Tony D
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Posts posted by Tony D
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OMG... My colloquial terminology for 'Indigenous Arabian Water Pipe' apparently is a bad word.
Heck
Oliver's
Oogling
Karen's
Ample
Hips
Whooka'd thunkit?
I mean old men wearing Fez enjoying a cool smoke. I got a two-hoser, too!
I would have never thought that would have come up as tagged by the censor-bot!!!
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In Frank's case of shipping Ring and Pinions...he shipped insured Dutch Post, which tracked his first shipment to New Orleans... then it was lost.
Claimed the insured amount, no problem... Shipped another one (insured for like $500 for a used R&P set) and Dutch Post tracked to New Orleans...three days before Katrina.
OOPS!
Repeat above... Now, the R&P sets were sold for someting under $500, so Frank was doing O.K. with the USPS loosing his shipments and having the DUTCH POSTAL SERVICE cover their incompetence. But we're talking 6+ months down the road and the guy is now starting to blackball Frank for not getting him his parts. Due to the insurance, Frank could refund the parts cost even though nothing he did was at fault, and he DID have tracking information saying they DID reach the port and get turned over to US Customs for clearance and release to USPS.
It's why I do so love the EMS post. I've had things shipped from Japan (drop shipped actually, from the manufacturer sold through someone on Australia) and the parts show up by the MANAGER of the local post office in his personal car. Why? Because that is what EMS Post requirements say: Deliver within X hours of receipt at responsible office.
I've had the manager dropping off Flywheels at 10AM, and the standard delivery coming around 2PM, and our UPS Brown Van show up either at 8AM or 6PM depending on wether it's red, blue or brown standard groundtrack.
But we are screwed with the services our Post Office Offers. EMS post was available in Morocco, and I sent my dad his Fez and ******...cost $129 to send $50 worth of parts. But guess what? From the Post Office in Felada / Mohammedia Morocco I could track my package straight to my fathers door by post office login somehow... and knew within 2 hours of when he got it!
I called in the late evening and it was "Hey, your package just arrived!" Yeah dad, I know....
I think a lot of guys here in the USA get burned because of the incompetence of our Postal System. And some by the unwillingness of people to pay for a traceable, insurable shipping method. A lot of time people have things shipped to me, and I then Trans-Ship them with the above mentioned photos and receipts. Sure it adds to the cost, but many times I can consolidate packaging and considerably decrease the DIM-Weight of a shipment which the original seller (like Jegs or Summitt) will charge a fortune for. I have shipped master gasket sets to people in the UK in a box 1/4 the size of the "Fel Pro Card Stock" they came on, simply to give head gaskets room in a universal card...and then a box oversized to accomodate the largest dimensions of the gasket card. Hell, a Ziplock and a cut down box really does wonders.
I've shipped stuff to myself from overseas...but now with the travelling I can usually accomodate large items in my spare duffel bag I carry around for those items. Even with an oversized article charge on commercial flights, it's only a $50 or $100 charge. I mean, really if these guys want these parts they really should make a big list, get it consolidated at one point, and then take a holiday and handcarry the stuff back through their local customs at the airport. Chances are for stuff not in 'new boxes' meaning take it all out and stick it in your bag loose...you won't pay any duty at all! If you do, it's really minimal.
But I digress...
Hope this works out. I think in a couple of weeks you will (hopefully) get an e-mail apologizing for impatience.
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Yeah, it becomes hard when the Postal System sets up a situation where transit times are terrible and everybody lives in an electronic age and expects an MTV delivery of their parts---for free!
Ultimately without proof of shipment, you really don't have a lot to stand on from what I see in respect to asking him to wait because you can PROVE you mailed it. Now, as to someone overseas taking a delivery of a non-registered, no signature required for delivery package and claiming non-receipt...I'm sure that has never happened!
It comes down to trust in the end. The best case I can see if this truly is 'lost in the mail' and doesn't show up in the next two weeks is that you keep the shipping funds (ESPECIALLY if you have the recieipt for the shipping charges) and you refund the cost of the part.
With no receipt proving you actually mailed it...well trust goes only so far. That might justify him asking for shipping costs as well.
The lesson learned is 'keep all your receipts' and what I like to do is take photos of the part, the part in the box, the box sealed up and ready to mail, and I scan the receipts for the shipping and send it all in an e-mail the day it goes. This is what I did with PJO, who lives in Norway. Things did take forever to get to him...but with all that documentation on the front end, there wasn't a lot of 'why isn't it here yet?' kind of e-mails. Come to think of it, I think I never sent the receipts for the last batch of tools I sent him...
