Zetsaz

Painter had a bit of a waist injury, and was concerned about the paint drying properly due to heat in the times of day he's been available to paint it this week. Car is now moved over to the paint booth after checking and respraying some primer, and color will go on early tomorrow. Reassembly will start Friday afternoon! Getting more and more excited to see it Apparently some of the mechanics and employees at the shops next to his keep wanting to take a look. They're all interested in the car haha. He mentioned today that he's had to shoo some of them away when they keep nagging him about seeing the finished product because he doesn't want them messing with anything.

This is beyond brilliant. I love it!

Doesn't seem unreasonable. Mine is pretty far off the recommended. Your distributor has it's own adjustment built in, and it's possible to install the wheel 180deg off.... and it's possible to install the distributor 180deg off... You have to remember, that the computer can literally place your timing at any degree you want, especially if you're running coil on plug. You could clock the distribor in the completely wrong direction, install the disc upside down, and still get things to fire if you happen to get the correct #1 tooth angle on your settings. The most important thing is that your base timing in your settings that megasquirt is expecting, matches with what your timing light is picking up.

Some older options that were cheaper are unfortunately NLA so this is basically it. Couldn't find any place that had them cheaper 😕 Fortunately that's as spendy as any of the rubber seals and boots have gotten. Most pieces I've gotten in decent kits or very reasonable prices individually. Some OEM bump stops and rubber are only $9 vs $7 for aftermarket in some cases so I've gone OEM where the prices are reasonable.

Thanks! I've realized more and more why some people just go straight to power and don't bother with minor details sometimes. These Hatch hinge rubber seals/boots alone were $140 😬 Also, here's some satisfying finished quarter windows with all new inner, outer, and front seals. Both had broken mounting bolts on the same spot which were a pain to drill out and remove, but now they're ready to go in! Notice the hardened and cracking original seals that weren't doing much of anything anymore. They were breaking into pieces as I was trying to remove them from the glass and felt more like plastic than rubber. No wonder these things get so much wind noise and rust in some areas. The front seal against the door glass frame was especially bad. Basically nothing left of the originals except the pieces of rubber directly in contact with the metal strip. My only frustration right now is that Z Car Depot hasn't sent my other 240z tail light gasket. I ordered an OEM pair a while ago since most places only had one side in stock for aftermarket options. Didn't even matter though because I only got the left side anyway! In an email almost two weeks ago, I was told that it would supposedly ship by last Thursday, but I've yet to hear anything. Waiting to hear from them.

Some pictures if the final block sanding and body work in progress from a couple days ago on the rest of the panels and body vs primer sprayed the end of the day yesterday. Primer is being allowed to fully cure over the weekend before a double check on everything Monday when spraying on the tri-stage begins Occupying myself by fixing the seals on the quarter windows today and replacing the hardware on them. It's feeling more and more like a restoration than mod work lately, but I've actually really enjoyed it. Double checking that I have all the seals and bumps stops replaced in key areas gives me satisfaction the tediousness of custom work doesn't always provide. Care is going to end up a great balance of restomodding Getting closer and closer to assembly!

Got some pics today. Most of the car is now in primer

Oh good! Hopefully the thread is at least useful for someone who ends up finding the problem again and we can try to replicate it if it continues.

Seems to be working for me. I hit the X in the black dialog box that comes up initially and it worked fine linking to your posts. Just tried it again without closing the dialog first and it still works. Your error message that pops up looks like the same thing that shows up on dead links from google or from old forum posts that have a link to something that the hyperlink to has changed since switching servers or whatever maintenance killed a lot of links on here years ago. Seems weird that it's giving you dead links to others' recent posts though.

Bit over 6k. Honestly not bad. Was quoted 7k+ for the sort of work I was looking for in Washington so I saved some money doing it here instead and hanging with family when I have to quarantine anyway. You should know I'm not exactly getting a perfect job for that though. Interior is as is (which is fine because I sprayed the lizard skin) and the engine bay will be pretty much untouched. Probably the biggest thing that will be noticeable between this and a higher end job is the panel gaps won't be be perfect. I've accepted that within my budget and goals for this car as something I feel comfortable driving whenever. They'll get them closer than they are now obviously, but parts of the fenders in particular that aren't the correct panel gaps aren't being welded or anything like that.

