Z-TARD

From what I could find, the duratec stuff seems like it would be better suited for using as a finish layer on a smoother type of foam. The kit I found came with sealant, and several different primers, but nothing that would leave the amount of buildup required for the foam I'm working with. Depending on how the dash turns out, I may end up using the duratec products along with a smoother styrofoam for my next project (ducted carbon fiber hood) Owen, I'm pretty sure I'll be around on the 25th, I'll pm you with contact info. You driving the Z down here? Mike

Guiness out of a tap is almost always good, the bottled and canned stuff gives it a bad name I think. For fun factor, I'd have to say Tiger beer is one of my favorites. I've only ever seen it in places like Maylasia and Singapore, which might have something to do with my fond memories of it, or rather lack of memories.... Kind of a watery taste with a hint of formaldahide, the recipe seems to vary with location. A Tiger beer at one bar may taste slightly different than at the bar 100 feet down the road. After 3 or 4 they all pretty much taste the same anyway. Australia has a large selection of excellent beers as well, Fosters being at the very bottom of the list. Last time I was there I got hooked on a hard cider called Strongbow, very tastey and potent stuff. Unfortunately I cant seem to find it anywhere in the states Mike

As I recall from a previous thread on this, isn't the CD of a 4x8 sheet of plywood (flat side facing out) something like .46? It would be interesting to have a Z in a wind tunnel with a clear base to sit on, so you could veiw the airflow from under the car as it interacts with the road surface. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of the Z's areodynamic problems are caused by the large airflow into the grill area, exiting under the car as it hits the firewall. If you had a clear lexan hood, you could tie strips of yarn in the engine bay to see how the under hood airflow behaves at speed Mike

I saw your car at the last MSA show, needless to say I was very impressed with it, especially your execution of the interior scheme. I love the way it has a very organic, liquid like appearance to it. The only improvement I could suggest would be to do it all over again in carbon fiber I'll probably end up going with a more subdued look for my own though, I've always been a huge fan of flat black. My mold making skills are probably not up to the required skill level to pull off a shiny finish anyway, the dull black will hide a lot of imperfections which I'm sure there are going to be plenty of I put more DAP on the foam plug tonight, it will probably take about a week to dry though due to the humidity out here lately. The stuff I put on it last night was still pretty soft when I checked it today. The Epoxy paint (it says epoxy on the label, but I kinda think it isn't.....) appears to be compatible with the DAP that I applied to a scrap for testing. If all goes according to my evil plan, I should be ready to lay up some cloth and resin by next week. Mike

Still no worky?

Sweet! Getting advice from experienced sources always helps. One of the areas I'm not so sure aout is using DAP as a surfacing material, none of the books I've read have mentioned using products like it at all. The book I'm using as a reference mentions painting a foam mold with laytex paint to protect it from the resins in bondo, and then using bondo to build up the final surface prior to painting. It just seems to make more sense to use a product like bondo that wont attack the styrofoam to build up to a smooth surface, and skip the painting with laytex step altogether. I'm going to try some Epoxy appliance paint that I got at home depot for the final finish, after testing for compatability on scraps of foam/DAP of course. For the most part I'm trying to stick with materials that can be picked up at local stores like Wal Mart and Home Depot, the exception being the epoxy laminating resin and carbon fiber cloth. Thanks for the help, Mike

I'm going to paint the rest of the dash with bed liner paint, which should have enough surface texture to conceal the different layers of cloth. The vacuum bagging will also help to create a more uniform surface as well. The only visible carbon will be the center section. As cool as a complete carbon dash would be, I don't think I'd like all the glare from the upper surface in the windshield. Maybe after a flat clear coat..... I picked up more DAP stuff tonight, and should have the whole thing covered by tommorow, after that lots and lots of sanding. I've rigged up a cheap 12v tire inflator from Wal Mart to act as a vacuum pump for bagging, hopefully it will last long enough for the project befor grenading itself. Mike

