[Legal matter regarding my Z]

Idk about your area, but up in alaska it is mandatory that the owner be notified 24 hours before towing, whether that be a sign at parking or a written ticket on the windshield. The APD don't really do anything until someone complains about a car and after the complaint, they sit on it for like 2 or 3 days before doing anything.

 

Was it in a public lot? If its a private lot, then I would talk to the owner, they are usually the ones that responsible to have a car towed off their lot. I've read a article of a guy that had his car towed (not repo'd) on a private lot without the lot owners permission and went to court and won agaist the local PD. The lot owner is the one that has to file the suit though.

 

Might want to look into the policy in your area.

 

It was on a public road, parked in a legal area (not a lot). As far as I know, nobody had complained. If I had heard about any sort of complaint, I'd have moved it into my driveway (if not all the way to the back of my garage). Thanks for the input to both of you. I'm debating whether or not the cost of a lawyer would be justified for this. I'll have to call some law offices on Monday to find out what it's going to come to.

[Legal matter regarding my Z]

DISCLAIMER

Forgive me if this comes off as a whining session, but I really need some honest advice. I'm going to keep this as unbiased as I possibly can, please bear with me and try not to post any comments that are one-sided toward me just because I'm a member here and the other parties (most likely) are not. I'm sorry it turned out so long, but if you intend to reply, please take the time to read the whole post and be as impartial as possible.

 

Tuesday

I parked my car on the street on Tuesday, June 2rd, in a legal parking space, with a legal registration and insurance in Vallejo. I went to bed because I had to work in the morning.

 

Wednesday

I woke up to go to work, got ready to leave, and turned the key to start it up to drive to get some coffee, go to the bus stop, and take that to work, and the car did not start. Logically, I wanted to check electrical components first, so I jacked up the passenger's side of the car to drop the starter, removed the alternator, and removed the battery, with the intention of charging the battery and testing the individual components directly after work. I had taken the hood off the day before, as I had just found out that having your hood off while driving is legal, and my hood needed some touch-ups, so I had removed it and it was still removed. I then went to work, and had an average day there, despite the fact that my car was having troubles.

 

When I came home (6:00pm +/- 15 minutes), one of my friends stopped by and asked me where my car was, since he had stopped by around noon to see if I had stayed home for the day (since my car was parked outside when I should have been at work). Now I was home, and my car wasn't. I thought he was joking at first, then went out to see, and found that it was missing. I was floored, and after I put my head on straight, I called the Police Department to report it as stolen. The registration was in the glovebox, but I had the license plate number written down and gave them that. The pleasant lady at the PD said that it had been towed, but could not give a reason why or where it was towed to (the PD had been the ones who called in the tow, she explained). I asked when to call back, and they said I should receive a letter with the details. I reluctantly said that's fine, and hung up.

 

Saturday

Today, I received two letters in the mail:

1. A lien sale warning, stating that my car is going to be sold by a local towing company (I'm not mentioning any names here just yet) unless it was picked up, and that I owed them $35/day for the past 3 days in addition to a $70 lookup/processing fee, and $120 for a tow to their lot.
   
2. A police report(?) that stated that it was towed for being a non-op vehicle.

My first course of action was to call the tow company, who did not pick up their phone. It just continued to ring. After it rang for a bit, I counted another 20 rings just to be sure, and hung up. No answer. I called back a half hour later and got a pleasant lady on the other end! Yay! Unfortunately, she couldn't help with anything, and put me on hold while she called the driver (wtf?). When she came back, she told me he would be calling within the next 15 minutes. So I put off everything else I was planning for the day (no seriously, I had a busy day of errands and bill-paying and an appointment set up) and waited a half hour with no call back.

 

All right, I said. I'll call the tow company again. I got the same pleasant lady on the other end, and she said that something more important had come up for the driver and he would call back later in the day. Umm... what? I explained that that was unreasonable, and that I had other things to do, and not to bother because I will come into the office on Monday.

 

I then walked down to the Police Department (it's not far from here, and I don't mind walking). Apparently the Vallejo PD lobby is closed on the weekends, and they keep a small gray box with a phone in it to talk to the Dispatcher. I picked up the gritty, dirty phone, and talked to the nice dispatcher (she really was quite pleasant). She proved herself to be utterly unhelpful, however, stating that I'd have to come back on Monday to fill out a Vehicle Release form (or something to that effect). Before I left, I asked if there were somewhere I could attain the Vallejo Towing Policy in print, and she said she had never heard of such a thing.

