Trevor

Stairsteps

Lots of photos, unfortunately the show the same things. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2444028372 Not affiliated with the seller so I'm posting here For Informational purposes Only

Hey Warren, You're not in California are you? '84 Engine in a '86 registered car is a no-no. Keep us posted how this goes. 300ZX swaps are rare, but anything you can share would be of interest to us all.

5% So, if you redline at freeway speeds at 5000 RPM, the same speed will only require 4750 RPM. If you spend $20 / week for gas it will cost $19 / week to go the same distance. $50 / year in 10 years the diff swap might pay for itself

Rather than a permanent install, I am now thinking (read: daydreaming) about a remove-able panel. Not hinged, but something that could be un-bolted...... just thinking about trivia like access to tail lights, spare tire, the 3 nuts on top of the struts.... Yep, still could be either steel or fibreglas.

Specific Muncie 4 speed casting numbers here: http://www.5speeds.com/muncie2.htm http://mywebpages.comcast.net/gtopercy/Pictures/muncie.html Muncie Identification: http://www.interlog.com/~muncie/history.html Lots of pictures: http://www.rancefi.com/CompPricing/Hurst/trans1.htm

Spritle: Macauley Culkin

I was sorting through some stuff out in the garage and found a box of my daughter's old toys. She has the Barbie dream car Ferrari 308 from the late 80's, can you tell we're related? I picked it up and noticed the angular profile, the slant nose. Sr. 'Pinin' Farina go it just right. Then I looked out in the driveway at my '84 300ZXT. Inspired ~ I held the toy car up at the same angle and thought the 1st gen 300ZX would look pretty cool with the Pantera/Ferrari treatment in place of the rear hatch. Anything would look beter than those Federal mandate, Pinto-inspired tail lights. I have seen the fiberglass panel that Arizona Z used to sell for S30 & S130 bodies, has anyone seen a 84-89 300ZX done the same way? With (or without) those long, triangular rear windows it would give it a unique style. And a cooler interior in the summer time. One thing that bothered be about the S30 kit is this tiny rear window. Maybe it's no smaller than a hatch window in perspective. I understand why it was designed like that - because the entire panel had to be narrow enough to fit in the width of the stock hatch, even though the car is wider across the belt line than at the hatch hinge. So I took another look at the miniature Ferrari in my hands.... And at the Z......Also the Ferrari window slants back at the bottom, not forward. The 1st gen Z has those small rear windows, so the back glass was slanted at an angle to match and not block them. Hmmm, a mold without that undercut would be much easier to make and use. Well, to sleep, perchance to dream. Cheaper and more effective than any therapist.

Aged 40. Still have my hair...... Ooops i thought this was a singles dating chat line.

On the tangent of seats - my next project is to find a good pair of JY buckets, and re-cover them with Katskin http://www.katzkin.com/SITE/HTML/index.html Or another company's similar product leather seat covers. My buddy mike did this with a pair of mid-90's Dodge Intrepid buckets in his 240Z. They are big, but very comfy. The stock buckets in my 300ZX are nearly flat, I don't know if they ever had bolsters, but anything would be an improvement

Nope. I imported them from Europe based on the photo thinking they'd fit a MGB, but they are way too big - twice the size of MG tail lights. 12" tall. Or long, maybe they mount sideways.... They are also not as deep as a MG lense. I suspect they go on a base like this on the Aston Martin DB6:

I didn't know there was auto racing in the Petrified Forest.

Wish me luck http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2444236194 If you know anyone into plain Jane British character cars like the Austin or Morris Minor, pass it on.

JC Whitney sells a similar flanged steel channel part # 18ZX8169N here: http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=2615&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&storeId=10101 2" x 3/4" x 36" for $12

If you are really into scrounging JY parts (like me) there are electronic speedo sending units on Nissan transmissions as far back as 1984. i.e. 300ZX digital dash. '84-'86 has a short cable and the VSS in the engine bay, '87-up is on the tailshaft housing. If you are using a F-body transmission, Firebirds switched to electronic speedos in '86-up and Camaros in '92. The sending unit is still mechanically driven by a gear on the output shaft. Some transmissions use a Hall-effect magnetic sensor, I think the 4L60-E doesn't have the gear. I am currently working on a way for the late Camaro transmission to interface with the Nissan digital dash. The gage makers' website, and Hot Rod mag. says most oem VSS signals are sine wave, while their meters prefer square wave, but aftermarket gages will work with either one.

