boatbum

Hi Zerrari! I have been gone for awhile but am back and ready to get moving on my VR again. I pick it up in 2 weeks and bring it home to begin. To answer the question about foam. Great Stuff will appear to work but my experience in the boat business is that it may not keep the moisture out long term. I would not use it. I went with a 2 part mixed marine foam (3 or 4 lb if I remember right) similar to this stuff: http://www.shopmaninc.com/foam.html I set up various funnels at the points where I needed to pour it in and taped wax paper covered cardboard in places to stop if from flowing down onto the shop floor while it began to foam up. Mix a little at a time and play with it - it expands quickly and is a mess to work with until you get the hang of it. My car has been sitting outside without a cover for the past 4 years so I will cut some out when I get the car down here and see what the moisture looks like. Good luck!

Tom, Unfortunately it is still Snowbird season for another few weeks. Next time you are down - buzz me. The boats and jetskis are always topped off and ready to go. Apollo Beach is definitely the right place to come and retire - been 80 all week. just my idea of working a few hours a week went away as one of my businesses took off That amount of cash stings to do the car. Mounting the body is not that hard. My guess is a few friends and a couple of weekends and you can have it on and relatively decent. Then you are out 150 hours to the shop. I lucked out on getting mine finished. Most bodyshops were quoting me around $6-7K to finish the car and a friend of the guys who built my motor asked and begged to do it. He has a body shop and does great work but cut me a huge deal to finish the car and then use it in his ads, etc. So I got lucky with $18 an hour - but it will take them 3 months and that is fine. I still have 2 toys in the garage so I am out of room until one is sold and the other is moved to the east coast and retired to beach duty 8) Catch ya later and stop by the next time. Teo

Hi Tom, For my VR so far I have spent approximately overall : 30-40 hours to prep the car - removal of stock body panels, grind old paint off and clean up the body. Includes welding of the reinforcement areas and cuttine the top. 15 hours to test mount the kit - (had some problems with the rear tub - It was me being stupid. I kept measuring the distance and the drivers struts were shot (car wasn't level to begin with)) 30 hours to mount the kit - door skins were the hardest 40-50 hours - basic prep to get everything lining up generally - sanding and filling and figuring out lights, etc. 100-120 hours is what my friend who is doing the final bodywork is telling me he will have in for going over the car, making everything line up perfectly. This is including all the primer coats and final painting, etc. (he is about 45 hours into it and is getting close to spray the first primer coat and figures this to be correct) I generally took my time building the car and had fun. I was new to everything so some stuff took me longer and I made some stupid mistakes. But it is coming along

Hi Tom, I ended up giving up futzing with them and glassed over the handle area and put in solenoids. Not exactly what I wanted but I have gotten too busy with running another company I started and am cutting a few corners with the VR. The good news is that my new 350 is in and running and the car is a rocket. If you find anything - let me know - my car is a few weeks from getting sprayed so I could always back out and put them in. Teo

Just my $.02 I think Steve sold his VR for $19K. I have about $9-10K in my VR with no interior and painting yet. That is just the body, wheels, suspension, brakes, and donor. And that doesn't include time. Quotes for cleaning up (finishing) the body work after I did the mounting - (sanding, getting everything lined up straight, door jams, etc.) was around $3-4K in Minneapolis. I will have $18-20K in it when it is done with the new V8 that I just installed, interior and paint with all the new trim. I am sure that I could do it cheaper but I am going with all leather interior and having it professionally done. I am also having a great body man to the final 4 color sandings on the body and the painting. So $10K for a finished VR with a vette and another Z seems to be killer. The other thing is to check with John Washington to see about the builder of that car. He might be able to give you some insight as to the skills of who did the work - might be valuable. Just my thoughts. Teo

Reed, Where in MSP are you? I will be there for a day and could bring one with me next week to get some stuff at the condo on Lake Calhoun and some parts for my VR from the house over at 50th/France. You could "borrow" it for a few hours and get it back to me before I fly home the next day. I just can't handle more than a day or two up there after October Thanks, Teo

