Wagz

Nope. If my Z looked that good, I'd have a poster on my wall too! BTW - Are you sure that fish in the upper right-hand corner isn't upside-down?

I've decided not to go for the 60s look. I had originally planned to stay as true to original as possible, but there are quite a few 250 GTO replicas out there. Since, the VR is not a true 250 GTO replica anyway I've decided to go for a modern interpretation of the design. So, the gauges will be more modern as will many other aspects of the car. I don't have it all worked out yet. The ideas are still evolving in my mind's eye. At this point I am planning on shaving the door handles entirely.

I bought the V-style (Simpson) dash. I'm not sure how I'll configure the gauge cluster. I was also thinking that the tach should be front and center, but I'm not sure it would look right. One of these evenings when I have nothing better to do, I'm going to make upsome template gauges to mimick the Autometers I'm planning on and play with different configurations.

Here you go. Version 1 Version 2 Not sure if John has a link on his site to these, but I knew where they were.

Ahhh. I think I understand. (I've got some coffee in me now ) Is this what you mean by inner and outer? If so, the easiest thing to do is take a propane torch and burn out the bushing material. It makes a lot of smoke, smell and mess, but the inner sleeve and the bushing material will just fall out. Once the material is all burned free, then hacksaw the outer sleeve and chisel it out. I didn't have a 'real' torch so I picked up one of those cheap torches at Home Depot that screw into the little green canisters of propane to do the job. It worked well. Hopefully, this is what you meant. (If not, I'll have another cuppa joe and try to open my eyes fully)

I always felt that Lorraine Bobbet was innocent of any real malice toward her husband. All she wanted to do was make soup for dinner...

Aren't you reversing the inner and outer descriptions? Or, am I backwards? I haven't had any coffee yet this morning so, I could be in a parallel universe still. The inner ones (by my weak memory) were the easy ones. They just slipped off the control arm and the new ones slipped on. The outer ones were a b!#@$. I puchased the spindle-pin puller from a member here and used my impact wrench to get the pins off. It wasn't too bad to do. The puller tool is worth 4 times it's cost! I used a hacksaw to carefully cut a slice in the sleeves after burning out the old bushing material and used a chisel/punch to get them out. Personally, I would definately do them all. If the control arms are going to come off the car anyway, the cost of the extra bushings and the incremental time added to put them in is worth it. If you have your differential out of the car, I would go ahead and replace the mustach bar bushings too. All your bushings are likely 30 years old and even if they look/feel solid, they could probably use replacement. I ponied-up for the full kit from Suspension.com I have an old copy of the Z-Therapy VHS tape that takes you completely through the process. If you interested in watching that before you start, PM me and we can work something out.

Hey, JP. I spent some time worrying about this question too. In the end I did mine while the car was on the rotisserie. I was careful to strip the car to the absolute bare shell (every last nut, bolt, wire, etc.) to get the maximum amount of weight off the uni-body. I was undecided about leaving the doors on. I wanted to get the weight of the doors off the car, but they do add some rigidity to the chassis when they are on the car (closed, of course ). In the end, I decided the chassis would remain straight without them and removed them. I also did only one side at a time, cutting out the rotted floor pan on the passenger side, welding in the subframe connector, welding in the new pan material, etc. Then I moved on to the driver's side. I test fitted the doors when I was done to make sure they would open and closed easily. It's not a scientific test, but I feel confident the chassis remained straight. If you have the time and the inclination, you could add some kind of temporary door frame bracing going from the base of the A-pillar to the somewhere above the door latches to brace the open space and give the car more rigidity while installing the SF connectors. I'm not sure how Pete did his, but I'm pretty sure Tim240Z did his while on a rotisserie as well. It made test fitting and welding the subframe connectors SO MUCH easier. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress. -Marc

I've dealt with JTR on two different occasions and got my stuff immediately and without hassle. I guess it just depends on who answers the phone (or internet orders) and what side of the bed they woke up on. In any case, there are specs in the conversion manual that you can use to build your own radiator bracket. It should be pretty simple. (and cheaper)

No problem. I got a rattle-can of yellow paint somewhere. Otherwise, I'll go native and use the four matching cinder blocks I have laying around somewhere...

