capt_furious

New avatar: Goofy in 'Motor Mania', a short about road rage...in 1950! He gets in the car and changes from a mild-mannered goody-goody(Mr. Walker) to a raging jerk(Mr. Wheeler) with the crank of the starter:

'Rat rod' is an interesting term...it's more of a recent thing, a backlash against overfinished street rods, and an outgrowth of the recent attempts to take rodding back to its roots: Going fast on a budget with whatever you've got on hand. The resulting never finished / poorly finished look wasn't so much intentional as it was circumstantial. My issue is that people are now building them that way on purpose, but taking it WAY overboard. It's become a parody of itself. A perfect example is the '36 Ford recently featured in Popular Hot Rodding that looked as if it had rolled out of a barn after having been in there since the '50s, complete with worn-out hand-painted racing signage and rust holes... ...and it was a brand-new from the ground up fiberglass-bodied car! The rust was FAKE. Nothing on the car was old. Quoth bjhines: Paint doesn't make it go any faster. THAT'S the spirit. Ignore the cosmetic stuff, and get to it 'someday'. Do anything and everything that doesn't cost anything to go faster. Do what you can with what you've got available, even if it looks stupid, because if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid. It doesn't look like that because you want it that way, it looks like that because you don't care how it looks! THAT'S what rodding is about...not looking cool, going fast. *picks up soapbox and lights fire to it* Okay, I'm done.

That's a 240 bumper, the early 260 Z overrider 'warts' were 100% rubber. Got one propped up against the wall in my kitchen right now. Can't see from the photo, but it looks as if the bumper shocks were removed.

...anyone in the Bay Area looking for an N42 L28 long block and 5-speed? They're taking up space and need to go! Let's make a deal.

Drove it home last night with no issues, drove it to work this morning. I was afraid of waking up my apartment complex with the exhaust, but I got out of there fairly quietly. Runs a little rich at this point, I'm probably going to drop it off at a local Z specialty shop and have them put a decent tune on it, check timing, carb sync, etc. Overall I'm very happy with how it turned out. Had a few 'oh, $h!t!' pucker moments, but besides those, the swap went smoothly. Mucho thanks to aux for putting up with me and being such a kick@$$ friend.

Indeed. From Urban Dictionary: bling The word "bling" refers to any unnecessary accumulation of metal or jewellery which impresses the simple-minded. Examples of bling-related activity include: driving a car with shiny platinum rims, arriving at a movie premiere in a hat made of glittering diamonds, or pointing at a big block of gold and cooing away for hours on end like an unforgivable moron whose mere existence ultimately cheapens us all. Bling is the single most shallow, boring and wilfully superficial cultural phenomenon ever to excite humankind, which is saying something for a species already hooked on internet poker. In recent months, collective guilt over the planet's future and the disparity of global wealth have exerted a cooling effect on bling's popularity, although genuine justice will never be achieved until everyone responsible for promoting, propagating, passively approving of, or even being ironically amused by any and all aspects of bling culture has been hunted down and jailed for a minimum of 37 years in a maximum security prison with no carpets, hot water or bog roll. See that blinging car over there, the one with the spinning rims? I bet the driver is a tosser.

Looks like glue / dirt left over from side skirts that were removed.

You're not the first person I've heard of having this pulled on them. Evidently this was a popular prank to pull for April Fool's Day. Personally, I'd be pretty upset that my phone number and car were being listed publicly without my knowledge or consent...not to mention the defamation that would result from a fake DUI! I'd have a lot to answer for if either of my employers or any of my friends and family heard of it. Glad you took it in stride, I'd be pissed.

Nah, I just needed a BIG cake...look, they're decorating it with a high reach!

It's a Wanker!

Anybody have a knife?

Yeah, the socket will come out of the door when I've got the time and light after work. Captain Furious, thank you very much. I didn't go to four months of evil officer school to be called Mister Furious. *evil pinky* Besides, he's a copyrighted character: I wish I'd had the sense to tell the body shop to close up the stock mirror holes when I had the car painted, I'd have gladly mounted the mirror farther forward. As it was, one large hole in the door is enough, I don't need two.

The sound is clipping on my machine...try this one: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma2MbH8Ihvs&NR=1

