Wagz

I spent a little more time with an image editor tonight (not much more time) and came up with a couple of versions of lights on Dan's car. Check 'em out: 300ZX Lights (version 1) 300ZX Lights (version 2) Supra Lights Hey, Dan - Would you run out in the garage and paint the entire back half of your car gloss black and take a picture for me? I want to make the photos of these lights blend in better. -Marc

I've only completed stripping the engine bay so far. I tried stripper on a section. It was messy to say the least. I ended-up having very good results with Scotch-brite pads on Roloc discs. I picked up a Roloc adaptor for my high-speed drill and an assortment of 4" and 5" discs from the local autobody supply house. The Scotch-brite discs take the paint off in a hurry. Like Vertex recommended, keep a good face mask handy. The dust goes everywhere.

When I have some time this evening I'll mess-around with these some more. I still have the problem of not having the exact dimensions of the donor lights so, I have to eyeball these the best I can. Dan - Do you have any (or know where I can find) 'straight-on' photos of 300ZX lights? I may be able to do something whith some of the photos taken at an angle, but it'll be a challenge with my meager skills. -Marc

I couldn't resist playing around with the Supra tail lights idea. Dan - My apologies to you and Eric for taking liberties with a photo of your car. Anyway, here is a fairly good idea of how they might look. No jokes about my lack of photo editing skills. BTW, here is the Supra I borrowed the lights from.

Those 300ZX lights look sweet! Nice job Phil. Dan - I'm no Photoshop pro, but I'll see what I can do with those Supra lights. However, I need basic measurments of the Toyota lights so I can build a good representation of how they would fit in the Z's tail panel. I know someone on the site recently bought a Supra turbo, I just can't remember who. If I can get someone to send me measurments (and maybe a few more pics) I'll build something in photoshop. -Marc

Dan - Actually, after I saw Eric's post I went and searched for Supra sites. So, no, I didn't actually photograph those myself. But, were on the same wavelength. I'm hoping to take the photos I've found and super-impose them on pics of my (or other's) Z to come up with an idea of how they would look. I need to get actual measurements from the Supra lights. I'll post when I come up with something.

I've always thought the '93+ Celica Supra lights would be an interesting swap. The slight curve to the lens present a bit of a challenge.

If Ross doesn't have the ring & pinion anymore, Eric Neyerlin at Z Parts has a complete R200 with a 3:36 ratio(click on the "Drivetrain" tab). I emailed him about it a week ago. I can't quite afford it yet.

VR Engineering has a couple of kits for the ZX. I think they are both convertibles. I ordered a kit for my 240 from them. A couple of other guys on this site have products from them too. They do some nice work there. The only problem is that I believe you only have up to July 19th to order a kit because they are selling the automotive portion of the business. It may be a while before a new owner has kits in production.

Man, I sympathize with you. I herniated a disk in my lower back last year. I was laid-out for weeks and spent several more in physical therapy. I spent the time surfing this site and countless other and put together my long-term project plan for the Z. If you can, start collecting the parts you'll need and stockpile them until you can get back out in the shop. Don't sell the car. You'll have to find something else to spend your down-time scheming about.

My MillerMatic 135 came plumbed for gas. It included the regulator and line too. I just had to purchase a bottle of gas and get started...

A good Mig welder will do almost anything you need as far as work on your Z. I was in the same place as you about 6 months ago. My brother convinced me that it wasn't tough to learn to weld with a Mig. So, I bought a Millermatic 135, a couple of welding books and some scrap metal and started practicing (a lot). I also purchased a pretty good welding video from the Eastwood Company . It was helpful in actually showing what a good and bad weld look like and you could hear that "frying egg" sound to know what to listen for. It really isn't as difficult as I thought. Lone is right, take a class if you have the time and $. My problem is/was an extreme lack of free-time. I'll never weld at Lone's level, but I'm pretty confident in my meager welding abilities after lots of late-night practice. I say "Just Do It."

I'm building a Velo Rossa and want achieve that same sound. I was told to split the dual exhuast into "quad-exhaust" as close to the headers as possible and use dual-in, dual-out mufflers on each side. I honestly have no idea if that will truely work. The problem (and expense) is getting four pipes under an already space-challenged Z. I doubt I will go that route myself.