Sweet! I didn't even know they made an MP5 style paintball gun! Now I'm gonna lose sleep at night because the little voices are telling me I have to go out and get one of those:) Mike

After removing my dash to install my new autometer gauges, I noticed how bad its condition really was, and how heavy it was....Behold the birth of yet another side project. My original intent was to create a new dash entirely out of carbon fiber, the cost of materials convinced my to make a hybrid glass/carbon dash instead. The carbon fiber will only be in areas where gauges and heater controls are mounted to increase strength, and for the most part will be largely cosmetic rather than structural. The remainder of the dash will be alternating layers of glass mat and cloth layed out with epoxy resin. I've nearly finished the foam plug that I will be laying the material up on. The foam is all carved out, now I have to cover it with something I can sand to a smooth surface and paint. I stumbled across some stuff in Wal Mart's paint department that I'm going to give a try. It's called DAP, and is a vinyl based spackel compound that would normally be used for drywall. It dries to a hard and non water soluble surface though, and is easy to work with and clean up. Once I get that to a smooth finish I'll paint it, wax it, wax it, wax it, spay on some mold release and lay up some sticky crap on it. Everything will go into a vacuum bag for a few hours, and hopefully everything will turn out OK Heres pics of what I have so far: Mike

I got my Enfield at Big 5 also. Oddly enough, they have better prices than any of the gun stores I looked at for vintage military rifles. That Mauser looks sweet Aux, cant wait to see what it looks like once you get it refinished. Mike

Thanks for the tip about the jack. I briefly considered doing that, until I looked at it and realized that there is nothing but thin sheetmetal to brace the jack against. I suppose if all else fails, I can take the hinges off the door, hold it in place and just weld it there. Maybe paint the car orange with a confederate flag across the top..... I'll probably end up crushing the rocker to a certain extent by slide hammering it back into position, but at this point I don't really see any other option short of cutting the rocker out and replacing it with a new one. I should be able to drive out there and work on it again in a few weeks, I'll post some more pics once I've taken the hammer to it Mike

The interesting part will be finding a way to pull this back into alignment: All I can think of is to C-clamp an oak board on either side of the lower door sill, and the attach a slide hammer to the clamps. It will probably take a few hours of hammering to slowly undo what some dumbass did in a few seconds. Needless to say, I'm not really worried about making a show car out of this one, my plan for now is to make a cheap daily driver out of it. Hopefully this will take less than 10 years Mike

Made another trip to Tucson to work on my second Z last weekend. This one gets a lot less attention than my 240 does because it's over 500 miles away, and not quite ready to make the drive to San Diego. I've replaced all of the metal on the front of the car, along with the passenger side door. I'll need to figure out a way to get the door to line up though, as the lower mount appears to have been pushed inwards about an inch by the collision that totaled the original door. I like how the wheels look, although I think I should have gone with 45 series tires rather than 40. (205-40/17). I wanted a kind of modern interpretation of the panasport wheel, and these are about as close as I could find without actually getting panasports. Anyway, pics: This is the Z as it was when I first got it. Looks like something left over from an episode of the Red Green show...... Here it is as of yesterday. Total cost for all junkyard sheetmetal, bling bling "HID" headlights, and new wheels and tires was around $800. bringing the total project cost so far to just over 1K. God I love how cheap these things are. Mike

The 60,000 psi weld probably means it was welded with 6011 weld rod or something similar. The first two numbers in most steel alloy weld rods/wires denote its tensile strength in psi. If the weld is large enough, you'd definitely snap an axle before the weld ever breaks, but I don't think driving with a welded diff would be a good idea if you ever plan on turning at all, especially if you have stickiy tires. Hope this helps, Mike

I envy you though, at least yours has managed to spiral itself off of jackstands. One of these days, my car will roll on its own power again, one of these days.... Mike