Okay, we've been beating this subject around long enough. Here's a member's Z with a Raydot mirror installed on it! aux and I installed the driver's side mirror on Saturday afternoon. It took about an hour and was a somewhat frustrating experience. With some patience, ingenuity and perseverance, you CAN install a Raydot mirror in the stock mounting location on a Z. You'll need a mini socket handle, a short extension, and small hands. Getting the mirror on is only part of it. Due to the concave corss-section of the Z's beltline, you'll need a way to fill in the gap that will result from mounting a Raydot's flat base on it. At a local hardware store, I bought two extra washers identical to the ones provided with the mirror. I cut them down to about 3/4" wide with a razor blade, attempting to taper the cut, so as to better fit the curve of the door. In retrospect, this wasn't really necessary and I could have used scissors: (ignore the speed tape over the locator hole in the upper right...we later stuck a small white plug from a piece of furniture in this hole, and you don't notice it unless you're looking for it) Were I to do it again, I'd like to try using black Permatex Make-a-Gasket to create a contoured gasket with a flat surface facing the mount. This would be done by putting a peg or filler in the hole of the flat metal washer that comes with the mirror, coating one side with a thick layer of RTV and placing the peg in the stock mounting hole. Then one would press it down to allow the RTV to form to the door's contour, and let it dry. The result would be trimmed out around the washer after removal, and placed under the rubber washer and mirror base upon installation. As it was, sealing on the door wasn't much of an issue as auxilary had a number of captive rubber washers, one of which we used on the underside of the door. This sealed the door from the inside. We placed the rubber side upward and backed the metal side against the lock nut(thanks to Titus for suggesting the lock nut!). Getting the lock nut threaded onto the mirror's mounting stud was, as I mentioned before, the hardest part. Here's how I solved it: Pull on the mirror's mounting stud, which is actually a carriage bolt, until it wedges firmly in the slot in the base of the mirror. Don't overdo it and dent the mirror's housing, just make sure that if the bolt is pushed on, it provides a decent amount of resistance. Take a shallow 7 / 16 socket, place the regular nut that comes with the mirror into it, then the lock nut, nylon side down, into the socket. Place it on your small extension and socket handle. TAPE the washer, rubber side up, onto the lock nut, and get it aligned so you can see the nut's threads from the top side. double sided tape would be ideal, but get it taped together however you can. The idea is to be able to reach up into the door from the inside without dropping anything(there's a socket in my door that I'm going to have to retrieve later when I've got the steam built up to do it). Have one person locate the washer(s) and the mirror's bottom base half on the top of the door over the hole. Have the person with the socket place the taped-together assembly where the person handling the mirror can see it and align everything by sight. Once everything is lined up, push the mirror's bolt down into the hole and thread the lock nut and washer on. Once it's threaded, make sure the non-locking nut is out of the socket, and proceed to tighten it down, having one person hold the mirror and pull slightly up on it to insure the bolt doesn't turn. Don't be afraid to snug it down tight. Movement should be minimal to avoid loosening later, and to retain the adjusted position. (there's some glue residue here and there from our attempts to glue a few things in place, and the washers aren't lined up quite right. The glue cleaned off and the washers I don't really mind. YMMV, depending on how you do it) Installed and aimed, the mirror doesn't vibrate at any speed and provides a pretty decent field of view. I can just see the edge of my quarter panel and as cars pass out of the field of view to the left, I can start to see them in my peripheral vision. Objects are quite small, however, and the glass isn't completely distortion-free so it takes a little getting used to. No extra wind noise is audible. My only issue with the mirror is the thin gauge metal that the retainer ring over the glass is made from...it's thin enough that it flexes easily. I don't foresee any issues arising from this, but it is something to take note of. The mirrors' light weight can be attributed to this, the cast bases are what make up the majority of their weight. Just bear in mind that the housing is light spun aluminum and might dent easily.

On the way tonight. Works great!

Whoops, THAT'S the photo I was thinking of. Sorry John, BJ. Yup! You've got the idea. Long-term plans on my car involve a duct for the radiator to the airdam opening, grille block-off, and a splitter as I've described. I'm trying to skull out ways of building it that will give with a hit on a steep driveway and still be effective at speed...heim joints and turnbuckles are coming into play somewhere.

I'd imagine you'd have to use aluminum to fit all of the curves involved. Just so I'm getting the idea across, what I'm attempting to visualize is the splitter running unbroken along the bottom edge of the airdam, constant width out around the sides, and up into the wheelwell. I figure you'd have to switch to aluminum where the bottom lip of the airdam begins to curve upward.

If you're going to put on a splitter, why not do a little work around the sides and run it up into the wheelwells to shroud the tires, similar to what johnc did to his car? I'd post a picture of it, but I can't find it.

Nice pull.

Love the butterfly hood.

I know nothing about 'Drag Extreme Alloys' or the parent company 'Ultimate Products Corporation'...but look a bit askance at a company that has nothing on their brand site's 'About' page and has no readily available corporate site. All I could find was a few patents for fenders for dually pickups. Caveat Emptor. In Drag's defense the photo on their site looks good, and they have a range of options.

They're here! I was charged $13 in S&H that wasn't on any of the electronic invoices. I suppose it was silly to think I got free shipping. Bummer. Cost for each after shipping still works out to $35.50, though, so that's not too bad. They're smaller than I expected. I went out to the car and did a quick fit check, the bases will perch on the beltline, the convex nature of the beltline is going to take a little gasket-making voodoo, but shouldn't be too much of an issue. The convex glass opens up the field of view nicely. Visibility looks fair, not fantastic, but useful. I'm used to not having external mirrors, so I'm in the habit of checking over my shoulder anyway and would do it regardless. They're going on this weekend. Stay tuned for a writeup!

It's amazing how Cadillac's public image has taken a 180 in the past 10 years. They used to be considered an old fogey marque, now they're cranking out - and selling - stuff like this. Slapping a Caddy badge on a Suburban did wonders for the brand. With regard to the Cien, it was only a concept, unfortunately.

I don't think he's denying their existence, he's just calling them by their correct name! *flees*