Pete - I'm a little late chiming in too, but I gotta say your car looks absolutely fantastic! I can't tell you how many times I've been to your site (2nd only to HybridZ) to educate myself on this project I've undertaken. All of the work you've done on your 11 year project is paying dividends for all of us. As my car sits a bare shell on jack stands, I've made one of your latest pictures the background on my desktop to remind me of where I want my project to end up. Congratulations on a job done extremely well! More photos!!!!!!!!! Puhleez!

I didn't have time to get by Home Depot tonight and pick up a second pipe wrench, but I did find a 3ft. length of square, mild steel tubing hiding in the shop. It fit nicely over the handle of my wrench. So, I clamped the housings in my vise,heated those suckers up really good and was able to coax them loose with more leverage. Why couldn't I find that tubing yesterday?! I'm waiting for the strut pin removal tool I odered from Dan Batha and I'll get the rear struts taken down. I should be ready to section them this weekend.

Yeah, my first (and usually, correct) reaction is to be nervous and suspicious Eventually, I know I'll pay the price in whatever way she deems appropriate. She will definately be holding the upper hand for a while. Oh, well. I got what I want for now.

Harley said that they were getting quite a bit of last minute interest in the kits. There are several other people getting orders in the pipeline. I was considering not ordering one right now. I'm still working on a lot of mechanical upgrades and wanted to have them done before I had a body kit on hand. It was my wife who talked me in to ordering one now. I couldn't believe it. I had to order while the planets were aligned and she was actually supporting my automotive habit.

Just got off the phone with Harley at VR Engineering. I placed my order for a complete Velo Rossa kit with some upgrades and a Simpson Dash. They expect to have it ready to go in a few weeks. I am soooo psyched! Next stop: Mike (scca) for Stage III, 5 lug brakes all the way around. My wife is right; shopping is fun!

Ouch!!! ...and the smell of burning flesh fills the garage. Seriously, I didn't heat them up that much. They smoked but weren't turning red. I'll try that if one of these other methods don't work.

These days I have to keep my garage door closed while I work on my car for liability reasons I have been known to throw things out the door when seriously frustrated. Several years ago I got pissed off while working underneath my wife's car and tossed a ratchet out from under the car, down the driveway and accross the sidewalk, narrowly missing the ankles of a neighbor out for a walk. Fortunately, I missed her and she had a sense of humor.

Good idea. I can think of a couple of different ways to get some good leverage on the strut tube like that. Just gotta be careful not to damage the spindle surface...

I've finally gotten around to pulling the entire suspension off of my 240 and have started tearing-down the struts. I've re-read the posts about plenty of penetrating oil(soaked repeatedly with WD-40 over 24 hours) and use of a torch to help persuade those pesky gland nuts loose... and the ^#@$! things will not budge! I've only got one pipe wrench and have been clamping the tubes in a vise (hoping not to damage them not too severly) and wrenching on them. All to no avail. Tomorrow I'm gonna purchase a second pipe wrence and get them working in opposing directions like johnc or scca suggested. Keeping my fingers crossed. Any other ideas?

This was the post I was referring to: Consumer Alert Like Jamie pointed out, it is from 1998. I have no personal experience with Thunder Ranch other than calling to get pricing and ask if an install manual was available for purchase. The person I spoke to was less than friendly and helpful. I wasn't impressed. Could have just been a bad day... Anyway, the Velo Rossa kit is still available for a short time. Harley Lever at VR Engineering emailed me a few days ago. He said that if you can have the kit paid in full by July 19th then you can still get one. After the 19th we'll have to wait for the new owner(whoever that may be) to make them available. I plan on ordering a Velo Rossa kit this week.

I just came upon this site tonight: Beaterz.com I particularly enjoyed the "Simply Rice" Section. This hack on a custom Geo Metro was one of my favorites: Metro

Oh, crap!! This really screws up my plans! I came into the cash I needed to purchase my kit about a week ago and haven't ordered yet. I really don't care for the hard top version as much. But, I guess Stable Autoworks is still around if the Velo Rossa isn't available from a new owner soon. On the positive side, I guess I have no more excuses not to order the stage III, 5 lug brake upgrades from Mike I've had my eye on.