JoeK

Yes, looks great and very meticulous. Attention paid to every detail without compromise.

Thanks guys, I'll try these tips. I usually get the gun in as close as possible with still being able to see around it. It's tough getting good body position but I'll try to be more patient and reset the work each time. Never heard of cutting it every time, but easy enough to do. I try have the stick out be really short, then pull the trigger and let it feed in to start the arc. I figure this gives it a little time to build up a small gas shield. I'm sure I need to slow down and weld more scrap together for practice too.

Wondering if someone can help a little bit. I'm getting very inconsistent welds. All 4 of these were done at the same time, same material, same settings, same prep, same body position, and I thought same hand speed. Yet I get 2 welds that look okay to me, and 2 that look like turds layed on top. This is with a Hobart Handler 125 with a CO2/Argon mix tank. This particular material is 1/16" x 1"x2" tubing. When I'm making a pass on the bad welds, there is popping, like the wire pops and breaks back and I have to wait for it to feed back in. It often seems to help if I kind of "push in" when this is happening, and then it can start a good puddle. I'm guessing it has to do with wire feed speed and hand speed, but not sure which is too slow. Any help is appreciated. I'd sure like get my consistency up before I start welding in my camber plates

After the surgery, which was an endoscopic thing, my only restriction was not to lift more than 10lbs for 2 weeks. No dietary changes, doc says if I can do, then do it. Was more laid up than they led me to believe though. I think that was partially due to being under general anesthesia for 8 hours. I would have been back at it sooner, but the wife said I needed to help around the house to make up for leaving all familial duties to her for 2 weeks. I guess that was fair. Then we're hosting our block party on Saturday, so I'll miss that day to work on the car as well. Sometimes life gets in the way, but better than death gettin' in the way. Sorry for the dark humor

WOOHOO, I was finally able to do some work on the Z today, after heart surgery almost 3 weeks ago. Didn't get much done, but felt good to get back to it. Temporarily mounted up the R230 mustache bar and rear suspension drop mounts, to check for clearance on my gas tank mount set up. All looked good and will be able to start welding that in, hope to finish it up by the end dog the weekend. Then back to undercoating.

Well, I already ordered some cheapo fleabay sets. I'll have to see the quality when they arrive. I also feel I need mild steel flanges, I don't want to get into welding stainless to mild steel headers. I don't think I have the skills for that, and I know I don't have the equipment. As for ceramic coating, who else is out there other than Jet-Hot? Not that I have anything against Jet-Hot, just wondering what others games are around. Also, coating inside and out?

Okay, found some in mild steel too. Originally ordered one, then realized, duh, one per side.

Planning on getting my headers ceramic coated. Whenever possible, I like to install the headers on the engine before I drop it into engine bay. Is this possible with the JCI headers and mounts? If it is possible, I'd like to coat them before initial motor install. Do you think I would be safe welding a V-Band flange on, then sending them out to get coated. Or might they get cut shorter or something at the exhaust shop?

There is nothing to "bolt" to a coilover to on the front spindle or rear strut housing. That I can think of anyway.

If you're worried about the rigidity of the chassis when removing the spare tire well, just weld in a cover with an access hatch where your sump is, in case you need to service it. But I really wouldn't be worried about it, there are a lot of people removing their spare tire well for fuel cells, and I've never read or heard of any issues. Losing the space is a personal question. My last sports car was a Datsun Roadster. There was no spare tire well, so if you carried the spare, it took up over half the space in the trunk. I got over that quick and just carried a AAA card instead. I'll be using the stock Camaro plastic tank, which will allow me to route the fuel filler to the original location, and not get too fancy with dual exhaust routing. But I think you'll be running a single exhaust with the CX kit, so that is less of a concern. Also, I don't know much about racing sanctioning bodies, but if you are planning on tracking the car, you may want to confirm what will be allowed. The "fuel cells" that that they sell for $100 at Summit aren't true fuel cells. They are just fuel safe formed plastic container, but don't have the bladder which is the true safety part.

Call me paranoid, but I would be uncomfortable welding on a gas tank that hasn't been boiled out first. Gas fumes go boom.

The TC Rod from AZC also has a double rod end design. Miky360, could you post some pics of the actual parts? And let me /us know your driving impressions. Thanks,

Could be the clutch master cylinder. Certainly sound like something in the hydraulics. I am going with a LS6 clutch with aluminum flywheel, but the car is far from running so I can't offer any real feedback. From research it sounded like a good performance upgrade with good drive ability. My research also told me that asking which clutch you like is asking someone if they like Ford or Chevy. Seems to be alot of blind brand loyalty out there. And for the record, I've never owned a Ford.