Since it's only 1/16" thick, and about 3 pounds per sheet, you could probably just layer glass or carbon right over it and incorporate it into the final product, rather than using it as a mold only. Just layer on the cloth and resin and vacuum bag the whole thing: Done. Carbon fiber dash for about $150 or less. I'm going to continue with my foam plug for a dash, but I might use it to mold some of this stuff over rather than making the carbon fiber part directly off of it. My original dash is probably good enough to use for molding this stuff, but I've chosen to redesign the whole thing from scratch to look more like the 350Z dash, so the original isn't much use to me. It never ceases to amaze me how this car can spawn new projects that just spiral wildly out of control. In retrospect, I should have just built a new car from scratch.... Mike

I may get corrected here, but I've always jacked mine up by either the center of the front crossmember in front, or by the rear end in the back, just forward of the diff cover. Jack stands can be placed under the front crossmember as well, and on the rear subframe just ahead of the rear tires. My car has sat on jackstands like this for many moons..... Mike

From my limited experience, it seems the heat generated by resin as it cures is largely dependant on the amount of resin used. I think you could probably get away with using this stuff for a mold if you were only laying up one or two layers of cloth over it, and once those cure, you could put as much over the top of that as you need. Unfortunately, this comes a little to late for me, as I am about 50% complete with making a styrofoam plug to make a new dash out of. If only I would have seen this stuff a week ago..... Mike

Found this stuff on ebay, 1/16" thick sheet that forms by hand when heated to 150-170 f. By itself, it would probably be useless for most automotive applications due to its heat sensitivity. I'm betting it could be usd as a mold for fiberglass or carbon fiber though....... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8156331773&fromMakeTrack=true

Ditto on the DAD seats, they kick arse. I'm 6'2", and I'm pretty sure they sit a little lower than the stock seats did, as I've gained about an inch of clearance above my head with these. They also seem to have better quality control than a lot of seats that are in the same price range, the APC seats come to mind as being particularly bad. The DAD's are probably comparable to seats in the $600 per seat range. Having said that though, I don't think I can recommend them, since there are already at least 3 of us on Hybridz that have them, and it would detract from the originality of our cars if everyone else gets them:) Mike

I've been thinking of an updated look, with a slight nod towards old school. I like the black hood of the 432 fairladys, along with the bolt on ZG flares and fender mount mirrors, but mine will probably be made from carbon fiber (except for the mirrors, they're hard enough to find in the original plastic material) The exterior will be a rolling display of carbon fiber and Chevy Orange paint, riding on tires that just *barely* fit under the car. Absolutely no chrome or simulated carbon fiber, everything will be either clearcoated/polished in it's natural form, or painted Chevy orange. So far though, the predominant theme is rust and primer, along with lots of stubborn upholstry adhesive. It'll be a long time before I'm anywhere near finished with this Mike

I pulled a set of 300ZXT (86 if I remember correctly, not the 88SE) CV's a few weeks ago, they look like they will plug right into a standard R-200 open diff. They dont look like the shaft ends from the R-200 VLSD I have though. Looks like I'll have to find some out of an 88SE. Mike

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, the only camera I had was the one in my cell phone. From what I could tell, the panels were all hand made, nothing was taken from another car. Someone definitely had some skill with an english wheel, I dont think it would take much bondo at all to blend that stuff in. Unfortunately, I only have room in my garage for 1 Z, and barely enough for that. And as much as I like the design of it, it's not exactly what I'm going for with my project. I'm not sure if Ecology will sell an entire car, but if anyone is interested, its located in the Ecology import yard in southern San Diego. Directions from I-5 south: Take Main street exit, turn left on Main Street. Turn left on Nirvana, follow for about 1/2 mile. Turn right on Energy Way, Ecology yard will be the first junkyard on the right side. I hope someone buys it, or at least the front clip off of it. It would be a shame to let something like this get crushed. EDIT: Phone# for Ecology Import yard is (619)661-4542 http://www.ecoparts.com/locations.htm

Found this at the local Pick and Pull today, looks like they were trying to make it look like a Volvo P-1800......maybe..... My pics wont show for some reason, but they should work if you cut and paste them to your browser window. If you ever wondered what the offspring of datsun and volvo would look like, these might be of intertest. Mike