strotter

OK, I've consistently had a problem with the new bulletin board software: it logs me out after about 5 minutes. I go to the "Home" page from a bookmark, it recognizes me as a registered user, puts my name up next to the "Log out" icon. Fine, I'm definitely logged in, and as me. I browse through the first page of "today's" postings. I get to the bottom and hit the "Next Page" link, it gives me "No messages match that criteria". Huh, that sucks, we'll just start again, I hit my "Back" button, hit "Home", and I'm given the "login" dialog. I'm not in the system. I'm pretty sure it's knocking me off after some period of time. Am I alone here? I'm running a Mac, OSX.2.4, OmniWeb, Java "off", cookies "on", pop-up windows "off". I'm on an ADSL line through SBCGlobal in California. (Funny - "SBC" means "Small Block Chevy" to me, not "phone company". When I get the bill with "SBC" on the outside, I always snicker...) Anyway, this problem has been consistent.

I've been having a similar problem. Temps seem to spike at consistent highway speed, then drop quickly once I've slowed. I've been thinking it's my f/i system being out of tune - maybe not. Q: would the hose collapse be visible if I just revved the engine, or does it take a minute? Any idea?

I ran into a guy who owns a local shop in the Raley's parking lot. He wanted to see the guts, we spent 20 minutes just B.S.ing about cars and projects. At one point, I asked him how much he could do this kind of job for, and he said "about 100 - well, maybe 120 hours if it went smooth". Around here, most shops bill out about $75 and hour, some higher, some lower. And, nothing ever goes smooth. YMMV.

I've been monitoring this thread (with a bit of dread, to tell you the truth), and even contributing a bit, and I have to tell you, this group is the only one that I read has managed to keep the conversation pretty civil; in a number of other places that I monitor, there are threads about the war, and almost all of them have either degenerated into "Screw you!", "No, Screw YOU!", or been cancelled by the moderator. This is really unusual, and pretty impressive. Perhaps people that are open minded about politics and the opinions of others might also be the kind of guys that be open minded about all kinds of things - like putting weirdly powerful motors into cute little sports cars... hmm. Well done, guys.

This is an interesting thread, but I'm starting to have a problem with it. 1. In a democracy like ours, it's not only your *right* to express your opinion, no matter how unpopular or off-the-wall, it's your *responsibility*. It's part of the price of living in a democracy. If you don't express your opinion - in the streets, on the tube, at a town meeting, or most importantly in the voting booth, you don't count. 2. Not agreeing with someone who wants to persue war is not un-American. It's free speech, the very *first* amendment to the constitution, certainly the most important, and generally the least exercised freedom and responsibility. 3. It's not un-American to speak up during times of crisis. People support the war, good. People don't support the war, that's good, too. Freedom of speech wasn't guaranteed for times when it's easy to agree, it was guaranteed for times when it's *hard* to agree. Like now. 4. "American" means you were born here, or you have become naturalized. Nothing else. It has nothing to do with your political opinions, your moral views, your religion or your principal language or the color of your skin. 5. Not trusting your government is a *virtue*, not a sin, in a democracy. The idea is that we, as the citizens, are in charge; those who hold office do so only at our whim, and temporarily at that. We must always be vigilant, and if that means getting in some politician's face now and then, so be it. 6. Demanding wrong be corrected is also a virtue in a democracy. That's how it works. The founding fathers believed that government is intrinsically flawed and prone to misguided action, and they figured it's the citizens who are best equipped to figure it out and fix it. That's exactly what Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and John Adams and John Hanckock did, and they aren't considered bad Americans. 7. American soldiers are some of our very best people, and people are the most valuable thing in a democracy; they should only be asked to put their lives on the line if it's *absolutely necessary*. Not if it's convenient, not if it's prudent, not even if it "should be done". Asking someone to die, or to kill, should be taken dreadfully and without joy. There's no fun in war, there's no glory, there's no exultation. There's only people hurt and bent up and burned, and grown men and women crying, and fear. Horrible fear, and horrible memories. That's all. Nothing good, and the only comfort you can give a family who has lost it's son or father or brother, is that it *really was* absolutely necessary, there was no other way it could have been done. *Absolutely* no other way. Dead is forever, lost is everything, and it damn well better be for a good reason. And if there were political or personal aspects to the decision, there *will* be hell to pay. 8. Iraqis are people, too. They are valuable to us *just because* they're people. They may not agree with us, they may not like us, they may even want to kill us. But they're valuable to us nevertheless. That's why America is a better country than Iraq. If any part of you take joy in their killing, you've got a major psychiatric problem. 9. The French. Well, they're different, that's for sure. OK, end of rant.