I think that was $400 worth of stuff, plus shipping. I'm sure that will be brought up in the divorce at some point as miscreant use of household funds... If it gets lost, with the photos and e-mails I thin have in good faith given him everything up front that knows I did what I could. It will strongly mitigate his anger against YOU for possibly 'screwing him'... and may open the path to a mutual negotiation that lets you keep half the funds and refund him half the total. With the understanding that if it shows up later he should send the same photographs back to you upon receipt for a claim or simply fodder to go to the Post Office and get Postal with the Benelli...
It's poops-city in this situation. Nobody will 'win' the best you both can hope for is to 'lose less.'
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I would say that's more a maintenance interval issue than a pad issue...
I have run R4S on just about everything. The fluid needs to be good, you will be able to (on an S30) get the center hub VERY hot under repetitive hard braking (no fade for me...) to the point I would recommend synthetic greases up front.
Bedding of an R4S does not involve 50mph casual stops alone. I literally made the rotors glow red with (if I recall their procedure) three 100mph to zero stops in rapid succession and then driving around till I felt they were cool enough. That was after several moderate stops to bring up the rotor temperature. Break-in has to get pad material onto the rotor, if the rotor isn't slightly bluish after some of the stops, you weren't braking hard enough. Don't come to a complete stop, keep rolling and repeat---try to do it without lockup of any wheel.
I'm thinking you glazed the pads from a timid driving and break-in. You will have to scuff your pads and thoroughly clean the rotor surface and properly re-bed them to get even frictional deposition on the rotor surface or they will never work properly. This is not a pad issue, this is a 'failure to follow installation issue.'
I also concur on the brake dust. They make a nasty black dust. They also stop exceedingly well. They will lift my fat arse up off the seat and onto the belts under hard braking...and that's after several 80 and 100 mile per hour 'panic' stops. Actually on the last bedding stop, I kept pressing and pressing harder and harder and the car was progressively stopping faster and faster. It was kind of spooky how well they gripped the hotter they got. But I drive them daily, and the only other complaint I would have is that they squeal louder than Ned Beatty under casual or very light braking. It goes away immediately as I stab the pedal and the car abruptly stops...but it's not conducive to my rear bumper longevity driving around SoCal!
Dust and Squealing I guess are the downside. If you don't have first rate fluid, you may as well not even bother installing them. I used RBF600, I think 650 is available now. The pads will have the ability to get the bearing center of the rotor carrier (hub) to the point where normal DOT3 will boil (300+F) imagine the caliper heat level! Good (some would say superior) brake fluid is required to get the most from these pads. And sticky tires won't hurt.
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Wow, I just went and read my post---that was supposed to be 70% Compression (.7 .5-1") 70% of a 275#/1" is as calculated above. But like I said, they may have been 250's...or maybe 225's. I don't recall the packaging numbers from 19894 1984 when I bought them and installed them.
"Tighter than most, not as tight as Messley's" Maybe John Coffee can shed light on how Eric had the back set up when he was running BSP in 1991/1992 seasons. Less than that. That's what my springs were, "less than that" -- and they compressed .5 to .7 of an inch at roughly 70-80mph.
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"Which Tail" would be one question to ask... Someone says 250 for the one in the wind tunnel at 120mph--'which tail'?
(275X2)*.5= 275#
(275X2)*.7= 385#
So (275+385)/2=330# by a really rough measurement utilizing O-Rings on a strut piston rod, magic marker and string, and well within the realm of 'rough estimate' trying to explain why my car no longer lost traction in 3rd gear under boost in a particular corner (or in a straight line for that matter, I was more concerned at one particular corner I thought I should be able to take flat out without having to lift from traction issues.) It seemed reasonable that the car had somewhere around 300# of downforce generated by the wing as adding 250# of shotgun pellets in bags didn't quite tame the issue in a straight line.
Why the 50mph differential? Who knows, maybe it's like dyno numbers. Nobody else I know has problems with traction like I did with only 350HP at the rear wheels. Maybe it was more. I wasn't hung up on sizing up my problem and talking with other people about it, I just concentrated on solving it and trying to get rough estimations on what it took to do so.
Not whitepaper presentation to the SAE quantification, but enough rough measurments to get an idea what I had.
275# is a recollection as well. This was 1991 when I was doing all sorts of other pressure-cel tests on the body and it's parts. They may have been 250#, as I remember Eric Messley saying I DEFINATELY needed stiffer springs in the back and at the time he was running 275's so maybe I was running 250 or 225's. They are RSST Springs from Japan one day maybe when I get the time I can take them out and spring scale them to get an exact number. It's not like the Japanese Cartons are extant to read the Kg/Cm numbers any more.
