blue72

Oh yes, I'm definitely not going to try using another paint manufacturer's hardener. That just seems like a potential disaster based on everything I've ever read. Doing some quick research it seems like this same company (Sherwin Williams Automotive paint) makes a universal hardener which has been used successfully with the products I used (Acrylyd line). I'm also going to check with my local paint shop and see what they recommend. It's a little far now for me to drive to Space Age Paint in Mesa, AZ where I bought this stuff a year and a half ago. I kinda figured I'd be doing a light sanding with some very fine paper over the whole car before I spray the last coat or two anyway. Had the usual dust and a bug or two (more tarps and a tighter seal next time). I've just gotta wait for a day with decent temperatures now. Friday was probably about the last day in the high sixties here until April. As a last resort I'll consider spraying sans hardener. I've done it with this paint before but it takes a couple of months to feel decently solid.

I haven't really said anything over the past four months about the hundreds of hours of prep work its taken me to get to this point, so.. uh.. Ta-Da! That was last night at about 9:30 p.m. when I ran out of hardener. It still could use a full coat on the driver side fender and a light spray over most of it to help even out the metallics. I have enough paint and reducer left, but the employee that sold me the materials skimped on this most key of ingredients. I'll have to track down a compatible product this week because I've found that they discontinued the paint I was using. In case anyone is wondering, this is Datsun color code 072, a dark blue metallic (poly) sprayed over black primer. It is a single stage paint, no clear coat. This is basically the exact same color and finish my Z left the factory with, slight orangepeel and all. Here are a couple of closer shots in the daylight: My air/water filter had a pressure regulator built in, but it didn't work correctly and I had to make a complete guesstimate of the air pressure exiting the gun, dialing it in by hand. It was about 55Ëš in my makeshift booth (a carport with big tarps covering three sides) instead of the more desirable 70Ëš F. Oh, and I was working with every droplight and shop light I could find but still painting halfway in the dark. Despite those setbacks, I am very pleased with what two coats produced. I managed to restrain myself and not shoot too much on each pass, so I have no runs anywhere, only thin spots that'll be covered with the eventual third coat. Also, this was my first paint job. I don't have any sort of build thread here on HybridZ yet, so here's one picture of what it has looked like for roughly the past two and a half years: I had already peeled off all of the paint from a past respray using razor blades. This is what it looked like when I bought it:

I love old Hondas too. I still have the grille badge and key set I pulled from a 600 coupe I came across in a junkyard. I had never seen one in person before and was slightly caught off gaurd when I looked in the engine bay and saw an air cooled 2cyl in there. If anyone needs some inspiration and information, just check out the video on Jay Leno's RHD SM600: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/1964-honda-sm600/204774/

It's a bit tricky even trying to figure out their warranty on lifetime Craftsman brand tools. Some Craftsman hand tools only come with a one year warranty for instance, no electrical tools are covered and the tools that are branded as "Sears" or "Companion" of course don't have a lifetime warranty. Then they have their newer Evolv line (replaced the Sears line) which are warrantied for life, but only if you have the original reciept. After reading a few recent online complaints about local stores not honoring warranties, it seems that the lower ranked employees don't necessarily know what the rules are for properly dealing with unsatisfied customers. If you could, try and go as high as you can with this one. On a side note, I own two vacuum cleaners from ca. 1950-1960, both all metal and each still works perfectly. Picked them up at thrift stores for next to nothing. I can still buy belts and bags for them at most any well stocked store, including Wal-Mart. Beats the alternative that I've seen time and time again of watching the new plastic vacs die short and sudden deaths.

Shoot, I knew they came with steelies too because the race teams would want to swap 'em out later. I only checked one or two sources to find the size, didn't bother to make sure which was truly standard. -edit- Here's a book reference to that same scenario on the Z432-R model: Google Books

Wheels look to be Watanabes. The paint color is probably an original Datsun color code and the exhaust is the stock PS30 piece. Here's a link to the 432 registry: http://www.geocities.jp/ps30diy/genzon/kekka.html Plenty of them came in that orange color. The other guys are also right in stating that the original standard wheels would have been 14x5.5 magnesium pieces.