 

Later tonight, I did a bit of googling, and a bit of emailing around, and found the Solano County Towing policy, which apparantly covers Vallejo. It states that (among other things):

The Vallejo Police Department has established a written policy for towing and storage of motor vehicles that also includes motor-driven cycles, motorized bicycles and mopeds. Key provisions state that a reasonable effort will be made to locate a vehicle’s owner to eliminate unnecessary tows, allows an owner to give preference for a specific towing company and for the department to pay for any vehicles erroneously towed or stored. The towing contract with individual companies spells out contract rates, licensing and insurance requirements, forbids “collusion†between owners and mandates professional standards for tow truck drivers.

 

I am now a little curious as to what "a reasonable effort" is. A phone call could have eliminated all this trouble. I have also searched for any publication that explains that a vehicle without a battery (or any non-operable, registered vehicle) should be towed immediately and without notification. My search has thus far been unsuccessful.

 

So, my questions are:

1. Was the officer justified in having my car towed, given the circumstances? I was unaware that my vehicle was illegal to park on the street, and could easily have been relocated to my driveway if I had been notified.
   
2. Should some sort of warning be issued before my car was towed (I know most California towns use bright orange stickers that are stuck to the windshield 12-48 hours before a vehicle is towed)?
   
3. Is the tow company legally allowed to charge me for storage fees on days that I could not pick the car up (through no fault of my own) or days that I was not informed that they had my vehicle?
   
4. Am I overreacting, and should this be considered standard policy? It's entirely possible that I'm completely off my rocker and shouldn't feel violated because my car was towed. The fact remains that I didn't know I was doing anything wrong and feel that I should have been informed (or at least been given a reasonable opportunity to inform myself by having procedures posted publically, say... on the Vallejo website?) before such drastic action was taken.

Again, please don't take my side just because I wrote this up. I feel completely taken advantage of, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm a victim here. I'm mostly upset that I wasn't contacted before the car was towed (ideally by a warning, or even a ticket) or directly afterward (when the car was towed, leave a note/citation on my door?), and am currently being charged for storage on days when I am not given the ability to get the car out of storage.

[Seizures]

Uhhhh... I found some new problems. I started tearing the motor down, and the pistons were completely stuck. After I got the heads off, this is what I found on the two rear-most cylinders:

 

I'm guessing something lived in there, but who knows. It's not rust; it's all just strange build-up on top of the cylinder walls. It's soaking in WD-40 and will soak in diesel tonight. Hopefully I can get those pistons freed up and have it at the machine shop by the end of the week.

 

The cylinder walls are as smooth as a baby's bottom, which means it's probably got some serious miles on it since the last rebuild. I'll measure the bore on each of them, and see how much meat I have left to play with before taking it down to the shop. It's possible that this has never even been honed before, we'll see about that though.

[Seizures]

Whoa, what an awesome hemorrhage of great information! The stand I got is somewhere between the two. It's basically the second, but with double-legs (A-shaped rather than T-shaped), I'm pretty confident that I won't run into any problems, but rotating it is a BITCH. I only moved it a little to see how much effort it required, and I'm really hoping that after I get the oil out of it it'll be better.

 

Updates to come soon, intake manifold and valve covers are off... The heads do not look very good, we'll see what it looks like under them.

[Seizures]

I picked up a 327 yesterday, and hope to have it torn down and dropped off at the machine shop by the end of the week. I left the 283 mostly in tact for now, so I can get lots of pictures while pulling it, just in case I forget which way a bracket goes, or which bolts came out of which holes (even though I'm big on ziploc baggies, that sometimes isn't enough). I need to find some bolts to put the engine on the stand I picked up, I believe they should be 3/8" coarse threaded? Can someone confirm?

 

Pictures and detailed update to come on my site.

[Seizures]

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=NAL%2D10067353&autoview=sku

 

this is the fastest cure, but not necessaraly the cheapest but in most cases its going to be very cost effective

 

before you spend a dime elseware BUY and watch this CD and read the book, it will be the best $32 you ever spent

http://www.themotorbookstore.com/resmchstvi.html

 

if you were local ID show you step by step how to pull it apart and inspect the components and make intelligent choices as to routes you can take based on your budget and goals, but trust me! BUY THE BOOK IT CAN POTENTIALLY SAVE YOUR WALLET ALOT OF sceaming and agony

 

It's on my 'must read' list. I'll probably order directly from Amazon. There are lots of engines around here, I just need to decide which to go with.