Does anyone have trouble with condensation? Mine get foggy any time it's a bit humid, like on a dewey morning or when it rains. I'm thinking about drilling a couple of holes for some air motion. Anybody else?

Welcome to the board, Nick. I've got a Z conversion (a fuel-injected 327 with a T5 transmission) I'm in the final stages of finishing. The answer to your question isn't as simple as "you can do it" or "you can't do it". The correct answer is "It depends on what you're doing". My experience is that the actual conversion is simple. If you've ever installed a motor, you're mostly there. The devil, as they say, is in the details. And, there are more details than you might think. The first thing to do is get a JTR manual: http://www.jagsthatrun.com/ This will be your bible. Read it, then read it again, and then take some notes, and then put it in the bathroom next to the toilet and read it some more. Then, learn how to use the "search" function at HybridZ. It's invaluable. Ask questions as required, never never never consider them stupid, if you feel like an idiot for asking don't worry, you're in good company. The next thing to do is figure out what you want to do. If you mean to put a carburated Chevy V8 into the car, with one of the transmissions mentioned in the book, you won't have to worry too much. However, if you want a twin-turbo'd Northstar with a 6-speed tranny and a custom rearend, you might be looking for trouble. That's up to you, but I can tell you from experience it's much easier to at least start out conservative, and go from there. Another thing that can make your conversion complicated is the condition of your Z. Nobody wants to spend a bunch of money on a car they're basically going to tear apart, but the rougher the car the bigger the job - and the more expensive. This was something that got me. My car needed a great deal of bodywork, interior work, and general cleaning up. I burned *hundreds* of hours doing things I wouldn't have had to do if the car had been more perfect. However, for me, I had more time than money, so it was a wash. YMMV. Remember, Z's are old cars now, and you'll have all the problems associated with old cars, along with the new problems the swap entails. Another thing to watch for is the "since I'm doing "A", I might as well do "B"" syndrome. You're going to do a little work on the bumpers, you might as well repair that rusty spot. Whoosh, there goes 10 hours. You're replacing the struts, might as well rebuild the suspension, Ka-CHING! a couple of hundred dollars and many hours and busted knuckles. You get the idea. If you have the self-control to *do what you set out to do*, it's not a problem. However, human nature being what it is, your list of "To Do" items will get longer, not shorter. Something else: your donor car. I would *strongly* recommend that you get an entire car for the swap, with the motor/trans combination in it that you want. Why? The details again. My donor car not only gave up its engine and transmission, it also provided the driveshaft, fuel fittings, radiator mount, hundreds of bolts and screws, instruments, wiring by the mile, relays, air conditioning gear, etc etc etc. If not for that hulk sitting in my back yard, I'd have spent many, many more hours at the junkyard. *Huge* time saver. Next: work out a budget. After you've read the JTR book, sit down at your computer and create a spreadsheet including all the items they've mentioned. Be realistic (which is actually much more difficult than it seems). Take a couple of days, get on the 'phone, get some price quotes, confirm with any friends you're going to draft as assistants that they will, for sure, assist; look through all the catalogs you can find and get the best prices you can. Once you've got a total, figure out how much you can afford a month. Be straight with yourself - it's difficult to live your life entirely in the garage, no social life, no lunch, no dates. Everything costs money. And be realistic about your skills: I for instance am not a welder (though I'm learning) so I had to take the car to a muffler shop. Ka-Ching! $450 bux, a pretty good deal for the work he did, and well done too, but if I had the skill I could have done it for half that. Anyway, once you have the total money you'll need to spend, increase that by 50%. Yep, just do it, trust me, it's right. So now you've got a big number, and that assumes you won't be adding goodies as the project continues. Take that big number, and divide it by how much you can spend per month. The number that will come out of your calculator is how many months it will take you to finish the job. Normally, the speed of the work is more limited by costs than by hours available. My project started out with a total budget of $8000. I'm *good* at doing budgets, and have some experience with large projects, and I'm a good backyard mechanic, but my total spending is at about $10,000 now, and has a short distance to go. When it's "done", I'll be in the $11,000 range. More than I expected, but I expected it. Also, expect some "gotcha's". Here's an example: I have very little experience with fuel-injection. I decided I'd like to try it, 'cause it makes for a better-mannered street machine. However, I discovered that, once you put a computer-controlled motor into a different car you need to reprogram the computer to tell it about its' new environment. This ones new environment included a different motor, different throttle-body, different intake and exhaust, different cam, a lighter car, so on and so on. What this means is that I had to start learning about "PROM burning", which is basically reverse-engineering the GM computer and modifying the controlling tables it used to run the motor. This in turn meant I had to buy a Prom "burner", which hooks up to a laptop computer, which I had to buy because I'm a Mac guy and all the good software for PROM burning is on Windows. Then I had to build a cable to hook the computer up to the car, and I had to modify the wiring so I could do it easily (since I was there), and I had to find information about doing these mods online (mostly at ThirdGen.org), and so on. A combination of "gotcha" and "since I'm doing "A", I might as well do "B". Another thing: expect to get bummed out about the whole thing. Working on a project is like working on a relationship: There's that honeymoon period, when you're just manic with excitement and good feelings and Joy-Joy happiness. Then you get to the real stuff. It's a lot of work, and it's been sitting in the garage for, like, a *year*, and you want to go to Cabo with your friends but you spent the d**ned money on the d**ned *car*, dammit, and you want something you can drive around *right NOW*, grr grrr grrrrr. Expect it, it will likely happen. The project won't go as smoothly as you expect, and it won't go as fast as you expect, and you'll make some mistakes, and it'll seem like a huge waste of time. If you're ready for it, it'll be much easier to handle, and you'll be able to move past it. Finally: when you have no money to spend, and no time to do the work, and the garage floor is cold, and you're bummed out and the whole thing seems like a waste of time, engage the imagination. This is an important part of any large project, one which is frequently overlooked. You have to be able to *feel* and *see* the end, the result, the payoff. Maybe it's you spanking a Corvette (you see the driver shake his fist at you in your rear-view mirror), or maybe it's more like: "Ooh, Nick" she coos, her eyes glistening and her silky hair tumbling down her too-tight sweater, "You're car is soooo cool. Can I go for a ride?" Whatever your deal, you need to keep it firmly in your mind. After all, we don't live our lives in the physical world as much as we do inside our heads, best to take it into account. So to summarize: 1) Keep it simple. 2) Get the JTR manual, memorize it. 3) Use HybridZ extensively. 4) Get a good conversion car, as good as you can afford. 5) Get a whole donor car, if possible. 6) Don't let the project grow as you go along. 7) Make a realistic budget, stick to it. 8) Expect gotchas. 9) Make a conscious effort to stay "up". 10) Have fun. In any event, go for it. It'll be fun.