They are Red Springs, does that help any?
My guess was the downforce added was more than 250# as birdshot didn't cut it. Half and Inch or more of spring compression seems to bear that number out to some extent.
Close enough for me.
Maybe that's why I put up as much as I did towards the aero tests when I learned about it. Better numbers from a better testing environment than I had available in 1991. When was that again? What? 20 years ago?
Here's your boxing gloves John---feel free to remove the flypoop out of the plate of ground black pepper there now.
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I'd really give it at least 60 days, that is what I would consider 'normal' surface shipping time to Europe, seems others experience is similar to mine so you might want to link him to this thread as some support for waiting a couple of weeks more...
I know Frank 280ZX stopped shipping things THIS direction from Holland as inside the country the Dutch Postal System could track it, and in fact could track it to the port in New Orleans...
From there it entered the black hole that is the USPS. Dr. Demming hated these people, and for good reason!
Problem is you chucked your stuff straight to the black hole to begin with so there's not much hope of finding it other than waiting the 'normal' shipping time which is around 2 months (or slightly longer in my case...)
When I ship through USPS I ALWAYS use my credit card. If I ever loose the registered receipts, etc... I at least have a transaction record on my credit card statement that month. And I can access that electronically for 12 months...but which time I believe the USPS might get it done. Though recently there have been some stories from post cards from New Orleans being posted in 1962 showing up, etc... So in some cases it takes them a while.
Frankly, when it comes to the other countries they do a better job with the mails in many respects. You routinely send cash packets through the mail within Japan. Here they tell us not to...
Ahhh well, what can you do? Wait a while longer, and wait a bit more. At this point, whats another two or three weeks?
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That proof of mailing is good thing, it would partially justify the 'sorry man, take it up with the post office' and not sending the refund.
Any of those countries can take a while by surface freight.
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Oh, I thought a twin turbo twin turbo...
RHD or LHD, makes no difference to me.
The point being the prices... They ARE easily registerable in Canada. Which was kind of a secondary point.
I guess you missed the stuff about 'Freedom from Choice' huh?
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"or drinking deliberately fluoridated water"
"Mandrake, our precious bodily fluids are being contaminated..."
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How is it I get mentioned in this...
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It can take 90 days to reach Holland. I shipped manifolds via surface (you don't state surface or air mail) and it took AT LEAST two months to get from CA to Xander in Holland, as well as to Frank 280ZX. Surface is more than the slow boat. And stuff seems to disapear regularly as well. Insurance is the only recourse in situations like this. I would compromise and ask forbearance for another 45 days to MAKE SURE it isn't on a boat or wharf stuck in quarrantine some place.
And next time, make them pay for Air Mail.
Same thing to Australia. Months via surface. But coming this way from Oz it's only a couple weeks, if that. And EMS post? Hell, that shows up faster than something mailed from Phoenix!
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For a clean one, year 94 or so, you can expect to pay 15+
Personally, If I could find a later year in near perfect condition, I wouldn't mind paying 20 for it.
Check the prices of JDM direct imports to Canada...they have some hefty markup, and are still cheaper than that! So sad our friends in the provinces have so much common-sense when it comes to this kind of stuff. Whereas here in the good old USofA or 'Freedom From Choice' protects not only us, but our environment as well! (figuring they will operate the vehicles anyway somewhere and recycling is a better idea than simply scrapping and remanufacturing...)
No offense, but for $15-20K...I'd rather be able to choose from the following page, personally:
But if Z32TT's are your bag, then look here:
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Oh gawd, dont say that at another site...
Someone once said "Z31's Suck to Work On" and 279 posts in about 4 hours caused the thread to be deleted.
Some of those owners have a real complex. Guys, it's a car...get over it!
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Costs (and my information is out of date on this now since "I don't deal with it any longer") are dependent.
In the case of a JDM engine, there is NO cost limit to replace the MISSING or REMOVED components. At the time I did mine, there was a limit of $90 or something like that you had to spend. But note I spent $300 for a f-ing orange 1973 Air Cleaner for the flat-top SU's from Ace Auto Salvage, your Z-Car Only Junk Yard off Valley Blvd and the 605... So there is no cost limit to get the needed parts on the car for the year required.
Once you have all components in place and functioning, if the car then does not pass (and pray to gawd it doesn't fail as 'gross polluter') then there is a cost limit. It was most recently $300, this is what the 'Pass or Don't Pay' smog centers make money on---hey your 85 Buick failed, we'll replace the ECU (there isn't one on an 85 Buick...) it will cost $299 and then it will pass' big scam, but I digress...
Anyway, you formerly had a limit when everything was in place and functioning. Once you hit that limit you passed and were allowed to drive the car anyway!!!
