MusPuppis

Yeah, thats what annoys me. Just cut and paste.

Good idea. When I pulled the bolts out they didnt have any type of grease on them at all, which could account for the problem. Getting some today and regreasing them after I figure out where this fountain if anti-freeze is coming from. Thanks much, very appreciated.

Edit, brake not break. Its 4:35am and I'm a little tired from the nights events, lol. Just pretend I'm not a complete idiot, as hard as that is. I thought about putting this into the Brakes section but its more a trouble shooting question and doesnt pertain to a Z, so I thought it'd best to keep it isolated from useful Z related info, heh. If I was in error I apologize. Ok, I'm prepping my SHO to sell. Getting little stuff taken care of and the biggest things other than getting it painted were new rotors pads and tie-rods. The car barely even had brakes, I mean it would audibly (very, I got weird looks in traffic) grind and didnt stop worth a damn. I dont drive the car and I'm terminally poor so it just sat on the back of my list of things to do. Between my Z, random work, school, the Festiva (SOOO close to being done.. 12.7's baby!), this obnoxious 91 'Stang and a small ass-ton of other stuff, I just didnt care, lol. Anyway, I finally got the money togethr and picked up the new pads and rotors. Tie-rods I have but need a special tool so it wont be till next weekend.. I pull the first caliper off and remove the pads.. wholey friggen crap. The inner pad is ripped to bare metal and is eating the rotor. The outer pad isnt worn much at all! I mean next to nothing. I compared it to my new pads and it looks like maybe 25% is gone vs. the brand new pad. IF that. Odd I think. I move on to the other side of the car.. SAME thing. Inner pad is totally dead, outer pad is nearly new. The calipers 'look' ok. The piston compressed easily, the car has good pedal feel. Soft enough to be nice on the street but not spongy. They were on correctly. No shims on the brakes, but none in the new box and no marks or evidence it was ever supposed to have them. I dont pretend to know alot about the inner workings of brakes. I know how the basic system works and I can maintain it, but this just has me a little confused. Maybe I'm stupid and its obvious, but I'm missing it regardless. Any thoughts? The car is a '93 Ford Taurus SHO. All wheel disc, anti-lock brakes (that dont work..). I admit to being a little mean to the car.. The character of the engine is just way to fun not to dig into. High revving, loud, quick.. The ass will slide out easily. Too bad its a Ford =/ So maybe this problem is just me being a jack-ass to the car.. I mean, just tonight after getting the new brakes on my first impulse was to beat the hell out of it for a little while.. Which resulted in a coolant hose somewhere in middle of a nest of other hoses blowing off or rupturing or something. Gonna have to wait till morning to figure that one out. Just wondering. I intend to sell the car and even if I can 'hide' the problem, I'm not going to. I want to know its working right and safe before it hits the chopping block.

That's listed in the add. Looks like one turbo to me. Dont get me wrong, I'm not splitting hairs, just annoys me when poeple are contracted to sell something and have no friggin idea what their selling. Unless theres another turbo the size of a watermelon hiding in that engine bay.. at which point, I'm an idiot. Anyone see that air filter? Is it just damaged or is it deforming under the draw from that turbo? Goooooddd gawd. I want me one of those. Ya dont need Viagra with a car like that..

Let me rephrase a bit.. High quality body work. Stupid, but the paint's pretty damn slick.

Yeah. I should have clarified, hehe. '92 DSM I would go for would be the turbo 2.0ltr 4 banger. AWD, something along the lines of 195-ish hp, 205-ish trq (Dont remember the specs off the top of my head but its similar to that). Thats on stock boost @ 7psi. Stock turbo can be pushed to 13-14psi. They run around flat 15's in dead stock trim and the motor responds pretty well to mods. Getting them into the 13's isnt hard at all really. Pretty conservative list of mods will do it. My issues with them are weight (something like 3100pds or something) and reliability. They break often. I'm really leaning toward a Bimmer.. the more I think about it the more I like the idea.. but then I started thinking.. Hell, 3500$ might put me behind the wheel of a 240z in reasonable enough shape to be used as a DD. Just dunno if I want to invest in an older car as my only means of transportation. My Z wont be on the road for untold decades, so I'd like to have one I can drive, lol.