Car is coming along. Very very few areas with any rust. More and more satisfied compared to other cars I've seen. Note that the back end near the taillights and bumper is still what needs the most patch work, but most areas that needed work are welded up and should be evened out soon. Hatch holes from what I assume were louvers are also patched, as well as the holes on the lower end of it where it used to have a tail but I forgot to snap a pic of that. That piece is in bare metal as well but the smoothing and very light bondo hasn't been done yet. Door pictures are from a few days ago. They are now about finished including the sides and removal of the windows and frame.

Can you give an example or post a screenshot of the error messages you're seeing? Seems to be working okay for me Youtube link https://www.vintageair.com/builder-series/ Vintage air link using hyperlink command in post editor

There are some threads here about liners vs no liners. The biggest concern is typically if they're loose, especially if you have a turbo. If they're in good shape I think the effort to remove them isn't worth it for the negligible gains you'll see. I've read from most people with more experience than I have that there's nearly no reason to remove them. My two cents: if they're in good shape just run the head as is until you find something more suitable or have the budget to do the work at a proper level that will actually yield some benefit unless you're going to a turbo build. P90 with flat top pistons will give you higher compression than a stock N42/N42 combo with dished pistons anyway, and you'll have the benefit of the improved combustion chamber design. Even if you're trying to go for a high compression NA build with the P90 it'll require a lot of work to the head regardless due to needing to shave the head and cam tower shims to compensate.

Got a chance to drop in to see the car today. Shop has been backed up with some work, so it hasn't progressed as fast as they expected until this week, but I'm pretty happy with what I've seen so far. Door handles and locks were removed and the doors are nearly finished. Rear quarter areas are down to bare metal and they're starting the work on them to smooth things out. Roof looked like it was mostly done. I'm very pleasantly surprised by how little rust there is in areas I was expecting. I was nervous there'd be a lot of pitting around the windshield and hatch, but it looks like there's only minor surface rust! It's all very solid. The investment in the 75 shell out of texas was well worth it and likely saved me thousands in metal work. Next to nothing in the rear lower quarters either which was becoming source of paranoia for me since I knew there was a second paint job done at one point. and have seem them rotted out in other cars. Front end pieces haven't come off yet since they didn't have enough space in the shop, but supposedly it'll be ready for the first coat of primer by the weekend and I'll get to check in again. Will update with pictures when it's close to finished.

Out of curiousity, what's that test tool you were using for the headlights. Seems handy!

Salgado auto spas? It's some guy my brother knew out of california. I'm unfortunately not familiar with him and his shop in slc is only a couple years old. But apparently he's been painting for about 20 years previously in california.. I was naturally hesitant, since I also don't want a junk job that I'll have to redo, but I did get to see some of his work and it looked pretty good. First work I saw was a door repair for a dealer that was paint matching pearl white and I was fairly impressed by it. Mostly does insurance work or some stuff for dealerships, but takes on other projects on occasion.

Don't bother with straps. Just get the RT style diff mount https://www.technoversions.com/DiffMountHome.html There's also the chance your half shafts are contributing to the noise if there's play in them. Edit: Misread your post, I wasn't sure if this is what you meant by new diff mount.

Car is now away for the next 2-3 weeks for paint! In accepting my limits with this car, as well as accepting my budget, but wanting something that looks decent, I searched multiple places and got quotes for the sort of work I was looking for. I was aiming for most trim as well as all glass to be removed, but don't care about engine bay since there's likely tons of work left there with potential turbo stuff, or swaps or whatever down the road. I have modest goals for how it'll turn out so I wasn't trying to go to a high end shop that would do the whole thing down to the frame since half the point buying the clean shell was to save on the back end through less metal work and tearing apart. Here's hoping it looks alright! Got to see some of the painter's work which looked great and I'll be stopping by to pick grab the quarter windows to replace the seals while they're working on the rest. Hoping to get a couple drop-ins to check on the progress and make sure all the trim I actually want removed is actually taken off for paint. Was telling my brother that it's not that I don't trust them, but it's tough handing off the car to someone else when I've been exclusively doing every bit of work on it until now. Real excited to see the final result!

