240hoke

Miller SyncroWaves are AWESOME. I have a Syncrowave 180SD that I bought used with very low hours in like new condition from $1200. I had to buy a few accessories for it and ended up with about $1500 in it total. I have been very very happy with it and have been able to do everything that I needed to so far. For that kinda of money you may be able to step up to the Sycrowave 200. Or get a 180SD with a water cooler, which would be nice to have if you plan on doing alot of welding, especially continuously. Ive rarely needed one though. Inverter machine would be nice if you need portability. Dont buy anything other then blue you will be able to get parts easy locally, have good service, and it will be reliable. I have a hobart MIG, Miller Syncrowave 180sd, and a Miller Spectrum 375 Extreme plasma...and everything works perfect never had and issue.

I finally got a chance to run the car down the 1/4 down in Reynolds over the weekend. Had a lot of traction issues and could not launch the car without spinning. I even tried rolling off at the launch and mashing the gas and she spun. I was spinning 1st, 2nd, and into third if I shifted hard. I'm running old hard street rubber, so I think it s time for some fresh stickier tires. But enough of excuses: Engine: VQ35de Bone stock, 6spd manual. Weight: 2490lbs with 3/4 tank of gas 60' - 2.1 seconds 1/4 Mile - 13.1 secs @ 104 mph. I think with some new street rubber and a little practice I will be able to get mid-high 12's with the bone stock engine. Overall I was very happy with the setup and happy with how she did. I let Gabe run my car down the track the last time and it looks like he managed to bend my shift rod so she wont go into 1st, 3rd, or 5th gear . Stuff happens though, it gives me an excuss to pull my engine and wrap up a few things with the swap. I will more then likely be building my turbo headers when the engine is out....although it will probably be a while longer before I go turbo. Ive also put a good many miles on hte car since I finished the swap and I am still very happy with it. I have just about alll the bugs ironed out and the car has just been doing great. It is very smooth and driveable, get 26-27mpg on the interstate, and looks like it has the potential to run 12's on the stock engine. The weight is also right on par with the L28. I love it -Austin

You left out one, Its only truly fast enough if you avoid driving it due to fear of death.

Drive up to DNI

I definitly am interested in a couple

Are the rear brakes fully installed in the pictures? Looks like you are using about 50% of the rotor surface...something definitely isn't right there.

Yes, Bumpers are the biggest give away, easier to spot then a badge

Hey Guys, I wrote up a pretty quick method on how to do it in my thread. I just got my dial indicator as close as I could to the inside edge of the rotor and when from there. It was almost perfect the first set of shim and I finished it as good as it is going to get the second time. Took less then 1 hour and the brakes feel great....I got them to less then .002 Here is is: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=152532&highlight=azc ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay I finally got everything finished up a couple weekends ago. Heres what I did for shimming: I decided to shim the rotor since this to me was easier to do. I bought several different sizes of stainless steel shims from Mcmaster (.001,.002,.004,and .005). I then cut them down a bit so they didnt stick out from the hat. I then set up my dial indicator as close as I could to the hat. I found the place with the least run out and marked it as 0, then as I spun it I wrote the runout at each bolt. I then installed all the shims at once. It was really close on the first try and with a couple adjustments I got the rotor to about .0015in of runout. My measuring setup wasnt any more accurate then that so I was pretty happy. -Austin

Fuel cells and fuel tanks arent about looks, they are about safety. I have a hard time believing that the plastic cells are safe at all. I thoroughly dislike my cell, and I have serious slosh problem below 1/4 tank with the thing packed with foam. I would feel safer with the factory steel tank. They usually leak around the sump fittings unless you replace the washers every year or so. Good sending units are expensive (over 100 bucks) and they usually don't fit the cell perfect. If you want to use a arm/float style it will be terribly inaccurate due to slosh and then you cant use foam. They develop static and if not grounded for whatever reason could present serious issues. You can will smell like gas if you have to fill it from the hatch area. Bottom line IMO is if you want to go to a fuel cell spend the extra couple hundred (500) and get a real fuel cell that will be safe in an accident. Especially with the work required to properly mount a cell, you might as well put a good cell in it. As to that our tank are hanging out on the back of the car so a highquality cell and perhaps a little more rear end protection might be a good idea. In addition if you are going to a cell its a good time to move to an in tank pump, it will be reliable and quite, and you dont have to worry about extra fittings and mounting. When Sam Hornish Jr's car came back into the shop over the summer after being ripped in half at watkins glen, I got to see the quality of bladdered racing cell up close. Watch the tank fly across the track in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV8nooXeR98 It looked like it got hit by a train and was tossed over a cliff and if was holding fine. The car still caught on fire though because all the lines were severed.

