Wagz

Portland = 151 days of precipitation/year on average. Seattle = 150 days of precipitation/year on average. Generally, it's beautiful in the Portland area from May through mid-October. But, the winters are dark and wet, no question. The housing prices aren't at SoCal levels yet, but they have really gone way up the last several years. I couldn't afford to buy my own house at today's valuation. Traffic generally sucks in all directions. I do love being within one hour of the beach, 1.5 hours of good snow skiing and .5 hours to good watersports, windsurfing, etc. in the Columbia Gorge. That being said, my wife and I have been talking about moving out of here too. I've considered the Spokane/Couer d'Alene area - beautiful place. Not enough high-tech jobs to make it attractive to my wife and I. We both were born/raised in the Tri-City area and have no real desire to go back although we did like it Ok there. Boise, Id. - Like Wheelman said the traffic is getting worse, but I really like the area. Nice suburbs, really nice downtown area, plenty of high-tech jobs. Lots of outdoor activites. We'd consider it. Raleigh/Durham, NC - I have friends that have moved there and love it. My wife spent some time there while on assignment for her job and loved it. I've heard nothing but good things. My brother spent the last two years in S. Florida (Ft. Lauderdale area) and hated every moment. He bought 6 acres an hour inland from Myrtle Beach S. Carolina a few months back and loves it there so far. The downside is that he is a few hours from any major metropolitan area. My wife and I are curious about Colorado. Denver, Boulder areas. We've been surfing the web a lot lately try to find the next great place to live. We figure we've go one more big move in us before we're ready to stay put.

From the vid: http://www.hornblasters.com/ That would be fun in a Z...

I bought a spot-weld cutter/bit from the local autobody supply house. It worked fairly well for me. You need to make sure you get a cutter that is big enough in diameter to cut around the entire spot-weld. The first one I bought was just a tiny bit too small and didn't work well. The second (larger) one worked fine, but I would occasionally cut entirely through both panels if I wan't paying close attention to the drilling depth.

Redneck Air Conditioning. It creates a bit of an aerodynamic drag, but on the positive side you won't need a spoiler to keep the rear planted; The weight of the generator has got you covered! I wonder what his HP/BTU ratio is? Love those tail lights, too! (I apologize if this has been posted before.)

Maybe something was up with the search function when you tried, but there are tons of posts on this. I just found pages of them a few minutes ago. You can add reinforcement without cutting the existing pan. I used Pete's method mentioned above, but several guys have used stout c-channel fitted over the existing oem supports, taking the new c-channel all the way to the rear and stitch welding it into place. You'll have to comb through a lot of posts on the subject, but all the info you need is here.

Hee, hee. Somehow I doubt it. Let's start a pool to predict how many days it will be before Mike breaks his resolution. I say he'll break it by Friday. I resolve just to find time to work on my VR this year. Let alone, have it "done" or even running...

Yeah' date=' and I'm one of 'em. [center']Happy New Year to the HybridZ family! [/center]

If you practice, you won't be a novice for long. And when welding on the nice thin metal of a Z, the extra control/adjustability is definitely in your favor and worth the expense. I think you'll be much better-off with the 135 in the long run than with some of the cheaper, less adjustable models. Just my humble opinion. A hands-on class at your local community college is best. You get the benefit of a knowledgable instructor giving you immediate feedback. I bought a good MIG welding instructional video from Eastwood Company and the Miller book and started practicing. I bought a bunch of scrap metal in various thicknesses from a local steel yard and began welding after/while watching the video several times. Make some welds, cut them apart, inspect your weld depth/penetration and repeat the process until you are confident in what you are doing. The Millermatic 135 is a good welder, even for a novice.

That's similar to an experience I had. Although, as far as I know the only boneheaded thing I did was not having a fire extinguisher in the car. Just as I was pulling up to the gas pumps to fill up, I notice what I thought was steam wisping up from the front of my '87 300Z. Hmmmm? It was summer time and I thought the car was over heating. I popped open the hood to find flames coming from the vicinity of the a couple of the injectors. I frantically look for an extinguisher around the pump island. Nothing. Went running into the convenience store and loudly asked wherer their extinguisher was while pointing to my flaming car next to their gas pumps. The attendants nearly knocked each other over running around looking for one. I finally realized I was standing next to it, grabbed it off the wall and ran out to extinguish the flames. The keystone cops followed me out to watch. After the flames were out, one of the attendants sticks his head under the hood to check out the burned carnage. Just as he did this something went "POP! FSSsshhhhhhh!!!" It scared the poor guy so badly, he banged his head on the hood pretty hard trying to get away. I think he had to go change his underwear after that. Now, I always have an extinguisher in all my cars!

Thanks. I would be interested. It never hurts to have a rebuildable spare. It's a bit of a hike down to your end of the state, but I may be able to do it in a few months if it's still available. I know I'll be going to Newport in early February. Maybe I can come a little further south then. I'll check with you after the new year. Just out of curiosity, which motor/head combo is it?

In high school, I purchased a used hood in perfect condition to replace the badly dented/warped one on my Chevy Monza. Two weeks later I went for a test ride after a tune-up. I got up to a fairly good speed on the local highway only to find I hadn't latched the hood completely. It flew up, blocked my view and acted like a sail to rapidly slow me down and nearly send me sailing off the road... just before it bent backward about a foot. It was a total loss and I had to put the old dented hood back on...