Ok, I'll be selling the SHO in a few months, as soon as its painted, which will happen as soon as a certain Z being brought down gets done first . I'm gonna toss like 2300$ on it and see how it goes. I dont expect more than 2k, but whutevah. Anyway, If things go somewhat as planned, after my FA stuff from school comes through and bills get paid, I *should* be sitting on about 3500$ I can afford to spend on a new car. (new to me, heh). Now, 3500$ isnt much, but from what I've seen I can get into a decent 325i series from the early 90's and I can certainly find myself a nice 92 DSM (I say 92 cause I wont invest in anything but the 6/4 combo). Sadly, I missed out on an 89 325is, 5 speed, charcoal grey leather, needed some work but the guy was only asking like 750$ for it, lol. another 1k into it and it would have been pristine. I'm just looking for some opinions. My intentions for the car depend purely on which car I get. If I get the DSM, I'm gonna throw money into the power side and goof off runnin it at the strip, if I get the Bimmer, most work will go into the suspension/handling section and I'll auo-x it. I dunno.. The Bimmers are obviously a higher class of car, but I dont know what kind of upkeep costs I'd be looking at. I do all my own work, so its purely a parts cost issue. I know DSM parts arent bad, about average.. Bleh.. What do you folks think?

Its made from diamons glued together with mashed up and liquified hundred dollar bills GAWD. Seriously though, that is nice looking. Realllly nice looking. I wonder if that intake is internally baffled or its just wide open and acts as a director for the air? Just curious.. I like the ITB's and whole setup, clean, profesional and scary, much in keeping with BMW.

The Prius gets so much respect on the streets the traffic pulls over to allow it to pass. Duh! I wonder if the "jap sport bike" was a moped?

"Just cause I can" has never been a good excuse to do something IMO. No accounting for taste, but that car is stupid looking. High quality work doesnt make the idiocy evidenced(sp?) there-in tolerable.

I dunno, if you could 'milk' the metal with a sandblaster or something then spray a metal etching primer it would give you a good base to lay some good hard auto paint over. The canned stuff wouldnt work for this. Then get a STRONG clear. DuPont clears have a reputation for being diamond hard when cured, lol. If you dont use DuPont for the color coat make sure the clear is compatable with whatever base you do use. I would think it would last a long time, It may need touch up down the road but I'd think it would last a while under heavy use. Good auto finishs can really take a beating. I dont know if you're wanting to go that heavily into it though. If you had the tools it wouldnt cost much at all and wouldnt take long. Couple hours I'd think. If you have to pay someone to do it I have no idea what it would cost.

Its so torquey it beat a Mustang up a hill and around a corner! Makes perfect sense to me.. Its like when I raced that Viper in my little beater Civic. He was waiting for a turn light and I got a green and I SMOKED HIS ASS.

Havent gotten much done.. Not due to the heat just not alot to do atm. Whats really great, my house has a metal roof and NO AC. Been mid 90's in Ky with 40%+ humidity, its over 100 in my house by 3pm or so and its just grand.

Another thing if you do it yourself.. I find that taping my edged results in less worry and helps protect common burn through areas. It also keeps the cutting and polishing compounds out of the nooks and cranies of the car, that stuff can be a REAL DAMN PAIN to get out of panel lines and such. Especially if it dries there. I learned that on the Mustang I painted. I spent the next 700000 hours of my life with a q-tip and a small amount of thinner to get the junk out 'cause I left it too long (note, dont touch the paint with solvents, no matter how mild until it has fully cured). As to the buffer, if the budget allows, its really worth getting the best buffer you can. I dont know the HF model offhand but having a nice, adjustable speed, quality buffer is very helpful. Very very. Personally, I dont like air buffers. I suspect a talented experienced production oriented detailer could kick some ass with an air unit but regulating the speed is tough and its really easy to 'move' the paint with one due to excessive RPM. Electric buffers (atleast the few I've used) have a series of settings at specific RPM so you can tailor the output to the products recommended specs. The cars Ive color sanded and buffed were within about 24 hours of laying the last coat of clear down, our instructor said its not a problem. My thinking is its easier to cut the clear before it fully cures and turns into a rock, might be a little more 'dangerous' but if you're careful its not a problem. One small tip, dont randomly sand. Try to keep a pattern (I like to work a criss-cross pattern, panely by panel). Its much easier to remember where you've been and where you still need to go. I also keep alot of excess water (A running hose is helpful) and a little squeege nearby (make sure its soft rubber made for the task, harder rubber can leave streaks or light scratchs Ive heard). As I sand I wash the excess junk off and squeege constantly so I can keep track of everything. Just my experiences thus far.