Yokohama Daikoku Parking area.

I've seen that same parking lot in other photos before. Perhaps I might find the name of it before someone else does.

Decent exterior paint job? Check Got all the interior trim in good shape, all of the exterior trim, lights, bezels too? Check Is everything there? Sure looks like it. Truly rust free? Yet to be determined. If this car is solid I'd say its most definitely worth what he is asking. It is always better to spend a little more outright and buy something with a solid, clean foundation to build on. I bought a structurally solid and straight non-runner with a horrible exterior and interior for $900 and have spent nearly twice this seller's asking price to get it looking as nice as this one already is. Did I learn a lot in the process? Sure. Would I trade away those experiences? No, but could I have saved plenty of time and expense by just spending a bit more on a nicer car? Absolutely.

Never had an Atari, never had a computer from Radio Shack, no 8088 powered hardware, not even a 486. The first computer in our house came pre-loaded with Windows 95 and had a Pentium. It is long gone, but last year I purchased three old behemoths from a local university for practically nothing. I've now got a Pentium 75MHz machine, Pentium 150MHz and for the coup-de-grace a dual Pentium Pro 200MHz machine. Now I can finally make use of my old game disks like Roger Wilco, or run Sim City and Lemmings non-emulated. I personally own 4 laptops and 9 other computers ranging from 1995 to the latest Core i7 machine I built last year and all of my legacy hardware still functions exactly as designed. Now if only I could find something truly ancient in computer terms, something with ferrite core memory and a punch card reader. Then maybe I could justify my purchase of an IBM 1401 programming manual from a local thrift store a couple of weeks back. I wouldn't mind having an analog 300 baud modem like TonyD either.

Yes, and they lend more DVDs per day than Netflix rents. Libraries are still quite popular.

Bump.... Still looking for a map light. Actually, I now have almost every component for a map light aside from the black plastic finisher piece that is on the front.

Will POR-15 stick well to light rust? Yes, very very well. Will POR-15 stick to clean, smooth metal? No, not at all, in fact it will peel right off. I have never used their Marine-Clean or Metal-Ready products. My personal method involves hand or random orbital sanding all metal surfaces with 40-60 grit sandpaper. I make sure to scuff any and all surfaces that the POR will be applied to. Including the crevices where the floor pans dip, inside and outside edges of the seat support rails, everything I can reasonably reach. I sand down any spots with light rust the same way. I don't worry if it didn't remove all of the rust because I know that it adheres excellently to rusty, pitted surfaces. After sanding I break out the shop-vac and remove all of the paint / rust / metal. That's it. Two coats of POR-15 later and that stuff will not come off for anything. Also, POR-15 will adhere really well to a freshly sandblasted surface. Basically, it has to have something rough to grab on to.

This one is meant for the 240Zs but I'm hoping perhaps that it might help. http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/AcclLinkage.jpg

Did you spray a guidecoat and then block sand the car before laying down the final color? It just seems like a number of low spots and body filler transitions are showing up in the highlights from the camera flash.

I don't remember my beginnings here at HybridZ as being traumatic. Apprehensive? Perhaps the first time I asked a question, but I had read the rules and been feeling out how this particular forum operated for a few months before then. By the way, I did search before posting and couldn't find anything, but someone did answer my question satisfactorily. Since joining this site three years ago I have felt compelled to post a topic which asked a technical question precisely two times. That's it. I have yet to run into any other situation in which there was not enough information available or links to where more information could be obtained. My best guess as to why some beginners encounter difficulties? They either A: Don't read the rules, or B: Don't think the rules will seriously be enforced. Every forum has rules that must be agreed to. Any software that is installed or online service which is signed up for has a pop-up page stating rules, guidelines, limitations, etc... Most internet dwellers have trained themselves to automatically click "Accept" without so much as a cursory glance at these binding text fields. As a side note, I will now have the song "In One Ear And Out The Other" by Fujiya & Miyagi in my head for the rest of the day thanks to TonyD.