I think a lot of the problem is people just start babbling in threads and its gets off topic and the information is hard to find...especially in long / in depth threads. I wish there was a way to make a chat/bs posts that disappeared in 30 days, or the OP could select which response get archived after 30 days or something. But that's way to complicated I'm sure. It would be really sick to form a HybridZ 'wiki' . Good posts that are simi sticky worthy or have good general info would get catalouged and saved into a databased with extraineous posts removed. Ive always wanted to start a S30 Wiki... as a standalone reference site.

YES I WOULD NEVER EVER EVER CUT MINE OFF AGAIN. You will get soaked whenever it rains and you neat to crack you window, or whenever there is dew on top of you car in the morning and you go around the first corner. Also when driving in the rain if you crack the window at all the airflow around the front pillar will shoot water in your eyes! Seriously straight in them its really aggravating. I'm going to make a little aluminum deflector for this. Also removing the rail brings your attention to the door/roof seam which is otherwise hidden. Most car don't line up perfect there and look weird unless you are running weatherstripping along the top (like on 280z's). Its a lot of trouble and it maybe look pretty cool, but I think the rails add a classy look and I would love to have the functionality back!

Yea what is hte function and how much load will it see?

Just looked at your drawings. Bolts is definitly in single shear and with a offset like that you will want to look at the stress caused by the moment from the rod end. Analyze the outside diameter of the bolt right where it is mounted. That is going to be your highest stress area, just calculate the moment from the transverse component of the force on the rod end and go from there. Might want to pull out a book for the stress calc, shigleys is a good reference.

stress = F/A, if its in double shear divide that by two. Compare your result to the bolts shear rating. Make sure you are looking at yield ratings and not ultimate. If they give an Ultimate, then multiply by aproximatly .060. Look at your safety margin and decide if its adequate. You'll probably be surprised at how strong a 3/8" grade 8 bolt is.

Very Cool! I wonder how well they will fit, if anybody buys some please post up pictures! This might spur me to change to saddle or tan panels.

I really appreciate all the replies guys, sounds like several of yall have already been in my position and your insight helps alot. I think everyone is right that it is a good Idea to hang on to the car, I'm sure I would regret it. I think I have decided to hang onto her and either repaint, or find another shell to start on slowly. I spent the day working on a really nice no expense spared 280z yesterday, mostly stock from a suspension standpoint, L28 stroker. We were working on a rough tune, and I got to drive it a little bit. I realised why I had done the modifications to my car that I had done, it is just awesome to drive compared to any other s30 that I have been in. just from a solid sorted feel, and the low end torque of the vq...I hadn't been able to really compare it to a N/A l28 till yesterday. Thanks again guys for the replies. Im about to go out to hte shop and work on her lol...guess what its on jackstands! Broke a sensor on my offroad expidition. THe crank angle snesor was barely hanging in there: We finally made it over, keep spinning the wheels, had to get a rolling start to make it. I would have been stuck on the mountain w/o the LSD when i lifted my back wheel on hte next section you could hear the clutches hating life lol.

Depending on the level of detail and your working situation (shop overhead) I would say around 10K (labor and shop rate only). Sounds like at least a full month long build. I personally would sit down with him and see how serious he is about the project. Find out what his realistic budget is and then go over the parts and how long you think it will realistically take you. I would then charge him per hour and keep track of everything really close. I dont know how often you do work, but once you do it a few times you will have an idea on what to charge after that. People dont realise how much time it takes to do a lot of the modifications that they want. And being older cars people arent willing to drop money like new ones. Its common place for 350z to have 8K dollar wheel and brake setups and 20K in the engine. When people take their dd sedans to the shop they are paying 90 dollars per hour and are charged the hour rate per job (usually takes half the time) but yet they think nothing about it. When you are using expensive tools and pouring bloood sweat and tears into cleaning up old parts that somehow isn't worth as much..... DONT DO IT CHEAP, make it worth it. He can always find someone else to do crappier work for a cheaper price. Also I would make him pay at least half labor up front.