Looks like he's got some use out of fit or something thats gonna last. Scary scary car. I love big HP. IMO we buy it as a forum and put it in a Z. It should run the 1/4 so fast it finishes before it starts, so we'll be able to go back in time a few seconds at a time. Thats the way.

Ok, if this is a repost I apologize. I searched for "DP", " DP Cars", http://www.dpcars.net/, "Westie" and a couple other things but didnt pull it up. http://www.dpcars.net/ Some really slick stuff going on there, that guy is quite sharp. The build on the DP car is really a good read. Started my head churning about a 'Busa V8 in a Z. 375hp, 200trq, redline in the stratosphere, and a weight (less transaxle) at about 220pds! Wholey friggen crap, lol. Can we say "scary"? I mean, its lightyears beyond my budget and skill I wont ever do it, but its a neat idea to carry around. I'm gonna toss it on the list of stuff to do when I win the lottery. Note I say "when" not "if". I will win, I just have to start playing of course.. Oh, and figure out how to crack to lottery numbers.. yeah. That'll be cake. I may do that this afternoon. (edit, I cant find the link the to 375hp version of that 'Busa V8.. So take those numbers with a grain of salt till I can verify, but it was a link to the developer's site where they listed an all-out racing version with those numbers. I think their 'standard' version is like 260/210 or something, still pretty incredible for 220pds and a near 10k redline.) (Further edit, http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/02/09/hayabusa-v8-engine/ that references the 375 mark. I also know the 'Busa V8 has been discussed before and thats not what I'm aiming at doing in this thread, was just rambling and started spouting numbers and wanted to ensure their accuracy..)

Thanks. What I had kind of thought about was modeling the general shape, flat, then working from the highest point down based on reference marks and just kind of tinkering with over-all radii from that. Or, alternatively I could bend a wire or flat peice of steel in small segmets, say, 1/8 maybe more narrow, and build the pannels band by band if that makes much sense.. I dunno, never done this sort of thing before. I dont even know Solidworks but its an interesting challenge and learning the program and basics of part modelling could only help me in the long run. Would give me something to do atleast. I could also make very general engine models based on basic dimensions so a person could load the engine, load the engine, position it and look at mount possibilities, routing for I/C stuff, or whatever else. Likely a pipe dream, but could be fun, and its very possible.

I'm tentatively considering modeling the Z's engine bay in SolidWorks.. Will give me something to do thats Z related and may help myself and other Zers out down the road some. I'm a complete novice at this though and it would be a project in itself just figuring out what the hell I'm doing. What I'm wondering is, how would I go about getting accurate measurements on some of the oddly shaped parts in the Z's engine bay? Say, the inner fenders for example, strut towers, etc. Just wondering..

That is a great color scheme you have planned out. Your story about the paint job is awful though.. 14k and the car had RUNS in it? I paint cars for the COST OF MATERIALS and wouldnt even CONSIDER turning one out with any blemish in the paint.

I dont see it as the solution to ALL our problems, but an alternative and supplimental supply that eats up the ever increasing garbage pile is a good thing.

Doesnt mention fumes or emissions, but it does mention the efficiency of the process.

Hop over to Stangnet.com, the guy that built it has a MASSSSSIIVVVVEEE thread on the build process, its very slick. Awsome car.

This is VERY interesting, very very. It almost sounds too good to be true, which scares me.. I'm gonna try to dig up some more info on this and keep an eye on it.

That gold Z is now my running favorite evah. Damn but it looks good. I like that front air dam personally. Looks damn good (atleast on that gold Z)

See, I'm the type ******* that would have ruined his day. I get a little angry when I see poeple doing remarkably iditiotic garbage on public roads. I mean, I'm all for endangering myself and consenting friends of mine but pulling that crap on other drivers who have no control over you potentially killing them and their kids is assanine. I love to drive like an idiot, but I'll restrict it to the track and controlled situations. I've seen poeple doing that BS before (never at like 160, heh..) and I just smile and scoot into their lane if the chance arises, the promptly test their reflexes by laying into the brakes a little bit.. Or my personal favorite is to find a semi and match him, not letting the asshat get by. Not always possible, but its worked a time or two.