Home-made wideband O2: http://www.diy-wb.com/info.htm

Do t-tops have some kind of doubler or other reenforcement? I'm just thinking that, if you didn't feel the need for clear panels, you could just take the jig-saw to the roof =o. Then some type of close-outs, seals, and some method of fastening them down. Not trivial, but cool.

OK, well, I gotta know: what happened to his nose? Did they cut too much off, or did he have a bad habit (sniff sniff) in the 80's, or what? (I can't believe I'm asking this question...)

I teach math at a small high school. Part of the Algebra/Pre-Algebra text touches on statistics. One of the "labs" we do (usually in the spring when the weather's nice and we're itching to get outside) is take our chairs out onto the lawn at the front of the school and "count cars". We look for various kinds of statistical information from the cars going by - color, type, model, make, so on. A couple of years ago, one of my students recorded "size of cars" (subcompact, compact, midsize, SUV, pickup, a couple of others) and "number of passengers". An interesting trend came up: The larger the car, the fewer passengers. Or, put another way, the smaller the car, the more people on-board. SUV's had *by far* the fewest number of people on-board (just under 1.1). Subcompacts had the most. We've done this analysis several times since, and it always holds up. Interesting, no?

I posted over in the "Polls" forum. I'm afraid I got a little carried away, though... the question is as long as a tax form, and about as complicated... my bad. I'll boil it down a bit, and repost.