 

Where did you get the car or motor from?

 

Chances are that it needs everything to be correct. Might as well start off with another engine IMO.

 

It is so sad to see members spending hard earned $$$ for results like that. Here in town a friend with limited knowledge paid $3500 for a 383 crate motor. It lasted 2 weeks before the oil pickup tube fell out of the pump and spun a rod. Took it apart, it had circle track claimer pistons, stock 400 rods, 30/30 stock 400 crank and some L98 aluminum heads. Surely not $3500 worth of parts.

 

I built a 383 for my paint and body guy and it boils the hides off that '81 camaro with a th350 auto and some 4.11's. I had about $2500 in it, but used his dart sr torquer heads.

 

The motor was installed in the car when I bought it. I only paid $2500 for the whole kit and caboodle, so I can't really complain too much. The oil pan is pretty seriously messed up, though. I wouldn't put it past it to have leaked all my oil out when I wasn't looking, and driving it down to the store killed it off. I would think it would've overheated, though.

 

I think I'm going to toss a new motor in, keep this carb and intake manifold (if possible), and take this 283 with me when I move (probably at the end of the month) then tear it down and rebuild from there.

[Seizures]

I ran into some rather serious engine seizure issues this weekend. Here's the article (with video) that I posted after it happened:

http://madnessmanual.com/2008/05/27/rattling-engine-part-iii/

 

I thought I had a new engine coming up to me, but that doesn't appear to be the case any more. So, I'm wondering if you guys think this is worth pulling and rebuilding or just swap it out and replace it.

 

Bear in mind, I'm moving in a month.

[10" wide wheels and tires?]

try usacomp.com Rims in different configurations, and they will do our lug pattern.

 

Don't forget about the KIND of tire that you can fit. No point in spending all kinds of money to end up having wide "s" rated tires on nice rims. I gave up on 15's and 16's due to the lack of performace tire availability in the wider widths. It seemed as if the wider tires were older technology rubber and/or designed for s10 pickup truck show vehicles. (meaning H rated performace at best.)

 

I almost bought from usacomp.com, but I settled on Simmons. See my sig. My rears are 315/35/17 with 4.5" of backspace (they really stick out from a stock fender lip, but fill my flares nicely enough.) I would not want to go with anything larger than a 17 diameter wheel though, as they start to look out of place on an old school type of car...that and you end up with rubber bands for tires. (No good for my street driven z)

 

I'm definitely going to check them out, especially if I can fit 315's under them. The BAMF fender flares are a bit less "smooth" looking than your overfenders, and I like the backyard-ish look more than the clean-cut look your overfenders give. They still fit the 315/35-17's in there, so I think that takes the win. A few new questions (answer whatever you'd like, don't feel obligated to hit them all):

1. 4.5" of backspace works well, though?
   
2. No rubbing on suspension components or the inside of the fender well?
   
3. Any particular suggestions on where to find tires that wide (I tore into tirerack, but came out wanting), or which tires (Yokohama S.drive seems pretty solid) to get?

I don't think my 18's look out of place, but to each his own.

 

IMHO, they make the car look small-ish, but that could just be the side skirts. I'm not used to seeing side skirts on an s30, and I'm still trying to decide if I love them or hate them.

[10" wide wheels and tires?]

I think I'm going to directly copy http://www.cardomain.com/ride/827044

He has:

CCW CLASSICS

-FRONTS: 17x9.5" (5.25" backspace, 0 offset) (BFG g-Force T/A KD 275/40/ZR17)

-REARS: 17x10.5" (5.25" backspace, -12 offset) (BFG g-Force T/A KD 315/35/ZR17)

 

I may not end up with CCW Classics, if I can find something else I like more, but just finding tires in those sizes seems impossible. I like the Yokohama S.Drive, but they just don't go that wide. Am I just shopping in the wrong places? If so, where should I be going? I've been poring through

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=100039

and

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=116603

but there's a lot of info that isn't immediately pertinent for me, so I'm skipping past it. I really want something that fits the car nicely, and Justin's just look great squeezed up under the overfenders. I have to admit, I'm a fan of the car overall. I'm looking to do something similar as my final goal, but with a black/white color theme and no headlight covers.