When you can find them, used T56's seem like a steal at $1500 these days. Most seem to go for $1800ish. Saving $600 samoleans would be nice for those if us with less cash than time. So I'm certainly interested to see where this leads. Quick research last night on the internet (for what that's worth) informed me that the early CD009's didn't hold up very well to high power, but 2005 or later are supposed to be solid.

https://technotoytuning.com/nissan/240z/gtx2-front-lower-control-arms-and-tc-rods-datsun-240z-260z-and-280z Has anyone seen or tried these yet? They are pretty new to the website, and looks like the same pictures as the ones for Celicas and maybe some other cars as well. Their original set comes out about $40 more. They look, to my untrained eye, stouter but with less adjustability. Just wondering if anyone has thoughts on these.

So what dimension do you end up with from the front of the new bellhousing to the center of the shifter and the tailshaft? Very interested to see how this works out.

For your battery, what is the size that you have. Looks like minimum CCA for a stock LS1 is 540, but I'd probably go a little higher to be safe.

Will you be making fiberglass also, or just the CF?

Got my TTT mustache bar, lower drop mounts, dog bone and front diff mount. Can't work on the car for 2 weeks though. Hoping the coilovers will get in stock at AZC soon too.

Look at Techno Toy Tuning. In the 240z R200 and R230 rear end conversion. Drop mounts and dog bone is I believe what your looking for.

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/109469-group-buy-on-speedhut-gauges/ In the group buy section is a guy that sells the speedhut gauge. Looks like a lot of happy customers if you read through the thread. It's where I plan on buying mine when the time comes. Build is looking great, and moving along fast. Keep it up.

Hi All, I thought I might as well start a build thread at some point. I've been lurking for a couple years and posting a few questions and comments here and there. I bought my '71 Z on Labor Day weekend, 2013. It came with an uncompleted RB25 swap in it. When I bought the car I was looking for a 240z to swap an LS1 into, but this looked like a great deal so I picked it. I thought I would complete that, but gave it some thought and decided I really wanted the V8 rumble and torque without having to figure out turbo technology or spend too much time on a dyno figuring out how to get what I wanted, which was a V8 anyway. So pulled that swap and sold it for what I bought the whole car for. Since then I've completely disassembled the car and put it on a homemade rotisserie. I've replaced some rusty panels, most notably the battery area and part of the firewall, one of the tool boxes, and part of the rear tray. The floors were a little beat up but pretty solid overall so I installed Bad Dog front and rear frame rails. Fabricated a mount system for a F-Body gas tank, which has it's own thread. I stripped the underside of the car to bare metal and am in the process of coating that now. I've been collecting parts for a while as well. I picked up a '98 LS1 with about 87k on it. I have the JCI mounts and headers. A nice Griffin 4 row aluminum radiator. A MN12 from a GTO that has bad 3-4 synchro that I'll rebuild. I'm also going with the TTT R230 rear end setup. Waiting on those parts to arrive in the mail any day now, along with an AZC coilover set. Already have the r230 and all associated parts out of a Z32TT. At this point, I'm not too far off from dropping the car back on the ground. I'm trying to do all that I can while it is up in the air but not sure how far I can go on the suspension while it's on it's side. Maybe the control arms and diff mount, potentially the coilovers but I'm not sure I can weld I the camber plates with the car so high up on the rotisserie. Definitely want to get the brake lines and fuel lines back in first. As for the cars intended purpose. It will be primarily a street car. I'll find some time for autoxing, but I don't care about being competitive so I'll just run in whatever class they let me. But for me it's more about the build than the completion. Something to do with the spare time I don't even have. As my signature points out, this car will get done when it gets done, and not a minute sooner.

Good advice. I think I'll switch to stainless hard line and run it along the frame rail. The aluminum is too soft and could easily be punctured by a rock bouncing off the road.

Good note about the regulator in the tank. I already have the vette filter and all my fittings, would it pose a problem to run it anyway? The aluminum hard line is soft but should be fine as long as I keep it tucked out of harms way. I could also return the aluminum and get stainless.

Thanks for all the info guys. Sounds like I'll go ahead mount it "backwards". Autox will be the only racing I'll be doing, but mostly street driving. If anyone has pics of their mounts or fuel piping I'd be interested in seeing them. Especially the filler arrangements. That is the only thing I haven't figured out yet, though I have some ideas. I'll share more pics and info about mine as I get it further along. Also any tips on routing to the front? I plan on running 3/8" aluminum hard line from the tank to the engine bay with AN-6 fittings and the corvette filter/regulator. Figure I'll follow the same basic path as the original lines.