lammbn

good luck! keep us updated, i am very interested in seeing how this will turn out.

Not too bad. i don't hate it but there is something weird i can't put my finger on. i can't imagine the man hours put into the body work on that thing!

nevermind. a few minutes of a heat gun to the bottom of the transmission tunnel finally freed it up.

So i have been spending way too much time working on this custom fiberglass center console for my 78' 280z. one of the perks of being laid off without hope of getting a new job i guess. anyways as you can see in the pictures below i used a variant of the green floral foam method to shape the console then fiberglassed over it. it was difficult and i had to scrap it several times before i figured out the best way to evenly shape it all. But the problem now is that i hot glued all the foam down to the tranmssion tunnel and now i can't pull it off. i've pulled as hard as i dare without fear of breaking it. i have it all free from the sides of the tunnel thanks to all the tin foil i laid down before i glassed it all. does anybody with or without experience with this method of fiberglassing have any ideas how to get it off without breaking it? I'll post more pictures of the fabrication process when i finally figure out where i saved the rest of the pictures i've been taking for the last 3 weeks or so.

I still like it. I am going to see if I can source a tailgate localy to play with. It looks better than I thought and ended up about the size I thought it would be in my head, don't really see a need to make it fit between the tailights as long as it is centered on everything. BUT... I'm sure someone will have a nasty remark because i don't have the same style or tastes as them. Oh well, don't drive my car if you don't like it.

I thought about a coated header. problem is that i don't think it would drop the engine bay heat enough to justify the extra cost, even though it would fit in better with my ultra clean engine bay look. wrap cost way less, even if i have to redo the wrap at 50,000 miles. on my motorcycle it was the difference between roasting my leg 10" away from the pipe to being able to touch the header within 5 minutes of shutting it off. it has lasted very well for how exposed it is and keep in mind this will be a very pampered car. I'm more concerned about every degree of the air in the engine bay, i'm going to be running a port and polished MN47 head with high compression so the reason for the heat concerns is to do everything possible to fight knock. no matter how small, if it's within budget, i'll do it. and this is a big one. as for the moisture issue, my material sience professor said that the metal will slowly oxidize itself due to the metal getting so much hotter and gasses being infused into the metal easier, over time it will weaken the metal. moisture shouldn't be any worse of a problem than it is on exposed, uncoated headers. i do plan on running a light coat of high temp paint under the wrap to help combat any rust issues that may occur though.

Ok, so I've been thinking way ahead of the game as usual and have been thinking about my engine bay before i even have the car sandblasted. anyways, I'm planning on using a 6 into 1 or 2 header and I'm worried about reducing engine bay heat as much as i can and i think the cleanest way to get it to a minimum is with with header wrap like my motorcycle has. I've always heard that you don't want to wrap mild steel or alumanized steel headers due to the increased temps the metal will see because the heat cannot escape. the increased temp overtime and many heat cycles breaks the metal down and it will deteriorate very quickly. stainless steel seems to be the only reccomended material to wrap for any extended use (most this info i could only find related to motorcycles and the added fact that header wrap always has a warning to never use for other than racing use.) another benefit i've thought of is that it also helps with heating an O2 sensor placed farther down stream in the runner collector but after a few hours of searching i can't find stainless headers for sale anywhere and it seems they were only commonly made years ago in japan for quite a hefty price. i would be willing to pay more than standard headers of course, but not too much more than 500. Now this car is going to be a weekend/sunny day driver only, never in the winter or when there is excessive salt or sand on the roads. Is the time it takes a wrapped mild steel header to break down a reasonable amount of time that it would only need replaced every 100,000 miles or so? i think that would be acceptable to me for my particualar use of the car.

I'm thinking placement would be right below the current tailight recess on my car. have it look like its more on the bottom of a rear bumper like the mustang's do. then i'll proceed with my custom tailight panel i currently have planned. i think some people are thinking it would be up high where the tailights are. here is a quick example:

i like the idea! adds a custom touch that seems like it should be factory, even if the letters are body color, like the recessed letters on mustangs for example. example only. pretty inginious and so simple i'm suprised it hasn't been done 3 or 4 times by now. if you like it do it! might have call a few junk yards and see if they have any old datsun trucks i can steal a tailgate off now. I was planning on cutting out most the rear and shaving it with smooth sheet metal anyways.

i would think they would last much longer than that. not much to really break on a tube bender die. anyways from my extensive experience with harbor freight tools i've found that the less moving parts, and the less critical the job you need it for, the better off you are. i would never think of going somewhere else to buy a hammer, work gloves, air fittings, ect. can't go wrong with simple stuff!

cool. I was stuck at drill for the national guard all weekend and had no access the the outside world. But it looks like everybody got it figured out already, I'm happy about that. I'm not very good with this electronics stuff, just proficient enought to fake my way by on stuff like this and that. and thats why i'm a mechanical engineering major not an electrical!