I have a rebuilt 3.9 R200 CLSD with the finned diff cover Was lucky enough to get a great deal from the same guy who sold me the shell and most of the EFI stuff I needed.

No rush, would just be nice to see a comparison with someone who's actually running NA with a similar setup. It's actually driving fairly smooth! I'm just spoiled and care a lot about driving characteristics and response haha. Seems like when I stab the throttle, at pretty much any amount, it'll go lean first then too rich. Some of the adjustments I've tried to make center it a bit more, but more often have just resulted in overly rich before it settles. I'm with you on VEs too. I've had a tough time trying to balance deceleration vs shifting. Seems like when I get it firgured out to not have misfiring from very lean mixtures on deceleration in gear, I'll get random pops or overly rich areas when I'm shifting, especially at WOT. Have tried manually manipulating it, because the auto tune feature can never seem to get it right even in "very hard" cell change resistance.

Any chance you'd share your MSQ file with me for comparison? I appreciate your help last time I had questions. Mine's been running alright, but I've been trying to tweak small things like accel enrichment that I can't seem to get right.

For sure! It maybe out of commission for a while if I get it painted though. Notably cheaper to do that work here than in Western WA where everything is more expensive. Would be nice to have it painted and just start working on the comfort things like updating all the seals and rubber bumpers on the hood and hatch. I love small details, so I'm getting a bit tired of seeing it so ratty haha. Spent some time today learning more about accel enrichment and finally manipulated the VE settings manually in some areas. Already driving better than before. Have mostly gotten rid of the lean spikes on tip in. It's amazing to me how much better and "more sporty" it can feel just from doing fine tuning. It's already feeling more like a proper sports car just from the adjustments I've made and I'm a complete amateur. Excited to see how clean and drivable I can get it as is while I start working on making it prettier.

Small tweaks to do, but have mostly just been driving the car occasionally and doing some small tweaks on tunerstudio. I'm far from a tuner so some of my stuff I'm sure could get much better, but right now the only notable issue is warmup enrichment. Just seems like the engine wants to bog down if I give it gas before it's warmed up a bit. Cold start rpm is also like 500-600, but settles to around 850 once it's warmed up. I think the car in it's current state is the height of "slow car fast." My g37 is fun and the acceleration is definitely better, but it's not nearly as fun as driving the Z in Logan Canyon here in Northern Utah. The acceleration with the lower compression N42/N42 L28 leaves something to be desired, but gunning it around turns in 3rd or 4th has still proven fun. Tried to keep up with a sport bike a few days ago, but I stood no chance after about a half dozen curves since they could casually take them at 70mph haha. I'm sure I'd do slightly better with a proper alignment, summer tires, and adjustable rear control arms but it's fun as is. Lowering it on the stock arms definitely creates more toe in than I'd like in the rear.

Will probably just deal with it for now and avoid going under 1/4 tank. I'm running a new oem 2 pin sending unit, but considering how messy the gauge functions, I might just get the more expensive, 3 pin sender that belongs to the 280z and go back to the stock fuel gauge and fuel warning light, then put a boost gauge on the 3rd spot down the road. It was an alright trip! The speedometer reading 6-7 mph over actual was really bugging me though, especially in Idaho where it was showing 95 to keep up with traffic. I did the calculations and 3k rpm should be right about 71 with my whole setup and that's what gps speedometers on my phone show (that I've confirmed to be close in my Infiniti), so I don't know what the deal is. Didn't count the teeth, but the pinion gear I bought is new OEM and was the right color for 3.9.... frustrating. Might try the old crusty speedo cable and see if that changes anything while I'm here, though I'm not sure why it would. Trying to get a quote in the area for paint. If I can get a better price here, I'll probably get it painted while I'm down here. Not exactly anywhere to go right now, and I can always borrow a car from a family member if I need to do anything, so it's the perfect time.