I'm not suggesting anyone kill the graphics from their sigs completely. Just be conscious of the size since, it takes up space and bandwith for the users on low speed connections. Since, I've already come out of the closet on my JSR aspirations, can I be a member too? I think the T-shirt idea is cool. And, unfortunately, my car is destined to be on the stands for quite a while longer... Here's my proof of jackstands for admitance into the fold: (I'll try not to be a hypocrite and post a link rather than a graphic. ) http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2018

Well, as long as the thread has gone sour anyway... [Rant] My complaint isn't so much about the amount of JSR banter going on (hey, I should be a member. My car has been on jackstands or a rotisserrie for almost 2 years. ...and I want a JSR T-shirt ). Everyone is welcome and the non-tech stuff can be fun to read too. (Especially, Aux's contributions) My beef is more related to the graphics being imbedded in signatures. I know it's not just the JSR guys but, geez, you can't read a good thread without a massive amount of repeating graphics that add nothing to the thread. It's cool to be proud of your ride/club affiliations and want to show it off, but I think it should be kept to a reasonable minimum (maximum?). Fortunately, I'm on a fast broadband connection at work and at home so, it isn't too bad for me. But, it's gotta kill those members on a slow (read: dial-up) connection. Be kind to your Hybrid Brothers (and sisters). Minimize the sig graphics. [/Rant]

Here is a couple of shots of the finished product. I don't have any of the process.

USC got ripped on the Sugar Bowl and I blame my Washington State Cougars. If the Cougs would not have choked in their game against those damn UW Huskies, USC's win over the Cougs would have gotten more credit in the BCS rankings as a quality win. It should have been enough for USC to edge LSU for the Sugar Bowl. ...and my Cougs would have been in Pasadena on New Years...

Wow! That was a Nissan factory service manual and not a Chilton's or Haynes? If so, killer deal!

You can upload directly to your own personal gallery on this site, or the general site gallery. If you have problems with that, I can set you up on my site too.

Very Nice!! It looks like the Velo Rossa tilt front. Is the entire body from John Washington? **EDIT: Just saw you are in NZ. Probably not John's work.** Also, looks to be Nissan powered. Is that an RB20?

Bill - Looks good! (and familiar) I'm not sure I'd call 'em fond memories, though.

Yup. We moved away from most of our families so, these days I'm down to supporting our cars, my brother-in-law's cars and a few neighbors and friends. (I even get called in the middle of the night to be the family/friend 'tow truck' operator) My wife and I are both professional computer geeks so, we get that duty too. Her folks ocassionally even mail us their laptop to fix.

I used this cell from Summit: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=23367&from=MG I'm not planning on doing serious racing outside of some autocross and track days, but this worked out well. One of the other reasons I installed this one was to center the cell in the car and run dual exhaust out either side. Can't do that (easily) with the stock tank.

Congratulations!! Way cool! I thought the first couple of years with my daughter were tough (diapers, no sleep, etc). She's 16 now and I would gladly trade these 'protective dad' years and go back to changing diapers. Nah, not really. I would like to pop a couple of the boys up side the head that keep sniffing around, though. Get your sleep where/when you can. Your gonna need it.

Nic - Damn shame about the Z, but like said above, the most important thing is that your ok and will be around to build another one. Be thankful for that and start shopping for another Z to love.

I've only seen the original shop manuals available on eBay once and they didn't go cheap. I bought the manual on CD and I'm glad I did. All of the chapters are in their own .pdf files and you can print-off pages or entire chapters to take out to the garage. You can get the pages greasy, tear them, write notes on them and throw em away when you're done. When you need them again, print another copy.

Wheelman: I see you are from South East Washington. Where abouts? I was born and raised in the Tri-Cities (Kennewick). (Sorry to hijack the thread)