Thanks for the help! It was the master. Didn't realize the master could leak and not loose any fluid. Now if I can just get my VR finished and on the road... Teo

Thanks Tim and Jon, I will check both out. I am also guessing that the Master is bad. I didn't know how the Master worked and on my other cars when the Master was bad - it would actually leak. Thanks for info - I will hunt around for a new master today and throw it in. Teo

Since you all have been most helpful with my VR - I have a question about one of my other rides. On one of my Dakota '89 convertible pickups the brakes are way soft. The pads and rotors look ok. The brakes work but when stopped the pedal will continue almost to the floor over about a minute. When first pushed they seem ok but not hard but they get softer as I apply slight pressure. When I remove my foot and push the pedal again I have full pressure and then it slowly sinks. So I figured I have a leak or air. The master was full so I bled the system, filled it up and it is still doing this. It has been about 3 weeks and it is still totally full. Any ideas before I give up and head to midas. Thanks for any input. Teo

John, Those wheels will look nice on my ride. Your ride looks great. I made some desicions on mine this week. I am putting in the Chevy with side pipes for exhaust. And for now I am just capping the stock Datsun Dash. This should realistically get me on the road around August and I can do the new dash later. We are about 90 minutes from Orlando - so give me a buzz when you are heading down. We also looked at Fort Myers but Apollo Beach won out. Has a more eclectic flair to the town and less people. Of course they are adding 3 more developments so it will grow but for now it is pretty sleepy.

I have a 2nd gen RX-7 convertible. It handles nicely and is my daily summer beater with 160,000 miles on it with basically minimal maintenance. While I love it - I will be happy to ditch it when the VR is done. The parts seem to kill me and I have a hard time getting them. Part of it is the convertible and part of it is that I am/was in Minnesota. Just not enough of them here to get stuff for them and a bunch of the stuff I bought from internet users had the same problems my old part had. It is only the little stupid things that have gone bad - windshield wiper switch, power windows and door lock switches, ECU, basically anything electrical. Just my $.02. Teo

BTW - any Hydridz'ers are always welcome in Florida. I am semi-retiring to Apollo Beach where I bought a house right on Tampa Bay. We have a nice guest room and a pool. People are always welcome but you might get suckered in to helping with some chore - like hanging in the hammocks and making sure the water doesn't jump out of the pool. Fighting hard with the city to get my permit for the 4 car garage Of course once my wife starts decorating the house and I get a few more boats, I will have to get 3 or 4 jobs and there goes the easy life VR is starting to come along. I spent about 8 hours getting the passenger door, cheeks and bonnet lined up. Now that I know the tricks - the drivers side should go quick. Now I need to update my website with all that I have done - but the move keeps my busy. Catch ya later. T

No Problem Joe I had a hard time tracking these down. My friends were giving me a hard time for even considering to go "wireless" so I kept at it. I had to order these through one of my businesses because they only make them for OEM so I will have the info 'forever' If you want a set - just let me know. I have almost made it to Florida. I leave in 2 weeks. Although the VR might not make it all the way south right away. It is looking like I will leave in Tennesee for a V8. Teo

My wheels just showed up for the VR. Now if I can make up my mind to keep fussing with the clutch and flywheel or let my friend put in the V8... True knock off style - proper adapters for the Z hubs and offset is perfect. Can't get 15x8 with 3 7/16 offset so I went with 15x7. 15x7 Front and 15x10 rear. I can get more at $1500 a set of 4 if someone wants them.