What was that about 'cleaning the air' when you let people shell out money and then let them register the car anyway when it's dirty....yet refuse registration to cars which pipe clean out the tailpipe but fail a visual because of missing equipment??? If you pipe clean, and fail a visual then likely there is no cost limit to restore what was missing. It's one of the reasons older cars were exempted from inspections---nobody knew what they needed to have, there was no current training to let technicians know what was SUPPOSED to be in there. I mean, I've had guys look for a catalyst on my car and say things like 'that is a strange looking cat'---when in the door jamb of my 76 it clearly says "NON-CATALYST" and what they are looking at is a premuffler!
Hell, my 78 280ZX Fairlady is a Federal Emissions Compliant vehicle. That means I don't need a catalyst. But the JDM cars came with one. And met tighter emissions requirements than Federal or CA for that year with the catalyst in place, and easily meets the federal requirements WITHOUT it. But where do I fit in this whole scheme when my car complies with federal mandates which say it doesn't NEED a catalyst but in JDM form it came with one and CA says it's a FEDERAL TEST????
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Wow, I followed the other link...that looks more like an attempt at an NHRA style cage. It all depends on what you are going for I guess. Of course sanctioning body compliance will be the end-all of discussion, what is your application for your vehicle?
Frank's cage is FIA style, for open-road racing and circuit race use more than a dedicated one-direction NHRA-Style 11-Second Car style cage.
The chassis diagram in the one looks more like what Frank has in his car, and is very different than the "duct-tape" cage which is the one I'm calling 'NHRA-Style'.
You really should be more specific in what you need. Just looking at a cage and deciding by looks and not intended application (even for the street) can be...deadly.
Good Luck in the search.
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Well this forum is big and I am having a hard time finding your build thread. Ignorance might play into this but do you have a link you can share? Kinda like a short cut....
You're kidding, right? Members Projects Subforum, S130, second thread as it stands currently by "Frank 280ZX" entitled '79ZXR 406 V8 Build Up'...
First post in the thread has a link to the thread he mentioned in this thread.
Which is currently the 9th thread on the same subforum, entitled exactly as he said: "305 Track Toy"
When all else fails, search subforum by author...but when they both are within the first 10 threads usually a link is not required.
It is a very well constructed cage, engineered by an FIA/KNAF-Certified Cage Engineering Firm and not just put together with whims, and by 'what looks good' like so many out there (not that the S130 has a lot of examples to choose from as you can see.) It's nice to look at one where real engineering money and effort was expended by someone who could be held legally liable for any failure.
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Looks like some expensive glass work still remains on that 'project that just needs completing'---usually that doesn't mean a premium price, either!
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Not to muddy the waters too much on such a good thread, but this discussion also applies to 1975 and older cars imported into California from overseas. Ask me, I know from personal experiance. The DMV will not flag the car for smog inspection if it is 1975 or older. So you can register your 1972 Hakosuka, but if the CHP flag it for emissions compliance, or someone rats you out, you will have to take the car to the REF to get the registration and ticket cleared. Once the REF sees the triple carbs and non-US engine block, you are sunk. Only way out is to swap in a US engine and emissions equipment and have the car get a BAR engine swap sticker.
This is what I am going through right now. I second the request to see if any of the RB swapped Z's have ever been stopped for emissions?
CTC, that has not changed since I re-imported my US Specification 240Z with an early model L24 in it. By serial number, the engine predated 1971, and was changed (overseas) before the May 1984 restriction on pre-dating engine swaps. I had an L24 that serially was before the first released in the USA, so therefore they concluded it was a "JDM" engine... I went through ALL the hoops, and finally went to the Referee, who refused to certify the vehicle with complete 1971 Smog Equipment on it (*Even though it was piping 1/10th the required emissions levels for the 1973 standard. Actually piped clean to 83 standards!*)
In the end, because it was a JDM engine, I was required to install all US Specification equipment on it as required for 1973 model year. Which I did. Flat Tops, EGR, everything. I was so P.O. at the time I said "the next time you see this car it's going to have an LS6 454 Big Block in it from a 73 Corvette in it" and the Referee smiled and said "Oh, we can smog THAT!" (I wanted to put an H&K or Benelli shotgun in his smug face and 'pull the trigger till it clicks' and that point!)