The greatest end product to trickle down from the space program to civilian / commercial use is..... cordless power tools!!! a close second is velcro.

I recently purchased a 5 speed that I believe is a N.O.S. NWC T-5 and has several oddities, but I'm going to make it work. The things that make it unique: - Cast Iron case - gearbox only, the tailshaft house is alloy - 1-1/8" 10-spline input shaft, standard GM length and pilot diameter - 32-spline output shaft, whoa! (same as Super T-10 and TH-400) The tail housing mounting "pad" is slanted 17-deg, so maybe it was for an early GM F-Body. Of course it may not be the original tail housing. Everything else might make me think maybe it was for a Jeep, AMC Eagle, S-10, or another early application. It has a metal tag but it's not the usual 1352-XXX that you can decode at 5speeds.com. I've turned it thru the gears and counted revolutions ~ in vs. out ~ to get an idea of the ratios....1st gear is less that 3:1, even less than 2.95:1 approx. 2.70:1, 5th is approx. 0.70:1. I bought it for the 10 spline input shaft as a bonus, because it will allow me to keep the nearly new clutch in my car, originally had Saginaw also with 1-1/8" 10-spline. But I didn't think about having to get a new yoke to go with that beefy output shaft.

Looks like donor material to me http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2442453862&category=33615 Anyone seen Tim Allen lately? Grrr Grrrr Grrrrunt

I like the Logo, John. See why, my business card, must be a ancient Latin thing. Look! We have the same typeface

But its not a Z Just a blurb in one of their car show stories. It is a 1970 Datsun pickup with a blown 355" SBC. Big meats on the back, probably tubbed. Paint is Chevrolet light blue with a white stripe. Looks like a 70's pickup, Runs 10's. I wish they'd do a feature article on something different like that, but I haven't been bored by their fascination with Fairlanes and Chevelles, yet. Are you a child of the 60's? No, but I am a child in my 40's.

I just went back a re-read this thread. Several mentions say the bracket "will be better than mild steel" since all numbers and cals were based on the tensile strength of mild steel. Just curious, what did you finally use for the brackets, Juan?

"New" blanks on eBay! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2441585768&category=34205 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2442155314&category=10076

Ooooohh a chance to put my art degree to use.... Do you want an engraving or relief image? You can do a lot with hand tools. I made a few belt buckles in the 70's from 20 ga. steel, because I couldn't afford to practice on silver. Envision the way a gunsmith hand-engraves a Colt .45 into a work of art using basically iron-age hammer and chisels. I would start with a a set of round punches - from Harbor Freight, and slightly grind away the square edge so it doesn't puncture the sheet metal. Support the back side with a shot bag (leather bag full of lead shot). Then start in the middle of the design and work you way out to the edges. A process like tooling leather. For a deeper, and more production-appearing product - Someone with a large screw press or hydraulic press or brake might be able to emboss a design into the tops of those rocker covers. The difficult and expensive part is making the "dies". For nice, crisp edges you would want a set - male and female. Heat the steel red-hot first so it stretches without tearing. That initial investment is why Nissan made the same fenders for 8 or 9 years. For less detail you might get by with a male die only and press into a shot bag or a tray of fine, dense sand. A CNC mill can "draw" a design by taking very shallow cuts into the steel, but the surface must be perfectly flat for uniform depth - unless you program in all 3 axes. There is also the "explosion" forming method whereby a female pattern, like a stencil, is used and explosives are detonated on the backside of the steel. I AM JOKING, a contained explosion inside the rocker cover would probably pound it flat. Or shred it. The Chrome plating is hard and brittle and would probably crack away from the deformed steel, so plan on replating them after the decoration process.

No, really this method works. I saw a guy in Tijuana do it with a 1962 Corvette split-window coupe. Or was it the 1902 curved-dash Oldsmobile?........