I'll go first: 1a:Yes 1b:Speeds under 40, windows open all the way. Only driven in winter, cool cloudy weather. City and secondary roads. 1c:Higher speeds, windows closed. 1d:Always smelled it. 2:'72 3:Good. New paint, body straight. 4a:New hatch/door seals, Nissan. Old factory window felts (torn up). 4b:Some sunlight visible. Mostly siliconed shut. Several small openings on driver-side firewall. Wiring holes still have gaps. 4c:All siliconed 4d:All siliconed 5:All Open 6:Missing drain seal, passenger side. Lots of rust holes cut out/welded shut. Both passenger and driver foot-wells show impact damage. Dual exhaust. 7:Severe hit, passenger side. Several panels replaced. Severe hit, driver's side rear. Much bondo. Shape is OK. 8:Lowered, 2" or so. 9:Tires about 7" wide patch. Stock height. 9b:More "open" than stock (brake structures clearly visible). 10:Low airdam, 2.5" off road, wraps to front of wheel openings. 11:"Factory" style spoiler, one-piece. 12:Dual exhaust to 2-into-1 muffler w/ 3" long tip, 2.5" diameter. Cut off square to pipe. Did not extend past the bumper. 13:Improved it *much* by adding 5" long sleeve over the exhaust tip extending past bumper. 45 degree cut-off.

Here's a handy template for you to fill out the "form": just copy the numbers below, paste them into your response pane, and fill in from there. Have fun! 1a: 1b: 1c: 1d: 2: 3: 4a: 4b: 4c: 4d: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 9b: 10: 11: 12: 13:

OK, it's time to apply some scientific method to the exhaust fumes problem many of us suffer from. Below are a series of questions about your car, its condition, and your driving habits. Perhaps we can isolate the solution by isolating the problem. Folks without a fumes problem should especially respond. We need to know what you're doing right! 1a. Do you get exhaust fumes? y/n 1b. If so, under what conditions do you smell exhaust? (include vehicle speed, position of window(s), time of year, type of traffic, and type of road surface): 1c. Also if so, under what conditions do you *not* smell exhaust?: 1d. If you now smell exhaust, was there ever any time you *did not*? (before replacing muffler, before lowering, before painting the car, etc): 2. Year of your Z: 3. General condition of body: 4a. Do you have any bad hatch/door/window seals? Which ones in particular? 4b. Do you have any bad firewall seals, such as around wiring cutouts (can you see daylight)? If so, which? 4c. Are all the air-gaps around tail-lights and fuel hoses sealed? If not, which? 4d. Are all air-gaps around side-marker lights sealed? 5. Are all the air outlet vents present and open? If not, which have you blocked? 6. Is there anything non-stock about the underbody of the car? (i.e., dual exhaust, damage to underside, missing drain seals, missing close-out panels, etc?): 7. Has your car ever been hit so as to potentially affect its structure? If so, how and how severely? 8. Is your ride height stock? If not, how "lowered" is it? 9. Are your tire/wheels stock? (Tires stock height/stock width? Wheels stock diameter/stock width? Stock offset?): 9b. If you have non-stock wheels, are they more or less "open" (in terms of airflow, just eye-balling them) than stock? 10. Does your car have an air dam? If so, how low is it? Does it "wrap" around to the sides of the fenders? 11. Does your car have a spoiler? If so, what type, how tall, what angle to the rear of the car? 12. Does your car have a non-Nissan exhaust system? (I'm thinking about the muffler and exhaust "tip" here). Please describe the size, placement, and exhaust tip length, diameter, and angle of the opening. 13. If you've fixed the problem, what change did you make? How complete was the solution? That's enough for now. Whew!

Here's what I'm thinking: we need to take a more "scientific" approach to the problem. We can start with some simple statistics. Some folks get fumes, some don't. Who in particular, then, does and doesn't? Are there variations in the cars that cause variations in the fumes? What variables are involved? Hmm. I'm going to start a Poll, over in the appropriate forum, asking if people do or don't get fumes, and the physical condition of their cars. Perhaps we can isolate the cause(s) a little more accurately.

A follow-up to my "incense" idea. I applied silicone to every leak-point I could find, and a couple I just imagined. Car stunk of silicone. After it set up a bit, I went for a ride - there was *still* an exhaust smell, though not as bad. Last week I was in Kragen getting some oil, and I noticed that they had some cheapo chrome exhaust extensions. Made me think about Bob H's comment about the exhaust tip. Eight or so inches long, 45 degree angle cut on the end. Picked one up, fastened it to the exhaust outlet with a hose-clamp so that the bottom was about 2" past the bumper. The top was probably 4" past. Looked stupid, but I tried it anyway, and IT WORKED. Window down all the way, window down 4", both windows down, etc etc etc. Seems Bob H was right! Try it! The little exhaust extensions are cheap, it's an easy experiment. Think about what the original Z exhaust looked like - it stuck out an inch (or more?) past the bumper. Perhaps that's what everyone is suffering from - muffler wears out, they replace it with a better-looking one (that's shorter, 'cause those long ones look goofy), and *boom*, you've got a headache. Could it be that simple?