What in the world??? Is that green adhesive holding the rearview mirror on or just a sticker?

Now that's a video I've got to see. Someone somehow inside of a 7MGTE engine who is murdering a member of Enzo's progeny? That sounds both horrifying and amazing! There really does need to be a smiley that just signifies sarcasm.

I've had more than my fair share of these encounters. It seems like there's a certain age range where people either A: owned one B: had a friend or relative that owned one or C: always wanted one. I used to drive an airport shuttle and if the topic of conversation with my passengers ever turned to cars I'd of course mention my Z and plenty of people would light up and say "oh yeah! I had..." There was a lady in her late sixties once who told me stories about top speed runs down a desert highway. Another was an airline pilot who told me that he distinctly remembered looking out over the parking lot at a Pop Warner ball game and seeing "at least three of those little cars". I did get a semi-unique one once though. I was pulled off the side of a somewhat busy road where I'd run out of fuel when an older gentleman slowed down, backed up to where I was and got out. "I almost thought you were my son! He's got one of these old cars too!" Apparently the guy's kid had a Z car that looked passingly enough like mine. He took off after chatting for a few minutes and I bummed some gas from a construction crew nearby.

In many magazine articles themselves, they talk about spotting a certain car at a show or event and then contacting the owner to do a story on it. I do know that a couple of magazines provide an address and info on how to submit a car for a feature, but most of the ones I read about were discovered the other way.

There are plenty of people here that clamor for small diesel powered pickups, but the auto company bean counters seem to think that it wouln't be profitable. The only two on the horizon that promise to sell small diesel pickups within the next few years are Mahindra (if the stars align correctly) and Jeep who recently announced a diesel pickup of their own. A brief summary of the other diesel equipped light trucks and smallish SUVs in the U.S.: '02-'06 Jeep Liberty – 2.8L common rail turbodiesel w/ 160 hp Unimog – yeah, good luck finding one '83-'85 Mitsubishi Mighty Max / Dodge D50 – 2.3L turbodiesel w/ 80-86 hp '82-'85 Mazda B2200 / Ford Ranger – 2.2L non-turbo w/ 59 hp '81-'87 Isuzu P'up / Chevrolet LUV - Isuzu 2.2L non-turbo w/ 58 hp and turbo International Scout w/ Nissan SD33 non-turbo and turbo (IH stopped producing passenger vehicles in 1980) '84-'86 Isuzu Trooper – 2.2L turbodiesel '82-'85 2WD Datsun/Nissan 720 - SD22 w/ 61 hp and SD25 w/ 76 hp both non-turbo '81-'86 Toyota Pickups - 2.2-2.4L w/ 62 hp and 83 hp respectively '84-'87 Jeep Cherokee - Renault 2.1L turbodiesel w/ 85 hp This is basically the latest in diesel small pickup technology here: yep...

Yep, that was it, seemed like the start of a good joke. After putting all of the time and money into the car and just barely getting it to run it seemed impossible that he'd try and sell it. Exaggeration can be used to great effect in comedy, but apparently it wasn't the case on this one. Perhaps this is why I don't play poker, can't spot a true bluff. Sorry to see that the car really is on the block and up for sale.

Ha ha, very funny.

If you're only looking for 280hp then the SBC 350 that came with the car would very easily be able to get there with some common modifications. The LS1 'Vette engine on the other hand made 345 horsepower and 350 lbft of torque bone stock. It really depends on how much you're looking to invest in time and what your skills are. If you shudder at the thought of wiring a modern fuel injected engine into your Z then it's not for you. I'd recommend reading the stickies in the Gen III & IV Chevy V8 section to get some ideas on the cost and labor involved.