So I scoured the area and after finally locating a $300 1973 Air Cleaner (the last part I needed) I had a complete 1973 emissions setup on the car...and the car THEN took 9 times to pass (with me doing the adjustments because Dinh Quak didn't know how to adjust SU's...and was going STRAIGHT for the balance screw to adjust the mixture with a screwdriver. Cost me $10 to do my own adjustments, what a DEAL! Eventually, on test #9 it juuuuuust barely by a couple of ppm and .1 or .2%. In other words I now had a "LEGAL" smog-compliant vehicle that was EMITTING 10X the pollutants as it did when imported (and if it had FAILED that last time-I would have reached the dollar limit for expenditures, and PASSED ANYWAY!!!) The Smog Tech Dinh Dinky Duch or whatever in Garden Grove then said "it would have passed anyway on this one, you met the cost requirements..." (See comment above regarding H&K/Benelli and the Referee...)
It was about then I realized the SMOG system was more about Bureaucratic Perpetuation than cleaning up the air. And took steps accordingly since then.
CTC if you need a complete 1972 Skyline GT or 240K Emissions System, PM me. I'm glad to help out. The Skyline GT will basically have the exact same SU steup that a 1972 240Z did, with an L24...but it will pass out the pipe with an L28 as well.
BE GLAD you have a 1972! If you had a 73 or 74 you would be in the EGR range and that is a bear for compliance.
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Is lift negative downforce?
You can estimate downforce simply by marking strut pistons with rings and calculating spring compression at various speeds on a smooth road. From what I've seen with the whale-tail, you get 70% compression at 70mph. My springs are 275#-in at back, and they are compressed at speed roughly .75-1" more with the tail there than not.
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That looks like the 'big one' there is another smaller unit without the spill edges...perhaps that one is called the "Ducks Tail" but I've seen people refer to the big and little as 'Whale Tail'...
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Oh, it gets worse. Two weeks after I fill out all the triplicate paperwork to ship HLS30-156466 back to the states, the owner of the VERY SAME Z432 comes to me with a proposition:
The Shaken Sho laws have just changed so my FLARED 240Z body is now legal, given some elementary paperwork and would I consider trading the stripped tub with chassis components ("and you keep the yellow marker lights, I want the red US-Spec ones...") even across for the same 432 (now painted dark gunmetal grey). This deal would include the spare engine, and a rocket-box full of cams and Mechanical FI parts that goes with it...
It's not just stupidity that haunts me from my youth...it's the torture of knowing it came to me twice and away it went!
I briefly considered trading the guy, and shipping my other Z (the one with the 100L tank...another long story) along with the 432 but the inbility to get government shipping once the paperwork was initiated on ANYTHING BUT the subject vehicle already heretofore submitted for transport to the government will not be considered.....
Torture, as by then I knew what the car was...
I have photos of it, and photos in the Torii Station Auto Hobby Shop with the spare S20 engine sitting on the table next to my car. It was just another piece of iron to move out of the way when we were working on the cars!
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SL2
Z31
It can't be coincidental that the point where Nissan got it right and came out with the Z32 the corporate Wonks at GM led by that paragon of forward thinking Roger B. Smith didn't go 'hey boys, that little jap company has something sexy in their sports car styling, let's incorporate it in this new 'how can we fool em today' enterprise names Saturn Motorcars!'
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"Did you know that the state "ca exempt" plated vehicles are STILL REQUIRED to attend biannually the enhanced smog program."
PM me with those details, Ray. The CVC clearly exempts them from compliance in a specific section---but then again, if you are exempt from COMPLIANCE what exactly is there to TEST FOR.
And therein lies the rub---a car exempt from TESTING is not exempt from COMPLIANCE.
And now Ray apparently is throwing in that those EXEMPT vehicles are still required to TEST---but if you are COMPLIANCE-EXEMPT what EXACTLY do they test for? What visual could be done?
I think that was $400 worth of stuff, plus shipping. I'm sure that will be brought up in the divorce at some point as miscreant use of household funds... 
Thoughts on how to handle a situation
in Non Tech Board
Posted
Yeah, it was mine...and I didn't say 'totally justify' simply that it would partially justify discussing that option with the buyer.
Really what can you do with the USPS when you're hamstrung like this? I have said what I have done, and yes one of my shipments went missing. Totally. And I filed all the postal claims and it took even longer to get recompense from the post office. And that token response from them was little solace for the guy wanting parts that didn't exist in my hoarding any longer.
But in the meantime, the buyer/recipient had somewhat of a good feeling knowing with all the photos and shipping receipts I'd sent the day of the shipment, that indeed it was not anybody's fault but the postal service. I didn't tell him to 'deal with it' since of all ironies the SHIPPER has to file all documents and claims with the US Post Office! Ken doesn't have any recourse BUT to deal with them, but if him no relief for his troubles...there's not much more he can do.
Other than simply tell the guy to hold steady for another couple of weeks and hope it shows up.