I've got a WC T5 behind a 327 in my '72. Turns out it won't downshift into 3rd. And that's my favorite downshift! The shop manual sez: 1. Damaged or worn synchronizer sleeves or hubs ("Remove, disassemble, and inspect transmission. Replace worn or damaged components"), or 2. Worn, damaged, or incorrectly assembled gearshift selector plates, interlock plate, or selector arm ("Remove, disassemble, and inspect transmission cover assembly. Repair or replace components as necessary"). Both of these things fill me with fear. Though I have gotten elbow-deep in motors and rear-ends and suspensions and body-work, I have never in my life touched a manual tranny (except in motorcycles). I have no special tools, and no special skills. So here's my question: is it doable for a beginner to expect a repair/rebuild of this kind to work first time? How "critical" is it?

Ah, but Jim, it's fuel injected. No more *carburator*! Yuk yuk yuk!

Speaking to the "it smells because seals are worn" theory, I may have an appropriate thought to test it: I was watching "This Old House" a couple of years ago, and they had a neat technique for finding air leaks in houses (which they were looking to insulate). They installed a fan in the front door to pressurize the house, and then used a smoldering pencil-sized "dealee" to generate a bit of smoke which they held in likely areas to determine if air motion was taking place, thus isolating the leaks. Lots of leaks around windows and electrical outlets and whatnot. I looked at Home Depot and nobody knew what "smokey pencil dealees" were, so I came up with the next-best-thing: incense. I closed up the car, turned on the heater fan, lit up the incense, and proceeded to find *at least* six HUGE sources of air motion. Under the car (past a seal that looked good), in the back (wiring seals and tail-light bolt holes) as well as a couple on the firewall. This weekend I'm going to get the silicone out and go crazy, see if I can eliminate that damned monoxide stink that's ruining my day. I'm also going to try a straight-ended extension pipe on the exhaust. On a practical note, make *damned" sure you like the incense smell before you try this, as your car is going to *reek* of it after you're done.

