Dragonfly

The car you are thinking of with the ghost flames belongs to my friend Jerry, I have posted a few pics of his car to make a point about one thing or another. I certianly remember all of us having a good time in Hooters and I am looking forward to doing the same again in the future. Once my car is running again I will be doing more club events and getting out on runs and things more often. With that in mind anytime I am going to be anywere remotely close to you I will let you know ahead of time. Hey I saw the pics that Owen posted of the show at Long Beach... your car is looking TOUGH! I can't wait to see it in person. Dragonfly

Here are some more pics. With fenders, hood and doors removed. Engine compartment. Interior shot. Side shot. Dragonfly

I live in San Diego which is very close to Tijuana Mexico and makes anything that even looks like it may be of value a target for theft. I have no problem bragging to Nissan guys about the carbon fiber parts I am just leary of people I don't know walking by and seeing dollar signs pinned to the front and back of my car. Dragonfly

The flares are glass and I purchased them from one of our Hybridz members, if I am not getting my members confused Rick Bowers used to have the same type of flares on his car. The vents did in fact come from a 1980 Camaro. The car is going to be a weekend racer in autocross and drag racing, it will also see some road courses when I am able to get out there. The reason I painted the carbon fiber hood and hatch is because I did not get them for looks I got them for weight reduction and after what they cost (which is a good price for carbon fiber parts) I did not want someone trying to steal them. I can honestly say that other than John Coffee who I bought the parts from I have never seen another Z with a carbon fiber rear hatch so I felt it was a good idea not to make it obvious to strangers. The paint color is a stock GMC color used on the 1991 Corvette. Thanks for the compliments. Dragonfly

I finaly got the body work done and the car painted. I did most of the body work myself and I painted the interior (not shown yet), but I paid to have the remainder of the body work done and the exterior painted. The sun was not at a very good angle for taking pictures but here they are any way. If you are wondering if there are small holes in the hood??? Yes there are, the hood is pinned into place because it is carbon fiber (made by John Coffee). Rear hatch is also carbon fiber and also from John Coffee. You can see in the picture that the underside of the car is painted different. I used a single stage epoxy of the same type and color as used on NASCAR cars for both durability and ease in finding anything wrong/leaking. Doors and fenders are just set in place and not lined up yet. Light gray paint on underside of car. Dragonfly

I just got my car back from being painted, and I went through pretty much what you are going through right now. I was going to paint the car myself so I purchased the paint, primer, clear etc. finished about 95% of the body work then got sent out of town for a couple of months for work... when I came back I decided to let a pro paint the car and I got a quote then I left town again for work... came back and decided to let the pro finish the last of the body work and do the prep as well. Having him do that more than doubled the price from just spraying the paint. In a nut shell the prep is very expensive. The other thing I learned from this experiance is that even though I bought good quality paint and primer (very expensive for everything) it was not what he would have choosen to spray himself and even though it worked out just fine he says for the minimal extra cost of the paint etc. that he would have used the results would have been better. I am going to try to take some pictures of mine this eavining and I will post them later tonight or tommorow under their own thread. Dragonfly

I understand exactly what you mean about not letting anyone else mechanic or not touch your car... but not everyone has access to a leak down tester or the air needed to use it, and if you have never used one before you are probably going to have some issues trying to make it work. I don't see anything wrong with the break-in that you did and I doubt that it would be the rings not lined up properly. What I have seen in the past is a head with a very small crack in it allowing water into the cylinder, a cylinder with a very small crack allowing water in and (not a water thing but a loss of power thing) valves that were bent so slightly you could not see it but a leak down tester found all the above and will help you pinpoint the problem. Dragonfly

Glad your still around... now if it were me I would first check what Mike suggested (the bolts holding the rack), after checking them loose or not I would go through and systematicaly check every single bolt, nut and component in the steering system and that means from the steering wheel all the way to each front tire and don't skip anything. If you do not feel that you can do the job yourself take it to a shop and let them check it out, but be prepaired for the under car show and lecture about how you could have been killed just by driving the car, and last but not least take a look at what he tells you he found then fix it or get it fixed. Dragonfly

After you try the other advice that you have received "if" you still have the problem with smoking take it to a mechanic who can do a "leak down" test on it. Ask the mechanic to test at TDC (top dead center) and BDC (bottom dead center) of each cylinder (or as close to BDC as possible with both valves closed). If the mechanic finds anything out of the ordinary he should be able to explain it to you, if you do not understand what he is telling you come back here and tell us (HybridZ) what he says. Good Luck Dragonfly

The holes are not intended to move air from the wheel wells to the engine compartment but rather the oppisite, I want to vent air from the engine compartment out through the vents in the fenders. I intend to put the plastic inner fenders back in to keep air from coming in from the wheel wells. Dragonfly

I may have been the one who you are refering to as my glass fenders weighed in at 11 lbs each. I can say also that they had a label in them that looked very similar to what bjhines shows in his pictures. But my fenders were very inconsistant in glass thikness through out each of my fenders. I had about two years ago a pair of glass fenders (with the labels in them) that had never been on a car, I sold them to a kid who was admiring my car during a yard sale and asked if I had any body parts I would be willing to sell, and I let him have the fenders for $100 for the pair. This is what I have done with the glass fenders that weighed in at 11 lbs (I have not weighed them again since doing this work). bjhines I noticed you put vent holes in your car similar to mine you just did not put as many... here is a shot of mine. Dragonfly

I am 5'-9" and weigh 165 lbs and for me the seats fit very well and are quite comfortable, I am not sure I would want to drive all day in them though as they are race seats and have no adjustments. Before I purchased them I went to a local race shop that had about 2 dozen diferent seats that you could sit in and check the comfort level etc. and to me for the price the MOMO's were the best, if I had been willing to pay 2 to 3 times more money the high end Sparco's and Recaro's were more comfortable and in my opinion the Carbeu's were by far the most uncomfortable and they seemed to cut off the blood flow to my legs causing them to get numb after only a few minutes. I have a friend who has the Carbeu's in his Z and they also caused my legs and feet to go numb after only a few minutes. Dragonfly

They are perfectly fine for a street driven car but in racing I found myself putting more effort into keeping in the seat than I did keeping on the race line. I can only speak for myself here but my car spends 90% of its driving time on a track, I can guess that most of the rest of the guys who are running "race" seats in thier cars also spend the majority of thier time on the track. Dragonfly