3. (Worst of all) Drafting behind semi's to get better fuel economy. And I get really close and tend to follow the same semi for about 10 miles. I get close enough where I can barely feel any wind if I put my hand out the window. I have never understood tailgating of any sort at any time. All it does is put yourself in danger, your are asking to get your car messed up and it will ALWAYS be your fault. Seems like everybody that I ever ride with follows way closer then I do. No only is it dangerous but your car take a hell of a beating from rocks on the freeway. I cant imagine you save yourself enough money to pay for the wrecked that will someday ensue.....oh yea and hte truck drivers prolly wont realize you totaled your car when he hit his brakes lol. Which brings me to what bothers me the most when driving. why do people tail gate when the people they are tailgating cant go any faster due to traffic???? Blows me away when people do this. Anyway my bad habits would haveto be the last minute lane changing, and I never use signals.

Congrats!

No paint missing just a little mud! 4 wheeling wasnt my intention but we had gone to far to turn around (just turning around would have been a task). My door shut fine but theere is basically the width of a paper between the door and the rear quarter, and the door frame overlaps the quarter window by just a hair. She took a hit on the rear corner at some point I believe.They shut and work fine for a 240z, but nothing like the smoothness of a late 280z. Rturbo 930 - Looks like just an alignment issue, everything appears straight you maybe ajust/shim the hinge and latch. Ill post pictures in another thread of my doors when I get a chance.

Nice pics, Its amazing to see so many nice JDM classics in one place. We need more stuff like that over here...people are only now starting to catch on to cars and coffee.

I have deat with Jeg's more times then I can remember and I have never had an issue of any type. They are quick to ship and easy to deal with if there is a problem. Returns have also been a breeze even for things when I didn't have the receipt and they were pretty old. I always buy from there website (which is really nice) and never had an issue, usually gets to my house in about 3 days. Sounds like the Ebay route is a little sketchy. Maybe there is a single guy in the back running the ebay operation

I would have kept the factory mainly for cost reasons and that the factory filler and evap breather system could be utilized. Having the additional storage in the spare tire well would be nice as well. The plastic cells (and aluminum IMO) are total garage and are not any safer then the factory tank and have terrible slosh issues even with foam. I am of the opinion that if you want a cell then get a REAL fuel cell with a blatter. I think the fuel cell access flange welded to the top of a factory tank with the ATL black box and internal pump is really slick. Keeps the stock appearance and gives a really sweet fuel setup. Im sure its going to cost me over 1000 to get an entire fuel cell setup with internal baffles, in-tank pump and sending unit.

Thanks for all the replies guys, sounds like you all may be talking some sense into me...I never have it on the road long enough to enjoy it anyway. This weekend I did a Charity drive in the foothills of NC, its was a blast, I'll be making a post about it later but here are some pictures. Oh yea and I have video of the 4 wheeling I did. I learned two things this weekend, one dont follow a GPS in the mountains, paper maps are better...and two gravel roads never get better the farther you go! Clive I like what you have done with your LS1 chassis swap, I have considered doing this and it may prove to be my best option. I could find a clean shell and work on it slowly as it wouldn't cost much, I can strip it seam weld and and paint her and then swap everything over when the time is right and sell my current shell. The problem with my current body is the door alignment, they are pretty bad and will required extensive body work / straightening to fix. And would require nothing short of a complete tear down to make right IMO. I was planing on making a post in the body work section to asked some veteran body guys about it. For a daily driver its fine, but it bothers me to no end. I reckon I could also do body work will driving it as well. Just another option I reckon. Scott, jackstand racing I remember those days.... I never could admit that I had a jackstand racer though, even though I was wayyyyyyyy too qualified I never put the pic in my sig lol.

I will be starting a great job in January and the car will definitely be taking a back seat. I also just purchased a house, so starting another project in addition probably wont be an option for a while My list right now in order: Rear Adjustable LCA's Crossmember engine mount (In preparation for turbo) Fuel Safe Fuel Cell Full Repaint (Including removing all interior and painting gloss) Single Turbo (utec ems) Yea I need to admit I have a problem.