I have a long history of driving hooptee buckets. I'll admit it. Money's always tight, it doesn't make sense to spend on a car what you could spend on, say, The Mortgage, so for a long time I've been incredibly sensible. Even frugal. These days I normally drive a '72 Mercedes I got for $800 from a guy in Sacramento who was great at the "lookee" items but not so great at the "keepin' it movin'" items. A good looking '72 Benz, to be sure, but a '72 Benz nevertheless. Before that, I drove an '80 Subaru wagon, in Old Puke yellow. Great car, utilitarian as hell, $600 and drove it for almost 10 years. Only died when the girl I gave it to pulled out in front of a tow truck. Before that, a '69 BMW 1600 which, though an historical car and rather cool to BMW hounds, more-or-less screamed "bucket". Before that a '74 Dart with a slant-six. Given to us. Wouldn't die, also given away after years of service. Sigh. My vehicular history for the last 20 years has been a series of very reliable, inexpensive, responsible, and boring cars. They got me from point A to point B, but that was about all. Invisible cars, not noticed except as something to pass on the way to somewhere interesting. And I'm a car hound. A serious car hound, have been forever, but I never managed to talk myself into doing something *fun*. The Z project has changed that, and yesterday I had a different experience entirely. Here's what happened: Got it running fairly well, took it down to have some new tires mounted on the new rims. The car isn't done, mind you, needs more tuning and more polishing and a passenger seat and a permanent place for the electronics and about a thousand other things, but it moves over the ground with no small amount of grace, and it's *pretty*. Not just "the paint came out well" pretty, not just "I've always like the Z's" pretty, but "Gosh Scotty, did *you* put that thing together? It's gorgeous!" kind of pretty. Cool. So I'm driving around just for the hell of it after getting the tires, watching the laptop for tuning info, and I pull up to a stoplight by the lake. It's a pretty lake, and people like to do their jogging and power-walking there, weather permitting. So I'm sitting there waiting for the light, and I glance up and this jogger, a guy about my age (we'll say "forties") is grinning at me. I'm thinking "Do I know this guy? What's his thing?" when the light changes, so I take off and he give me a thumbs-up as I go. Odd, sure enough. So I go "around the block", which is about 10 miles through grape vineyards and almond orchards. I'm watching the coolant temperature and trying to figure out if the fuel pressure is still too high from the O2 sensor, so I'm pretty focused. Get back into town, and in the rearview I notice some guy in a mostly blue Camaro, a '67 or '68, is coming up behind me. I've seen this car before, it's also obviously in the middle of a restoration. As we get to the next light, he's in the front of the pack and comes up beside me. Young guy, late 20's or so, his window's open and he gestures to me to open mine. So I do, and he hollers "Is that a '70?" over the exhaust noise, kind of pleasant and real friendly, and I holler back "No, a '72! Just got it rolling!". He looks her up and down (honest to God, the guy looked her up and down with a smile on his face) and said "Well done! I'll see you around man! I want to look under the hood! Would that be cool?" at which point I nod "sure" and he takes off 'cause the light had changed. Now, I'm not an especially "sensitive" guy, but the Camaro kid's "well done" just sort of hit me. All that work, all those hours out in the back yard when it was hot, or when it was dewey and wet, underneath working on engine mounts (and I *really* don't like to be underneath a car), all that sanding out the paint, all that time planning combinations of engine parts and matching components, and all the money and all that effort, just sort of came together. My friends have often said "Oh, it's nice!", but they *have* to say that, after all, so it doesn't really count, but when strangers, out of the blue, give you a smile and a "Well done", somehow that's what hit me. When somebody who doesn't even have to acknowledge your existence takes a moment out to compliment you on something you've worked hard to accomplish, you know that you've created something; there's a weight to it that has meaning above and beyond "car project". I live in a small town, I'll surely see the Camaro kid again, and we'll surely pull over and check out each other's cars, and I'll surely end up waving and smiling whenever I see him. I mean, I know a lot about him already: he's the kind of guy that's willing to climb under a car when it's hot or cold or wet, and plan modifications and worry the details and sand out paint and put in all those hours alone working on something important to him. That pretty much qualifies him as "friend", doesn't it? This car project is creating a friend. That's important, and worthwhile. And totally, totally unexpected. Huh. I think this afternoon I'll take some time off from adjusting fuel pressure and installing parts and go drive around for awhile. It could be fun.

Also, have an air filter on it. When I started mine with the same setup, I was on the lawn over some sand remnants from blasting. Kicked it up something awful. Luckily I did have the filter on, but with all the glass out of it at the time, I'm *still* cleaning sand out of the interior!

Jeb: Crate engine is a great idea, something I wish I had done. Also, the 5-speed transmissions are later, look for a late-eighties to early-nineties T-5 "World Class" transmission, they were beefed up a bit and can handle more torque. As to wiring, everybody has trouble with wiring. A couple of weeks ago at the local Pick 'n Pull, I met a father and son patiently pulling the entire harness out of a '77. They'd been at it for an hour and were almost done (it looked like intestines hanging out of the car). They had brought a couple of pairs of sheet metal snips with them, looked like that sped up the process a lot. The kid was under the dash when I came by. Good luck with your project. It will be fun!

I'm using the same pump as Tim - seems to work fine, moves plenty of fuel, etc. However, the thing *is* noisy. I made the mistake of mounting it to the underside of the "trunk area" immediately in front of the tank. The sheetmetal there resonates pretty good when it's running. I imagine this would be true for any pump at that location. I'd suggest you find a more stout area to mount it to, or consider isolating it using a rubber mount of some kind. I'm going to try to reduce its' speed using a couple of ballast resistors (I'm using it for a TBI setup, so I only need 10-15 psi).

Well I've about finished up the mechanicals of the Z - a '72 with a 327/T5 and GM f/i. I'm going to be using it as a daily driver and (maybe beginning this summer) some touring. Cross-country touring, maybe even *spirited* cross-country touring. That means I'll be burning a lot of hours in the driver's seat, so I'm starting to think about creature comforts. I've already got a pair of Recaro seats, which should both keep me in place and keep my old back from screaming at me. Beyond that, I'm open to suggestions. So here's my poll: For those of you with some hours behind the wheel of an older Z, what would you suggest as your most important "comfort" modification? Tinted windows, a/c, cruise control, nice audio system, sound deadening material, new steering wheel, particular tires, radar detector, etc etc? If I'm going to pack my bags in, say June, I've got 6 months to implement the best improvements. Anxiously awaiting your suggestions.