[10" wide wheels and tires?]

I have a few things to say... those are some tall freakin' tires you're planning to run. I don't know how you think that looks any better than running 17's with correct-height tires - but that's you're opinion and you're entitled to it. I'd prefer to run 16's over 17's if good tire sizes were readily/inexpensively available. 17's can look to be smaller or larger depending on the design.

 

Another thing, you could run 275/40/17's in the rear and only be at 25.5", which is pretty close to stock overall height; the size tires you're talking about running in the rear are 26.6" which is worse considering your #2 thought - you end up with very tall gearing, more rotational mass to spin up, down, and overcome with from the perception of it as a gyroscope (harder to steer at speed), and you're handling will be sloppy at best. Going with a properly sized wheel/tire combo (under 25.5") instead of the monstrous height you're talking about, will weigh much less - tires weigh more than most people realize, even as compared to an aluminum wheel.

 

A 40-series tire gets a taller sidewall the wider you go - with a 205/40, your sidewall is 3.2", but with a 295/40 you end up with 4.6" of sidewall. With the size tire you're talking about (and gaging off the picture above), you're talking about, I think, approximately 10 feet of sidewall.

 

I don't mean to bust your balls on this, but I think you have some misperceptions about tire sizes... or, at least, some misexecutions of your perceptions.

 

I think you may be right. I've been doing my math wrong (the formulas were right, I understood how it worked... but my calculations ended up wrong). I think most of the reason I was so far off was because I currently have 14"s on there, and they're 60-series. My (incorrect) math told me that my sidewall would be around the same if I went to 295 width and down to 40 sidewall. That being said, is there a nice, wide 17" tire that's readily available, cheap, and doesn't look too flashy that you know of?

 

Seeing the 295/50-15's they do look a bit big for this car. Almost like it's got drag slicks on it.

 

I'm really only concerned about getting the width. There's nothing sexier than really wide tires, and the ability to USE all that traction. That being said, I'm open to suggestions. Feel free to offer any suggestions you may have, I'm all ears.

[10" wide wheels and tires?]

I just did a bunch of reading on wheel and tire sourcing, but I'm a little disappointed. There are a few reasons why:

1. I like a little sidewall to my tires. 40-series is as small as I'll comfortably go with a road car.
   
2. Smaller diameter wheels save rotational mass, letting me accelerate and decelerate more quickly.
   
3. I want wide wheels. Why have all this power if it's just causing you to slip all over the place?
   
4. I really want to keep the stock rear, and not have to convert to 5-lug. It just saves me lots of headache.

So I've been looking around for wide wheels that aren't 17" diameter. In my ever-so-humble opinion, 17's look like ♥♥♥♥ on Datsuns. They're too tall. 16's would be fine, but there just aren't any tires available. I found a set of local steelies off a Levin that are 15x10 in the rear and 15x8 in the front, and are 4x114.3. They're $570 for the set, which sounds fine to me. I'm also planning to slap some 295/50-15(rear, 10" wides) and 275/50-15(front, 8's) Toyo Proxes on them and call it a day. All told, I'll be spending around $1200 for this first set of rubber (including mounting and balancing, assuming they need it).

 

Before I go spending all this money on this setup, does anybody forsee any problems with this setup (other than my welded diff, which will chew through tires... I'm sourcing an lsd r200 to replace it) that I might be missing?

 

Do I want the exact same width tire patch to wheel width? I've always thought tire stretching was idiotic, and having the sidewalls as close to parallel to each other should be the ideal for performance. Thanks for reading as always, and I'm really looking forward to any replies or thoughts.

 

(yes, I'm getting BAMF zg's to cover these)

[Guidelines for this sub-categrory and why the need...]

This is some really really great information. So great, in fact, that I feel bad that I didn't have a hand in paying for it, but I definitely get the payoff. I just read through the whole sub-category, and I think I absorbed about 90% of it. Aero still isn't my specialty, but we'll get there someday.

 

Back to my point, is there somewhere we should be donating to see more tests like this? Possibly something about weight distribution, ideal traction, breaking points of drivetrain, etc? I'm really happy with this, and would love to contribute to getting more good info like it.

[Don't know what car to get...]

You know you want one of these:

 

at least, I do.

[Don't know what car to get...]

I'd go with something like a CRX. It's sporty-ish, fun to drive, and gets great mileage. Also, if you keep it clean, it's a good date car. Of course, you only have two seats so don't go trying to take out multiple ladies to the same date.