Works for me. Here's some pics from my Velo Rossa project:

LOL. Too true. If that were really the case, I'd have been dead many, many years ago. So far, I haven't found any other issues. I got the car back in the garage and let it thaw out. I haven't really inspected it thoroughly yet. It's too damn cold and I was too lazy to fire up the propane heater and get on it today...

I'm the one who posted about a rookie mistake yesterday. It wasn't my dumbest mistake, though. About 15 years ago my brother-in-law asked me to do a motor swap in his mid-80's S-10 4x4. He had burned up the original V6 and I agreed to swap in a replacement wrecking yard engine. I spent the better part of a day yanking out the old motor and bolting in the new one (which included having to unbolt the cab from the frame and jack it partially off the frame to get the motor in/out - this was right out of the shop manual, I swear). At the end of the day I had it all in. Hoses all connected, belts on and adjusted, wiring done, anti-freeze, etc. I mentally went over the check-list and decided I was ready to fire it up. I turned the key and it fired-up the first try. There was a little bearing noise. No big deal, it was just getting the oil pressure up after sitting for who knows how long... Oh, Crap!! Motor Oil!!!! Like I said in my other post: sometimes I'm a forgetful moron. The good news was that there wasn't much serious damage. My brother-in-law drove the truck without issues for several more years.

Sorry to hear about your truck, Larry. What a pain... I wouldn't mind having a spare motor to rebuild, but I have zero room for another car. My wife is pressuring me to get rid of one of the Z's to make some room. I don't even have room to bring home a freebie temporarily while I pull the motor. Thanks for thinking of me though!

Yeah, I know. As far as I know most, if not all, cars depend on the anti-corrosion and lube properties of antifreeze. I never run any car on straight water for more than a few days after a rebuild. I just plain forgot about it. I deserve what I get on this one...

...for committing such a rookie mistake! Earlier this summer I bought a basket-case 260Z and have been slowly rebuilding/restoring it. Some of you might recall a post a while back where I was looking for good solutions to a busted head bolt. I got it Heli-coiled and got it running, but never got back to getting the carbs dialed-in, etc. I parked it outside a few months ago so my wife could park her precious Maxima in the garage during the cooler months and I haven't had time to get back to finishing the car. For the last few months we've been gone every weekend working on a rental house we own in Eastern Washington and every week I've been traveling on business. This weekend is the first weekend I haven't been gone in almost two full months. Annnyy wayyy, it very rarely gets too cold in Portland, OR. Rainy, yes. Frozen, rarely. Over the last few weeks we've had extended frozen weather and I'd completely forgotten about the decrepit little 260Z on the RV pad. That was mistake number two. Mistake number one was leaving it out there with nothing but straight water in the radiator. I always put straight water in a newly rebuilt engine until I know that there are no head gasket leaks, manifold leaks, etc. After I've verified it's all is good, then I drain it and add anitfreeze. We'll I forgot about it this time. This morning I went out and looked under the car with some dread. Yep, sure enough there was a little frozen stream of water under the block. When I rolled the car back, I found a freeze plug on the ground. At least the plug did it's job. I hate it when I do stupid things. The plug is on the passenger side right behind the alternator so, it'll be easier to replace. So, you think I'll get lucky and that's all the damage I'll have to repair? Nah, me neither. I'm such a moron...

Check out this Rat powered snow blower. Our brothers in the northern regions need one of these!

Well said Mike! I learned almost all of those things the hard way myself. Most of the knowledge came with experience and age. The only thing I would add would be that in addition to not being cheap on parts, don't be cheap on tools. Good quality tools will save a lot of time, effort and frustration. There were so many jobs I've done over the years that I made so much more difficult and frustrating because I bought cheap tools or didn't buy the right tool for the job. Sometimes it seemed like a waste of money to purchase a specialty tool for jobs that I would be rarely doing. Experience says otherwise! It's amazing how many times I've had to re-learn the lesson that the cost of the RIGHT tool for a job is sooooo worth the time/knuckles/frustration saved!! The other thing I've learned is that a little patience goes a long, long way in making most jobs a lot easier and more tolerable. Patience (at least, for me) only came with age... -Marc

Those are great! I shared that with all my geek friends. I'm feel better knowing that the Experts Exchange changed their domain name. I was feeling stupid thinking that I've been to that site many times and never noticed the funny domain name...

Hmmm. Those knots weren't in my boyscout manual...

Hmmmmm. Righ in my back yard, but it seems too good to be true.??: If I wouldn't have to retain a divorce lawyer for bringing these home, I'd at least go check them out. As it is, I don't even want to be tempted...

Thats exactly what I did on my 240: Summit 20 gallon cell with GM sending unit. Tim: Yeah, I was thinking about the late 260 and the 280's being similar body and bumper-wise. I assumed the tanks would be pretty close...

I just happen to have the tank from my late 260 sitting on a workbench so, I went out and snapped a quick pic. It should be very close to, if not the same as, your 280 tank. You can see the four rectangular pads on top of the tank. I did a quick tank cleaning job in my garage using CLR, a box of bolts and my pressure washer. It came out better than I expected. I'm just waiting for the internal coating I ordered to be delivered...