity models down here. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200085017453&category=130644&sspagename=rvi:1:1v_buy

Duke - Yeah, it's a bit of a bugger to navigate. Click on 'main menu' on the left, then 'members portal' and that should get you to the forums, then check out the classifieds. That process is open to anyone. You will have to join if you want to PM any of them, e.g about the third on the list is '73 1200 parts'. Contact him/her and see if they have a hatch lock. Good luck.

I have just secured my fourth and final lock. A little bit of replating and matching them all up to one key and I will be set for the life of the car. Here is the site I used. http://www.1stgencivic.org/ Just look in the 'for sale' section for sellers who are wrecking.