 

Just my .02, it's not as flashy or snazzy as the cars you mentioned, but it'll get the job done and even does fairly well in the snow (provided that it has decent tires).

[71 240z I'm Considering...]

That looks pretty clean and complete for $850. Personally, I say go for it if you'll have the budget to carry it through. Which engine would you plan on using?

[KenshinX Current status: 260z build up]

The q45 throttle body is for later (custom intake) the 240sx TB is going on the manifold I'm getting ported out. I'm not gonna use a spacer. Yes, it does feel quite good lol getting new parts, but I don't think I'm going to make it in tie to drive my Z to school before the last day I'm a senior kinda sucks tho. I'm just tryna achieve 350whp to beat my rivals WRX he's rich. lol. I'm not I've been working very hard to get to this point and I hope I succeed if not I still have a nice car. If I do win or just barely lose I still am happy with the fact that he has a 07 WRX with xxxxxx amount of dollars in it plus the cost of the car while I spent $6500 including the car and gave him a run for his money. .

 

also, you get looks from the ladies in your car.

['70 Roller...Might Be Worth A Look!! No. CA]

Maybe I should start getting a 'Finders Fee' for these leads... ;~)

 

Start up a business! 5% on anything you find!

 

Work it out globally, and make friends with a freight shipper so you can look ANYWHERE and get them delivered ANYWHERE. I was going to be charged $600 to ship my CRX from Massachusetts to California. If you find a straight shell for, say $500 with no rust and ship that to the East Coast, you could easily get $2k for it. Just a thought.

[New Z owner, mystery knob]

...find a good spot, but don't try to skimp too much on gas unless you granny the throttle when you do.

 

 

Which kind of defeats the purpose, IMHO. I definitely think finding a good spot is paramount, then leave it.

 

OR, you could always just tune it in to that good spot and ditch the pot altogether. That way you don't have to worry about it corroding and ruining your signal (causing all manner of weirdness to track down). Just my .02

[Spare parts 260z]

What do you need off of it??

 

Seriously, the time for just randomly stripping parts off of these cars for your collection and sending the car to the junkyard is 20 years past... and that car is in good enough shape that someone will want the shell at least (like you said) so, why bother stripping anything off of it? the more complete it is, the more value it has to anyone else. Of course, if the dash or any other interior pieces are good, and you ARE selling it to someone as a racer shell, then you might want to keep the dash.. but my point is, I wouldn't take anything off of it unless you wind up selling it to someone who will specifically be stripping things off of it (ie a racer) and THEN you make the call of what you keep and what you don't.

 

point well taken. There are a few people who race Z's here in Vallejo, I figure I'll just approach them. I may just turn it into a race car myself, to be honest.

[72 240Z Shell on S.F. Craigslist]

That guy has been trying to sell that thing for a while now. The car has been cut up for flares, and hes selling the flares sepperate. May not be as nice as one would hope...

 

That's low. He didn't even bother to mention that. Who would do such a thing?

[KenshinX Current status: 260z build up]

That's one of the sexiest things you can spread over your bedroom floor. Can't wait to see more.

[72 240Z Shell on S.F. Craigslist]

Just a thought, but wouldn't this be worth spending a few hundred dollars to transport? I mean, finding a rust-free shell must be relatively difficult in Oregon, for example.

 

If anybody finds a car in the San Francisco or Sacramento area, just let me know where I'd be driving it and I'll be happy to deliver it for gas/lodging money. I love traveling!

[Spare parts 260z]

I happen to have a spare 260z that won't be used for anything (it has a dent on the rear driver's quarter panel, and it wasn't worth the few hours to hammer it out, so we got a new 240z shell). The plan is to strip some of the parts and sell it as a parts/track/restore shell.

 

My questions are:

1. What parts should I realistically take from it?
   
2. Who wants it, and for how much (clean title)? (bunches of pictures here: Darth Z)

[72 240Z Shell on S.F. Craigslist]

um... damn. I wonder if I can fit 4 in my driveway...

 

I sort of have a problem: http://projectcrx.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/multiplying-projects/

['70 Roller...Might Be Worth A Look!! No. CA]

Bought and paid for, came with a bunch of extras we weren't really expecting for the price. It's getting a 351w Ford v8 in the next few months, expect VERY complete documentation to follow.