Thanks mudge! I will do that later today - just got back from the car and I don't see it - but will bang a bit. And the pilot bearing did not fit right. Nathan - Patience? What patience? I will have my friends do it I am actually pretty lucky to have these guys as friends - they have done most of the welding on my Velo Rossa kit and just love playing with the car. Waiting on the estimate for the V8 conversion. The guys are looking at the JTR book now and they will let me know today. The labor is free but the cost of lap dances and the bar tabs are killing me Of course they will want to drive the finished car for a week in Florida on vacation but that seems to be a fair price??? I will post tonight or tomorrow and see if I find that *&^%$#@ spacer. If so, I will take pics for the next one who tries it. In reality, so far it has not been too bad. You guys have helped a ton. Thanks! Teo

Ok - now I am totally confused. I am assuming that the spacer is on the crank? I cannot see anything that resembles a spacer that could be pushed out from the crank. I do have a pilot bearing/bushing and I see how that fits but the crank still is too big. I will take another look - but I am thinking maybe I just need to go with a V8 Seriously - the guys helping me have just about everything to do it sitting in their shop (they build race motors) - I just need to buy the rebuild kit for the motor and a few nights of lap dances and they will put it all in. What do you guys think? Should I spend more time on the L28 or go Chevy? Thanks for all the input! Teo

Hi, I am/was hoping to change my '78 from an auto to a 5 speed. I have a clutch, 5 speed, and flywheel from a '78 5 speed. Got everything disassembled thanks to a little help from Denny411 and the clutch pedal is now in. Here's the problem, the flywheel from the 5 speed doesn't fit the crank from the auto. The flange on the crank on the auto is about 1/16 too big and the inner hole on the flywheel is about 1/16 too big for the spindle on the crank. We checked the flywheel with another '78 4 speed and they are identical. It is the crank that is difference. Has anybody experienced this? I couldn't find any info and it seems like it would have been a bolt in procedure. Is there another flywheel I should be using? One thought was to have a bushing made for the inner hole on the flywheel and then have the flywheel milled out to fit the crank but I think it would mess up the balance and not be a good thing. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks, Teo

Thanks Denny. That gives me an idea. Have an awesome day! Teo

I am in process of swapping the auto for a 5 speed on my '78 280. I am having a heck of a time getting the flywheel bolts loose to swap the flywheel. Any ideas? I have used a large screwdriver in the hole to anchor it while I used a socket with a small breaker bar but the screwdriver just gets sucked in. I have the car on blocks and jack stands so I have limited room underneath for a large bar. An electric impact wrench wouldn't budge them. Next step is to bring over the air compressor and use an air impact wrench on them - but that is a huge hassel. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks, Teo

Marc, I plan on sectioning the struts around 1.5" It will definitely be needed. The car is right about 2" too high but I don't have my new wheels on yet. The plan is that my wheels will be on this weekend and I will adjust accordingly. I think either way - you will need to section or go with coilovers. The reason I went with the front 300zx struts is that the end is more like the 280 but is also about 2" shorter and doesn't require the mods and customizing like the GTIs. Teo

Sector, For the front: sectioning the strut casing about 1.5" and using '86 300zx struts (front). The 300zx strut is more like the 280 and shouldn't require a custom bushing. I will then use lowering springs and this should sit the car about 1.5-2" lower overall. For the rear: I am replacingd the larger strut isolators with a pair of the shorter front isolators (bought from Dannys Datsuns) This allows me to use the same 280 rear struts and when combined with lowering springs sits the car about 1.5-2" lower. Should be ok - It is so cold here in MN that even the heated garage where I have my project is cold. I can't wait til I move everything to FL and then can work on it at will. Teo

For my front I am using cartridges from a 300zx - they are about 1 1/2" shorter than the stock and look to fit better than the GTI. Planning on putting them in this weekend so I'll let you know how they work. Teo

Infumus - I second Drew on Reaction Research. I have a kit from John Washington and his stufff is great quality and he really stands behind his stuff. If he doesn't have what you want - he can probably point you in the right direction. He is also active on the board here from time to time so he may respond to this as well. Teo

Hi John, I am actually sitting on my boat in Lauderdale this morning Down here for a few weeks for the boatshow then heading back to Minneapolis - I just bought a house on the water in Apollo Beach - between Bradenton and Tampa and have a Velo Rossa in process. I plan on moving it down in early April from Minneapolis and having it finished early summer. Would love to hook up when you get here.